Lost era round 2?

[Deranged Nasat]

War is drama, and drama makes for a good book.

Exploration is drama, too. To explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man/one has gone before.

Then I stand by my second idea that what we need is a "this is how {choose a planet} winded up joining the Federation" story. There's a fair few new faces in the Federation come the 2360s than there were in the 2290s. Let's see the stories of some of them. Lots of world-building, much potential for discovery/first contact/exploration/science/wonder, and I get my fill of expanded Trek history without need for Talarians shooting stuff .

 

[timothy]

I would Love to see enterprise B & C stories maybe as an antholooogie . and more on the klingon - cardasian conflict . and , what about a the next generations lost era series . there what three years from where the tv series ended and generations begin .

 

[Deranged Nasat]

While we're on the subject of lost eras, and moving beyond The Lost Era proper, I'll repeat what I posted last time the "which unseen stories should be told?" question arose:

I want a definitive Xindi story, or even better a Xindi series (I know, it'll never happen).

I very much enjoyed the Xindi. Although my opinion of Season Three of Enterprise is mixed, I did like the internal dynamics of the Xindi Council and its member races. There's still a lot of potential there, I think, especially seeing as they supposedly wind up in the UFP (The Sky's The Limit supports this with a cameo Xindi character in the Federation government). Their internal politics would make for quite a gripping story arc in Trek lit (plenty of ambiguity, interesting aliens, lots of potential for political intrigue, drama, new areas of space to be fleshed out, action - I'm sure they could make it appeal to everyone in one way or another).

I really liked the presentation of a multi-species organization that is always this close to falling apart and which is essentially a five-way racial feud sitting around pretending to be an alliance, yet which is trying. Despite everything, they seemed to have a genuine sense of loyalty to one another, to the idea of Xindi as a collection of races, and they were trying to make it work, even if they couldn't actually stand each other. It always looked hopeless, yet they were still there, all five of them. There's something very moving and noble in that, really, and I'd love a more detailed look at it. What keeps them so motivated, what makes them work, each alone and as a whole? And the ability to explore not only five alien races (most of them quite non-human) and a sixth, combined culture built by all these different races in tandem would be exciting. It's world-buildning heaven, no?

I really want to read about the Xindi's "lost era". They're in Enterprise, and then (so far) nothing until they show up in "The Sky's the Limit", seemingly as members of the Federation (and the Xindi character there was Reptilian; best of all). What happened in between? Did they fall apart, fight among themselves, get back together and rebuild their alliance? What happened to their advanced technology - holograms and vortices, etc? How did Earth react when the Xindi popped up again at a later date and offered a hand in friendship (assuming that's how it happened)? How did the Xindi populace react to the "turns out Humans aren't the enemy but Guardians are, how about that?" revelations?

And the worldbuilding potential! I have a lot of questions about Xindi, which the authors among us are duty-bound to answer : Why didn't the avians survive, particularly when the Council Chamber on New Xindus/Council Planet suggests that they apparently make it off Xindus after all? Were the Reptilian warriors all male like Dolim, or were at least half female (these are reptiles after all, who can tell what sex they are)? How does an Aquatic "dynasty" work? What does the name "Xindi" mean - how did they decide that was their collective name, and seeing as it doesn't sound Aquatic or Insectoid, is it a sign of Primate or Reptilian ethnocenticism (they both seemed quite racist much of the time (the Arboreals less so, but then they were more reserved))?

So what we need, friends, is Xindi: The Lost Era, a short series picking up where we left them and bringing them through to Federation membership.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ At the very least, have a Christmas story featuring...

wait for it...

Xindi Lou Who

 

[Christopher]

Well, when it comes to prominant established events within the "Lost Era", wars and conflicts are the ones that come to mind, even if they don't define the era.

Which just reflects the bias in how we're taught to think of history. I think what's really important is what leads up to the war and what the countries do afterward.

(I once had this plan to do an epic war trilogy in my original SF universe, but then I decided I wanted to do two books about the war and one about the difficult reconstruction -- and eventually I realized I was only interested in the reconstruction and had zero desire to write a war story. I eventually pretty much gave up on the whole thing.)

 

[shanejayell]

I'd love to see a full DEmora Sulu novel, or possibly a series of books. The majority of her career is in the Lost Era, after all.

 

[ProwlAlpha]

I would like to see an exploration book, but as long as the author tries to do something different than the multitudes of ancient weapons, ancient starships, pseudo-stone age civilizations, a member of the crew missing or kidnapped on some crappy planet, and of course the majority of the book devoted to world builder with those funky names and titles.

Wars or conflicts tend to be a little more dramatic, especially if they are those only stand alones describing an event in the Federation's history. I mean we really don't need Lost Era books about exploration when we have ENT, TOS, TNG, VOY, and whatever other series that explore.

 

[Janos]

I would like to see whats between the ENT and TOS eras.

Me too. But as a separate more encompassing series than just Ent.

That'd be pretty cool.

 

[JD]

War is drama, and drama makes for a good book.

Exploration is drama, too. To explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man/one has gone before.

Then I stand by my second idea that what we need is a "this is how {choose a planet} winded up joining the Federation" story. There's a fair few new faces in the Federation come the 2360s than there were in the 2290s. Let's see the stories of some of them. Lots of world-building, much potential for discovery/first contact/exploration/science/wonder, and I get my fill of expanded Trek history without need for Talarians shooting stuff .

I would go for this too.

 

[LutherSloan]

Seconding a book that deals with the Xindi in the post-Enterprise era. I think they've gotten like one mention in Trek Lit since they were first introduced in the TV series. Although I don't know how you explain where they've been for over 200 years, considering their territory would likely be within Federation space by now.

 

[Christopher]

Although I don't know how you explain where they've been for over 200 years, considering their territory would likely be within Federation space by now.

I think that's very easy to explain. After all, in ENT they were a people without a homeworld. Finding a new homeworld and establishing one's civilization there anew is a task that could easily preoccupy a culture for 200 years or more. I just figure they're too busy rebuilding their own home to be active elsewhere in the galaxy.

 

[GalaxyClass1701]

Seconding a book that deals with the Xindi in the post-Enterprise era. I think they've gotten like one mention in Trek Lit since they were first introduced in the TV series. Although I don't know how you explain where they've been for over 200 years, considering their territory would likely be within Federation space by now.

They were folded into the background and everually joined the Federation we can only assume they are just a minor member.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Oh, what kind of alien people
Would fill the universe with gloom
And run off to the Guardians because their race is doomed
The Xindi man
Oh, the Xindi man can
The Xindi man can 'cause they fill the ship with fear
And make Jon Archer sad

Who can take a missile
Launch it with a scream
And make a giant lake where Florida used to be
The Xindi man
Oh, the Xindi man can
The Xindi man can 'cause they fill the ship with fear
And make Jon Archer sad

 

[timothy]

I would love to see a series dealing with the federation set between archers end run on the nx enterprise and robert april's great experiment enterprise .

 

[Admiral_Young]

I don't know if it's already been suggested but I'd like to see a book covering Sulu's first mission as captain of the Excelsior.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Did we ever even meet a Xindi female?

Yeah, I'd love a Spock's World-style Xindi epic. And what became of the Suliban?

My "lost era" of choice would, of course, be Captain Robau and George Kirk on the USS Kelvin in the late 2220's/early 2330's. It could even be continued around and past the events of STXI as Kelvin Prime, or something. Just keep to the spirit of the source material (i.e. no ENT-relaunch style retcons, or Ship of the Line-style ignorance/total rewrite of what's actually on-screen) and it'll be great! Subtle tie-ins to Final Frontier and The Final Refection would make me a very happy Trekkie.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Did we ever even meet a Xindi female?

The Aquatic representative on the Council was female (Kiaphet Amman'sor, a name I just love for some reason). It's somewhat amusing because they invented a sexual dimorphism in the Aquatics, with the male originally having the round face and the female the pointed. But then the episodes had close-ups of the round faced Aquatic while Kiaphet Amman'sor was speaking, and she was explicitly female, so they switched. I actually prefer that (the female-round, male-pointy version), myself. Aquatics don't look like the equivalent of Earth mammals to me; the sturdier one as female not male seems more in keeping with their physiological origins, at least in my view...

We never saw a female Primate or a known female Reptilian or Arboreal. With the Primates, of course, we only saw a limited number of social roles (politics and military science), so we might assume those are part of that culture's masculine sphere. As for the Reptilians and Arboreals, well, there might be a gender division in social roles there, too, but I personally (and with no evidence at all) like to assume half of the Reptilians and Arboreals walking around were female. I mean, the Arboreals were marsupial and the Reptilians are, well, reptiles. Who can tell what sex they are? They wouldn't have breasts or such anyway, and in the reptiles at least a physically large and imposing build might be a feminine trait as easily as a masculine. Dolim was confirmed male, and so were Jannar and Gralik, but who's to say half (or more) of Dolim's soldiers or Gralik's kemocite workers weren't female?

The insectoids were hermaphrodite, I think.

I second the call for Suliban, by the way. So far we've had one mention in The Red King (Suliban refugees settled on Tiburon) and apparently an almost-reference in SCE: Aftermath that was changed by request of those in charge, lest it conflict with anything "Enterprise" decided on the fate of the ole' yellow eyes...

(PS: Enterprise wasn't always too good at showing both sexes - it did tend to fall back on males only a lot. I guess most humanoids would have some sort of division in gender roles (or at least the remnants of pre-industrial divisions, anyway) and aliens met are most often going to be military, which in most of those cultures would be more likely to be male. But still, they could have been more imaginative and put some thought into creating a variety of convincing but non-standard gender roles. Anyway...I also like to assume that half the Tellarites we saw were females. Again, Gral and Naarg were male, but why can't other members of their party be female? I'm not fond of the "female Tellarites don't have beards" angle that Star Trek: Online and some of the comics have taken. I assume females have teats not breasts and look pretty much identical to males).

 

[Turbo]

I'd like to see more Stargazer books; we only have the very beginning (the MJF books), a flash of the middle (Reunion), and the end (The Buried Age). There's 20 years of missions to explore here, both in the Stargazer's exploration and during the Cardassian War (though I'd be much more interested in the former).

MAM's enterprise books are wonderful, the only bad thing is that we need more of them.

Agreed. I really enjoyed Kobayashi Maru and Beneath the Raptor's Wing. However, if the release schedule for the ENT books is going to continue to be this slow, I hope he speeds the coverage of the war up a bit (maybe 2-3 years per book instead of 1).

Also, I can't believe I'm agreeing with a Clemson fan on something.

 

[JD]

I don't know if it's already been suggested but I'd like to see a book covering Sulu's first mission as captain of the Excelsior.

We already got that in Forged in Fire. Well, it showed the transition from Styles to Sulu's command. I don't remember if Sulu went on any actual official missions though.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Xindi Reptilians do have females. Remember that bit about Dolim's family? He had a daughter who gave birth to a (slightly) deformed child. Dolim promptly executed said child because the kid couldn't join the military.