Control freak J.J. Abrams will allow no Universe expansion!
The superlative quality of J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek reboot trumped any misgivings I had about the man. Though I grumbled in winter and spring each time he reminded us he “wasn’t a Star Trek fan,” by the time summer came and I saw the film (five times) I was resigned to the fact that, yes, J.J. Abrams is a wunderkind of the popular arts.
But today he has rekindled the dying embers of my fanboy rage.
Simon and Schuster, publisher of the nine zillion (roughly) Star Trek novels had already caved to pressure by greatly reducing the amount of non-Abramsverse titles. When budget cuts came to S & S, they let go longtime editors Trek editors Marco Palmieri and Margaret Clark (the real architects of the Expanded Universe.)
In lieu of exploring the developments in the Titan, New Frontier, DS9 Season 8 and Janeway-less (for now) Voyager lines in the post-Destiny timeline, as well as the continuing Vanguard, Lost Years and Stargazer collections, S & S focused the bulk of their energies on commissioning four Abramsverse tales.
They were clearly designed to be one-shots, to take place only between Spock Prime’s utterance of “thrusters on full” and whatever the opening sequence of Abrams’ Trek Sequel will be. Four of the best Trek writers were hired.
The Caliph of franchise fiction, Alan Dean Foster, was to try his hand at one, as was Christopher L. Bennett (a Starfleet Corps of Engineer graduate who wrote the lovely For The World Is Hollow And I Can Touch The Sky follow-up Ex Machina.) David Mack, the winning author behind the Destiny trilogy and the lion’s share of the Vanguard books, reported on his blog that his novel was already completed. Most heartbreaking, however, is that Greg Cox, author of the marvelous Eugenics Wars series detailing the rise, fall and exile of Khan Noonien Singh, was to author a book concerning the fate of Diaspora Vulcans with none other than Spock Prime as his focus.
Whatever happened to IDIC?!?
The official word from S & S is that the books are “on hold while J.J. and his team continue to develop their vision.”
Anyone sick enough to read Expanded Universe fiction would know how to roll with it. Kirk hangs out with an Andorian in Foster’s book, then the new film presents an Andorian First Contact.
Yes, there is a logic to keeping a dictatorial hold on what is seen when in this new Universe. My anger stems, mostly, from a “why the hell didn’t you think of this before?!?!” Not only will these books be left forever unseen (probably), but the resources could have been spent in further expansions in the Prime Universe.
I suppose I just can’t quite come to terms with the fact that Star Trek is part and parcel in the hands of one man and his small team. A man who, time and again, reminds us that he “isn’t a fan.”
