The Great Chronological Run-Through

[Enterprise1701]

"Future Tense" was an interesting episode.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

"Canamar"

The Enolians are another mid-level civilization, a race who have some degree of power and influence over their region of space. They have multiple inhabited systems, and trade outposts with up to several million inhabitants. Cleary they're a successful people, no doubt because their corner of space is considered orderly and extremely well-regulated. Their success at crafting a fairly secure and prosperous economy amid all the slavers, pirates and black marketeers we've seen elsewhere has probably made them rather popular, if the other side of their image - the overzealous criminal system - hasn't poisoned their reputation. Their harsh law enforcement policy certainly contrasts with their helpful government and diplomatic officials, but both make sense; this is a culture used to dealing with other species and anxious to protect its economic prosperity, whether through building and maintaining good relations with outsiders or by bringing the gavel down hard on lawbreakers.

I wonder what happens to the Enolians and their orderly little corner of (most probably) Beta Quadrant? They'll surely be eclipsed by the Federation once it gets up and running, unless they join it, which we've seen no evidence of. They've presumably managed to compete with Rigel, the Orion merchant clans, and the Thelasian Trade Confederacy (we'll meet them later), probably by virtue of being so hard on crime and underhanded deals, unlike the first two, and by being less overbearing and all-encompassing than the latter. You want some honest trade in a well-regulated system that won't try to suck you in deeper? Head to Enolian space! Obey all laws. Really, you should, they're very hard on criminals and suspected criminals.

It was nice to see a Nausicaan again. We don't learn anything new about the species, it's just reinforced that they have a bad reputation. At least this one didn't decapitate anyone (as in The Sundered). He (or she? Who knows with Nausicaans?) has a sense of humour, and that counts for a lot.

Continuity

Enolians will show up in the novels only once, so far as I'm aware - an Enolian character is among the inhabitants of Obl'Viaan, a cosmopolitan space station in Stargazer: Oblivion. Michael Jan Friedman, along with his usual assortment of never-before-seen, never-to-be-seen-again aliens (and his regular crop of Vobilites, Dedderac and Pandrilites) apparently decided to drop in an Enterprise race, which is certainly welcome but so random that I'd be half convinced the name is a coincidence had not the same book mentioned Denobulans... and had it not noted that Enolians are known for being tough on lawbreakers.

Latinum is mentioned for the second time, and this marks the first time that it's been acknowledged as valuable in places other than the Mysterious Land Of The Unnamed Big-Eared Orange People.

Zoumas likes eating tojal. Zoumas, then, has been trading with someone who has traded with Cardassia. I'll count this as our first indirect exposure to Cardassians (who are spacefaring in this era, only they're one of hundreds of other backwater nations with little to recommend them. Cardassia is a starving nobody, and it will be a while before they start to attract attention, when they start to roam the streets at night and they learn how to steal and they learn how to fight... no, that's Elvis, isn't it? But at least they won't be wrongly arrested, sent to Canamar and learn it that way). Anyway, Zoumas also gives us our first mention of the Orions, because he apparently spent time with an Orion slave girl at some point. For even more reasons than the usual, I hope it was one of the powerful high-status ones and not the commoners with no choice in the matter. You don't need attractive green women to loosen Zoumas' tongue, of course, you just need to exist in his immediate vicinity. Between Cardassians and Orions Zoumas is indeed useful for this sort of thing; he's like a particle fountain of continuity gold. He's even hinting at the Abramsverse by introducing us (and Trek in general) to Melvaran Mud Fleas, which alternate Kirk will come to know of. Maybe if McCoy injects Zoumas with the right vaccine, his tongue will swell up and he'll stop talking?

(On that note, Trip has a thing for making friends with aliens, doesn't he? Somebody write a fanfic in which Trip goes on a, er, road trip with Kaitaama, Zho'kaan, Zoumas, Ah'len and Q'ell. Trip and Kaitaama can argue and then spend the night together, only for Trip to then find out that he's carrying Ah'len's child; Zoumas can annoy Zho'kaan with constant prattle until Zho'kaan smashes a bottle of tarratt-aash over his head, and Q'ell can pester Trip and Zho'kaan for ship schematics. The cogenitor won't be allowed to come because it doesn't get to go on road trips, and also we haven't met it yet).

Next Time: "The Crossing", which features our first non-corporeal aliens if we're not counting Wanderer, which of course I did. These ones are quite similar actually, in that they seem friendly but are really A Threat.

 

[Enterpriserules]

I think that is what made Trip so likable for me, he was so willing to get to know someone and be their friend. Was he a bit judgmental towards other races in the beginning, sure, but he learned and grew by the end. Made for a good character arc.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

I think that is what made Trip so likable for me, he was so willing to get to know someone and be their friend. Was he a bit judgmental towards other races in the beginning, sure, but he learned and grew by the end. Made for a good character arc.

The writers probably knew they were on to a good thing there. "Trip/an alien" does tend to work far more often that it doesn't. Trip is probably one of the more well-rounded characters; he's open and honest but not excessively diplomatic, he's polite but also outspoken and with a tendency at times to step before he thinks. His intentions are good, though he lacks experience with alien cultures and can be short-tempered. He's not the best diplomat for Humanity from the official perspective (far from it), but he's probably the best from an unofficial one, the most honest representation. I mentioned "Cogenitor" up there because that, of course, is the ultimate Trip/alien story, but it's one that would definitely have to be told at some point, because Trip is the sort of character who is made for it.

 

[Enterpriserules]

I think that is what made Trip so likable for me, he was so willing to get to know someone and be their friend. Was he a bit judgmental towards other races in the beginning, sure, but he learned and grew by the end. Made for a good character arc.

The writers probably knew they were on to a good thing there. "Trip/an alien" does tend to work far more often that it doesn't. Trip is probably one of the more well-rounded characters; he's open and honest but not excessively diplomatic, he's polite but also outspoken and with a tendency at times to step before he thinks. His intentions are good, though he lacks experience with alien cultures and can be short-tempered. He's not the best diplomat for Humanity from the official perspective (far from it), but he's probably the best from an unofficial one, the most honest representation. I mentioned "Cogenitor" up there because that, of course, is the ultimate Trip/alien story, but it's one that would definitely have to be told at some point, because Trip is the sort of character who is made for it.

"Cogenitor" is also the perfect story to tell at this point in the timeline. I think all the things you said about Trip are what make him my favorite ENT character. He just jumps off the screen from the very first episode and coupled with Connor Trinneer's effortless portrayal it makes for one of Trek's best characters.

 

[Christopher]

"Future Tense" is an okay little story, but symptomatic of this season in that, even though it's part of the Temporal Cold War arc, it doesn't actually advance that arc but just goes off on a little tangent that doesn't connect to anything (except "Metamorphosis" in the acknowledgment of Cochrane's disappearance).

"Canamar," on the other hand, is simply pointless. A totally forgettable, insignificant episode.

As for second-season civilizations like the Enolians, my take is that NX-01 was really far from home at this point, so far that it was interacting with cultures that Federation expansion wouldn't necessarily have caught up to even by the 24th century. After all, "The Expanse" indicated that the ship needed to travel for quite some time to make it home to Earth. That's part of why I haven't featured second-season races much in Rise of the Federation.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

"The Crossing"

It's mentioned that Enterprise is 150 light-years from Earth, though that might be conveniently rounded.

I liked seeing Phlox given some out-of-sickbay action, and placed in a fish-out-of-water situation. It's more fun watching Phlox, rather than a Starfleet crewman, handling security and engineering problems, and it makes the final act a lot more engaging than it otherwise would be.

The "wisps" are rather frustrating. On the one hand, I like the fact that much about them remains unclear and mysterious, as it helps them seem truly alien. Their motives are harder to determine when they take such a lengthy time to make their move. Also, it isn't clear whether they're being smugly unpleasant or truly clueless (if callous). Sometimes it seems like they're mocking the crew or being deliberately sinister, but you're never sure. On the other hand, we get no sense of the "rules" for how anything about these beings works or why, so it feels like there are plot holes lurking everywhere and so we shouldn't probe anything too deeply or we'll fall into them. Naturally that takes the interest out of it. For instance, they can't survive in space... except they fly through space to and from their ship to reach Enterprise. Can they only survive for short periods?

Who gave them a ship that they can't repair? Did the ship enter their subspace realm (assuming that backstory is true) and they stole it? Why then can't they get back? How come they can control the ship but not repair it? Why do they care if the ship breaks down and drifts forever when they don't need its environment and are apparently quite fine in (if bored with) their timeless/placeless existence as "perceptive energy"?

I suppose it's quite a nice touch that the wisps' obsession with physical bodies is hinted at through their insistence on equating body with identity - "I am Charles Tucker, the person who was Charles Tucker is out there somewhere", etc. - which should raise eyebrows given that these beings are supposedly only interested in bodies from the point of view of exploration or historical research. Their desire is coming through in their manner of self-description. To own the body is to claim the perceptual space for that individual.

Okay, so it's really just standard crew-possessed-by-aliens fare, though it sort of tries to pretend it's doing something more. (The one area where it succeeds in that is in giving Phlox something different to do and having a bit of fun with him). The crew seem rather slow to respond to the crisis, which is odd when they clearly aren't taken in by the wisps and are wary or suspicious of them throughout. T'Pol makes good points about being cautious and open-minded but of course we know that when ghosts tell you they want to swap bodies with you, but they'll give them back, honest, that you certainly never believe them, and so rather than exploring any worthy ideas it just comes across as padding until we get to the body-snatching action. As for the ship suddenly reconfiguring its atmosphere for the crew, don't they remember the last time a giant, impersonal mechanical space-thing did that? At least that one only wanted Travis, not everybody. Everybody's body.

Still, I find the episode enjoyable; I honestly do. It's riddled with plot holes and it has no real substance (amusingly enough!) but I quite like it all the same. So sue me.

Continuity

Crewman Rostov is back. And he makes a good showing of himself, too, since he immediately calls the bridge and informs them that Trip is acting unusual, rather than shrugging it off. Well done, Rostov. Competent crewmen, always nice to see!

Next Time: The long, slow decline of the Klingons in "Judgment".

 

[Christopher]

"The Crossing" is another forgettable episode -- and another entry in the show's perennially bad and tasteless handling of sexuality in general and T'Pol's in particular, with poor Malcolm getting taken over by an entity that turns him into a sexual predator and has him make untoward advances on T'Pol.

 

[Skywalker]

I remember reading that "Canamar" was originally meant to be the second part of a two-episode storyline, following "Judgment," with Archer on a prison transport to Rura Penthe, but for some reason that didn't stick. Given how "Judgment" ended rather abruptly I wish things hadn't changed, that would have been pretty neat.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Personally, in terms of the Trek 'verse, I'm hoping that whichever novel eventually fleshes out the Battle of Axanar and whatever major crisis it was a part of chooses to acknowledge that statement of a century of peace and takes a more interesting route than having it be an invasion by Klingons or another foe.

Ah, you haven't read Garth of Izar yet?

Lucky you!

Especially since the very books which claim a century of peace also stress the essential importance of triumph at Axanar to preserving the Federation.

Presumably those books were just following the lead of what was on-screen, since Carol Marcus makes the same claim of a century of peace in TWOK. (Conveniently forgetting, though, that the Federation was actually at war during "Errand of Mercy". I guess it was called off before it really impacted Federation civilians too much.)

(And obviously there was no Four Years War in the Abramsverse! )

There is no Four Years War in the novel 'verse either . Several books set around the time of the Organian incident mention that there hasn't been a full scale war since the founding of the Federation. (Then again, Star Wars episode II had Palpatine claim the same about that universe, didn't it, even though there had been plenty in the EU material, which required a pretty extensive retcon )

I don't think the FYW existed in on-screen TOS, either. But I'm happy to ignore that when reading FASA booklets or watching the Prelude to Axanar fan film.

Probably not, but I definitely had Prelude to Axanar on the brain when I wrote that!

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Ah, you haven't read Garth of Izar yet?

Lucky you!

I haven't. Is it compatible with the mainstream novel continuity? I'm not sure it's on my list.


"Judgement"

A welcome acknowledgement that societies change over time, and that cultural values can shift. This one fleshes out the Klingons and introduces what is probably the most important part of their characterization, which is their internal disagreements on what the role of the warrior entails and how they interpret their cultural teachings, how the ideal exists in uneasy balance with practical measures or personal and political ambitions. Like the Vulcans, they're a people increasingly committed to a slowly self-destructive path. Their road to a cultural re-examination/rediscovery will be a longer and harder one than the Vulcans face, and they won't really start down that route for another century.

The Klingons have succumbed to their own restlessness, in what might be considered a dark mirror to the problems plaguing Humanity. I'm reminded of a plot we'll return to in the next episode, of Starfleet "poaching" the experienced cargo ship crewmen, of young people wanting to grow up and join Starfleet and not the freight service. The Klingons have experienced a similar exodus toward the exciting life on the frontier; in their case, the warrior seeking victory out among the stars, and in their hunger to find that victory they've relaxed all of the previous standards so that nearly anything will count. A victory is needed, and with so many people flocking to become warriors, and the paths to glory and honour slowly eroded until only the warrior is left, the pursuit of victory has taken on a life of its own and consumed the Klingon culture. This is a welcome idea that makes the Klingons more interesting going forward. Their culture has reduced itself to a caricature, has leeched the integrity out of itself in its efforts to accommodate its people's desires. I can't help but wonder if this state of affairs was originally seen as a good and noble thing by many - in an age of easy spaceflight and expansion, more and more Klingons can join the warrior caste who live the Klingon Dream; the old barriers are breaking down, this is a new and brave age for the Klingon people. But all that happens is that the other pillars of the Klingon society are eroded and left to crumble, with the warriors' existing appeal swollen until there are only warriors (first) and everyone else (second).

The episode also gives us confirmation of Vulcan-Klingon relations, and we learn in part why the Klingons are often reasonably responsive to Vulcan entreaties. Part of the Vulcan success with the Klingons involves taking advantage of the empire's corruption, which Kolos notably finds distasteful.

First Appearances of Things That Are Important

Duras. There's a Duras for every era, and all of them are trouble. This Duras is not yet particularly influential, though he has achieved command of a battlecruiser. His House will achieve greater prominence in the centuries to come.

Rura Penthe

This is also the first appearance of the painstik weapon and of bloodwine.

Kolos indeed survives his year on Rura Penthe, and will play a role in the events of the Romulan War.

Continuity

Archer uses his plasma ignition trick again. He used it against the Enolian patrol ships in "Canamar" and now he uses a variant to cripple the Bortas.

Kahless is mentioned for the first time, though there's no indication of who he might be, beyond some notable historic figure.

The D-5 reappears, this time as its battlecruiser variant.

Next Time: Back to the Space Boomers in "Horizon".

 

[Christopher]

"Judgment" (it uses the American spelling) is one of the finest episodes of the second season, and one of my favorite Klingon episodes of the franchise. And that's largely because it finally, finally looks beneath the simplistic "warrior race" idea and acknowledges that there can be no such thing, that warrior is simply one role within a society and that there must be other kinds of Klingon. It reveals that the glorification of warriors is simply the ascendancy of a particular class to social and political dominance, its glorification at the expense of everyone else. And, like so much of Enterprise, it has the good judgment (pun intended) to recognize that societies do, in fact, change over time, that it's not a continuity error to portray 22nd-century Vulcans or Klingons or whoever differently from their later counterparts. (Indeed, I find it disappointing that 22nd-century Romulans, when we meet them later in the series, will be so identical to their descendants.) This episode fleshes out Klingons in a way that only the books had managed to do before. Even all the Klingon episodes on TNG and DS9 were fixated on the warrior elite and the noble houses to the exclusion of everything else. (Martok was a commoner by birth, but one who had earned a noble title and become part of the elite by the time we met him.)

On the downside, though, the episode tries a little too hard to emulate the courtroom scene from TUC. It's nice to have that continuity, that suggestion that Archer's trial took place in the same courtroom or at least one of the same design, but including both the courtroom scenes and a trip to Rura Penthe made it feel kind of derivative.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Although Kahless is mentioned only once in "Judgment" (thanks for the spelling correction ), and then in a transparent attempt to temporarily gain the crowd's favour (saying the words "Kahless" and "honour" in a sentence earns you an automatic cheer, apparently), it's interesting to note that his original teachings seem to have stressed the importance of warrior's honour to all aspects of Klingon life. While he may have held the warrior to be the finest and truest example of Klingonhood, he wanted a universal code of honour, one that drew directly from the experience of the warrior but applied the warrior's ideals to all.

Here we see evidence that Klingon society did go through periods where these interpretations of Kahless' intent were predominant: Kolos' father was a teacher, his mother a biologist, and they encouraged him to take up law. Clearly they found honour in these roles. This is why I'm wondering if the Klingons of recent memory weren't victims of their own success. Was their decline originally a manner of seemingly positive reform? With social barriers coming down, was it initially thought that the outcome would be very different, almost the opposite of what we see here? That it would reduce the influence of the warrior elite by making warriorhood accessible to anyone who wished to give it a go? With a growing fleet and increased presence in space for the lower class was it easy to join a small raiding crew and earn glory? If all can be warriors, then there is no elite, and perhaps some Klingons saw this as a realization of the original intent, that all were united by the warrior's code. Perhaps they thought their youth would taste the Real Thing and then come back to their other professions with new appreciation for the Way of the Warrior, as applies to everything in life.

Except that what happened is that the division between the warrior as the exemplifier of Klingonhood and every other profession only widened, became more pronounced, and now that there was such competition to claim mighty victories, the bar was gradually lowered until anything could be a victory. It would be sadly ironic if the loosening of class and caste structures actually resulted in the cheapening of the warrior caste while in practice doing nothing to elevate traditionally non-elite Klingons, in fact marginalizing them further (at least if they insisted on remaining in professions other than warrior). Leading to the Klingon Empire Kolos decries here. A society where the young dream of being warriors on the battlefield and nothing else, where a victory is a victory even if you're just pursuing starving jeghpu'wI', or raiding Xarantine, or bullying deuterium miners.

 

[Enterpriserules]

This was one of my favorites as well because of seeing the other side of Klingon life. It is too bad this did not happen more often.

 

[Enterprise1701]

^ Ah. Thanks for clarifying that, Skywalker.

Personally, in terms of the Trek 'verse, I'm hoping that whichever novel eventually fleshes out the Battle of Axanar and whatever major crisis it was a part of chooses to acknowledge that statement of a century of peace and takes a more interesting route than having it be an invasion by Klingons or another foe. Especially since the very books which claim a century of peace also stress the essential importance of triumph at Axanar to preserving the Federation.

Do you the My Brother's Keeper trilogy in your list? According to Memory Beta, it gives the date of the Battle of Axanar as 2251. I'm not sure how compatible it is with the modern novelvers, though, but not much has been specified about pre-2265 events. I do know, though, that the Enterprise's next stop after "Where No Man Has Gone Before" in My Brother's Keeper is different from Vanguard - Harbinger.

 

[Christopher]

My Brother's Keeper also offers an explanation for Klingon ridges that differs from subsequent canon.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Ah, you haven't read Garth of Izar yet?

Lucky you!

I haven't. Is it compatible with the mainstream novel continuity? I'm not sure it's on my list.

Sorry, I honestly don't know. I read it back when it first came out, [checks] which appears to be 11 years ago, and all I really remember was that there were inconsistencies within the book itself, and it wasn't a very enjoyable read. But some of those TOS books are standalone enough that, even though they're not deliberately consistent with novelverse continuity, they don't strictly contradict it, either. Maybe someone else who has read it more recently can offer an opinion.

 

[Sci]

If all can be warriors, then there is no elite, and perhaps some Klingons saw this as a realization of the original intent, that all were united by the warrior's code.

This makes me wonder what, in a neo-feudalist political and economic structure, a Klingon radical left would look like. Are there Klingon socialists? Klingon communists?

"Working warriors of Qo'noS, unite! Seize the bat'leths of the bosses!"

Except that what happened is that the division between the warrior as the exemplifier of Klingonhood and every other profession only widened, became more pronounced, and now that there was such competition to claim mighty victories, the bar was gradually lowered until anything could be a victory. It would be sadly ironic if the loosening of class and caste structures actually resulted in the cheapening of the warrior caste while in practice doing nothing to elevate traditionally non-elite Klingons, in fact marginalizing them further (at least if they insisted on remaining in professions other than warrior). Leading to the Klingon Empire Kolos decries here. A society where the young dream of being warriors on the battlefield and nothing else, where a victory is a victory even if you're just pursuing starving jeghpu'wI', or raiding Xarantine, or bullying deuterium miners.

Your argument here reminds me of the argument Christopher Hayes makes in his book Twilight of the Elites about the rise of the meritocratic social order in real life: A system meant to increase class mobility which has actually made things worse.

 

[Enterprise1701]

Ah, you haven't read Garth of Izar yet?

Lucky you!

I haven't. Is it compatible with the mainstream novel continuity? I'm not sure it's on my list.

Sorry, I honestly don't know. I read it back when it first came out, [checks] which appears to be 11 years ago, and all I really remember was that there were inconsistencies within the book itself, and it wasn't a very enjoyable read. But some of those TOS books are standalone enough that, even though they're not deliberately consistent with novelverse continuity, they don't strictly contradict it, either. Maybe someone else who has read it more recently can offer an opinion.

Was there a point at which TOS novels more or less tried to link with the inter-series continuity? From the Pocket TOS novel list on Memory Alpha, I see that Section 31: Cloak was the first unnumbered novel published after Avatar, but subsequently there was The Janus Gate trilogy, Gemini and Garth of Izar, and The Case of the Colonist's Corpse, none of which is noticeably linked to the modern continuity. Then afterwards comes the Vulcan's Soul trilogy and Ex Machina. Then again, my aforementioned assessment could be unfair since after Ex Machina came the Crucible trilogy as well as Rihannsu: The Empty Chair.

Also of note, the final numbered TOS novel is In the Name of Honor, which is also the only numbered TOS novel to be published after Avatar. Is there a reason why elements of it (i.e. Chancellor Kesh) made it into Mere Anarchy but not Vanguard?

 

[Christopher]

Was there a point at which TOS novels more or less tried to link with the inter-series continuity? From the Pocket TOS novel list on Memory Alpha, I see that Section 31: Cloak was the first unnumbered novel published after Avatar, but subsequently there was The Janus Gate trilogy, Gemini and Garth of Izar, and The Case of the Colonist's Corpse, none of which is noticeably linked to the modern continuity. Then afterwards comes the Vulcan's Soul trilogy and Ex Machina. Then again, my aforementioned assessment could be unfair since after Ex Machina came the Crucible trilogy as well as Rihannsu: The Empty Chair.

There's no point of transition; some of them do tie in to the larger continuity (Ex Machina certainly does), while others stand alone. I figure it depends on the individual author's preferences.