-=> Quoting Jay P. Hailey to Derek M Kwei <=-
 JPH> "Canon" refers to the body of work we have in common.  We have
 JPH> all seen the TV episodes (most of them, anyway), not all of us have
 JPH> read the books.  The shows are the starting point.  However nothing
 JPH> is written in stone outside of the shows and even what we see on TV
 JPH> can be pretty fluid...
        I'd agree with you up to a point, Jay.  The shows are a starting
point, as well as the movies.  But the novels have a couple of benefits
that the shows dont have, including one you pointed out.  The novels
serve to fill in the blanks between the movies, and take off from
the shows as a starting point.
        There actually is no difference between a book and the actual
series episode, in fact all the Trek episodes start out as books
(stories) that end up in a nice little one hour audio/visual format.
        Now, on the canon issue, a novel author invariably draws from
the movies and the series for his/her inspiration.  It's necessary for
continuity's sake.  But they also have the luxury of more time between
publication for a individual author to get a handle on the technical
aspects of the story.  No author sets out to write an inaccurate book,
even a piece of fiction.
        Right now I think the lead time between TOS/TMP novels is about
three months.  That's just looking at the concurrent numbered novels.  If
you look at individual authors who have repeat submissions in the
series, the lead time is actually closer to a year.  The producers of the
shows are lucky to have a week in advance to hammer out and print
an episode.
        You can hold a book in your hand and see the words in black and
white, and that's about as close to canon as you're going to get with
any media.
                      Christopher
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