Star Trek: The Paracanon
May. 23rd, 2010 01:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starlady posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
starry_seaSo thanks to melannen, I will be modding the "Star Trek beyond the canon" panel at Con.TXT next month in Maryland. \o/ If anyone in this comm is going to the con and is interested in being a co-mod for the panel, please let me know--basically you will be sitting up front with me and we will be each other's backup in the unhappy event that the audience runs out of things to say to us.
All that said, there are some questions I've been thinking about in relation to "the paracanon", which I think for our purposes is primarily the books, but can and should also include Star Trek Online, the Animated Series, and the games and comics--and I'd love to hear what fellow members of this comm have to say, since I trust your instincts. ^^
# Trek books before and after Pocket Books! Which do we prefer, and why? Do we like or resent the increased editorial control which has woven all the books since about 2004 into one single storyline?
# What are our favorite Trek books? The slashiest? The absolute worst?
# OMG the crossovers: Which were the best, which the worst? Too labored, too uneven, too awesome? Did the crossovers provide a balance between editorial control and authorial invention, or not?
melannen, I will be modding the "Star Trek beyond the canon" panel at Con.TXT next month in Maryland. \o/ If anyone in this comm is going to the con and is interested in being a co-mod for the panel, please let me know--basically you will be sitting up front with me and we will be each other's backup in the unhappy event that the audience runs out of things to say to us. All that said, there are some questions I've been thinking about in relation to "the paracanon", which I think for our purposes is primarily the books, but can and should also include Star Trek Online, the Animated Series, and the games and comics--and I'd love to hear what fellow members of this comm have to say, since I trust your instincts. ^^
# Trek books before and after Pocket Books! Which do we prefer, and why? Do we like or resent the increased editorial control which has woven all the books since about 2004 into one single storyline?
# What are our favorite Trek books? The slashiest? The absolute worst?
# OMG the crossovers: Which were the best, which the worst? Too labored, too uneven, too awesome? Did the crossovers provide a balance between editorial control and authorial invention, or not?
- Invasion!
- The Captain's Table
- Day of Honor
- Double Helix
- New Earth
- The Captain's Table
- Day of Honor
- Double Helix
- New Earth
# What about the post-all canons single storyline? Is it too much of "everything but the kitchen sink", or is it cool to see Geordi and Spock saving the galaxy from the Doomsday Machine (to take just one example)? Which authors do we love, and which should be given the boot?
# Speaking of which, New Frontier! Is it too much of Peter David going off the res, or do we think that he's managed to revive the spirit of classic Trek in the 24th century and beyond?
# The paracanon and the AOS! Given the fact that the writers of the new Trek movie were inspired by some of the big names of the book canon, particularly Diane Duane's Spock's World, should we actually consider some of these paracanon items canonical? Is the distinction between canon and paracanon completely meaningful any more, or is Trek just a weird Moebius strip folding back in on itself?
# These questions go double for the Animated Series, which is both canon and not-canon according to Gene Roddenberry and others. Which Animated Series episodes are the most awesome? Which the most LOLarious or fail-tastic?
# And finally, what about the post-AOS storyline that's going on in the original universe? (See Michael Martin and Jake Sisko's new book Star Trek Online: The Needs of the Many, which ends about 25 years after Spock disappears from the original universe at the beginning of the AOS.) Is Spock being required to suffer for the needs of the Trek franchise (again)? Are the Trek Powers trying to have their cake and eat it too, or have the subordinate canons been given a license to go off and do what they like, out of view of the in-motion media?
# Speaking of which, New Frontier! Is it too much of Peter David going off the res, or do we think that he's managed to revive the spirit of classic Trek in the 24th century and beyond?
# The paracanon and the AOS! Given the fact that the writers of the new Trek movie were inspired by some of the big names of the book canon, particularly Diane Duane's Spock's World, should we actually consider some of these paracanon items canonical? Is the distinction between canon and paracanon completely meaningful any more, or is Trek just a weird Moebius strip folding back in on itself?
# These questions go double for the Animated Series, which is both canon and not-canon according to Gene Roddenberry and others. Which Animated Series episodes are the most awesome? Which the most LOLarious or fail-tastic?
# And finally, what about the post-AOS storyline that's going on in the original universe? (See Michael Martin and Jake Sisko's new book Star Trek Online: The Needs of the Many, which ends about 25 years after Spock disappears from the original universe at the beginning of the AOS.) Is Spock being required to suffer for the needs of the Trek franchise (again)? Are the Trek Powers trying to have their cake and eat it too, or have the subordinate canons been given a license to go off and do what they like, out of view of the in-motion media?