Time Heals All Trek...well, Kinda

[Ensign Ogahd Ahmganadai]

^Even if they are eventually all "obliterated" (err, again) does it retroactively take away the enjoyment you got from reading them at the time?

The problem is I often like what the novels did better, and wish the series had stuck with it.

 

[Ensign Ogahd Ahmganadai]

I feel the same way about "Reset Button" complaints.

It doesn't matter to me whether the crew remembers the Year of Hell or not.

I remember it.

Consequences. In the real world, actions have consequences, and so it is with good drama. Nothing in "The Year of Hell" mattered, because it was erased. This most recent watch-through I did? I kept shaking my head throughout the whole two episodes thinking "not anything we're seeing is relevant to this series".

 

[Ensign Ogahd Ahmganadai]

One of the things I used to love about the novels were that they were able to do their own thing, even contradicting canon while telling a story.



Not sure what the big deal is? But, the Intrepid would seem to point to Spock not being the first Vulcan in Starfleet. At best, he was the first Vulcan-Human hybrid.

I know he wasn't the first Vulcan in Starfleet. I've been beating that horse for years. I do believe some people think this because one or more novels said so.

 

[BillJ]

I do believe some people think this because one or more novels said so.

I believe it was fanon before it ever made it into the novels. Spock was the breakout character and people tried to make him even more special.

 

[1001001]

Consequences. In the real world, actions have consequences, and so it is with good drama. Nothing in "The Year of Hell" mattered, because it was erased. This most recent watch-through I did? I kept shaking my head throughout the whole two episodes thinking "not anything we're seeing is relevant to this series".

Personally, I don't give a flying fuck if it's "relevant to the series".

It was a great story (IMHO, of course) and how can anything fake have "consequences"? How can make-believe "matter"?

 

[Ensign Ogahd Ahmganadai]

Personally, I don't give a flying fuck if it's "relevant to the series".

It was a great story (IMHO, of course) and how can anything fake have "consequences"? How can make-believe "matter"?

You sound like you don't expect believability from your fiction. I do. It's the writer in me. Nothing introduced in a story should be rendered utterly meaningless later on. Otherwise, what was the point?

 

[Greg Cox]

Consequences. In the real world, actions have consequences, and so it is with good drama. Nothing in "The Year of Hell" mattered, because it was erased. This most recent watch-through I did? I kept shaking my head throughout the whole two episodes thinking "not anything we're seeing is relevant to this series".

But moving an arc plot from Point A to Point B is not the only thing that matters. If an individual story is engaging, if the acting and directing are well done, if the dialogue is brisk and clever, then a standalone episode, even one that gets reset at the end, can certainly be enjoyable on its terms, as an entertaining hour of television. Not every episode has to be about the Big Picture.

TOS never mentioned Edith Keeler again. There were no long-term consequences. Doesn't hurt "City on the Edge of Forever" one bit.

EDIT: the "point" of the story is to entertain the audience, to make them laugh, cry, or amused or whatever. If a standalone ep succeeds at that, does it really matter if it doesn't affect future episodes down the road? Judged on its own terms and entertainment value?

I guess it depends on how you define the "story." If you think the "story" is the entire series as a whole, that's one thing. But the "story" may just refer to an individual episode, with its own beginning, middle, and end.

 

[1001001]

^ What he said.

 

[Timewalker]

Get CraveTV, seriously. You don't need a computer, you can watch it right on your TV, one of Telus' channels is dedicated to CraveTV so you can just turn it on there, you don't need a smart TV or anything. They do have Discovery, but since Discovery is awful I'm not recommending it for that, it just has a ton of great shows. I've been subscribed to them pretty much ever since it came out.

I'll look into it, thanks.

TOS never mentioned Edith Keeler again. There were no long-term consequences. Doesn't hurt "City on the Edge of Forever" one bit.

Given Harlan Ellison's penchant for extracting $$$$$$ from anyone who dares mention anything he ever wrote, they couldn't have afforded to mention Edith Keeler again.

On-screen, at least. The novel in which Kirk's mission failed and McCoy was stuck in the 1930s was excellent.