I just finished The Good that Men Do. Some thoughts.

[Ethros]

Re: I just finished The Good that Men Do. Some thoughts. *D

Sci said:
...which seems to imply that Alpha Centauri (referred to as a UE colony in either Season Three or Four of ENT, I can't recall) achieved independence some time between ENT and the founding of the Federation.

I'll just point out, I believe it was ENT's Season 3 episode "Twilight", when T'Pol tell Archer the Xindi not only destroyed Earth, but other human colonies too, including Mars, Vega Colony, and Alpha Centauri
(I watched it the other day)


One thing I'll say about this book, thank god the authors didn't go by that old misconception that Romulans didn't have warp drive prior to BOT.
So then I always a bit peeved they did go for the whole Australia thing. It was an example!
But anyway, thats been discussed to death too, so lets not get into that again

 

[Sci]

Re: I just finished The Good that Men Do. Some thoughts. *D

Vulcanian said:
I thought we weren't supposed to see a Romulan until Balance of Terror?

"Balance of Terror" establishes that it was believed by the 23rd Century public at large that no Human or ally had ever seen a Romulan. The Good That Men Do establishes that a small number of Humans and Vulcans had seen a Romulan but kept their appearance a secret in order to avoid spreading anti-Vulcan and anti-Coalition hysteria throughout United Earth. I see no substantive contradiction, m'self.

 

[Vulcanian]

Re: I just finished The Good that Men Do. Some thoughts. *D

Ok I can see that ships were seen during the war. They should have left the prototype birds of prey unseen and not used in the mainstream.

Only a few people saw them and didn't tell about it? I can see that Trip was recruitced by Section 31 (nicknamed by him is a nice touch ) and never came back, I don't have a problem with that. It's just battling a 22nd century BoP and seeing Romulans doesn't sit well with me.

 

[Christopher]

Re: I just finished The Good that Men Do. Some thoughts. *D

Vulcanian said:
Ok I can see that ships were seen during the war. They should have left the prototype birds of prey unseen and not used in the mainstream.

As I said before, it wasn't the ship in "Balance of Terror" that was a prototype, it was its new cloaking technology and plasma torpedoes.

 

[Sci]

Re: I just finished The Good that Men Do. Some thoughts. *D

Vulcanian said:
Only a few people saw them and didn't tell about it? I can see that Trip was recruitced by Section 31 (nicknamed by him is a nice touch ) and never came back, I don't have a problem with that. It's just battling a 22nd century BoP and seeing Romulans doesn't sit well with me.

Again, "Balance of Terror" itself established that United Earth fought against 22nd Century Romulan ships. "Bird of Prey" rather obviously is not a specific class name but a type name, and given that "Balance of Terror" established that Romulan ships had birds painted on them, it kinda makes sense that they would have been called "Bird of Prey" in the 22nd Century, no?

There's no continuity violation.

 

[pookha]

Re: I just finished The Good that Men Do. Some thoughts. *D

[
and think about it..
that a cover up happened to keep the connection between vulcans and romulans being general knowledge makes more sesne then not one romulan, even a body that was spaced in a battle was not seen.

 

[JD]

Re: I just finished The Good that Men Do. Some thoughts. *D

I always figured they wore masks or something, so that even if humans and their allies had seen a Romulan they still wouldn't have known what they looked like.

 

[Trent Roman]

Re: I just finished The Good that Men Do. Some thoughts. *D

pookha said:
and think about it..
that a cover up happened to keep the connection between vulcans and romulans being general knowledge makes more sesne then not one romulan, even a body that was spaced in a battle was not seen.

I disagree. Ignorance is more likely than conspiracy. I'd be sooner willing to believe that the Romulan War was entirely ship-based and never involved personal combat than a cabal of shadowy figures keeping something as major as Romulan ancestry secret for a hundred years. In fact, the execution of the scene in which Tucker discusses this with his superiors was, in my opinion, one of those painfully jarring moments in the book where the authors try to wink to the audience.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Vulcanian]

Finished reading The Good That Men Do, too.

I was lied to that this was a new standard in trek lit to marvel young and old as the heinous slander of "these Are the Voyages..." is finally put to rest.

Yep

Were do I start? I love how they slipped in a couple gay characters, and made marriage between man and a woman on Andoria an "abomination". Excellent slights, but did every one have to be so god damned girly requiring ten pages more to described every single new feeling they were all having?

What?! Where did you get that from?

The Romulans had a working cloak mounted on a full sized Starship in the second season episode Minefield, despite constant claims that they did not, or that Kirk would be surprised by this technology in a hundred years and change.

Nope, that was a prototype and it failed do to antimatter failure because of the kinky cloak.

NuRomulans look nothing like Vulcans. That's a huge lump of plastic pasted in their brow.

Don't remember that explaination in the book.

Trips death made more sense

Agreed, his death was laughable.

O! here's the real kicker! Vulcan ships in Enterprise can already travel at Warp 7. They're fantastic. The new ships in These are the Voyages were all about breaking warp 8, which were probably the Daedalus design. Mothballfleet, decomissioning?

No, the fastest Vulcan ships could only go Warp 6.5. The ships in TATV (likely Daedalus-class) were part of a warp 7 engine to suceed the NX-class.