Destiny, Myriad Universes, and Terok Nor 10th Anniversary Thread

[David cgc]

That did seem to be the order of the day for Myriad U stories. I think it was an interesting twist to have "Honor in the Night" be, IIRC, pretty much unambiguously better than the Prime Universe for everybody except the poor bastards on Sherman's Planet.

 

[Nyotarules]

My favourite story is A less than perfect union. A gutted world should be renamed A gutted quadrant do the Cardassians have meglomanical, fascist tendencies in their DNA or something?

 

[JD]

That was the one were Earth isolated itself after the Terra Prime incident, right? That was one of my favorites, and I don't think things were quite as shitty in that one as they were in The Chimes at Midnight, or A Gutted World.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I think the only thing that tended to get to me about MyrU was that while most if not all of the stories were pretty great reads, IIRC they tended to be implicitly unsettling if not openly depressing. Like, maybe the Prime timeline really was the best of all possible worlds after all.

"Places of Exile" would seem to be the exception.

I did enjoy reading it, but I also got the distinct impression that the author was just using it as a manifesto to lay out how much "better" the VOY plotline could possibly be, like it's his OWN version of "the best of all possible worlds".

 

[Markonian]

“Brave New World” also is uplifting, and “Tears of Eridanus” implies a happy ending. I recently re-read all the stories, and the Naughty Vulcan Timeline from DTI: Forgotten History is die again.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

“Brave New World” also is uplifting

Except for the ending...

 

[Markonian]

Except for the ending...

You mean

Spoiler: Brave New World ending

galactic Federation expansion?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ There's definitely an undercurrent of menace to that ending.

Spoiler: Brave New World ending

I mean, the Jean-Luc Picard we all know, has always been a fierce proponent of diversity and individual rights. Yet in the BNW version, when Picard is eventually 'reborn' in an android body, he just seems so blasé about the entire galaxy conforming to Federation values and beliefs...it's definitely not the Picard we're used to.

Now don't get me wrong, there's absolutely nothing wrong with the Federation or its values. But it's like there's something about Picard's "rebirth" that drained all the fight out of him. He ends up being so bland, so automatically ready to accept that everything is just going to "conform".

I'll say one thing, the use of the title "Brave New World" was almost certainly deliberate. The Aldous Huxley reference, and all that.

 

[DonIago]

Spoiler: Brave New World ending

It's been awhile, but I got a vaguely Borgish vibe off that ending, but in the Eddington sense. The androids didn't have to conquer the universe, they just had to convince everyone, or at least enough people, that their way was the better way. I mean, imagine if the Borg Collective had ever assimilated enough professional Marketing staff so that they really could come off as benevolently trying to improve everyone in addition to themselves. On the surface everything seemed okay...ish...but when I said "unsettling" in my OP, this story was exactly the one that came to mind.

 

[Nyotarules]

That was the one were Earth isolated itself after the Terra Prime incident, right? That was one of my favorites, and I don't think things were quite as shitty in that one as they were in The Chimes at Midnight, or A Gutted World.

Yes that's right and Kirk was a bigot with McCoy being the sensible one. The ending was hopeful if not entirely happy. The other stories were doom and gloom but well written doom and gloom.

 

[Christopher]

I'd hardly say Places of Exile was doom and gloom. Yes, things went worse for a couple of main characters, but a lot of things turned out better in the long run, or just different. My goal was to do the version of Voyager that I wished they'd done instead of what we got, so I hardly saw it as a worse reality.

 

[Nyotarules]

I'd hardly say Places of Exile was doom and gloom. Yes, things went worse for a couple of main characters, but a lot of things turned out better in the long run, or just different. My goal was to do the version of Voyager that I wished they'd done instead of what we got, so I hardly saw it as a worse reality.

The term 'other stories' refers to A gutted world and The chimes at midnight as mentioned in the post I quoted.

 

[DonIago]

PoE is a very interesting and (certainly relatively) non-depressing take on how things could have gone for VOY. I kind of wish the show could have had an episode where there was some interaction with that timeline.