Discovery: Drastic Measures pre-release thread

Discussion in 'Trek Literature' started by Enterprise1701, Oct 13, 2017.

  1. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    No, actually, it doesn't. Why does the actor's age have any relevance to the character's age?
     
  2. Idran

    Idran Commodore Commodore

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    Why does Jeffrey Hunter's, then? Either they're both relevant and his age is thrown into question, or they're both irrelevant and his age was always in question. Either way, it's in question, so the argument you take to reach it doesn't matter all that much for this specific instance. :p
     
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  3. Avro Arrow

    Avro Arrow Vice Admiral Moderator

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    According to Mendez, Pike is "about" Kirk's age... which would seem to be ridiculous just on principle. I can only assume Mendez has a very loose definition of "about".
     
  4. The Wormhole

    The Wormhole Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I don't know, that would mean Pike was in his twenties in The Cage. In some timelines, putting someone that young in command of a capital ship is apparently the thing to do...
     
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  5. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I always thought Mendez's comment meant that Pike was the same age Kirk is now (i.e. as of "The Menagerie"), when Pike originally took command of the Enterprise.
     
    Last edited: Oct 23, 2017
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  6. thribs

    thribs Vice Admiral Admiral

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    But it states that her entire family is killed by him. I agree it’s rather cruel but to me, it makes Kodos more evil in my eyes; that he kills a known character.
    They could always give her more to do than just be killed. Perhaps she helps Kirk and the others escape.
    Also, as this a novel, I hope it’s keeps with novel canon where Trip is still alive.

    Now we just need a way to get Kang in this. :)
     
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  7. Markonian

    Markonian Fleet Admiral Moderator

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    Kang and Kodos, aren’t those the salivating aliens in The Simpson’s?
     
  8. The Wormhole

    The Wormhole Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    1) Whether Trip survived the events of TATV or not likely has nothing to do with this novel either way, it isn't going to be addressed.
    2) As the Discovery novels are aimed at a wider audience who isn't necessarily familiar with Trek novel continuity, the goal is to minimize the connections to it. An effort will be made not to incompatible with Lit Con, provided it doesn't get in the way of the story.
    3) Just because Trip was still alive in the epilogue of Last Full Measure doesn't mean he hasn't died of natural causes between then and whenever this novel is set.
     
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  9. thribs

    thribs Vice Admiral Admiral

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    True but he’s Section 31 now. I’m sure they have ways of prolonging his life. :)
     
  10. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    David Mack did use the Andorian sexes from the Novelverse in the first Discovery book, and I have a feeling background stuff like that will probably be the only real connections the DSC books will have to the other novels.
    Yeah. Wow, I never realized before that both of their names came from TOS.
     
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  11. thribs

    thribs Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Indeed. They were named after those Dtar Trek characters.
     
  12. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    That makes me feel so old... The Simpsons has been around for so long that its pop-culture references are now seen as just stuff from The Simpsons.
     
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  13. thribs

    thribs Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I do like how these Discovery novels are more or less prequels to TOS stories. The first one made me want to read more Pike era stories.
    I wonder if they could shoehorn a Discovery character into the launch of the 1701 Enterprise. I’ve always been curious about April’s tenure.
     
  14. Charles Phipps

    Charles Phipps Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Mind you, Hoshi will be an old woman by the time she dies so its not that bad.

    As for Pike, I get the impression the assignment of the Enterprise is after a very well oiled career as his "story hook" in the Cage is he's sick to death of Starfleet and ready to drop out. Presumably he's been through some serious ****.

    I was under the impression it was a very short list of five people and not five or six pages of people who have names starting with letters after P. Which is to say the Discovery's AI just gave him a short list rather than a Google Search of 200 pages.
     
  15. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    What he'd been through just before the episode was the battle on Rigel VII in which his personal yeoman and a couple of other members of his crew were killed. So he was depressed and doubting himself in the immediate wake of that tragedy. He might have had the same reaction if he were a fairly new captain and this were his first major loss. So it doesn't really prove anything about how experienced he was.



    I never said five or six pages. If the first page was A-P, then logically P-Z would probably have been only one more page (or possibly two, given how common R, S, T, and W surnames are). I just think it's statistically unlikely that the most decorated captains in Starfleet are all ones we've heard of and that none of them served between the 2160s and the 2230s. Are we supposed to assume that Starfleet captains went through a 70-year slump of mediocrity? Logically, there should be other captains on the list, which leads to the possibility that maybe we only saw the first page of the list. After all, the list was only onscreen for a couple of seconds before the camera cut to Saru. Maybe it continued scrolling up off-camera.
     
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  16. Charles Phipps

    Charles Phipps Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Fair enough.

    Conceded. I've been doing the math in my head and you're right. It also offers the chance for the other five names to include more women and maybe some non-humans. Captain B'elinda the Tellarite perhaps.

    Some thoughts:

    We know Phillipa Georgiou is a holder of the Starfleet Medal of Honor from show props and it might simply be they've won more awards than anyone else as "most decorated" could simply mean they were passed out in larger numbers for recent conflicts.

    Theoretically, Pike and Decker could have earned all of their medals in the opening salvos of the Klingon-Federation War but that might be making an assumption that conflicts are the only way a person can distinguish themselves in Starfleet. That being a poor lesson even for a WW2 veteran created universe and also not really fitting the fact it's the sort of universe where you can regularly run into giant space amoebas or Doomsday Machines.

    There's also the fact this seems to be the first full scale war since the Romulan War and the fact only Archer would have fought in it is notable. Your theory it covers two pages would also allow a couple of other recognizable names to be added to the list: Malcolm Reed and Shran. Alas, Captain Paris JUST misses the opportunity.

    Izar isn't on that list but as you say, timeline wise, he's already done all his accomplishments and a literal Star Trek computer might have removed him from the list if his medals and awards were retroactively stricken from him. I'm not sure about that, though, since he's insane and not a criminal (though he could be both, I suppose).
     
    Last edited: Oct 25, 2017
  17. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    I never said he'd done all his accomplishments, just that he was already quite accomplished before the time frame of this series. That doesn't rule out the possibility of gaining further accomplishments later on. Picard was already a legendary veteran starship commander when we met him in "Encounter at Farpoint," but that was hardly the end of his achievements.


    As I keep having to point out to people, "Whom Gods Destroy" strongly suggests that Garth's accident and insanity have only recently happened, which would put them in 2268, a dozen years after Discovery. At the time of this show, Garth should still be a sane, accomplished, and highly regarded Starfleet captain.
     
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  18. Charles Phipps

    Charles Phipps Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Point taken.

    I stand corrected and feel awful for having had you repeat yourself.
     
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  19. Brefugee

    Brefugee No longer living the Irish dream. Premium Member

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    While sleeping with a phaser and being in command of "the only ship keeping the Klingons at bay"
     
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  20. Charles Phipps

    Charles Phipps Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    That would be an even better twist than Ash Tyler as Voq.