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Spoilers Star Trek: Prodigy and the Novels

After watching "All The World's A Stage", I have a question:

Memory Alpha's page on Ensign Garrovick says that his first name (David) was established in TOS - it's apparently on the door to his quarters. So why do the various novels featuring him, all ignore this? He seems to have a different first name in every novel he appears in. Why didn't they just use David, since it was actually in the series?
 
Why didn't they just use David, since it was actually in the series?

Checking its history, I see that the Memory Alpha article wasn't renamed "David Garrovick" until just nine months ago, February 2022. Before then, it just said "Ensign Garrovick." The Concordance and the Encyclopedia also just call him Ensign Garrovick, no first name. Presumably the sign on Garrovick's quarters was illegible until the HD remastering, so nobody actually knew it said David before then (the name was in James Blish's adaptation, but there was no proof that it was canonical). Much like how nobody knew that the "Comsol" referenced by Uhura in "The Menagerie" was a reference to Admiral Robert Comsol (rather than Commander, Solar Forces as was generally assumed) until the HD remaster let us read the signature on General Order 7.
 
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Presumably the sign on Garrovick's quarters was illegible until the HD remastering, so nobody actually knew it said David before then (the name was in James Blish's adaptation, but there was no proof that it was canonical).
Honestly it's still hard to tell what the name is
image.png
 
To chime in very belatedly with an observation about Brikars; AFAIK the only Brikars we've ever seen depicted visually (in any official context) are Zak and his mother (who appeared in a photo in an issue of the comics). Zak's mother was depicted as literally just Zak wearing a dress (leading to the assumption that all Brikars look like that).

It's possible that Brikar have a wide range of physical body types, and the Kebrons just happen to have a distinct (and mildly hilarious) family resemblance.
 
To chime in very belatedly with an observation about Brikars; AFAIK the only Brikars we've ever seen depicted visually (in any official context) are Zak and his mother (who appeared in a photo in an issue of the comics). Zak's mother was depicted as literally just Zak wearing a dress (leading to the assumption that all Brikars look like that).

It's possible that Brikar have a wide range of physical body types, and the Kebrons just happen to have a distinct (and mildly hilarious) family resemblance.

A bigger change is the fact the show is showing multiple subspecies of Tellarite.
 
A bigger change is the fact the show is showing multiple subspecies of Tellarite.

I think the ship sailed ages ago
https://twitter.com/gaghyogi49/status/1489728817438597133

Yeah. I think at this point that there are only really three ways to go with the Tellarites:
  • Rationalize the discrepancies by asserting that there are multiple subspecies of Tellarites
  • Rationalize the discrepancies by asserting that "Tellarite" is a political or cultural identity, and that Tellarite society consists of multiple sentient species
  • Ignore the discrepancies and pretend there's no contradiction in the depiction of fundamental Tellarite anatomy such as number of digits
 
Yeah. I think at this point that there are only really three ways to go with the Tellarites:
  • Rationalize the discrepancies by asserting that there are multiple subspecies of Tellarites
  • Rationalize the discrepancies by asserting that "Tellarite" is a political or cultural identity, and that Tellarite society consists of multiple sentient species
  • Ignore the discrepancies and pretend there's no contradiction in the depiction of fundamental Tellarite anatomy such as number of digits

What? Some of them are Northern Tellarites.
 
Yeah. I think at this point that there are only really three ways to go with the Tellarites:
  • Rationalize the discrepancies by asserting that there are multiple subspecies of Tellarites
  • Rationalize the discrepancies by asserting that "Tellarite" is a political or cultural identity, and that Tellarite society consists of multiple sentient species
  • Ignore the discrepancies and pretend there's no contradiction in the depiction of fundamental Tellarite anatomy such as number of digits


In other words, the same as with the Klingons, Andorians, Gorn, and every other species that's been redesigned over Trek history. I vote for option 3 -- accept that this is a work of fiction and visual artistry, and different artists employ different styles. If we don't need an in-story explanation for why Saavik's or Ziyal's or Pike's appearance changed, we don't need one for why an alien species's appearance changed. One is due to a change in actors, the other due to a change in makeup artists (or character designers in animation). It's as simple as that.
 
In other words, the same as with the Klingons, Andorians, Gorn, and every other species that's been redesigned over Trek history. I vote for option 3 -- accept that this is a work of fiction and visual artistry, and different artists employ different styles. If we don't need an in-story explanation for why Saavik's or Ziyal's or Pike's appearance changed, we don't need one for why an alien species's appearance changed. One is due to a change in actors, the other due to a change in makeup artists (or character designers in animation). It's as simple as that.

The "Klingon Changes" being in-universe feels like an answer in need of a question I admit. I feel like there were some good ones like John Ford but I much prefer THE FINAL REFLECTION's answers to we got on screen. I also feel it makes an expectation for explanations like DISCO's Klingons.
 
In other words, the same as with the Klingons, Andorians, Gorn, and every other species that's been redesigned over Trek history. I vote for option 3 -- accept that this is a work of fiction and visual artistry, and different artists employ different styles. If we don't need an in-story explanation for why Saavik's or Ziyal's or Pike's appearance changed, we don't need one for why an alien species's appearance changed. One is due to a change in actors, the other due to a change in makeup artists (or character designers in animation). It's as simple as that.
This case is a bit different, though, isn't it? It's two different designs in the same show from the same artists that coexist.
 
This case is a bit different, though, isn't it? It's two different designs in the same show from the same artists that coexist.

Not that different.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Jankom_Pog?file=Jankom_Pog_in_uniform.jpg
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Noum?file=Noum.jpg

The nose design is basically the same, and they both have furrowed foreheads and spots around the hairline. The color of Noum's eyebrows and the top/middle portion of his hair is pretty close to Jankom's too. The main difference is that Noum has tusks and jutting cheekbones, but maybe the idea is that Jankom is too young to have grown those yet.
 
In light of these questions of artistic design (especially considering how some tie-ins have endeavoured to walk the line recently between the ways in which TOS and DSC/SNW have depicted the same era), what I found most interesting was that the Enterprise bridge consoles and shuttlecraft were recreated entirely in the TOS style, with no visual references to those later interpretations--even though the visual artists were modelling those objects from scratch and could've chosen to go in a different direction.
 
Not that different.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Jankom_Pog?file=Jankom_Pog_in_uniform.jpg
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Noum?file=Noum.jpg

The nose design is basically the same, and they both have furrowed foreheads and spots around the hairline. The color of Noum's eyebrows and the top/middle portion of his hair is pretty close to Jankom's too. The main difference is that Noum has tusks and jutting cheekbones, but maybe the idea is that Jankom is too young to have grown those yet.
I think it's the fingers that prompted this whole discussion.
 
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