So if you’ve been following the development of Star Trek Picard you may be aware of the
prequel comics that have come out concerning Picard’s actions as a Starfleet Admiral
in2384, only 5 years after Star Trek Nemesis. Included in these pages was the reveal that
his new flagship on being reassigned from the Enterprise E was the USS Verity NCC-97000.
This ship is undeniably an Odyssey class starship as designed in a competition of Star Trek
Online by Adam Ihle and I was so happy to see it. What’s more supposedly these comics
are to be treated as canon for the upcoming series which places them in prime continuity
with the rest of the Trek main series. I’m a little sceptical as Star Trek has never
really considered anything not on screen as actually occurring but it seeing it there
got me thinking. What are some other things from the so called beta content, that is books,
games and other media, that I’d love to see folded into official canon a-la Grand
Admiral Thrawn from Star Wars? Here’s a list of 5 things that I think should
be added to the Star Trek continuity. For the sake of keeping things simple, I’m only
including official Star Trek sources, so no fan fictions here despite how awesome Axanar
looks and how much I’d love to see Garth of Izar’s deeds. These choices are mine
based on the stories and things I enjoyed from outside of the main shows but I’ve
not played every Trek game nor read every Trek book. But hey, if something out there
exists in your head canon, what would you add?
First off, there have been many stories post Dominion War, the last major event to shake
up Starfleet in the series and while Deep Space Nine ended with a mostly satisfying
way, I’d enjoy seeing what happened to some of the powers involved, namely Cardassia.
It was wreaked at the hands of the Jem Hadar and their genocidal Founder Gods at the end
of the war with 10% of the planet’s population being put down, a literal decimation of a
people. The novel “A Stich in Time” sees the enigmatic Garak dealing with how best
he can help his people but the real draw is the deep dive into his past as we learn what
exactly it is that Garak used to do. I think some mysteries of Star Trek are best left
unanswered like the Borg’s exact origin but other’s like Garak’s past are ones
that would continue to add to his character. It also introduces a new aspect to the Cardassian
people between the old guard who want to rebuild Cardassia as it was and new factions in support
of a more open Cardassia and support for movements such as the Reunion Project which eventually
leads to a more democratic style of government while Elim Garak lends his experience in subterfuge
to supporting the movement. Not only is it a good indicator of where Cardassia,
for the most part one of Star Trek’s baddies could go, but it brings some closure to Garak’s
character who forever has had his morality in conflict with his skillset and profession.
When he worked for the Obsidian Order his actions were for the state and he believed,
his people, but the actions he undertook ate away at him in his later years on DS9. Then
during the Dominion War he suffers a full-on panic attack because although now he’s following
his convictions his actions are having a direct consequence on his people by feeding Starfleet
intel. This is a good way for him to unify his morality, history and finally he can do
what he’s best at, but for a positive result instead of feeling conflicted.
The next thing I’d love to canonise is the emergence of the Romulan Republic. This concept
is one that is very heavily fleshed out in Star Trek Online but it’s not so much how
its formed as what it is that I’d love to see developed. The Romulans have always been
an antagonistic towards the Federation, Klingons, hell, anyone really, placing security and
paranoia above all and as such maintained an unhealthy distance from the other races.
This is something that they couldn’t afford to do in the face of the Romulan Supernova
event, when the Hobus System’s star exploded in a far more catastrophic way than it should
have. Out of the cinders of their destroyed home world, refugees and colonists were scattered
to the winds but many too were lost. Alongside this, growing ideas of reunification with
their sibling race, the Vulcans had been sowed decades before by Ambassador Spock and Captain
Picard. By the year of 2409, many of the new colony worlds scattered all over were questioning
why they owed any allegiance to the Romulan Empire and started banding together to in
some cases, actively resist Imperial rule. Long story short, you can check my series
play-through for more, they eventually founded the Republic on Mol’Rihan or “New Romulus”
in opposition to the Empire and petition the Federation for an alliance offering to work
in tandem with them while the rebuild their civilization. To cap it all off, the appointed
leader of the Republic is D’Tan, a Reunificationist and last seen as the young child who was hanging
of Spock’s every word in Star Trek TNG, Unification who continues to champion the
Vulcan’s cause after his departure from the Prime Timeline.
Although you can leave out all the involvement of Iconians and all that. I do enjoy Star
Trek online and appreciate the universe its built as for the most part it’s a logical
continuation of the series, however the galaxy it has constructed is one at constant war
where many alliances fell apart over the years. While all is explained and detailed quite
well, it is a setting for a video game and not one I think that serves a series like
Star Trek. The USS Excalibur and the New Frontier stories
follow the career of Starfleet Captain Mackenzie Calhoun and his crew including Commander Shelby
and other minor characters from the show repurposed into a new crew. You’ll have to excuse the
pronunciation of Calhoun if I slip up, that’s just how I read it in my head until I listened
to the audio books, I heard the “OU” like in the world “loud” so Cal-hOOn became
Cal-hAwn. Unlike the well-oiled until of the Enterprise D, the crew of the Excalibur are
not always on the same page, but professional as they are, they have learned to trust their
captain and follow orders despite Calhoun’s more direct and seeming heartless approach
to things. In reality he’s not that much of a cold hearted SOB, but he deliberately
cultivates that reputation. The character was just a joy to follow as
there really hasn’t been one quite like him on screen yet in my opinion. He was nicknamed
“the savage” as he was recruited to Starfleet from a relatively hostile world of Xenex where
primitive tribal technology brushed shoulders with contemporary Star Trek tech and he was
a rebel leader in his teenage years. I mean, what other character can you think
off that interviewed candidates for first officer while carving their names into his
desk with a knife and staring at them? Most of the early books take place in 2373-75 setting,
setting it concurrently with DS9 and Voyager, though I must confess, I’ve read the sporadically
through the New Frontier series and completely lost my place. Oh well, I guess I’ll just
have to find the whole collection and start again. Although maybe there’s no need to
include the later events, such as the Excalibur A and beyond as these I think tied into the
Destiny series’ climax at some point which brings with it a whole new entangled mess
of the Borg’s origin, the Calier and major ramifications for the Star Trek universe as
a whole. Although again, there are elements from the Destiny books that I also enjoyed
but I’ve limited myself to five on this list.
Saying that, the USS Aventine, or more specifically, the Slipstream Drive that was incorporated
with it. The Federation has been getting increasingly large with time as it expands into more unexplored
space and warp drive has long been the horse on which they rode. However, with the establishment
of Warp 10 as infinite velocity and many new transwarp technologies being uncovered by
ships such as the USS Voyager, Starfleet is in dire need of a new form of locomotion.
You could continue to just add nines to the end of warp 9, but as they’ll never reach
warp 10, it’s only going to get ridiculous. Slipstream gives Starfleet a way to circumvent
their own in-universe limitations without sounding odd. Just have the drive engage when
they need to exceed warp 9.9 and then call it slipstream 1, or transwarp 1.
In the stories post DS9, we see that Starfleet continued Voyager’s research into slipstream
tech and managed to create a new class of Starship, the Vesta that was designed to include
the new technology and test it out alongside a number of new designs. It’s a pretty cool
design too. And finally, the Luna Class USS Titan, captained
by William Riker. We’ll probably never get to see Captain Riker in live action, so why
not canonise his adventures from the expanded universe? At the end of Star Trek Nemesis
it was established that Riker and Troi transferred from the Enterprise E to his new command,
the USS Titan but the ship was never seen, only named. Books fleshed out the vessel describing
it as a Luna Class and the Federation’s attempt to return to exploratory vessels after
the myriad of war focused ships created for the Dominion War and Borg defence. The Luna
vessels are all named after the moons of the Sol system.
It’s crew manifest included former characters such as Tuvok from Voyager, Melora Pazlar
from DS9. Like the Excalibur and the Aventine, the Titan ended up featuring in the “Destiny”
timeline and as before with my other choices those events are rather heavy to include into
the Star Trek universe at large, but I’d love to see Riker’s time in chair given
some legitimacy. Maybe we’ll see references to the Titan in the upcoming Picard series
but I’d love to see it play a role in the prequel comics as one of the Titan’s first
missions was to help settle Romulan affairs after the Shinzon coup fell so would have
had prior experience with the Star Empire. So yeah, that’s’ my 5; the history and
future of Elim Garak as it works well to flesh out his character. Two, the concept of a Romulan
schism forming the Romulan Republic at odds with the Empire to soften the Romulans and
open them up for more exploration. And the canonisation of Mackenzie Calhoun and the
crew of the Excalibur with similar treatment for the Aventine and the Titan. Although the
greater story arcs that those ships are a part of don’t need to be transferred across
ad verbatim, I would like some love to be shown to these extended universes. Perhaps
adopting the characters and ships, at the very least, into continuity to give them a
whole new tenure in the galaxy and open them up to fans to explore anew.
So that’s my list, what is yours? Like I said I had to limit myself to 5 otherwise
I’d be here for ages and let’s face it, there is a lot of content out there that would
complicate the Star Trek universe even more should it all be unceremoniously dumped into
a single timeline. And if I could remove one thing? Threshold.
That episode breaks so much real and in-universe stuff… and yes I’m taking another video
to have a dig at it. Thanks again for watching and until the next video, I’ve been Ric,
thanks again and goodbye!