Italics in New TNG Books

[Therin of Andor]

Scott Pearson said:
Such are the esoteric decisions editors make behind the scenes to appease the gods of style geekitude. Which I say as an editor who has made many similar decisions.

And then, after weeks of agonizing about such decisions, the book (or journal) comes out, there is great joy (for about two minutes) as you hold it in your hands for the first time, and then someone says, "You really should have considered..."

Or the first missed typo shows itself.

 

[Maestro]

I want to say that there was a period, if ever so brief, where the comm dialogue wasn't italicized, but I can't remember when, nor which books. I have noticed a return to it in the books I've read recently. I don't much care for it, but c'est la vie.

 

[Scott Pearson]

Therin of Andor said:

Scott Pearson said:
Such are the esoteric decisions editors make behind the scenes to appease the gods of style geekitude. Which I say as an editor who has made many similar decisions.

And then, after weeks of agonizing about such decisions, the book (or journal) comes out, there is great joy (for about two minutes) as you hold it in your hands for the first time, and then someone says, "You really should have considered..."

Or the first missed typo shows itself.

Ain't that the truth, brother.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Christopher said:
Also it just helps give a clearer sense of who's where in a scene, so the reader doesn't lose track of the fact that a certain character is on a com channel rather than in the room.

For the life of me, I can't remember, but wasn't there a time when the ship's computer used to be in italics too to convey that it was disembodied or something?

 

[TGTheodore]

Yes, I also italicized the computer's voice.

--Ted

 

[David Mack]

^ I do that, as well.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I like having the comm conversations italicized. What slightly irks me is seing "starship" italicized before a ship's name, such as Starship Enterprise. "Starship" is not part of the name... it's not the U.S.S. Starship Enterprise. I don't think you'd see references in military novels to the Aircraft Carrier Enterprise, would you?

Not a big deal, though. I assume this is another house style. Does it have anything to do with "Starship Enterprise" being a trademarked term?

 

[Dayton Ward]

^ Exactly.

 

[captcalhoun]

FYI, Being Human features a com conversation between Robin and Morgan, from Robin's POV and Morgan's half is not italicized.

BTW, I *hate* it when they say they're from the Federation Starship Voyager.


NO! you're from the U.S.S. Voyager!

 

[David Mack]

^ There's nothing we can do about it -- it's a trademark issue, and for consistency's sake, it has to be applied to all ships in the fictional universe.

I work around it by not using that phrase whenever possible.

 

[Therin of Andor]

^ That form usually only turns up on the book covers, not within the stories.

 

[Christopher]

Therin of Andor said:
^ That form usually only turns up on the book covers, not within the stories.

If so, it's only because we try to avoid using it. How many times have we heard the line "I'm Captain James T. Kirk/Jean-Luc Picard/Jonathan Archer of the starship Enterprise"? And yes, if we write a line like that in a book, house rules require it to be rendered as Starship Enterprise instead.

 

[DarkHelmet]

In regards to the OP, I don't think italics is more of a strain to read.

 

[Scott Pearson]

Christopher said:

Therin of Andor said:
^ That form usually only turns up on the book covers, not within the stories.

If so, it's only because we try to avoid using it. How many times have we heard the line "I'm Captain James T. Kirk/Jean-Luc Picard/Jonathan Archer of the starship Enterprise"? And yes, if we write a line like that in a book, house rules require it to be rendered as Starship Enterprise instead.

And usually it's entirely superfluous, as the person they're communicating with certainly realizes the big thingy hanging in space is a starship . . .

 

[BrotherBenny]

I would have said that using the qualifier "Federation starship" is actually to identify the vessel to an alien (hostile or otherwise) commander/representative, rather than it being a superfluous piece of dialogue.

 

[Stevil2001]

captcalhoun said:
FYI, Being Human features a com conversation between Robin and Morgan, from Robin's POV and Morgan's half is not italicized.

BTW, I *hate* it when they say they're from the Federation Starship Voyager.


NO! you're from the U.S.S. Voyager!

To be fair, that stands for United Star Ship Voyager.

 

[Trent Roman]

^ I thought the middle "S." stood for "Starfleet"? For that matter, I also thought the "U." was meant to abbreviate United Federation of Planets as a whole, such that: U.S.S = Government/Service/Vessel.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Turtletrekker]

Has there ever been an "official" explantion for what the "U.S.S." stands for? If not, then like B.J. Hunnicut's initials on M*A*S*H, it can stand for anything you want.

 

[Christopher]

Steve Mollmann said:

captcalhoun said:
BTW, I *hate* it when they say they're from the Federation Starship Voyager.


NO! you're from the U.S.S. Voyager!

To be fair, that stands for United Star Ship Voyager.

Actually, USS isn't supposed to be italicized either. It's a description, not part of the name. If it were done properly, without trademark rules getting in the way, it would be "the starship USS Voyager." (Properly, I don't think there should be periods in the initialism either.)

Frankly, though, the whole "United Star Ship" thing was just an excuse for a bit of patriotism on Roddenberry's part, since "USS" is a term used for US Navy ships, and there are many other ship prefixes in use around the world, even within the US Navy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_prefix

I think a more plausible prefix would be something like UFPS, "United Federation of Planets Starship."

Has there ever been an "official" explantion for what the "U.S.S." stands for?

The ship was frequently called "the United Space Ship Enterprise" -- in "The Cage," "Space Seed," "The Gamesters of Triskelion," "Patterns of Force," "Assignment: Earth," and "Elaan of Troyius." "United Star Ship" was used in "The Squire of Gothos" and "Court-martial." (At least according to the closed-captioning transcripts at http://www.voyager.cz/tos/transcripts.htm .)

 

[captcalhoun]

FSS like in Q&A...