Random spoilerific reasons to read Star Trek novels, with little to no context:
Ro/Quark is a thing
A Jem'Hadar joins DS9, tries to fit in but eventually snaps and tries to kill everybody
You learn the origins and final fate of the Borg
A thinly-veiled Dr. House clone joins the Voyager crew
Geordi briefly has 2 girlfriends at once (due to different writers not co-ordinating enough, but still)
There's a TOS book that's a musical
There are YA stories about Jake and Nog making mischief on DS9
YA stories about Worf, Geordi, Picard, Beverly, Kirk, Spock and McCoy at SFA
YA series about the Kelvinverse gang (including Gaila!) as cadets, taking on a drug problem at SFA and a very unique Borg scout in San Francisco
We very briefly meet the people who are to Q what the Q are to humanity
Janeway/Chakotay is a thing
Kirk's first mission in command of the Enterprise! Erm, at least twice.
Kirk was married between TOS and TMP
Her name was Lori
In the future, you have yearly marriage contracts that you either update or you don't and I think that's amazing
Trip didn't die! He faked his death to join Section 31 and go undercover as a Romulan
It's not great, tbh
The ENT books get better after the Romulan wars though, it's proper founding of the Federation stuff
We meet Jack Crusher (erm, the OG) when 4 timelines start overlapping and he's a bit unhinged
Teenage Kirk stole a car and his choice was go to jail or join Starfleet
What happened when Voyager got home? Seven broke up with Chakotay like 30 pages in
Kirk gets cloned, and his clone becomes the sub of an evil invincible super genius and its all very gay
George Kirk was Robert April's first officer on the first ever mission of the unnamed starship with the Naval Construction Contract 1701
Robert is a hard-core pacifist and has to turn command over to George whenever it's time to fire weapons
Data becomes fully human for a couple of days and it's really sweet
They never say "wristwatch" or "phone", it's always "wrist chrono" or "personal comm"
There are gays but they don't say that word because it's the 1990's and Rick Berman runs the franchise
Spock has a son in the past with Zarabeth
Everyone in the post-Nemesis era does spy missions all the time non stop, as if Starfleet has abandoned exploring the cosmos for doing Space Mission: Impossible
Bashir does it better than anyone else, he takes on Section 31 from the inside
Remember Control? It's from the novels, except the novels do it SO MUCH BETTER.
Remember how we never found out who Future Guy was? We do.
It's very underwhelming, nobody we know
We find out how the Romulans and Vulcans split
Surak was a Vulcan internet blogger
A Borg Cube eats Pluto
Janeway dies
Janeway gets better
At least one TOS book features a wizard
There's a Star Trek TOS/Here Come the Brides crossover novel
It had cameos from The Doctor (as in, Who), Han Solo, Starbuck and others
Whole book series about Section 31
Whole book series about the Department of Temporal Investigations
One time they do the Bill and Ted thing to escape confinement and it works
Wanna know how Riker and Troi met?
Wanna know what Picard got up to on the Stargazer?
Andorians have 4 sexes and it's very complicated
Data comes back from the dead as Data 2.0, and it was fresh and exciting because it happened long before ST: Picard did it twice.
Lal comes back too and we get father/daughter android stuff! They have a home and everything but keep having to save the universe
One time Mirror Seven is led around on a leash naked on Terok Nor
Geordi becomes captain of the USS Challenger, decides it's not for him because plot, and goes back to engineering on the Enterprise
Kirk is shot on the bridge and dies
Kirk gets better
They watch 3D holos of old Doctor Who episodes in the Enterprise rec room
The Enterprise also has an AI named Moira, which was Zora long before Zora
The TOS crew get together for one last mission. About three times.
There's a Perry Mason book except it's about Kirk's lawyer from that TOS episode
Data 2.0 owns and runs a massive gambling empire on Orion
Spock keeps randomly showing up everywhere in the TNG era
Scotty keeps randomly showing up everywhere in the TNG era
Bones keeps randomly showing up everywhere in the TNG era
You're on Tumblr so you already know about Killing Time
There's a guy named McKenzie Calhoun and he's a total badass and captains a ship of weirdos and misfits
Kirk comes back from the dead, saves the galaxy repeatedly, has an intersex child (who identifies as male) with a Romulan/Klingon hybrid
Kirk beats up Worf
Kirk's child has superpowers
Kirk's child saves the galaxy at age 6
The Kirk stuff is 100% ignored in the other novels
About 50% of the novels are ignored in the other 50%, and the ones that are meant to be in direct continuity with each other aren't always quite
Just like the TV shows and movies, then
Lwaxana Troi meets Q, and it goes as well as you'd expect
Someone tells Data, yes you idiot you had emotions all along and he's like, oh shit you're right
McCoy is left in command of the Enterprise as a joke by Kirk, who is then immediately kidnapped
Ro Laren is captain of Deep Space Nine
Picard/Beverly is a thing, they get married and have a child named Rene. No running away and raising your kid in secret here
Riker and Troi are married, serve on the Titan together with a bunch of adorable weirdos and have a daughter named Tasha
You get to watch all the 24th century characters die horribly in the end along with their entire universe. Holy fuck it's a bleak horror show. Personally, I love it. But if that's not your cup of tea I'd skip the Coda trilogy
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There’s an ethical question in Star Trek I’ve seen several people here talk about that I’ve thought about a lot. Basically, what are the ethics of having a romantic or sexual relationship with a non-sentient holographic version of a real person? This issue is brought up several times in canon, but never dealt with well, in my opinion. The main canon discussions of this topic that I remember (and it’s possible I forgot something) are in Booby Trap (TNG) where Geordi has a very brief romantic relationship with a holographic version of a real woman he’s never met, in Hollow Pursuits (TNG) where Barclay presumably has romantic/sexual relationships with extremely out of character holographic versions of Deanna and Beverly, in Meridian (DS9) where a guy wants Quark to sell him a holographic version of Kira to have sex with, and in Human Error (VOY) where Seven has a semi-long-term romantic and sexual relationship with a holographic version of Chakotay.
So, first of all, I don’t think that any of those instances mentioned are morally okay. Booby Trap is the most complicated case morally speaking since, to my memory, Geordi didn’t intentionally initiate anything romantic, though he didn’t stop it once it started either. I don’t want to imply that what Geordi did is morally as bad as the other examples I’m discussing, especially since Geordi is the only character of color being discussed here and his actions are not really equivalent in intention or impact to the other characters’. As an episode, Booby Trap doesn’t seem to have a clear idea of whether or not what Geordi is doing is unethical. In fact, it felt to me as if that question wasn’t something that occurred to the writers at all (until Galaxy’s Child, but that’s a whole other thing and the hologram portion of it is arguably the least messed up thing there, so I’m ignoring it in relation to this topic). Hollow Pursuits does portray what Barclay does negatively, but I feel like the episode is much more concerned with the negative emotional effects this has for Barclay rather than for Deanna and Beverly. Meridian, from what I remember, is the only episode to portray this situation as definitively bad, and Kira is portrayed as justified in being angry. However, the episode is a mess in other ways and does not explore the topic with nuance, making light of it with humor when I think it needed to be taken more seriously. Human Error is in some ways the most baffling case here because what Seven does is portrayed almost positively, as something that is a potentially good step in Seven’s “social development”. Apparently, there is no thought given to what Chakotay would think of the situation. I’ve seen people suggest that the narrative and fandom treatment of Seven versus the other characters is a gendered double standard, which I do think makes sense.
But the problem here isn’t having a sexual/romantic relationship with a hologram, the problem is that the person didn’t consent to having their holographic image used this way. There’s obviously nothing wrong with having sex or a relationship with a hologram not based on anyone’s image, or based on the image of someone who gave clear consent to have their image used in that way. But using someone’s image this way without their consent is pretty obviously analogous to making nonconsensual porn of someone. Do the ethics of this situation change if the hologram is of a historical figure? What about a famous person who is still alive? I don’t necessarily have answers here, but I do think the situation can become more complicated.
And then there’s another factor to consider – is the sexual/romantic relationship the biggest issue here? In the cases of Hollow Pursuits and Human Error, Barclay and Seven’s simulations of the crew are much more extensive than just the romantic/sexual portions. Would it have been all right for Barclay to create potentially offensive and demeaning holographic versions of his crewmates if there was no romantic/sexual component? Would it be okay for Seven to recreate a version of every Voyager crew member and live out an intricate alternate life with them without any of their consent if she never had romantic/sexual relationships with any of them? Is it any less a violation of someone’s rights to use their image without consent for, say, a propaganda campaign for an issue they disagree with, or a story that portrays their holographic version as a horrible person? That second scenario is the plot of the Voyager episode Author Author. This episode seems to take the moral stance that it’s bad for the Doctor to use the images of his fellow Voyager crew members to portray horrible characters, but there are other questions it doesn’t raise. Would it have been okay for the Doctor to use their images without consent if he had portrayed their holographic versions positively? What is the line between an acceptable and unacceptable usage of another person’s image without their consent? Is it ever okay to use a person’s holographic image without their consent? Is such consent implied when a person agrees to holographic scans of their body? What exactly is one consenting to when they consent to have a holographic version of themself created? I don’t necessarily have answers to these questions, I just wish any of these episodes had explored these issues with more nuance. And I do think that it’s important to consider extending the question of consent here beyond sex and romance.
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LEAKED SCRIPT FROM THE FINAL SCENE OF STAR TREK PRODIGY SEASON 2
Solum 2436: We open onto a two person Starfleet emergency shelter. It looks a little worse for wear. Hologram Janeway stands in the doorway looking out at the smoky skies and war torn landscape. In front of the shelter, Chakotay and his first officer Adreek Hu are attempting to start a fire.]
[A shadow crosses overhead. All three look up.]
Chakotay: Is that...
Adreek Hu and Hologram Janeway: Voyager!
[The two men stand as a transport initiates nearby. Chakotay's face lights up as he sees two red uniforms.]
Chakotay: Kath - Seven!
[It's Jack Crusher II and Seven (Star Trek: Picard). They barely glance at Chakotay and Adreek Hu.]
Jack: I've got his coordinates.
Chakotay: Hey! I'm right here.
Seven: Just tell me where.
Jack: Your nine o'clock.
[Seven points her phaser and hits a cloaking field. It drops, revealing a giant salamander wearing a red and white striped shirt and hat.]
Chakotay: "What?"
Seven: "Of all the planets." [She taps her badge.] "Paris. I finally found your grandson"
Paris over the comm: "Oh thank goodness. Lets get him out of that hell hole ASAP"
[Seven and Jack grab the Salamander and huddle close, preparing for a beam out.]
Seven: "What were you thinking running off like that, Waldo?"
Waldo: "Just wanted to meet the New Earth branch, but I wound up in the wrong reality. It's just these guys."
[Now Seven and Jack finally seem to notice Adreek Hu and Chakotay.]
Seven: "Thanks for leading us right to him."
Chakotay: "What about me?"
Seven: [looks confused] "You? You had your chance 59 years ago."
Waldo: Enjoy New New Earth.
[Adreek Hu runs up to the group preparing to transport.]
Jack: [taps his badge] Four to beam up.
Chakotay: [sputters] Hey - how come he gets to go?
Jack: [looks him dead in the eye] Birds aren't real.
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beyond the creativity of the whole starship being accidentally pulled into some sort of space-rut with space whales, all because evidently the starship and the giant space squids move about with like warp technology or something (always hard to figure out what star trek characters mean by "signatures"), beyond the way they first try to participate in the rut like an elk digging his antlers in the dirt to make himself seem bigger and then attacking some other elk-guy, beyond the way they're only participating in this sexual behavior as a collective organism in a ship that the first episode has already explained is in some way composed of biomatter is because they don't want to kill any of their weird alien suitors, beyond the way tuvok gets to say "guess we're not cute anymore" all while the other plot of the episode is kes being just so goddamn gross and secreting all sorts of nonsense all because the horny space-creatures and also because she wants to have a kid with neelix of all things, beyond the fact that the thesis statement to this episode is just attenborough aggressively explaining how weird sex is, beyond all that: the fact that chakotay says this straight-faced and sincere while looking up at janeway is wild.
chakotay frequently gets to be the character to acknowledge the particularity of the perspective of whatever creature the crew happens to be dealing with that episode. giving narrative utility to the character's sensitivity. in this very weird episode, they block it so when he offers the right solution to the plot, he's standing below janeway who mostly just seems to be frowning in confusion the whole of the episode and being somewhat useless but for listening to her crew. which seems significant.
and like two episodes later they have a plot be resolved through the logic of surrender. a strange mini-plot in the overarching one of trying to get back home: the power of yielding, of submitting, in a way that only undercuts dignity if one isn't choosing it. and chakotay speaks of biological behavior on a ship he never intended to be on, in a part of the galaxy he has no connection to, in a uniform he'd set aside very deliberately before being tossed thousands of light years away, second-in-command to someone who seems constantly caught between fighting and giving up, depending on who/what she's facing on any given plot-day.
like the participation in whale-alien sexual rituals is funny. but whoa.
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I'm honestly so confused as to why the writers on Voy saw it necessary to throw in Seven / Chakotay romance into the End Game, because, putting aside the fact that it was entirely random, it's just ... so unnecessary. Even if they never intended to make J/C canon, C/7 is just entirely unnecessary. It doesn't bring anything valuable to that episode, it's lazy writitng and without it, End Game is actually a perfect series finale IMHO, I loved it.
But like, what was the point of throwing C/7 into it? Because Seven's death in itself would affect Janeway profoundly, and I mean PROFOUNDLY. Their relationship runs so deep it's practically impossible to categorize what they are to each other. Janeway would still go back in time and alter the timeline to save Seven because she loved her, this is how important Seven was in her life, and I don't care if you think it was romantic or platonic love - I wouldn't even care to categorize it, because the bond is just so deep.
It's different with Janeway and Chakotay because they clearly love each other romantically, and their bond runs bone-deep - deep love, deep fidelity, no half-measures - they would go to hell and back for each other. Janeway loves Seven and she loves Chakotay. And both Chakotay and Seven love Janeway and I really think they would both choose to pass on whatever (bullshit) attraction they might have felt towards each other other than hurt Janeway in that or any way. No, like honestly, they would NEVER. Seven wasn't stupid, she would never hook up with a guy someone so close to her heart as Janeway was to Seven, was clearly in love with. No matter what thinly veiled explanation you can come up with for Chakotay - it's wildly OOC for him to pursue Seven romantically - yes, I know, he's been screwed over by the writers in general but C/& is such a massive disservice to both of those characters.
I can't help to think that this randomness of C/7 was just writers being cunts to the J/C shippers for no other reason than being cunts. And that's it.
Because C/7 is totally irrelevant to End Game. It shouldn't be there.
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