Star Trek Spin-off Fiction - Prose Fiction

Prose Fiction

Since 1967, hundreds of original novels, short stories, and television and movie adaptations have been published. The very first original Star Trek novel to be published was Mission to Horatius by Mack Reynolds, which was published in hardcover by Whitman Books in 1968. Geared for younger readers, the novel became a collectible and in the 1990s, Pocket Books issued a facsimile edition.

The first publisher of Star Trek fiction aimed at adult readers was Bantam Books, which initially produced a bestselling series of novelizations of the original 79 episodes by James Blish that began in 1967. Later adaptations were done by Blish's wife, J. A. Lawrence, under Blish's name. In 1970, Blish wrote the first original novel published by Bantam, Spock Must Die!, although subsequent novels did not appear until 1976.

From 1974, Ballantine Books published a 10-volume series of novelizations based upon episodes of Star Trek: The Animated Series, all written by Alan Dean Foster. Bantam also published a number of fotonovels based on episodes. In the late 1970s, Bantam published a number of original Star Trek novels, including two written by noted science fiction author Joe Haldeman, and one by original series scriptwriter David Gerrold.

Pocket Books began publishing Star Trek fiction in 1979, starting with a novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture by Gene Roddenberry himself, although the company's second Trek novel did not appear until 1981 due to Bantam being allowed to complete its publishing contract first. Eventually, Pocket Books would publish novels based upon every Trek series.

From around 1987 and with the debut of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Paramount took a closer role in supervising the books, disallowing story elements that were said to conflict with Gene Roddenberry's idea of Star Trek. In particular, recurring characters between books were discouraged, as was the use of concepts introduced in The Animated Series. This era saw disputes between authors and the Star Trek production office – specifically Roddenberry's "assistant", Richard Arnold – with many novels being rejected for not focusing directly on the main TOS cast. Some novels were, in lieu of rejection, heavily edited, resulting in being disowned publicly by their authors, such as in the case of the novel Probe by Margaret Wander Bonanno.

A change of personnel at the Star Trek offices in the early 1990s – specifically the firing of Arnold immediately following the death of Gene Roddenberry in 1991 – led to a relaxation of policies regarding tie-in novels. Under editor John J. Ordover, many authors including Bonanno returned as Star Trek novelists in the 2000s after encouragement from fans, which continued under later editor Marco Palmieri, who has admitted being unaware of any prior blacklisting of authors resulting from the period of interference from Richard Arnold.

Prolific Star Trek novelists include Peter David, Diane Carey, Keith R.A. DeCandido, J.M. Dillard, Diane Duane, Michael Jan Friedman, and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. Several actors and writers from the television series have written books: William Shatner has written a series with the Reeves-Stevenses featuring a revived Captain Kirk in the 24th century, and John de Lancie, Andrew J. Robinson, J. G. Hertzler, and Armin Shimerman have written or co-written books featuring their respective characters. Voyager producer Jeri Taylor wrote two novels featuring backstory for Voyager characters, and screen authors David Gerrold, D. C. Fontana, and Melinda Snodgrass have also penned books. The Reeves-Stevenses were later hired as writers for Enterprise.

None of the Star Trek novels are considered "canon", meaning that producers of the television series feel free to contradict events and facts from the novels (although Pocket Books coordinates with the Star Trek offices to minimise the chances of this happening). Paula Block, director of CBS Consumer Products, is quoted in Voyages of the Imagination as saying, "Jeri Taylor's books were considered quasi-canon for a while because our licensees really wanted some sort of background structure".