In Encounter at Farpoint, Data - in his first meeting with Riker - that he was a graduate of the 'Starfleet Class of '79'. This is generally assuming to be an error, or 'Characterisation Marches On'. However, I have sometimes wondered what Data's character might have been like if he'd been in Starfleet service for nearly seventy years when signed on board the E-D (probably as Chief Science Officer, rather than Ops Manager as a Bridge position that should either be a junior officer's position, possibly similar to Worf's role in s1), rather than only about twenty years (and presumedly mostly restricted to 'below the decks' roles that didn't allow much interaction with the crew by fanon and licensed media).
Class of '79
- Thread starter Shamrock Holmes
- Start date
Class of '78.
I stand corrected.
900 years later than the point in history that Trelane took his information from. Was there anything in that dated Trelane's source to later than mid-14th Century?
Although IIRC, the time references from Space Seed and Doctor Bashir, I Presume? are I believe somewhat off with regards to the generally accepted timeframe.
Spock identifies it as 18th century, I believe. Stating it would Trelane was looking nine hundred years in the past. So that would make roughly seven hundred years from now.
At least late-19th century according to Memory Alpha...
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Roses_from_the_South
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Roses_from_the_South
There was an early idea that TNG began around the start of 24th-Century (between 2301 and 2303, IIRC). Even one of the old FASA game manuals ran with the idea until "The Neutral Zone" established the first season in 2364.
Back to the OP, does anyone have any thoughts on how Science Officer Data - with 60+ years of experience - would be different from Ops Manager Data who had 'only' ~20 years of experience mostly as Records/Operations Officer c. 2364?
I would hope "old man" Data would have a better handle on his own "humanity" by then.
But it was never the intention to have Data serving for that long, even with the original date. it was simply that TNG hadn't gotten their dates set in stone yet. As a matter of fact, based on Data's relative unfamiliarity with humans and their ways in EAF, the intention seemed to be that Data was only in Starfleet for a few years at best.
It might be the abbreviation of a stardate. Stardate being a pretty wishy-washy metric at the best of times.
That would certainly have been another option, though in this case I'd expect him to be no more than a a Lieutenant Junior Grade and certainly not Second Officer. In which case I'd expect Michael Argyle or Sarah MacDougal be Chief Engineer/Second Officer with Tasha Yar as Third Officer.
There's no apostrophe. Riker wonders whether Data ever graduated to a real rank in Starfleet. Data says "I've got 78 witnesses". Simple as that...
As for Trelane's lodgings, it's the geophysicist Jaeger who associates the "period" of the castle with "900 years in Earth's past". Well, the castle does come from the 1300s! It's just that Trelane has since redecorated.
(No, I don't think the "EaF" remark was ever intended to denote a moment more than a decade in the past, and quite possibly Data was intended to be even wetter behind the ears in the pilot than in the eventually timeline-solidifying "Datalore". At that point, Data was also intended to have been created by unknown aliens, etc. I'm pretty sure "EaF" would have been contradicted Data-wise in the first season somehow no matter what, and it's actually surprising that the contradiction is this minor.)
Timo Saloniemi
As for Trelane's lodgings, it's the geophysicist Jaeger who associates the "period" of the castle with "900 years in Earth's past". Well, the castle does come from the 1300s! It's just that Trelane has since redecorated.
(No, I don't think the "EaF" remark was ever intended to denote a moment more than a decade in the past, and quite possibly Data was intended to be even wetter behind the ears in the pilot than in the eventually timeline-solidifying "Datalore". At that point, Data was also intended to have been created by unknown aliens, etc. I'm pretty sure "EaF" would have been contradicted Data-wise in the first season somehow no matter what, and it's actually surprising that the contradiction is this minor.)
Timo Saloniemi
According to Datalore it takes roughly thirteen to fifteen years to make Lieutenant Commander - which is a bit longer than RW I believe but not massively so - indicating that it took bit longer than average for Data to make Lieutenant Commander but it's still begars belief that he could still be that socially naive after potentially a quarter of a century of exposure to human and other sentients (given his augmented learning abilities).
Overall, if you want to keep his character intact, I think it would have been better if like Bashir and Kim later, he was an Ensign or LTJG on his first (big) assignment rather than a seasoned multi-mission veteran.
Overall, if you want to keep his character intact, I think it would have been better if like Bashir and Kim later, he was an Ensign or LTJG on his first (big) assignment rather than a seasoned multi-mission veteran.
I take it they were unaware that when the show started, it was billed as taking place 78 years after Kirk's era.
There are other givens about Data, though. He was built by Soong to be non-threatening first and foremost, amounting to turning him into a clown - but without the sort of deep insight into base human weaknesses that makes actual clowns so terrifying.
Data would learn, yes. But he would not make use of what he had learned: he would choose to talk stiffly despite being a master mimic of all styles of speech. The clown act could well have persisted till Data celebrated his bicentennial and added the sixteenth pip to his collar. Something about Picard alleviated the inhibitions programmed by Soong a bit, though. Although it's not clear what that was. (Perhaps meeting Lore was more significant than serving under Picard?)
Timo Saloniemi
Or there are starfleet academy's on multiple planets and that was the local year that Data graduated.
Oh, they were aware of it, because they had earlier established TOS as taking place in the very early 23rd-Century (circa 2207-2212). To them, Data's line about graduating from the "Class of [22]78" may have been taken as confirmation of TNG being near the start of 24th-Century.
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Did anyone say "Vive Napoleon" before he was crowned emperor in 1804?
That is probably Alexander Hamilton killed in 1804.
So "Roses from the South" was composed in 1880.
If "nine hundred years" means 800 to 1,000, the year should be 2680 to 2880 - or later.
But maybe Trelane had Gothos hundreds of light years closer to Earth when he studied Earth though a super telescope. And Trelane probably used some different method to learn Earth sounds. So maybe he didn't use a super telescope at all and was too pleased by his new Earth playthings to correct their ideas.
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Didn't they also establish McCoy's age as 130 in EaF? That alone should establish the show 90-100 years post-TOS.
