Star Trek Novels and Canon

[David cgc]

Side note, funny thing about that.

One of the Memory-Alpha pages talking about the Klingon Great Houses had mentioned '24 Great Houses' from almost the very beginning of the site's existence and no one bothered to fact check it. It wasn't until a few months before Discovery's airing that I decided to find the canon source for that that claim.. and couldn't, there wasn't one. I pointed it out and it was promptly removed from the page (and then added back again once Discovery aired)

Maybe the Discovery writers got it from that error on M-A lol

I found something similar a while ago where I realized that the MA page for the Mirror Universe version of the Federation had been called "Terran Empire" for something like a year before that term was canonized by "In a Mirror, Darkly" (before then, it had just been "the Empire" when it came up in episodes). That probably wasn't from Memory Alpha, though, since the name "Terran Empire" had already been used by Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens in their novels, and they worked on that season of Enterprise.

Now I'm curious about the original provenance of the "24 houses" thing. It seems to be Google-proofed thanks to Discovery. Maybe a novel? RPG sourcebook? Or just some overzealous editor adding some fannish embellishment (or maybe counting the chairs in High Council scenes in TNG/DS9)?

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

That probably wasn't from Memory Alpha, though, since the name "Terran Empire" had already been used by Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens in their novels, and they worked on that season of Enterprise.

Actually, it goes back further. Ruth Berman's short story, "Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited" (which tells the story of what Shatner & co. were up to while Kirk & co. were on the Paramount Lot in Jean Lorrah and Willard Hunt's "Visit to a Weird Planet") has Shatner (as I recall) trying to explain the situation to Scotty, and somebody references "Mirror, Mirror." Scotty immediately nods, and says something to the effect of "The ISS Enterprise, of the Terran Empire. I was there."

"Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited" was published in Star Trek: The New Voyages, the first of Bantam's non-Blish anthologies.

Incidentally, The New Voyages came out in 1976. "Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited" was originally published in the fanzine Spockanalia #5, from 1970. The Reeves-Stevenses didn't publish their first ST opus (Memory Prime) until 1988.

 

[KRAD]

Also the humans from Earth were exclusively referred to as "Terrans" on all the DS9 MU episodes.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

On the other hand, up until then, "Terran" had no "Terran Empire" connotations; it simply meant a Human from Earth.

 

[Christopher]

On the other hand, up until then, "Terran" had no "Terran Empire" connotations; it simply meant a Human from Earth.

Exactly. The reason it was called the Terran Empire was because "Terran" has been a standard synonym for "Earthling" in science fiction for generations, and was often used that way in Trek, e.g. the Vulcan children in "Yesteryear" taunting Spock about whether he was Terran or Vulcan, or Sol being referred to as "the Terran system" in "The Best of Both Worlds." Which is why it's so annoying that Discovery treats "Terran" as if it refers exclusively to Mirror humans.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I could not possibly have said that better myself.

 

[Enterprise1701]

Side note, funny thing about that.

One of the Memory-Alpha pages talking about the Klingon Great Houses had mentioned '24 Great Houses' from almost the very beginning of the site's existence and no one bothered to fact check it. It wasn't until a few months before Discovery's airing that I decided to find the canon source for that that claim.. and couldn't, there wasn't one. I pointed it out and it was promptly removed from the page (and then added back again once Discovery aired)

Maybe the Discovery writers got it from that error on M-A lol

Well, to be fair, the figure of 24 didn't seem to stick, considering DIS 1.14 name-checked House D'Ghor, the same house whose subsequent scion was discommendated in DS9 3.03.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Which is why it's so annoying that Discovery treats "Terran" as if it refers exclusively to Mirror humans.

At a certain point and to certain people, it becomes synonymous. What would you call them instead? Empirites? Empireans?

 

[The Wormhole]

At a certain point and to certain people, it becomes synonymous. What would you call them instead? Empirites? Empireans?

The issue wasn't the fact that Disco called them Terrans, but rather that it treated the term Terran as though it originated from the MU.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Do the Terrans call the prime universe people Earthans? Solians?

 

[Christopher]

The issue wasn't the fact that Disco called them Terrans, but rather that it treated the term Terran as though it originated from the MU.

Yes. The problem is not that MU Earth people were called Terrans -- the problem is the assumption that Prime Universe Earth people are not called Terrans, when in fact they have been called that in multiple previous Trek series and decades' worth of other science fiction. "Terra," after all, is simply the name for Earth in Latin and multiple Romance languages (including Italian and Portuguese). So when DSC had a character hear the word "Terran" with no other context and immediately recognize it as a reference to Mirror humans, that was nonsense, because the term has never referred exclusively to them.

Do the Terrans call the prime universe people Earthans? Solians?

They would call them Terrans, because "Terran" has nothing to do with the Mirror Universe, it is simply the Latin name for Earth. (Well, technically it's the Latin name for the goddess of Earth, but it's come to be used in modernity as a scientific and science-fictional name for Earth.) "Terran Empire" simply means "Earth Empire," nothing more. All Earthlings are Terrans, by definition. It is as simple as that.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I meant, if the MU Terrans wanted to develop a corresponding term to describe their counterparts, as distinct from themselves.

 

[Christopher]

I meant, if the MU Terrans wanted to develop a corresponding term to describe their counterparts, as distinct from themselves.

Why would they? Until DSC came along, it was understood that the thing that's distinct about them is not the "Terran" part, but the "Empire" part. Over here, Terrans are members of a Federation; over there, Terrans are rulers of an Empire (or slaves of the Bajoran-Cardassian Alliance later on).

I mean, the Prime and Mirror Spock were both called Vulcans. Prime and Mirror Kira were both called Bajorans. Prime and Mirror Worf were both called Klingons. And so on. So why would there need to be different names for Earth people in the two universes, when nobody else needs them? The difference isn't in the species or the planets, it's in the politics and history.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Ahem, someone is forgetting the eye thing.

 

[Christopher]

Ahem, someone is forgetting the eye thing.

No, I'm ignoring the eye thing because it was stupid. Mirror humans are not an alien species, they're the same individual people that exist in Prime and are therefore human by definition. It's a contradiction in terms to say they're genetically different enough to have fundamentally different eyesight yet are still the same individual people with identical faces, voices, etc. Thematically, the whole point of "Mirror, Mirror" was that the potential for savagery existed in everyone, that the characters we know could've turned out worse if things had gone differently. DSC's attempt to redefine them as aliens was missing the point on every level.

My handwave for the eye thing was that it was some kind of engineered trait in only some Mirror humans including Georgiou. Maybe it was a side effect of some botched Augment experiment. But I prefer just to ignore it, since the franchise itself seems to have ignored it outside of the episode where it was mentioned. Presumably the creators also recognized it was a bad idea that made no sense.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I would suggest it could be the lingering effects of some bio/chem warfare exposure, or perhaps cumulative agonizer (nerve damage) effects. Since these things only happened in the MU, it might satisfactorily explain why them and not us.

 

[Christopher]

I would suggest it could be the lingering effects of some bio/chem warfare exposure, or perhaps cumulative agonizer (nerve damage) effects. Since these things only happened in the MU, it might satisfactorily explain why them and not us.

Interesting thoughts. I don't see why the emperor would be subjected to the agonizer, but the bio/chem warfare idea is plausible.

It would only have to apply to certain groups or individuals within the MU, though, since the Mirror Enterprise in "Mirror, Mirror" was normally lit, and nobody from the MU in DS9 had any problems with bright light.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I don't see why the emperor would be subjected to the agonizer

It may affect a frequent wielder of the device as well as its victims (though to a lesser degree). And naturally the person(s) responsible for the design flaw causing this were "suitably punished" ultimately becoming victims of their own incompetence.

It would only have to apply to certain groups or individuals within the MU, though, since the Mirror Enterprise in "Mirror, Mirror" was normally lit, and nobody from the MU in DS9 had any problems with bright light.

It may depend on individual physiological susceptibility, and one's presence/absence when the chemical/biological agent was released or experimented on.

 

[F. King Daniel]

No, I'm ignoring the eye thing because it was stupid. Mirror humans are not an alien species, they're the same individual people that exist in Prime and are therefore human by definition. It's a contradiction in terms to say they're genetically different enough to have fundamentally different eyesight yet are still the same individual people with identical faces, voices, etc. Thematically, the whole point of "Mirror, Mirror" was that the potential for savagery existed in everyone, that the characters we know could've turned out worse if things had gone differently. DSC's attempt to redefine them as aliens was missing the point on every level.

My handwave for the eye thing was that it was some kind of engineered trait in only some Mirror humans including Georgiou. Maybe it was a side effect of some botched Augment experiment. But I prefer just to ignore it, since the franchise itself seems to have ignored it outside of the episode where it was mentioned. Presumably the creators also recognized it was a bad idea that made no sense.

That's your head canon, then.

 

[David cgc]

From Burnham noting that space looked different in the Mirror Universe, the implication was that it was some quirk of physics, rather than biology, and that Vulcans, Bajorans, Klingons, and so on from the MU would also have slightly more dark-adapted eyesight then their Prime Universe counterparts.