Losing Continuity:
Will Del Ray Ignore The Universe Created By Bantam?
Commentary by Sabrina
Fried
4/10/99
Every Star Wars fan I know has at least one book or comic in the expanded universe that they hate with a passion. The more extreme ones sometimes wish those books were never written, since a bad plotline in one media must be carried over into any other Star Wars work published after it.
It's Lucasfilm law, after all: One galaxy, one continuity.
But has anyone else wondered what would happen if that law didn’t exist? What would happen if future projects in the Star Wars universe were given the chance to keep or disregard whatever they wished from the pool of previously published work? How would this affect its relationship to the rest of the galaxy? More importantly, how would they decide what to ignore, and what to keep?
It won't happen, you are probably saying to yourself. The integrated continuity of the Star Wars galaxy is what gives it its strength. Because of it, Star Wars stories are far from formulaic and are not simply the same story, told by 36 different writers--not all of them anyway.
It might.
When Bantam's license to publish Star Wars book came up for renewal about eighteen months ago, the decision was made by Lucasfilm to take the franchise elsewhere. The license was later awarded to Del Rey. Bantam was permitted to complete all book series, and other works that Lucasfilm had approved prior to the nonrenewal, with all subsequent books, both novel and otherwise being put out by Del Rey. Previously, Del Rey had held the license to produce Star Wars 'resource' books, like the Essential Guides collection, but not fiction novels. The first of Del Rey's non-resource Star Wars books under this agreement, will be the official novelization for Episode One. Bantam still has books to publish that will keep them busy until about December.
I read something recently, which both troubled and excited me. It touched on an idea that has been lurking in the back of my mind since I began reading Star Wars books. Some people would say I am making more of it then I really should, but try as I might, I can't seem to let it go. That something was an excerpt from an article in this month's Star Wars Insider concerning the future of the Star Wars book franchise now that it is Del Rey's turn to publish them. On page 25, representatives from Del Rey are quoted as saying that, aside from their prequel novellization, at least some of their books will focus on a time period set about 25 years after the battle of Endor.
Ok, I can handle that. What bothered me was what came next.
I must give T'bone of starwarz.com a big thank you for providing me with the direct quote for this part, since my Insider is late (as usual). After announcing the timeline for their new series, Del Rey mentioned that they 'might' consider ignoring some of the continuity that has gone into the Bantam books. However, they also mentioned that the major plotlines would remain intact. When I contacted Del Rey directly to confirm this, the representative I spoke to was not able to comment on it.
And we all know what it might mean when they refuse to comment. I can see it now: The first of their new books will contain some sort of 'Many records have been lost over time' scene, compensating for whatever they might change.
Whatever happened to 'one galaxy, one continuity?'
If Del Rey does go ahead with this plan, it would not be for the first time. Have you ever seen a Hoojib in a Dark Horse comic? Probably not. (The reprinting of selected Marvel issues excluded). Alan Dean Foster's 'Splinter of the Minds Eye' is pretty much ignored by Bantam (and very much published by Del Rey), but that is mostly because, being written before the release of ESB, it's ending would have rendered that movie's climactic scene unfilmable. Many of the very excellent short stories in the Star Wars Adventure Journal, published by West End Games, contain planets, people and plots referred to nowhere else…usually.
Maybe it's just my personal opinion, but Del Rey should have withheld that statement until they could be more specific about it. As it stands, there are really two major problems with it. First, when they say "some," what do they mean? Are they referring to some Bantam sources, such as the Young Jedi Knights junior novels and the collected works of Paul and Hollace Davids, which receive little attention now as it is? Perhaps the few Adventure Journal stories reprinted in Tales from the Empire, or something else? I know they have already stated that the major plotlines will remain intact, but major plotlines in the Star Wars universe are really the result of connections between much smaller plotlines that are not easy, or in some cases possible, to separate.
Why don't we use Tales from the Empire as an example. This book contains, among other stories, "Missed Chance" by Michael. A. Stackpole. The story was originally published in issue #7 of the Star Wars Adventure Journal. Now, for the sake of this experiment, let us assume this is one of those tiny plotlines that Del Rey chooses to disregard. Problem: Among other things, this story, the debut of Corran Horn, by the way, chronicles how the future Rogue squadron pilot makes connections which eventually lead him to the Rebel Alliance. It also establishes him as a Force sensitive character. It could be argued that its contributions to the Star Wars chronology are crucial to the integrity of the larger plotlines in the X-wing book series, in which the fact that Corran is Force sensitive, and a member of the Alliance allows him to join up with Rogue Squadron, and eventually aides them in capturing Coruscant. In Heir to the Empire, the first Star Wars novel published by Bantam, Timothy Zahn mentions that, in the time since its capture, Coruscant has become the seat of the legitimizing New Republic government and they are fighting hard to keep it. This, is a plot central to most, if not all the Star Wars books in the continuity since. But, how would this plotline change if "Missed Chance" missed its chance? If it was never determined that Corran was Force sensitive, or if he never because a Rogue, would the Alliance still have a government on Coruscant to defend when Thrawn came knocking?
The second problem a careful pruning of Star Wars continuity presents is how exactly is Del Rey considering to go about such a thing? In the example of Corran Horn above, some plotlines, which are only indirectly connected to the larger ideas, are more important than they would appear at first glance. In fact, the connection above is not really made at all, until you start indexing the works related to the major plotline that is the taking of Coruscant by the Rebel Alliance. That was actually a simple example, since "Missed Chance" really contains only one significant plotline, but what of books, or book series, which contain more than one? Can Del Rey disregard portions of a book, while leaving the rest intact? With a flood of new readers coming with the release of Episode 1, this has the potential to cause an awful lot of confusion. To avoid that confusion, as far as I can see, Del Rey has three options:
Wipe clean the slate - That’s right: All or nothing. The movies become the only constants between the universes in the Bantam and Del Rey books. The future Del Rey works can take place in their own version of the universe where everything (and I do mean everything) from the Bantam books and the previously published Dark Horse comics which interconnected with them, simply did not happen, at least not in the same way. Oh, and by the way, no special one-shots where the two universes collide and crossover either.
Don’t mess with success - Del Rey embraces the Bantam storylines in their entirety. Yes, even the parts fans are not particularly fond of. The Del Rey works focus themselves primarily on the prequel-era and the 25-years post-Endor timeframes they are already planning on, where the influence of the Bantam collection would be minimal anyway. It would mean giving the main characters a bit of a rest most likely, but it would not be impossible.
Tell someone else's story - The majority of the Bantam Star Wars work published to date has focused on a very small group of characters. But consider that there are literally thousands of characters out there who have basically held the role of extra, with no more than a sentence or two of mention. Perhaps Del Rey could tell more stories from the Imperial perspective or all of those smuggler and mercenary bands out there who really don’t care who is winning the intergalactic civil war. And what about all of the unknown civilizations beyond Wild Space that were hinted at in Visions of the Future? They most certainly must have major wars and stories of their own to tell.
I am most partial to the last option. I always wondered if
the Empire had their own version of Wedge Antilles, until Michael A Stackpole created
Soontir Fel. Now I wonder what happens when a lowly smuggler makes it to Wild Space and
keeps going. Do they write 'here be dragons' on their star maps? There are still thousands
of stories out there in the Star Wars universe waiting to be told. There is no need to
prune its idea tree, not yet.
(When Sabrina Fried is not
busy trying to AVOID reading too many prequel spoilers online, a grand feat within itself,
she is busy sacrificing pens to the deities of fanfiction, or driving the local bookstores
crazy trying to find obscure science fiction books in sections which seldom carry anything
more than a year old. Oh yeah, and then there is that whole university thing.)