IYO, what do you think should be made canon from Star Trek novels or short stories, and why?
- Thread starter FederationHistorian
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History docudramas have been known to stretch the truth.
Yes, I acknowledged that. But they're rarely "Choose Your Own Adventure" games as you suggested. Don't move the goalposts.
I was saying that holodeck programs would be typically like "Choose Your Own Adventure" games. If you've read the Dixon Hill novel of "The Big Goodbye", surely you don't want to just replay it, you would make different choices as Dixon Hill and hopefully get different results each time.
Maybe Riker went down a different path? That episode already had lots of problems. Let's not make even more.
And yeah, didn't Trip wink at the audience in the ep.?
Yes, obviously, but not this specific one because it's supposed to be historical. General argument and specific argument are two different things.
I guess the other thing is that the controversial finale story had been hanging around for a while and - had a Season Five gone ahead - the showrunners have already said that Connor Trinneer was not being written out.
Honestly, given how weird Trip's Romulan War plotline was, it probably would've been preferable to leave his death six years in the future and just try to make it less contrived when the books finally caught up to it.
The idea of Trip becoming a Section 31 agent is believable. And his assignment to prevent the Romulans from getting a faster warp drive than Starfleet makes a bit more sense to happen after the war. Since it makes complete sense that the Romulans would be trying to reverse engineer any warp engines they salvage from Earth ships to create their own, like depicted in The Romulan Way.
It would also give a reason for why T’Pol isn’t around, as she’d be with Trip.
As for the pirates in the holoprogram boarding Archer's ship, it can be explained away as Starfleet deciding to deepfake them. And Enterprise being boarded never actually happened.
Though my investment in Trip was so low I didn't really care if he got resurrected or not, the novels' decision to move the "death" by six years stretched the bounds of credulity for me-- did Section 31 just make up six years of fake adventures for him with corroborating evidence? It's a pretty implausible undertaking.
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The fact things didn't play out the way the holoprogram showed wasn't revealed until the early 25th Century, so Riker wouldn't have known either at that point.
I would love to see the shows bring in their own versions of Christine Vale, and Elias Vaughn.
Maybe they just had a log entry where he was reassigned somewhere where he would not have to make log entries during the war. Like building the new warp engines.
Even without ever running the program, Troi was willing to consider that the program was off at the beginning of TATV. Riker was the one willing to go with what the program was telling him. I sure many sharper minds that regular ran the program and aware of the history brought it to light wasn’t accurate at all.
I mean, Tobin Dax was supposed to have been around during this period working on Starfleet’s warp seven engine, and was present for the launch of Columbia, according to the novels. So, Jadzia Dax, through the Trill symbiont, would have been able to call BS on the program long ago the second she ran it.
Since low ranks to keep a low profile were a thing with Elias Vaughn, I wonder what would be the reason to keep Reed, Sato, and Mayweather under the radar for the holoprogram? Since, 10 years is a long time to not be promoted. I think even Harry Kim got promoted when Voyager returned to the Alpha Quadrant after being stuck in the Delta Quadrant for 7. And in alternate timelines, Kim gets promoted even faster.
I hated the initial Enterprise relaunch and the choices made. But I plan to re-read it one day and see if my opinions have changed with time and distance from my preconceptions of how things "should" have gone.
My personal head canon is that Riker's 220 year old footage was actually a few years off. The images of Hoshi, Travis, and Reed were circa 2155, not 2161, hence the lack of change in their appearance and rank. That should be implemented along with Trip's "death" being a ruse.
There are other characters whose fate I wonder about, too. Did Ro Laren and Tom Riker survive the destruction of the Maquis? Was Simon Tarses allowed to remain in Starfleet? Did Harry Kim's career survive Janeway's "ministrations"? And will Ben Sisko ever return to his family (and what will he be like when he does)? If they're not going to use these characters, there's no reason not to declare certain novels/video games featuring them to be canon.
Something from the relaunch novels that should be canon – transporters being suspended indefinitely in the 22nd century due to causing decaying neurological damage.
The only difference is that the novels have it happening in the early 2160s. I would have it happen in 2155. It would fit with the transporter being absent in the finale of Enterprise, and the transporter hue being different in the DIS/TOS era as an update to make it safer.
Its also my understanding that in the relaunch novels that they replaced the ambassadors named in the “Its Federation Day” clipping from GEN with the ambassadors from the Terra Prime arc in ENT for the Federation Charter signing. And also retconned Sarahd from being an Ambassador from Andor as now being an ambassador of the Coalition of Planets. Neither versions are considered canon, although my head canon does think of there being two Federation Charter signings; the first being in August (ENT version) and the ratification in October (GEN version).
There’s also the fact that Captain Hernandez called her helmsman a lieutenant when Columbia launches, even though the helmsman only has one pip like an ensign. So Mayweather and Sato could technically be junior grade lieutenants during TATV, although it does not come across clear enough.
But if Reed was made the second officer after Trip leaves, in accordance to the novels, then being a Section 31 agent as well as the security officer on Enterprise, he could manipulate events however he saw fit to. So no one really knows for sure.
Getting back to the original topic of the thread, I'd say canonize a harmonized version of what Diane Duane, Ann Crispin, Jeanne Dillard, and Jean Lorrah established about Vulcan history and culture.
Federation, the first 150 years (2012) by Ian McLean, on Flickr
Captain Archer of "Enterprise", presumably making his gazelle speech, with ambassadors from Vulcan, Andor (Thoris from "Terra Prime"), Tellar (Gral from the "Babel One" arc) and Earth. From the "Star Trek" reference book from 47North and becker&mayer! publishers. Written by David A Goodman, the hardcover book features illustrations by Joe Corroney, Mark McHaley, Cat Staggs and Jeff Carlisle, and is presented in a pedestal display including audio by George (Sulu) Takei.
I love that I own the actual costumes worn here by Thoris and Gral.
Agreed, except that McCoy clearly just fell asleep, as he's in the Shatnerverse novels I also want canonized.
Is that the transporter psychosis that Barclay was worried about?
It would make sense. Early transporter technology had to have had issues.
