Long Lost or Unknown Family

[2takesfrakes]

***Please, forgive the typo in the Title of this thread, because I can't correct it, so it seems. Thank you!***

Various (main) STAR TREK characters have been revealed to have relations unknown to either us, to them, or to their friends and coworkers, throughout the franchise. Spock had an unknown brother in Sybok. Kirk had an unknown son in David. Sulu had an unknown daughter in Demora. Worf had an unknown son in Alexander. Data had an unknown 'brother' in B4 ... Yar and Troi had unknown siblings ... and so on.. Seldom, were they ever significant, in any way. Most just seemed to serve as a one-off. Do you feel that this "device" was overused in STAR TREK? Did it ever hold interest for you, when it was employed?

 

[Nerys Myk]

It's a time honored trope in fiction. I've no problem with it.

 

[The Old Mixer]

***Please, forgive the typo in the Title of this thread, because I can't correct it, so it seems. Thank you!***

<--- Can and have.

 

[Greg Cox]

The long-lost thing is perhaps overdone but unknown strikes me as reasonable. People have siblings in real life, but how familiar are we with our friends' and coworkers' extended families? I can think of lots of colleagues whose siblings I know little or nothing about.

And it's not as though the future is going to be inhabited solely only children.

(Says the oldest of five kids.)

 

[-Brett-]

Unknown to the audience or unknown to the character? I don't expect to know everything about a characters personal life, so siblings or the occasional kid turning up that I didn't know about is fine with me.

Unknown to the character? Yeah, that trope is kind of tired.

 

[BillJ]

I have a half-brother I didn't know about until I was 18. Though Trek has probably gone to the unknown family well a little more often than I personally like.

 

[Timo]

How many "unknown to a character who is the parent" examples do we have? Alexander, and only until the mother tells the father.

There's no reason to think Kirk didn't know about David, say. Or even that he didn't know about Demora for that matter, as he's more bemused than surprised that Sulu "found the time". Conversely, there's no reason to think Sulu didn't know about David.

Data did know about his siblings, but he was amnesiac for the better part of his life. It's too bad that they used the same excuse for Troi...

As for Ishara Yar, we know Tasha never spoke of her - not that her existence would have been unknown. And indeed our heroes have every excuse not to have records on Ishara, who lives on a rebel world, yet their doubts towards Ishara are on whether she's the real deal or an impostor, not explicitly on whether Tasha even had a sister.

The mechanisms by which these folks were "unknown" are different enough for me to accept them all individually and together as dramatically well-working. Except for the sibling memory block "trope" with Data and Troi.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Greg Cox]

Unknown to the audience or unknown to the character? I don't expect to know everything about a characters personal life, so siblings or the occasional kid turning up that I didn't know about is fine with me.

Unknown to the character? Yeah, that trope is kind of tired.

I'm reminded of Sherlock Holmes, who never mentioned that he had a brother to Watson until there was an occasion to do so . . ..

But, yes, unknown to the character and unknown to the audience are entirely different things. That's a nice way to put it.

 

[Tenacity]

Does Sisko's sister Judith count as "long lost" or just out of sight?

 

[The Old Mixer]

There's no reason to think Kirk didn't know about David, say.

In fact, he very obviously did know. "Is that David?" "I did what you wanted...I stayed away. Why didn't you tell him?"

 

[Greg Cox]

In fact, he very obviously did know. "Is that David?" "I did what you wanted...I stayed away. Why didn't you tell him?"

Exactly. He simply didn't recognize David at first.

 

[Seven of Five]

I think the only time I got fed up with unknown family (both known and and unknown to the characters) was TNG's last season. Troi had a sister we didn't know about, Data had a mother, Picard thinks he has a son, and of course we see Geordi's parents, Worf's foster brother, and we hear about Crusher's grandmother. It was all a bit much, and the mediocre stories that introduced the new characters didn't help.

 

[Finn]

^My issue with TNG is that by the end of the show, every main character has a dead parent or both.

 

[Greg Cox]

What I find amusing is that, almost always, our main character starts out estranged from their relative.

Apparently even after we've conquered war, poverty, racism, sexism and so on, people still can't get along with their families.

 

[Paradise City]

Data having a mother was this trope stepping over the line. Not that it was a bad episode. The actual episode was a courageous effort to overcome the corny premise of Data having a "mom". Sub Rosa is the exact reverse of that. We know about Crusher's granny from the start but the episode itself was just horrible and slapstick.

And the whole alleged son finding Picard stuffy is plausible and everything but it's a bit old hat, pedestrian and predictable. I liked Worf's foster brother episode and we know about him because Worf mentioned him in the first season. So I liked that we met him.

But all in all I think they handled this trope well. Most of them, had traumatic backgrounds to one degree or another. Siblings might very well pop up from time to time and it wasn't so conspicuously overdone as to annoy me anyway.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

People aren't perfect. That said, it would be interesting to have someone with a close-knit, loving, big family.

Data also has two other older brothers. http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Unnamed_artificial_lifeforms

 

[Greg Cox]

People aren't perfect. That said, it would be interesting to have someone with a close-knit, loving, big family.

The Siskos are probably the most functional family in Starfleet, even if Mom turned out to be a Prophet . ....

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Space is disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence.

It's easy to see how Starfleet families can be shattered.

 

[Tracy Trek]

The Siskos are probably the most functional family in Starfleet, even if Mom turned out to be a Prophet . ....

Didn't Joseph re-marry after Sarah (was that her name) was no longer under the control of the Prophet? And Ben grew up believing his step-mom was his real mother.

 

[The Mighty Monkey of Mim]

There's no reason to think Kirk didn't know about David, say. Or even that he didn't know about Demora for that matter, as he's more bemused than surprised that Sulu "found the time".

@The Old Mixer already covered the David situation, but as to Demora, it was specifically stated that Kirk had met her (at least) once before, 12 years prior (so sometime between TMP and TWOK).