A Lit-verse based TOS chronology

[Jbarney]

I haven't referred back to some of the "early" TOS stuff for years, but I will try to research it. I re-read that one for timeliners several years ago, but even though the placement in VOI isn't perfect, its probably close. I think part of the placement has to do with the references to Kirk's age. Despite the conflicting info about Kirk's birthday, the references in Crisis are good enough.

The 2256 portion of Crisis on Centaurus has Kirk listed as 22 years old. (pages 37 and 39)

The FYM portion of Crisis has Kirk being 12 years older....approximately 34 years old. (Page 47)

Your question does bring up a correction though. In the timeline, the 2256 portion references (see primary entry in 2270), when the timeline currently has the "current" portion of that novel in 2269. We may have had it placed in 2270 at some point, but the references to Kirk's age might have been the justification to bring into 2269. Gotta make that correction.

 

[Jbarney]

The placement isn't going to be perfect, and even though we used the references to Kirk's age as a guide, placement is always going to be a little weird because not all of the math works out.

Was it the "The Deadly Years" that Kirk said he was 34? Placement of that ep is all the way back in September or October of 2267......so if you use the math in the novel....Kirk is 34......and he would end up turning 35 in March of 2268.....but.....Crisis on Centaurus has a few episode references which muddy the water further....
P. 63 A reference to "Obsession".
P. 67 Spock notes it is more than 2 years since Ben Finney
P122 Referene to "A Piece of the Action"
P.163 Ben Finney incident is far enough in the past that he was represented by Cogley, received a pension, and Kirk had gotten an X-mas card the year before from Jamie
P248 Cogley says he represented Jim a couple of years ago....
Plus the Stardates mentioned clearly imply a "later" placement".....

P. 48 Has JoAnna McCoy's age at 21. (But I think her age is one of the question marks out there as well)

But all of this just points to there not being a perfect placement....timeliners can certainly clean up the footnote.

 

[Christopher]

Was it the "The Deadly Years" that Kirk said he was 34?

Yes. Also the season 2 writers' bible (and The Making of Star Trek, which came out between seasons 2 & 3).

 

[ryan123450]

Thanks for all those data points @Jbarney. Looking closely at all of them I actually think they all fit really well and seem to point to a pretty specific placement though.

Keep in mind I'm basically only going off the timeline I've created through the process of this thread, which doesn't correspond very well to the episode or placement of year transitions given in the VotI timeline.

But the basic facts it seems you're giving me are that Crisis on Centaurus takes place

1. After Obsession
2. After A Piece of the Action
3. More than 2 years after Court Martial
4. During the time Kirk is 34; March 2267-Feb 2268
5. When Joanna is 21. And the timeline has her being 18 in 2265.

So regardless of when the episodes are placed and the year transitions occur, it seems like 4 and 5 point to the first 2 months of 2268. Now on my timeline I have Obsession in Dec 67, which I think is pretty solid as far as Litverse references go. I have A Piece of the Action in Jan 68. I currently have Court Martial in September 66. So all these seem to point to some time between mid Jan and Kirk's birthday in 2268. Unless I'm missing something.

 

[ryan123450]

I see that my early 68 option still doesn't match with point 3 above. But I'm going to stick with the plan that matches 4 out of 5 points.

 

[KRAD]

Just finished KRAD's A Gutted World. Very good. I'm just curious about the demarcation point, or where other chronology minded folks may have placed when events diverge? I don't think the story is 100% clear, but the timelines "split" at some point prior to the UFP coming to Bajor. The back story involved here has the Cardassians knowing that Bajor's mining and production capacity is declining, but at some point prior to "Emissary" the wormhole was exploited by the Cardassians. It is then used by the Dominion to take out the powers in the Alpha Quadrant. Just wondering if others have might have pegged a more specific placement for when the differing timelines split.

The split is, indeed, before "Chain of Command" and "Emissary," possibly a couple of years prior (I don't remember the exact dating of the story offhand, as it was almost a decade ago). The divergent point is a smuggling ship that went into the Denorios Belt (in the mainline timeline, it didn't) and found the wormhole. The wormhole aliens did not make their presence known because Sisko wasn't there, so nobody thought of it as the Celestial Temple. Because of the discovery of the wormhole, Cardassia did not pull out of Bajor, despite the resistance and the planet being mostly tapped out, and Cardassia were the only ones who knew about the shortcut to the Gamma Quadrant.

 

[ryan123450]

Yay KRAD Popped in to talk Trek!

 

[Jbarney]

The split is, indeed, before "Chain of Command" and "Emissary," possibly a couple of years prior (I don't remember the exact dating of the story offhand, as it was almost a decade ago). The divergent point is a smuggling ship that went into the Denorios Belt (in the mainline timeline, it didn't) and found the wormhole. The wormhole aliens did not make their presence known because Sisko wasn't there, so nobody thought of it as the Celestial Temple. Because of the discovery of the wormhole, Cardassia did not pull out of Bajor, despite the resistance and the planet being mostly tapped out, and Cardassia were the only ones who knew about the shortcut to the Gamma Quadrant.

Woah.....KRAD!!!! So good to see you on the boards.....this is great, aside that you responded to my post, it has been a while. Hhhhmmmm.....is your presence here an indication that you might be working on a trek project in the near future? Dude....I've just read a couple of your books recently.....Articles of the Federation is one of the all time best trek books and Q&A was very good. You have been really missed.

 

[KRAD]

Woah.....KRAD!!!! So good to see you on the boards.....this is great, aside that you responded to my post, it has been a while. Hhhhmmmm.....is your presence here an indication that you might be working on a trek project in the near future? Dude....I've just read a couple of your books recently.....Articles of the Federation is one of the all time best trek books and Q&A was very good. You have been really missed.

Thank you, but no, I just popped in here because my Google Alerts told me about the thread in the movies board about my review of The Undiscovered Country, and I did an ego search when I was here to see if I was mentioned elsewhere.

My current and upcoming tie-in work is all Marvel, Stargate, Orphan Black, Joe Ledger, Night of the Living Dead, and Supernatural, and I'm in talks to do another that I can't talk about yet, plus I'm focusing on original work, including more in the "Precinct" series and a new urban fantasy taking place in the Bronx.

 

[Jbarney]

So I just watched the final scene from Star Trek Beyond again....where McCoy and crew throw a surprise birthday party for Kirk....at the end of that scene they look out and see the initial phases of the construction of the Enterprise A. Just wondering if IDW (or any other sources) have touched on just how long that took? If memory serves, there was no novelization to Beyond.

 

[Daddy Todd]

IDW sent the crew out on another shop in the "Boldly Go" series. It takes place during the construction of the new ship, so Kirk has temporary command of another ship.

It will run at least 18 issues. I'm gonna guess that the construction of the new ship will take about as long as it takes to get a fourth film into cinemas.

 

[Christopher]

I'm gonna guess that the construction of the new ship will take about as long as it takes to get a fourth film into cinemas.

Or less. Remember, First Contact said the Enterprise-E had been in service for about a year. Also, of course, Beyond started 3 years into the 5-year mission, so there's no reason the next film couldn't also begin mid-tour.

 

[Jbarney]

Just thinking out loud....so I wonder if the final sequence in that film was artistic....or if that happens a year or two later. Probably is the actual depiction of the launch of the A. Just thinking about this with respect to timeline type questions.

Thanks fellas....

 

[JD]

IDW sent the crew out on another shop in the "Boldly Go" series. It takes place during the construction of the new ship, so Kirk has temporary command of another ship.

.

I thought they were split up onto multiple ships and planets?

 

[Markonian]

I thought they were split up onto multiple ships and planets?

Yes. Kirk/McCoy - USS Endeavour. Uhura/Spock - New Vulcan. Sulu - USS Concord. Scott/Jaylah - Academy. Issue 10: Scott/Keenser/Kevin - Yorktown.

 

[Jbarney]

Was scrolling through some of the old threads and am convinced this topic is too valuable to be in the obscurity of page 8 of the old postings....

Just finished Zero Sum Game. Great story. I love the work the writers have done weaving everything together. Great timeline information.

 

[ryan123450]

@Jbarney Thanks for the kind words my friend. See you...out there.

 

[Jbarney]

I just started Paths of Disharmony. Chapter 2 has references to Rene
Jacques Robert Francois Picard being "barely one year of age".....great timeline info.

 

[Jbarney]

So I just finished Paths of Disharmony and that Chapter 2 reference to Rene Picard's age has me thinking. A few friends were chatting about the progression of time in the novels, and we were wondering about Rene's age, as there are a couple of other references in other books apparently. Chapter 2 has Rene being born "barely one year" ago.

CLB's Greater Than the Sum has Beverly 2 weeks pregnant in late December of 2380.

Apparently some of the other Typhon Pact books have references to Rene's age that might not match Paths of Disharmony? Does anyone else have age references or timeline notes for this? Thanks!

 

[Christopher]

According to my notes, Rene was born in the first week of September 2381. I think Paths of Disharmony is consistent with that. I think Plagues of Night is a little bit off -- there's a scene in early or mid-August '83 that says Rene turns 2 "next week." But that's still pretty close.