First and last names of minor characters
- Thread starter Laura Cynthia Chambers
- Start date
Because it would be nice to have some consistency within the "same" universe.
If it's supposed to take place in an alternate timeline from the prime/AR timeline, go ahead, make up whatever you want. But even then, it's nice to have what other people have written in the past as a starting point, if nothing else.
If it's supposed to take place in an alternate timeline from the prime/AR timeline, go ahead, make up whatever you want. But even then, it's nice to have what other people have written in the past as a starting point, if nothing else.
The only guaranteed assumption with tie-in works is that they're in the same universe as the source material, not that they're in the same universe as one another. Continuity isn't reflexive, so why does it have to be transitive?
HYPERTIME!
It doesn't have to be, but it can be. This makes it easier if you wanted it to be the same one.
It can be anyway.
But the majority of the Pocket novels are in continuity with each other, even if that isn't necessarily the case with TOS. So if two TOS novels are both meant to be in the "Novelverse," it would be a matter of consistency to use the same first name for a character, even if a more standalone novel were free to use a different name.
To aid authors, perhaps we should also add scripted names that never made it onscreen in case the writers want to refer to them as such in future books. Here are two such names:
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Unnamed_Vulcans_(22nd_century)#Elder = T'Kosh
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Unnamed_Vulcans_(22nd_century)#Initiate = Sulok
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Unnamed_Vulcans_(22nd_century)#Elder = T'Kosh
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Unnamed_Vulcans_(22nd_century)#Initiate = Sulok
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Authors - if you're looking for unseen characters who haven't been named in literature, one place to start is by searching Memory Alpha for the OMID (only mentioned in dialog) tag.
^ It's *almost* worth the $25 just to find out if it *is* actually rude to "shitpost".
I've added them to my list and I've also started looking through the scripts for other script-only names. It'll take a couple of weeks to check them all. Some names that I thought were canon, like Jose Tyler and J. M. Colt, are actually script names.
There's also this guy: http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Unnamed_individuals#.22Let_me_help.22_novelist
Since I've started adding names from scripts, I've noticed that many characters have alternate names but I'm not sure where to draw the line.
In the Court Martial script, instead of Lindstrom, there's a Chinese captain named Li Chow. Should I count that as an alternate name for Lindstrom even though he is a completely different ethnicity?
In the This Side of Paradise script, a character named Fletcher has lines that belong to DeSalle and Leslie in the episode. Should I count Fletcher as an alternate name for both DeSalle and Leslie? Or neither?
No, definitely not. Would you claim Robert April was an alternate name for Christopher Pike? Script drafts are just preliminary. The creative process is about trial and error and change and replacement. If an artist draws a rough pencil sketch of a character in one pose, then changes it to a different pose they like better in the final painting, that doesn't mean the first pose needs to be considered as an alternate. It's just the first idea that was abandoned in favor of one the artist liked better. Only the final version counts.
Alternate names for unnamed people or incompletely named people (no first name or no last name or no middle name) are okay to list, such as having "Joe Agincourt" actually be "Joseph Dean Agincourt", or "Smithson" be "Pamela Smithson". If a person is clearly replaced by another, it doesn't count.
No, because Robert April has been retconned into a separate character. However, I do currently have James Winter listed as an alternate name for Pike.
In the past, I've added alternate names from novels to the list like Paul Eddington (from The Search novelization) as an alternate name for Michael Eddington. I've felt that these have value, since an author might decide to make Paul into a middle name or make him into a separate character who is somehow connected to the original (which has been done with Robert April).
Even putting that aside, I've felt that they are interesting curiosities that show how non-canon names sometimes get contradicted by canon names, or in the case of scripts, an insight into how different scripts can be from the final episode.
Are you guys sure you don't want them?
Definitely not. An abandoned and replaced idea is not a valid alternate. Yorktown is not an alternate name for the Enterprise, it's a rejected one.
Now, if a script draft gives a name to an otherwise nameless character -- e.g. revealing that Tyler's first name is Jose -- then that's something worth mentioning. But if it's a rejected name for a character that was given a final, canonical name, then it's been overwritten and it just doesn't count.
Its your project Extrocomp. Do whatever you think is interesting. Your Eddington example isn't like the situation Christopher is talking about since this alternate name was actually used in a published story, not just a unfilmed script draft.
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