Franchise fiction or, as it’s sometimes known, spin-off fiction is a wide-open world where readers can explore further corners of their favorite television, gaming and movie universes. It’s great when it works out: the fabulous Star Wars universe goes beyond any fanboy or fangirl’s dreams in its presentation of a multi-dimensional, highly nuanced universe of war, diplomacy and mysticism, and Dungeons & Dragons‘ various worlds has plenty of storylines to pursue for the gamer who just can’t get enough. Sometimes, though, it doesn’t work out so well: Talented writers sink their blood and sweat into creating new stories in the universes they’ve been given, only to watch this or that parent intellectual property crash and burn for one reason or another, or maybe someone on the executive level couldn’t see the potential for new storylines and never approved those spin-off novels in the first place. Both are difficult and frustrating for fans.
While we’ve got plenty of examples of the former, I’d love to hear your opinions on the latter: namely, what are some of the movies, television programs and games that you’d love to see spawn original fiction but never did? What are those worlds that you’d be excited about re-entering and exploring once again via novels?
I felt that both the Stargate novels and the Babylon 5 ones lacked the scope and depth we’ve come to expect from the Star Wars books. And they were both shows I felt had a great deal of potential for side stories and spin-offs.