Could Cochrane of Alpha Centauri mean Alpha Centauri project/institute?

[Yistaan]

Going from First Contact and Enterprise, the idea that Cochrane lived in Alpha Centauri in his later years seems a bit improbable. He was still working on the Warp Five project based on Earth after all.

When Kirk is saying, "Cochrane, of Alpha Centauri", could he not mean "Alpha Centauri project", a name for the Warp Five project with a goal to reach Alpha Centauri? That would make the line make more sense with later canon. The way you might say a professor is "of Notre Dame" and mean Notre Dame University, and not the recently destroyed cathedral.

Does this retcon possibly work?

 

[Falconer]

There was quite a bit of discussion on this recently, here:
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/star-trek-strangers-from-the-sky-by-margaret-wander-bonanno.302598/

 

[Timo]

If Cochrane participated in a project aiming at reaching Alpha Centauri, then it's pretty likely he did reach Alpha Centauri himself. After all, the general timeline of Earth's warp exploration makes it extremely improbable that the project would not have borne fruit within a year or two of ST:FC already. And Cochrane strikes me as the sort of person who'd insist on being aboard, for the sheer fame. Heck, he might even do it without liquid courage now that he has been through the events of ST:FC.

So, like Columbus, he would be "of the Americas" - having aimed there, and having scored. For all we know, he was the first human ever to set foot on an extrasolar planet. (After Colonel Richey, of course.)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tenacity]

Came across this basic idea years ago (forget where), I like the idea that there was a business or research group called "Alpha Centauri." Saying "of Alpha Centaur" referred to that and not the star system.

Kind of like Zefram Cochrane of Mircosoft, or Zefram Cochrane of Cal Tech.

 

[BillJ]

Going from First Contact and Enterprise, the idea that Cochrane lived in Alpha Centauri in his later years seems a bit improbable. He was still working on the Warp Five project based on Earth after all.

When Kirk is saying, "Cochrane, of Alpha Centauri", could he not mean "Alpha Centauri project", a name for the Warp Five project with a goal to reach Alpha Centauri? That would make the line make more sense with later canon. The way you might say a professor is "of Notre Dame" and mean Notre Dame University, and not the recently destroyed cathedral.

Does this retcon possibly work?

It can mean anything you want. I tend to think of it as the Alpha Centauri Porn Room. Man was a swinger!

 

[Dukhat]

Going from First Contact and Enterprise, the idea that Cochrane lived in Alpha Centauri in his later years seems a bit improbable. He was still working on the Warp Five project based on Earth after all.

When Kirk is saying, "Cochrane, of Alpha Centauri", could he not mean "Alpha Centauri project", a name for the Warp Five project with a goal to reach Alpha Centauri? That would make the line make more sense with later canon. The way you might say a professor is "of Notre Dame" and mean Notre Dame University, and not the recently destroyed cathedral.

Does this retcon possibly work?

The prevailing theory (and one that I see no reason to doubt) is that Cochrane was from Earth but moved to Alpha Centauri later. Just like "Garth of Izar" probably was human and moved to Izar to live later in life. If Cochrane was working on Earth but Alpha Centauri was where his house was, then there's nothing abnormal about the moniker 'of Alpha Centauri.' The guy had plenty of time to move there between 2063 and the 2150's.

 

[Yistaan]

The prevailing theory (and one that I see no reason to doubt) is that Cochrane was from Earth but moved to Alpha Centauri later. Just like "Garth of Izar" probably was human and moved to Izar to live later in life. If Cochrane was working on Earth but Alpha Centauri was where his house was, then there's nothing abnormal about the moniker 'of Alpha Centauri.'

It's certainly possible but he was working up till 2119 at the Warp 5 complex based on Earth. Teleworking? (Something a lot of people can relate to in this pandemic time).

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The prevailing theory (and one that I see no reason to doubt) is that Cochrane was from Earth but moved to Alpha Centauri later.

IIRC, there is an ENT episode that said Cochrane was living on the Alpha Centauri colony when he disappeared.

As for Garth, Izar could have been a human colony, like AC was.

 

[Boris Skrbic]

Obviously, “Zefram Cochrane of Alpha Centauri, the discoverer of the space warp” is simply Earth Zefram’s younger relative who improved upon the original concept by tapping into a subspace domain colloquially known as space warp, which would become a TOS-era FTL method superior even to time warp, but not until almost 150 years after Zefram’s supposed death.

 

[STEPhon IT]

Going from First Contact and Enterprise, the idea that Cochrane lived in Alpha Centauri in his later years seems a bit improbable. He was still working on the Warp Five project based on Earth after all.

When Kirk is saying, "Cochrane, of Alpha Centauri", could he not mean "Alpha Centauri project", a name for the Warp Five project with a goal to reach Alpha Centauri? That would make the line make more sense with later canon. The way you might say a professor is "of Notre Dame" and mean Notre Dame University, and not the recently destroyed cathedral.

Does this retcon possibly work?

At my place of employment my colleagues know my name is Stephonie but there's also another woman at the job whose name is Stephanie; neither of us wants to be called Stephonie 1 or Stephanie 2 despite our names are spelled differently, so the way to identify us is Stephanie of Seattle and Stephonie of New York City. Why? Because I am born there.

 

[Dukhat]

It's certainly possible but he was working up till 2119 at the Warp 5 complex based on Earth. Teleworking? (Something a lot of people can relate to in this pandemic time).

Alpha Centauri is only 4 light years away from Earth. That's like right down the street in galactic terms.

Obviously, “Zefram Cochrane of Alpha Centauri, the discoverer of the space warp” is simply Earth Zefram’s younger relative who improved upon the original concept by tapping into a subspace domain colloquially known as space warp, which would become a TOS-era FTL method superior even to time warp, but not until almost 150 years after Zefram’s supposed death.

Obviously not, since Glenn Corbett's character and James Cromwell's character is supposed to be the same guy.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

At my place of employment my colleagues know my name is Stephonie but there's also another woman at the job whose name is Stephanie; neither of us wants to be called Stephonie 1 or Stephanie 2 despite our names are spelled differently, so the way to decipher us is Stephanie of Seattle and Stephonie of New York City. Why? Because I am born there.

T. E. Lawrence (aka Lawrence of Arabia) was born in Wales.

 

[Boris Skrbic]

Obviously not, since Glenn Corbett's character and James Cromwell's character is supposed to be the same guy.

Yeah, but “supposed to be” isn’t canon. I mean, why else would Kirk need to say “of Alpha Centauri” in that one instance when everyone else knows him as Zefram Cochrane, the one and only? Clearly there is another one who isn’t a household name.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Yeah, but “supposed to be” isn’t canon.

What does that even mean? Zefram Cochrane is Zefram Cochrane.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Yeah, but “supposed to be” isn’t canon. I mean, why else would Kirk need to say “of Alpha Centauri” in that one instance when everyone else knows him as Zefram Cochrane, the one and only? Clearly there is another one who isn’t a household name.

And clearly every time that Mr. Spock wasn't explicitly identified as being from Vulcan, we were actually seeing Spock, his identical twin brother from Fresno.

 

[Boris Skrbic]

And clearly every time that Mr. Spock wasn't explicitly identified as being from Vulcan, we were actually seeing Spock, his identical twin brother from Fresno.

Well, no, because rationalization means a hypothesis needs to remain rational. To stretch your example even further, Quinto’s and Nimoy’s Spock met and probably felt they’re the same person, but in the case of the Cochranes we have three reasonable outs for an out-of-the-box interpretation: a) the characters don’t look the same b) Cochrane of Earth looks too old for his age c) the writer used a formulation that would fall by the wayside in favor of simply “Zefram Cochrane”.

 

[Dukhat]

Yeah, but “supposed to be” isn’t canon. I mean, why else would Kirk need to say “of Alpha Centauri” in that one instance when everyone else knows him as Zefram Cochrane, the one and only? Clearly there is another one who isn’t a household name.

Are you seriously trying to tell me that the Zefram Cochrane from "Metamorphosis" and the Zefram Cochrane from First Contact and ENT are not the same guy, just because you weren't spoon-fed that fact? Nobody in Star Trek ever adds any qualifiers when they talk about Cochrane. They don't say "Cochrane Sr" or "Cochrane Jr" or "Cochrane II" (Which they would almost certainly do if two people with the exact same name both did something extraordinary.) That's just silliness of the extreme sort.

And why does Kirk use the 'of Alpha Centauri" qualifier when no one else does? During TOS, that's just the way people spoke (Garth 'of' Izar, and all that.) That type of qualifier could have just gone out of fashion later.

a) the characters don’t look the same

Nothing new with Star Trek recastings.

b) Cochrane of Earth looks too old for his age

Nuclear radiation is a hell of a drug.

c) the writer used a formulation that would fall by the wayside in favor of simply “Zefram Cochrane”.

What?

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Well, no, because rationalization means a hypothesis needs to remain rational.

Physician, heal thyself.

I really think I'm about done with all of these "This perfectly straightforward thing the show showed us was actually THIS convoluted explanation" fan theories. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

 

[Boris Skrbic]

And sometimes Martok isn’t really Martok, Bashir isn’t really Bashir and without spoiling it unnecessarily, let’s just say Caprica. It all depends on what the writers think they can get away with, right down to Klingon foreheads. All I’m saying is that sometimes we can think ahead of the writers and not necessarily be wrong.

 

[Dukhat]

Except the writers’ intent was that they were the same person. And I don’t see any other writers barging down the door to retcon that.