Which other novels used Final Reflection continuity?

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Apart from How Much For Just The Planet?, which other Trek novels take place in the same continuity as The Final Reflection?

(I'm just assuming that "Planet" does, since John M. Ford wrote it and it uses the same naming conventions for Klingons that TFR does.)

 

[Extrocomp]

Hard to say. Dreams of the Raven, Dwellers in the Crucible and Rules of Engagement use Ford's naming conventions but that doesn't necessarily mean they're in the same continuity.

Dreams of the Raven names a character "Kyron gentai-Hann", but the gentai prefix was not created by Ford and appears in no other book.

Rules of Engagement has names like "Koloth vestai-Lasshar" and "Korzhan epetai-Kenek", but uses a mixture of the tlhIngan Hol language and Ford's Klingonaase (called Tlhinganaase in the novel). The book also came out in 1990, long after TNG started.

Dwellers in the Crucible uses Ford's Klingon naming conventions but also mentions the Rihannsu, which is a problem if you consider The Final Reflection to be part of the FASA continuity (FASA's Klingons sourcebook was also written by Ford, but FASA has a completely different version of Romulan culture and language).

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

At first I had a thought that "Planet" couldn't be in the TFR continuity because there is a ridged Klingon on the cover. But TFR allows for the existence of ridged Klingons, doesn't it? Isn't that what "Imperial Race" means?

Then again, since most of TFR is a "novel within a novel", I'm not sure we can really take anything in it at face value...

Side note: I find it hilarious that TFR had characters in it who were, apparently without any sense of irony, named "Meth" and "Rogaine".

 

[Desert Kris]

The IDIC Epidemic draws from TFR for it's depiction of Klingon culture.

Battlestations! has a couple lines that suggests how TFR and Vonda McIntyre's versions could co-exist.

Strangers From the Sky has Kirk and McCoy discuss reading the book that was published in-universe. It has ties to Dwellers in the Crucible, as mentioned above. Klingons don't actually appear in Strangers, though.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Side note: I find it hilarious that TFR had characters in it who were, apparently without any sense of irony, named "Meth" and "Rogaine".

Ironically, the name was first applied to minoxidil four years after TFR was published.

 

[Therin of Andor]

At first I had a thought that "Planet" couldn't be in the TFR continuity because there is a ridged Klingon on the cover. But TFR allows for the existence of ridged Klingons, doesn't it? Isn't that what "Imperial Race" means?

Yes. The TOS/TAS Klingons were "human fusions", according to Ford and there were also Vulcanoid fusions in TFR. The aggressiveness of the Imperial race was partly attributed to their comparatively shorter lifespans, something ignored by the time of TNG (although Alexander certainly matured quickly).

Side note: I find it hilarious that TFR had characters in it who were, apparently without any sense of irony, named "Meth" and "Rogaine".

One of the Gold Key comics has a Klingon named Krad.

 

[Desert Kris]

The IDIC Epidemic has a major Klingon character called Korsal Katasai, who we would recognize as a scientist engineer, but has the title of "Thought Master" from within Klingon culture, which sounds very much in the vein of The Final Reflection. The IDIC Epidemic mentions the game from TFR, and also talks about how his sons have to make a decision when they reach a certain age to enter mandatory military service in the Klingon star fleet or forfeit recognition as citizens of the Klingon empire (which actually sounds like material I remember reading in the Klingons RPG suppliment more than anything specific I remember from TFR).

Korsal isn't implied in any way to be a fusion of any kind, though. He has children that are half-human/half-Klingon; human on their mother's side. This suggested to me that Korsal is considered fully Klingon in his culture, in The IDIC Epidemic. But he is different from "The Imperial Race" which the book clarifies are the Klingons with ridged foreheads (and implied to me that Korsal is near-human in appearance, as they appear in TOS).

So The IDIC Epidemic could loosely be considered in the same continuity as TFR...in the sense that Jean Lorrah drew heavily on TFR for inspiration. Which puts them in the same continuity, in spirit, IMHO.

 

[KRAD]

Obviously not in the same continuity, but I tried to put in references to TFR where possible in my Klingon fiction, most notably the dramatic adventure series Battlecruiser Vengeance.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Obviously not in the same continuity, but I tried to put in references to TFR where possible in my Klingon fiction, most notably the dramatic adventure series Battlecruiser Vengeance.

Have there ever been Battlecruiser Vengeance fan films? I'd LOVE to see what that would look like 'for real'.

Or even a Vengeance novel...

 

[Dayton Ward]

There are Battlecruiser Vengeance and other subtle TFR references in the Klingon Travel Guide.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Just had another thought:

In TFR there are references to Klingon ships having Primary and Auxiliary bridges. Is this a reference to the bird of prey from ST III and IV, and how its bridge looked completely different in each film?

(I wonder which bridge was which...)

 

[Dayton Ward]

Unlikely, given the book was published before Star Trek III hit theaters.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Oh. Well, it's a useful retcon anyway.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Sorry for the bump, but something just hit me about TFR:

A good portion of the book takes place on Earth, but it is never referred to as such. Everybody calls it "Federa-Terra". Any particular reason they'd use such an odd name?

I mean, "Terra" does sound kind of exotic, and of course we all know it's another name for Earth, I'm just confused as to what, specifically, "Federa-Terra" is supposed to mean. There's no explanation for it in the book...

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Sorry for the bump, but something just hit me about TFR:

A good portion of the book takes place on Earth, but it is never referred to as such. Everybody calls it "Federa-Terra". Any particular reason they'd use such an odd name?

I mean, "Terra" does sound kind of exotic, and of course we all know it's another name for Earth, I'm just confused as to what, specifically, "Federa-Terra" is supposed to mean. There's no explanation for it in the book...

Here's a theory. The Final Reflection, the book within a book, is an historical novel written in Standard from a Klingon perspective. "Federa-Terra" may be meant as an indicator of the way the Klingon mind worked. Perhaps Krenn would have thought of Federa-Andor and Federa-Tellar as well. Perhaps Klingons routinely classify planets with a {Empire Name}-{Planet Name} nomenclature. Perhaps Krenn might think of his own homeworld as Klinz-Kronos.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

But everybody called it Federa-Terra, not just the Klingons.

Actually, it may not even be that; now that I think about it, the Klingon characters may have been the only ones in the book who DO call it Earth!

Also, the novel-within-a-novel wasn't written by Klingons. A human wrote it.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Have there ever been Battlecruiser Vengeance fan films?

No, but there is a live action version of the "Dilithium and You!" segment from How Much For Just the Planet?

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[Mr. Laser Beam]

TOS/TAS Klingons were "human fusions", according to Ford

Which version is Krenn supposed to be?

If that's him on the cover, he sure looks like a fusion, but I seem to remember Krenn being depicted as Imperial Race in the actual book...

 

[Kor]

I always thought that a lot of the details of Klingon culture etc. in TFR could be considered as possibly unreliable because they were presented in the form of a "story within a story" written by a human researcher. The accuracy of the cultural depictions would depend on the quality of the research (ETA: and of course, the writer not letting his own biases cloud things too much).

Kor

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Also, the novel-within-a-novel wasn't written by Klingons. A human wrote it.

I didn't say the novel-within-a-novel was written by a Klingon. I said it was "written in Standard from a Klingon perspective" -- ie., a non-Klingon wrote it.