Spoiler revealed in new game trailer set in NuUniverse?

[Set Harth]

In the old days I always loved it when someone would occasionally ask how to get to Romulus.

I'd be like, well, first you gotta go to the Klingons and get a ship with a cloaking device because you're gonna have to cross the Neutral Zone...

asker:

 

[F. King Daniel]

Actually the novel The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm treats those as the same Cheron.

What are humans and Romulans doing fighting their war in "the southernmost part of the galaxy"?

 

[Christopher]

^A better question is, how would the Enterprise have gotten to "the southernmost part of the galaxy" in the first place? That line doesn't even really make sense. The episode also mentioned that Cheron is in the direction of the Coalsack Nebula, which is in the southern sky as seen from Earth, so that's presumably what the thinking was behind that line, but in terms of actual galactic structure it's kind of meaningless.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

^A better question is, how would the Enterprise have gotten to "the southernmost part of the galaxy" in the first place? That line doesn't even really make sense. The episode also mentioned that Cheron is in the direction of the Coalsack Nebula, which is in the southern sky as seen from Earth, so that's presumably what the thinking was behind that line, but in terms of actual galactic structure it's kind of meaningless.

I always thought the thinking behind the line extended no further than as a metaphor for the racist culture in the United States South, and that choosing a reference in the southern sky served only to further the metaphor. Never once did I think it was intended to stand up to any literal scrutiny.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Here's what I used to think of when I heard "southernmost part of the galaxy"

(hey, it is kinda close to Romulan space, after all!)

 

[Christopher]

Well, no -- galactic north and south would be up and down from the plane of the page.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I figured they'd define "north" as Earth > galactic centre.

I don't think it's too much different to the arbitrary alpha/beta/gamma/delta quadrant designations.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Not necessarily apropos of anything in Star Trek, the wiki on the IAU galactic coordinate system is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_coordinate_system.

 

[Christopher]

I figured they'd define "north" as Earth > galactic centre.

No; since all astronomy prior to the past few decades was done from the surface of the Earth, north and south in the heavens are defined relative to north and south on Earth. The Earth's equator is not directly aligned with the galactic plane, but they're close enough that galactic north and south are defined as perpendicular to the plane of the galactic disk.

 

[Kruezerman]

If this trailer tells me anything, it only confirms a suspicion I've had for the last couple of months:

Every day, in every way, Star Trek is getting more and more like Mass Effect.

Is that a bad thing?

Hell no.

My thoughts exactly.