Charting the Novel-verse

[King Daniel into Darkness]

The Best of Trek #3 features "Alternate Universes in Star Trek", a guide to the little non-Trek references in James Blish's Trek adaptations and novels. If you use any of this stuff, credit belongs to Mark Andrew Golding (hope he doesn't mind!).

From Blish's adaptations:
"City on the Edge of Forever" references Bonnar the Stochastic from The Triumph of Time.

"Tommorow is Yesterday" mentions the Vegan Tyranny from his Cities in Flight series.

"Miri" references the Cold Peace, also from Cities in Flight.


Spock Must Die! references the Xixobrax Jewel Worm from Blish's short story "This Earth of Hours", part of Galactic Cluster

And one from me...
Spock Must Die! also references James' short story "Dirac" (or was it called "Beep"?)

The article claims that James Blish saw Star Trek as part of a multiverse, where his other books and stories existed in parallel. The dates of events changed, but the same aliens exist across the universes and events are similar.

[JWolf]

Turtletrekker wrote:

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Ex Machina by Christopher L. Bennett used the Andorian naming convention established in the post-finale DS9 books and made a brief mention of events from the novel Section 31: Cloak. ExM also refers to Sulu's backstory as established in The Kobayashi Maru by Julia Ecklar and elements of the Star Trek: The Motion Picture novelization by Gene Roddenberry (although the novelization itself differs from later established canon). It also establishes Willard Decker's multi-species crew experiment later referred to in the Titan series and is consistant with The Captain's Daughter.

Since you've include Ex Machina you will also have to include all of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy universe as well since Christopher did reference Betelgeuse which is from HHGTTG.

So this would be a good reason for someone to fit the Enterprise-E with an improbability drive.

And I have to say to Turtletrekker, WELL DONE!

[LightningStorm]

William Leisner wrote:

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Bravo, Turtletrekker!

Next time you feel like adding to this, my annotations for Losing the Peace are here:
http://wleisner.wordpress.com/about/...ing-the-peace/

I also plan to re-post my lost annotations for Out of the Cocoon in time for the tpb release.

His 24 hour edit period is up, so I added it.

[Christopher]

JWolf wrote:

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Since you've include Ex Machina you will also have to include all of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy universe as well since Christopher did reference Betelgeuse which is from HHGTTG.

Betelgeuse is, of course, a real star, Alpha Orionis, whose name was given it by medieval Arab astronomers quite a few centuries before Douglas Adams (or Tim Burton) was born. While I did paraphrase Adams's "small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse" in my ExM annotations, I didn't include such an allusion in the novel itself.

And here's another random connection: The Hindi name for Betelgeuse is Ardra, as in the name of Marta DuBois's character in TNG: "Devil's Due."

[JWolf]

But think of the things you could do if the Enterprise-E had an improbability drive.

[Dayton Ward]

Well, warp drive is rather improbable. So, there you go

[JWolf]

Dayton Ward wrote:

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Well, warp drive is rather improbable. So, there you go

But when was the last time warp drive caused a whale and a potted petunia to suddenly come into existence?

[Steve Mollmann]

JWolf, how did you get hold of our manuscript for The Tears of Eridanus!?

"What if... the Excelsior had an improbability drive instead of a transwarp one?"

[Christopher]

There is an SCE story built around very Adams-esque improbability physics. I can't recall the name.

[Dayton Ward]

So Long, and Thanks for All the Dilithium.

[Steve Mollmann]

CHEKOV: I'd rather be happy than right any day.
SULU: Are you? Happy, that is?
CHEKOV: No. That is vhere it all falls down, of course.

[Defcon]

Christopher wrote:

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There is an SCE story built around very Adams-esque improbability physics. I can't recall the name.

Sargasso Sector ?

[Deranged Nasat]

Defcon wrote:

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Sargasso Sector ?

Yep. Featuring the starship Minstrel's Whisper from the ancient Khnndak Empire (and "Sargasso Sector" even references Adams in dialogue).

[Steve Mollmann]

And, of course, it was book #42 in the series.

[Deranged Nasat]

Steve Mollmann wrote:

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And, of course, it was book #42 in the series.

I didn't even spot that!