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Dumb and Bizarre Trek Novel Moments...

Though I do have to wonder if, as technology moves forward, some people will still like text-based communications?

I think the existence of this board proves that. After all, we've had telephones far longer than we've had the Internet. There are always going to be benefits to writing stuff down rather than speaking it aloud -- clarity, permanence, the chance to edit. The only reason correspondence in onscreen Trek is overwhelmingly verbal is dramatic convenience.


And text messaging still exists quite a bit in the Star Trek Universe, particularily in DS9. With the amount of PADDs being passed around that appear to have nothing but written text on them.
 
In retrospect, the 1988-vintage BBS being used onboard the Enterprise in that novel also comes off as very dated (not that I have an issue with any form of BBS ;)).

Though I do have to wonder if, as technology moves forward, some people will still like text-based communications?
I have no doubt that people would use text to communicate in that era.

I just think that three hundred years from now, the header information might look slightly different than it did in the late 1980's. ;)

If it had looked just like...I don't know, Usenet or IRC or AIM, for examples...I'd think of it as similarly dated.
 
I can forgive that, though--given how fast technology progresses, it's not always easy to predict what things are going to look like.
 
As for weird Trek-lit moments: The novel novel Black Fire.

I had a weirder experience. I was writing my first ever ST fanfic in the months prior to "Blackfire" coming out, and Sonni Cooper's B-plot matches my A-plot on 13 significant plot points. Including Spock being replaced by a new officer called Thorin/Therin. As I was reading "Blackfire", all I could imagination was people accusing me of plagiarism.
 
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As for weird Trek-lit moments: The novel novel Black Fire.

I had a weirder experience. I was writing my first ever ST fanfic in the months prior to "Blackfire" coming out, and Sonni Cooper's B-plot matches my A-plot on 13 significant plot points. Including Spock being replaced by a new first officer called Thorin/Therin.

Well, to be fair, in "Black Fire" Thorin wasn't the XO, he was the science officer. And he was human (his full name was Thorin Martin). ;)

The XO was named Leonidas, but strangely enough there was not one single scene where he yelled "Tonight we dine....IN THE MESS HALL!"
 
Well, to be fair, in "Black Fire" Thorin wasn't the XO, he was the science officer. And he was human (his full name was Thorin Martin). ;)

Ok, he was science officer - well done for committing so much of "Blackfire" to memory - but, as I said, there were twelve other plot beats that were close enough to drive a new fan bewildered.

Hey, you know what they say, great minds think alike.

Gee thanks. So kind.
 
...am I a bad person 'cause I kind of liked Black Fire...?

Well, I kinda liked it, too. It came out after quite a Trek novel drought, and it is certainly a swift read. I saw a friend wave around a copy her penpal had airmailed her, and I had to make an international phone call to my own penpal to stave off my cravings for new, original ST fiction. I paid her in Aussie pavlova mix sachets.
 
I would, but my god didn't like Black Fire either.... :(

Oh then you're probably screwed.

I call dibs on his Trek stuff after he's fried!

Sorry, mate, they're all going to my imaginary friend. (I'd ask him to cut you a break, but he's not talking to me right now...)

...am I a bad person 'cause I kind of liked Black Fire...?

Well, I kinda liked it, too. It came out after quite a Trek novel drought, and it is certainly a swift read. I saw a friend wave around a copy her penpal had airmailed her, and I had to make an international phone call to my own penpal to stave off my cravings for new, original ST fiction. I paid her in Aussie pavlova mix sachets.

That's too bad, Therin - it means my god will smite you too, along with me. :p
 
In retrospect, the 1988-vintage BBS being used onboard the Enterprise in that novel also comes off as very dated (not that I have an issue with any form of BBS ;)).

Though I do have to wonder if, as technology moves forward, some people will still like text-based communications?
I have no doubt that people would use text to communicate in that era.

I just think that three hundred years from now, the header information might look slightly different than it did in the late 1980's. ;)

If it had looked just like...I don't know, Usenet or IRC or AIM, for examples...I'd think of it as similarly dated.

Well Picard did ordered, "Print out all stations and all decks," in "Encounter at Farpoint." He also text the Conn in NEM with his "ramming" order.
 
Yeah, Spock's World was....odd.

I mean, she gets the feel right mostly but then the character uses an odd expression or something.....and then poof.

And did they REALLY need Moira? A 'sentient' computer? As the deux ex machina? Couldn't the plot have been resolved without a petulant games computer?
 
Count yourself lucky, it could have been solved by Matthew Broderick using the deadly electronic art of Tic Tac Toe, true story.

And sorry to be off Trek topic but on the subject of Bizarre I just saw Alan Tudyk and Dule Hill playing parts in some lame f-ing DirecTV commercial!?! C'mon industry, we can't provide anything of more substance to two respected and beloved actors?

Rant on the Bizarreness of the real world... ended.
 
Well Picard did ordered, "Print out all stations and all decks," in "Encounter at Farpoint." He also text the Conn in NEM with his "ramming" order.

The latter was a way of sending the order in secret without Shinzon hearing it.

Yeah, I got that part of the movie.

It was also a way of sending an order in secret in "EaF". Picard didn't want his saucer sep order heard over the intercom just in case either.

And both are examples of text messaging still existing in some form in Trek's 24th century (to add to the previous posts on the subject).
 
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