Oh, good point. I haven't updated my timeline with that, yet. It'll probably be one of those that gets on there twice, actually. 2384 and a second time at the very end.
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The Great Chronological Run-Through
- Thread starter Deranged Nasat
- Start date
Oh, good point. I haven't updated my timeline with that, yet. It'll probably be one of those that gets on there twice, actually. 2384 and a second time at the very end.
Say, what about all those stories in Strange New Worlds? Some of them are incompatible with the mainstream novelverse (i.e. Stargazer - Oblivion overrides "Together Again, for the First Time") while others were written by current authors and/or get utilized (i.e. From History's Shadow retells and expands "The Aliens Are Coming!").
Does Pocket Books have a policy on the novelverse canonicity of Strange New Worlds?
Does Pocket Books have a policy on the novelverse canonicity of Strange New Worlds?
Pocket has no "policy" on that. Whether a story is compatible with other stories is up to the individual author. And the stories in SNW were set in dozens of incompatible continuities, so it would be nonsensical to think of them as a unified whole. (For instance, SNW contains two contradictory Borg origins, at least two contradictory followups to Kirk's death in Generations, etc.) There are a number of SNW stories that reference the main continuity or have been acknowledged by it, but there are plernty of others that are inconsistent with it.
Declassified: "Almost Tomorrow".
This is a prologue to Vanguard, and it sketches in the characters, themes, political situation and layers of obfuscation that will define the series. I think it actually works better in its chronological position than it does when taken in its usual place two-thirds of the way through the series. There’s not much that would strike a reader as new or particularly illuminating when read in the intended place (it's sort of going through the motions, really), but as a genuine introduction it works. It explains everything that needs explaining and gives us a feel for the 23rd Century Federation frontier, without detracting from the mysteries or answering any questions posed to us later in the series (so far as I can remember, anyway).
This is really where we start to get a sense of where the Federation stands in the 23rd Century, and I’m pleased that the Vanguard series made such an effort to establish a feel for how this time frame is distinct. Given that Vanguard forms a backdrop to the Original Series episodes, it makes the mid-23rd Century more coherent, and adds some fascinating wrinkles to existing material. In other words, it takes the least serialized Trek show and gives it an implicit arc without feeling the need to detract from the actual episodes' status as stand-alones. Very well played.
By now, then, the Federation is long-established and prosperous, while still retaining a rapid rate of expansion. Youthful and driven but also settled, comfortable and strong. It’s been a hundred years, after all, and a generally peaceful hundred years at that. The choice of scope for the Taurus Reach is generally well-considered; it’s large enough to give both a sense of the vastness of space and of the wider political picture while being focused enough to serve as a snapshot of a particular region of activity, leaving the Federation core and other areas untouched. The sprawling Federation is competing with other powers – not only the Klingons, themselves reaching superpower status, but with more distant nations like the Tholian Assembly, which is now considered a major power in “local space” itself.
We discover that the creators of the meta-genome - the mystery/opportunity that underlies everything occurring in the Taurus Reach - were incredibly influential, extending their, er, reach, across the entire region. Other important details – like the Tholians’ strange aversion to colonizing the area, are established too.
We close by emphasising a final layer of meaning to Starbase 47, Vanguard: its role as a diplomatic post, when Jetanien succeeds in securing Tholian as well as Klingon and Federation representation. (Also there’s an Orion ship present, which Commodore Reyes isn’t happy about but Desai tells him he can’t discriminate unless and until they actually do something illegal).
First Appearances of Things That Are Important
We meet a lot of the Vanguard cast – Diego Reyes, T’Prynn (and Sten, who’s hanging around/throwing a tantrum inside her brain), Jetanien, Rana Desai, Bridget McLellan, Lurqal/Anna Sandego. I like that the station cast are drawn from multiple species; the three most important characters, who form the occasionally underhanded triumvirate “in the know” are a Human, a Vulcan, and a Rigelian Chelon.
Clark Terrell makes his first appearance.
Also introduced is the IKS Zin’za and its crew, led by Captain Kutal.
There's a D-5 class ship, which have generally been retired by this point in favour of D-6 (whatever those look like) and D-7 vessels – we’ll be seeing a lot of the latter.
Speaking of ships, we’re introduced to USS Sagittarius, a scout ship of the Archer-class.
Captain Adelard Nassir is a Deltan. Between his introduction here and a UFP Deltan character appearing shortly in the first Mere Anarchy story, it would appear that the Deltans have joined the Federation by this point. The Deltans are an elder race who have now turned away from space travel and colonization – viewing it as a “noble savage” sort of pursuit (though they still get testy when their old rivals the Carreon try to settle technically Deltan worlds). Deltans are known for their emotional discipline and their heightened sexual awareness, with a culture that revolves around the shared experience of love, in all its spiritual, intellectual and physical variations. They have potent pheromones, but culturally they’re very far removed from the Orions; they aim to share, not to manipulate. They’ll not have a large role in Vanguard, by any means (or indeed in the Trek ‘verse as a whole), but we’ll be seeing them periodically for the rest of the “story”.
The planet Traelus II is featured; we’ll be seeing more of it. Other Taurus Reach planets include Ravanar IV, Borzha, Palgrenax, the Gamma Tauri worlds, and Dorala.
The P-38 makes its first appearance. This magnificent tool opens doors. I believe it’s named for an American tin-opener. As the Pakleds will one day note: “You make things open; that is good”.
Next Time: “Distant Early Warning”. The SCE pokes around at our new station.
This is a prologue to Vanguard, and it sketches in the characters, themes, political situation and layers of obfuscation that will define the series. I think it actually works better in its chronological position than it does when taken in its usual place two-thirds of the way through the series. There’s not much that would strike a reader as new or particularly illuminating when read in the intended place (it's sort of going through the motions, really), but as a genuine introduction it works. It explains everything that needs explaining and gives us a feel for the 23rd Century Federation frontier, without detracting from the mysteries or answering any questions posed to us later in the series (so far as I can remember, anyway).
This is really where we start to get a sense of where the Federation stands in the 23rd Century, and I’m pleased that the Vanguard series made such an effort to establish a feel for how this time frame is distinct. Given that Vanguard forms a backdrop to the Original Series episodes, it makes the mid-23rd Century more coherent, and adds some fascinating wrinkles to existing material. In other words, it takes the least serialized Trek show and gives it an implicit arc without feeling the need to detract from the actual episodes' status as stand-alones. Very well played.
By now, then, the Federation is long-established and prosperous, while still retaining a rapid rate of expansion. Youthful and driven but also settled, comfortable and strong. It’s been a hundred years, after all, and a generally peaceful hundred years at that. The choice of scope for the Taurus Reach is generally well-considered; it’s large enough to give both a sense of the vastness of space and of the wider political picture while being focused enough to serve as a snapshot of a particular region of activity, leaving the Federation core and other areas untouched. The sprawling Federation is competing with other powers – not only the Klingons, themselves reaching superpower status, but with more distant nations like the Tholian Assembly, which is now considered a major power in “local space” itself.
We discover that the creators of the meta-genome - the mystery/opportunity that underlies everything occurring in the Taurus Reach - were incredibly influential, extending their, er, reach, across the entire region. Other important details – like the Tholians’ strange aversion to colonizing the area, are established too.
We close by emphasising a final layer of meaning to Starbase 47, Vanguard: its role as a diplomatic post, when Jetanien succeeds in securing Tholian as well as Klingon and Federation representation. (Also there’s an Orion ship present, which Commodore Reyes isn’t happy about but Desai tells him he can’t discriminate unless and until they actually do something illegal).
First Appearances of Things That Are Important
We meet a lot of the Vanguard cast – Diego Reyes, T’Prynn (and Sten, who’s hanging around/throwing a tantrum inside her brain), Jetanien, Rana Desai, Bridget McLellan, Lurqal/Anna Sandego. I like that the station cast are drawn from multiple species; the three most important characters, who form the occasionally underhanded triumvirate “in the know” are a Human, a Vulcan, and a Rigelian Chelon.
Clark Terrell makes his first appearance.
Also introduced is the IKS Zin’za and its crew, led by Captain Kutal.
There's a D-5 class ship, which have generally been retired by this point in favour of D-6 (whatever those look like) and D-7 vessels – we’ll be seeing a lot of the latter.
Speaking of ships, we’re introduced to USS Sagittarius, a scout ship of the Archer-class.
Captain Adelard Nassir is a Deltan. Between his introduction here and a UFP Deltan character appearing shortly in the first Mere Anarchy story, it would appear that the Deltans have joined the Federation by this point. The Deltans are an elder race who have now turned away from space travel and colonization – viewing it as a “noble savage” sort of pursuit (though they still get testy when their old rivals the Carreon try to settle technically Deltan worlds). Deltans are known for their emotional discipline and their heightened sexual awareness, with a culture that revolves around the shared experience of love, in all its spiritual, intellectual and physical variations. They have potent pheromones, but culturally they’re very far removed from the Orions; they aim to share, not to manipulate. They’ll not have a large role in Vanguard, by any means (or indeed in the Trek ‘verse as a whole), but we’ll be seeing them periodically for the rest of the “story”.
The planet Traelus II is featured; we’ll be seeing more of it. Other Taurus Reach planets include Ravanar IV, Borzha, Palgrenax, the Gamma Tauri worlds, and Dorala.
The P-38 makes its first appearance. This magnificent tool opens doors. I believe it’s named for an American tin-opener. As the Pakleds will one day note: “You make things open; that is good”.
Next Time: “Distant Early Warning”. The SCE pokes around at our new station.
Due to the obvious festive shenanigans, it's been a while since I updated. Between the delay and the fact that we're very soon to start TOS, I've decided to begin with a recap. 
The story so far...
So, in the aftermath of the third world war, Humans invented warp drive and made contact with the Vulcans (a stoic, emotionally repressive elder race). Over the next century, Earth was a minor spacefaring nation under Vulcan guidance. Eventually the Humans chafed under Vulcan's increasingly paternalistic oversight, even as the Vulcans became ever more militarised, in part due to tensions with their volatile neighbours, the Andorians. When Earth launched its first long-range starship, Humanity started making an impact and attracting enemies, while learning - through such affairs as the Xindi Crisis - that Humans would come to play a vital role in forming a vast star-spanning alliance, and so this was a pivotal time in history. The Vulcans had a reformation, the two races revised their relationship to be one of political equals, and along with several other formally squabbling races they formed an alliance, repelled the expansionist Romulans (who are an ancient offshoot of the Vulcans), and formed the United Federation of Planets. A hundred years went by, in which the Federation grew and prospered and expanded its membership, becoming a superpower. Now, its Starfleet is dancing uneasily around myriad players out on the ever-enlarging frontier; its own peoples' colonization push into ever-more distant regions, alien powers like the Tholians, and above all fellow superpower the Klingon Empire, which is warlike and morally incompatible with the Federation, to the extent that mutual understanding and acceptance seems nearly impossible. In the Taurus Reach, a mysterious ancient alien biotechnology is driving Starfleet to establish a presence with unseemly haste, and we'd just visited a mighty space station under construction: Vanguard.
In the next post (coming very soon), we return to Vanguard and find that it's already malfunctioning...
The story so far...
So, in the aftermath of the third world war, Humans invented warp drive and made contact with the Vulcans (a stoic, emotionally repressive elder race). Over the next century, Earth was a minor spacefaring nation under Vulcan guidance. Eventually the Humans chafed under Vulcan's increasingly paternalistic oversight, even as the Vulcans became ever more militarised, in part due to tensions with their volatile neighbours, the Andorians. When Earth launched its first long-range starship, Humanity started making an impact and attracting enemies, while learning - through such affairs as the Xindi Crisis - that Humans would come to play a vital role in forming a vast star-spanning alliance, and so this was a pivotal time in history. The Vulcans had a reformation, the two races revised their relationship to be one of political equals, and along with several other formally squabbling races they formed an alliance, repelled the expansionist Romulans (who are an ancient offshoot of the Vulcans), and formed the United Federation of Planets. A hundred years went by, in which the Federation grew and prospered and expanded its membership, becoming a superpower. Now, its Starfleet is dancing uneasily around myriad players out on the ever-enlarging frontier; its own peoples' colonization push into ever-more distant regions, alien powers like the Tholians, and above all fellow superpower the Klingon Empire, which is warlike and morally incompatible with the Federation, to the extent that mutual understanding and acceptance seems nearly impossible. In the Taurus Reach, a mysterious ancient alien biotechnology is driving Starfleet to establish a presence with unseemly haste, and we'd just visited a mighty space station under construction: Vanguard.
In the next post (coming very soon), we return to Vanguard and find that it's already malfunctioning...
"Distant Early Warning"
This brings a couple of recently established threads together: Vanguard station, still in the final phase of construction, and the SCE team aboard USS Lovell led by Mahmud al-Khaled, whom we last saw befriending Scotty near the Neutral Zone (an incident that Reyes reminds us of, usefully enough). Unlike "Almost Tomorrow", which I believe benefited from its chronological placement and was, I thought, likely improved by it, this one is a bit limp. Its main appeal comes from having a SCE story set at Vanguard, but since both of those Trek series are, in this run-through, just getting off the ground, and since that isn't the most gripping of story justifications anyway, this one's sort of just...there. It really just serves here to keep things moving forward, establishing how Reyes runs the station, introducing Ganz, and most importantly introducing the unknown carrier waves that are tied to the Meta-Genome.
Continuity
We have confirmation of Tholian environmental requirements (it was already established that they like it extremely hot; here we get some detail on their native environment).
Ganz, after his ship arrived last time, appears in person. We also meet Zett Nilric. His people, the Nalori, have been namedropped prior to this, but he’s the first we’ve met in person.
Reyes knows what a mugato is.
Next Time: Mere Anarchy: "Things Fall Apart".
This brings a couple of recently established threads together: Vanguard station, still in the final phase of construction, and the SCE team aboard USS Lovell led by Mahmud al-Khaled, whom we last saw befriending Scotty near the Neutral Zone (an incident that Reyes reminds us of, usefully enough). Unlike "Almost Tomorrow", which I believe benefited from its chronological placement and was, I thought, likely improved by it, this one is a bit limp. Its main appeal comes from having a SCE story set at Vanguard, but since both of those Trek series are, in this run-through, just getting off the ground, and since that isn't the most gripping of story justifications anyway, this one's sort of just...there. It really just serves here to keep things moving forward, establishing how Reyes runs the station, introducing Ganz, and most importantly introducing the unknown carrier waves that are tied to the Meta-Genome.
Continuity
We have confirmation of Tholian environmental requirements (it was already established that they like it extremely hot; here we get some detail on their native environment).
Ganz, after his ship arrived last time, appears in person. We also meet Zett Nilric. His people, the Nalori, have been namedropped prior to this, but he’s the first we’ve met in person.
Reyes knows what a mugato is.
Next Time: Mere Anarchy: "Things Fall Apart".
"Where No Man Has Gone Before" will be first, of course, but when it comes to the main body of TOS episodes, will you be using airing order, production order, or stardate order?
Oh, and will The Animated Series be included?
Oh, and will The Animated Series be included?
I'd imagine production order, since most of the modern novelverse seems to assume production order is the correct ordering when it comes up, and it'd just make things confusing for placing novels otherwise. (Of course, if he used stardate order, then WNMHGB wouldn't be first; either Mudd's Women or Magicks of Megas-Tu would be.)
I think my list is based on stardate order, though I'll have to confirm that (I wrote it some months ago). I tweaked it a bit, though, based on what I thought was sensible, book-wise. Fitting novels in the right places, etc. And, as Idran noted just then, obviously WNMHGB is first (next after the first Mere Anarchy, actually).
I wasn't originally intending to include The Animated Series. I don't yet have it in my collection, for one thing (its the only Trek I don't own), and I didn't think it adds much to the project. It's a lot more important to a real-world overview than it is to my approach. That said, I'm leaning toward including it now. Maybe I'll pop out and buy it, if I can - I'll happily take onboard the opinions of the rest of you on the matter. The Animated Series does introduce a few things that show up elsewhere (Delta Triangle, M'Ress, Arex, Aleek-Om and Grey, etc) and gives us our only on-screen look at our old friend Devna, and at species like Skorr, Aurelians, Vedala, Gnalish and - of course - Nasats. So there's more in there that's relevant than I first assumed.
And "The Chimes At Midnight" will benefit from my having included Yesteryear.
Oh really? I'll be really interested in seeing that, then; the compulsive in me has been tempted to reorder my own in stardate order just because (in-universe excuses aside) it's always bugged me, but I figured there would be too many conflicts with later novels for that to be feasible in a full novelverse timeline.
Stardate order makes no sense to me. The episodes would be completely jumbled that way -- and how would you deal with the episodes that have no stardates? Production order works best because you can see how the characters, sets, and concepts evolve as the series advances.
But where TAS is concerned, while I think it should go after TOS (due to changes in the bridge and engine room sets), I'm agnostic about whether it's better to put the TAS episodes in production order, airdate order, or Star Trek Logs order.
But where TAS is concerned, while I think it should go after TOS (due to changes in the bridge and engine room sets), I'm agnostic about whether it's better to put the TAS episodes in production order, airdate order, or Star Trek Logs order.
Actually, I was wrong. I've just checked my list, and it seems I'm mostly going on production order. So ignore what I say, I don't know what I'm on about.
Since so many episodes have no stardates, in practice I think much of my list would default to production order anyway, just with a few episodes here and there moved a little, partly to make sure books are accommodated.
The next part of my timeline looks like this. If anyone has any issues with it and sees room for improvement, please do say. 
"Things Fall Apart" (Mere Anarchy)
"Where No Man Has Gone Before" (TOS 1)
Harbinger
Summon The Thunder
Reap The Whirlwind
"Hard News" (Declassified)
"The Corbomite Maneuver" (TOS 1)
Open Secrets, sans prologue and epilogue
"The Landing Party" (Constellations)
"Mudd’s Women" (TOS 1)
"The Enemy Within" (TOS 1)
"The Man Trap" (TOS 1)
"The Naked Time" (TOS 1)
"Charlie X" (TOS 1)
"The First Artefact" (The Brave and The Bold, book one)
"Balance of Terror" (TOS 1)
"What Are Little Girls Made Of" (TOS 1)
The Edge of The Sword
Killing Blow
River of Blood
"Dagger of the Mind" (TOS 1)
"Miri" (TOS 1)
"The Conscience of the King" (TOS 1)
"Official Record" (Constellations)
"The Galileo Seven" (TOS 1)
"Court Martial" (TOS 1)
"The Menagerie", parts one and two (TOS 1)
"Shore Leave" (TOS 1)
"The Squire of Gothos" (TOS 1)
"Arena" (TOS 1)
"The Alternative Factor" (TOS 1)
"Tomorrow is Yesterday" (TOS 1)
"The Return of The Archons" (TOS 1)
Foundations, chapter 10-16
"The Avenger" (Enterprise Logs)
"A Taste of Armageddon" (TOS 1)
"Space Seed" (TOS 1)
"This Side of Paradise" (TOS 1)
"The Devil In The Dark" (TOS 1)
Seeds of Rage
Where Sea Meets Sky
Demands of Honor
Sacrifices of War
"Errand of Mercy" (TOS 1)
Open Secrets, prologue and epilogue
Precipice, part one and first interlude
"The City on the Edge of Forever" (TOS 1)
"Operation: Annihilate" (TOS 1)
"Things Fall Apart" (Mere Anarchy)
"Where No Man Has Gone Before" (TOS 1)
Harbinger
Summon The Thunder
Reap The Whirlwind
"Hard News" (Declassified)
"The Corbomite Maneuver" (TOS 1)
Open Secrets, sans prologue and epilogue
"The Landing Party" (Constellations)
"Mudd’s Women" (TOS 1)
"The Enemy Within" (TOS 1)
"The Man Trap" (TOS 1)
"The Naked Time" (TOS 1)
"Charlie X" (TOS 1)
"The First Artefact" (The Brave and The Bold, book one)
"Balance of Terror" (TOS 1)
"What Are Little Girls Made Of" (TOS 1)
The Edge of The Sword
Killing Blow
River of Blood
"Dagger of the Mind" (TOS 1)
"Miri" (TOS 1)
"The Conscience of the King" (TOS 1)
"Official Record" (Constellations)
"The Galileo Seven" (TOS 1)
"Court Martial" (TOS 1)
"The Menagerie", parts one and two (TOS 1)
"Shore Leave" (TOS 1)
"The Squire of Gothos" (TOS 1)
"Arena" (TOS 1)
"The Alternative Factor" (TOS 1)
"Tomorrow is Yesterday" (TOS 1)
"The Return of The Archons" (TOS 1)
Foundations, chapter 10-16
"The Avenger" (Enterprise Logs)
"A Taste of Armageddon" (TOS 1)
"Space Seed" (TOS 1)
"This Side of Paradise" (TOS 1)
"The Devil In The Dark" (TOS 1)
Seeds of Rage
Where Sea Meets Sky
Demands of Honor
Sacrifices of War
"Errand of Mercy" (TOS 1)
Open Secrets, prologue and epilogue
Precipice, part one and first interlude
"The City on the Edge of Forever" (TOS 1)
"Operation: Annihilate" (TOS 1)
Actually Christopher, while you're here in the conversation and while we're kinda talking about timeline stuff as it comes to TOS already, do you mind a quick question? From the dates you gave in Forgotten History for TOS episodes, it looks like you favor a later 2266/2267 transition than the usual sources, something Return of the Archons-ish instead of Galileo Seven-ish, and I know you mentioned in another thread recently having worked on your personal Trek timeline for ages; is there something in particular that made you lean that way? Mostly asking because of having started up my own in the last while (thanks largely to this thread :P).
I place the flashback in The Lives of Dax: "Sins of the Mother" between Summon the Thunder and Reap the Whirlwind. I also put "The Landing Party" before "Corbomite," since McCoy has only been aboard a short time in the story.
I put "Official Record" considerably later in season 1, since I assume Chekov came aboard during the repairs the ship underwent near Earth after "Tomorrow is Yesterday." But that's just my personal interpretation. Note that Chapter I, scene 1 of Forgotten History takes place just after TiY, while Ch. I, sc. 2 takes place just after "City on the Edge."
EDIT: To Idran, actually I think my dating of TOS these days is based largely on the dates used in Vanguard. Precipice's historian's note has it beginning in January 2267, and I put its first chapter between "Tomorrow is Yesterday" (and the FH scene) and "Archons."
I put "Official Record" considerably later in season 1, since I assume Chekov came aboard during the repairs the ship underwent near Earth after "Tomorrow is Yesterday." But that's just my personal interpretation. Note that Chapter I, scene 1 of Forgotten History takes place just after TiY, while Ch. I, sc. 2 takes place just after "City on the Edge."
EDIT: To Idran, actually I think my dating of TOS these days is based largely on the dates used in Vanguard. Precipice's historian's note has it beginning in January 2267, and I put its first chapter between "Tomorrow is Yesterday" (and the FH scene) and "Archons."
It's been a while since I looked at this, but my own chronology used stardate order, with production order as a backup for episodes with no stardates, and it didn't seem to cause any particular continuity problems--only a couple of TAS episodes had placements that didn't make sense (I wasn't concerned with the ship changes at the time).
Idran, "Mudd's Women" still goes after WNMHGB with this approach.
Whoops, you're right; I thought I remembered there being an issue with that episode, I must've just remembered wrong.
I was about to ask about how you rationalized Corbomite Maneuver and Man Trap in your ordering, but it looks like you just shifted the stardates of the latter ahead to prevent the overlap? That was another of the reasons I've shyed away from jumping to that order, myself, instincts aside.
Christopher: Aha, that makes sense. Thanks!
Thanks, Christopher, much appreciated.
I'm going to leave "Sins of the Mother" until Audrid Dax sends the letter, since the entire story is told in the form of that letter. We'll let the Trill keep their secrets until such time as they choose to reveal them.
I'll move "The Landing Party" forward as you recommend. As for Chekov, that's a good theory; I hadn't really considered it.
As for Forgotten History, I've been unsure as to whether I should extract pieces for inclusion or just read the whole thing for the first time in the Motion Picture era. I suppose I could read the relevant sections as epilogues of sorts to the episodes, and include them here as part of the post for those episodes.
Re the inclusion of the Animated Series: I say go for it. As you say, there's a surprising amount in there that gets referenced later (or earlier, in the case of Devna), and it seems to be the practice of the current cohort of authors to tend toward incorporating the Animated Series from the continuity rather than discounting it. It would actually be kinda interesting, I think, to "take the temperature" of the current continuity, see how much of it really is irreconcilable with TAS.
And I agree with Christopher: put it after "Turnabout Intruder." Despite lasting a nominal two seasons, I tend to think the series lasts for about a year (or even less) after the three years depicted in TOS.
And I agree with Christopher: put it after "Turnabout Intruder." Despite lasting a nominal two seasons, I tend to think the series lasts for about a year (or even less) after the three years depicted in TOS.
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