OK, so I wasn’t talking about my novel necessarily (although it would be nice if it had that kind of influence). I was referring to the return of the Star Trek franchise in general. In one of my first posts, I posed the question whether or not the TNG universe could be salvaged. J.J. Abrahms clearly has command over The Original Series, and now even has his own timeline (which we all forgave – but does marginalize everything that we have grown to love), but will we see nothing of the TNG universe? Is it beyond saving? We see from the millions of fanfics, fan audio-books, fan-productions, and even the Star Trek Online video game that there is a real itch among fans to see what happens beyond Nemesis.
Reemergence was my way of fulfilling my own curiosity of what TNG’s future might look like. I will be the first to admit that somewhere along the line of the television shows, despite being a beloved fan, I just stopped watching. So I painted my novel the way I would have loved to see Star Trek, but I admit, many may not share my view. That is what’s great about a blog. If you don’t like what you read in my novel, then you can click away to a million other fan-sites; if you do, then tune in!
Despite being in a bit of a funk, I think Star Trek is poised for a turnaround. I also believe that J.J. Abrams upcoming sequel will be another huge success. And with today’s technology, we’d be able to really see some spectacular special effects, something that Star Trek has always been renowned for but fell a little behind. However, because Star Trek itself is so integrated into popular culture I believe that the franchise will be reincarnated in multiple forms from people with vastly different visions. And I think Star Trek would stand to benefit enormously from it, much in the same way Batman has now been portrayed through dozens of different visions, each providing us with a unique way of looking at the same universe (thumbs up, Christopher Nolan). If I had any advice for Paramount, I would advise them to encourage it.
Lastly, I wanted to maintain the sense of fun about the franchise, and if nothing more, I hope I accomplish at least that in Reemergence. Although it was ST:TNG and ST:DS9 that influenced me mostly in writing Reemergence (which I trust will be obvious to the reader) there are elements from essentially all five series that I hope the reader will enjoy. Star Trek has given us so many great things, and for that we have Paramount to thank. Roddenberry’s future, or some version of it, is worth fighting for.
