Well, Star Trek is very US centric so it's not surprising we mostly get stuff named after people deemed important in the USA, with the occasional non-American famous person and made-up alien thrown in.
Dumb and Bizarre Trek Novel Moments...
- Thread starter F. King Daniel
- Start date
You're probably referring to Guido Westerwelle, the current Vice-Chancellor/Foreign Minister in the cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel (who is, incidentally, the first female Chancellor of Germany). A better example is the current Prime Minister of Iceland, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, who is not just the first female PM of Iceland, but the first openly LGBT head of government in the modern era.
True, Americans make a lot more fuss about these matters than, say, Icelanders do (as seen in the fact that most people don't seem to have heard of the fact above). But, to be fair, the rest of the world also makes a lot more fuss over US elections than any other election in the world. It's not like Americans were the only ones creating hype over Obama or forcing the rest of the world media to make it a big story, the rest of the world's media did it on their accord right from the start. Why? Simply because USA is the powerful country in the world, so people know that whatever happens there affects the rest of the world more than in the case of most other countries.
However, you're wrong about USA "selling it like it's the best ever". Because there's another element in this. Everyone knows that USA is far more conservative than most of Western Europe; but when it comes to having women or people of minority ethnic groups as leaders, it's been lagging behind many, many other countries from Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, etc. And the fact that US presidents and vice presidents are almost always white, male, Anglo-Saxon protestants, married with children, has been brought up and used to criticize and lampoon USA constantly over the years, as an example of US hypocrisy and the reminder that it's not all that multi-cultural as it is trying to look. I remember that, about a decade ago, people were making jokes about the movie "Deep Impact" saying that that the most SF thing about it was that US has a black president (played by Morgan Freeman), and similar comments were often made later about "24". When Obama was running for office, the rest of the world did not react with "Wow, USA is really awesome and the best country in the world and it is going to show us the way!" but rather with "No, there is no way USA has come so far that they'll elect a black president" and then, when he was elected, "Wow, so things have really changed!" To summarize: you certainly don't have to worry about USA managing to make the rest of the world believe that it's OMG TEH BEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD! But you can be sure that its worldwide image has been MUCH improved since Obama was elected - especially after how low it was when George Bush was the president.
Last edited:
There's no doubt about the US image having improved and also about Obama being quite popular outside the USA. I personally like him, too, although I wouldn't be very happy politically if I lived in the USA due to being a lot more to the left than nearly all Democrats.
I don't mind stuff named after him in a Trek novel. It's just a little in-joke. It would be cool, though, if there was a nod like that to other countries a bit more often.
I don't mind stuff named after him in a Trek novel. It's just a little in-joke. It would be cool, though, if there was a nod like that to other countries a bit more often.
You know what the difference between the US and those countries. Two things, one we have three times the population of Germany and a hundred times the population of Iceland. Thats a lot of people to try get a vote for you especially when this next thing comes into play, our politics are different. Our Liberals would be only considered moderates in those two countries, especially when our government has been historically, a rich white man only group for so long. Yeah, we had numerous women and various minority groups enter that club, but only after becoming either very conservative or a moderate. So unless you have a country that is equal in size, population, and similar political views, then you can say we are behind, until then lighten up.
Wait, did you just say that people living in countries outside the US shall refrain from having an opinion about it?
There is no accurate comparison between the US and other countries, especially smaller countries with a more one ethnic culture (Such as Germany or Iceland, who are predominantly German and Icelandic) than the US's. It is ludicrous to say that a nation with a population of 300,000 where 93% are Icelandic to nation where 80% are characterized as White which means it could be English, German, Icelandic, or whatever. In fact there are almost as nearly Germans in the US than there is in Germany or there is a tenth of Iceland's population living in the US.
Either way, in terms of regarding the how slow things to go in the US, its because there over 310 million people with varying backgrounds who the majority of the time dont know what they want. If Germany or Iceland had that many people and still were able to elect a LGBT leader than I would say that is progress.
Either way, in terms of regarding the how slow things to go in the US, its because there over 310 million people with varying backgrounds who the majority of the time dont know what they want. If Germany or Iceland had that many people and still were able to elect a LGBT leader than I would say that is progress.
So... how about those bizarre Trek novel moments?
Naked Riker on a deserted island was bizarre.
Didn't one of the old Bantam novels say that Sulu was from the planet Alpha Mensa III? That kind of annoyed me, since it sounded like one of those "he's Asian, he must be well smart and good at maths"-type clichès.
Wow, you're completely misinterpreting that. Mensa is a small, dim constellation in the southern sky, named after the Latin word for "table." (The organization you're thinking of was also named after that word, to indicate that it's a round-table organization where all within it are equal.) Alpha Mensae is its brightest star, although it's the dimmest "Alpha" star in the sky. (The brightest star in a constellation is Alpha, second-brightest is Beta, etc.) It's pretty much the same type of star as the Sun, making it a plausible candidate for an inhabited planet. Although Spock, Messiah! claimed Sulu was from Alpha Mensa (sic) V, not III, which might be tricky for a Sunlike star. The planets would have to be more closely packed.
Oops!
I don't know what to say
.
Apologies to the authors of Spock, Messiah! I guess
.
I don't know what to say
.Apologies to the authors of Spock, Messiah! I guess
.
Oops!
I don't know what to say
Apologies to the authors of Spock, Messiah! I guess
There are plenty of other reasons to poke fun at the authors of Spock, Messiah! which is chockablock with dumb and bizarre moments, starting with the silly !!EXCLAMATION!! !!POINT!! in the title!!!!!111!11!!1111!!!!
It was an early hommage to the SHOUTING SPOCK! meme. 
Well, the first Bantam novel was Spock Must Die! This was just following in the same pattern.
Some novels have the odd habit of giving Kirk and Spock a permanent mental bond. It's usually the Marshak/Culbreath K/S ones, but it's cropped up in the Shatnerverse (and perhaps others) as well.
The way it's described, I can't help but recall the Vulcan marraige bond from old novels like The IDIC Epidemic - they can tell that the other is alive, and often know when the other is in danger.
Kirk and Spock...bond-mates??
The way it's described, I can't help but recall the Vulcan marraige bond from old novels like The IDIC Epidemic - they can tell that the other is alive, and often know when the other is in danger.
Kirk and Spock...bond-mates??
^What, like Scott Summers and Jean Grey?
Empress Sato resurrecting Archer in Glass Empires. Her marriage to Shran made no sense to me either.
Basically, I'd say that's it exactly.
Similar threads
