Could a Lost Era set between 2161 and 2265 work?

Discussion in 'Trek Literature' started by Mage, Aug 21, 2011.

  1. ToddCam

    ToddCam Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I don't agree with the 2254 cut-off. It's not like Enterprise is the only ship that would be active in that era. Like Deny Thy Father or Catalyst of Sorrows, a novel could tell of the pre-Enterprise careers of any of the rest of the TOS cast (Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, Sulu, Uhura, etc.) Or maybe the Constellation or Lovell or something.
     
  2. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    ^Well, sure, and there were other ships active during TNG too. But any cutoff date is gonna be arbitrary. The definition of The Lost Era as 2293-2364 was based on the endpoint of one major ST series (the TOS portion of Generations) and the starting point of the next ("Encounter at Farpoint"). So if we're positing another "Lost Era" by analogy with how the first one was defined, then it follows that we're talking about stuff between the onscreen endpoint of Enterprise and the starting point of TOS. So the question is, should the starting point of TOS be defined as "The Cage" or "Where No Man Has Gone Before"? I think that "Pike's Enterprise" has been well enough represented in the literature already as to constitute its own subseries, rather than just a part of a "Lost Era" series.

    But then again, now that I write that out, I can see the counterargument: Stargazer took place during the Lost Era, but was still counted as a distinct series. So maybe Pike-era fiction is analogous with Stargazer fiction, in which case it could still be valid to define "Where No Man" as the endpoint for this "other Lost Era." So maybe you're right.
     
  3. MatthiasRussell

    MatthiasRussell Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    That's right! Sorry, you deserve credit for that mentioning. I remembered it was in a recent book and thoroughly enjoyed the reference.
     
  4. captcalhoun

    captcalhoun Admiral Admiral

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    i'd be happy to try anything that sounded interesting in either the Post-ENT pre-TOS era or even in the TOS era with other crews, such as but not limited to:

    USS Defiant

    USS Endeavour (seperate from Vanguard)

    USS Constellation

    USS Exeter

    USS Excalibur

    SCE with the Lovell

    Reyes' early career (NO VANGUARD SPOILERS, I'm reading Declassified now)

    early years of other VGD characters

    something of Sarek's early life maybe.

    April's career pre-Enterprise.

    i'm sure there's plenty more...
     
  5. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Sarek's early life (from Sybok's mother to his marriage to Amanda, at least) was covered in the novel (....wait for it...!) Sarek.
     
  6. captcalhoun

    captcalhoun Admiral Admiral

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    i know, but it did skip about a bit. and IIRC, it was mostly his private life, a bit more of his professional life and the early Federation building could be good.
     
  7. Lonemagpie

    Lonemagpie Writer Admiral

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    Nope
     
  8. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Do we know what year Sarek was born? I was just curious if he would have been alive yet as during Enterprise.
     
  9. Idran

    Idran Commodore Commodore

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    Based on the age he said in Journey to Babel, he was born in 2165. So unfortunately no.
     
  10. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    But Sarek's father Skon would've been around during the ENT era. Skon was included in the Romulan War-era Tobin story in The Lives of Dax, though that story is inconsistent with what ENT later established about the era.

    And ENT: "The Catwalk" established that Solkar, Sarek's grandfather according to ST III, was Vulcan's first ambassador to Earth (and thus might've been the Vulcan who met Zefram Cochrane at the end of First Contact).
     
  11. Sci

    Sci Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    That seems improbable to me. Captain Kirk might have made first contact with the Gorn, but that doesn't mean he served as the first Federation Ambassador to the Gorn Hegemony. I don't see why the commanding officer of a Vulcan scout ship would happen to become the first Vulcan Ambassador to Earth.
     
  12. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    According to Memory Alpha:
    And it's not unprecedented. Dave Bailey became the Federation's ambassador to the First Federation, at least unofficially. And if Solkar was the first Vulcan to interact directly and openly with humans, it follows that he would've been the one with the most experience dealing with humans, and that would make him a logical choice for ambassador.
     
  13. Aaron McGuire

    Aaron McGuire Commodore Commodore

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    Well, by that logic, perhaps if Stron or T'Mir were still alive perhaps one of them should have been appointed to the position. They lived with them for months. Few Vulcans would've had more experience with humans.

    Except maybe Mistral.

    Aaron McGuire
     
  14. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    IIRC, Skon, as Vulcan Ambassador to Earth, was to have been a principle character in the aborted movie Star Trek: The Beginning, set in 2159. Spock's grandfather knowing Kirk's (great?) grandfather Tiberius Chase would probably have been the most Small Universe Syndrome-y thing in all of Trek.
     
  15. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    But that was clandestine experience that the Vulcans preferred not to let the humans know about. The crew who made first contact in 2063 would've had the first overt experience interacting with humans. They would've been familiar to the people of Earth. There would've been a two-way relationship established in that contact, and that's something that can be built on in establishing diplomatic ties.

    And of course, it should go without saying that such familiarity is only one of the many factors that would be weighed in appointing an ambassador. Logically, you'd want someone who's trained as a diplomat. T'Mir, Stron, and Mestral were the crew of a clandestine observation ship. The people who selected the crew for that mission would not have expected them to interact with aliens directly and thus would not have chosen personnel with diplomatic qualifications. But if that Vulcan starship crew in 2063 decided they were qualified to make first contact themselves rather than calling home for reinforcements, it follows that such contacts were part of their existing mission parameters (since the Vulcans are a very by-the-book people, especially at that time), and thus it's a reasonable expectation that the captain of such a ship -- or the first officer, or whoever it was that made the first contact -- would have diplomatic training, and would thus be a more viable candidate for the post of ambassador than T'Mir or Stron.

    Of course I'm not saying that Solkar had to be that particular Vulcan. But I see no reason to consider it impossible or unlikely. There are valid reasons why that particular individual could've been appointed the first Vulcan ambassador to Earth, and thus it's a legitimate possibility that he was Solkar.
     
  16. ToddCam

    ToddCam Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Skon and Tobin also appeared together in Beneath the Raptor's Wing.
     
  17. Therin of Andor

    Therin of Andor Admiral Moderator

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    As first suggested by the card of that Vulcan in the Customizable Card Game.
     
  18. Herbert1

    Herbert1 Captain Captain

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    There is also Talla, daughter of Shran and Jhamel. I don't believe that canon has established the longevity of Andorians, Aernar, or Andorian/Aernar offspring.

    Skon also translated the teachings of Surak into English according to "Two Days and Two Nights" ENT.

     
  19. MatthiasRussell

    MatthiasRussell Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    It would be interesting to know about how the Aenar went extinct and the fall out at the time. Such a story would make an interesting platform for a discussion on race relations.
     
  20. Herbert1

    Herbert1 Captain Captain

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    I don't recall where the extinction of the Aenar was established. Source?

    Commander Thelin from TAS "Yesteryear" was retconned as part Andorian and part Aenar in the Star Trek: Myriad Universes story "Chimes at Midnight" to explain a character coloring error. The script said that he was blue, but the character was painted gray.