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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
00:45in
00:45canon, but this was the first time it was actually out and out stated, and not only was he a
00:50member
00:50of the Continuum, but he was one who had gone rogue. In the novel, Q seeks Picard's help to help
00:57track
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 novelisation.
01:22Gene 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 novelisation, it's the first time that Tiberius was confirmed
01:34as Kirk's middle name. You might be sitting there going, Sean you absolute idiot, that was said in the
01:41animated series. And you would be right, but you must consider that in 1979 the animated series
01:48was not considered canon. 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 the Caesars of
02:12Rome, so this is where Tiberius came from. It's also the first time that Kettinga was confirmed as the
02:19name of the Klingon battlecruiser that first began appearing in the motion picture and onwards, which was
02:25of course the D7 beefed up with a motion picture budget. Where was Geordi? Star Trek Picard, The Last Best
02:33Hope. Dr. Una McCormick's novel is a prequel to Star Trek Picard's first season, and it deals with
02:39what led up to the synth attack on Mars. We get a little bit of backstory and expanding on Bruce
02:46Maddox
02:47in this novel. We get to see a little bit more of Raffi and understand what led to the breakdown
02:53of
02:53her marriage and her relationship with her son. Now what we also get is the crucial bit of information of
02:58where was Geordi when everything was going down. Now as we know, Geordi La Forge was in control of
03:03the entire mechanical side of the rescue mission to evacuate Romulus. You would think he'd be a
03:10fairly large player, so where the heck was he in season one? And that is something that still
03:16annoys me at the first season of Picard. You could have at least shown the man surviving.
03:19Number 7. Uhura's first name. Star Trek II biographies. William Rossler wrote a tie-in novel
03:27when The Wrath of Khan was being released. Effectively, it was a biography book with a
03:31breakdown of each of the main characters. Now this was the first time in print that Neota
03:37was confirmed as Uhura's first name. There had been a couple of different names offered as her first
03:43name before this, but as has been stated on screen in J.J. Abrams' start to 2009, Neota is now
03:51the
03:52accepted first name for this character. But it was all the way back in 1982 that we actually got this
03:58confirmed in print. When Rossler proposed this, he actually went to Roddenberry, who in turn said,
04:04look, it's fine with me, but you've got to square that with Nichelle Nichols before anyone accepts that
04:10as the name. And so that's exactly what he did. He went to Nichelle Nichols, he explained why he had
04:17chosen Neota, she agreed and was delighted with this, and from that point on, Neota Uhura was
04:23confirmed as her name. Number 6. The Tomed Incident. Serpent Among the Ruins. David George III wrote what
04:31led up to the beginnings of the Treaty of Algeron, and he also gave us a little bit of expanded
04:37story
04:37on the Enterprise B and Captain John Harriman. As it stands, the only canon appearance of the
04:43Enterprise B and John Harriman was in the opening of Star Trek Generations, in which the Maiden
04:48voyaged, saw Kirk sucked out into the Nexus. This novel expands on that and says that basically
04:54Harriman struggled throughout his career to kind of get over that. Certainly wasn't his fault what
04:59happened to Kirk, but still, if the most famous officer in Starfleet basically gets sucked out into
05:05space on your watch, that tends to stain a name. From this point on, he actually ended up getting
05:11further and further involved in Romulan activity in the Federation, particularly as it was building up
05:18toward an escalation of hostilities. The Tomed Incident was designed to effectively quash this
05:26build-up of hostilities, because it doesn't look good for Starfleet when you say it like this. Basically,
05:31they faked a massacre. They organized that it looked like the Romulans had destroyed thousands
05:38of Federation lives, which basically got them to back down. This led to the Treaty of Algeron,
05:43which of course led to the Federation not being able to develop cloaking technology, and also a
05:47de-escalation of hostilities, and the Romulans disappearing for about half a century after that.
05:53Number five, Sulu's first name, the entropy effect. Wanda V. McIntyre introduced Hikaru as Sulu's first
06:02name in this novel. This is set just after the events of the motion picture. We have a beautifully
06:08long-haired Sulu on the cover of the novel as well. Hikaru would only be said for the first time
06:15in
06:15Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country, which followed more than 10 years after this. This was being used
06:22in print for the decade leading up to the release of The Undiscovered Country. Now, this was good
06:27because, much like Uhura, he was just Sulu for years and years and years. It's like, do we get
06:33to give him a name? Do we just call him Mr.? The novel, while canon, wasn't actually confirmed to be
06:41using his real name until Star Trek VI was released. Much like Star Trek II Biographies, this was a nice
06:47tie-in between printed media and the visual media, which meant kind of encouraging readers to go and
06:55read these novels to see that there are, there's a lot of information out there in them that might
07:01not necessarily have the time to make it into the movies and television series. Number four,
07:06how did the stargazer survive the buried age? Christopher L. Bennett wrote the story of how
07:12the physical stargazer ship managed to survive the Battle of Maxia when everyone thought it was lost.
07:18When the Ferengi managed to cripple the ship, Picard gave the order to abandon the ship,
07:23which was then, it was their belief, set on a collision course with a gas giant. All of the
07:28surviving crew managed to escape in escape pods, get out into space, and the last thing they saw
07:33was the Constellation-class ship heading straight toward the atmosphere of this planet. Everyone gave it
07:39up as lost, and perhaps a little understandably at that point. Now, by a sheer stroke of luck,
07:44what happened was that the ship bounced off the atmosphere of the planet, and was then left adrift
07:48in space. Damon Bok then arrived in his ship, discovering that his son had been killed in the
07:54battle. He tractor-beamed the Constellation-class ship, and began plotting his revenge against Picard
07:59and the rest of the crew of the stargazer. Number three, Garak's training and backstory,
08:04A Stitch in Time. While playing the part of Garak in Star Trek Deep Space Nine, actor Andrew J. Robinson
08:10kept a bible along the way that he used to make sure that he understood his character's motivations,
08:17where he was coming from, and, you know, different facets of his background. Once the show wrapped,
08:23he actually was approached to expand this into a novel. A Stitch in Time was the result in this,
08:29and what that offers the audience is a lot more about Garak that we didn't get to see on screen.
08:35We discover a lot of his posting on Romulus, where he was posing as a gardener. We discover
08:40his training in the Obsidian Order, and his relationship with Inabrentain. We also discover
08:45that he had a somewhat of a relationship with Dukat years before, insofar as he was responsible for the
08:52death of Dukat's father. Perhaps somewhat understandable, then, that Dukat wouldn't be a massive fan of Garak.
08:58This novel is essential reading for understanding this character. Number two, Captain Erika Hernandez's
09:05fate, Star Trek Destiny. David Mack's Destiny trilogy is, in my opinion, essential reading for
09:12any fan of Star Trek. And there's quite a few reasons for this. One is that it's a fantastic
09:17crossover event, where you get to see what's happening with Voyager, the Enterprise E,
09:23Esri Dax is captain of the Aventine. There's an awful lot going on. But what it also does is it
09:29offers a resolution to the story of Captain Erika Hernandez and the SS Columbia. We discover that the
09:35Columbia travelled through a wormhole that ended up killing most of the crew, while Hernandez and some
09:41of the crew survived, were guests of the Sealiar, who were a race of immensely powerful aliens who have
09:49a very direct connection with the Borg. There's a lot of time travel going on, there's a lot of
09:55agelessness going on, but what we discover is that Hernandez is unable to return to Starfleet after her
10:03encounter with the Sealiar. She, in fact, remains of them as sort of an ageless being. In a way, it's
10:09a sad
10:10ending that she doesn't get to see any of her friends and family anymore. But it's also similar
10:15to Decker's encounter with V'ger, she goes on to effectively become a human ambassador with the
10:22Sealiar that allows them to help save Starfleet at a critical moment in Federation history. It's
10:29quite a cathartic ending for the character, who was introduced in the fourth season of Enterprise, but
10:34just surely that there wasn't enough time. We didn't get to see enough of her. Number one, the early
10:42years, the autobiography of Catherine Janeway. Dr. Una McCormick returns on this list. She wrote the
10:47autobiography of Catherine Janeway, which is just a fantastic novel, which explores much of the
10:55backstory to Janeway before she takes over command of Voyager. Now, while it does discuss some of the
11:02events on Voyager, it's really better for giving us a greater picture of Janeway's life pre-taking
11:08over as captain, and particularly a lot of what went on between her and Mark. For example, after reading
11:13this novel, the loss of Mark and the breakdown of their relationship due to being stranded in the
11:18Delta Quadrant, it cuts a little bit deeper because you can see that they really did love each other.
11:23We also get a much greater understanding of her motivations based on her father's career and death,
11:29an understanding between her and her sister and her and her mother. If you get a chance,
11:34you must absolutely pick up the audiobook version of this, which is read by Kate Mulgrew. Seems like
11:39a no-brainer, but it seems like the only way that you should really enjoy this particular story. Combine
11:47the audiobook with what you discover in it, and you get the most complete picture of Catherine Janeway
11:53that really can be done. That's everything for our list today, guys. If you reckon we missed anything,
11:58please let me know in the comments below. Please don't forget to like, share, and subscribe.
12:02And remember, you can catch us over on Twitter at TrekCulture. You can catch myself, Sean Ferrick,
12:07at Sean Ferrick on Twitter and Instagram as well. Whatever you do, guys, look after yourselves.
12:12Until I'm talking to you again, live long and prosper.
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