| ABOUT STAR TREK: SWIFTFIRE | THE AUTHOR | HISTORY OF THE SERIES | RETROACTIVE CHANGES |
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Star Trek: Swiftfire is a fan fiction series that follows the crew of the USS Swiftfire-A, an original crew on an original ship in a familiar setting. Set during the TNG era the series is currently in its third season, which the in-universe year being 2375. The major focus through the series so far has been seeing the ship cope with the ongoing Dominion War as shown in the latter seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space 9. As such the series is more combat oriented then “boldly going where no one has gone before.”
Canon and continuity
Something I never thought about talking about until I joined the Star Trek Expanded Universe wiki, what do I hold as canon and within the continuity of this series? Basically I go by the same rule as to what is canon in Star Trek, so that’s all the TV shows (TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT) and all the movies (I-XI).
Given Star Trek XI almost completely takes place in an alternate timeline that means 99% of the film is not in my series' timeline. The 1% of the movie that would be in my timeline would be the parts that are not dependant on the new timeline, examples include the existence of a USS Kelvin during the 2330s, a Romulan miner named Nero and that Romulus blows up in 2387. However, most of this stuff is either over 100 years in the past or over a decade in the future at the moment so they would have no real bearing on my series.
As for things like novels, games, comics, official RPG stuff, they are all non-canon in my series. This is mainly because I’ve only have read about a dozen novels and the bulk of those are from the DS9 relaunch. I will from time to time add characters/ships/places/etc from a novel or game to the series to add more flavour but that doesn’t mean I take its source material and add it in its entirety to my continuity. For example, I have ships from the game Dominion Wars but the events of the game are not actually part of my continuity, so I basically pick and choose what I want and what I don’t want in these cases. However, as with anything that might change in the future, especially once I go past the Dominion War stage. So at this point there is no need to read any of the novels or comics to further understand this series.
I have made heavy use of several free RPG netbooks by Steven Long. His Dominion War Sourcebook completely changed the way I thought about and organised my ship and his Ship Recognition Manuals have pretty much become my starship bibles, with the exception of the Akira class stuff since I've gone off and put my own spin on the ship. I do still hold canon works over his so if his works conflicts with canon in such a way that it can't be explained away then I would take the canon version over what has appeared in his reference books. They make interesting reading, especially the DWS, so you might want to read them but it isn't necessary in terms of the series.
Canon and continuity update (early 2011)
It is becoming increasingly less likely that my continuity will include the recent Trek novel continuity (DS9, Voy, Ent relaunches, Destiny, Typhon Pact, post-Nemesis TNG). I'd originally planned to be consistent with at least the DS9 relaunch (I even completely changed a idea I had as it would have conflicted with the relaunch), which would have meant I would have to also be consistent with the wider novel shared novel continuity currently in vogue. However, I can't say I'm a fan of the Destiny trilogy in terms of what they did with the Borg's fate and origins and now my depiction of the Tzenkethi conflicts with that of the novels and their are some other issues that make it difficult to try to coexist with the novel continuity.
That's not to say I dislike everything from those sources. I like the idea of an anti-Federation alliance of other regional powers and I like the look of the Vesta class for example. Nor do I really have any plans to really conflict with the continuity, I'm not going to be doing a different Sisko returns story or blow up the Enterprise-E and kill everyone on it a few days after Nemesis. I'm just no longer seriously considering trying to remain consistent with the novel continuity.
The other major continuity in the non-canon Trek universe is that of Star Trek Online. Since it is a good 30 years beyond Swiftfire's timeline it doesn't really impact what I'm doing so I'm not aiming at being consistent with that either.
Reading order
For new readers you can either start with "The Darkness Within" or the first episode of season 1, "Deployment". I wrote two stories before I started season 1, TDW and "Vengeance". Both are set before season 1 so I suggest that you start with them first purely because they led into season 1 but it isn't strictly required so you can come back and read them later. In terms of the seasons, I do advise that they are read in the order they are presented.
That also stands for the other stories and short stories. There is really no prerequiste before you read them, for example "To Seek and to be Found" focuses on a character called Jasis, you can read that before you read the episodes that she features in and the shorts also can be read in any order as well. The only exception would be "The Decisions..." and "...and the Consequences..." they were the framing story for an anthology the first to open it and the second to close it, so they should be read in that order.
The Star Trek: Unity stories can be read at any time as well really but they do have an order. "The True" should be read first and then "United We Stand". They don't require that they be read at specific points in regards to the main seasons so when you read them is up to you.
The only stories that benefit from reading in a particular order are the drabbles. They will require that you know what is going on to get the full effect of them. A note will be with the drabbles as to where I suggest you should have read up to before reading the drabble.
So that's basically it. Hope that helps and if it doesn't drop me a line and I'll see if I can help.
