Kathryn Janeway: The Autobiography
- Thread starter Markonian
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You're in good company. L. Frank Baum contradicted himself regularly within the 14-volume Oz canon.
See also the original ZORRO novels by Johnston McCulley.
Among other things, McCulley pretty much ignored the ending of his original standalone ZORRO novel, in which Don Diego reveals his secret identity to the world before settling down to live happily ever after with Lolita, once the Douglas Fairbanks movie made Zorro a sensation and McCully the character had sequel potential.
Furthermore, over the course of series, dead villains reappeared without explanation, wives and love interests came and went, and the whole question of who exactly knew Don Diego was Zorro tended to vary from book to book. Sometimes his father knows the truth, sometimes he doesn't, etc.
It's a grand old tradition.
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With regard to Oz, one of the continuity issues involves the Wizard himself: at one point (in The Land of Oz or Ozma of Oz, I think), the Wizard is revealed as having been, at the very least, complicit in Ozma (the rightful ruler of Oz) being transformed into a boy, and placed in the not too tender care of Mombi the Witch. Yet when he returns in Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, all is forgiven, with no explanation whatsoever (other than fan pressure to bring him back), and he becomes Glinda's protege, and one of only two people in all of Oz licensed to practice magic. If I remember right, there's a quasi-fanfic short story, published in an Oz literary magazine (the one issue I bought), that retcons all the difficult questions, and goes into detail on what really happened.
I'm by no means an expert on Oz (although I read all the original Baum books back in the dawn of time), but my understanding is that Oz got steadily more "utopian" as the series went on, resulting in some retcons as time went by.
Not unlike Star Trek, perhaps . . . .
Not unlike Star Trek, perhaps . . . .
Actually, it got very utopian very quickly. By the time Aunt Em and Uncle Henry lost the farm, and became permanent residents of Oz, it was about as utopian as it could have gotten (Vol. 6, The Emerald City of Oz), as I recall.
But we're straying from the opus in question once again.
But we're straying from the opus in question once again.
Indeed, as of today, we can no longer claim that Blade Runner is a story that takes place in the future.
Indeed, as of today, we can no longer claim that Blade Runner is a story that takes place in the future.
We can for another two and a half weeks. According to this timeline, the movie takes place on November 19-20, 2019.
Quick! Get those offworld colonies established now!
What? Like real life isn't dystopian enough under present circumstances?
Ever see the movie Virtual Nightmare? Turn off the signal and the world looks like Blade Runner.
They should cover the criticisms that Janeway received as well, like almost executing a Starfleet officer, not using a time delayed explosive on the caretaker array and generally being psychotic.
Oh, good, we found the one guy who didn't feel insulted by the end of String Theory.
It's Land of Oz where we're told that the Wizard passed Baby Ozma off to Mombi as part of a power grab. We're also told Ozma's father was named Pastoria, and Dorothy and Wizard claims that all kings of Oz were just named Oz.
The Marvel Comics adaptation of DotWiz by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young does some neat stuff in the scene where the Wizard and Ozma meet to establish there's a dark history they're dancing around... without actually adding any lines of dialogue!
I'm not sure which book established no one in Oz could die, but it definitely doesn't track with the events of books 1-2. Michael O. Riley's Oz and Beyond is a really great analysis of the way Baum's conception of Oz changed over time.
Haha, my wife and I have been watching Voyager as prep for Picard (my first time since it went out, her first time ever) and I explained the String Theory thing to her and she just boggled. Some inconsistencies only get worse if you draw attention to them!
Sometimes monarchs change their names when they're crowned. Wikipedia suggests that Pastoria may have been an heir apparent who never actually got to rule, hence his name not being changed to Oz.
Odd, though, that it's Pastoria and not Pastorius.
Sure, you can explain it away, but as the actual text of the actual books is written, not the Wikipedia articles, it's a clear contradiction. The Scarecrow says in Marvelous Land, "The former King of this [Emerald] City, who was named Pastoria, lost the crown to the Wonderful Wizard, who passed it on to me," and Glinda says something similar; Pastoria was definitely king, though just of the Emerald City, apparently, not all of Oz, contradicting what came before (Wonderful Wizard says that the Wizard built the city).
On the other hand in Dorothy and the Wizard, Ozma tells the Wizard, "Many years before you came here this Land was united under one Ruler, as it is now, and the Ruler's name was always 'Oz,' which means in our language 'Great and Good'; or, if the Ruler happened to be a woman, her name was always 'Ozma.' But once upon a time four Witches leagued together to depose the king and rule the four parts of the kingdom themselves; so when the Ruler, my grandfather, was hunting one day, one Wicked Witch named Mombi stole him and carried him away, keeping him a close prisoner." This account goes back to the idea that the Wizard ordered the City built.
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I don't see why this would be a problem, since Goodman's Kirk autobiography was written before his supposed death on the Enterprise-B. Just have Sisko write it at some point before the finale.
Exactly.
Which is kind of hilarious, as right before Khan recognizes Chekov, he takes a long, hard look at Captain Terrell and finally says, "I don't know you."
But hey, Rotsler was writing the book in 1982, and it was before a lot of people had VCRs. He was likely either working from memory or just had a shooting script to work from.
Rotsler also seems to assume that Genesis was created from Ceti Alpha V, IIRC, forgetting that Kyle was still marooned there.
Continuing the Oz digression in this now hopelessly-derailed thread,
About the "Pastoria" question, I will only say that there are sources (I think one is an official "Wizard of Oz Club" sponsored Wiki) that assume that Ozma's full name was "Ozma Tippetarius," and her father's name was "Oz Pastoria," sort of like the Star Wars prequel trilogy has "Padme Amidala."
As to all the contradictions about the construction of the Emerald City, and the Wizard being welcomed back with complete forgiveness, the story to which I was referring is Oz and the Three Witches, by Hugh Pendexter III, illustrated by Patricia Ambrose, originally published in 1977, in book form, and reprinted in Oz-Story No. 6 (which I believe to be the final issue of a very thick Oz literary magazine). Pendexter managed to do a brilliant job of retconning out the self-contradictions in the canon, and tying everything up in a nice bow.
About the "Pastoria" question, I will only say that there are sources (I think one is an official "Wizard of Oz Club" sponsored Wiki) that assume that Ozma's full name was "Ozma Tippetarius," and her father's name was "Oz Pastoria," sort of like the Star Wars prequel trilogy has "Padme Amidala."
As to all the contradictions about the construction of the Emerald City, and the Wizard being welcomed back with complete forgiveness, the story to which I was referring is Oz and the Three Witches, by Hugh Pendexter III, illustrated by Patricia Ambrose, originally published in 1977, in book form, and reprinted in Oz-Story No. 6 (which I believe to be the final issue of a very thick Oz literary magazine). Pendexter managed to do a brilliant job of retconning out the self-contradictions in the canon, and tying everything up in a nice bow.
He probably just made that assumption on his first viewing of the film. Not an unnatural thing to think, and it'd also be easy to miss the quick mention in Kirk's final log entry that they're going back to pick up the Reliant crew stranded on Ceti Alpha V. Authors certainly have a lot more tools at their disposal these days to quickly go back and check little details like that.
