SPOILER ALERT -- Review Myriad Universes: Infinity's Prism

Then again, the split could have been something as simple as somebody wavering standing up in the mess hall and making a speech that winds up swaying a lot of his/her fellow crewmembers to staying behind, whereas in 'our' universe they decided to keep silent and go with the flow. Stone, ripples.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

Sure -- that's just the sort of thing I mean about the divergence coming earlier. So that they don't just randomly make the opposite choice, but have a reason for making it differently.

Not specifically, but I was aware that it was the last episode produced for the first season. UPN delayed the last four first-season episodes until the second season so that they could get an earlier start to the season, and showed them out of order, intermingled with a couple of early second-season episodes. Evidently Ireland showed the episodes in production order instead.

A lot, maybe. Over a hundred? Not credible. (Although personally I never found it credible that none of the crew decided to stay behind. I wish there had been at least a few people in that cargo hold at the end of the episode.)

 

The way I see it, there had already been a lot of solidarity built up among the crew by the time the decision was made to leave - which would have made the idea of leaving the ship a difficult, if not untenable, one to take.

Rather, I believe that the only other option that might have passed in this case was to have the ship and crew stay and work with the children of the '37s - which was hinted at by Janeway herself, but apparently not as widly discussed an option aboard ship.

If someone (or some people) had taken up that idea, and lobbied for it - while adding the point that with the Three Cities' world as a home base, there could still be a dedicated effort set up to try and at least re-establish communications with the UFP, or have the search for a means of contacting Earth be a part of a wider remit - then it might have held more water.

There could already be a head start, if Voyager or a Flyer went on a mission back to Sikaris, made their apologies for the 'incident', and asked them to allow for a subspace relay to be placed on Alastria, or perhaps another world closer to the galactic core - or, unwittingly, closer to the Hirogen comm network. Plus, going in the other direction, Voyager would not be too far from the Takarian terminus of the Barzan wormhole, and the time could be taken to try and study the anomaly without the kind of haste (or Ferengi interference) which led to the missed opportunity last time around...

(Perhaps by the time the crew contacted Earth, they could learn more of the experience with the Celestial Temple...err, Bajoran-Idran Wormhole, which could help with studying the Barzan anomaly.)


But even so, these efforts would be taking place in the backdrop of an attempt to secure the human presence in Delta, to perhaps try and form alliances and trade links with more friendly regional powers, to ward off the Krowtonans, Vidiians and Kazon... and maybe even to figure out what to do about the Ocampans, once their last gasp of support from the Caretaker runs out.

 

Would that be considered a briori knowledge?

 

The first thing I thought was that you'd be glad not to be in the version of Voyager that took place in a Dark Mirror-esque universe - but then, you got me thinking of how it could be to see Terran officers use the world of the Three Cities as a regional capital of a Delta outpost of the Terran Empire!

So you're spared the booth.

For now.

 

Well, there goes that wordplay joke.

 

And it's not missed...

(just kidding)

 

The first three seasons of Voyager have three different "layouts":

1) Production: Season 1 is episodes 1-20, season 2 is episodes 21-46, and season 3 is episodes 47-72.

2) UK broadcast: Season 1 is episodes 1-20, season 2 is episodes 21-42, and season 3 is episodes 43-72.

3) US broadcast: Season 1 is episodes 1-16, season 2 is episodes 17-42, and season 3 is episodes 43-72.

Of the three, the UK broadcast is the "intended" order by the producers; they knew that the last four episodes of the second production season would be held back to air as part of the third broadcast season, so they put stardates in episodes 43-46 to indicate the third season.

This concludes this non-books digression; we now return to your regularly-scheduled non-books digression.

davidh

 

Thanks for that.


In my case, because it was a season finale here, "The '37s" had more of an impact on me, as it was what we were left with to ponder as we waited for season 2 to be broadcast (or made available to rent on video).

Maybe it was less notable if one was watching the North American broadcast order instead...

 

Could someone who knows Scorpion fairly well fill me in on where things begin to change? Because I haven't seen the episode in years, and I remember the scene where the 8472 Bioships destroy the planet, but I know they didn't disable Voyager.

 

It's just before that. The debate between Chakotay and Janeway about whether to ally with the Borg happens differently, leading to a different outcome.

 

Ok, thanks.

 

This isn't meant as a story idea, just a suggestion of both how Christophers rationalizing probability and Nerroths idea for Voyager to stay on the 37s planet can occur - having your cake and eating it. Have the divergance point far earlier, possibly even in Caretaker when Voyager and Chakotays vessel are haveing the battle with the caretakers array. The array is still destroyed, but before Chakotay destroys the Kazon ship, it inflicts massive damage on Voyager, then at every turn (the other Kazon Sects and the Viddians) that by the time Voyager encounter the 37s and they have the oppurtunity to settle down, they do as if the last few months are anything to go by, will they actually make it back to Federation space and the best option then might be to stay where they are.

Saying that, although I've only picked up Infinity's Prism today, I havn't read Places of Excile yet, so if the above sinario is similar to it, I apologise in advance.

 

finsihed this today.

concise reviews:

ALPU: My first Leisner and it's a doozy. loved how it went from a parallel 'The Cage' into a parallel 'Journey to Babel' to a parallel 'Undiscovered Country'. 9/10

PoE: Another excellent world-building/hole-plugging CLB story. I actually liked the timey-wimey business. 8.5/10

SoD: My first of Swallow. Another doozy. loved it. got the POTA and Bill & Ted references... 8.5/10

 

What, no love for the parallel "Balance of Terror"??

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

 

Can't wait for your take on the TNG-RL with "Losing The Peace"
I Mem-Beta'd you and saw your previous works. Keep up the good work!

 

I've just finished Seeds of Dissent thus finishing the tomb that is Infinity's Prism and given it's just turned midnight here and I'm a bit sleepy, I'll write up what I have to say in more depth on my blog later on at some point.

All I will say is that out of the three, I thought they were all brilliant, but, and this is coming from someone who prefers DS9 and TNG over Voyager, but Places of Exile was just a smigin more brilliant than the others.

 

Ouch.

 

Infinity's Prism: Entombed within its Stygian Darkness!

 

You're having way to much fun with "stygian", Dayton.