Should novels set in the JJVerse rectify the film's plot holes?

[Turtletrekker]

And it's not just comics that employ sliding-timescales. I remember back in 1981 when John Gardner started writing James Bond novels. He just picked Bond up from where Ian Flemming left him in the early 60s, dusted him off, and dropped him in the 80s as if little or no time had passed. Gardener and then another author continued writing Bond novels set at the time of release for over 20 years, with the character changing little and aging less.

 

[Dayton Ward]

At least Bond reboots on occasion. Check out the Mack Bolan novels if you want "ageless hero" overload. Bolan started off in the 60s as a Vietnam vet who came home and went to war against the mob. Since I was a teenager, he's been working in various capacities for the U.S. government, fighting terrorism, secret wars, and carrying on with various chaos and mayhem, even though he'd be something like 75 years old these days. No reboots or other overt retconning (unless they did it in the years since I stopped reading the things and I just missed it); he just moves along while the world changes around him.

 

[Csalem]

Hercule Poirot went through the age problem as well. He was meant to be 'old' in his first book which was set in World War I and was still 'old' in his last novel published in the early 70s.

 

[Christopher]

Then there's Diane Duane's Young Wizards series, which has been set in the present day for over 20 years, keeping up to date with the latest computer technology all the while, with the characters aging only about 2 years in that span.

 

[BrotherBenny]

I don't read comics but I think that certain heroes should be kept separate or you have them all in one universe, which would be a pain since Spiderman might have to go through the Mutant Registration or whatever. I have no idea about comics.

J K Rowling aged her characters in the Harry Potter series. Anne McCaffrey ages her character in the Pern and Psychics/Tower/Hive universes. British crime novelist Ian Rankin aged his detective. Use what works for you.

There are too many plot holes in the Abramsverse to fix satisfactorily so I'm just rolling with the punches. It got more people interested so job done, AFAIC.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Compare this to the Comic Books; to DC & (especially) Marvel and the knots they get themselves into by continually reinventing their universes to make everything coherent. Please don't bring that mess to Trek.

I doubt Star Trek is going to decide to blow up its multiverse any time soon.

 

[Christopher]

I don't read comics but I think that certain heroes should be kept separate or you have them all in one universe, which would be a pain since Spiderman might have to go through the Mutant Registration or whatever. I have no idea about comics.

In fact, the Superhero Registration Act had a major impact on Spider-Man, since it initially led to him revealing his identity to the public in compliance with the law, but then led him to go underground when he decided the enforcement of the law was becoming dictatorial and he had to fight it. Although his identity has since been magically erased from everyone's minds, but let's not speak of that.

There are too many plot holes in the Abramsverse to fix satisfactorily so I'm just rolling with the punches. It got more people interested so job done, AFAIC.

No bigger than the plot holes that already exist throughout the prior body of Star Trek canon. In that respect, it fits right in.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I don't read comics but I think that certain heroes should be kept separate or you have them all in one universe, which would be a pain since Spiderman might have to go through the Mutant Registration or whatever. I have no idea about comics.

J K Rowling aged her characters in the Harry Potter series. Anne McCaffrey ages her character in the Pern and Psychics/Tower/Hive universes. British crime novelist Ian Rankin aged his detective. Use what works for you.

There are too many plot holes in the Abramsverse to fix satisfactorily so I'm just rolling with the punches. It got more people interested so job done, AFAIC.

Potter and Pern are designed with aging in mind. Potter is a finite story that ends when Harry's schooling does. Pern is buildt around fighting the Thread which only appear at certain times. Comic book heroes less so. Kids like Robin and Bucky didn't age at all. Robin stayed the same for about 25 years until he he was aged up to high school around the time the TV show started. Then got another age spurt when they shipped him off to college. Bucky visually looked the same all through the 40s and was drawn only slightly older in the 60s.

 

[Sci]

I don't read comics but I think that certain heroes should be kept separate or you have them all in one universe, which would be a pain since Spiderman might have to go through the Mutant Registration or whatever. I have no idea about comics.

J K Rowling aged her characters in the Harry Potter series. Anne McCaffrey ages her character in the Pern and Psychics/Tower/Hive universes. British crime novelist Ian Rankin aged his detective. Use what works for you.

There are too many plot holes in the Abramsverse to fix satisfactorily so I'm just rolling with the punches. It got more people interested so job done, AFAIC.

Potter and Pern are designed with aging in mind. Potter is a finite story that ends when Harry's schooling does.

Well. If you want to get technical,

Spoiler: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry's schooling ends at the end of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," with "Deathly Hallows" chronicling a year he spends on the run from the Voldemort regime

But, yes, either way, Harry Potter is set at a very specific period of time: The novels are set between 1991 and 1998, with prologues and epilogs set in 1981 and 2017.

 

[Steve Roby]

At least Bond reboots on occasion. Check out the Mack Bolan novels if you want "ageless hero" overload. Bolan started off in the 60s as a Vietnam vet who came home and went to war against the mob.

As I recall, Robert B. Parker's Spenser was established as a Korean war vet in his first novel, published back around 1973...

 

[Captain Robert April]

There are too many plot holes in the Abramsverse to fix satisfactorily so I'm just rolling with the punches. It got more people interested so job done, AFAIC.

No bigger than the plot holes that already exist throughout the prior body of Star Trek canon. In that respect, it fits right in.

Maybe individually, each plot hole isn't any worse than any of those that came before (I don't agree with that point, but that's another discussion), but in quantity, the plot holes in this one movie outweigh the number of plot holes generated by entire seasons.

 

[ProtoAvatar]

Star Trek XI is a masterpiece of self-consistency and plot-hole free storytelling by comparison with some other star trek movies - Wrath of Khan, Generations, V.

 

[EJA]

What are the chances of the Klingons building a vessel on the level of the NuEnterprise in order to compete? If you ask me, they probably already have, considering the sizes of some of the other ships in the Abramsverse. If they saw the NuEnterprise, they'd quite likely think "We need something like that in order to maintain our terror factor."

 

[JarodRussell]

There are too many plot holes in the Abramsverse to fix satisfactorily so I'm just rolling with the punches. It got more people interested so job done, AFAIC.

No bigger than the plot holes that already exist throughout the prior body of Star Trek canon. In that respect, it fits right in.

Again with the "they did it before, so why would we have to do better?"

 

[F. King Daniel]

What are the chances of the Klingons building a vessel on the level of the NuEnterprise in order to compete? If you ask me, they probably already have, considering the sizes of some of the other ships in the Abramsverse. If they saw the NuEnterprise, they'd quite likely think "We need something like that in order to maintain our terror factor."

The D7 battlecruiser was 'first' seen in ENT: "Unexpected", and the Klingon Bird of Prey was in "The Expanse", two designs used for two hundred years on in-universe time. It's therefore possible that the larger Vor'cha seen in TNG is the same age, too.

In the mirror universe, Worf's flagship is an insane 5 kilometer long version of the Prime Negh'var. If the mirrors can do it, the primes and alternates can.

A little OT: Although the name is supposedly a goof, Klingon Warbirds (from STXI, D7's with more guns), were mentioned in "Broken Bow". With the age of Klingon designs, it's fair to say they're the same ship type, too.

 

[Nerys Myk]

There are too many plot holes in the Abramsverse to fix satisfactorily so I'm just rolling with the punches. It got more people interested so job done, AFAIC.

No bigger than the plot holes that already exist throughout the prior body of Star Trek canon. In that respect, it fits right in.

Again with the "they did it before, so why would we have to do better?"

I doubt the makers of any of the films deliberately created plotholes because the other films had them.

 

[Christopher]

The point is that if you're going to reject the film because of its plot holes, you should do the same with earlier films and episodes that have equal or greater plot holes. I see the same kind of double standard being practiced by the ST XI bashers that was used by the ENT bashers a few years ago: fiercely condemning the new work for doing things that were no worse or no different than what the previous shows and films have been doing all along, such as having continuity errors or story holes, but forgiving or denying the existence of those things in the previous shows and films. Or even worse, acting as though the new work is the first thing in the history of Star Trek ever to have continuity errors or story flaws.

So it seems to me it's just a matter of perspective. Fans react more negatively to the newer things because they haven't had time to get used them. There was just as much negative reaction in fandom to TMP, to TNG, etc. in their day. So it seems to me that all the problems people are raising hell over today are going to be forgotten or overlooked a decade or two from now, or at least placed into perspective. This too shall pass.