Starfleet Academy Tie-Ins

[Christopher]

What if he just didn't know how. Like maybe Flint didn't know he was a Lanthanite say his parents were killed when he was a baby and he was adopted having absolutely no idea Lanthanites exist like every other Human up until the 23rd century. And perhaps he was able to update his identity so well that it never drew the suspicion of anyone of any subspecies.

Again, in 6000 years of actively looking -- nearly 100 typical human lifetimes -- it seems vanishingly improbable that he never got a hit even once. The protagonist of The Boat of a Million Years needed less than 3000 years to find another immortal. It's true that he needed modern communication technology to reach out and find them, but Flint (or whatever name he went by at the time) would have had access to that technology well before he left Earth and bought his own planet.

Besides, if Lanthanites' existence was already common knowledge prior to 2259, then as of "Requiem," Flint would have known of their existence for at least a decade, so why would he still have assumed his only hope of an immortal companion was to build an android?

For my money, if you send out an infant Changeling over two hundred years ago that also isn't expected to come home for another three hundred years then I'm gonna assume your natural lifespan is significantly longer than 500 years.

But "longer than 500" is not necessarily "at least 1000." Maybe it's just 700.

 

[Detached Nacelle]

Besides, if Lanthanites' existence was already common knowledge prior to 2259, then as of "Requiem," Flint would have known of their existence for at least a decade, so why would he still have assumed his only hope of an immortal companion was to build an android?

Do we know how long he was off Earth for? He could have left before they were commonly revealed.

 

[Tosk]

But "longer than 500" is not necessarily "at least 1000." Maybe it's just 700.

Not a problem for me, I'm assuming significantly longer.

...As I said.

 

[Christopher]

Do we know how long he was off Earth for? He could have left before they were commonly revealed.

He was rich enough to buy his own planet. That means he was surely in regular communication with civilization in order to manage his assets. I'm sure he was able to watch the news. He said he knew who Kirk was, and he referred to the Enterprise with familiarity ("The Enterprise, a plague ship"). He also gave Rayna a thorough, up-to-date education, meaning he must not have been cut off from the galaxy.

 

[Cicero]

Meanwhile, I've seen it pointed out that the tendency of fiction to assume that cybernetic/robotic characters are immortal doesn't make sense if you think about it, since in real life, the life expectancy of electronic devices is generally a whole lot shorter than the life expectancy of organic beings. Machines break down as easily as organisms do. Sure, a sufficiently advanced machine might be capable of self-repair, but so are living beings, and it doesn't make them immortal.

In theory, it's easier to make replacement parts for a machine than for a human. They also tend to be better able to survive becoming inert, which we aren't at all adapted to (unlike, e.g. water bears).

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

*side-stepping the ongoing tangent*

I would still hope to see SOME kind of tie-in for Academy, despite the cancellation - I mean, I'm the one who still wants to see some novels or something related to 31, despite the... frosty reception it got. Enterprise has had hopes for new novels, despite not having had any regular novel presence in about a decade. I realize that the idea is generally to tie-in to what is in active production, but with the announcement that the sets have been disassembled and an auction is being put together, it sounds like it's possible there's about to be another fallow period for TV Trek, even if the post-production work for SNW and SA are keeping a year or two's worth of backlog ready to go out. So in that case, it wouldn't be impossible to see something, I would think.

Sure, maybe it wouldn't be much, considering the limited slots currently available for new novels, but... Well, isn't Star Trek founded on the idea of hope?

 

[Christopher]

but with the announcement that the sets have been disassembled and an auction is being put together, it sounds like it's possible there's about to be another fallow period for TV Trek

The one doesn't necessarily follow from the other, as it's normal to tear down sets at the end of a production. Reusing a previous show's sets on a new show is the exception, not the rule. All it means is that they aren't going to do more with the 2260s Enterprise or the 32nd-century Academy. They could always do new shows with different sets.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

The one doesn't necessarily follow from the other, as it's normal to tear down sets at the end of a production. Reusing a previous show's sets on a new show is the exception, not the rule. All it means is that they aren't going to do more with the 2260s Enterprise or the 32nd-century Academy. They could always do new shows with different sets.

True enough. I was just acknowledging the possibility, considering I've seen some concerned talk elsewhere.

 

[Christopher]

True enough. I was just acknowledging the possibility, considering I've seen some concerned talk elsewhere.

There's always the possibility of the current run of the franchise ending, just as there's the possibility of its continuation. I'm just saying that tearing down the sets isn't evidence of that in itself, because that would happen whether there were new series in the works or not (except in the unusual case of a new series recycling a previous series's sets).

 

[JD]

But it does mean that Year One is probably not going to happen since they were planning on reusing all of Strange New World's sets.

*side-stepping the ongoing tangent*

I would still hope to see SOME kind of tie-in for Academy, despite the cancellation - I mean, I'm the one who still wants to see some novels or something related to 31, despite the... frosty reception it got. Enterprise has had hopes for new novels, despite not having had any regular novel presence in about a decade. I realize that the idea is generally to tie-in to what is in active production, but with the announcement that the sets have been disassembled and an auction is being put together, it sounds like it's possible there's about to be another fallow period for TV Trek, even if the post-production work for SNW and SA are keeping a year or two's worth of backlog ready to go out. So in that case, it wouldn't be impossible to see something, I would think.

Sure, maybe it wouldn't be much, considering the limited slots currently available for new novels, but... Well, isn't Star Trek founded on the idea of hope?

We do have the Starfleet Academy: Lost Contact comic miniseries starting Wednesday, and there was also a one shot Section 31 comic that came out around the time the movie was released.
Lost Contact #1
Amazon link

Section 31: Emperor Born
Amazon link

 

[Christopher]

But it does mean that Year One is probably not going to happen since they were planning on reusing all of Strange New World's sets.

It's not like it was ever likely to begin with. It was pitched, but most pitches are rejected. And I don't see how it could ever have been more than a one-season thing.

 

[Detached Nacelle]

It's not like it was ever likely to begin with. It was pitched, but most pitches are rejected. And I don't see how it could ever have been more than a one-season thing.

While I agree that it and every other pitch is completely futile at this point, the concept of Year One could have worked across multiple seasons. Lower Decks had 3 seasons all taking place in 2381.

 

[Christopher]

While I agree that it and every other pitch is completely futile at this point, the concept of Year One could have worked across multiple seasons. Lower Decks had 3 seasons all taking place in 2381.

I suppose, yeah. And SNW seems to have spent most of seasons 1 & 2 in 2259, though it jumped forward to 2261 by early season 3, confusingly.

Also, Picard season 3 somehow took place before season 2. Both seasons are stated to take place in 2401, but Season 2 began on the last day of harvest season at Picard’s vineyard, which in that part of France would most likely be October. But season 3 ends on the 250th anniversary of NX-01’s launch, which would have to be around April 12, 2401. I suppose climate change could’ve moved the harvest season in France from what it is today, but it’s hard to believe Seven of Nine could’ve made it all the way to first officer in just 2-3 months.

 

[Detached Nacelle]

I suppose, yeah. And SNW seems to have spent most of seasons 1 & 2 in 2259, though it jumped forward to 2261 by early season 3, confusingly.

Among the Lotus Eaters is explicitly 2259, it could have ticked over to 2260 for Charades I think. I can't remember if anything else in season 2 outright states the year.

Also, Picard season 3 somehow took place before season 2. Both seasons are stated to take place in 2401, but Season 2 began on the last day of harvest season at Picard’s vineyard, which in that part of France would most likely be October. But season 3 ends on the 250th anniversary of NX-01’s launch, which would have to be around April 12, 2401. I suppose climate change could’ve moved the harvest season in France from what it is today, but it’s hard to believe Seven of Nine could’ve made it all the way to first officer in just 2-3 months.

Yeah season 3 has a lot of issues with its chronology and its dialogue about the Titan. I genuinely salute anyone who isn't bothered by this and doesn't disregard the other seasons and Lower Decks.

 

[Christopher]

Yeah season 3 has a lot of issues with its chronology and its dialogue about the Titan.

Also, season 2 claims to be a year and a half after season 1, but both seasons take place around harvest season at Picard's vineyard, so they should be at the same time of year.

Picard isn't one series. It's three separate miniseries that only clumsily fit together at best.

 

[Detached Nacelle]

Also, season 2 claims to be a year and a half after season 1, but both seasons take place around harvest season at Picard's vineyard, so they should be at the same time of year.

Conservative estimates only make it a year and 3 months. That's some pretty inaccurate rounding by the characters. I guess we can chalk it up to human error

 

[JD]

Wow, I didn't realize the chronolgy of Picard was such a mess.

It's not like it was ever likely to begin with. It was pitched, but most pitches are rejected. And I don't see how it could ever have been more than a one-season thing.

Yeah, I guess. I had just figured with Strange New Worlds being fairly popular, it had a better than average chance of moving forward.

 

[OverlordSpock]

“Lost and Founder,” from issue 8 — penned by yours truly, and winner of the Scribe Award for Best Short Story, 2024.

This sounds hugely interesting. Where might I find this today if I wanted to read it. Would I need to find a back issue of Explorer?

 

[Avro Arrow]

Where might I find this today if I wanted to read it.

"Lost and Founder" is available in the Star Trek: Explorer collection A Year to the Day I Saw Myself Die and Other Stories.

Assuming your location info refers to the river in Nebraska, you can find it on Amazon US here.