Novelverse "facts" you've taken into your head-canon

[JD]

One idea that I really liked that I even tend to think about when watching the shows is the muli-species Breen. Now when I see them onscreen I can't help but wonder which species the being in the suit is.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I've not read the story in question so have no idea if it was the intent, but "Avenger-class" was the fandom designation for the Miranda-class pretty much up until the original Star Trek Encyclopedia came out in and was used in loads of unlicensed technical manuals and booklets.

According to MA, The New Voyages was published in 1976, so I'm guessing the Avenger class in the story has nothing whatsoever to do with the ship from TWOK.

I've never heard anything to suggest that the makers of TWOK had a class name in mind. If they had, TNG's makers probably would've used it.

I'm not really sure about that. According to everything I've read, the 1701-refit was always "Enterprise class" behind-the-scenes, and it even ended up in signage on the simulator door in TWOK. And we know how that ended up...

 

[Enterprise1701]

Trip not dying in TATV is certainly a number one fact I take in.

I wonder if the ENT cast knows that the novels have gone in that direction.

 

[Timewalker]

Most likely the case, but the DTI novels also reveal that as there is little of interest in the Kuiper Belt even in the 24th century, the Federation DTI is able to maintain its vault of time travel artifacts in reliable secrecy on Eris.

I haven't read those novels (tried one of them, but my time travel cup of tea remains with the books of Poul Anderson and Robert Silverberg).

It's not about lack of interest, it's about the fact that the Kuiper Belt is huge. There are so many objects out there -- at least 100,000 objects more than 100 km across, and millions more below that size -- that a lot of them would probably have never been directly visited even 400 years from now. It's also pretty cold out there. Think of it as the equivalent of the US government maintaining a secret vault in Antarctica, say. It's not that there's no scientific interest in studying Antarctica -- quite the contrary -- but that it's vast and remote and forbidding enough that the vault's exact location would be hard to find and nobody would be likely to stumble upon it by accident. Only exponentially more so, because space is really, really big.

There's a difference. The 24th century has ships that can scan for traces of stuff over a distance of several light-years, so why can't they scan in our own Solar System?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

the 1701-refit was always "Enterprise class" behind-the-scenes, and it even ended up in signage on the simulator door in TWOK.

I always thought that it was the simulator which was "Enterprise class". Either because it was built to resemble the Enterprise, or it was to train the cadets which would be posted there.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I always thought that it was the simulator which was "Enterprise class". Either because it was built to resemble the Enterprise, or it was to train the cadets which would be posted there.

Yes, I believe those are a couple of the ideas people have come up with to retcon the sign after the fact. But since the production people thought of the ship as "Enterprise class", I would assume the original intent of a sign that read "Mark IV Simulator / Enterprise Class" would be that the simulator simulated an Enterprise class starship.

As always with these type of things, YMMV.

 

[Tuskin38]

I wonder if the ENT cast knows that the novels have gone in that direction.

Connor Trinneer knows, he prefers Trip's death.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Connor Trinneer knows, he prefers Trip's death.

He WHAT now?

I'd think he'd be the last person to prefer how that went down onscreen...

 

[The Wormhole]

He WHAT now?

I'd think he'd be the last person to prefer how that went down onscreen...

There's never been any indication that any of the cast disapproved of what TATV established as the character's fates. They just disapproved sharing their finale with TNG actors.

 

[Ensign_Rowan_McGrath]

I've like the Federation: First 150 Years/Autobiographies timeline as it appears more coherent and streamlined (though I ignore the whole thing about Star Trek V [Headcanon worked out for that one since I mildly enjoy the film more then Star Trek III [which I felt was weakened by recasting Saavik]]). I also liked the names of Peter Kirk's younger siblings (Joshua and Steven, taking a couple of their original names and making them Joshua Alexander and Steven Julius) and how the Autobiographies timeline gave us an idea of where they were during the whole Deneva crisis.

Nevertheless, I am happy to reference certain novel events from pre-2151 to post-2379. I'm uncomfortable with the Andorian four-genders thing (not that I'm against four-gender species but can't see the Andorians that way). The novelisations of the films and episodes I accept mostly (unless it directly contradicts on-screen). I loved Star Trek Destiny but hated Deneva's fate because I love Deneva and am happy to accept certain events of the Earth-Romulan War arc. I also loved Articles of the Federation, Greater Than The Sum and Losing the Peace (Miranda Kadohata, why'd you leave? :,( ).

I can accept Ezri eventually going down a command track as well, but more into the future then what we got. My idea would've been she actually replaced Deanna aboard Enterprise as ship's counsellor (recommended by Worf who have developed a sort-of sibling thing nowadays) and by 2387 was second officer and counsellor/contact specialist. By the 2392, with the launch of the Vesta-class starships [too soon for quantum slipstream drives in the 2380s I think], she gets to the Aventine though ends up captain after its first mission.

Never much enjoyed Janeway's death and wish it could be ignored completely.

 

[Enterprise1701]

Never much enjoyed Janeway's death and wish it could be ignored completely.

Heh heh. Peter David is never going to live down Before Dishonor among Trek novel readers, is he?

 

[Ensign_Rowan_McGrath]

Heh heh. Peter David is never going to live down Before Dishonor among Trek novel readers, is he?

It made Janeway too stupid for her own good (even worse then certain episodes of her series).

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

The explanation as to why they kept what the Romulans looked like a secret was also well thought out.

Hmm. I don't recall the exact details of that, in anything post-ENT, but it sounds at least somewhat compatible with what Diane Carey came up with in Final Frontier.

 

[thribs]

I'm not really sure about that. According to everything I've read, the 1701-refit was always "Enterprise class" behind-the-scenes, and it even ended up in signage on the simulator door in TWOK. And we know how that ended up...

Enterprise Class came from FASA I believe which was an old Star Trek role playing game. It was made before Star Trek IV so they weren’t aware that there would be more Enterprise’s so they just gave the refit class that name.
People should have a look at some of the ships from there. There are some very strange ships that came from it.

 

[thribs]

Hmm. I don't recall the exact details of that, in anything post-ENT, but it sounds at least somewhat compatible with what Diane Carey came up with in Final Frontier.

The people who knew about it kept it secret because at the time they were trying to form the Coslition between the Andorians and Tellerites and they were worried that if they knew that Romulans came from Vulcans that they will start not trusting Vulcans again which would jeopardise the coalition.

 

[F. King Daniel]

That Surak was basically an internet blogger, from Spock's World.

 

[Nyotarules]

Trip faked his death, TATV was written by a drunken hologram writer addicted to Romulan ale (ok the last is my head canon lol)

 

[Avro Arrow]

Enterprise Class came from FASA I believe which was an old Star Trek role playing game.

Yes, FASA did call it that, but I don't believe it originated from there (although I don't know if FASA came up with it independently or not). According to MA, it looks like the first FASA came came out after TWOK, so the simulator sign would still be first. And my understanding is that they were calling it "Enterprise class" behind the scenes as early as TMP, based on some quotes I've read from Andrew Probert.

Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise also used "Enterprise class", apparently because Lora Johnson's sources at the studio told her that was the correct class when she was writing it.

 

[Nyotarules]

The lack of diversity for the TOS Enterprise explained in Ex Machina was pretty weak IMO. And the explanation for why there was seemingly only one Vulcan Starfleet ship USS Intrepid in a Federation that existed for 100 years, another weak explanation. Trying to find an in universe reason for an almost all white and all human Starfleet of the Pike and early Kirk era only works if the Federation was brand new at the time. However it was 100 years old by then, at least 3 Terran generations of peoples having the existence of aliens on Earth as a norm.
Its a bit like having the USA running an almost all white NASA 100 years after Kings 'I have a dream' speech. But then again its more than 50 years and some things are still shit so.....

 

[Christopher]

The lack of diversity for the TOS Enterprise explained in Ex Machina was pretty weak IMO. And the explanation for why there was seemingly only one Vulcan Starfleet ship USS Intrepid in a Federation that existed for 100 years, another weak explanation. Trying to find an in universe reason for an almost all white and all human Starfleet of the Pike and early Kirk era only works if the Federation was brand new at the time. However it was 100 years old by then, at least 3 Terran generations of peoples having the existence of aliens on Earth as a norm.

Ex Machina did not posit an almost all-human Starfleet. It posited that the various member species of Starfleet tended to serve on separate ships, not by conscious preference but mainly because of the real-world phenomenon that people tend to unthinkingly favor associating with people like themselves unless they make a conscious effort to do otherwise. So a ship like the Enterprise might be overwhelmingly human, the Intrepid overwhelmingly Vulcan, another ship overwhelmingly Andorian, etc. And there's no reason that would only happen in a brand-new Starfleet, because people can regress into old habits once they lower their guard and stop making an active effort to improve. As evidenced by the fact that America currently has an outright white supremacist sitting in the Oval Office half a century after the Civil Rights Era. Progress is not a perpetual upward curve, but a series of advances and setbacks.

Granted, in the 13 or so years since Ex Machina came out, we've gotten more depictions of 23rd-century starships with multispecies crews, both in books like the Vanguard series and onscreen with the Kelvin and the ships in Discovery. So if I were writing the novel now, I'd approach that aspect differently.