The new Concordance (again) and ST: Of Gods and Men

[Christopher]

^Well, if it were possible for a fudge to be a perfect explanation, then the fudge wouldn't be needed in the first place. An extensive fictional universe created by multiple people is never going to be entirely consistent; heck, even extensive fictional universes created by only one person tend to have internal contradictions. So the goal of an explanation for a continuity error isn't to be absolutely perfect; it's to be convincing enough to allow a credible illusion of consistency.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I really like the idea of the name "Delta Vega" being a combo of Delta IV and Vega colony. Even if the XI line never happens, it'd be interesting to maybe learn more in the post-Destiny books one day.

Back on topic, and although moot now, putting DV in the Concordance would simply be a matter of having entries for "Delta Vega" and "Delta Vega (alternate)", with info about the planets and a mention that the latter should technically exist in the Prime 'verse.

 

[Christopher]

I really like the idea of the name "Delta Vega" being a combo of Delta IV and Vega colony.

Well, it doesn't make much sense any other way. Samuel Peeples probably meant it to sound like a Bayer designation for a star (as in Alpha Centauri or Beta Lyrae), but "Vega" is the name of a star, not a constellation, so the name doesn't make sense that way (and you have the same problem with other Trek star names like Beta Antares or Delta Rana).

 

[Captain Robert April]

I really like the idea of the name "Delta Vega" being a combo of Delta IV and Vega colony. Even if the XI line never happens, it'd be interesting to maybe learn more in the post-Destiny books one day.

Back on topic, and although moot now, putting DV in the Concordance would simply be a matter of having entries for "Delta Vega" and "Delta Vega (alternate)", with info about the planets and a mention that the latter should technically exist in the Prime 'verse.

You're more than welcome to step up to the plate and take a crack at it. It ain't as easy as it looks.

 

[F. King Daniel]

^I'm sure there are people here far more qualified than I, who would happily write entries for STXI in the Concordance. All of them.
I really think you should find someone and share credit, because there's a lot more money in doing the first reference book to include STXI then there is releasing an obsolete one. Even if it's the difference between just breaking even and making a loss.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Okay. I included a line saying that Scotty and Keenser "had served together for several months on one of the Delta Vega Consortium’s mostly automated mining planets."

Excellent. I remember suggesting that it could be a designation for several dilithium cracking stations.

And yeah, "Vega" isn't one of the regular ST suffixes to a planetary designation. Well done!

 

[Christopher]

And yeah, "Vega" isn't one of the regular ST suffixes to a planetary designation. Well done!

There aren't any "regular ST suffixes" to begin with, since ST has historically done such a sloppy job with astronomical nomenclature. I'm talking about the real thing. Vega is the name of a star (Alpha Lyrae) rather than a constellation, so it's an improper formation to put a Greek letter before it as if to emulate a Bayer designation. Plus there's no way that a planet on the rim of the galaxy would have any connection to Vega (which is only 25 light-years from Earth), let alone both that planet and another one near Vulcan. (Vega is 39 light-years away from 40 Eridani, and in nearly the opposite direction from Earth.)

 

[Nerys Myk]

I'm still sticking to D'l Tah V'gah. (which is Vulcan for "Damn, it's cold!")

 

[Herbert1]

^I guess that is one way to handle Orci and Kurtzman's Easter Egg.
Did you also create a Vulcan name for the planet or appropriate an existing name from Trek literature or fandom for this "Delta Vega"?

Additional: I guess that Alan Dean Foster's novelization is vague about the location of Delta Vega and that he implies that it is outside the Vulcan system. Since the destruction is shown as visible to Spock's naked eyes, I wondered if Delta Vega was the sister planet to Vulcan.

 

[Nerys Myk]

^I guess that is one way to handle Orci and Kurtzman's Easter Egg.
Did you also create a Vulcan name for the planet or appropriate an existing name in Trek literature or fandom for this "Delta Vega"?

Made it up all by myself. D'l Tah V'gah is it's Vulcan name. Legend has it those were the first words spoken by the first Vulcan to set foot on the planet. (In Old High Vulcan) Lucky for us they didn't do the same for Earth because "What's with the smell?" isn't a great name.

 

[Herbert1]

^If Orci and Kurtzman really wanted to drop an Easter Egg they could have used T'Kuhl/T'Kuht as the planet where they marooned Spock and Kirk or have given the planet a Vulcan sounding name instead of naming it Delta Vega. *Shrug*

They drop an Easter Egg for the fans by naming the planet with a name they would recognize, they should have realized that these same fans would complain and nitpick that the planet was in the wrong place.

They named Kirk's parents George and Winona from the novels.

I guess that there is a sign at the lithium cracking station on Delta Vega that reads Galactic Mining Company in "Where No Man Has Gone Before."

 

[BillJ]

Okay. I included a line saying that Scotty and Keenser "had served together for several months on one of the Delta Vega Consortium’s mostly automated mining planets." I'm thinking there are several different planets, moons, etc. called Delta Vega followed by some catalog number, but they're usually just called "Delta Vega" as a shorthand. And I figure that the Delta Vega Consortium is maybe a partnership of organizations on Delta IV and the Vega Colonies, but that was too much information to bother putting in the book.

I have to say that I love your solution to a problem that really grated on me. Nicely done.

 

[Nerys Myk]

^If Orci and Kurtzman really wanted to drop an Easter Egg they could have used T'Kuhl/T'Kuht as the planet where they marooned Spock and Kirk or have given the planet a Vulcan sounding name instead of naming it Delta Vega. *Shrug*

They drop an Easter Egg for the fans by naming the planet with a name they would recognize, they should have realized that these same fans would complain and nitpick that the planet was in the wrong place.

They named Kirk's parents George and Winona from the novels.

I guess that there is a sign at the lithium cracking station on Delta Vega that reads Galactic Mining Company in "Where No Man Has Gone Before."

Yes, they seriously underestimated a fan's ability to go into full apoplectic siezure mode over an Easter Egg.

 

[Herbert1]

Yes, they seriously underestimated a fan's ability to go into full apoplectic siezure mode over an Easter Egg.

Yep, as being Star Trek fans themselves they should have realized the propensity of some fans to have a full apoplectic siezure.

 

[ProwlAlpha]

No they are fans to the point that have read some of the novels, know of the existence of the comics, and have seen enough of the all the series to get a grasp of Star Trek. So they are not seizure levels, yet. They are more at a headache stage moreso because they are making a Star Trek movie and they know seizure-level fans will be freeze-framing the entire movie to nitpick, to evaluate and critique each piece of technology, clothing, moles, and registry number.

Hopefully, they do not reach that level because that movie would be so full of in-jokes, nods, obscure Trek info, and of course a crew who looks exactly they did back in "the day". So basically anyone outside of these forums will go, what the hell was that? And there will be like five or six topics about how the new movie sucks because Spock's mole was on the wrong side and because Scotty spoke with a highland accent rather than a Edinburgh accent.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Yes, they seriously underestimated a fan's ability to go into full apoplectic siezure mode over an Easter Egg.

Yep, as being Star Trek fans themselves they should have realized the propensity of some fans to have a full apoplectic siezure.

When you turn pro you forget that stuff.

 

[Captain Robert April]

^I'm sure there are people here far more qualified than I, who would happily write entries for STXI in the Concordance. All of them.
I really think you should find someone and share credit, because there's a lot more money in doing the first reference book to include STXI then there is releasing an obsolete one. Even if it's the difference between just breaking even and making a loss.

Lemme give you a hint: The amount of work to deal with this one movie would pretty much generate enough references to create a whole new Concordance all by itself. And like I said, this book is gonna be big enough as it is. The lexicon alone is gonna clock in at around 300 pages. The synopses will probably add at least another 150, and who knows how big the art section is gonna be. Like Bjo said, she wants to finish this thing within her lifetime.

 

[Captain Robert April]

No they are fans to the point that have read some of the novels, know of the existence of the comics, and have seen enough of the all the series to get a grasp of Star Trek. So they are not seizure levels, yet. They are more at a headache stage moreso because they are making a Star Trek movie and they know seizure-level fans will be freeze-framing the entire movie to nitpick, to evaluate and critique each piece of technology, clothing, moles, and registry number.

Hopefully, they do not reach that level because that movie would be so full of in-jokes, nods, obscure Trek info, and of course a crew who looks exactly they did back in "the day". So basically anyone outside of these forums will go, what the hell was that? And there will be like five or six topics about how the new movie sucks because Spock's mole was on the wrong side and because Scotty spoke with a highland accent rather than a Edinburgh accent.

Either accent would be wrong, because Scotty's from Aberdeen.

The fact is that nobody within their right mind was asking for a boatload of Easter eggs and in-jokes. Only that if they touch upon something that's come up before, they get the reference right.

Which pretty much defines the proper use of canonical material. Not that you have to make every episode and movie a lecture in Star Trek 101, only that you don't screw things up any more than they already are.

Why do you think Roddenberry had a copy of the Concordance on his desk during the production of TNG?

 

[Therin of Andor]

Why do you think Roddenberry had a copy of the Concordance on his desk during the production of TNG?

Because there was nothing else.

 

[Christopher]

Why do you think Roddenberry had a copy of the Concordance on his desk during the production of TNG?

Because there was nothing else.

There was The Star Trek Compendium by Allan Asherman. There was The Making of Star Trek, The World of Star Trek, The Making of ST:TMP, and The Making of STII:TWOK. Not to mention plenty of Starlog and Cinefantastique articles.