DTI: Watching the Clock by C. L. Bennett Review Thread (Spoilers!)

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I haven't read it yet, I just have one question: Are the 29th century Relativity guys involved at all? Is Braxton?

[Annorax]

Mr. Laser Beam wrote:

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I haven't read it yet, I just have one question: Are the 29th century Relativity guys involved at all? Is Braxton?

Braxton's presumably still in jail or some temporal looneybin; Commander Ducane from a few years uptime of Relativity appears a few times in a few places.

[Ronald Held]

Had an unexpected opportunity to start reading. 2 chapter in. Not certain about some technical details, but Christopher is known for not merely using technobabble.

[T'deD'Edkeid'Ende'Dejdid]

I had a little trouble following the story in the middle, but like how everything came together at the end.

The character development was great.

[aaon80]

Hi Christopher, Still reading, but I just loved...

...the appearance of the TARDIS and the Time Machine in the archive on Eris. Were there any other similar references that I missed (perhaps a Delorean)? I'm sure this will all be covered in your annotations.

Loving the book so far, currently ranking it near Ex Machina, my favorite Trek book of yours, and indeed of the franchise.

[Freman]

Are there any sneaky little mentions of the Star Trek: Online alternate future in this book? Grabbing it for sure on the 9th when I head into the city.

[Christopher]

aaon80 wrote:

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Hi Christopher, Still reading, but I just loved...

...the appearance of the TARDIS and the Time Machine in the archive on Eris. Were there any other similar references that I missed (perhaps a Delorean)? I'm sure this will all be covered in your annotations.

Loving the book so far, currently ranking it near Ex Machina, my favorite Trek book of yours, and indeed of the franchise.

Thanks! As for the spoiler, no, you caught all the references of that particular type. I considered including the thing you suggest, but I couldn't figure out a suitably concise description and I didn't really have the opportunity.

However, there are plenty of in-jokes in character names and the like.

Freman wrote:

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Are there any sneaky little mentions of the Star Trek: Online alternate future in this book? Grabbing it for sure on the 9th when I head into the city.

Nothing from ST:O, no. I'm not very familiar with it, and I don't really think of it as something that can fit into the same Trek continuity as the novels, even as an alternate timeline. I mean, there are so many game-oriented things about it that could never be true in the "real" Trek universe, like the absurdly gigantic "sets" to allow virtual camera movement, the way every player is instantly a captain with one's own ship, the way every specific mission gets played over and over again by different people, etc.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Freman wrote:

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Are there any sneaky little mentions of the Star Trek: Online alternate future in this book? Grabbing it for sure on the 9th when I head into the city.

I'm reading the book right now (very good, BTW ) and I did catch a reference that might be to STO, or to ST XI, or to neither one.

I just got to the part at the DTI academy where the recruit, Teresa Garcia, is asking about what happens when the timeline is changed. She asks what would happen if she goes back and changes something, but remains in the past - would her original timeline be okay? Another agent, Teyak, says that it might, if the transfer of information from one timeline to another is strictly one-way - such as a black hole. We saw time-travel done via that manner in ST XI. So that reinforces the belief that the time travel in that film did not destroy the 'prime' timeline...

[Christopher]

^Yes, that was the idea. I don't see how it could be read as an STO reference, though.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ I guess I was thinking of Countdown, which takes place in the STO timeline and which leads directly into ST XI.

[Freman]

Ah well, no biggy. I was just wondering. The Needs of the Many's Lucsly and Dulmer chapter had a sneaky little reference to the TrekLit timeline, so I thought this book might have had one to the game.

I guess I'll still grab it.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Not really a spoiler, but what the hell...

Going by Watching the Clock's rules, the prime timeline's version of Dulmur and Lucsly (and, by extension, the rest of that timeline's DTI) will never know about the Abramsverse. This is because Clock establishes that a time travel process that is strictly one-way, such as the black hole that is used in ST XI, will not under any circumstances wipe out the original timeline, because no information is 'transmitted' back to it. So there's really no problem with the divergence.

[CaptainDonovin]

Finally got the book today, am on page 152 & like it so far.

[Ronald Held]

92 pages in. Some of the paragraphs make for difficult reading.
Christopher, high marks for having T'Khut in a separate orbit and mentioning orbit interactions.

[Smellincoffee]

To those who have read it : could you wander over to Amazon and leave a review? There's only one, currently, and it's...not similar to the general sentiment here.