Literary Treks: A Star Trek Books and Comics Podcast

James Swallow: The Poisoned Chalice. 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 thi...

Slings and Arrows: A Sea of Troubles. 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 Osb...

Q and Trelane Comics. Is Trelane a Q? Certainly this was never the intent when Paul Schneider penned the TOS episode "The Squire of Gothos." But in the years since, the literary world of Star Trek has retconned the good general (retired), endowing him with the powers of the Continuum and a backstory to go with it. But a year before Peter David made Trelane a renegade Q in Q-Squared, Steven Wilson...

David Mack: A Ceremony of Losses. 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 e...

The Best of Klingons. Continuing their trend of bringing older comics to today's audience, IDW has combined the original DC Comics Klingons #1-4 with their own five-part Klingon saga from 2007, Blood Will Tell. In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Christopher Jones jump into the fray with everyone's favorite warriors to find out why the galaxy is yet again on the verge of wa...

Ill Wind. Did you know the Federation has a bi-annual solar sailing race? Neither did we. But they do, and it's the job of Starfleet's flagship to oversee event and make sure no one cheats. It's all part of Ill Wind, a four-part DC comic series from 1995 penned by Diane Duane that not only delivers the fun of TNG but also a message about growing older, past regrets, and new horizons. In this episo...

Horn and Ivory. When we last left Kira she was faced with a choice of paths on a distant world in the Delta Quadrant. Two Iconian gateways offered very different escape routes from a seemingly hopeless situation. Which did she choose? Demons of Air and Darkness left a huge thread dangling—but it was by design. In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Christopher Jones discuss th...

Una McCormack: The Crimson Shadow. 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...

Demons of Air and Darkness. The two-part Avatar kicked off the relaunch of Deep Space Nine in the novels and, along with Abyss, introduced new faces and moved familiar ones beyond "What You Leave Behind." In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Christopher Jones continue their look at the DS9 relaunch with the fourth book, Demons of Air and Darkness. Unlike the first three nove...

David R. George III: Revelation and Dust. The Star Trek universe as you know it is about to change. 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...

The Khitomer Conflict Begins. Star Trek Into Darkness was built around the belief that war with the Klingons was inevitable—at least in the eyes of Admiral Marcus. The prospect itself served a plot focused on the inner workings of Starfleet. And while the film didn't deliver this galactic conflict, IDW's Star Trek Ongoing series will. The big-screen story was continued in the uninspiring After Dar...

Assignment Earth Comics. At the end of its second season, the return of The Original Series was in doubt and creator Gene Roddenberry wanted to find something to replace his imperilled show. In 1966 he pitched a pilot script to Desilu studios entitled "Assignment: Earth," hoping that this would be his next project. But the studio passed, and so he slipped lead characters Gary Seven and Roberta Lin...

Mission's End. The Original Series tells the story of the Enterprise's first five-year mission under the command of Captain James T. Kirk. But where did that mission really begin and where did it really end? In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Christopher Jones find out as they overcome a case of arachnophobia to join Kirk's crew on a trip to Archernar IV. Filling in many o...

Dayton Ward: From History's Shadow. The various crews of Star Trek have taken more than their fair share of journeys through time. Kirk, Spock, Archer, Quark, Janeway... the list goes on and on. But if you look very closely, you might just find that they're all part of a bigger puzzle that is intertwined with our own history—the one we're familar with from outside of Star Trek that is. In this epi...

Nero Comics. Following the release of the first J.J. Abrams Star Trek film in 2009, IDW released a four-part series that told the backstory of the movie's villain, Nero. Comprised of bits cut from the film along with original elements, the series provides motivation to the actions Nero takes in the film and fills in some of the technological blanks as well. In this episode of Literary Treks hosts...

Star Trek Reference Books. When faced with an overwhelming number of Star Trek stories, sometimes we need to step back and look at the nuts and bolts of the universe. What we need is a reference book. Fortunately, many studious and brave men and women have toiled over the years to provide us with just that—resources that offer details of the Star Trek world that are far too vast for our limited hu...

Rise of the Federation: A Choice of Futures. 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. In this episode of Literary Treks,...

The Next Generation: Ghosts. Picard and the Enterprise crew spent a lot of time mediating disputes, conducting diplomatic missions, and responding to distress calls during the seven-year run of TNG. Those three pastimes come together in Zander Cannon's five-part comic series Ghosts. In this episode of Literary Treks, hosts Matthew Rushing and Christopher Jones join the crew of the 1701-D as they e...

Deep Space Nine: Fool's Gold. Some comics read like, well, comics. Short reads that leave you wanting more. On the other hand, some comics read like episodes and make you wish the story had been put on the screen. Such is the case with IDW's first DS9 miniseries "Fool's Gold." This story of Cardassian deceit, hidden treasure, and a map the size of the station itself pulls you into the world of fou...

Larry Nemecek's Stellar Cartography. It's been more than a decade since the last update to the Star Charts reference book, but thanks to Larry Nemecek and 47North fans will soon be able to get around the galaxy more efficiently than ever. In this episode of Literary Treks, Christopher Jones is joined by Larry to learn about the genesis of his new book Star Trek: Stellar Cartography, the process of...

Before and After Darkness. The four-part Countdown to Darkness comic set up the big screen story of Star Trek Into Darkness, and now the comics are continuing the adventure in a four-part sequel. In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Christopher Jones dig into the first two issues of After Darkness as well as look back at the prequel series, how well it set up the film, and h...

William Leisner and The Shocks of Adversity. The Federation is usually in the position of "good" pitted against clear foes such as the Klingons, the Romulans, or the Dominion. But what if it encountered a group that looked very much like itself? How would the Federation react and how far can you trust someone after glimpsing only the surface? In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing...

The Enterprise Experiment. As series finales go "Turnabout Intruder" wasn't much of one. But that's because it wasn't at all the end of the journey. Sadly the five-year mission of the Enterprise got cut short for those of us watching on the tube. But certainly there were more missions that followed Kirk's little body-switching adventure. In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and...

Captain's Log Comics. There are those captains about whom we know so much that they're like members of our family. Then there are those captains with whom we spent only a short time, leaving their command shrouded in mystery. In 2010 IDW set out to shed light on those leaders, and while the original project got trimmed down we still got a look at four of Starfleet's leaders. In this episode of Lit...

Shadows On the Sun. When the Enterprise set course for the second star to the right and sailed straight on 'til morning at the end of The Undiscovered Country, it may have been the end of TOS voyages on the big screen; but it wasn't the end of the story for our characters. In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Christopher Jones discuss Michael Jan Friedman's 1993 novel Shadow...