Question: Timetrap

[Jsplinis]

Quick question about the TOS novel Timetrap. I was curious about its time placement and skimmed through the preview of the iBook version. While I didn't find any evidence of it taking place in the post-TMP era, I did find that Kirk mentions his glasses that he got in TWOK. Is there any other evidence of whether this happens before or after TWOK or is it just ambiguous about its timeline placement?

Thanks and have fun,
Jsplinis

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Unreliable as this may be, the picture of Kirk on the cover does look like it comes from the movie era.

Although the Klingon on the same cover looks like a QuchHa', and I thought they were all 'cured' by the time ST II came around...

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I think I arbitrarily placed the book after Star Trek IV back in the day. It seemed like a movie-era book to me.

 

[Jsplinis]

There's some mention of kirk have served behind a desk which would place this after TMP, but the mention of glasses would place it after TWOK.

I wonder if it was intended to happen on Enterprise-A or in some some alternate post-TWOK era imagined by the author similar to the 2nd 5-Year-Mission PRE-TMP era used in some early Pocket novels. Or if it was just a victim of sloppy continuity references.

 

[Leto_II]

Unreliable as this may be, the picture of Kirk on the cover does look like it comes from the movie era.

Although the Klingon on the same cover looks like a QuchHa', and I thought they were all 'cured' by the time ST II came around...

The QuchHa' cure was developed/released around December 2289/January 2290 (during the events of Excelsior: Forged in Fire), which could imply a pre-ST IV (or even pre-TWOK) placement...it appears that the timeline in Voyages of Imagination has it placed in 2276, three years or so after TMP, so it's definitely movie-era either way.

It's been probably a decade or more since the last time I read it, and it'd be interesting to skim through it and check for continuity-references.

 

[Christopher]

The QuchHa' cure was developed/released around December 2289/January 2290 (during the events of Excelsior: Forged in Fire)...

Although IDW's Blood Will Tell, which has been referenced in the novel continuity, has QuchHa' Klingons still extant in 2293, so the cure may not have been universally delivered/effective at first.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Quick question about the TOS novel Timetrap.

I recall some excitement when this novel came out. The Sydney- and Melbourne-based Star Trek clubs were having a relaxacon the week air-freight copies turned up in stores. (We watched the episode, "The Neutral Zone", on hot-from-the-USA videotape, together.) With the Kirk-awakes-100-years-later premise of "Timetrap", we wondered if there would be any hints that TNG would be referenced beyond peace-with-Klingons but, knowing that it had probably been written months before the premiere of "Encounter at Farpoint", we had our doubts.

Spoiler: Storyline

It might have made the storyline a little stronger. (And Klingons more clairvoyant?)

 

[Stevil2001]

There actually is a reference to a Klingon serving on the future Enterprise, though, which seemed a pretty clear TNG reference.

 

[TheAlmanac]

Back when I read it, I came away with the general impression that it was set shortly before TWOK (sort of like Dwellers in the Crucible), but if the glasses are mentioned, then it really has to be an Enterprise-A book...

The Klingon on the cover seems to be vaguely based on Valkris in terms of her facial features, so I never thought much of it (beyond it bolstering the movie-era vibe).

 

[ryan123450]

I wonder why the Pocket Timeline placed it in the post-TMP era? If I'm remembering correctly.

 

[Leto_II]

Back when I read it, I came away with the general impression that it was set shortly before TWOK (sort of like Dwellers in the Crucible), but if the glasses are mentioned, then it really has to be an Enterprise-A book...

The Klingon on the cover seems to be vaguely based on Valkris in terms of her facial features, so I never thought much of it (beyond it bolstering the movie-era vibe).

Just did a quick re-read of this one, and surprisingly, there actually are several definite continuity references which might circumstantially point to an Enterprise-A setting:

1. The post-TWOK glasses references -- in the movie, Kirk and McCoy have clearly never had that particular conversation before, and in this novel, he needles Kirk about it, with the implication that this has now become something of a semi-regular topic. Also, Kirk now evidently has another pair on the ship in his quarters, which would place this story after the events of The Voyage Home (when he pawned the first pair back in the 20th century).

2. Peter Kirk is mentioned at one point as being significantly older than he was on the TV show, and now a very renowned and accomplished Federation research scientist in his own right. This actually ties into the Wildstorm Enterprise-A era comic story "Bloodline," set in 2292, when Peter is serving aboard the USS Feynman as that starship's chief scientist.

3. Close to the end of the book, McCoy drops the old English proverb, "A man at sixteen will prove a child at sixty," on Kirk, in direct reference to his age, and Kirk groans. Now, this is probably a slight rounding-up of sorts on McCoy's part, but if Kirk's sixtieth birthday falls in 2293 and he's now getting very close (as the novel implies), this would still fall squarely into his Enterprise-A command period (2286-2293).

 

[Shon T'Hara]

The Klingon on the cover seems to be vaguely based on Valkris in terms of her facial features, so I never thought much of it (beyond it bolstering the movie-era vibe).

When was it decided Klingon women should have the same kind of foreheads as the men? All the ones in the TOS movies (Valkris, Vixis and Azetbur) have much smoother ridges than the males. The Klingon woman Riker conjures in "Hide and Q" has a more prominent vertical ridge, but none of the side ridges common on other Klingons. I believe the first Klingon woman with the full set of ridges is Vekma in "A Matter of Honor", which would've been in production at the same time as TFF.

So at the time Timetrap came out, it may be that TPTB wanted Klingon women to have smoother foreheads than the men (the woman on the cover does have a ridge over her unibrow, but it's not that prominent), but the TNG producers shifted away from that while the movies stuck with it.

 

[Therin of Andor]

There actually is a reference to a Klingon serving on the future Enterprise, though, which seemed a pretty clear TNG reference.

Or a cheeky nod to Konom, in the first DC Comics run. This novel came out before the Star Trek Office memo on 1989 that saw the DC original-to-comics crew get swept away.

 

[Christopher]

When was it decided Klingon women should have the same kind of foreheads as the men? All the ones in the TOS movies (Valkris, Vixis and Azetbur) have much smoother ridges than the males. The Klingon woman Riker conjures in "Hide and Q" has a more prominent vertical ridge, but none of the side ridges common on other Klingons. I believe the first Klingon woman with the full set of ridges is Vekma in "A Matter of Honor", which would've been in production at the same time as TFF.

Yup, that's about right.

So at the time Timetrap came out, it may be that TPTB wanted Klingon women to have smoother foreheads than the men (the woman on the cover does have a ridge over her unibrow, but it's not that prominent), but the TNG producers shifted away from that while the movies stuck with it.

More likely just a difference in the preferences of the makeup artists, since there's no consistent set of "TPTB" in charge of the movies and the shows alike. The makeup designs in the movies (by the Burman Studios on TSFS and Richard Snell on the later movies) would've been ultimately approved by their respective directors (Nimoy, Shatner, Meyer), and the designs in the shows (by Michael Westmore) would've been ultimately approved by Rick Berman. Since the Snell Klingon designs were consistent throughout several movies from different directors, I'd say it was probably left more to the makeup designers' judgment on the whole.

Timetrap came out in May/June 1988, so the cover was probably in the works by late summer or early fall 1987. At the time, the only ridged female Klingon ever to appear onscreen was Valkris. ("Hide and Q" aired in November '87, probably too late.) So there's no need to invoke some kind of dictum from "TPTB" -- it comes down to a simple lack of alternative references.

There actually is a reference to a Klingon serving on the future Enterprise, though, which seemed a pretty clear TNG reference.

Or a cheeky nod to Konom, in the first DC Comics run. This novel came out before the Star Trek Office memo on 1989 that saw the DC original-to-comics crew get swept away.

No, for two reasons. One, as we've established, the novel is set post-TVH, therefore Konom would've been in Kirk's past or present, not a century in his future. Two, from the timing and subject matter, the book was obviously intended as a TNG tie-in, though one that was written before TNG came out and could only tenuously hint at a connection.

 

[Leto_II]

Was just thinking about this some more, and if we're looking at a revised timeline-placement for this novel, it would almost certainly have to occur prior to the events of In the Name of Honor, where Kirk's fundamental pre-TUC attitude towards the Klingons undergoes its final seismic shift, and where we first glimpse the near-bigoted attitude he holds early in that movie.

In Timetrap, Kirk still has not yet lost all of his goodwill towards the Klingons (despite the murder of his son, etc.), and during the course of the novel, is still willing to consider an outcome in which the Federation and the Klingon Empire can put aside their differences and work towards a common, beneficial future together. By the time period of Star Trek VI, all of that is now pretty much gone.

So...probably circa 2286, then, not long after the events of The Voyage Home, since Honor is officially the very "next" mission of the Enterprise-A following the Sybok incident, and with both stories (The Final Frontier and In the Name of Honor) taking place very early in 2287.

 

[ryan123450]

And that works, if you accept missions occuring in between STIV and STV, which I for one do.

 

[Leto_II]

Definitely, same here, and it would seem to fit just fine amongst the various first-volume DC Comics stories set aboard the Enterprise-A between those two movies.

(Plus, there's Margaret Wander Bonanno's recent novel Unspoken Truth, which also shows that starship on various missions in 2286 between TVH and TFF.)

 

[Christopher]

According to Harve Bennett, there was a 6-month shakedown period between TVH and TFF.

 

[Jsplinis]

Thank you everyone for great answers to my question. I really didn't expect the level of detail I got for what seemed to be a more obscure older novel. And an extra "WOW" to Leta II who actually reread the book just to answer my question.

That truly shows one of the things I've loved about being a Trekkie for over 30 years: the lengths we go to, not just for the show we love, but also for our fellow fans. Thanks a lot guys.

Sorry if that was too mushy.

 

[ryan123450]

I want to give my thanks too. This conversation allowed me to link another novel on the Lit-verse Reading Guide, and give it a more accurate timeline placement then it ever would have had before.