The books are OFF! | Report this post to moderator
By: BWilliams (Odo's file, contact, web site) @ 16:38:04 on Jan 14, 2010

Just announced: Pocket Books has decided, after "careful consideration", to put all four of the Abramsverse books on indefinite hold. I first found out about it on David Mack's Facebook page, and I feel really badly for him.

Here's the link to the whole report on TrekMovie.com. Good reporting, Anthony!

"Careful consideration", my ass.

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Sounds like fun | Report this post to moderator
By: GustavoLeao (Odo's file, contact, web site) @ 00:53:53 on Jan 09, 2010 | (1)

I will check the Foster and Bennett books. I am certain they will be a lot of fun to read. I am really interested in how this new universe develops.

Gustavo

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It may make money, but... | Report this post to moderator
By: Logic Incarnate (Odo's file, contact, web site) @ 17:07:53 on Jan 08, 2010

Contrary to popular opinion, just because something is financially successful, does not automatically make it a good thing. Ilicits drugs like heroin are very financially successful, as an example.

I do not think they perticularly needed to 'pay homage' as you put it - Trek fans would hardly have boycotted the biggest event in Star Trek's modern history, just because it was a full reboot.

So this meant they were basically free to do a proper re-imagining, if they wanted.

Instead, what I saw, was a movie that is not very entertaining as a setting - it is like a theme park ride, in that you are entertained for the duration, but take nothing away at the end - classic Star Trek kept people hooked 30 years after it was off the air because it was more like a book; it constructed a rich setting that people wanted to be immersed in.

So, here is to hoping that future films add a little more to the new setting, to make people come back, and get passionate.

I would be very disapointed if all of the new movies turned out to be glossy theme park rides that only last a couple of hours, rather than keeping us dreaming for years.

The new film captured the superficial elements of TOS like the uniforms, and actor resemblences - but captured none of the less superficial aspects, which are far more important to Trek's identity - you could have scrapped the uniforms, they wern't that important - but the deeper themes were.

It is the big ideas that keep people coming back. Wrath of Khan is considered the best movie, but by itself, without the weight of the original series behind it, it is unlikely it would have a dedicated fanbase. What keeps this fanbase coming back, is the compelling nature of the idea that we could one day sail the stars, finding lost civilizations, derelict ships, exotic empires, anncient terrors - to explore both the universe, and our own nature - WoK was like a side-story, with TOS being the main event.

This sense of infinite wonder is more important even than Trek's much talked about moralizing, humanism, and rationality.

That is Star Trek's very essence, refleced in the word 'trek', and the legendary opening titles. Trek XI would be a nice side story to a larger setting, so here is to hoping they either make the next movie an 'exploration' film, or comission a new TV series, that is well written.



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Definitely getting the Spock book | Report this post to moderator
By: Bucky (Odo's file, contact) @ 15:53:15 on Jan 08, 2010

Maybe Refuges just because Alan Dean Foster wrote it and he has quite the history with Star Trek, but the Spock book should be a fun read. I doubt Nimoy will be in any future movies, so this could count as his last hurrah.

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To StillKirok and others... | Report this post to moderator
By: Logic Incarnate (Odo's file, contact, web site) @ 14:11:36 on Jan 08, 2010 | (3)

I wanted a true reboot when I went to see Trek XI - something that would wipe away the stagnation that had been brought upon Star Trek in its later years - something that would bring it up to speed with modern literary science fiction, and modern science, while keeping the essense of Trek - i.e. exploring interesting new worlds and civilizations, and moralising about them along the way.

Star Trek: TOS once recieved a round of applause at a preview screening, because the audience had never seen such a serious attempt at space opera on TV before - I would have liked the new Star Trek to have gone back to this pedigree, and been a serious modern space opera, rather than a hyperactive Treksploitation flick, that doesn't do much to set it up as a long term setting.

I did not perticularily want the new setting to be tied to the old one like a ball and chain - but by claiming that Spock Prime is the original Spock, that is exactly what they have done - because it means the new setting is supposedly exactly the same up to the point where the Kelvin is destroyed, complete with all the technological and historical baggage that implies.

A straight honest 'new setting' style reboot, of the sort you frequently find in anime series (like Gundam), would have been for the best I think - what J Michael Stratzynski proposed sounded great. Instead this obsession with getting the old actors in, like some sort of lame comic book 'crossover', has left us with this psuedo-reboot, where most of the benefits of a creative reboot are absent.

I'm hoping the authors will treat this new setting as an oppertunity to make harder sci-fi, take risks, introduce new and novel concepts, etc - go back to the fundamental space exploration that Star Trek is about - its unlikely that they will however - these new books will likely just transpose standard Pocket Books Trek stories into the new setting and miss an oppertunity at trying something new - the same authors that do the old timeline, are being brought in here.

I am not at all interested in more Spock Prime stories, which will probably reinforce the ties of the old and new settings, I rather see them flesh out this new setting - but Christoper Bennet already mentioned that they will be working under the assumption that it was infact our Spock prime in the film - so we can expect they won't be making any radical technological/cultural departures, etc.



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Well... | Report this post to moderator
By: Logic Incarnate (Odo's file, contact, web site) @ 11:44:37 on Jan 08, 2010

Anything that helps flesh out this new setting is good.

Right now, it has virtually no character.

So I'm preticularly interested in the side stories about planets.


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Spock Prime | Report this post to moderator
By: StillKirok (Odo's file, contact) @ 11:25:40 on Jan 08, 2010

Ultimately, the only book remotely interesting is the Spock Prime one. But if Spock Prime cared so much about protecting a timeline, wouldn't he use his knowledge of time travel to save Vulcan?

And let's say that we accept for this purpose that the prime universe still exists and everything is fine there.

If that's true, the Spock Prime is not interfering with anything. As a Federation citizen, it would be his duty to share his knowledge with Starfleet, even an alternate one.

Imagine the lives that could be saved if he could stop Picard from running his mouth off at Q and introducing the Federation to the Borg?

If this truly is another universe, then Spock Prime wouldn't be altering anything--he would be a part of that universe. Plus, perhaps he could help make up for the loss of the contributions made by all the dead Vulcans and their descendants.

If you see a bunch of people in suspended animation from the 20th century, leave them be.

Watch out for Admiral Cartwright--he has a crafty side.

Might want to warn Earth about the Probe in case THIS version of Kirk isn't in the right place at the right time, and therefore can't get the whales.

Getting the Federation up to 24th century tech a century earlier would only help them accomplish their primary mission, which is to seek out new life, explore the galaxy and all that stuff.

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