StillPaisleyCat

Who knows?

Just before Picard had its run, Alex Kurtzman was talking up the idea of having one-shots, movies and limited series focused around established (legacy) characters. He argued that the franchise has matured to the point where this was now possible for the next phase.

The Georgiou S31 movie was supposed to be a show, but with Yeoh’s star power, it seems impossible to schedule. So, it’s become the rest case. I hope it’s successful and smooths the way for more.

With Paramount retrenching and Matalas pushing his own Titanprise nepotistic nostalgia tour for an early 25th century show, the window for this seems to have past. Not to mention Paramount’s overall turning away from CBS’ focus on diverse representation.

Uhm, here’s another odd song from Bruce “Honky the Christmas Goose”

I knew about the singing from the reviews of the Goblin MacBeth, because there’s musical improvisations in that live theatre piece.

Bruce Horak’s family seems to all be creatives.

I recall an interview from 2022 where he talked about being the youngest of 4 very competitive boys, with older brothers who are musicians. I believe his dad was a high school drama teacher(?), and an amateur cartoonist. Mum also in a creative field.

The painting / visual arts career is what caught me off guard actually. Horak said his dad encouraged him to make his own comics as a child to write stories. Here’s a piece on his one man show ‘Assassinating Thompson’

Here’s a completely different take.

What if the purpose is to attract new audiences to the franchise who have different tastes than the existing core?

To do that, having an established rapper embrace the franchise and play an original character in Fortnite, makes sense from an outreach point of view.

The franchise doesn’t exist just to serve older folks like me who’ve watched everything since 1966, nor will it survive if it focuses on appealing to the fans who were drawn in by the 90s Berman era shows.

I rather like that they’re following the current Canadian naval custom of naming warships after major cities. The real life HMCS Vancouver and Toronto are currently serving Halifax-class frigates. The HMCS Toronto’s registry number is 333.

Thanks for the confirmation of the Toronto as Parliament-class and the registry number.

With a more complete CGI model, I wasn’t quite sure of the class on a single watch.

So now I know that all those books that I gifted to our kids are becoming out of print collectors items.

Cool? Not cool?!

Is there anyone else here that feels that Patrick Stewart is violating the spirit of the SAG-AFTRA strike with his book promoting interviews?

While it’s likely his publisher wanted a fall release for the Christmas gift market, it seems really inappropriate that he’s out pitching how he wanted his show to end (with his real life wife getting another voice credit) or stories about TNG behind the scenes.

SAG members have been constrained from talking about the franchise in convention panels, or promoting their new shows, but he’s out there selling his book based on his career in the IP and distracting from Lower Decks which needs all the boost it can get.

It’s not making me admire Stewart, and settled any question of buying his book for the negative.

Disquieting nonetheless.

Lower Decks has successfully brought in new viewers to the franchise and led them into other shows. It’s also held viewers who just signed up for Picard.

As the most successful digital animated comedy on Paramount Plus in 2022, and with animated comedies being a key attractor for younger viewers, it seems like the show shouldn’t be at risk.

It’s not like they can get another animated Trek comedy off the ground in less than two full calendar years. More Lower Decks is successfully threading the needle between attracting new young viewers and pleasing older core fans. The Very Short Trek experiment was largely a failure with all but narrow slice of American fans in a narrow demographic. It showed that comforting those fans will alienate those they already have.

I find this [Relaunch Litverse reading order flowchart ] (https://www.thetrekcollective.com/p/trek-lit-reading-order.html?m=1 )super useful. It hasn’t been updated to include the final Coda trilogy that crosscuts pretty much everything.

The Relaunch Litverse continued a bit after the new shows started to wrap up the political storyline and some of the other sequences. A trilogy called Coda concluded that timeline. Most fans have mixed feelings about it.

Una McCormack has one more book ‘The Missing’ which is the Pulaski one I mentioned.

The IP holder is the owner of the intellectual property and franchise rights. This shifted over time with the Viacom breakup then more recent. For a while Paramount had the movie rights and CBS the television rights. Simon & Schuster basically licenses from them to contract tie-in writers for hire. The IP rights from all the books stay with the IP holder. What the writers can do is limited by what the IP holder will allow the licensee.

Glad you’re enjoying reading. I also found television was impossible when our kids were little, and what I did watch was their preschool television with them.

Couple of points, then suggestions.

First, the Relaunch Treklit novelverse is a separate continuity from the new television series. I personally prefer a lot of the choices of major political arcs in the Relaunch timeline better than the new shows. Interestingly, the last season of Picard started to bring in some parallels from the books, despite being a very different future for Picard himself.

The Relaunch universe basically branched to be an alternate universe somewhere in the TNG ‘Time to’ book sequence. So you’re quite invested at this point, and I would suggest carrying on if you enjoy it.

Second, where you go next in the Relaunch universe really depends on the kinds of stories you like.

— Una McCormack has a few more Cardassia focused books. If you haven’t read them all yet, I’d suggest those given your preference for her book in the Fall. The book with Dr Pulaski is great and important but should be read after the Bashir S31 sequence if you’re going to do that.

— Mack’s Bashir S31 sequence is dark but very well done. Depends on whether a singular hero against the skulduggery machine is your thing.

— the Titan books are mainly about exploration, but as Riker is an Admiral, they cross back and forth through the political storyline.

— After the Fall, Dayton Ward took on the TNG exploration sequence in the Odesseyus Reach. Mostly classic exploration but the outcomes of the political stuff eventually catches up with Picard. David Mack wrote the book ‘Collateral Damage’ where Picard returns to deal with the fallout of The Fall. It’s just about the end of the Relaunch books.

— I gave up on the DS9 books around where you are. George writes as if he is writing backstory bibles rather than a narrative much of the time and he seemed to be one of the principals for that part of the universe.

— the Voyager books advanced much more slowly through the timeline. I found the Christie Golden books exasperating (mainly due to the constraints out in her by the IP holder). When Kirsten Beyer took over and started the Full Circle sequence she was given freedom to fix many issues. It’s a great set of return to the Delta Quadrant books. Some recommend just starting with ‘Full Circle’ and going forward from there. Beyer takes about the first half of that book catching you up and moving things forward.

In terms of the new shows, you could watch Lower Decks without spoiling anything else as it’s set in the early to mid 2380s. It’s also animated with 22 minute episodes so more likely manageable for your reality.

Before you star Picard the television show, I would suggest two things. 1) watch the Kelvin Universe movie Star Trek 2009 as it sets up a major event in the Prime Universe that really is the major fork between the Prime television and Relaunch Litverse. 2) Read Una McCormack’s excellent prequel book ‘The Last Best Hope’ that sets up the Picard television show. There are a number of new books out that are based on the new television shows. You will want to wait to read most those until after you have seen the relevant seasons of the shows.

Hope this helps.