NEW YORK — No more voyages of the Starship Enterprise. No more intergalactic shootouts for the Millennium Falcon. "Star Wars" and "Star Trek," the two most lucrative franchises in motion picture and TV history, are near the end of their runs.
But the novels and literary spinoffs will be flooding the galaxy for years to come.
As far as the publishing industry is concerned, it doesn't really matter that the last episode of "Enterprise," the fifth TV series set in the "Star Trek" universe, will be broadcast May 13. Or that "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith," debuting in theaters May 19, is the sixth and final chapter in George Lucas' epic space opera. The appetite for "Wars" and "Trek" books continues unabated, making two publishers cosmically happy.
The demise of "Star Trek," which has spawned five TV series and 10 feature films, "won't change the way we do business," says Scott Shannon, vice president and associate publisher at Pocket Books, which publishes all things "Trek." "We've kind of been here before. We started publishing in 1979 and published for years without a TV show or film."
"It was known for years" that "Sith" would be the last "Star Wars" film, says Shelly Shapiro, editorial director at Del Rey Books, the home of "Star Wars" literature. "We made our latest deal with Lucasfilm knowing George would never do an Episode 7, 8 or 9. It's never been an issue, and in some ways it could work to our advantage -- our books will be one of the only places people will be able to get new 'Star Wars' stories."
It's not a case of squeezing books out like sausages. Each new volume must stay true to the original visions of the series while providing new story lines and worlds to explore. But make no mistake -- these audiences are as hungry for the "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" worlds as a Klingon lusting to spill human blood.
Since Pocket Books began issuing "Trek" novels in the late '70s, for example (Bantam and Ballantine published a handful of originals and adaptations earlier in the decade), more than 500 "Star Trek" titles have hit the nation's bookshelves, selling tens of millions of copies. During the series' height in the 1980s and '90s, many of these made regular appearances on national bestseller lists, and even today, Pocket Books releases nearly 20 new titles every year, targeting all five series ("Star Trek," "The Next Generation," "Deep Space Nine," "Voyager" and "Enterprise").
