The curse(?) of small universe syndrome

[Christopher]

Everyone on the TNG crew graduated from the Academy at different times. It wouldn't have worked.

Data entered the Academy in 2341, a year ahead of Beverly Howard (later Crusher). Riker, Geordi, and Kathryn Janeway were all Class of 2357, and their first year (2353-4) overlapped with Ben Sisko's final year. Tasha Yar enrolled not long after escaping Turkana IV in 2352, so she was probably within a year of them as well.

There was a series of TNG young-adult Academy books back in the '90s, and IIRC they had Riker, Geordi, and Janeway knowing each other and Beverly and Data working together.

Worf is out of the question, since he entered the year after Riker etc. graduated. And obviously Picard is from an earlier generation entirely, graduating 30 years before his future first officer and chief engineer.

 

[Danja]

Data entered the Academy in 2341, a year ahead of Beverly Howard (later Crusher). Riker, Geordi, and Kathryn Janeway were all Class of 2357, and their first year (2353-4) overlapped with Ben Sisko's final year. Tasha Yar enrolled not long after escaping Turkana IV in 2352, so she was probably within a year of them as well.

There was a series of TNG young-adult Academy books back in the '90s, and IIRC they had Riker, Geordi, and Janeway knowing each other and Beverly and Data working together.

There's still the matter of "small universe syndrome".

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Now, if they were all teachers at the same time... If they went with that, it wouldn't have the problem of everyone not being in the same graduating class.

I know it's unrealistic, just the same; people's careers don't all follow the same trajectory or route, regardless of a period of overlap. With a whole Federation in which to spread out, let alone space and time in general, why would everyone necessarily gravitate to the same place?

 

[HIjol]

“Plot Device”?

NOT being simplistic or sarcastic!
Lessee if I can put words to my thought…

Where we start; Earth, Birth Town; Sector 001, what-have-you, is where we Started.

There will always be tendrils, connections, reasons for us to refer to and “return to”…

Formative…

The Plot Device of our Existence…

 

[Christopher]

There's still the matter of "small universe syndrome".

SUS is only a problem when familiar characters or elements are brought together by improbable coincidence or with improbable frequency, so that it feels artificial and forced for them to come together. If it's a canonical fact that two characters were at the Academy at the same time, it wouldn't be that improbable if they were acquainted. Of course, "Death Wish" established that Riker and Janeway had never met before, which is surprising given that they were in the same year, but it's a large university, so it's not that improbable if they didn't meet at the time. (I think either Mosaic or the Starfleet Academy YA novels established that Janeway was at least aware of Riker as a classmate, though.)

When I wrote The Buried Age, chronicling the nine years between Picard losing the Stargazer and gaining the Enterprise, there was some concern about whether I was engaging in SUS by including characters like Janeway, Data, Troi, and Yar in significant roles. But the book did span nine years, after all, and they all showed up at different times. And I was just building on what canon had established about them having met before TNG or having established relationships at the start of TNG.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

but it's a large university, so it's not that improbable if they didn't meet at the time.

With various campuses, departments, cadet postings, etc.

 

[Firebird]

I recently read a fan's idea of what Starfleet Academy SHOULD'VE been ("Why couldn't we have had a show where we had Worf, Riker, Troi, La Forge, Picard, and Crusher all attending the Academy at the same time?")

If this isn't the epitome of "small universe syndrome", I don't know what is.

They did those books in the 90's in the YA genre.

 

[fireproof78]

They did those books in the 90's in the YA genre.

Still enjoy those books. Part of the reason I'm excited for the Academy series.

 

[drt]

Riker, Geordi, and Kathryn Janeway were all Class of 2357

Huh, I would have had guessed that Geordi would have been closer to Worf's class since the first season of TNG seemed to pair them up frequently for what seemed like junior officer cross-training - but I guess the production felt the need to age Geordi up when they made him chief engineer.

 

[Christopher]

Huh, I would have had guessed that Geordi would have been closer to Worf's class since the first season of TNG seemed to pair them up frequently for what seemed like junior officer cross-training - but I guess the production felt the need to age Geordi up when they made him chief engineer.

The irony is that Jonathan Frakes and Michael Dorn are the same age, and LeVar Burton is 5 years younger. (Kate Mulgrew is 3 years younger than Frakes & Dorn.)

Of course, it should be kept in mind that Riker rose through the ranks with unusual swiftness, getting offered his first command only 7 years out of the Academy (and turning it down to serve as Picard's XO). So he'd be close in age to a lot of people of lower rank.

 

[Turtletrekker]

They did those books in the 90's in the YA genre.

To extend the small universe metaphor even further, every single one of Worf's Academy classmates in those books wound up serving on the Excalibur together.

 

[fireproof78]

To extend the small universe metaphor even further, every single one of Worf's Academy classmates in those books wound up serving on the Excalibur together.

But at least we got more Brikar

 

[Christopher]

To extend the small universe metaphor even further, every single one of Worf's Academy classmates in those books wound up serving on the Excalibur together.

Well, the three main original ones, at least. And they didn't end up serving on the same ship as Worf, so that's something.

It's worth noting that the Worf YA books introduced the Brikar species, which has since been made canonical by Prodigy.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Well, the three main original ones, at least. And they didn't end up serving on the same ship as Worf, so that's something.

Actually, even Tania Tobias showed up before the end.

Tania Tobias

See Tobias for other articles with titles that contain, either by relationship or by coincidence, this character's surname. Tania Tobias was a human female in Starfleet in the 24th century. She was the daughter of Lieutenant Tobias, chief engineer of the USS Intrepid. Tobias enrolled at...

memory-beta.fandom.com

 

[Dar70]

I'm surprised people have an issue with this but fully accept She Hulk walking off a tv screen with MCU written by a stupid robot or SNW having a puppet episode and musical.

And that tribute Wall at Starfleet academy in the 32nd Century....has mostly only names of the characters from the other shows. Even Lt Jg Wesley Crusher who left StarFleet under strange circumstances never finishing the academy..... ....

Talk about small universes the academy must only enroll 5 people per year ...

 

[knightgrace]

The real question is just how expensive is a starship? If starships are expensive to build and maintain, then this explains the number of Constitution class Starships...it also means that the Klingon Empire isn't that much of a threat. Paradox. Furthermore it also explains why Delta Vega is only visited once every twenty years. Whatever 'Lithium cracking' means, it means at the very least a long processing time...

Ship speeds aren't infinite in nature so twenty years turn around time isn't that much of a problem. But, from a tactical position, there had better be multiple 'Delta Vegas' out there.

Small universe? Indeed. But not in the way usually meant. Economics.

 

[Christopher]

I'm surprised people have an issue with this but fully accept She Hulk walking off a tv screen with MCU written by a stupid robot or SNW having a puppet episode and musical.

You have a point about the latter, but not the former. Different works of fiction hold themselves to different standards of realism. Comic-book universes generally tend toward fantasy, but Gene Roddenberry created Star Trek with the intent of making it more grounded and plausible science fiction than its contemporary shows. So a Star Trek episode telling a fanciful story is more deserving of criticism, or at least demands more justification, than a Marvel superhero show doing so.

And that tribute Wall at Starfleet academy in the 32nd Century....has mostly only names of the characters from the other shows. Even Lt Jg Wesley Crusher who left StarFleet under strange circumstances never finishing the academy..... ....

Yes, that wall graphic embodies the worst impulses of small universe syndrome. It's been 800 years! Most of those people from the first 200 years of Starfleet probably wouldn't even be remembered anymore, and all but the most important would've been eclipsed by all the other great Starfleet heroes that had come along in the four-times-as-long interval that followed.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Of course we know why they did that; in the event that Star Trek ever does set more shows in between the 25th and 32nd centuries, there'll doubtless be new characters who will distinguish themselves in various ways, and be deserving of a name on the wall. You don't want to name hero characters who have yet to be created yet; it spoils it for the writers who will come after.

And as this is not just a background display graphic, filled with production crew name in-jokes and gibberish, meant to provide realism but be ignored for what it says, but rather the focal point of a significant scene - we're to notice it as much as the cadets do, perhaps more, when we recognize names we know well - it stands to reason that the names chosen would mean something to us now.

So maybe this is the hero wall for past centuries or the golden age, whereas others are remembered elsehow and elsewhere; maybe the other names are lost to history for some reason. Whatever the explanation, there will be other heroes and villains - a casual name-drop in the style of "2 real, one fake/2 human, one alien" which later writers can expand upon; events such as "the battle of _____", "treaty of ______", "the ______ war", "first contact with the _____" etc.

 

[Shawnster]

I'm surprised people have an issue with this but fully accept She Hulk walking off a tv screen with MCU written by a stupid robot or SNW having a puppet episode and musical

What? There are plenty of loud complaints about SNW Muppets and musicals.

As for She Hulk? Have you seen many of the comics? She Hulk broke the 4th wall often. That's almost a comic book trope.

 

[Christopher]

Of course we know why they did that; in the event that Star Trek ever does set more shows in between the 25th and 32nd centuries, there'll doubtless be new characters who will distinguish themselves in various ways, and be deserving of a name on the wall. You don't want to name hero characters who have yet to be created yet; it spoils it for the writers who will come after.

It's a big universe. There could be plenty of Starfleet heroes we don't see in addition to the ones we do. I mean, even in the 22nd-24th centuries, there should be many distinguished Starfleet figures who never appeared on TV or movies.

And as this is not just a background display graphic, filled with production crew name in-jokes and gibberish, meant to provide realism but be ignored for what it says, but rather the focal point of a significant scene - we're to notice it as much as the cadets do, perhaps more, when we recognize names we know well - it stands to reason that the names chosen would mean something to us now.

But that just pulls the audience out of the story by reminding us it's a work of fiction. It's cheap pandering, not effective worldbuilding. Things in stories should be chosen for their significance to the characters and their experiences, not their significance to the audience. We're just spectators. The story's not supposed to be about us. It's supposed to let us set ourselves aside and immerse ourselves in other people's lives. And that's easiest to do if the details feel like they arise organically from the characters' world, rather than being self-conscious winks at the audience. Hell, this isn't just a wink, it's a shout.