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Star Trek Online and Countdown Graphic Novel Continuities

It was never meant to turn B-4 into Data, but to give him the capacity to grow into his own being.

No, it was meant to ensure there was a part for Brent Spiner to play in a future "Nemesis" sequel, if Paramount was willing to meet his price. :rommie:

No. No. That was a secondary purpose, grafted onto the film at the insistence of the studio. It wasn't THE singular goal, but merely an optional back door, a possible way out if Spiner decided to return. And that back door is something that was imposed on the story by outside considerations. I'm talking about the role it played in the story itself. Screw the studio politics; I'm talking about the narrative, its themes and structure as a story. That should always be the primary consideration.
 
It wasn't THE singular goal, but merely an optional back door, a possible way out if Spiner decided to return.

Did I say it was "THE singular goal"?

Note the laughing Romulan above.

That was one of the things that bugged me about Countdown: it felt as though Vulcan had left the Federation.

By the coloured sashes at the conference in "ST VI: The Undiscovered Country", it seemed like they kept themselves apart even then. Sarek, the other Vulcans (and the Romulan ambassador!) wear yellow sashes, all other UFP members blue, Klingons red and non-alligned races green.
 
^And, as I said before, as Data is referred to in the comic as a reconstructed android, perhaps the Daystrom Institute copied the files B-4 possesed, and downloaded them into a new, advanced body--(possibly built by Dr. Maddox).

Thus, you have B-4, and you have Data back. Win-Win scenario.

Unless you happen to think that Star Trek has been bringing characters back from the dead too often and really needs to let the dearly departed stay departed.
 
Hmm. Well, if the resurrection is done well...frankly, I don't give a rat's rear end. A good story's a good story.

And I think Countdown, regardless of the problems with contunuity, is a dang good story about Nero's fall.

But that's just me--and I Am The One Who Has An Admittedly Irritating Tendecy To Resist The Tug Of Popular Sentiment....:rolleyes:
 
^And, as I said before, as Data is referred to in the comic as a reconstructed android, perhaps the Daystrom Institute copied the files B-4 possesed, and downloaded them into a new, advanced body--(possibly built by Dr. Maddox).

Thus, you have B-4, and you have Data back. Win-Win scenario.

Unless you happen to think that Star Trek has been bringing characters back from the dead too often and really needs to let the dearly departed stay departed.

Curious, other than Spock in the movies and Kirk in the Shatnerverse, which characters have been brought back form the dead? Admittedly, I've not read ALL of the novels, but I can really only think of those two...

Oh, and Trip.
 
Curious, other than Spock in the movies and Kirk in the Shatnerverse, which characters have been brought back form the dead? Admittedly, I've not read ALL of the novels, but I can really only think of those two...

Oh, and Trip.

McCoy, Scotty and Chekov in TOS.

Tasha, in a parallel universe, and lives on through her half Romulan daughter, Sela.

Several Weyouns.

Sisko. Returned from the Prophets.

Garrovick, killed off in "Home is the Hunter" but not-dead in "In the Name of Honor".

Calhoun, seemingly killed for two whole books.

Morgan Primus.
 
I don't know if it counts but the TNG characters all died ALOT, in the time loop episodes. I can't remember it's name and I'm about to leave so I don't have time to look it up.
 
I don't know if it counts but the TNG characters all died ALOT, in the time loop episodes. I can't remember it's name and I'm about to leave so I don't have time to look it up.

Cause and Effect
 
^And, as I said before, as Data is referred to in the comic as a reconstructed android, perhaps the Daystrom Institute copied the files B-4 possesed, and downloaded them into a new, advanced body--(possibly built by Dr. Maddox).

Probably would have been easier for them to just go with a data hologram, given the advances that seem to have been made with holographic technology. As we've seen with Meegan in the most recent Voyager novel, with the integrated mobile emitter.

Maybe B-4 is just faking it and actually an evil genius, bidding his time before universal domination can be achieved :)
 
McCoy, Scotty and Chekov in TOS.

Tasha, in a parallel universe, and lives on through her half Romulan daughter, Sela.

Several Weyouns.

Sisko. Returned from the Prophets.

Garrovick, killed off in "Home is the Hunter" but not-dead in "In the Name of Honor".

Calhoun, seemingly killed for two whole books.

Morgan Primus.

I had been thinking mostly of deaths and resurrections in the Litverse, and now that you list them, I hadn't realized there were that many in the series...though I don't think most of them were intended to remain dead, from what I can remember.

^And, as I said before, as Data is referred to in the comic as a reconstructed android, perhaps the Daystrom Institute copied the files B-4 possesed, and downloaded them into a new, advanced body--(possibly built by Dr. Maddox).

Probably would have been easier for them to just go with a data hologram, given the advances that seem to have been made with holographic technology. As we've seen with Meegan in the most recent Voyager novel, with the integrated mobile emitter.

Maybe B-4 is just faking it and actually an evil genius, bidding his time before universal domination can be achieved :)

That's actually a pretty cool idea. Bringing back Data as a hologram based on the download from B-4 and allowing him to be mobile via a mobile emitter...that way B-4 is still around too. Quite intriguing!
 
I had been thinking mostly of deaths and resurrections in the Litverse, and now that you list them, I hadn't realized there were that many in the series...though I don't think most of them were intended to remain dead, from what I can remember.

Well, that's kinda the point. Even when DC Comics kill off Robin, Superman, Clark Kent, Batman or Bruce Wayne, replace them with other characters, and say "This time they are really, really dead..." they do all end up coming back.

A writer doesn't permanently remove a character until they're done with that character. Usually.

Who's to say what the screenwriters might have imagined when they sent off Sisko at the end of DS9? Probably they figured they were safest "killing" him in that finale, because Avery Brooks was probably the one least likely to want to return to a reunion movie. The post-series books could have chosen to leave Sisko with the Prophets for much longer.

MacKenzie Calhoun was seemingly killed for two whole books, and indeed his ship was destroyed permanently in the same incident. Peter David always warned that, in "New Frontier", some deaths would be permanent. While I was fairly certain he'd be back at some point, not everyone was.

was first assumed to be long-dead (when introduced), then her physical immortal body was killed off (in the novel series), then - seemingly - so was her virtual personality (in a comic mini-series), but in the latest book we discover that she had been able to reboot herself.
 
I had been thinking mostly of deaths and resurrections in the Litverse, and now that you list them, I hadn't realized there were that many in the series...though I don't think most of them were intended to remain dead, from what I can remember.

Well, that's kinda the point. Even when DC Comics kill off Robin, Superman, Clark Kent, Batman or Bruce Wayne, replace them with other characters, and say "This time they are really, really dead..." they do all end up coming back.

A writer doesn't permanently remove a character until they're done with that character. Usually.

Who's to say what the screenwriters might have imagined when they sent off Sisko at the end of DS9? Probably they figured they were safest "killing" him in that finale, because Avery Brooks was probably the one least likely to want to return to a reunion movie. The post-series books could have chosen to leave Sisko with the Prophets for much longer.

MacKenzie Calhoun was seemingly killed for two whole books, and indeed his ship was destroyed permanently in the same incident. Peter David always warned that, in "New Frontier", some deaths would be permanent. While I was fairly certain he'd be back at some point, not everyone was.

was first assumed to be long-dead (when introduced), then her physical immortal body was killed off (in the novel series), then - seemingly - so was her virtual personality (in a comic mini-series), but in the latest book we discover that she had been able to reboot herself.

Yeah, I guess to me the only resurrections I see as cheap and should be avoided are the ones where it's pretty clear that the death was intended to be permanent and bringing them back adds nothing, other than to having them around again. It would be pretty dumb to bring them back to the status quo, regardless of the quality of the story.

I can't really speak to the comic book ones as I feel that there's too much other silliness in comics that bringing back a Superman or a Batman from the dead is pretty minor on the annoyance/believability scale. Though I would think that anyone couldn't possibly think that Superman would remain dead for very long.

-Sisko, for sure, I would've liked to have seen brought back much later. He doesn't seem to have done much since coming back.

-Weyoun, I don't really have a problem with as he was such a minor character when he was first killed off, and the way he was brought back was clever and added a lot to Vortas as a whole.

-Tasha's was pretty cool as Sela became a part of some good episodes. I guess I'm just a sucker for alternate universe stories.

As for the others, I'm not as familiar. Don't really know Garrovick, and I can't really stand NF. Any resurrections that happen in that series falls into the comic book category for me. I big "whatever".
 
^In the case of Garrovik, I think Dayton Ward either didn't know or simply forgot that he bit the dust in Home is the Hunter....

Hey. Been known to happen. Mr. Leslie bit the dust in "Obsession", only to come back a few eps later, with no questions asked....

(He and Garrovik are the only red-shirts to do so, BTW)
 
^In the case of Garrovik, I think Dayton Ward either didn't know or simply forgot that he bit the dust in Home is the Hunter....

Dayton didn't have to comply with anything in "Home is the Hunter". Only what's canonical. (Actually, Garrovick is killed off-page; Kirk's depression in Chapter 1 is due to Garrovick's sudden death.)

In any case, "Home is the Hunter" is one of those novels from the Ricard Arnold days which carries the disclaimer, that it differs to the universe of Trek as created by Gene Roddenberry.

Mr. Leslie bit the dust in "Obsession", only to come back a few eps later, with no questions asked....

(He and Garrovik are the only red-shirts to do so, BTW)

Galloway (David L Ross) dies in "The Omega Glory" but mysteriously returns (credited as "Galoway") in "Turnabout Intruder". I once explained it as this being his lookalike, Johnson (David L Ross in "Day of the Dove"), simply mis-credited.

Similarly, it could have been Leslie Ryan (from "The Naked Time") who died in "Obsession", not his lookalike, Mr Leslie.
 
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Garrovick is also alive and well in Debt of Honor, in scenes set at least a decade after Home is the Hunter.

For what it's worth, HitH doesn't just conflict with other Trek fiction, but actual history as well. It erroneously puts Averill Harriman's lend-lease aid mission to Moscow in 1942 when it was actually in '41. (Unless there was a second lend-lease mission I can't find anything written about.)
 
^And, as I said before, as Data is referred to in the comic as a reconstructed android, perhaps the Daystrom Institute copied the files B-4 possesed, and downloaded them into a new, advanced body--(possibly built by Dr. Maddox).

Probably would have been easier for them to just go with a data hologram, given the advances that seem to have been made with holographic technology. As we've seen with Meegan in the most recent Voyager novel, with the integrated mobile emitter.

Maybe B-4 is just faking it and actually an evil genius, bidding his time before universal domination can be achieved :)

That's actually a pretty cool idea. Bringing back Data as a hologram based on the download from B-4 and allowing him to be mobile via a mobile emitter...that way B-4 is still around too. Quite intriguing!

I like that idea myself.
 
^In the case of Garrovik, I think Dayton Ward either didn't know or simply forgot that he bit the dust in Home is the Hunter....

Nope, to both.

Back when In the Name of Honor was still at the outline stage, John Ordover suggested that a familiar guest character be included among the Gagarin survivors, in order to justify to Paramount Licensing the number of scenes I planned to spend with the prisoners on the planet. Of those characters we discussed, Garrovick was the one that interested me the most, and when I pointed out that he'd been killed in a previous novel, John's direction was "Don't worry about it," since at the time there was no strict continuity between the standalone novels. So, that's what I did. :)

Regardless, this doesn't count as a "resurrection," since I didn't acknowledge his death in the prior story, nor did I write anything to "undo" it.
 
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^I see. My bad. I apologize. :(

But hey--Home Is The Hunter has a godlike being in there....

Perhaps he brought Garrovik back, and the book just neglected to mention that...?
 
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