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Star Trek Rambling
Apr. 21st, 2009 07:45 amI wrote this in response to this post from ![[info]](https://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
furr_a_bruin. It's the most I've written in LJ in months, so I'm gonna repost it in my own LJ.
You'll need to read Furr's post to make sense of mine...
Pocket Books has been doing -- and continues to do -- pretty much EXACTLY what you ask for.
In the "present day" of the Trek Novelverse, it's mid 2381, 18 months or so after Nemesis. Riker & Troi are off on the Titan, exploring far out beyond the Federation. Picard, Crusher, Worf and LaForge are cleaning up in the Alpha Quadrant following the events of the "Destiny" trilogy, a multi-series crossover published at the end of last year. The Voyager novels were essentially just relaunched, with the ship undertaking a new mission, back to the Delta Quadrant to investigate the fate of the Borg in the wake of "Destiny."
Deep Space Nine is still a few years behind, in 2377, in the process of examining what happened to the shapeshifters (and the rest of the Dominion) following the Dominion War.
Hollywood is convinced a $100 million dollar movie has to dumb it down to attract the prime movie-going audience -- middle schoolers. The sad fact is, J.J. didn't make the new movie for me. He made it for the kids. OK, fine. It may be great, it may blow monkey chunks. I won't know until I see it.
I remember what a bitter disappointment TMP was upon its premiere in 1979 -- and now, I consider it one of the best (certainly the most ambitious) of the TOS films. Who knows? Even if I dislike JJTrek upon its release, I may grow into it later.
But what I'm hoping it will do is reinvigorate interest in the franchise. Sales of the novels have apparently been declining for years -- and novels are where the interesting Star Trek stories are happening these days.
They've already cut back from a program that published 2 or 3 paperbacks a month, plus an original "e-book," plus 2 or 3 hardcovers a year, plus 2 or 3 trade paperback anthologies a year. And that was just the fiction; they used to publish 3 or 4 big "non fiction" coffee table titles a year as well, such as "The Art of Star Trek" and "the Star Trek Encyclopedia."
They're now publishing 1 paperback a month, maybe 2 trade paperback "event" novels (which used to be hardcovers) a year, and the occasional trade paper anthology. The "non fiction" and "e-book" lines are entirely dead. Without something to inject interest in all things Star Trek, further cutbacks seem inevitable. I'm hoping the movie will prevent that -- bring in some kids as new fans to replace my cohort of sad old bitter-enders, clinging to the faded glory of a franchise in terminal decline.
JJ may make all the wrong moves -- or he may be as big a genius as Nick Meyer, and resuscitate the franchise again. We won't know for a few more weeks yet.
furr_a_bruin. It's the most I've written in LJ in months, so I'm gonna repost it in my own LJ.You'll need to read Furr's post to make sense of mine...
Pocket Books has been doing -- and continues to do -- pretty much EXACTLY what you ask for.
In the "present day" of the Trek Novelverse, it's mid 2381, 18 months or so after Nemesis. Riker & Troi are off on the Titan, exploring far out beyond the Federation. Picard, Crusher, Worf and LaForge are cleaning up in the Alpha Quadrant following the events of the "Destiny" trilogy, a multi-series crossover published at the end of last year. The Voyager novels were essentially just relaunched, with the ship undertaking a new mission, back to the Delta Quadrant to investigate the fate of the Borg in the wake of "Destiny."
Deep Space Nine is still a few years behind, in 2377, in the process of examining what happened to the shapeshifters (and the rest of the Dominion) following the Dominion War.
Hollywood is convinced a $100 million dollar movie has to dumb it down to attract the prime movie-going audience -- middle schoolers. The sad fact is, J.J. didn't make the new movie for me. He made it for the kids. OK, fine. It may be great, it may blow monkey chunks. I won't know until I see it.
I remember what a bitter disappointment TMP was upon its premiere in 1979 -- and now, I consider it one of the best (certainly the most ambitious) of the TOS films. Who knows? Even if I dislike JJTrek upon its release, I may grow into it later.
But what I'm hoping it will do is reinvigorate interest in the franchise. Sales of the novels have apparently been declining for years -- and novels are where the interesting Star Trek stories are happening these days.
They've already cut back from a program that published 2 or 3 paperbacks a month, plus an original "e-book," plus 2 or 3 hardcovers a year, plus 2 or 3 trade paperback anthologies a year. And that was just the fiction; they used to publish 3 or 4 big "non fiction" coffee table titles a year as well, such as "The Art of Star Trek" and "the Star Trek Encyclopedia."
They're now publishing 1 paperback a month, maybe 2 trade paperback "event" novels (which used to be hardcovers) a year, and the occasional trade paper anthology. The "non fiction" and "e-book" lines are entirely dead. Without something to inject interest in all things Star Trek, further cutbacks seem inevitable. I'm hoping the movie will prevent that -- bring in some kids as new fans to replace my cohort of sad old bitter-enders, clinging to the faded glory of a franchise in terminal decline.
JJ may make all the wrong moves -- or he may be as big a genius as Nick Meyer, and resuscitate the franchise again. We won't know for a few more weeks yet.
