Continuity

[David Weller]

Am I the only one who believes internal community is more important than if a novel conctradicts a particular episode?

As long as the content is logical and the characters are consistent should we be worried?

 

[The Wormhole]

As long as the content is logical and the characters are consistent should we be worried?

Sure, I'll agree to that.

 

[Charles Phipps]

Yes.

Trekkies are the ultimate nitpickers. We invented it. We are why insane fandom exists.

 

[JD]

The books are tie-ins the the shows and movies, so unless it's a special case the books should try to stay as consistent with them as possible. Obviously things slip through the cracks, and some books will inevitably end up being contracted, but if a book is meant to be part of one of the TV series it should fit in with it as much as possible.

 

[David Weller]

Sometimes tv shows contradict themselves.

I’m also a Doctor Whi fan and it has shown on screen several different explosions for the destruction of Atlantis.

I can’t think of any circumstances in Star Trek but with so many episodes I suspect there must be one or two.

 

[Markonian]

I’m not purely here for a Sci-Fi drama story. I’m here for a Star Trek story. Thus, continuity is key. If you want to tell a story that can’t fit into continuity any way, make your own universe.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Sometimes tv shows contradict themselves.

I’m also a Doctor Whi fan and it has shown on screen several different explosions for the destruction of Atlantis.

I can’t think of any circumstances in Star Trek but with so many episodes I suspect there must be one or two.

Just one or two.

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[David Weller]

Just one or two.

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So if the production teams can’t get it right, should we be too bothered if an author gets it wrong occasionally?

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I’m not purely here for a Sci-Fi drama story. I’m here for a Star Trek story. Thus, continuity is key. If you want to tell a story that can’t fit into continuity any way, make your own universe.

ADF has the Humanx Commonwealth, certainly ST-influenced, yet very different. George Lucas came up with SW. Abrams came up with his own "fork" of ST. I'm sure others have favorites I've never heard of. Plenty of room for more universes.

 

[David Weller]

I’m not purely here for a Sci-Fi drama story. I’m here for a Star Trek story. Thus, continuity is key. If you want to tell a story that can’t fit into continuity any way, make your own universe.

I’m not suggesting that continuity should be thrown out the window; just it shouldn’t be a big issue if something in a novel doesn’t quite fit with an obscure point in a single episode.

 

[Markonian]

You mean, like Ship of the Line getting a few details wrong on the USS Bozeman?

 

[David Weller]

You mean, like Ship of the Line getting a few details wrong on the USS Bozeman?

Not yet read that one yet and I probably won’t spot the mistakes when I do.

But, yeah, that sort of thing.

 

[JD]

Sometimes tv shows contradict themselves.

I’m also a Doctor Whi fan and it has shown on screen several different explosions for the destruction of Atlantis.

I can’t think of any circumstances in Star Trek but with so many episodes I suspect there must be one or two.

So if the production teams can’t get it right, should we be too bothered if an author gets it wrong occasionally?

Sure, mistakes slip through, but there's a big difference between something slipping through the cracks, and purposefully ignoring something.
I've seen some debate on here about which one Ship of the Line was.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

To sum up the Ship of the Line debate for the uninitiated, the novel, written in the late nineties (when the VHS tapes were at the least not uncommonly available), was based on about one minute of a cameo of the USS Bozemen from TNG's Cause and Effect, and managed to contradict almost all of it - SotL's Bozemen had been in the middle of a battle when it was caught in the time loop, exploring a well-patrolled part of the Federation-Klingon border, and had a crew of only men, while CaE's Bozemen was calm and collected, a repeated line in the loop was Picard saying the Typhon Expanse was unexplored, and there are two women viable on screen, one of them at Captain Bateson's side.

When your novel is a direct sequel to an episode, yes, you DEFINITELY should have continuity with, bare minimum, that episode.

 

[JD]

^I just checked and the earliest US VHS release for Cause and Effect I can find was 1994, 3 years before SotL was released in 1994.

 

[Starbreaker]

I just like a good read. I love Federation, but there is no way to reconcile that with 'canon.' And there's no need to rewrite the book decades later.

Now, in a time where the books are specifically written in a shared universe, they'd better at least be mostly consistent.

 

[tomswift2002]

^I just checked and the earliest US VHS release for Cause and Effect I can find was 1994, 3 years before SotL was released in 1994.

Don’t forget some one could’ve always made a VHS/Betamax recording off of broadcast before that.

 

[David cgc]

Don’t forget some one could’ve always made a VHS/Betamax recording off of broadcast before that.

Or, as Peter David mentioned in the acknowledgments for Q-Squared, you could ask your publisher to send you over a copy of the shooting script of the relevant episode.

 

[tomswift2002]

Or, as Peter David mentioned in the acknowledgments for Q-Squared, you could ask your publisher to send you over a copy of the shooting script of the relevant episode.

Even then, you may not get the right script, depending on which version is passed along. Plus sometimes things are changed on the day of the shoot that are not in the script.

 

[David Weller]

Even then, you may not get the right script, depending on which version is passed along. Plus sometimes things are changed on the day of the shoot that are not in the script.

And I doubt the script would indicate that there were female crew members visible on screen.