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
00:05love that they should, despite the amount of stuff that's going on in them, and I'm
00:10specifically talking about Star Trek beta canon.
00:15So without further ado, I'm Sean Ferdig for Trek Culture, and here are the 10 biggest
00:20secrets revealed in Star Trek novels.
00:23Number 10, Tralane's true nature, Q squared.
00:28Peter David's novel finally confirms what most people sort of assumed since the arrival
00:34of John De Lancie's Q, namely that Tralane, from the original series episode The Squire
00:39of Gothos, was in fact a member of the Continuum.
00:43As I say, this had been assumed for quite a long time in canon, but this was the first
00:47time it was actually out and outstated, and not only was he a member of the Continuum,
00:51but he was one who had gone rogue.
00:54In the novel, Q seeks Picard's help to help track down and basically take down Tralane.
01:00William Campbell's Tralane set the, it set the template for a lot of what the Q would
01:05become afterwards, so to see this finally confirmed in the novel was a great way of
01:11tying the original series episode into future versions.
01:15Number nine, Kirk's middle name and a new type of Klingon ship, Star Trek the motion
01:20picture novelization.
01:23Gene Roddenberry wrote the full novel of Star Trek the motion picture, with a story credit
01:27going to Alan Dean Foster as well.
01:29In this novelization, it's the first time that Tiberius was confirmed as Kirk's middle
01:36name.
01:37You might be sitting there going, Sean, you absolute idiot, that was said in the animated
01:42series, and you would be right, but you must consider that in 1979, the animated series
01:48was not considered canon.
01:50That is because Gene Roddenberry kind of walked through life going, yeah, I'll follow
01:55that rule today, maybe that rule tomorrow, that rule can go and flip itself.
01:59So this was Roddenberry finally confirming, yeah right, Tiberius' name.
02:04This was explained away in the novel that Kirk's grandfather had this obsession with
02:09ancient Rome, and particularly the Caesars of Rome, so this is where Tiberius came from.
02:15It's also the first time that Kettinga was confirmed as the name of the Klingon battle
02:20cruiser that first began appearing in the motion picture and onwards, which was of course
02:26the D-7 beefed up with a motion picture budget.
02:30Where was Geordi?
02:31Star Trek Picard, The Last Best Hope.
02:33Dr. Una McCormick's novel is a prequel to Star Trek Picard's first season, and it deals
02:39with what led up to the synth attack on Mars.
02:43We get a little bit of backstory expanding on Bruce Maddox in this novel, we get to see
02:49a little bit more of Raffi and understand what led to the breakdown of her marriage
02:54and her relationship with her son.
02:56Now what we also get is the crucial bit of information of where was Geordi when everything
03:00was going down.
03:01Now as we know, Geordi the Forge was in control of the entire mechanical side of the rescue
03:06mission to evacuate Romulus.
03:09You would think he'd be a fairly large player, so where the heck was he in season one?
03:14And that is something that still annoys me about the first season of Picard.
03:17They could have at least shown the man surviving.
03:19Number seven, Uhura's first name, Star Trek II biographies.
03:25William Rostler wrote a tie-in novel when the Wrath of Khan was being released.
03:30Effectively, it was a biography book with a breakdown of each of the main characters.
03:33Now this was the first time in print that Neota was confirmed as Uhura's first name.
03:40There had been a couple of different names offered as her first name before this, but
03:46as has been stated on screen in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek 2009, Neota is now the accepted
03:53first name for this character.
03:54But it was all the way back in 1982 that we actually got this confirmed in print.
04:00When Rostler proposed this, he actually went to Roddenberry, who in turn said, look, it's
04:05fine with me, but you've got to square that with Nichelle Nichols before anyone accepts
04:10that as the name.
04:11And so that's exactly what he did.
04:13He went to Nichelle Nichols.
04:15He explained why he had chosen Neota.
04:18She agreed and was delighted with this, and from that point on, Neota Uhura was confirmed
04:23as her name.
04:24Number six, the Tomed incident, Serpent Among the Ruins.
04:29David George III wrote what led up to the beginnings of the Treaty of Algeron, and he
04:34also gave us a little bit of expanded story on the Enterprise B and Captain John Harriman.
04:40As it stands, the only canon appearance of the Enterprise B and John Harriman was in
04:45the opening of Star Trek Generations, in which the Maiden Voyage saw Kirk sucked out into
04:51the Nexus.
04:52This novel expands on that and says that basically, Harriman struggled throughout his career to
04:56kind of get over that.
04:58Certainly wasn't his fault what happened to Kirk, but still, if the most famous officer
05:03in Starfleet basically gets sucked out into space on your watch, that tends to stain a
05:08name.
05:09As time went on, he actually ended up getting further and further involved in Romulan activity
05:15in the Federation, particularly as it was building up toward an escalation of hostilities.
05:21The Tomed incident was designed to effectively quash this buildup of hostilities, because
05:29it doesn't look good for Starfleet when you say it like this.
05:31Basically, they faked a massacre.
05:33They organised that it looked like the Romulans had destroyed thousands of Federation lives,
05:40which basically got them to back down.
05:41This led to the Treaty of Algeron, which of course led to the Federation not being able
05:45to develop cloaking technology and also a de-escalation of hostilities and the Romulans
05:50disappearing for about half a century after that.
05:53Number five, Sulu's first name, the Entropy Effect.
05:58Wanda V. McIntyre introduced Hikaru as Sulu's first name in this novel.
06:04This is set just after the events of the motion picture.
06:07We have a beautifully long-haired Sulu on the cover of the novel as well.
06:12Hikaru would only be said for the first time in Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country,
06:17which followed more than ten years after this.
06:21This was being used in print for the decade leading up to the release of The Undiscovered
06:26Country.
06:27Which is good because much like Uhura, he was just Sulu for years and years and years.
06:31It's like, do we get to give him a name?
06:35Do we just call him Mister?
06:36The novel, while canon, wasn't actually confirmed to be using his real name until
06:42Star Trek VI was released.
06:44Much like Star Trek II biographies, this was a nice tie-in between the printed media and
06:49the visual media, which meant kind of encouraging readers to go and read these novels to see
06:57that there's a lot of information out there in them that might not necessarily have the
07:02time to make it into the movies and television series.
07:05Number four, how did the Stargazer survive the buried age?
07:10Christopher L. Bennett wrote the story of how the physical Stargazer ship managed to
07:14survive 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.
07:28All of the surviving crew managed to escape in escape pods, get out into space, and the
07:32last thing they saw was the Constellation-class ship heading straight toward the atmosphere
07:37of this planet.
07:39Everyone gave it up as lost, and perhaps a little understandably at that point.
07:42Now, by a sheer stroke of luck, what happened was that the ship bounced off the atmosphere
07:46of the planet and was then left adrift in space.
07:49Damon Bok then arrived in his ship, discovering that his son had been killed in the battle.
07:54He tractor-beamed the Constellation-class ship and began plotting his revenge against
07:58Picard and the rest of the crew of the Stargazer.
08:01Number three, Garak's training and backstory a stitch in time.
08:06While playing the part of Garak in Star Trek Deep Space Nine, actor Andrew J. Robinson kept
08:11a 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.
08:22Once the show wrapped, he actually was approached to expand this into a novel.
08:27A Stitch in Time was the result of this, and what that offers the audience is a lot more
08:32about 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.
08:40We discover his training in the Obsidian Order and his relationship with a Nabrin-Tane.
08:44We also discover that he had somewhat of a relationship with Dukat years before, in
08:49so far as he was responsible for the death of Dukat's father.
08:53Perhaps somewhat understandable, then, that Dukat wouldn't be a massive fan of Garak.
08:58This novel is essential reading for understanding this character.
09:02Number two, Captain Erica Hernandez's fate, Star Trek Destiny.
09:07David Mack's Destiny trilogy is, in my opinion, essential reading for any fan of Star Trek.
09:14And 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
09:21Voyager, the Enterprise, E. Ezri Dax is captain of the Aventine.
09:26There's an awful lot going on.
09:28But what it also does is it offers a resolution to the story of Captain Erica Hernandez and
09:33the SS Columbia.
09:34We discover that the Columbia travelled through a wormhole that ended up killing most of the
09:39crew, while Hernandez and some of the crew survived.
09:43They were guests of the Coeliar, who were a race of immensely powerful aliens who have
09:50a very direct connection with the Borg.
09:52There's a lot of time travel going on, there's a lot of agelessness going on, but what we
09:57discover is that Hernandez is unable to return to Starfleet after her encounter with the
10:03Coeliar.
10:04She in fact remains with them as sort of an ageless being.
10:08In 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.
10:18She goes on to effectively become a human ambassador with the Coeliar.
10:23That allows them to help save Starfleet at a critical moment in Federation history.
10:29It's quite a cathartic ending for the character who was introduced in the fourth season of
10:34Enterprise, but just sheerly that there wasn't enough time, we didn't get to see enough
10:39of her.
10:40Number one, the early years, the autobiography of Catherine Janeway.
10:45Dr. Una McCormick returns on this list.
10:47She wrote the autobiography of Catherine Janeway, which is just a fantastic novel, which explores
10:54much 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
11:04us a greater picture of Janeway's life pre-taking over as captain, and particularly a lot of
11:10what went on between her and Mark.
11:12For example, after reading this novel, the loss of Mark and the breakdown of their relationship
11:17due to being stranded in the Delta Quadrant, it cuts a little bit deeper because you can
11:21see that they really did love each other.
11:23We also get a much greater understanding of her motivations based on her father's career
11:29and death, and understanding between her and her sister and her and her mother.
11:32If you get a chance, you must absolutely pick up the audiobook version of this, which is
11:37read by Kate Mulgrew.
11:39Seems like a no-brainer, but it seems like the only way that you should really enjoy
11:44this particular story.
11:46Combine the audiobook with what you discover in it, and you get the most complete picture
11:52of Catherine Janeway that really can be done.
11:55That's everything for our list today, guys.
11:57If you reckon we missed anything, please let me know in the comments below.
11:59Please don't forget to like, share, and subscribe, and remember, you can catch us
12:03over on Twitter at Trek Culture.
12:05You can catch myself, Sean Ferrick, at John Ferrick on Twitter and Instagram as well.
12:10Whatever you do, guys, look after yourselves.
12:12Until I'm talking to you again, live long and prosper.