Star Trek Online and Countdown Graphic Novel Continuities

[shanejayell]

*random*

The more I read about STO the less I'm liking it, oddly. I'd rather see someone take this space war concept and either make a original game or adapt a space war novel series. Not Star Trek.

But that's just me.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Wouldn't this be the perfect time to use a Genesis torpedo? or would that be illegal? I forget whether or not the tech was outlawed after that whole Genesis Wave thing...

Well I believe it is still illegal, seeing as the Federation doesn't want someone going around using something like that as a weapon. Plus

Spoiler: Genesis Wave Book 3

It turns out that if Genesis is used a lot it will rip a hole in the space/time continuum.

 

[Sci]

Dude, there's nothing left. Star Trek established as far back as TOS that a Federation starship is capable of annihilating all life on a Class M planet and turning it into a ball of radioactive glass, and Destiny made it clear that the Borg more than share that capacity. When the Borg exterminate a planet, there's nothing left. Anywhere. The entire biosphere has been purged. There are no bacteria, no microbes, no fungi, no plants, no animals, no viruses, no DNA strands, no RNA strands, nothing.

Star Trek has established no such thing. After all, its stories are told from the perspective of humanoids, and there's a pervasive tendency to use the term "life forms" to refer only to people rather than animals, plants, microbes, etc. So the franchise has been pretty agnostic on whether everything is exterminated.

Yes, that's right, the unambiguous statement that starships can destroy all life on a planet actually means something other than "all life."

 

[Rush Limborg]

Colloquialisms are a tricky thing, Sci. You never really know how technical they are unless you see the facts for yourself.

 

[Christopher]

Yes, that's right, the unambiguous statement that starships can destroy all life on a planet actually means something other than "all life."

Why the attitude? Is it really that surprising that sentient beings are capable of being ethnocentric and using the term "life" selectively to apply only to the life they consider significant? There are canonical examples of such imprecise usage, even from Spock himself. For instance, in "By Any Other Name," when the landing party beamed down to a region lush with plant life, Spock's very first line is "No life form readings, Captain." He similarly uses the phrase "no life forms" in reference to other worlds that clearly have plant life, such as Pollux IV and Eden. Searching Chakoteya's transcript site, I find similar usages in TNG: "The Arsenal of Freedom" (from Data) and VGR: "Tattoo" (from Harry) among others. These are science officers, characters known for their meticulous nature, and they're repeatedly saying "no life" in cases where there's plenty of plant life and undoubtedly abundant microbes, not to mention the insects or equivalents that would probably be needed to pollinate many of the plants. So it would definitely be a mistake to take any Starfleet character too literally if they say "all life" on a planet has been destroyed.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Risa is now one bloody big holodeck. Easy to build in 30 years.

 

[Rat Boy]

It's unfair to demand that STO follow recent Trek Lit to the last letter; Cryptic needed to get their backstory nailed down as soon as they got the license a year and a half ago in addition to plotting the course of the game from launch onwards. That they've incorporated as much from the novels and graphic novels as they have is a heck of a lot more than any other Star Trek game to date. You can't expect them to go back and completely rework their game's source material every month or so because every subsequent novel introduces yet another change that they have to adhere to.

 

[ronny]

It's unfair to demand that STO follow recent Trek Lit to the last letter; Cryptic needed to get their backstory nailed down as soon as they got the license a year and a half ago in addition to plotting the course of the game from launch onwards. That they've incorporated as much from the novels and graphic novels as they have is a heck of a lot more than any other Star Trek game to date. You can't expect them to go back and completely rework their game's source material every month or so because every subsequent novel introduces yet another change that they have to adhere to.

I think we're lucky they included as much from the books as they did. Cryptic and Pocket Books are trying to do two different things. Pocket is trying to tell good stories that sell books. Cryptic is trying to make a game that's fun to play. Having the Federation and Klingons at war again probably adds to gameplay but would make for a repetitive story line, in my opinion anyway. Visiting Risa might be fun in the game but not if it's been destroyed by the borg. I never expected the game to follow the books so it's just a pleasant surprise to me when they throw something in.

 

[Christopher]

Risa in STO? I dunno... I doubt an all-ages game could come any closer to doing Risa justice than the TV shows could. If anything, Risa stories would work better in the novels, which are freer to touch on more adult subject matter.

 

[Rush Limborg]

^...which kinda serves as an incentive to have a scientific breakthrough in terraforming in the novels--testing it out on Risa, Deneva, etc.

No kidding. I could see a story developing along those lines.

BTW, the methods we saw in "Home Soil" were pretty nice. Just take away the chrystal life-forms in that ep, and add 20 years of advancement....

 

[Darth Duck]

^Or they could write a story on Rise set before Destiny. (Not that I'm anti-terraforming)

 

[Rush Limborg]

But...there's the "suspense" matter. It's a common problem with prequels.

Where's the suspense? We know what's going to happen to Risa.

 

[Ayelbourne]

But...there's the "suspense" matter.

Is that even more dangerous than red matter?

Where's the suspense? We know what's going to happen to Risa.

We also know what's going to happen to Caprica. And yet, people are watching in the show.

 

[Christopher]

For that matter, we know what's going to happen to Kirk, but people still read TOS books. Nothing lasts forever. The suspense of a story isn't "Will X still exist N years in the future?" but "How will X get out of this one?"

Besides, we're talking about Risa. A pleasure planet. Why would suspense have anything to do with it?

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Besides, we're talking about Risa. A pleasure planet. Why would suspense have anything to do with it?

Will my Risan Mai-tai cocktail arrive in time for the start of the Deltan/Risan beach volleyball championships?

Could even work as a cliffhanger if you play it right.

 

[James Swallow]

Destiny simply didn't happen in the STO timeline.

The STO beta ended with a massive Borg invasion 'event', and while I was in the thick of a huge battle against a fleet of cubes, one of the other gamers wrote "Where are the Caeliar when we need them?" on the chat screen.

 

[Paris]

^Did you LOL?

 

[Corran Horn]

Destiny simply didn't happen in the STO timeline.

The STO beta ended with a massive Borg invasion 'event', and while I was in the thick of a huge battle against a fleet of cubes, one of the other gamers wrote "Where are the Caeliar when we need them?" on the chat screen.

ha ha, that's great.

 

[James Swallow]

^Did you LOL?

I would have, but I was too busy trying to keep my warp core from overloading...

 

[Paris]

^Was that a masturbation joke ?