Debate Rages... Licensed Fanfiction or Continuing Canon?

[cedar_grove]

The stupidest things depress me... things that have no reason to, and it's all irrational I'm sure.

This ended up on my friends page earlier this evening.

This entry has a link to the LJ of one of the authors and in the comments to the entry she answered a question regarding the SGA movie, referring to this series of books as being the only new "canon" of which she knows, but then goes on to say:

"Of course, if they come back and make a movie later that josses everything, that happens! We'll be in good company with Diane Duane, Jean Lorrah, A C Crispin, and many other fine writers who've had that happen with Star Trek."

This, and a couple of other things set me off thinking about the debate that seems to go back and forth between people as to whether book series, such as these from Fandemonium for Stargate, and the Pocket Book once for DS9 and Enterprise et al should be considered to be canon, or just some form of semi-official/licensed fanfic.

Speaking of Pocket Books - For Goodness sake. 2011?!!!

So yeah... don't quite know how to feel right now - though I feel those bunnies stirring and munching on 'power up' carrots.

Comments

[calibrata.livejournal.com]

It sure does vary by series. Star Wars and Warcraft both take them extremely seriously... in WoW, original characters start in novels and then weave their way through comics/manga/trading cards/other and into the game; a whole zone was redesigned around an early author's descriptions from a prequel. Even little details get carried over; the first time I met Tyrygosa in-game, I wondered about her weird outfit and silent human boyfriend. (She's a blue dragon.) Well, she originally came from a manga. And so she looks like it. :)

I hear Star Wars actually goes the reverse way, too, and makes sure its novel authors adhere to existing canon. Man, I wish someone would do that with Richard "Retcon" Knaak. :)

But that aside, the Trek books don't seem to be taken as seriously as either... you have to look for the few places where a concept moved from novel to TV/movie, rather than occasionally tripping over an inconsistency or a change in characterization. It almost feels like the poor Trek authors are/were asked to guess where each series was going. And only cross-over authors like the Reeves-Stevenses have a chance of actually influencing it.

I don't know enough about the SG:* books to guess about them...

[mirrani.livejournal.com]

It's been said that the Highest up of the Trek folks in charge /never/ thought the books were canon... At least as far as I am aware. This helps me greatly, as the Intendant was slain a few books ago.

We both know that with the exception of Michael Martin, most of the trek people just kind of fling around what they can. /He/ at least tries to fix things.

I mean, come on. If Trek books were considered canon, it would be ANDOR, not Andoria and Shran would have two other bondmates instead of one wife on the show.

The problem they created for themselves is that DS9 and then Enterprise decided that instead of going about writing random stories that could happen /between/ episodes, they would /continue/ the series to keep people reading because hey, those were the two worst shows in the bunch, right? :p They figured it was the only way to keep the fans.. feed off of the desperation to continue it. But then again, it is /very/ safe to say that neither show will ever have a film-style continuation. Some of them don't even get a final episode, for christ sake!

[jansma.livejournal.com]

It is depressing. :(

[mirrani.livejournal.com]

And yes.. It's a long way to wait, but if Michael A. Martin is writing it, I'm sure it will be worth it. I don't know of anyone else who would respect what he's done to FIX the whole Trip running off junk.