Spoilers DTI: Watching the Clock by C. L. Bennett Review Thread

[P0sitr0nic]

Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread

Christopher, I just wanted to chime in and say something:

My best friend is a young woman from Chicago. She's in grad school and came to D.C. for the summer for an internship her program requires. Since I was already here, she has spent the summer renting a room in the same house in which I rent.

I thought that this neighborhood was really nice and safe; nothing had ever happened to me. But since my friend moved here, she's opened my eyes to some male privilege I had: Almost every day she walks home from the metro station to the house, she's hounded by men who sexually harass her. They yell at her, call her names, solicit her for sex, insult her if she refuses, and even sometimes try to talk her to getting into their cars. Complete strangers, harassing her for having the audacity to walk down a street while being female. Because of this, we've taken to having me walk with her from the metro station every night when she gets home from her internship if I'm available (which I usually am, since I get off work before she does).

So I was looking at Watching the Clock again (I've started it but haven't finished it), and a small detail stuck out at me:

Clare Raymond, thinking to herself about how much life has changed on 24th Century Earth since the 190s, musing to herself that she or any other woman can now walk down the streets of any city on Earth late at night, alone, knowing that they're safe.

After having seen the kinds of humiliation and harassment my best friend has suffered in this area just because she happens to be a woman, I've got to say: Thank you.

It's a small detail in your book, but the idea is incredibly meaningful to me.

Isnt that the very idea of the Federation, at its heart?

 

[Sci]

Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread

Christopher, I just wanted to chime in and say something:

My best friend is a young woman from Chicago. She's in grad school and came to D.C. for the summer for an internship her program requires. Since I was already here, she has spent the summer renting a room in the same house in which I rent.

I thought that this neighborhood was really nice and safe; nothing had ever happened to me. But since my friend moved here, she's opened my eyes to some male privilege I had: Almost every day she walks home from the metro station to the house, she's hounded by men who sexually harass her. They yell at her, call her names, solicit her for sex, insult her if she refuses, and even sometimes try to talk her to getting into their cars. Complete strangers, harassing her for having the audacity to walk down a street while being female. Because of this, we've taken to having me walk with her from the metro station every night when she gets home from her internship if I'm available (which I usually am, since I get off work before she does).

So I was looking at Watching the Clock again (I've started it but haven't finished it), and a small detail stuck out at me:

Clare Raymond, thinking to herself about how much life has changed on 24th Century Earth since the 190s, musing to herself that she or any other woman can now walk down the streets of any city on Earth late at night, alone, knowing that they're safe.

After having seen the kinds of humiliation and harassment my best friend has suffered in this area just because she happens to be a woman, I've got to say: Thank you.

It's a small detail in your book, but the idea is incredibly meaningful to me.

Isnt that the very idea of the Federation, at its heart?

Certainly! And it's wonderful to see these basic ideas re-affirmed and to see how these ideas would practically manifest. Such as, for instance, a woman being able to walk the streets alone at night without fear.

 

[Christopher]

Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread

...So I was looking at Watching the Clock again (I've started it but haven't finished it), and a small detail stuck out at me:

Clare Raymond, thinking to herself about how much life has changed on 24th Century Earth since the 190s, musing to herself that she or any other woman can now walk down the streets of any city on Earth late at night, alone, knowing that they're safe.

After having seen the kinds of humiliation and harassment my best friend has suffered in this area just because she happens to be a woman, I've got to say: Thank you.

It's a small detail in your book, but the idea is incredibly meaningful to me.

I appreciate the thought. It is easy to forget, if one is a man, the everyday fears women still have to deal with in our society. That's why it's so important for men to have female friends, so we don't remain blind to that perspective (and thus don't become part of the problem). That particular line wasn't something I gave a lot of thought to; it just struck me as one of the things that would undoubtedly be better in the utopian future of Star Trek. But it would be something that would stand out in the awareness of a 20th-century woman transported into that time.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread

I had a chance to re-read this Christopher and I think DTI is perhaps your best written book. I know it is now my new favourite after Ex Machina. I also forgot to mention that I absolutely loved the character of Teresa.

 

[Christopher]

Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread

^Thanks!

 

[Relayer1]

Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread

This is my first post and I just wanted to say thanks to Christopher - that was an impressive piece of work, from the Trek research, the theoretical science and detailed plotting !

I had drifted away from Trek-lit but was drawn back by the publicity for Destiny. Ironically, Destiny is some of my least favourite of the 'relaunch' fiction that I am now almost caught up on, Articles of the Federation being a particular favourite, and Watching The Clock is another similarly hugely enjoyable (and different) novel - more from the DTI please !

 

[Christopher]

Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread

^Thanks! There is more DTI coming next year in Forgotten History, dealing with the department's origins in the original-series era.

 

[Relayer1]

Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread

^Thanks! There is more DTI coming next year in Forgotten History, dealing with the department's origins in the original-series era.

On a related topic, with mutterings (most likely futile) of a post Voyager TV show which would probably invalidate part or all of the current novel continuity, would the Trek-lit be brought into line or carry on regardless ?

The reason I ask in this thread is that bringing it into line would probably require some sort of timeline related retcon...

 

[Christopher]

Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread

On a related topic, with mutterings (most likely futile) of a post Voyager TV show which would probably invalidate part or all of the current novel continuity, would the Trek-lit be brought into line or carry on regardless ?

Those particular mutterings seem to be the self-generated press of a producer who has virtually no credits to his name, so I doubt there's anything to worry about in that regard. However, if there were new canon established that conflicted with the current novel continuity, then subsequent novels would be obliged to be consistent with it. That's how tie-ins work, how they've always worked. The novels in the '80s had a continuity built around things like John M. Ford's Klingons and Diane Duane's Rihannsu, but when TNG came along and contradicted those things, that continuity was brought to an end.

The reason I ask in this thread is that bringing it into line would probably require some sort of timeline related retcon...

It's possible that the current book continuity would just be stopped and a new one (or a new wave of standalone books) started in its place, as was done before. Trek tie-ins are already full of multiple incompatible continuities -- look at how the books, the comics, and Star Trek Online differ from one another -- and there's no need to explain their differences.

 

[Relayer1]

Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread

The reason I ask in this thread is that bringing it into line would probably require some sort of timeline related retcon...

It's possible that the current book continuity would just be stopped and a new one (or a new wave of standalone books) started in its place, as was done before. Trek tie-ins are already full of multiple incompatible continuities -- look at how the books, the comics, and Star Trek Online differ from one another -- and there's no need to explain their differences.

Hmm, if it did happen, those of us with continuity hangups would certainly appreciate a decent attempt at a retcon - I rather think you would be the man for the job !

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread

Who says the current continuity would have to stop?

 

[Christopher]

Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread

Who says the current continuity would have to stop?

It is the job of media tie-ins to follow the lead of the property they tie into, not to strike an independent course. That's simply the nature of the beast. We're free to fill in the gaps unaddressed by Trek canon, but we are not allowed to contradict it (not intentionally, anyway).

Maybe there would be a way to justify continuing the current continuity as a clearly delineated alternate timeline from the new canonical 24th century, similarly to how the Rihannsu Saga continuations were published with disclaimers, or perhaps as something akin to the Myriad Universes banner; but the majority of novels would have to be consistent with the new screen continuity. In fact, it might be seen as too confusing if the books were inconsistent with the shows or films people were watching. And remember, the books are a very, very small sidebar to the shows and films, read by maybe 1 to 2 percent of the audience that watches Trek onscreen. If it comes down to a clash between the shows and the books, the shows win, period. After all, it's their universe. We're just visiting it with their permission.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread

^ Then I guess we can start hoping that the rumors of a new series are false.

Also, if novels are not allowed to contradict the books, why are all current novels not Abramsverse?

 

[Christopher]

Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread

^ Then I guess we can start hoping that the rumors of a new series are false.

There are no rumors of a new series -- at least, none that have any accuracy to them. There is a fellow who has developed a pitch he wants to present to CBS and he's talked about it to the press in hopes of generating publicity for it. But he hasn't actually pitched it. And let's face it, if Paramount/CBS have already rejected Trek pitches from folks like Bryan Singer and J. Michael Straczynski, there's no reason to expect much to come of a proposal from a producer who has only two minor credits on IMDb and hasn't even gotten a meeting with CBS yet.

Also, if novels are not allowed to contradict the books, why are all current novels not Abramsverse?

Because the Abramsverse explicitly established itself as an alternate timeline that coexists alongside the "Prime" continuity. So there is no contradiction. Nothing that happens in the Abramsverse has any bearing on what happens in the Prime universe, aside from the established facts that George and Winona Kirk served aboard the USS Kelvin prior to the timeline split in 2233 and that Romulus is destroyed and Spock disappears in 2387.

So if, for example, someone a couple of years ago had done a novel asserting that Winona Kirk had been a farmer who never left Earth, or a book about Spock on Romulus in 2388, that book would have had to be disregarded after the movie came out, because that would conflict with canon as it now stands. But a story set on, say, Prime-universe Vulcan in 2275 is unaffected by the fact that Abramsverse Vulcan was destroyed in 2258, because it's overtly a separate history.

 

[Relayer1]

Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread

Also, if novels are not allowed to contradict the books, why are all current novels not Abramsverse?

Also JJ does not seem to want novels cluttering up his shiny new universe just yet - at least not while he is redefining everything. There have been 4 JJverse novels completed but pulled from release.

Christopher - do you know if they will be released later or retooled as TOS releases ?

 

[Christopher]

Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread

There have been 4 JJverse novels completed but pulled from release.

Christopher - do you know if they will be released later or retooled as TOS releases ?

I do not know that.

(Also, I'm not sure if all four were quite completed. I think Greg's was in first-draft stage or copyedits or something when the word came down.)

 

[Relayer1]

Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread

We should have 2 lists - novels that conform to current canon and those that don't.

Books can be moved from one to the other (and back again) as the state of play changes...

 

[Christopher]

Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread

We should have 2 lists - novels that conform to current canon and those that don't.

You wouldn't get any consensus on that. What one reader sees as an irreconcilable contradiction, another sees as just a slight difference in interpretation.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread

^ This is nerd rage. It's what we do!

 

[Trek]

Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread

Finished this last night and though it was excellent. The last few chapters were especially hard to put down.

Very much looking forward to the next DTI book now.