Star Trek: New Frontier is a series chronicling the adventures of Captain Mackenzie Calhoun and the crew of the USS Excalibur. Created by Peter David in 1997, it was the first Star Trek book series to prominently feature characters created directly for print rather than for the screen.
Series history[]
New Frontier was created in 1997 by Pocket Books Editor John Ordover and writer Peter David. It was considered to be an experiment, to see how readers would react to novels which did not center on major characters or the settings featured in the television series.
Ordover conceived of New Frontier as an analogue to the post-Soviet USSR, where numerous forces once kept in check by the central government began to battle to fill the power vacuum, and old conflicts begin to resurface. (Voyages of Imagination)
David created three original characters for New Frontier novels: Mackenzie Calhoun, formerly known as M'k'n'zy of Calhoun, leader of the Xenexian rebellion against the alien Danteri; Si Cwan, a former Thallonian nobleman now out of power; and Burgoyne 172, the Hermat Chief Engineer of the USS Excalibur. Three more characters -- Soleta, Zak Kebron, and Mark McHenry -- were created by David for his trilogy of Starfleet Academy novels featuring Worf, and brought back to the new series as adult officers. Elizabeth Shelby, Robin Lefler, and Dr. Selar were also included due to their status as "one-shot favorites" of Star Trek: The Next Generation fans.
The first four titles were released as shorter (and cheaper) "chapbooks", in much the same manner as Stephen King's The Green Mile was originally published the year prior. These four books were later re-released in a single hardbound omnibus.
The New Frontier series has been quite successful, and includes some of the best selling of the recent Star Trek novels. Its success is directly responsible for other similar lit-only Trek series, such as Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers and Star Trek: IKS Gorkon.
New Frontier stories regularly appear in crossover miniseries and short story anthologies. The series has also expanded into the realm of comics; In 2000 WildStorm Comics published the first New Frontier comic and approached David about creating a second but lost the license before that came to fruition. In 2008 the new comics licenser, IDW Publishing, approached David about a new New Frontier comics project, resulting in the publication of a five-part miniseries. [1]
21st century New Frontier logotype.
Beginning in July of 2015, New Frontier returned in a series of eBooks published by Pocket. [2]
Characters[]
- Mackenzie Calhoun
- Elizabeth Shelby
- Burgoyne 172
- Soleta
- Zak Kebron
- Mark McHenry
- Robin Lefler
- Selar
- Si Cwan
- Janos
- Morgan Primus
- Katerina Mueller
- Xyon of Calhoun
- Kalinda Cwan
- Arex
- M'Ress
- Tania Tobias
- Romeo Takahashi
- Mick Gold
- Xy
- Moke
Media[]
Published order[]
| Title | Author(s) | Format | Published | Cover |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 House of Cards | Peter David | novel (reprinted in New Frontier) |
July 1997 | 
|
| #2 Into the Void | Peter David | novel (reprinted in New Frontier) |
July 1997 | 
|
| #3 The Two-Front War | Peter David | novel (reprinted in New Frontier) |
August 1997 | 
|
| #4 End Game | Peter David | novel (reprinted in New Frontier) |
August 1997 | 
|
| #5 Martyr | Peter David | novel (reprinted in Prometheans) |
March 1998 | 
|
| #6 Fire on High | Peter David | novel (reprinted in Prometheans) |
April 1998 | 
|
| The Captain's Table #5 Once Burned | Peter David | novel (reprinted in The Captain's Table) |
October 1998 | 
|
| Double Helix #5 (TNG #55) Double or Nothing | Peter David | novel | August 1999 | 
|
| #7 The Quiet Place | Peter David | novel | November 1999 | 
|
| #8 Dark Allies | Peter David | novel | November 1999 | 
|
| Excalibur #1 #9 Requiem | Peter David | novel | September 2000 | 
|
| Excalibur #2 #10 Renaissance | Peter David | novel | September 2000 | 
|
| Excalibur #3 #11 Restoration | Peter David | novel | Hardcover: November 2000 Paperback: November 2001 | 
|
| Double Time | Peter David Art by: Mike Collins & David Roach | comic (reprinted in Other Realities) |
November 2000 | 
|
| Gateways #6 Cold Wars | Peter David | novel | October 2001 | 
|
| Gateways #7: What Lay Beyond: "Death After Life" | Peter David | novella | Hardcover: November 2001 Paperback: October 2002 | 
|
| #12 Being Human | Peter David | novel | November 2001 | 
|
| Gods Above | Peter David | novel | October 2003 | 
|
| Stone and Anvil | Peter David | novel | October 2003 | 
|
| No Limits | Editors: Peter David, with Keith R.A. DeCandido | anthology | October 2003 | 
|
| Tales of the Dominion War "Stone Cold Truths" | Peter David | short story | August 2004 | 
|
| After the Fall | Peter David | novel | Hardcover: November 2004 Paperback: December 2005 | 
|
| Tales from the Captain's Table "Pain Management" | Peter David | short story | June 2005 | 
|
| Missing in Action | Peter David | novel | Hardcover: February 2006 Paperback: January 2007 Trade paperback: April 2008 | 
|
| Mirror Universe: Obsidian Alliances "Cutting Ties" | Peter David | novel | March 2007 | 
|
| Turnaround | Peter David Art by: Stephen Thompson | Five-part comic miniseries | Issues: March-July 2008 Omnibus: October 2008 | 
|
| Mirror Universe: Shards and Shadows "Homecoming" | Peter David | short story | January 2009 | 
|
| Treason | Peter David | novel | Trade paperback: April 2009 Mass market paperback: March 2010 | 
|
| Blind Man's Bluff | Peter David | novel | Trade paperback: April 2011 | 
|
| The Returned, Part 1 | Peter David | eBook | July 2015 | 
|
| The Returned, Part 2 | Peter David | eBook | August 2015 | 
|
| The Returned, Part 3 | Peter David | eBook | September 2015 | 
|
Chronological order[]
- Pre-dating main series setting
- 2354
- No Limits: "A Lady of Xenex"
- No Limits: "Lefler's Logs" (Logs run through to 2364)
- 2356
- No Limits: "Turning Point"
- 2361
- No Limits: "Waiting For G'Doh"
- 2362
- No Limits: "Revelations"
- 2363
- No Limits: "Out of the Frying Pan"
- No Limits: "Alice, on the Edge of Night"
- 2366
- No Limits: "All That Glisters..."
- No Limits: "Performance Appraisal"
- 2368
- No Limits: "Oil and Water"
- No Limits: "Singularity"
- 2369
- No Limits: "'Q'uandary"
- 2370
- No Limits: "Loose Ends"
- 2371
- No Limits: "Through the Looking Glass"
- 2354
- 2373
- 2374
- Fire on High
- The Captain's Table #5: Once Burned
- Double Time (Story begins after Once Burned and concludes at the beginning of Double or Nothing)
- 2375
- 2376
- The Quiet Place
- Dark Allies
- Excalibur
- No Limits: "The Road to Edos"
- No Limits: "A Little Getaway"
- Gateways #6: Cold Wars
- Gateways #7: What Lay Beyond: "Death After Life"
- Being Human
- Gods Above
- Stone and Anvil
- No Limits: "Redemption"
- 2377
- 2379
- 2380
- 2381
Omnibuses[]
- New Frontier - Collector's Edition Hardcover of Books 1-4.
- Prometheans - Exclusive book club hardcover omnibus of Martyr and Fire on High.
Related works[]
- Starfleet Academy - Trilogy featuring Kebron, Soleta, and McHenry as classmates of Worf at Starfleet Academy.
- Vendetta - Features Korsmo and Shelby, referenced in House of Cards.
- Imzadi II - Cameo by Shelby and Excalibur.
- Gateways: Doors Into Chaos and Demons of Air and Darkness - Cameo by Calhoun and Shelby via holoconference (concurrent with Cold Wars).
- Q & A - Cameo by Shelby on Space Station Bravo.
- Before Dishonor - Cameo by Calhoun and the Excalibur.
Appendices[]
Connections[]
References[]
External links[]
- Star Trek: New Frontier article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
- Star Trek: New Frontier article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.