Perhaps upon establishing regular trade with the Federation, the Ferengi co-opted a pre-existing "trademark". Like how French foodmakers bemoan how foreigners want to make "champagne", tee hee!
Whatever happened to the "Rise of the Federation" series?
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I am the huge enough nerd to submit that I believe Star Trek canon has no inconsistencies but reality is just altered by the constant time travel. I fully maintain the events of VOY: "Future's End" is what resulted in the DISCOVERY timeline and the changing of the aesthetics.
I think that's at least a 7 on the nerd scale.
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Oh and thematically, I find it difficult to believe any group other than the Federation could have created synthehol. The Ferengi certainly wouldn't see the point and neither could the Klingons or Romulans. Its something that must have been created by a Vulcan or misguided human somewhere.
I maintain in "Relics" that Picard and Scotty's greatest bonding moment is wondering how the hell anyone ever came up with an alcohol substitute based around the taste.
I think that's at least a 7 on the nerd scale.
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Oh and thematically, I find it difficult to believe any group other than the Federation could have created synthehol. The Ferengi certainly wouldn't see the point and neither could the Klingons or Romulans. Its something that must have been created by a Vulcan or misguided human somewhere.
I maintain in "Relics" that Picard and Scotty's greatest bonding moment is wondering how the hell anyone ever came up with an alcohol substitute based around the taste.
In the recently released TNG novel Shadows Have Offended, there are several references to Ferengi activities in Federation space in the early 24th century and potentially in the 23rd, that various characters were well aware off. Presumably, the Feds didn't make the connection between "Ferengi rumors" and "big-eared aliens" until Picard's official first contact in 2364.
Mind you, Picard doesn't seem to know much about the Ferengi.
PICARD: Fine. I hope they find you as tasty as they did their past associates.
Though he could have just been winding up Zorn.
Mind you, I always felt that they should have kept the dangerous "Daimon" Ferengi who had the big brass lobes to attack the Federation flagship multiple times. I feel like the Ferengi were just itching to have a thriving pirate culture alongside their more sedate merchant class and this was, like Starfleet, where "badass" or disatisfied Ferengi went with their lives.
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Oh, that's not a problem at all. What Spock actually said in "Balance of Terror" was, "Invisibility is theoretically possible, Captain, with selective bending of light. But the power cost is enormous. They may have solved that problem." Which means that, despite his use of "theoretically," he must have been familiar with actual earlier attempts that worked in principle but were too power-hungry to be useful. So it's erroneous to interpret that line as meaning that cloaking tech was unknown.
It never did. There has never, ever, ever been a time in the entire 55-year history of the franchise when it didn't have continuity errors that fans needed to rationalize away. Back in the '80s when there was nothing but TOS, TAS, and a few movies, the fanzine Trek had a whole regular "Star Trek Mysteries -- Solved!" column that addressed contradictions and continuity errors, and there was enough fodder in just the original series alone to keep it going as a regular feature for year after year after year. So it's ridiculous to pretend that inconsistencies in Trek are anything new or recent. Every generation of fans makes that same complaint about whatever the newest incarnation is, and every time I hear it, it just gets more tiresome and ridiculous.
I mean, come on, season 1 of TOS is full of inconsistencies because they were literally making it up as they went. They didn't even come up with the concepts of Starfleet and the Federation until the latter half of season 1. They didn't bother to name Spock's species until "Mudd's Women" and then took another year before deciding it was "Vulcan" instead of "Vulcanian." They went back and forth on whether antimatter powered the ship or would blow up the universe. They didn't invent the Prime Directive until late in season 1, and they continued to be inconsistent about what it meant well into TNG (e.g. "Justice," where the Prime Directive prevented violating local law but had no problem with making contact with a pre-warp culture). And TNG continuity was all over the place too; for instance, "Heart of Glory" implied that the Klingon Empire had joined the Federation and given up its warlike ways, but later Trek ignored that. And the first couple of seasons of TNG portrayed Starfleet as a non-militaristic body in which the very concept of war games was considered alien, archaic, and unnecessary, but then "The Wounded" claimed that the Federation had been at war with Cardassia that whole time.
If anything, the franchise is far more consistent on the whole now than it was in the early years. Back then, the very fundamentals of the universe were in flux or undefined, and it could be inconsistent about very large things. These days, we have a much clearer, more detailed picture of how the universe works, and the inconsistencies are more about minor details.
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Yes, certainly true. Once Picard had come out and was almost totally incompatible with the litverse (at least from the Destiny series on), I figured, that was it. I had thought at least Collateral Damage had ended on a note of optimism, with Captain Picard resuming the role he does best, exploring with the Enterprise. That felt like a finale of sorts for TNG/Titan. I was a bit disgruntled that the DS9 series was not going to get any such send off and I had fully expected Voyager's To Lose the Earth to be quietly cancelled.
But, thankfully, To Lose the Earth did get it's much awaited release date, and Kirsten Beyer was even able to leave a few things for Coda to use presumably. Thankfully Voyager's major lingering storylines have been resolved for the most part.
But I'm grateful we're getting Coda. It's very rare in Star Trek tie-in history for any novels to be released that are overtly inconsistent with current canon. It's a credit to all the authors who have participated in the relaunches over the years that have made them at least popular enough that S&S saw some value in allowing a conclusion to proceed at all. Now, I think many of us are assuming that whatever happens will bring the litverse in line with Picard, however impossible that might seem. And, maybe, we can hold out some hope that some form of the existing litverse might continue once that's done.
I don't have any issues with standalone novels. It's nice to read a self contained story. But I've enjoyed the continuing storylines of the relaunches as well. It was nice to read stories that built off previous stories.
That does leave the question that this thread is about. What about the Enterprise relaunch novels? For the most part, that is the one series that is mostly unaffected by any current shows (not every detail, but for the most part I think it's compatible). I do think right now there will be no Enterprise novels. Will Christopher get to continue his Rise of the Federation novels? From his posts, it seems, at least for the immediate future....no. But who can know the future. Maybe at some point he, or some other author, will get to pick up where he left off. I imagine based on where we left things that he probably has some ideas of where he was hoping to take Enterprise next. Reading the Enterprise boards here, I have noticed just a bit of a new appreciation for Enterprise. Some fans who rejected it initially, perhaps because of franchise or even just plain Berman fatigue, that have given it a 2nd look. And you even see here some complaints about Discovery based on things we saw in Enterprise (which itself received some similar complaints that have now been either glossed over or accepted).
I think it all comes down to simple marketing. If we ever see future Enterprise books it will be because S&S sees something that might sell books.
I've given up all hope of ever seeing The Romulan War make it on screen. Enterprise was probably our best chance of that.
I always thought that was one of the major pivotal events in Star Trek future history that we know little about in canon (the other probably being World War III). The Romulan War led to the formation of the Federation, so it is one of the key events.
But the current shows seem focused on the 23rd century into the future. I haven't seen anything that shows me any real interest in returning to the 22nd century.
I know I was happy that the war finally saw at least a novel release. While it's not 'canon', for now it's all we have. I just wish they had kept it the initial 3 or 4 books it was originally supposed to be. I liked the build up and the first Romulan War novel. But I always thought the 2nd one got short changed. I don't even blame Michael Martin for the whirl wind pace of it. I imagine he probably had things planned out for a 3-4 books series and had to cut a lot out to fit that into one novel. Sadly the 2nd novel felt more like a summary of events. Which is one reason I've said many times over the years I wish we had a Tales of the Romulan War anthology to fill in those details, using the Romulan War novels as a framework. But the time for that is past I'm afraid.
Yeah, I think even the writers of Generations acknowledged the continuity error. I recall a novel did offer an explanation, I think it was Engines of Destiny, that Scotty was a bit disoriented after being in stasis for so long, and he was actually a bit embarrassed by it.
It was an explanation that at least sounds plausible.
Story wise I think that's probably true. It seems each successive show running team has tried a bit harder to work within the confines of the continuity already established. Berman-era Trek seemed the first time, at IMO, that an actual attempt was made to try to keep some sort of continuity. Now, they didn't always succeed, but it was there. They've continued to build on that as the years have gone on, tightening the story up more and more.
Certainly I think there is at least a more internal consistency within the shows themselves, probably because of the serialized nature of the shows. They've even taken it a step further and have tried to even incorporate the show tie-ins into their continuity where plausible.
My issues, particularly when it comes to Discovery, are more related to production design. Yes, the other PD
. That's the thing I get most hung up on. A giant window on the bridge (ugh, how does the bridge crew not have chronic nausea from that, esp. at warp 
), spore drive (ok, maybe more of a story element in that case), Giger-Klingons, and other production design choices that make it hard for me to reconcile visually. Yes, yes, I know, I've complained about those things ad nauseum. But that's what gets under my skin. In Picard's case it's a bit easier to explain away since it's in the future. The thing that bugs me about Picard is how inconsistent it is with the novelverse. I know the showrunners are not at all constrained in any way by tie-ins. But I can't help it. I've invested far, far more time in following the novelverse than I have in Picard, naturally because they have been going on really for over 20 years now and Picard has had one. But I can't help but see Picard as the alternate timeline.
Part of that is probably because I actually prefer the relaunch timeline over Picard. Another credit to all the authors over the years. I've come to care about the storylines and even the original characters created for the novels.
I feel like the Romulan War was never going to be shown because they could never show the Romulans and humans interacting.
I'm rereading The Good That Men Do to my kid, as the ten-year-old is a big Enterprise fan (Discovery, Ent, and Voyager seem to be his top watches), and probably poised to read some of the others. As I recall, the first book felt a little "small universe" for my taste, but it's improved on rereading.
Re some of the above discussion, I'm probably in the minority feeling that the Romulan War is probably best offscreen, something that is referred to in the past, rather than try to portray the whole thing. Though I like the idea of a "Tales from the Romulan War" book. But generally I call it the Silmarillion Effect: sometimes the tales of old may be best mentioned in passing for world-building.
Re some of the above discussion, I'm probably in the minority feeling that the Romulan War is probably best offscreen, something that is referred to in the past, rather than try to portray the whole thing. Though I like the idea of a "Tales from the Romulan War" book. But generally I call it the Silmarillion Effect: sometimes the tales of old may be best mentioned in passing for world-building.
Not in person, but we know they communicated by subspace radio, or at least the governments did. It could've been something like the movie Fail Safe, a tense thriller where the sheer separation and lack of communication between the parties involved is a major source of the suspense, and where contact between the rival governments happens mainly over the phone (though I think there is an ambassador present).
Of course, today's Hollywood would demand an explosion-filled action thriller, but there are action movies that entail little direct interaction with the enemy troops, e.g. Independence Day aside from Brent Spiner's subplot and some other bits. (There's probably a better example that I can't think of.)
Not one film - hell, not THREE films - would do the Earth-Romulan War justice.
An entire series might, though.
An entire series might, though.
Yeah, I think there is potential there for a great war thriller. The fact that the combatants don't directly communicate with each other might actually add more tension and suspense because neither side really knows what the other is thinking. That was some of the beauty of "Balance of Terror" in fact, that Kirk and the Romulan Commander had to guess what the other was thinking (which caused both sides to make some crucial mistakes).
Not one film - hell, not THREE films - would do the Earth-Romulan War justice.
An entire series might, though.
I do recall originally, before Star Trek (2009) went into development, they were floating the idea of doing a post-Enterprise Romulan War film, possibly a trilogy, with some characters from the show, like Shran, appearing.
The one thing I didn't like about that script is they had the Enterprise stuck at Risa when war broke out, to explain why it was not going to be in the trilogy. I can't imagine Starfleet's most advanced ship sitting out the war. Though to be fair that was just a first draft and undoubtedly changes would have been made. Hopefully they would have come up with something better.
At least the novels had the Romulans develop a computer virus to put the Enterprise on the sidelines through a lot of the war. We already saw the Romulans had the ability to remotely control ships, it probably isn't a giant leap to think they might develop something along that line. I recall that was partly how Michael Martin explained why original series 'appeared' less advanced than the NX-01 in some ways, even though in reality they were still more advanced--and probably to explain why more primitive ships, like the Daedalus class ships, were used mostly during the war to bring it more in line with things we heard about the war in "Balance of Terror." There was a bit of a balancing act Martin had to do I think to try to make that dialogue make more sense in light of what we ended up seeing during Enterprise's run.
I'm sure if the current rate of Trekspam continues, a version of the Earth/Romulan war is inevitable.Not one film - hell, not THREE films - would do the Earth-Romulan War justice.
An entire series might, though.
That is one era that it seems like the current showrunning team has shown little interest in exploring though. You never know, but I'd be surprised if they went back to the 22nd century. All the signs point more in the opposite direction.
I'm sorry the Rise of the Federation book series never got to resolve the Charles Trip Tucker's storyline in the last novel His character deserved to have his story continued after the Section 31 novel .It's a shame we'll probably won't get anymore Enterprise books.I always looked forward to reading the books in this series to find out what the Enterprise crew had been up to.
I admit I'm primarily in a minority but I absolutely loved the Tucker as a spy angle and the idea he was forced to live in the shadows the rest of his life. I get that wasn't something people wanted to do but I felt it added a bit of pathos to an otherwise everyman sort of guy.
I always attributed that to the slight pattern degradation that Scotty suffered while in transporter stasis, a few recent memories disappeared.
The TOS characters came back from the dead so many times, he probably just assumed it happened again while he was stuck in the transporter!
(And Kirk *did* actually end up coming back from that anyway; it just happened to be a few years later after Scotty was recovered...)
The TOS characters came back from the dead so many times, he probably just assumed it happened again while he was stuck in the transporter!
(And Kirk *did* actually end up coming back from that anyway; it just happened to be a few years later after Scotty was recovered...)
That was the explanation the Reeves-Stevenses used in “The Return;” Scotty simply didn’t believe Kirk was really dead without a body.
The TOS characters came back from the dead so many times, he probably just assumed it happened again while he was stuck in the transporter!
(And Kirk *did* actually end up coming back from that anyway; it just happened to be a few years later after Scotty was recovered...)
I really enjoyed Gene DeWeese's novel Engines of Destiny. I get the impression I'm in the minority on that one. But the basic gist of the story was that Scotty felt guilty about Kirk's death on the Enterprise-B so he secretly went back in time to rescue Kirk. He made sure to do it at such a point that the Enterprise-B crew still thought Kirk had died, thinking that would preserve the timeline. But because Scotty was unaware Kirk didn't actually die but was taken by the Nexus, a few years later when Picard is in the Nexus, Kirk is not there to ask for help, so the Veridian system and all the Enterprise crew are killed...and because of that the Borg succeed in assimilating Earth in First Contact. All because Scotty got sentimental. And like I said, he thought he was doing it right by rescuing Kirk at a point in time which he thought would leave the timeline unaffected. They still thought Kirk died in 2293.
There was a nice scene where Kirk admonishes Scotty for doing what he did, but in an understanding way letting Scotty know he appreciates what he tried to do, but that's why we don't mess with the timeline
. But I really liked the novel. It's one of those if you could go back in time and change something would you? You might think you're doing a good thing, but you can never foresee all the consequences. You might actually make things worse.
I think that's the novel that noted Scotty's embarrassment initially at believing Kirk had possibly rescued him. He was disoriented after so long in stasis, but he was still embarrassed by it.
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