Myriad Universe 3 - a wishlist

[Trent Roman]

That depends:

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mbugsuicide.html

I deliberately used the word 'most' because I figured there's usually an exception out there that I'm not aware of . Still, I think the point stands. We're the only ones who think our way into dying when there's no physical need to.

"Pessimism is not a survival trait." -- Dylan Hunt, Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, "Under the Night" (written by Robert Hewitt Wolfe)

Gah, people in the past keep stealing my ideas.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Idoliside]

What If...

"someone from our reality got sucked into the Trek universe and started telling them about this amazing TV show where they all lived as actors and had several semi-talented hacks writing stories about them..."

 

[OmahaStar]

What If...

"someone from our reality got sucked into the Trek universe and started telling them about this amazing TV show where they all lived as actors and had several semi-talented hacks writing stories about them..."

It's been done. Twice. Voyage to a Weird Planet ... and Voyage to a Weird Planet Revisited.

Hmm ... Memory Beta says it's been done more often than that, at least 7 times. http://startrek.wikia.com/wiki/Visit_to_a_Weird_Planet_Revisited

 

[Marco Palmieri]

Are you seriously suggesting that this could not actually be used?

No, I'm suggesting that people who do this for a living prefer to come up with their own ideas.

I meant it from a strictly legal perspective. Would an author refuse to use anything from this thread, for fear of being sued? *That's* my concern here.

It's possible. But let's be clear: even though in most cases these will amount to nuisance lawsuits without merit, an author is his/her name. That's something that needs to be protected from such allegations, and from even the mere appearance of professional misconduct.

But don't discount professional pride as a consideration. If your name is on the book, you want people to understand that means it represents your creativity, not someone else's.

 

[Mistral]

Marco,

"Dukat's daughter, Lal, etc" was a listing of dead people-I just couldn't remember Dukat's daughter's name and it was 2am-too tired to look it up. FYI. (Although, your take on it might provoke seizures and therefore make's it a worthwhile area of exploration. )

 

[Man of Steel]

Marco,

"Dukat's daughter, Lal, etc" was a listing of dead people-I just couldn't remember Dukat's daughter's name and it was 2am-too tired to look it up. FYI. (Although, your take on it might provoke seizures and therefore make's it a worthwhile area of exploration. )

Lal was Data's daughter Tora Ziyal was Dukat's daughter.


As for an idea:

What if Picard never took command of Stargazer?
What if Picard remained Borg forever?

 

[Deano2099]

Anyone read "The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe"?

That, but written by David Mack, and starring Morn.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

What if Picard remained Borg forever?

They already did that in the comics. I think it was called 'The Worst Of Both Worlds'.

 

[Baerbel Haddrell]

What if Picard remained Borg forever?

They already did that in the comics. I think it was called 'The Worst Of Both Worlds'.

Nevertheless, if an author has a different idea of what might be, I don`t see why this topic can`t be revisited.

 

[Stevil2001]

I thought "the best of all possible worlds" came from Pangloss in Candide or whatever that was. Was Pangloss borrowing from Leibniz?

Christopher, the whole point of Candide is that it is a satire of Leibniz's principle of philosophical optimism.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

So, what, those other worlds don't have God in them? Or do they have less perfect Gods? Or did Leibniz just think God liked us best? What if he was wrong and somebody else was God's favorite?

Christopher, "The Spindle of Necessity" notwithstanding, I am not some sort of philosophical savant. Philosophy and metaphysics intrigue me, but I think that stems from my natural nihilism.

As for Leibniz, his "best of all possible worlds" attempted to answer the Problem of Evil. From The Columbia History of Western Philosophy, edited by Richard Popkin:

As he later came to define it, the problem of "theodicy" is the problem of vindicating God's supreme justice, which he exercises in choosing the best world for creation from among an infinity of possible worlds. Defending this position required Leibniz to take firm stands on the contingency of the world's existence, its embodiment of characteristics of perfection, order, and harmony definitive of the wisdom that has guided God's choice in creation, and the compatibility of worldly evil with the supreme goodness of God's will.

The passage goes on to city Leibniz's 1710 pamphlet, Essays on Theodicy.

My understanding of Leibniz's infinite worlds philosophy was that this world is the one possibility which has the least capacity for evil. There are other worlds, and they would be more evil, and because they are more evil they are thus more and increasingly imperfect. God, himself perfect, cannot suffer them to exist or his creation to exist in them, and thus they do not actually exist, except as possibilities.

That's how I understand it, anyway.

And as for Voltaire, what Steve said.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I thought "the best of all possible worlds" came from Pangloss in Candide or whatever that was. Was Pangloss borrowing from Leibniz?

Christopher, the whole point of Candide is that it is a satire of Leibniz's principle of philosophical optimism.

Stop it, both of you. You sound like a couple of Candide yams.

 

[Stevil2001]

If one dismisses
The rest of all possible worlds,
One finds that this is
The best of all possible worlds.

 

[Scout101]

I'd like to see what space exploration would be like from an Earth where Rome never fell

They only get as far as present day (more or less), but read "Roma Eterna". You get an alternate history of Earth covering about 2500 years, and it's broken into a series of shorter stories, where the author checks in on Rome throughout some of the 'historic landmark' years in OUR history, to see how things went instead, and obviously there's a lot more drift as it goes on.

It all starts with a very simple, very small change, and shows how major it ends up being...

 

[EJA]

I know I've probably mentioned this before, but how about a story where Ja'rod's children accompanied him to Khitomer, and instead of Worf being found by the Intrepid, it was Duras, or Lursa, or B'Etor who was adopted by humans and entered Starfleet?

Or Kirk got zapped with god-like powers instead of Gary Mitchell?

Or David Marcus lived?

 

[William Leisner]

A) The "David Marcus lived" story is told in The Chimes at Midnight.

B) As Marco already said, all anyone is doing by suggesting these ideas here is essentially guaranteeing that they will never be used. I know this is a fun game, and truth be told, I'd actually love to pitch my leftover MyrU ideas to the crowd, just to see what sort of reaction they get. But we really ought to let Marco and his next bunch of authors have as free a hand as possible to come up with their own ideas and stories.

 

[Steve Roby]

As Marco already said, all anyone is doing by suggesting these ideas here is essentially guaranteeing that they will never be used.

People keep saying that, and people keep posting story ideas. Perhaps a moderator should notice that and do something like move this to fanfic.

 

[JD]

Never mind, it was another story idea.

See, I actually do pay attention to what people write on here.

 

[Nerroth]

As posted elsewhere, I'd want to see a story set in the Delta Quadrant, diverging at the end of the episode The '37s - and have the Voyager crew stay to assist the Three Cities become a pocket stellar power, try to form alliances against the Kazon and Vidiians, and set up a dedicated agency tasked with trying to make contact with the Federation.


Although, with a certain movie on TV tonight, I thought of what it might be like to tell a story where the Enterprise-E self-destructed in Earth orbit on the 5th of April, 2063 - and the surviving crew had to live through both the 'public' history of post-First Contact Earth, and the 'secret' history of making sure Earth would be ready for the Borg. (Maybe even including a new take on the events of the episode Regeneration?)

After all, someone has to make sure Cochrane doesn't do something bad, like try and pull a shotgun on the Vulcan envoy instead of offering a handshake...

...the dancing was bad enough.

 

[Mistral]

I think William L is right. Shoot this thread down before we seal the deal on too many ideas. If you put it in fan fic its author-protected-and we fan fic types are more than willing to loot a good idea and make it happen.