McCoy & Clark Terrell: Old Friends?

Discussion in 'Trek Literature' started by Captain Clark Terrell, Sep 13, 2013.

  1. Noddy

    Noddy Captain

    Joined:
    Jul 29, 2013
    This is only my opinion, but I just have difficulty seeing how Nero destroying the Kelvin would have caused McCoy to enroll in the Academy, where he originally didn't. And I do like to think that some of the things in Abrams' films did happen roughly the same in the prime timeline.
     
  2. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2001
    The butterfly effect. Changing one event can cause ripples that spread in all directions and alter things in unpredictable ways. Say, because the Kelvin is destroyed, the husband of a lost crewmember retires from Starfleet out of grief, so someone else gets promoted into their job who would otherwise have gotten an administrative post at Starfleet Medical, so someone else gets that post instead, and they make different policy decisions, and regulations are changed so that civilian doctors who enlist for starship duty have to train at the Academy first.

    So just about anything, at least in terms of individuals' choices and actions, could turn out differently in the Abramsverse than it did before. Things might have been similar in many ways, true, but we can't assume that for sure. So, again, the question is what evidence we have in the Prime universe about McCoy's background.
     
  3. Noddy

    Noddy Captain

    Joined:
    Jul 29, 2013
    And McCoy first met Nancy one year before he joins Starfleet in the new reality, as in "The Man Trap" he says they first became involved twelve years ago, which would place the event in 2254. So perhaps McCoy did enlist in Starfleet earlier in the prime reality.
     
  4. Stevil2001

    Stevil2001 Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 7, 2001
    This is a good question that I think I had an answer in mind for in 2010. According to the earliest draft of the novel I can find, McCoy "wheedles" the assignment because he wants to serve with Nancy, who is doing a tour on the Republic. I believe my thought was that different fleet deployments in the the New Universe (because of the Kelvin destruction and the drastically different construction patterns) would mean that the Republic assignment was unavailable to McCoy. I too favor the Prime and New Universes being the same as much as possible. (Basically, what Christopher said.)