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Star Trek, other storylines

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Star Trek

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Although books, comic books, video games, and other material based on Star Trek are generally considered to be "non-canon", there are several which deserve mentioning.

Contents

The Developed over the last two decades and more as an expansive development of the background as supplied in the ' as well as in The Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual, the Star Fleet Universe''' introduces a range of new races and storylines (such as the Interstellar Concordium and the General War) as well as drawing from the for inspiration - a modified version of the Kzinti are a major part of the SFU, for example - unlike the Paramount universe.

This universe lives and thrives in the range of works from Amarillo Design Bureau Inc. and (formerly) Task Force Games, as well as providing a fount for the unique merging of Star Trek continuities seen in the Star Fleet Command series of PC games.

Star Trek Expanded Universe

Star Trek Expanded Universe is a generic term used to describe information put forth outside the scope of the feature films and television series, in an attempt to provide backstories and chronology to "fill the holes" between canonical material. Star Trek novels and comic books often contribute to the expanded universe. The term was first used in 1966 by writer D.C. Fontana to describe Leonard McCoy's personal history. For many fans, Expanded Universe storylines often hold more validity than televised and theatrical stories, leading to occasional arguments between fans when one contradicts the other.

TV

Assignment
Earth

Novels

See also: List of Star Trek novels

Since 1967, hundreds of original novels and television and movie adaptations have been published. None of these novels are considered "canon", including "Mosaic" and "Pathways" by co-producer Jeri Taylor, which feature background information on the main characters of the show and which for a time were thought to be canon (current editors for the Pocket Books series state that they are not). [link]

The very first original Star Trek novel, written by Mack Reynolds and published in 1968.
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The very first original Star Trek novel, written by Mack Reynolds and published in 1968.

The first publisher of Star Trek fiction aimed at adult readers was Bantam Books, which initially produced a best-selling series of novelizations of Original Series episodes by James Blish that began in 1967. In 1970, Blish wrote the first original novel published by Bantam, Spock Must Die!, although subsequent novels did not appear until 1976.

The very first original Star Trek novel to be published was actually Mission to Horatius by Mack Reynolds, which was published in hardcover by Whitman Books in 1968. Geared for younger readers, the novel became a collectible and in the 1990s, Pocket Books issued a fascimile edition.

Later, Ballantine Books published a 10-volume series of novelizations based upon episodes of , beginning in 1974, all written by Alan Dean Foster.

Pocket Books began publishing Trek fiction in 1979, starting with a novelization of by Gene Roddenberry himself, although the company's second Trek novel did not appear until 1981 due to Bantam being allowed to complete its publishing contract first.

Eventually, Pocket Books would publish novels based upon every Trek series. Starting in the mid-1990s the company branched began commissioning books based upon original continuing characters and situations set in the Star Trek universe, including:

'
A series of novels by Peter David focusing on the crew of the starship Excalibur. Some characters were guest stars from episodes of ', while others were from previous Star Trek titles by the same author, and still others were created originally for the series. The series takes place in Sector 221-G, where the Excalibur is dispatched to help with the chaos created by the crumbling Thallonian Empire.
Star Trek
Deep Space Nine, "Relaunch"
Star Trek
Voyager, "Relaunch"
Starfleet Corps of Engineers
An expanding series of ebooks by various authors, set in the same timeline as the Next Generation series. This series features a group of highly-trained engineers stationed aboard the USS Da Vinci and their adventures on various planets. The e-books are collected into paperback novels every now and then, but there are over 20 stories that are only available in e-book form, and that number will continue to grow.
Stargazer
An expanding series of novels by Michael Jan Friedman, set during Picard's command of the Stargazer before the Next Generation series. The series features many events that set the scene for events later to come in the TNG.
A new series of books, depicting William Riker as the captain of a new ship, the Titan.
I.K.S. Gorkon
An expanding series of novels by Keith R. A. DeCandido. The first Star Trek novel series to feature the Klingons instead of Starfleet, I.K.S. Gorkon tells of the adventures of an all-new Chancellor-class war cruiser, on a mission to conquer new planets for the Klingon Empire.
Star Trek
Enterprise, "Relaunch"
William Shatner's Star Trek novels, post-
A series that instigates on Kirk's resurrection after the events seen in '. The series began with The Ashes of Eden, which, set immediately after ' told Spock's recollection of the last adventure he was involved with Captain Kirk, shortly after the Khitomer Conference. The next was the actual The Return, where Kirk comes to life after a Romulan party had allied with the Borg and is set to kill Picard! The rest of the novels are set in between the various movies and TV episodes from all the Star Trek series, from 1996 and on. These are distinctive, as they incorporate events and characters from various episodes from all TV series and movies and tie them into the continuity, bringing a larger scope to the whole Star Trek universe. He is assisted, greatly, by Judith Reeves-Stevens and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, who also wrote the now famous crossover novel Federation.
A new series of novels depicting a lone starbase wedged between Klingon and Tholian space, and of the various starships assigned to the base. Takes place during the original series, and attempts to flesh out that particular period of fictional Star Trek history.
Some fans consider the novels to be fan fiction although, being publications authorized by Paramount Pictures, they do not fit the general definition. A number of novels have been reportedly written (or co-written) by series actors, most notably William Shatner. There have also been many unlicensed, privately published works which do fit the definition of fan fiction, such as the cult classic The Doctor and the Enterprise by Jean Airey which merged the universes of Star Trek and Doctor Who.

Comics

The first Star Trek comic book, published in 1967 by Gold Key Comics.
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The first Star Trek comic book, published in 1967 by Gold Key Comics.

Almost continuously since 1967, a number of companies have published comic book series based on Star Trek and its spin off series, including Gold Key, Marvel Comics, and DC Comics, with varying degrees of success. As of 2005, remains the only Trek series that has yet to be adapted in comic book form.

Gold Key

The first Star Trek comics were published by Gold Key between 1967 and 1978. Originally they were illustrated by Alberto Giolitti, an artist in Europe who had never seen the series and only had publicity photos to use as references. These comics were highly stylized and diverged wildly from the TV series continuity. Nonetheless they are fondly remembered by fans and a series of reprints of these original titles began to appear in 2004. The original issues, most of which featured photographic covers showing images from the series, are highly collectable. Writers included George Kashdan, Arnold Drake and Len Wein.

Most storylines used in the Gold Key series featured original characters and concepts, although later issues did include sequels to the TOS episodes "The City on the Edge of Forever", "Metamorphosis" and "I, Mudd".

For more details on these comics visit [link]

Marvel

Marvel's series of Star Trek comics began in 1979 with an adaptation of ', and continued for another year, its tales presumably taking place during the apocryphal second five-year mission of Kirk and the Enterprise that would have been featured in the never-produced ' TV series. Marvel's license from Paramount prohibited them from utilizing concepts introduced in the original series, being restricted to only using the characters and concepts as they appeared in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The series lasted a total of 18 issues, ending in 1981.

Comic Strips (UK and U.S.)

From 1969 to 1973, a series of weekly Star Trek comic strips ran in the British comic magazines Joe 90: Top Secret, TV21 & Joe 90 and Valiant and TV21. A total of 258 issues were produced, as well as hardcovers annuals of Joe 90 and TV21, and a softcover Valiant summer special. All were original stories. Two more annuals, under the Mighty TV Comic banner, also produced original Trek materials. In addition, the weekly TV Comic reprinted serialized versions of the U.S. Gold Key comics.

Then, from 1979 to 1983, the Los Angeles Times Mirror Syndicate produced a daily comic strip based upon Star Trek. The strip debuted on December 2, 1979 and ran until December 3, 1983. The storylines were written and illustrated by Thomas Warkentin, Sharman DiVono, Ron Harris, Larry Niven, Martin Pasko, Padraic Shigetani, Bob Meyers, Ernie Colon, Gerry Conway and Dick Kulpa.

For more details on these strips, visit [link] or [link].

DC

The first DC series picked up immediately after ' beginning in 1983 but after nine issues started to place stories after '. In these later issues, Kirk, after a multi-issue showdown with the Mirror Universe, is given command of the Excelsior, while Spock, mentally restored after mind-melding with his mirror self, is given the command of the USS Surak. However, with taking place right after III left off, the series quickly wiped the slate clean by having Kirk lose command of the Excelsior and Spock return to the state he was at the end of III. After the release of The Voyage Home, the series continued with Kirk commanding the Enterprise-A. These later issues also re-introduced the characters of Arex and M'Ress from . In 1988, the series ended when Paramount withdrew its license.

After a year's hiatus DC's second Star Trek series began with an adaptation of ' and took place in the large gap between Star Trek V and ', but did not continue on from the previous series, so storylines from that series were either ignored or rewritten. Although more limited in scope than the first series due to restrictions from Paramount (which included a prohibition on creating non-series-related ongoing characters, resulting in R.J. Blaise - a popular character and love interest for Kirk - disappearing from the comic without explanation), the series lasted around 75 issues and fleshed out some of the changes between V and VI, such as Sulu's promotion to captain of the Excelsior. As part of Paramount's increased restrictions on storytelling, planned appearances from Arex and M'Ress were shelved, with some formative artwork showing M'Ress (that appeared in a preview) re-drawn. The series was mainly written by Peter David and Howard Weinstein, who are also Star Trek novelists.

DC also published two ' comic series. The first, a six-issue series, takes place during the first season, while the second series covers seasons two to just before '. The series was mainly written by Star Trek: The Next Generation novelist Michael Jan Friedman.

At the same time DC was publishing its comics, Malibu published a series during the first three seasons, and DC and Malibu joined forces to publish a TNG/DS9 mini-series. DC also published one of the first crossovers between the TOS and TNG eras in another mini-series.

Malibu

Beginning in 1994, Malibu published an ongoing series based upon Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and, as noted above, also joined forces with DC to publish a cross-over story with that company's TNG series. In addition, Malibu published a standalone issue focusing on the Romulans, and two issues of a "celebrity series" of stories written by Star Trek actors Mark Lenard and Aron Eisenberg.

In 1996, Malibu also announced plans to publish a Voyager comic, and art from this comic appeared in some comic industry periodicals. However, that year Paramount Pictures (owners of the Trek franchise), signed a deal with Marvel Comics to publish comics based upon Star Trek and under the new Paramount Comics banner. As a result, DC and Malibu abruptly lost the rights to publish Trek comics of their own.

Published in 2001 by the DC Comics imprint Wildstorm, Star Trek Special was one of the last Trek comics published to date.
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Published in 2001 by the DC Comics imprint Wildstorm, Star Trek Special was one of the last Trek comics published to date.

Return to Marvel

Restricting TOS and TNG stories to the quarterly Unlimited series, Marvel published monthly comics based upon Deep Space Nine and '. They also introduced two new series, ' which dealt with Captain Pike's adventures as captain of the Enterprise (as depicted in the rejected TOS pilot "The Cage") and which dealt with a group of cadets, including Deep Space Nine's Ferengi, Nog.

Fan acceptance of these comics got off to a shaky start when Marvel's inaugural publication of its new Star Trek line turned out to be a crossover between TNG and Marvel's popular superhero team, the X-Men. (Pocket Books, likewise, published a novel based upon this premise entitled Planet X). However, the different series turned out to be relatively popular, with Starfleet Academy and Early Voyages registering strong sales.

After about a year, however, Marvel's agreement with Paramount changed and similar restrictions to those imposed upon DC resulted in Starfleet Academy and Early Voyages being abruptly cancelled, even though both were in the middle of story arcs at the time.

Wildstorm

Marvel continued to publish TV-based Trek comics for another year or so, but eventually the license drifted back to DC's Wildstorm inprint. Wildstorm decided to not do an ongoing series, but instead a series of miniseries and trade paperback graphic novels. Their TNG series mainly dealt with the movie era, between ' and '; their Deep Space Nine stories were based on the post-Season 7 novel continuity, and their Voyager series took place during the series. Wildstorm also created comics based on the novel series New Frontier and the video game Elite Force. Their license expired in 2002.

Tokyopop

For several years, no comic book company held the rights to publish Trek-based comics. However, in October 2004, Tokyopop announced plans to publish an anthology of Next Generation-based stories presented in the style of Japanese manga. No publication date has been announced as of October 2005.

Another project by Tokyopop, based upon the original series, has also been announced. The new comic, produced by Joshua Ortega, has been announced for a 2006 release to coincide with TOS's 40th anniversary.[link]

Fan productions

Games

SFU games include:

 The following games used elements from both the Paramount and ADB universes:

  • * (1999)
  • *
  • *

Other games

They were not the only games to continue the vast Star Trek universe however. There were role-playing games, board games, card games, computer games, even arcade games and pinball games. Other games include the following:

Board and card games
Role-playing games
Play-by-mail and play-by-post games
Arcade games
University Mainframe Computer Games
Computer and video games'''
Pinball machines

Theme Parks

'Star Trek Adventure, Universal Studios Hollywood, 1988'
The Universal Studios Hollywood theme park featured a Star Trek-themed attraction.[link] The attraction regularly selected 10 volunteers from the audience and placed them into a Star Trek story line. The participants were dressed in Star Trek costumes and placed on sets, and coached to deliver scripted dialogue in several scenes. The scenes, which were recorded on video, were quickly edited into a short film, the storyline of which was loosely based around material from the Star Trek films. The finished video was then shown to the audience, and the "actors" had the opportunity to purchase a copy of their video. This attraction closed after several years of operation.
Great American Adventure Amusement Park, Santa Clara near San Jose, Calif.
In the '80's Paramount Pictures Inc. bought the theme park operating company, Great American Theme Parks. [link]After this corporate owner's change, the San Jose property added many major Star Trek elements to entertain the park's patrons. There were several costumed Star Trek characters entertaining patrons near the large Star Trek transplanted movie sets brought up from the studio. A Klingon starship command bridge and other interior set elements along with other Star Trek sets were delivered and installed in this property. There were costumed Star Trek characters 'meeting and greeting' the parks visitors.

 

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