Literary Treks: A Star Trek Books and Comics Podcast

Jeffrey Lang: The Light Fantastic. When Data sacrificed himself to save the Enterprise crew in Nemesis, we all thought it was the end of the beloved android. But in Cold Equations, David Mack gave Data a second chance at life and opened the door to new possibilities. Now, in The Light Fantastic, Jeffrey Lang continues the story—which was in fact started in his own 2002 novel Immortal Coil—as Data...

Star Trek Lit Wish List. From James Blish's first novelizations in 1967 all the way through to Seekers in 2014, the Star Trek content brought to us in written form dwarfs the adventures seen on television and the big screen. No matter what story you're looking for, its out there somewhere. Learn the back history of your favorite character, explore an unknown corner of the Beta Quadrant, travel wit...

The More Things Change. Spock's encounter with V'ger in Star Trek: The Motion Picture had a profound impact on the Vulcan and his interactions with those around him. We didn't get to see this effect on screen, but Scott Pearson's new eNovella The More Things Change gives us a glimpse of Spock's life six months after TMP. With an ailing Audrid Dax in need of medical treatment from Trill doctors, Sp...

Lost Apollo. With the five-year mission finally underway, IDW's Star Trek Ongoing comics are set to deliver strange new worlds that harken back to the true flavor of The Original Series. Lost Apollo tells the story of an American astronaut from NASA's Apollo program who the Enterprise crew discovers on an alien world nearly 300 years after he lifted off from the moon. (Yes, from the moon… turns ou...

Jeffrey Lang: Immortal Coil. For most of Data's existence he was a subculture of one. He was alone in the universe as a unique being with a unique future. Over the course of his life he went from being the son to being the caretaker in a sense. Once Data gained emotions, he had to come to terms with the understanding that he would outlive everyone around him. His life would, potentially, go on for...

Serpents In the Garden. In the classic episode "A Private Little War," Captain Kirk took it upon himself to balance the power between two factions on a primitive world when it is discovered that the Klingons are backing one side. It was a story that demanded a follow-up, but one never came. Until now. In his new novel Serpents In the Garden, Jeff Mariotte puts now-Admiral Kirk back into battle on...

David R. George III: One Constant Star. Many fans know Demora Sulu merely as the daughter of Hikaru and helmsman of the Enterprise -B. We only catch a glimpse of her in Generations, but as the literary universe has evolved we've come to know her through novels like The Captain's Daughter and Serpents Among the Ruins . For David R. George III, Demora has been an important character and the relation...

The Killing Shadows. What do you get when you cross Star Trek with G.I. Joe, Xena Warrior Princess, and ancient Japanese culture? Easy. You get WildStorm's four-part comic series The Killing Shadows. Published between November 2000 and February 2001, The Killing Shadows is a story about a mysterious alien invasion force, free will, and fighting. But mostly fighting. It was the second and final ded...

Keith R.A. DeCandido talks The Klingon Art of War. Every Star Trek fans knows the Klingons, and every fan of TNG onward has heard of Kahless. We know that Klingons are warriors, but what has shaped their society into one that lives for the battle? Passed down from the time of Kahless, ten precepts have shaped Klingon culture and indoctrinated Klingons in the way of the warrior. Unfortunately, we d...

Serpents Among the Ruins. The Tomed Incident is a famous event in Star Trek history. But like so many such incidents, it's something we've heard in passing dialogue but never really learned much about. It was mentioned in three episodes of TNG—"The Neutral Zone," "The Defector," and "The Pegasus"—and one episode of Enterprise—"These Are the Voyages…" Okay... so four episodes of TNG. But what actua...

Seasons of Light and Darkness. Early in The Wrath of Khan , Doctor McCoy visits Admiral Kirk bearing gifts in honor of his birthday. The conversation isn't the most cheerful, and Bones asks why everyone is treating Kirk's birthday like a funeral. It was a telling moment between two close friends, but did you ever wonder happened next? In his novella Seasons of Light and Darkness , Michael A. Marti...

Mission Gamma: Twilight. When Deep Space Nine premiered, the stated goal of the Starfleet presence on the station and the purpose Sisko's mission was to prepare Bajor for Federation membership. As the series went on, this came close to happening once; but a warning from the Emissary put the issue on the backburner. Then the Dominion War happened. With all of that now in the past—and with other loo...

The Captain's Daughter. Star Trek Generations brought us a number of shocking moments—the death of Captain Kirk, the destruction of the Enterprise-D—but one with less severe consequences was the revelation that Hikaru Sulu had a daughter. It was just a nod to the passage of time and a nice tidbit for fans that created a connection between the Enterprise-A and Enterprise-B. But did it really make s...

Rise of the Federation: Tower of Babel. The premature cancellation of Enterprise left fans in the dark about two key events in Star Trek history. The first was the Romulan War, which has since had light shone upon it by Michael A. Martin. The second is the founding of the Federation, a pivotal time that we still know almost nothing about. Until now that is. Christopher L. Bennett's Rise of the Fed...

Alien Spotlight, Part II. Have Andorian fight scenes lost their luster? Want an Orion fight scene instead? How about a Romulan troubled by war? We all have our favorite alien races, and in 2007 IDW turned the spotlight on some of Star Trek's most famous aliens with a series of comics that told stories unique to each. In the episode of Literary Treks, Matthew Rushing and Christopher Jones conclude...

Alien Spotlight, Part I. Is assimilation your thing? How about a nice fight to the death with ice cleavers? Maybe you prefer a tall glass of kanar? We all have our favorite alien races, and in 2007 IDW turned the spotlight on some of Star Trek's most famous aliens with a series of comics that told stories unique to each. In the episode of Literary Treks, Matthew Rushing and Christopher Jones take...

Greg Cox: No Time Like the Past. Star Trek characters from different eras meeting is nothing new. Picard met Spock. Scotty met Geordi. Julian met a stunning 23rd-century lieutenant that made him think he might be his own great-grandfather. But two characters we never thought would cross paths are Captain James T. Kirk and Seven of Nine. Yet that's exactly what happens in Greg Cox's new book No Tim...

The Return of the Serpent. During The Original Series, Kirk made many life-shattering decisions for civilizations he'd just met. In "The Apple," the discovery of naive humanoids living in a Garden of Eden-like setting on Gamma Trianguli VI was too much for the Captain to take. The people were happy, but they worshipped a god who turned out be a machine named Vaal. And when this machine saw Kirk as...

John Jackson Miller: Absent Enemies. The Fall set the Star Trek universe on a new course, and what better way to usher in this brave new world than with the addition of a new face to the roster of renowned authors? John Jackson Miller may be new to Star Trek, but he's no stranger to those who love tie-in fiction. His work on Iron Man, Mass Effect, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is love...

Slings and Arrows: The Insolence of Office. In 2007 Pocket Books decided to honor the 20th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation with a six-part eBook series that bridged the gap between the destruction of the Enterprise-D in Generations and the next time we saw the crew on the big screen in First Contact. Penned by J. Steven York, Christina F. York, Phaedra M. Weldon, William Leisner, Ter...

Spock Reflections. By the time The Undiscovered Country rolled around, Spock was a wise "old" man who had learned to balanced logic with emotion and intuition. We saw a further evolution of this on The Next Generation in "Unification." And by the time we met Spock in an icy cave the 2009 J.J. Abrams Star Trek, well, he was very wise indeed. But how did he get there when we've seen so many other Vu...

Kirsten Beyer: Protectors. Since leaving television, Star Trek: Voyager has grown into the rich story that it always had the potential to deliver. Through the deft pen of author Kirsten Beyer, the characters have evolved, the stakes have been raised, and the overall depth of Voyager's world has grown. Her latest novel, Protectors, picks up after the destruction of four fleet vessels at the hands o...

Editing Star Trek with Margaret Clark. When it comes to Star Trek novels, it's the authors who get all the glory. The covers are emblazoned with their names. They're the ones fielding the questions in interviews. But there's a whole other side to the process of dreaming up the stories, finding the people who will write them, and getting them into your hands. Those tasks fall upon the editor, and S...

Dayton Ward: Peaceable Kingdoms. Over the past decade the prime universe has grown richly complex as print adventures have taken over where television left off. Now, in a new five-book series titled "The Fall," some of Star Trek's greatest authors are going to rock the Federation to its core with an adventure that takes place over a period of sixty days and involves TNG, DS9, and Titan. In this ep...

Slings and Arrows: The Oppressor's Wrong. In 2007 Pocket Books decided to honor the 20th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation with a six-part eBook series that bridged the gap between the destruction of the Enterprise-D in Generations and the next time we saw the crew on the big screen in First Contact. Penned by J. Steven York, Christina F. York, Phaedra M. Weldon, William Leisner, Terri...