101 Things We've Learned From TrekLit

[David cgc]

Did she actually do that for any episodes other than "Broken Bow"?

"Endgame" has a line where Admiral Janeway has condescending thoughts when Barclay introduces her as the woman who literally wrote the book on the Borg; "I didn't write a book. Doesn't he know what 'literally' means?" Never mind that there's no reason to think Janeway had not, in fact, written a book.

 

[Leto_II]

^ Yeah...it's actually kinda nice when a clearly annoyed Brannon Braga and Rick Berman straight-up call her out right on-camera for this stuff during the ENT Blu-Ray documentaries. I chuckled.

 

[The Wormhole]

Did she actually do that for any episodes other than "Broken Bow"?

Broken Bow just stands out as the one where she didn't bother with any subtlety at all, but her novelizations always did include some manner of criticisms or nitpicks of the episodes. I actually liked it in her WYLB novelization where she draws attention to the fact the Female Founder signed the treaty. The passage goes something like "Admiral Ross watched as the Founder signed the treaty and took note to look at it later to find out what she wrote for her signature."

"Endgame" has a line where Admiral Janeway has condescending thoughts when Barclay introduces her as the woman who literally wrote the book on the Borg; "I didn't write a book. Doesn't he know what 'literally' means?" Never mind that there's no reason to think Janeway had not, in fact, written a book.

That sounds silly. I took the line to mean the majority of intelligence Starfleet had on the Borg came from Janeway, if not directly from her, than as a result of Voyager's time in the Delta Quadrant.

And besides, the term "literally" has long been used in a figurative sense, and indeed even now has an official definition in the dictionary to reflect that.

 

[Jinn]

And besides, the term "literally" has long been used in a figurative sense, and indeed even now has an official definition in the dictionary to reflect that.

So you're saying that "literally" literally means "figuratively"

 

[David cgc]

Well, saying "literally" means "figuratively" is an oversimplification of the modern usage. It's really more of an example of using hyperbole to emphasize already-figurative language. You wouldn't say, I don't know, "You literally look like the cat that ate the canary," but you could say, "I'm so hungry I could literally eat a horse." It's intensifying the metaphor by drawing extra attention to it.

So, either Janeway did, in fact, write a book on the Borg, or Barclay was saying that when he uses the cliche "Wrote the book," he isn't politely puffing up the degree of Janeway's knowledge to make a flattering intro. It'd be a bad use for the hyperbolic literally, since it's not absurd that she could've wrote a book, so it introduces ambiguity into the idea but, what the hell. If I wanted to dictate precisely how other people spoke, I'd write fiction.

 

[Christopher]

Well, saying "literally" means "figuratively" is an oversimplification of the modern usage.

Which isn't actually modern at all. It's been in documented use for centuries.

And I always took Barclay's line to mean that, yes, Janeway had literally written a book about the Borg -- maybe a scholarly monograph, or some sort of official Starfleet report/manual/white paper/whatever. Why wouldn't she? She's a scientist, and she has more direct experience with the Borg than almost anyone else in the Federation.

 

[Jinn]

Which isn't actually modern at all. It's been in documented use for centuries.

And I always took Barclay's line to mean that, yes, Janeway had literally written a book about the Borg -- maybe a scholarly monograph, or some sort of official Starfleet report/manual/white paper/whatever. Why wouldn't she? She's a scientist, and she has more direct experience with the Borg than almost anyone else in the Federation.

Maybe she promoted in Borgology...

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I think the word you were looking for was "practically", dear writer.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Back on track...

21) Andorians and sex, if it's not an orgy then it's not really worth it.

 

[Jinn]

22) 22nd century starfleet ships are prone to getting lost and being rediscovered in the 24th century.

 

[F. King Daniel]

23. The Borg homeworld had a self destruct lever

24. James Kirk's death in Generations was more like a power nap.

 

[Jinn]

25) The Q Continuum is actually one of two continuums, the other being the Omega Continuum. They create a universal balance. Except when it is the Q and the M Continuum which create a universal balance. Oh and there is also "P" from Spock vs. Q: The Sequel....

 

[stardream]

26) Don't get attached to any character that showed up once in a favorite episode and wish you could see again. They are fair game to get killed off in the books.

 

[Idran]

The Q Continuum is actually one of two continuums, the other being the Omega Continuum. They create a universal balance. Except when it is the Q and the M Continuum which create a universal balance.

Well, you know, if you look at a lowercase Omega upside-down...

 

[Jinn]

Well, you know, if you look at a lowercase Omega upside-down...

I actually never thought of that... That's either a very cool coincidence or a very cool intention of Kirsten Beyer. Either way: very cool.

 

[David cgc]

Well I'll be damned. And "I, Q" was retconned to be a parable for little q to learn about the forthcoming potential end of the universe in "Q & A," so the idea that M was a stand-in for Omega is completely reasonable.

 

[Idran]

I mean, in hindsight it's a neat retcon that kind of fits, true, but I was only joking; I can't imagine that was intended at all, considering that the name of the Omega Continuum came from Omega particles.

Plus they're probably only called Q, M, and Ω to people that speak English, they probably don't actually use those glyphs. Especially considering that canonically the name "omega particle" is a Federation invention, not even a translation.

 

[Jinn]

Plus they're probably only called Q, M, and Ω to people that speak English, they probably don't actually use those glyphs. Especially considering that canonically the name "omega particle" is a Federation invention, not even a translation.

Kirsten traveled back in time and told the VGR writers to name the omega particles "omega particles". That created an alternate reality and jump-started the discussion between Weblurker and Christopher about causality. But how is Section 31 involved?

 

[Avro Arrow]

27. The various Enterprise crews are actually filled with interesting looking aliens. Unfortunately, they are all quite camera-shy, so you only end up seeing all those boring humans on the shows.

 

[Idran]

Kirsten traveled back in time and told the VGR writers to name the omega particles "omega particles". That created an alternate reality and jump-started the discussion between Weblurker and Christopher about causality. But how is Section 31 involved?

M is the 13th letter of the alphabet

13 backwards is 31

It all makes sense