Literature - What is Extended Fiction For?

One of my favorite fandoms, as I have written before, is that of Star Trek. In addition to 6 television series, at least 4 of which were smash hits, 12 movies, video games and comic books, there is the one area of which I seem to have an abundance: books. (Well, I had a few, then people kept buying them for me. Now I have a whole shelf-level of them. Dozens or more.) These books depict the various exploits of the characters in each respective series, also including new series, characters and crossovers. This, of course, is a type of "expanded universe."

After this, I began thinking. "Expanded (extended) universe" is a term (I believe) that originated in describing additional media of the Star Wars universe. One difference between Wars and Trek, however, is the factor of canonicity. Much of the Star Wars extended fiction is a canon continuation of the saga. Star Trek, while having new series and some continuations, has a more nuanced canon mechanic. Doctor Who, with its many novels and audio dramas, seems to function similarly. How is that, you ask? Think of the events of the respective series. In the case of Star Trek: Voyager, there is a very tight constraint for extraneous narratives: the entire journey (with some help from outside individuals and groups) took about 7 years. This is not a lot of time to insert many narratives, considering that much of the time would be taken by television episodes. Additionally, some characters, such as the Ocampan Kes, whose species had a shorter life than humans, or the child Naomi, who grew up during the course of the series, also put restraints on the number of stories that could occur. (Unfortunately, the Pokemon solution - characters simply not aging - cannot be applied.)

With all that in mind, then what is the point of the extended fiction? Why go to all the effort to authorize the different novels, comics, and sundry other media? Yes, they tell good stories, but then, so do the canon television stories. The answer is, in fact, the "episode effect."

An episode, by definition, is any event that occurs in one's life. Most classic literature is not written in this form: they are movie-like in their use of characters and events. Granted, there are things like Shakespeare's history plays, but sequels do not equate to (our definition of) episodes. To my knowledge, the advent of the episode has been aided greatly by newer, faster forms of media. Radio, TV, digital media, internet, etc... are all much faster and more adept at handling smaller narrative units. Hence the birth of radio serials and later television serials. TV episodes weekly engage the viewers with a story about their favorite characters.

And that's the point of the extended fiction: to engage the readers with a story about their favorite characters. It is to show what the characters would do, given a particular set of circumstances. What would Captain Picard do if Scotty stole an old Constitution class starship and a Romulan cloaking device with a mind to rescue? What would Picard do if a TARDIS appeared on his ship? Questions like these can be explored, in full, in the extended fiction. I would be remiss in forgetting to mention the limitless possibilities that books and comics grant: there is no limitation of what can be depicted. Extended fiction is for exploration. What will my characters do?