Movie website. When the film came out.
IDW's "Vulcan's Vengeance" (ST Ongoing)
- Thread starter Therin of Andor
- Start date
Can't seem to find any mention of that anywhere.
Now, the Star Trek: Star Charts book places Earth directly on the line separating the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, but with its sector firmly on the Alpha Quadrant side.
Star Charts took that into account by saying that during TOS, the term was used to describe sector quadrants back then.
TOS pretty consistently used "quadrant" to refer to a local region of space like what we'd now call a sector, for instance "The Squire of Gothos" (which specifically names "quadrant 904," of all things), "A Taste of Armageddon," "Errand of Mercy," "The Trouble With Tribbles," "Journey to Babel," and "The Cloud Minders," as well as the animated "More Tribbles, More Troubles" and "How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth." "The Alternative Factor" suggested that a quadrant encompassed "everything within range of our instruments," but we don't know what the writer imagined that range to be, so it's compatible with the others. And "Wink of an Eye" referred to "an outer quadrant of the galaxy."
The modern Greek-letter quadrant notation was first introduced in reality in TNG: "The Price." Earlier TNG episodes used a variety of different ways of referring to quadrants, sometimes using it much as TOS did, for instance in "Heart of Glory" (which took place in "quadrant nine" of the Neutral Zone) and "Conspiracy" (where they detected a disturbance "in a nearby quadrant"). "When the Bough Breaks" used "quadrant one" in a context that indicated it was a local, in-system reference only, perhaps defined relative to the ship. "The Child" and "Where Silence Has Lease" mentioned an uncharted region called the Morgana Quadrant (a rare bit of early continuity, since they set out for it at the end of one episode and were still en route at the start of the next). "Pen Pals" references the Drema quadrant as a subset of the Selcundi Drema sector.
Of course, a lot of this is inconsistent because they were making it up as they went, and naturally the galactic quadrant system that later emerged would end up getting retconned into earlier time periods -- and indeed "Delta Quadrant" was used in Enterprise's Borg episode "Regeneration" in the same sense it's used in the 24th century, so it follows that the usage would've been around in the TOS era as well. Although the next canonical usage of the Greek-letter quadrant system, chronologically speaking, isn't until The Undiscovered Country in 2293 (the Excelsior is returning from a survey of the Beta Quadrant).
Interresting twist at the end of part one.
If I recall, TNG postulated that Sol straddled the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, didn't it?
I don't think tNG did this directly-- that was a supposition by Okuda to explain how the Enterprise could be "the only ship in the quadrant." Which doesn't make sense for a whole host of reasons.
Michael and I tried to use a TOS-style quadrant reference in A Choice of Catastrophes, but the editor nixed it.
Michael and I tried to use a TOS-style quadrant reference in A Choice of Catastrophes, but the editor nixed it.
I'm not sure "quadrant" is ever a useful designator, unless you're actually dealing with something like DS9 or VGR involving two radically different regions of the galaxy. The Greek-letter quadrant system is just on too vast a scale to matter to anything going on within the Federation proper; it's like giving directions to a location in London by specifying whether it's in the Eastern or Western Hemisphere. And the TOS/early TNG system using "quadrant" interchangeably with "sector" is ridiculous because it ignores the fact that something can only have four quadrants by definition. "Quadrant 907?" Gibberish!
Even the reference in "Pen Pals" that treats a quadrant as a subset of a sector, or the "When the Bough Breaks" version that seems to define it relative to the ship, doesn't make much sense in 3-dimensional space. Two axes divide a plane into quadrants, but in space that ignores the third dimension. When dealing with the entire galaxy, that's okay, because the shape of the stellar disk is approximately 2-dimensional, its thickness no more than 1 percent of its diameter. But on a smaller scale, like a subdivision of a sector or of the space surrounding a ship, you should take all three axes into account and divide the region into octants (eighths). 1980's Star Trek Maps tried to fudge this by dividing the UFP into Quadrant 1 North, Quadrant 1 South, Quadrant 2 North, Quadrant 2 South, etc. But that's awkward, using a quadrant notation for what are actually octants. And the TOS references seemed to indicate that "quadrants" were a lot smaller and more numerous.
Even the reference in "Pen Pals" that treats a quadrant as a subset of a sector, or the "When the Bough Breaks" version that seems to define it relative to the ship, doesn't make much sense in 3-dimensional space. Two axes divide a plane into quadrants, but in space that ignores the third dimension. When dealing with the entire galaxy, that's okay, because the shape of the stellar disk is approximately 2-dimensional, its thickness no more than 1 percent of its diameter. But on a smaller scale, like a subdivision of a sector or of the space surrounding a ship, you should take all three axes into account and divide the region into octants (eighths). 1980's Star Trek Maps tried to fudge this by dividing the UFP into Quadrant 1 North, Quadrant 1 South, Quadrant 2 North, Quadrant 2 South, etc. But that's awkward, using a quadrant notation for what are actually octants. And the TOS references seemed to indicate that "quadrants" were a lot smaller and more numerous.
Okay, if we're going with the idea that the galaxy was mapped differently in the TOS era or in the JJ-verse or even in both, then I can put my fanboy hackles down. The throwaway line about the bar that was full of Andorians and Starfleet officers being in the Delta Quadrant was the only part that really rubbed me the wrong way.
Otherwise, I thought it was great to finally get a totally new story set in this universe. Some very interesting twists. Looking forward to part two, and hoping we get another new story before issue 15!
ETA: Okay, I'm late getting to this thread, but I only just my copy.
Otherwise, I thought it was great to finally get a totally new story set in this universe. Some very interesting twists. Looking forward to part two, and hoping we get another new story before issue 15!
ETA: Okay, I'm late getting to this thread, but I only just my copy.
^I'm fairly sure that the 360-degree "reverse course" order wasn't given by Kirk, but by some other starship captain. Unfortunately, I can't remember who, and I've already burned up enough of my time searching through old issues (not for the line itself, but for the letter published several issues later that pointed it out and offered several humorous explanations). I thought it was in "The Mirror Universe Saga" somewhere, but it doesn't seem to be.
Also, I'm pretty sure it wasn't an order to retreat, but rather a response to a distress call or incoming orders. But then, my memory of it is clearly imperfect.
Also, I'm pretty sure it wasn't an order to retreat, but rather a response to a distress call or incoming orders. But then, my memory of it is clearly imperfect.
Mmmm, I thought it was Kirk's order to Sulu during the Grond vs Ajir storyline. It was definitely a story reprinted as a DC trade paperback, 'cos I was wondering if it would be corrected. It wasn't.
I just got around to reading this today myself. I thought it was actually pretty good, a decent story and a nice change of pace from the usual "let's adapt TOS episodes with the characters drawn to resemble the new actors" of the previous issues. It was cool to see Vulcan starships from Enterprise, I really dig those designs. So, yeah an excellent comic, they should continue with these original stories and actually do something new in the new timeline. Now that Trek XII is filming it shouldn't be too hard to do original stories without stepping on Bad Robot's toes. Unfortunately, I know this is shortlived since in a couple of months we get a comic remake/adaptation of Return of the Archons.
Still just as hard. JJ's staff won't want to be revealing too much of the new movie's plot to IDW's writers.
"Can we do this?"
"Sorry, no."
"How about this?"
"Sorry, no."
"This?"
"Sorry, no."
And so on.
I found it, and you were closer to right than I was. It's actually in the issue right after Diane Duane's Ajir/Grond story, issue 26, which is the second of the Spock/Surak issues written by Bob Rozakis. And it is Kirk who gives the order; the Surak gets in trouble at a planet the Excelsior (which Kirk commanded at the time in the comic) had recently left, so Kirk orders, "Mr. Sulu, a 360° turn and plot a course back to Verdee." The letter I was looking for is in issue 30, and there are actually two of them. The first is by Darrel L. Boatz and says:
The second is by Karen Rhodes, and she also offers seven possible explanations:
According to Bob Greenberger's lettercol notes, they got a bunch of letters on the mistake, and those were just their two favorites.
Now I wonder how I got the idea that it was in the MU Saga.
It's interesting to look through those letter columns and see how similar they were to the Internet today. There was even a debate, in 1986, about whether TAS should count as a "real" part of Star Trek.
Mike Johnson (and Roberto Ocri) is a Bad Robot employee to begin with. That's why he's writing the ongoing series (and why he wrote the other movie tie-in comics).
^Still, Abrams is notoriously secretive. It's not a given that every employee of Bad Robot is in the loop about the details of the movie. So Therin's little scene there might not be too far off the mark, except that it would be a Q&A between Johnson and Orci, most likely.
I enjoyed the first issue a lot. I hope they can keep up the quality and the twists and turns. I'm glad the writers are starting to explore and play around with the freedom the alternate universe provides them. Though I recall a reference to the Delta Quadrant. I wonder if that was a mistake.