• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Full Circle Review Thread (Spoilers)

What I really liked about this was that it sets up something for the crew to DO. Sets it apart from the other series (although I guess Titan is taking a somewhat similar line at the moment, just not in a convoy), gets the crew doing what they are good at, and also allows for some VOY tie-ins as they get further out, can follow up on great storyline ideas from the series that got cut short due to the 42 minute "solve it and move on" necessity of the tv series.

Well, the Voyager fleet's mission isn't quite the same as Titan's, because it has a more specific goal: not just "let's see what's out there," but to confirm whether the Borg really are gone and to assess the state of the Delta Quadrant in the wake of their departure. Still, I'm sure there will be a lot of first contacts and discoveries along the way.

As for followups on old storylines, it would be cool to see some eventually, but the DQ is very big and Voyager only traversed a few narrow strips of it. There are a lot more new species to be found out there than familiar ones.
 
^Agreed, it was just in a more general "ship out exploring far away from regular StarFleet/AQ contact". The second half of the quoted post goes into some of the other excellent opportunities for follow-ups eventually. They skipped the last leg of the journey, so unless they Slipstream past it all, it'll be generally new stuff at first, I imagine, getting more familiar as time passes...
 
^Agreed, it was just in a more general "ship out exploring far away from regular StarFleet/AQ contact".

I'm not sure how fast slipstream is, but it's possible that the Voyager fleet might be effectively closer to the Federation in terms of travel time than Titan is. I don't recall what their communication options are, though.

The second half of the quoted post goes into some of the other excellent opportunities for follow-ups eventually. They skipped the last leg of the journey, so unless they Slipstream past it all, it'll be generally new stuff at first, I imagine, getting more familiar as time passes...

They skipped a lot more than that. The DQ is a quarter of the galaxy, and they only traversed a narrow, roughly straight-line swath of it. And even in that vanishingly narrow swath, they skipped over huge portions -- 9500 light-years in "The Gift," 300 (net) in "Hope and Fear," 2500 in "Night," 10,000 in "Timeless," 20,000 in "Dark Frontier," 200 in "Dragon's Teeth," 600 in "The Voyager Conspiracy." Going by Star Charts, of the roughly 46,000 light-years between the Caretaker's Array and the Borg transwarp hub, Voyager actually only traversed about 2,600. That means even along that roughly straight-line course, they only actually explored less than six percent of it. And that's probably less than a tenth of a percent of the DQ as a whole.
 
^Agreed, it was just in a more general "ship out exploring far away from regular StarFleet/AQ contact".

I'm not sure how fast slipstream is, but it's possible that the Voyager fleet might be effectively closer to the Federation in terms of travel time than Titan is. I don't recall what their communication options are, though.

That reminds me of a small detail that stuck out. On the show, by season 7, they had regular, real-time communication with the Alpha Quadrant. However, when they are talking about sending the news to Neelix about Janeway's death, there is the implication that doesn't exist any more. Did I miss something there?
 
They seem to place a lot of faith in slipstream technology, considering it's still very new technology for Starfleet.

It could potentially prove to be unreliable, leaving Voyager stranded in the Delta Quadrant again.
 
They seem to place a lot of faith in slipstream technology, considering it's still very new technology for Starfleet.

It could potentially prove to be unreliable, leaving Voyager stranded in the Delta Quadrant again.

Man, did you just give away the plot to Unworthy? :)
 
^ YouTube's blocked at my present location, but I'm guessing those are mash-ups of some kind?

Yeah, those are scenes from Voyager with the Gilligian Island theme playing. I guess given the thematic closeness between the series it's no wonder there are quite a few of those out there.
 
I just started Full Circle yesterday (I'm on Chapter 2 or 3) and I was just wondering where the mirror that Chakotay wanted to give Janeway in the prolouge came from?

Yes, it was "Isabo's Shirt."

I just finished the book this morning. I really enjoyed.

Yeah!

Interesting turn of events with Seven as well. Glad to see she did not just become human and all is well with the world.

Where the fun have been in that?

I liked the set up of the next book and am truly looking forward to it. That is something I have not said about a VOY-R book before.

Tee-hee-hee. (Mine is not quite as evil a laugh as Keith's.)

Just finished this one, enjoyed it a lot...Well done, enjoyable story, and it read very quickly for such a long book with so much packed into it!

Very cool.

Is she really that much more protective of her crew than Picard or Kirk?

I'm with Bill on this one. I think the specific circumstances of Voyager's crew plus Janeway's personality definitely equal more protective in Janeway's case. Again, we're talking apples, oranges and plums. Saying Janeway is more protective does not minimize the feelings Kirk or Picard had for their crews. These were all different people who bring different experiences, emotional strenths and weaknesses, etc. to the table. It does all of them a disservice to try and lump them together and make generalizations. I'm not sure why a comparison to Kirk or Picard is necessary here. She is who she is, completely apart from them.


You can always separate Janeway and Chakotay from the rest of the crew just like Riker and Troi have left Picard's crew and Worf went to DS9.

You can always do anything you like. The only question is, what does that choice serve? In the context of the bigger story for Voyager, separating Janeway and Chakotay from the rest of the crew either means that every time we're telling a story about what's happening on the ship and what's happening wherever they are...which seems lame and forced. Or, we stop telling stories about the rest of the crew and just focus on Janeway and Chakotay....which seems ridiculously limited. Or we stop telling stories about Janeway and Chakotay and just assume they lived happily ever after...which also seems ridiculously limited. And, as has been pointed out by others, why repeat what we've already done? You use these possibilities as evidence that different choices could have been made. No one is ever going to argue that. That's always the case. But, for me, when I see something like these suggestions that has been done, especially incredibly recently, that makes it significantly less likely that such a story is going to fire my imagination.

Killing the captain so the crew can "live" seems a bit extreme, imo.

It does. Which is why it didn't enter anyone's mind who was actually part of making the decision. You keep searching for a single definitive answer. Why did Janeway have to die? And you keep coming up with progressively more absurd answers to your own question.

The answer is simple. She died because the story of her death was something the editors and writers were interested in exploring. Not any capain's death. Not a woman captain's death. Admiral Kathryn Janeway's death. Her. Specifically. This character. She is unique in all of Trek for so many reasons beyond her gender. The impact of her death at this time on the people she served with is likewise unique. I'm not saying good or bad. You can't objectively get there from here. You will choose to like or dislike the choice. But please spare us the pointless speculations on the real reason this choice was made. It's just not that complicated or revealing.

I just finished the book this morning. What a great ending but also a great start to the return of exploring the Delta Quadrant.

Yeah!

I can't remember right off which book it was that featured Kahless as being a hologram on Qo'noS.

That was Keith's brilliant A Time for War, A Time for Peace


I do have a question regarding Tom through. I think this was answered somewhere in the thread but is Tom a full commander now instead of a lieutenant commander? I'm only asking cause near the end of the book noone really said lieutenant commander to him but more as in commander. I hope I make sense there.

Nope. He's Lt. Commander throughout but shortened to Commander sometimes when directly addressed.

That reminds me of a small detail that stuck out. On the show, by season 7, they had regular, real-time communication with the Alpha Quadrant. However, when they are talking about sending the news to Neelix about Janeway's death, there is the implication that doesn't exist any more. Did I miss something there?

My understanding of that technology was that it wasn't quite real time, though it was more regular than any other point in the show. And it was done through project Pathfinder, which was reallocated after Voyager returned. They can still get messages back and forth, but it takes even longer now than it did when Pathfinder was pointed right at them.

Man, did you just give away the plot to Unworthy? :)

Nope. :)
 
And you've been told why plans were postponed by editorial changes, why they chose to take their time to do it right rather than rushing out a new book, and why Full Circle was postponed by a year because of Destiny. You know there was no deliberate neglect involved, that the vagaries of publishing can cause unforeseen delays in any series for any number of reasons. So not only is your statement untrue, you must surely know it's untrue. Yet you said it anyway.

I never said the neglect was deliberate but the neglect was still there - in comparison with the other series.
 
I never said the neglect was deliberate but the neglect was still there - in comparison with the other series.

Which, as I've demonstrated, is also an untrue statement. Some series did get more attention than VGR, but DS9 got exactly as much and others got less. It's just the vagaries of publishing.
 
I have my fingers crossed that since we are returning to the Delta Quadrant, we will see the Voth and Species 8472 again, AT LEAST. Although, I guess 8472 may no longer even appear in this universe anymore since it was the Borg who provoked them in the first place, and they're gone now.

It would also be nice to see the Vaudwaar again, since they only appeared briefly in 'Dragon's Teeth'.
 
That's an assumption on your part.
What's an assumption on my part? You quoted my entire post, and I have no idea what part you're talking about. And the rest of your post is complete non sequitur.

Let me help you out here then. When you claim you know what the other poster knows or is thinking then you're makeng an assumption.
Fair point. I did assume you were paying minimal attention to what others were saying to you as part of this dialogue. My bad.
 
I have my fingers crossed that since we are returning to the Delta Quadrant, we will see the Voth and Species 8472 again, AT LEAST. Although, I guess 8472 may no longer even appear in this universe anymore since it was the Borg who provoked them in the first place, and they're gone now.

It would also be nice to see the Vaudwaar again, since they only appeared briefly in 'Dragon's Teeth'.

8472, and their appearances in *our* universe, were incredibly enough resolved in the Myriad Universes tale Places Of Exile, which took place in an *alternate* universe, because Christopher is just that awesome.

Seriously, if you haven't read that, read it; it's a goddamn AWESOME 8472 story, among many other goddamn awesome things.
 
What's an assumption on my part? You quoted my entire post, and I have no idea what part you're talking about. And the rest of your post is complete non sequitur.

Let me help you out here then. When you claim you know what the other poster knows or is thinking then you're makeng an assumption.
Fair point. I did assume you were paying minimal attention to what others were saying to you as part of this dialogue. My bad.

The thing is I hadn't posted much in this thread until recently so it threw me off that you were making an assumption based on... beats me! ;)

Why did Janeway have to die? And you keep coming up with progressively more absurd answers to your own question.

Again, I've just started posting in this thread recently and have been reacting to other posts more than putting forth my own theories so I'm curious where you've seen these "absurd answers".

Look, I make no secret of the fact I think it was an asinine decision and it ticked me off. However, I'm also enough of a realist to know that even if there were regrets at Pocket for doing this it would be bad marketing/publicity to admit to that. As for the writers, a paycheck is a paycheck. I get that and it's not personal.

I know I never was and never will be part of the demographic Trek books are aiming for. I get that too. So why am I here? It's a discussion board and I like to discuss topics that interest me. While I know I can't change policy I do find it fascinating that Pocket would kill off a character when there is a market for books featuring her. No, it's not the largest market in the world but in this economy who can be picky? Is it art over profit? When is it ever? ;)

Anyway, it's a phenomenon I find fascinating. It's really no more or less than that.
 
Last edited:
However, I'm also enough of a realist to know that even if there were regrets at Pocket for doing this it would be bad marketing/publicity to admit to that. As for the writers, a paycheck is a paycheck. I get that and it's not personal.

Seriously? You actually think you can insinuate that the explanations you've been given by the authors participating in this thread are self-serving lies and then get away with claiming "it's not personal"?
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top