DTI comic series
- Thread starter Yevetha
- Start date
Would it? The DTI themselves don't time travel, they investigate time travel. If you want time traveling adventurers with Time MACOs, that would have to be the FTC. Federation Temporal Commission, like Captain Braxton from Future's End and his crew from Relativity. After all, Watching the Clock even revealed that Relativity carried a contingent of cybernetically enhanced marines aboard, there's your Time MACOs.
Have you read the Myriad Universes comic "The Last Generation"? No DTI, but a tie into Voyager's time cops.
But the DTI was founded in 2270 and still going strong in 2383, and will last for an undetermined span into the future. And we already have multigenerational stories spanning 2-3 centuries of Starfleet history, such as Destiny or The Brave and the Bold. Stories don't have to be about time travellers to span multiple eras. Forgotten History is an example of that to an extent.
That's actually the TIC, the Temporal Integrity Commission.
I don't think I mentioned the Relativity specifically, did I? I don't recall. Anyway, I based those more on the Borgish security personnel from the unmade proposal a few years back for an animated Trek series set in the 26th century.
As detailed as Christopher makes his explanations in his books, I don't think the comic book venue is gonna give him appropriate length to do some good storytelling. Gigantic word balloons going on for pages at a time might turn off some readers. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but brevity's not his forte and the nature of the DTI doesn't lend itself to simple, small word-ballooned explanations. Now, if they let him have a few pages in the back of the issue to go into more written detail... 
^Hey, give me some credit for adapatability. I can tailor my work to the medium.
if you don't know why time travelling MACOs is a stupid idea, I can't help you.
I didn't say the DTI comic was stupid. I meant time-travelling MACOs is a stupid idea.
^ I don't think you could reduce many of the concepts discussed in DTI to small word balloons. You could do it in a few pages in the back in a little time-travel primer, maybe.
For the detailed conceptual discussions, readers would be directed to consult Watching the Clock at their discretion. I put those in the novel because the novel format allows for it. And since I've already laid out the ground rules in my first DTI book, there's no need to repeat that part. Naturally the focus and pacing of a comic-book story would be different.
I mean, I have sold eleven novelette-length stories and three novella-length ones. It's not like I can't adapt to a more concise storytelling format.
I'm gonna go with the people who say DTI wouldn't really work well for comics. I haven't read the book yet, but just based on what I've heard I just don't see where it would work well in the comic book format. Now, I'm not saying it's a bad thing, some concepts just work better in certain formats and based on what I've read DTI is a more of a novel concept than a comic concept.
If you were going to adapt one of the Trek Lit series to the comic format, my top pick would be for Titan. The books tend to have a lot of unique aliens,like Cethente or K'chak'!'op, and big visual sequences, like the end of Orion's Hounds, and it seems to me that style of storytelling would translate much better to comics than the more talky and intellectual DTI. I'd also want to see Vanguard, SCE/Corps of Engineers, or IKS Gorkon/Klingon Empire comics more than DTI. But, once again I'm not saying this as a slight against the DTI concept, I think it's a great idea and I'm really really looking forward to reading it, I just don't see it working as well as a comic book as it does as novels.
If you were going to adapt one of the Trek Lit series to the comic format, my top pick would be for Titan. The books tend to have a lot of unique aliens,like Cethente or K'chak'!'op, and big visual sequences, like the end of Orion's Hounds, and it seems to me that style of storytelling would translate much better to comics than the more talky and intellectual DTI. I'd also want to see Vanguard, SCE/Corps of Engineers, or IKS Gorkon/Klingon Empire comics more than DTI. But, once again I'm not saying this as a slight against the DTI concept, I think it's a great idea and I'm really really looking forward to reading it, I just don't see it working as well as a comic book as it does as novels.
I don't know if a DTI series would be made or not...it would be fun though I think at least. Christopher should pitch one It would be different from your typical starship exploration series anyway. Like I said a mini-series probably is more plausible than an ongoing. Hell, even a one shot, just to test the market would be a worth while attempt I think. *Shrugs*. I just know that I would pick it up
It would be different from your typical starship exploration series anyway. Like I said a mini-series probably is more plausible than an ongoing. Hell, even a one shot, just to test the market would be a worth while attempt I think. *Shrugs*. I just know that I would pick it up 
I'd buy it.
My memory could be playing tricks on me, but I thought they were working for Ducane, and therfore assumed by extension that they'd be assigned to Relativity.
I did say that they were from Ducane's timeship, but I never actually specified whether that ship was the Relativity. People get transferred, and presumably the Temporal Integrity Commission has more than one timeship.
True enough, I just assumed it was Relativity to the point that I didn't even relaize it wasn't specified. After all, Braxton was out of the job at the end of the episode, someone had to take command of Relativity, and its first officer seemed the logical choice.
^But Ducane was only a lieutenant in "Relativity," so it's very unlikely that he would've been given permanent command of the ship. In fact, it's rather strange that there was nobody between lieutenant and captain's ranks to take over. I wonder if maybe Ducane wasn't a regular member of Braxton's crew so much as a visiting specialist with authority over the mission. Given how dystopian the "Relativity" future seemed to be (at least to me), maybe he was a "political officer" for the state and could impose whatever diktats he wanted regardless of his rank.
Anyway, by the time we see him in Watching the Clock, he's moved up to commander, suggesting several subjective years have gone by; he could've transferred to one or more other ships in the interim -- or, as I suggested, not been a regular crewmember of any ship but a specialist assigned as needed. And as a commander, he wouldn't be a ship captain unless it were a very small ship.
Anyway, by the time we see him in Watching the Clock, he's moved up to commander, suggesting several subjective years have gone by; he could've transferred to one or more other ships in the interim -- or, as I suggested, not been a regular crewmember of any ship but a specialist assigned as needed. And as a commander, he wouldn't be a ship captain unless it were a very small ship.
"sigh"...I hesitate to jump into this debate, for several reasons, but I'm too intrigued by part of this thread not to. But I'm going to try and keep my comments general enough so as not to spoil anything for future DTI endeavors. And, given how intelligent Mr. Bennett is, and the amount of research he does, he is probably already aware of this, and maybe he ignored it because he wanted to keep the DTI purely "civilian", but anyone who knows anything about the FBI, or similar federal agencies, knows that they have special "divisions" to handle situations when they go beyond the "investigation" stage and toward arrest, and when those situations are more than the "average" agent can handle, those special "divisions" are called in to assist the agents.
And while I realize that the DTI is set in the Star Trek universe, and perhaps Mr. Bennett uses the fact that the DTI has to rely on Starfleet for dramatic reasons, and I hesitate to criticize, because I'm really not, but it seems that there is a bit of a weakness in the position that the DTI has to rely on Starfleet for transportation around the galaxy and for "special help" when they might be making a difficult "arrest", when sometimes military interests (even when the military is Starfleet) and the "civilian" DTI's interests aren't going to be the same, and they might even be at cross purposes.
That's one of the reasons why federal agencies like the FBI have special units to assist with difficult situations and arrests, and they don't rely on the military...different reasons and purposes for each...and by constitutional law, the American military is not supposed to operate on American soil, in anything other than training exercises, unless of course, we were to be invaded by a foreign power directly, which, thankfully, hasn't happened yet, although we came close, like what seemed was going to happen during 9/11, when military jets were enforcing the no-fly zone over the continental U.S. However, other than during these types of emergencies, the FBI does not rely on the military to enforce its edicts, and purposes...they have their own divisions like that.
And it seems to me, respectfully, that if the DTI is a "true" civilian agency that is meant to enforce Federation laws, they would have their own "special" units or divisions to help them when the situation calls for it, like difficult arrests, rather than relying on Starfleet to help them out...otherwise the DTI really isn't an "independent" civilian agency. While having them rely on Starfleet for certain things can make for more dramatic situations, like when those cross purposes of each cause them to butt heads, it actually takes away from the DTI's law enforcement powers in the "real world" if you really want them to be an independent Federation law enforcement authority.
So, in my humble opinion, the DTI should have some "special" units/divisions to help them with their enforcement powers when situations and arrests get difficult, rather than having them rely on Starfleet...and I think, despite the fact that "inventing" these units now may be difficult due to some of the posts on this thread without running into copyright or plagiarism concerns, it can still be done...simply by making these "special" units something we haven't seen yet, or something that the Federation civilian government realizes needs to be developed because of the inherent (sometimes) cross purposes of Starfleet and the DTI.
And while I realize that the DTI is set in the Star Trek universe, and perhaps Mr. Bennett uses the fact that the DTI has to rely on Starfleet for dramatic reasons, and I hesitate to criticize, because I'm really not, but it seems that there is a bit of a weakness in the position that the DTI has to rely on Starfleet for transportation around the galaxy and for "special help" when they might be making a difficult "arrest", when sometimes military interests (even when the military is Starfleet) and the "civilian" DTI's interests aren't going to be the same, and they might even be at cross purposes.
That's one of the reasons why federal agencies like the FBI have special units to assist with difficult situations and arrests, and they don't rely on the military...different reasons and purposes for each...and by constitutional law, the American military is not supposed to operate on American soil, in anything other than training exercises, unless of course, we were to be invaded by a foreign power directly, which, thankfully, hasn't happened yet, although we came close, like what seemed was going to happen during 9/11, when military jets were enforcing the no-fly zone over the continental U.S. However, other than during these types of emergencies, the FBI does not rely on the military to enforce its edicts, and purposes...they have their own divisions like that.
And it seems to me, respectfully, that if the DTI is a "true" civilian agency that is meant to enforce Federation laws, they would have their own "special" units or divisions to help them when the situation calls for it, like difficult arrests, rather than relying on Starfleet to help them out...otherwise the DTI really isn't an "independent" civilian agency. While having them rely on Starfleet for certain things can make for more dramatic situations, like when those cross purposes of each cause them to butt heads, it actually takes away from the DTI's law enforcement powers in the "real world" if you really want them to be an independent Federation law enforcement authority.
So, in my humble opinion, the DTI should have some "special" units/divisions to help them with their enforcement powers when situations and arrests get difficult, rather than having them rely on Starfleet...and I think, despite the fact that "inventing" these units now may be difficult due to some of the posts on this thread without running into copyright or plagiarism concerns, it can still be done...simply by making these "special" units something we haven't seen yet, or something that the Federation civilian government realizes needs to be developed because of the inherent (sometimes) cross purposes of Starfleet and the DTI.
I think DTI would make for an excellent comic series. Just in the first novel we had some visually spectacular ideas which would have translated really well. Trials and Tribbleations also gave us a handy procedural format which could easily accommodate familiar guest characters both in the "present" and through accounts of time travel incidents.
