Military Mack

[Captain Dax]

Halfway through Harm's Way and just finished Oblivion's Gate. Mack seems to be writing in the Yesterday's Enterprise timeline. Jean-Luc Picard cocked his phaser shot gun and said "Watch our six." Demand for "Sitreps," etc, the old fashioned naval language of the past has seemed to have been transformed into a 90's action thriller. Not a fan.

 

[The Wormhole]

It's hardly unique to Mack's writing. All the novels treat Starfleet as a military as indeed was the intent in TOS. Indeed, many novels even cite the references in the other shows to Starfleet not being a military as being propaganda.

 

[David Mack]

The phrase "watch our six" does not appear in Harm’s Way. The term "sitrep" is used exactly once, by a Starfleet Intelligence officer from Vanguard, which has always had a more military turn to its dialogue and setting. And I don't know where you got "Picard cocked his phaser shot gun." No phrase even resembling that is in this book. Frankly, I find these criticisms baffling, but to each their own.

 

[Christopher]

The first time I ever saw the word "sitrep" was in a Star Trek novel, Joe Haldeman's World Without End. A security officer on a landing party reported "Sitrep negative," and the aliens were confused because the universal translator misheard it as satrap, a provincial governor in ancient Persia. So they wanted to know why he'd said that the provincial governor was negative. I guess that passage has stuck with me because it was my first exposure to both "sitrep" and "satrap."

But then, Haldeman was a veteran and his two Trek novels portrayed Starfleet operations with more military authenticity than we usually see.

 

[Smiley]

There is a command to "guard our six" in Oblivion's Gate, but I see no reference to a shot gun or shotgun on a text search of that book.

I definitely don't see anything more militaristic than The Wrath of Khan in Mack's writing.

 

[Corran Horn]

"Keeso, Slayton, guard our six."

The only 'cocking' I can find is heads and eyebrows.

 

[Sci]

I don't really see how the word "sitrep" is meaningfully different from the phrase "status report."

 

[Christopher]

I don't really see how the word "sitrep" is meaningfully different from the phrase "status report."

Well, for one thing, it's short for "situation report." For another, it's shorter and easier to say.

Plus, it's jargon. Organizations like jargon. I mean, why say "watch our six" instead of "watch our rear?"

 

[Sci]

Well, for one thing, it's short for "situation report." For another, it's shorter and easier to say.

Right, but in substance they mean the same thing: "What's going on?"

Edited to add:

To be clear, my point is not that a Star Trek author should use "status report," but that I don't see why it matters if an author uses "sitrep" instead.