Poll Should there be a Star Trek: Discovery Technical Manual?

[Boris Skrbic]

By which I mean a real Star Trek TM, with significant technical detail that would only be hinted at on DSC but otherwise not studied in depth by the writers, like it probably wasn’t on TNG either, and since the show doesn’t seem to have anyone reviewing scripts for TECH like Mike Okuda and Rick Sternbach, a lot of it would probably be contradicted unless the book is released when the show is over.

Or would that be too 90s, because the existing TMs were more about the staff on those shows expressing a shared enthusiasm for the space program and the aerospace industry in general, which wasn’t present to such extent before TMP, before TNG and much less so after ENT? Certainly, we can still find any number of TV or film productions where that is the case, but is DSC one of them?

 

[Timo]

A real Star Trek TM (although probably online rather than in print) is something that, in this day and age, would necessarily have to deal with more than just DSC. Even DS9 existed in isolation, sort of. DSC is part of a franchise that covers multiple centuries and multiple angles concurrently, and shamelessly and actively cross-references, too. It would need to be PIC and SNW and LDS and S31 and whatever, at least as much as it would be DSC...

Probably a bit too much to ask. The previous TMs sorta worked as guidelines for those making and interpreting the particular shows. Modern Trek is about ballooning beyond all guidelines, and inventing all-new rules for all-new games, and then having those projected back at the origins and across the show borders. Creating a page that says "the fictional machines can do this" would be quite an antithesis to that!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[F. King Daniel]

I'd love to see how much a manual would tackle the turbolift funhouse

I really don't know if the market is there in 2021. I still want Lora Johnson's updated Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise with the fold-out deck plans that was pitched decades ago.

 

[Boris Skrbic]

I’m thinking of DSC specifically since that series is furthest along for a manual and doesn’t even have base references like LD and PIC do in the TNG and DS9 manuals. Moreover, covering the state of the franchise in one book would inevitably lead to dilution of the technical detail required in a publication addressing one construct for the most part, like the Galaxy-class starship and the Enterprise-D in particular.

 

[DEWLine]

I'd love to see how much a manual would tackle the turbolift funhouse

That would be interesting! Particularly to see how Scott Schneider and William Budge's input on that gets worked into the design! (Looking at p. 29 of The Art of Star Trek: Discovery re: Mr. Budge's explanation of how he works to rationalize the changes to the internal structure of Discovery as they're added in.)

II really don't know if the market is there in 2021. I still want Lora Johnson's updated Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise with the fold-out deck plans that was pitched decades ago.

I'd love to buy that book should she finally get the chance to create it!

Also, I'm voting "yes" on this poll.

 

[Boris Skrbic]

Mr. Scott’s Guide re-done right would need so much revision and expansion for onscreen consistency (starting with the primary hull deck count, passing through non-transwarp okudagrams and finishing with the TNG-based changes in TFF and TUC) that it would lose its period flavor. Assuming a licensee could be convinced to publish such a tie-in today, I’d buy it in an instant if I were impressed with new research, but then again we’ve already seen a lot of scattered information on the Enterprise class.

DSC would be fun to do since in one corner you’d have the writers’ room going wild with ideas of the week, while in the other there’d be book authors welding and hammering that into shape for technical posterity. (It goes without saying that both the 23rd and the 32nd centuries must be included, with very clear explanations for what was changed and how!)

 

[F. King Daniel]

Mr. Scott’s Guide re-done right would need so much revision and expansion for onscreen consistency (starting with the primary hull deck count, passing through non-transwarp okudagrams and finishing with the TNG-based changes in TFF and TUC) that it would lose its period flavor. Assuming a licensee could be convinced to publish such a tie-in today, I’d buy it in an instant if I were impressed with new research, but then again we’ve already seen a lot of scattered information on the Enterprise class.

The deck plans were for the Enterprise-A as seen in movies V and VI, and the samples released were fascinating, seeing how the TNG sets and STV Jeffries tubes were fitted into the TOS hull and the "offscreen" differences added to differentiate them a little more. The warp core for example, had three power transfer conduits instead of TNG's two, the third running from behind back up to the impulse engines. And there was one long lift shaft going from deck 21 all the way up to deck 6, in a valiant attempt to account for TFF's 78-deck shaft.

 

[Go-Captain]

I wouldn't be excited for it. I've never been that into the Technical Manuals even though they're kind of fun, but more importantly the DIS technological presentation leaves me not caring all that much for a deeper explanation, because the explanations tend to fall short, or flat.

The things I want explained have more to do with why they don't have certain things, and that's less a Technical Manual than a Technological History book.

The Rise and Fall of the Federation: a Technological Treatise

 

[DEWLine]

(It goes without saying that both the 23rd and the 32nd centuries must be included, with very clear explanations for what was changed and how!)

I am tempted to want this book written in the "voices" of several of the series' characters. Especially when it comes to explaining the changes. From basic Crossfield-class to spore drive testbed to the 32nd Century refits.

 

[publiusr]

I love tech manuals. Dr Who never did one on ships

 

[DEWLine]

Actually, there is a TARDIS Type 40 Manual now.
Ordering information for Chapters/Indigo in Canada here.

 

[DEWLine]

The Rise, Fall and Restoration of the Federation.

 

[publiusr]

A Starship Timelines book about the Connie in other universes might be good. Two temporal agents arguing like we do...distilling down the best ideas

 

[fireproof78]

I always appreciate the tech manuals, whether the show adhered to it in any meaningful way.

 

[Albertese]

I vote no because as far as I can tell, the current shows have no regard at all for technical consistency at all. Not in agreement with older shows and not even in agreement with itself. So what would be the point?

--Alex

 

[fireproof78]

For fun. People remember fun, right?

 

[Boris Skrbic]

To show that sooner or later, The Continuity catches up with you.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Yes.

If for no other reason than I would simply love to see them try to explain the turbolift ...errmmm... area, and reconcile it within the structure of the rest of the ship without going all T.A.R.D.I.S. on us.

They got their work cut out for them in that regard.

 

[Deks]

Yes.

If for no other reason than I would simply love to see them try to explain the turbolift ...errmmm... area, and reconcile it within the structure of the rest of the ship without going all T.A.R.D.I.S. on us.

They got their work cut out for them in that regard.

For the first 2 seasons that is.
If they say in the third season (aka 31st century) part of the retrofit included TARDIS technology which increases internal volume of certain areas (like the turboshafts) by 4x... that would be ok... but then you are coming up against the problem of:
'why not pack x more NON M/AM 31st century advanced power sources (such as say Fusion, Thermionic and Tetryon generators) which would effectively negate the need for dilithium' and M/AM and thus bypass the Burn alltogether?
Technically, 1 such non M/AM generator would be orders of magnitude more powerful than even 29th/30th century M/AM warp core thanks to exponential developments and returns... but they probably won't do that because they don't even know this is how science and technology actually work (and would advance ridiculously faster thanks to the fact the Federation is a combination of multiple alien civilizations openly cooperating/working together with no money in the way).

 

[publiusr]

I like the ideas of “decks” as zones...zoom in and you see sub (true) decking