6 Star Trek Tie-In Novels That Should’ve Been Films

1. Any of the Four Unpublished Abrams Trek Novels

Movie to be replaced: Star Trek into Darkness

By now, you might be annoyed at my stretching the rules to include two part stories, plus what I pulled for Star Trek V, and are wondering why I decided to give a non-answer for this final entry. It comes down to two things: my criticisms of Star Trek into Darkness and my own rules for this list. There€™s not a lot of Abrams Trek material out there besides the movies, just comics and the lackluster game. Because most of the comics are rehashes of TOS episodes, that meant Countdown to Darkness was the only contender €“ but it was almost certainly written after into Darkness was produced, so it didn€™t really count. Star Trek: The Video Game was probably written long before into Darkness (if only because the writers stated they had problems coming up with the movie€™s script), but it€™s too dependent on audio logs and other game mechanics to translate well to a movie €“ plus it would be horrifically expensive to create tons of photorealistic CGI Gorn.

So that leaves four novels that were supposed to be released in 2010, and no one besides the editors at Pocket Books, the guys at Bad Robot, and the authors have read them. So, what are our options?

Refugees by Alan Dean Foster

In this new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the Star Trek movie tie-in, Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise must decide if a group of refugees are actually a menace€”or just misunderstood. When a strange distress call comes in and Kirk orders the Enterprise to answer it, they encounter a large colony ship of refugees under attack. Unable to convince the Dre'kalk to cease fire, Kirk engages them and drives off their ships. The refugees€”the Perenores, a race of furry bisymmetrical people€”are starving, battered, and many are injured. Their ship wandered off course and their fuel and food is running out, so Kirk and the crew find a place for these displaced refugees. But just two months later, the Barran are threatening the Federation with war for protecting the Perenore menace. But Kirk and Spock are puzzled, the Perenores are peaceful people, what could have happened? Seek a Newer World by Christopher L. Bennet When the Enterprise is outnumbered and under attack, the crew manages to escape and discovers an entire hidden civilization in this exciting new original Star Trek novel. Stung by Nero's escape, the Klingons are looking to salvage their pride by besting the ship that took him down: Enterprise. Command has assigned Kirk to observe and watch how the new captain performs his duties. A boring expedition becomes a fight for survival as the Klingons attack, outnumber, and outflank the young captain and his Enterprise crew. But just as the Enterprise escapes, the crew comes across an entire civilization of worlds within worlds hidden in a radiation belt of a large planet. A civilization so powerful that they can create all this? Kirk wonders just what are they hiding from and will do whatever it takes to find out. More Beautiful Than Death by David Mack An all-new adventure featuring the new Enterprise crew on a mission to broker a Federation trade agreement, from critically acclaimed Star Trek author David Mack. Captain Kirk leads the crew of the Enterprise on a mission to Akiron, a world known for its rich dilithium deposits and isolationist government. Aboard is Spock's father, Ambassador Sarek, who is hoping to set up a trade agreement for the Federation with the planet. Pleased that the Federation has entrusted him with this mission, Kirk pledges everyone on Enterprise will grant the ambassador their full cooperation. Spock is happy to see his father and his Vulcan staff putting the destruction of their world behind them. But Sarek, however, has a secondary agenda while on board Enterprise... The Hazards of Concealing by Greg Cox An all-new adventure featuring the new Enterprise crew€”from New York Times bestselling author Greg Cox. The events of the recent movie have left one important loose end: the elder Spock from the 24th century. His knowledge of both technology and future events makes him one of the most important strategic assets in the galaxy. Starfleet Command wants Ambassador Spock to rejoin Starfleet and share that information with them, but Spock is reluctant to interfere with the unfolding of the new timeline. Will he be able to escape a sinister plan wrought by the enemies of the Federation, or will their quest to exploit Spock's wisdom succeed, with disastrous consequences?

So what about the others? Based on the blurbs, they all seem to be thrillers instead of the action movies that the Bad Robot team seem to be comfortable with. The Hazards of Concealing seems like it would have the most opportunities for action, but it means bringing back Leonard Nimoy, working with his needs and demands, and chronologically progresses the reboot universe even less than Star Trek into Darkness. More Beautiful Than Death sounds more like a TV episode or mini-series than film fodder, although it might be full of assassination plots and other cool things. Refugees sounds like it would be the second best bet, since there's at least one space battle guaranteed right off the bat, although the actually alien aliens might a problem budget wise. And unfortunately, unless Pocket publishes the books, someone leaks the manuscripts, or someone hacks into Pocket's servers and copies the files, we have no idea how good or bad these books are. That said, it's hard to see how they can be any worse than Star Trek into Darkness. Got a favorite Star Trek tie-in that should've been a movie? Disagree with my selections? Feel free to drop a comment below.