Vonda McIntyre reference in STXI?

[Christopher]

Who coined Uhura's first name?

William Rotsler in Star Trek II Biographies, and perhaps in fan publications before that.

 

[TheAlmanac]

Who coined Uhura's first name?

William Rotsler in Star Trek II Biographies, and perhaps in fan publications before that.

His description in The Best of Trek 13 of how/why he came up with the name suggests it was specifically for Biographies.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

The parallel that I saw was a commonality between the launch of the Enterprise between the two stories. As I recall in "Enterprise", Sulu messed up the launch of the ship and almost hit the exit of the spacedock. In "Star Trek", he forgot the parking brake. I wondered right from the first time I saw the scene if it was an intentional parallel. (And if it's not, it's still fun to me!)

I wondered right from the first time I saw the scene if it was an intentional parallel. (And if it's not, it's still fun to me!)

On the new ST IV DVD commentary, Orci & Kurtzman mention that Sulu's trouble with the Huey helicopter's windscreen wipers inspired the parking break scene in the new movie, but I'd say they had also noted his ooops moment in "Enterprise: The First Adventure", too.

The "parking break" scene was the scene I felt referenced Enterprise: First Adventure the most in the film, especially since Sulu wasn't the original helmsmen to begin with. In McIntyre's book, Sulu is pulled from his first choice assignment to serve on Enterprise.

 

[Christopher]

Who coined Uhura's first name?

William Rotsler in Star Trek II Biographies, and perhaps in fan publications before that.

His description in The Best of Trek 13 of how/why he came up with the name suggests it was specifically for Biographies.

Can you quote or summarize that description?

 

[ATimson]

I'm sure I heard the US was eventually getting single offerings on DVD.

Single offerings on Blu-ray, perhaps; I've heard nothing of any future DVD rereleases, boxed or singly.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Who coined Uhura's first name?

Nyota was coined by William Rotsler, who rang Nichelle Nichols to get her approval for "ST II Biographies". Rotsler was a good friend of Bjo Trimble.

"The Best of Trek 13" chapter by Rotsler is called "More Than You Ever Wanted to Know About Star Trek Books, or What Uhura's First Name Really Is" (pp 99-105, May 1988). He was respnding to three references to his "ST II Biographies" in "The Best of Trek 10".

From page 101: "Naming Uhura was the most fun. I looked through one of those twenty-six-language dictionaries (which never seem to have the word you want) and found Nyota under 'star'. I got Nichelle Nichols' phone number from Bjo - I'd never met Miss Nichols - and called her, told her who I was and what I was doing. She was very nice, very polite. I was careful to say I had picked a name for her character - not her - and had checked it with Gene Roddenberry."

"'That's nice,' she said.

"'It's Nyota," I said.

"'Oh, that's nice,' she says, still polite.

"'It means "star" in Swahili,' I said.

"'Oh, wowww!' she exclaimed.

"You see, I took this attitude: I was writing the official biographies. What I said goes. So 'Nyota' is 'official', not Penda, not anything else. (And Nichelle liked it.) I admit this is a cavalier attitude, but it was my book, so there.

"I larded the book with friends, friends' books, puns, and insults (visible only to friends.)."

 

[Christopher]

One wishes Rotsler had done a little more research on Russian naming conventions while writing the Biographies, and thus avoided the wallbanger of claiming that the father of Pavel Andreievich Chekov was named Alexei instead of Andrei. And I could've done without the "Khan recognized me even though I wasn't aboard because he memorized every face in the Starfleet database" part.

 

[TheAlmanac]

William Rotsler in Star Trek II Biographies, and perhaps in fan publications before that.

His description in The Best of Trek 13 of how/why he came up with the name suggests it was specifically for Biographies.

Can you quote or summarize that description?

It looks like Therin beat me to it.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

One wishes Rotsler had done a little more research on Russian naming conventions while writing the Biographies, and thus avoided the wallbanger of claiming that the father of Pavel Andreievich Chekov was named Alexei instead of Andrei.

As someone who is very interested in naming conventions and often hears comments like yours about authors who haven't performed the research, can you recommend any sources (preferrably books) outlining various cultures' naming patterns? Given that authors seem to stumble on this often, there must be a reference book of some sort.

 

[Christopher]

These days, one can Google for "[Insert nationality of choice] names" and find some information. Otherwise, there's always the library. I doubt there's a single reference book that encompasses everything, but a good library will usually contain all sorts of reference and other texts. I once got a surname for an African character from a book about noted African authors.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

These days, one can Google for "[Insert nationality of choice] names" and find some information. Otherwise, there's always the library. I doubt there's a single reference book that encompasses everything, but a good library will usually contain all sorts of reference and other texts. I once got a surname for an African character from a book about noted African authors.

Thank you, Christopher. It's a shame if there isn't a single reference work. I would be very interested in having it.

 

[ClayinCA]

And I could've done without the "Khan recognized me even though I wasn't aboard because he memorized every face in the Starfleet database" part.

Oh, that's right, I'd forgotten that! Jeez, that was painful....

 

[JD]

One wishes Rotsler had done a little more research on Russian naming conventions while writing the Biographies, and thus avoided the wallbanger of claiming that the father of Pavel Andreievich Chekov was named Alexei instead of Andrei.

As someone who is very interested in naming conventions and often hears comments like yours about authors who haven't performed the research, can you recommend any sources (preferrably books) outlining various cultures' naming patterns? Given that authors seem to stumble on this often, there must be a reference book of some sort.

A month or two back, I was working on an outline for a story idea I had, and while I was trying to come up with names I found this site. The story has characters from all around the world, and I found that the site helped me find appropriate names for pretty much of my characters.

 

[Christopher]

^Yeah, those names-from-around-the-world sites can be useful, but what bugs me is that they tend to be limited to first names, since they're mainly for people seeking baby names. It's harder to find sites listing surnames.

 

[Therin of Andor]

It's a shame if there isn't a single reference work. I would be very interested in having it.

You don't own a copy of "Names for Dummies"?

 

[seigezunt]

^Yeah, those names-from-around-the-world sites can be useful, but what bugs me is that they tend to be limited to first names, since they're mainly for people seeking baby names. It's harder to find sites listing surnames.

Maybe genealogy sites...

 

[JD]

^Yeah, those names-from-around-the-world sites can be useful, but what bugs me is that they tend to be limited to first names, since they're mainly for people seeking baby names. It's harder to find sites listing surnames.

Yeah, I forgot about that. I think I just looked up common surnames on wikipedia.

 

[Christopher]

^I try to avoid going for the obvious or common surnames, since to anyone familiar with the language, it comes off as hokey. For instance, naming a character "Sato" or "Tanaka" is like naming them "Smith" or "Jones." (Unless it's a case where a common name is highly probable to occur. For instance, Nguyen is by far the most common Vietnamese family name, because it used to be traditional for most everyone to adopt the family name of the ruling dynasty and the last one of those was named Nguyen. And few Sikh names don't include Singh for men and Kaur for women.)

Even worse is naming your characters after famous people from a given culture, which comes off as lazy and even silly if you aren't careful. So Wikipedia can be a limited resource in that regard.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

^I try to avoid going for the obvious or common surnames, since to anyone familiar with the language, it comes off as hokey. For instance, naming a character "Sato" or "Tanaka" is like naming them "Smith" or "Jones." (Unless it's a case where a common name is highly probable to occur. For instance, Nguyen is by far the most common Vietnamese family name, because it used to be traditional for most everyone to adopt the family name of the ruling dynasty and the last one of those was named Nguyen. And few Sikh names don't include Singh for men and Kaur for women.)

Even worse is naming your characters after famous people from a given culture, which comes off as lazy and even silly if you aren't careful. So Wikipedia can be a limited resource in that regard.

TV Tropes...the hours I've spent on that site. it's quite fascinating, and completely addictive. Someone needs to add a big Trek lit section, though.

Anyway, thanks for all the input in answering my question, everyone.

 

[Stevil2001]

Unless it's a case where a common name is highly probable to occur.

Um, isn't that what "common" means?