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Star Trek has a huge library of additional reading in the form of a vast array of novels.
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00:00Listen, we as writers, we love to read, okay? And sometimes books don't always get the love that
00:06they should, despite the amount of stuff that's going on in them, and I'm specifically talking
00:11about Star Trek Beta Canon. So, without further ado, I'm Sean Ferdig for Trek Culture, and here
00:19are the 10 biggest secrets revealed in Star Trek novels. Number 10. Trelane's True Nature, Q Squared.
00:27Peter David's novel finally confirms what most people sort of assumed since the arrival of John
00:34Delancey's Q, namely that Trelane, from the original series episode The Squire of Gothos,
00:40was in fact a member of the Continuum. As I say, this had been assumed for quite a long time in
00:45canon, but this was the first time it was actually out and out stated, and not only was he a member
00:50of the Continuum, but he was one who had gone rogue. In the novel, Q seeks Picard's help to help track
00:57down and basically take down Trelane. William Campbell's Trelane set the, it set the template
01:04for a lot of what the Q would become afterwards, so to see this finally confirmed in the novel was
01:10a great way of tying the original series episode into future versions. Number 9. Kirk's middle name
01:17and a new type of Klingon ship, Star Trek The Motion Picture novelization.
01:23Gene Roddenberry wrote the full novel of Star Trek The Motion Picture, with a story credit going to
01:28Alan Dean Foster as well. In this novelization, it's the first time that Tiberius was confirmed
01:34as Kirk's middle name. You might be sitting there going,
01:38Sean, you absolute idiot! That was said in the animated series!
01:42And you would be right, but you must consider that in 1979 the animated series was not considered
01:49canon. That is because Gene Roddenberry kind of walked through life going,
01:54yeah, it'll follow that rule today, maybe that rule tomorrow, that rule can go and flip itself.
01:59So this was Roddenberry finally confirming, yeah right, Tiberius' name. This was explained away in
02:05the novel that Kirk's grandfather had this obsession with ancient Rome, and particularly
02:10the Caesars of Rome. So this is where Tiberius came from. It's also the first time that Kettinga
02:17was confirmed as the name of the Klingon battlecruiser that first began appearing in
02:22the motion picture and onwards, which was of course the D7 beefed up with a motion picture budget.
02:30Where was Geordi? Star Trek Picard, The Last Best Hope. Dr. Una McCormick's novel is a prequel
02:36to Star Trek Picard's first season, and it deals with what led up to the synth attack on Mars.
02:43We get a little bit of backstory and expanding on Bruce Maddox in this novel. We get to see a little
02:50bit more of Raffi and understand what led to the breakdown of her marriage and her relationship with
02:55her son. Now what we also get is the crucial bit of information of where was Geordi when everything was
03:00going down. Now as we know, Geordi La Forge was in control of the entire mechanical side of the
03:06rescue mission to evacuate Romulus. You would think he'd be a fairly large player, so where the heck
03:12was he in season one? And that is something that still annoys me at the first season of Picard. You
03:17could have at least shown the man surviving. Number seven, Uhura's first name, Star Trek II biographies.
03:24William Rossler wrote a tie-in novel when The Wrath of Khan was being released. Effectively,
03:30it was a biography book with a breakdown of each of the main characters. Now this was the first time
03:35in print that Neota was confirmed as Uhura's first name. There had been a couple of different names
03:42offered as her first name before this, but as has been stated on screen in J.J. Abrams' start to
03:492009. Neota is now the accepted first name for this character. But it was all the way back in 1982
03:56that we actually got this confirmed in print. When Rossler proposed this, he actually went to
04:02Roddenberry, who in turn said, look, it's fine with me, but you've got to square that with Nichelle
04:07Nichols before anyone accepts that as the name. And so that's exactly what he did. He went to Nichelle
04:14Nichols. He explained why he had chosen Neota. She agreed and was delighted with this. And from that
04:21point on, Neota Uhura was confirmed as her name. Number six, the Tomed Incident, Serpent Among the
04:28Ruins. David George III wrote what led up to the beginnings of the Treaty of Algeron. And he also
04:35gave us a little bit of expanded story on the Enterprise B and Captain John Harriman. As it stands,
04:41the only canon appearance of the Enterprise B and John Harriman was in the opening of Star Trek
04:46Generations, in which the Maiden voyage saw Kirk sucked out into the Nexus. This novel expands on
04:53that and says that basically Harriman struggled throughout his career to kind of get over that.
04:58Certainly wasn't his fault what happened to Kirk, but still, if the most famous officer in Starfleet
05:04basically gets sucked out into space on your watch, that tends to stain a name. From this point on,
05:09he actually ended up getting further and further involved in Romulan activity in the Federation,
05:16particularly as it was building up toward an escalation of hostilities. The Tomed Incident
05:22was designed to effectively quash this buildup of hostilities because it doesn't look good for
05:30Starfleet when you say it like this. Basically, they faked a massacre. They organized that it looked
05:34like the Romulans had destroyed thousands of Federation lives, which basically got them to back
05:41down. This led to the Treaty of Algeron, which of course led to the Federation not being able to
05:45develop cloaking technology and also a de-escalation of hostilities and the Romulans disappearing for
05:51about half a century after that. Number five, Sulu's first name, the Entropy Effect.
05:57Wanda V. McIntyre introduced Hikaru as Sulu's first name in this novel. This is set just after
06:05the events of the motion picture. We have a beautifully long-haired Sulu on the cover of
06:11the novel as well. Hikaru would only be said for the first time in Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country,
06:17which followed more than 10 years after this. This was being used in print for the decade leading up to
06:24the release of The Undiscovered Country. Now, this was good because much like Uhura, he was just Sulu
06:30for years and years and years. It's like, do we get to give him a name? Do we just call him Mr?
06:36The novel, while canon, wasn't actually confirmed to be using his real name until Star Trek VI was
06:44released. Much like Star Trek II Biographies, this was a nice tie-in between the printed media and the
06:50visual media, which meant kind of encouraging readers to go and read these novels to see that
06:57there are, there's a lot of information out there in them that might not necessarily have the time to
07:02make it into the movies and television series. Number four, how did the Stargazer survive the
07:08Buried Age? Christopher L. Bennett wrote the story of how the physical Stargazer ship managed to survive
07:15the Battle of Maxia when everyone thought it was lost. When the Ferengi managed to cripple the ship,
07:20Picard gave the order to abandon the ship, which was then, it was their belief, set on a collision
07:27course with a gas giant. All of the surviving crew managed to escape in escape pods, get out into space,
07:32and the last thing they saw was the Constellation-class ship heading straight toward the atmosphere of this
07:38planet. Everyone gave it up as lost, and perhaps a little understandably at that point. Now, by a sheer
07:43stroke of luck, what happened was that the ship bounced off the atmosphere of the planet, and was
07:47then left adrift in space. Damon Bok then arrived in his ship, discovering that his son had been
07:53killed in the battle. He tractor-beamed the Constellation-class ship, and began plotting his
07:58revenge against Picard and the rest of the crew of the Stargazer. Number three, Garak's training and
08:03backstory, A Stitch in Time. While playing the part of Garak in Star Trek Deep Space Nine, actor Andrew J.
08:10Robinson kept a bible along the way that he used to make sure that he understood his character's
08:16motivations, where he was coming from, and, you know, different facets of his background. Once the
08:22show wrapped, he actually was approached to expand this into a novel. A Stitch in Time was the result
08:28in this, and what that offers the audience is a lot more about Garak that we didn't get to see
08:34on screen. We discover a lot of his posting on Romulus, where he was posing as a gardener.
08:39We discover his training in the Obsidian Order, and his relationship with the Nabrantain. We also
08:45discover that he had a somewhat of a relationship with Ducat years before, insofar as he was
08:51responsible for the death of Ducat's father. Perhaps somewhat understandable, then, that Ducat
08:55wouldn't be a massive fan of Garak. This novel is essential reading for understanding this character.
09:02Number two, Captain Erica Hernandez's fate, Star Trek Destiny. David Mack's Destiny trilogy is,
09:10in my opinion, essential reading for any fan of Star Trek, and there's quite a few reasons for this.
09:16One is that it's a fantastic crossover event, where you get to see what's happening with Voyager,
09:22the Enterprise-E, Ezri Dax is captain of the Aventine. There's an awful lot going on, but what it also does
09:29is it offers a resolution to the story of Captain Erica Hernandez and the SS Columbia. We discover
09:35that the Columbia traveled through a wormhole that ended up killing most of the crew, while Hernandez
09:40and some of the crew survived. They were guests of the Celiar, who were a race of immensely powerful
09:48aliens who have a very direct connection with the Borg. There's a lot of time travel going on,
09:54there's a lot of agelessness going on, but what we discover is that Hernandez is unable to return
10:00to Starfleet after her encounter with the Celiar. She, in fact, remains of them as sort of an ageless
10:07being. In a way, it's a sad ending that she doesn't get to see any of her friends and family anymore,
10:13but it's also similar to Decker's encounter with V'ger. She goes on to effectively become
10:20a human ambassador with the Celiar that allows them to help save Starfleet at a critical moment
10:27in Federation history. It's quite a cathartic ending for the character who was introduced in
10:33the fourth season of Enterprise, but just surely that there wasn't enough time, we didn't get to
10:38see enough of her. Number one, the early years, the autobiography of Catherine Janeway. Dr. Una McCormick
10:46returns on this list. She wrote the autobiography of Catherine Janeway, which is just a fantastic
10:53novel which explores much of the backstory to Janeway before she takes over command of Voyager.
11:00Now, while it does discuss some of the events on Voyager, it's really better for giving us a greater
11:05picture of Janeway's life pre-taking over as captain, and particularly a lot of what went on
11:11between her and Mark. For example, after reading this novel, the loss of Mark and the breakdown of
11:16their relationship due to being stranded in the Delta Quadrant, it cuts a little bit deeper because
11:21you can see that they really did love each other. We also get a much greater understanding of her
11:26motivations based on her father's career and death, and understanding between her and her sister
11:31and her and her mother. If you get a chance, you must absolutely pick up the audiobook version of this,
11:37which is read by Kate Mulgrew. Seems like a no-brainer, but it seems like the only way that you should
11:42really enjoy this particular story. Combine the audiobook with what you discover in it, and you get
11:51the most complete picture of Catherine Janeway that really can be done. That's everything for our list
11:56today, guys. If you reckon we missed anything, please let me know in the comments below. Please don't
12:00forget to like, share, and subscribe. And remember, you can catch us over on Twitter at
12:04TrekCulture. You can catch myself, Sean Ferrick, at Sean Ferrick, on Twitter and Instagram as well.
12:10Whatever you do, guys, look after yourselves. Until I'm talking to you again, live long and prosper.
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