Im rereading DTI watching the clock (probaly my favorite Trek novel) and saw her mentioned. At, the end of the fikm she signs on to a research vessle butdo any novels deal with what happens to her?
Dr. Gillian Taylor?
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We see Gillian in the DC graphic novel Debt of Honor, supervising the birth of George and Gracie's child.
Which, really, is the only fate that makes sense. It always bewilders me when people assume that the "ship" she was assigned to at the end of TVH was a spaceship. I mean, they've just brought these two, eventually three members of an extinct species forward in time into an environment that's been without them for centuries, and there's no way a single family group that small would be enough to repopulate a viable species without a lot of human supervision and intervention. And Gillian Taylor is the only being in the whole Federation who's qualified to do that job, the only person in the 2280s who's ever taken care of live humpback whales. So obviously her ship was an oceangoing ship on Earth, and her job would've been to take care of George and Gracie. That's the only thing Gillian could possibly have done after TVH; hell, it's the whole reason she came to the future in the first place. And she would've had to keep at it probably for the rest of her life, or at least for a couple of decades until she could train others to take over the work.
Which, really, is the only fate that makes sense. It always bewilders me when people assume that the "ship" she was assigned to at the end of TVH was a spaceship. I mean, they've just brought these two, eventually three members of an extinct species forward in time into an environment that's been without them for centuries, and there's no way a single family group that small would be enough to repopulate a viable species without a lot of human supervision and intervention. And Gillian Taylor is the only being in the whole Federation who's qualified to do that job, the only person in the 2280s who's ever taken care of live humpback whales. So obviously her ship was an oceangoing ship on Earth, and her job would've been to take care of George and Gracie. That's the only thing Gillian could possibly have done after TVH; hell, it's the whole reason she came to the future in the first place. And she would've had to keep at it probably for the rest of her life, or at least for a couple of decades until she could train others to take over the work.
I think there are two Strange New Worlds stories about Gillian Taylor.
She had a significant role in Margaret Wander Bonanno's "Music of the Spheres," but her plotline was cut when the book was rewritten as Probe.
She had a significant role in Margaret Wander Bonanno's "Music of the Spheres," but her plotline was cut when the book was rewritten as Probe.
All good points, but is there a reason that the "science vessel" she said she was heading for could not be an ocean going vessel? That's what I always assumed anyway. The movie was not clear on this, but just because Humans now patroled space in starships, there's no reason to think that the navies of Earth would be disbanded, just that, with humanity no longer fighting each other, the reason for the various navies to exist has changed. Maybe now they do ocean cleanup, and making sure the various aquatic life had what it needed and so forth. 130 years earlier Malcom Reed was expected to follow the family tradition ad go into the Royal navy, but didn't because he was afraid of the water. So clearly, navies still exist, but maybe it's their mission profiles that are different.
I really don't get why Margaret's novel had to be rewritten so many times...
Huh? Why are you saying "but?" That's exactly my point -- that it had to be an oceangoing vessel, because she came to the future to take care of George and Gracie.
You and me both, as well as Chris Claremont in Debt of Honor. But what I'm saying is that, for some reason, most people seem to assume it was a spaceship, even though that makes no sense at all.
The lettercol of the regular monthly title did announce a guest return for Gillian in a future arc of issues, but it never comes about. Supposedly, Kirk and Gillian were wondering if there would be any romance this time. If I recall the wording of the lettercol editor of the day, "It's time for something!"
The Star Trek movies created a few intriguing female characters who were never developed as much as they could have been in the novels. Saavik, Gillian Taylor, and Valeris have fewer novels between them than New Frontier.
And if we ever get another Saavik novel, make it the feisty Saavik of ST II, not the emotionless stiff of ST III. Please.
And if we ever get another Saavik novel, make it the feisty Saavik of ST II, not the emotionless stiff of ST III. Please.
Cast No Shadow deals with Valeris quite well. So much so in fact I'd love to see her character appear again somewhere down the line where Elias Vaughn and her would of course cross paths yet again.
I think people just assume spaceship because that's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear ship in Star Trek. Chalk it up to not giving due thought to a single line of dialogue in the movie, since of course if you take the moment to think about it logically an oceangoing vessel makes far more sense. I admit guiltily I never even gave it a singe thought until reading this topic just now, and IV is one of my favorite Trek movies.
Plus, Gillian says to Kirk, "See ya 'round the galaxy", although she has some whales to look after for at least the time being.
"At least the time being?" She's the only person in the whole damn galaxy who's competent to oversee the decades-long effort that repopulating an extinct cetacean species would surely be. At the very least, it would take her quite a few years to train replacements. In all likelihood, though, it would be a lifetime commitment for her. I mean, why would she fly off into space when caring for the whales was the whole reason she came to the future? She doesn't care about space -- she's a marine biologist. "See you around the galaxy" was just a facetious farewell to Kirk, not a declaration of her intention to give up her life's work and personal passion so she could follow him into space.
I knew if I said that she'd be stuck with the whales for years someone would challenge that. "The time being" sounded like a reasonable term to use.
And sure, "See ya 'round the galaxy" was probably more of a dismissive brush-off rather than a promise of a future rendezvous. The writers purposely left it ambiguous.
When did I say it was? But it's the statement that might make some fans assume her "science vessel" was a space ship.
^Yeah, but only if those fans don't think it through, which is my point. It's a conclusion that could be reached from a superficial reaction to what the film showed, but a few moments' thought should reveal it to be total nonsense. And yet, sadly, a lot of people are content to settle for superficial first impressions and don't make the effort to think.
Well, count me as someone who doesn't think.
I came out of the movie (several viewings) wondering aloud why Gillian would accept a space vessel posting so soon, when Gracie's calf still hadn't arrived. I think it was the b/w sneak preview of Claremont's "Debt of Honor", sent to my local comic store (and later presented to me as a gift by the staff), that made me realise that Gillian, of course, was assigned to a sea-going research vessel. D'oh.
Is it really that sad? How are we to pick and choose what lines we take a few extra seconds to think about? I know Star Trek fans are renowned for their nitpicking, but I think it's excusable to pass on a line like "you're going to your ship and I'm going to mine" and not taking the time to go "well, let's analyze that. My first thought is spaceship when I hear the word ship because I'm watching Star Trek, but she is a marine biologist so maybe she doesn't mean that." I don't think it's superficial of me to have not paid that close attention before now.
Well, at least you realized there was a problem with the idea of her going to a spaceship. That counts as thinking.
I've wondered whether Kirk might have saved her life by taking her aboard the Botany Bay.
There don't seem to have been any consequences to the timeline when Gillian Taylor travelled three centuries into the future. Her absence after 1986 didn't change things.
Why?
The last anyone in her time saw her, she'd fled the Cetacean Institute in anger and grief when she found out that the two humpback whales she cared for so deeply had been removed the Pacific Ocean to meet an uncertain fate, not giving her even a chance to say goodbye. The last trace of her any investigators would have found would have been her truck parked in the Golden Gate Park, presumably not very far at all from the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean.
In the original timeline, did Gillian Taylor kill herself? The apparent lack of impact caused by her removal from the timeline makes me wonder.
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