History Literature / StarTrekTheLostEra

* IgnoranceIsBliss: The Renagans, in ''Catalyst of Sorrows''. They know aliens can't possibly exist, so they simply ignore those aliens who do show up until they go away again. Arguably this trope also applies to the Halkans, who can't handle the harsh realities of the outside galaxy, due to their ActualPacifist culture.

* NotSoDifferent:

* CaptainSmoothAndSergeantRough: In his time working under J.P. Hansen, Picard is called up to his office for breaking an inverted version of this. How is Admiral Hansen supposed to intimate the lower ranking officers, when Picard's already being nasty to them?

* DramaticIrony: In ''The Buried Age'', Data does some number crunching and comes to the conclusion that all the Galaxy-class starships won't manage to make it to ten years before something destroys them. It turns out this is actually the result of Manraloth sabotage, but as anyone familiar with their Trek knows, the ''Enterprise'', ''Yamato'' and ''Odyssey'' are in fact doomed to not make it to a double-digit lifespan.

* BiTheWay: The prologue to ''One Constant Star'' mentions in passing that Demora is in a relationship with another woman, and the two of them have started dating a man.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Probably a good description of the reason the Manraloths' final plans failed, as [[spoiler:their attempt to access one of their black hole data storage systems didn't take into account that their abrupt 'destruction' meant that the recording system was never actually 'turned off', with the result that any of the useful data they were attempting to get from the system was actually buried under literally millions of years' worth of 'static']].

* EvilAlbino: Played with in ''Well of Souls''. Pahl is essentially albino, or his race's equivalent, and while he's certainly not evil himself, he serves as a vessel for a possessing evil.

** ''The Buried Age'' also depicts the situations where Picard first notices, and is impressed by, Geordi La Forge and Tasha Yar. Picard describes the former in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E24TheNextPhase The Next Phase]]" and the latter in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E6Legacy Legacy]]".

* AlienArtsAreAppreciated: Enabran Tain, a Cardassian, is fond of human stained-glass windows. Another Cardassian, Danig Kell, likes Lissepian paintings. And Curzon Dax, a Trill, is more Klingon than some ''Klingons.''

* AssInAmbassador: Vreenak in ''Serpents Among the Ruins'', although technically he's simply an aide to the actual ambassador, who is truly diplomatic.

* LesCollaborateurs: Kubus Oak, who sold out his entire world to Cardassian invaders, becoming the chief collaborator in the Bajoran government. He first appeared in an episode of Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine, and is fleshed out in the ''Terok Nor'' books.

** Early on, Picard thinks about France, noting how he's not going back to Paris after what happened with Janine Manheim, and going back to the family farm is a no-no.

** It's also worth noting Elias Vaughn, who shows up in several of these novels. In the Literature/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineRelaunch he is the CoolOldGuy, but here he's still a relatively young man.

* EveryoneMeetsEveryone: ''The Buried Age'' is how Picard met some of Starfleet personnel who would become his command staff on the Enterprise-D. He meets Geordi, Deanna and Data for the first time in the novel, and Worf at the very end.

* FantasticRacism: Data, pre-''Enterprise'', is on the receiving end. When Picard first meets him, he's been dumped in a records office to be forgotten and ignored by his coworkers, who ''convinently'' all get transferred to other places on the Starbase because, hey, Data can do all the work for them, right? Picard has some suitably harsh words for them after meeting him.

* HarmfulToMinors: 12-year old Jason Garrett and his friend Pahl don't have a very nice time at all, what with all the evil possessing spirits and violent gunmen and loved ones being essentially murdered in front of them.

* KarmicDeath: Aventeer Vokar in ''Serpents Among the Ruins''. [[spoiler: He dies in disgrace aboard ''Tomed'', furthering the cause of peace by serving to shock Romulus into withdrawing its forces; the exact opposite of what he'd want]]. He was so deeply unpleasant most would say he deserved it.
** Su Chen-Mai, who pretty much had to die after trying to murder captain Garrett's family.

** ''Deny Thy Father'' is from ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet''

* ManipulativeBastard: Ariel may be benevolent, but she's also this. Definitely. The Fates tend to be this too; certainly Uramtali is, and Oralius has Her moments.

* NotSoDifferent: Tholian Admiral Yilskene in ''The Sundered'' comes to suspect this about his people and the humans, and concludes that humans might, after all, be just as "multi-faceted" as Tholians.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Kage for the Klingons, along with Chancellor Azetbur. Senator Cretak for the Romulans. Admiral Los Tirasol Mentir for the Federation starfleet. Admiral Yilskene for the Tholians.

* ShoutOutToShakespeare: Much of ''The Buried Age'', including the title. A lot of the character names are also anagrams for Shakespeare characters, or otherwise based on them. Also, the Mabrae take their name from that of Queen Mab, in ''Romeo And Juliet''.

* SpaceStation: Legate Kell wants to build one in orbit of Bajor, and finally blackmails his peers into providing funds for it in ''The Art of the Impossible''. His former underling Dukat takes control of the swiftly constructed station and, well, cue the backstory for Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine. ''Night of the Wolves'' and ''Dawn of the Eagles'' detail much of the station's early operational history.

A series of books in the Franchise/StarTrekNovelVerse. Although each is a stand-alone (even the ''Literature/TerokNor'' books, billed as a trilogy, are largely accessible on a one-to-one basis), they tie into an overarching account of a particular period in the Franchise/StarTrek timeline; between Kirk's apparent death in 2293 and the launch of Picard's ''Enterprise'' in 2364. The novels also link in with other books set in this period but not considered a part of the Lost Era, such as ''Literature/StarTrekVulcansHeart'' and ''The Captain's Daughter''. There are eleven novels in the series:

* HeroicWillpower: When the Manraloth inadvertently inflict mind-rape on everyone in the area in their misguided attempts to "help" the lower species, only two people resist: Guinan, whose connection to the Nexus allows her to shrug it off, and Tasha Yar, who has no such advantage and just decides not to give in.

* HarmfulTo Minors: 12-year old Jason Garrett and his friend Pahl don't have a very nice time at all, what with all the evil possessing spirits and violent gunmen and loved ones being essentially murdered in front of them.

* HeroicWillpower: When the Manraloth inadvertently inflict mind-rape on everyone in the area in their misguided attempts to "help" the lower species, only two people resist: Guinan, whose connection to the Nexus allows her to shrug it off, and Natasha Yar, who has no such advantage.

** ''The Buried Age'' also depicts the situations where Picard first comes into contact with Geordi La Forge and Tasha Yar. Picard describes the former in ''[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E24TheNextPhase The Next Phase]]'' and the latter in ''[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E6Legacy Legacy]]''.

** The final part of the book is a reproduction of the first past segments from "All Good Things", only without the Q interference. Even Torres, the {{Redshirt}} Q froze, gets mentioned.

* LiteralMetaphor: In ''The Buried Age'', Picard recalls an incident where a temporal anomaly had "quite literally blown the ''Stargazer'' into the middle of the next week". (Apparently the resulting temporal discontinuity almost tore the ship apart.)

* LiteralMetaphor: In ''The Buried Age'', Picard recalls an incident where a temporal anomaly had "quite literally blown the ''Stargazer'' into the middle of the next week". (Apparently the after-effects of this proved quite challenging to resolve.)

* LiteralMetaphor: In ''The Buried Age'', Picard recalls an incident where a temporal anomaly had "quite literally blown the ''Stargazer'' into the middle of the next week". (Apparently, getting the ship back into temporal sync was extremely difficult.)

** ''The Buried Age'' also depicts the situations where Picard first comes into contact with Geordi La Forge and Tasha Yar. Picard describes the former ''[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E24TheNextPhase The Next Phase]]'' and the latter in ''[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E6Legacy Legacy]]''.

* BluntMetaphorsTrauma: Pre-TNG Data and Metaphors. After a minute of conversation with him, Picard feels like some of what's left of his hair is probably falling out from exasperation.

* BluntMetaphorTrauma: Pre-TNG Data and Metaphors. After a minute of conversation with him, Picard feels like some of what's left of his hair is probably falling out from exasperation.

* DamnedByFaintPraise: Ariel thanks Coray for all her species have done assisting Picard's archaeological expedition to free her. Cobray takes it as an insult, since she knows all her species have done is obstruct and manipulate out of selfish greed.

* {{Parental Abandonment}}: John Harriman has issues with his father, as does Will Riker. Rachel Garrett and Kyle Riker are essentially heroes who are on the guilty side of this.

* BadassLonghair: Tasha Yar, during her brief appearance in ''The Buried Age'', having grown her hair out. An incident involving a landmine and fire convinces her to switch to the power hair she has on the ''Enterprise''.