News about early 2014 schedule

Don't forget Decker took over as both exec and science officer in TMP before Spock rendezvoused with the ship, because he was, apparently, the only qualified individual in the entire crew! I realize that the Enterprise was just getting ready to launch, and not all the crew was aboard, but really, there were only two people on the entire ship qualified to run the science station?

So I guess Saavik would've been qualified to run the sciences station in STII.

 

Not necessarily. More than twelve years passed between TMP and TWOK. The Enterprise design was new in 2273, but other ships used similar systems by 2285. It's likely she'd have been able to use the station properly. After all, we see Chekov there in TSFS. And he was stupid.

--Sran

 

^Let's keep in mind that, going by production order, Chekov was introduced as an assistant science officer, and wasn't seen at navigation until his third episode.

 

You're right. But that doesn't explain how he'd have been trained on the new design by the time TSFS rolled around. I'd guess he had a chance to learn during the ship's second five-year mission before leaving for Reliant, but it's not clear. Chekov seemed to bounce from station to station depending on which film was taking place (tactical/security ----> XO ----> navigator ----> science -----> navigator).

--Sran

 

What do you mean, "new design?" Aside from the out-of-universe replacement of the original film projectors with video monitors, the bridge stations in TSFS were the exact same ones from TMP, which means they'd been unchanged for at least 12 years. And Reliant had the exact same design too (since it was a redress of the same bridge set). Do you really think that Chekov got from security chief to first officer without ever training on the science station?

 

You misunderstood what I was saying. My earlier comments were in response to a poster who remarked that as of TMP, only Decker had been trained on the new design of the Enterprise, which was why Kirk asked him to serve as science officer after Sonak died. Chekov was aboard but served as security chief and tactical officer.

By the time we get to TSFS, Chekov is at the science station, which means he would have learned the new design in the intervening twelve years. That was my point. Not that the bridge design was different between TMP and TWOK/TSFS.

--Sran

 

^We're talking specifically about the post-refit configuration of the science station, so that's obviously not something he could've learned during the 5-year mission.

(Also, in Ex Machina, I established that Chekov had been on extended leave during TAS.)

 

I always assumed David Marcus would take over as Science Officer, and Saavik would be First Officer, till Shatner tired of the captain role, at which point Captain Saavik would've taken over.

 

^I'd think Sulu would've been a more likely choice for first officer than a freshly graduated lieutenant like Saavik. Or maybe Chekov, who'd already had first-officer experience.

 

^Well, maybe that's why Sulu was supposed to get his own command (according to the shooting script of TWoK.) He and the rest of the "Gang of Four" would have been promoted off the Enterprise and replaced with fresh faces.

 

^As I said, my impression is that they were planning on a gradual transition from the original cast to a new one, not an abrupt one. Although I don't know for sure.

 

And I'm not arguing this was ever mapped out in any definitive way. It probably mostly depended on how charismatic the new actors were, and how well their characters went over with the audience.

And how much Paramount wanted to pay the aging Original Series stars for a ongoing movie (or TV) series.

I would've loved seeing Captain Saavik and her crew in a weekly TV series. I think Alley could've headlined such a series quite well . Merritt Butrick didn't really have Leading Man charisma, but he could've been effective as a second or third banana.

In any event, Nimoy's desire to come back as Spock pretty much blew any advance planning out of the water. Which is fine; we got a few great movies out of the deal.

 

I think you mean a different title; Chekov was very much present throughout Shocks.

 

^He didn't say Chekov was absent in the book, just that the book explained his absence in TAS.

 

The thing that disappoints me the most about TOS/5YM/23rdC books is the fact that they don't seem to have any real sense of continuity with other TOS books. Every once in a while there might be a reference to an older book thrown in by an author, but it seems to be an exception rather than a rule.

I would love to see TOS handled a little bit more like 24thC. I don't mean I really want or need there to be on-going arcs like TNG/DS9/VOY books, just a sense of flow from one book to the next. A stand-alone can still have a little reference to the last book or a little bit of set up for the next one just to get that feeling of flow, that they co-exist in the same universe.

But, that's just me. YMMV.

 

I think flowing from one TOS book to another would be fine for some novels, but they do seem to 'jump' around the entire 5 years a lot. It may be a better idea to just have a flowchart of crew changes to keep the cast correct and just have an occasional link to other novels at the authors discretion.

It certainly won't get like the 24th century continuity, but a little would be nice...

 

I think that'd actually just throw up flaws in the timeline and throw people out of their suspension of disbelief, because it wouldn't take long at all for it to become obvious that there's about 30 years' worth of stories in those five years...

 

Most people didn't notice that S.C.E. had that problem. Admittedly, it was only about two years of story in one year, but still...