What pet peeves do you have about trek books?

[Therin of Andor]

Right up there on the Anooyance Scale with Peter David re-naming Arex's race the "Triexians" (cuz they got three legs and three arms! get it? huh? get it?).

Of course, he was totally within his right to come up with a name for Arex's species.

M'Ress had her home planet, Cait, and its location (Lynx Constellation) specifically named in the TAS Writers' Bible (which was essentially the TOS Writers' Bible with an extra page in it, including a mud map of Cait's location in the galaxy). Presumably, there were plans to include these details in a TAS episode if a script ever required it.

Call TAS names silly, but similar naming precedents on TOS go back a long way, such as Helen Noel (at the Christmas party), the forgetful Lethe, Romulus and Remus being brother planets, and Mr Atoz (A to Z) the librarian.

I have no problem with humans originally giving Caitians and Triexians anglicised names that the Universal Translator then repeats whenever a Caitian or Tiexian states his home planet name in his native tongue.

However, Arex's people were never named in that TAS bible, and thus Bjo Trimble didn't include the species name in her "ST Concordance". If PAD used the writers' bible or the Concordance for his research, he had nothing solid to go on.

Arex's home planet, Edos, is mentioned only in places like the "ST Logs" episode adaptations, the bio of Arex sold by then-Lincoln Enterprises, and Bantam's "ST Maps". Nothing canonical. PAD may well have avoided using Edos since TNG had its own Edo. Sly references to "Edosians" come from places like DS9 and ENT scripts, but it's only fan knowledge that links such references in our heads.

In any case, I love the explanation in "The Road to Edos" ("No Limits") about the differences between Edoans and Triexians, and the frequency of people confusing the two races. (I'm sure Triex is a an old Edoan colony world.)

 

[Paris]

I'm sure Triex is an old Edoan colony world.

That would make sense. In the trek universe, Humans have spread to a lot of planets where people eventually started to identify their heritage with said planet. People from Cestus III and Deneva and Alpha Centuari and Mars for example. They are still human, but people from those planets never seem to say that they are terrans. Human yes, but not terrans. There's no reason to think that as more time passes, that they won't identify with earth at all. The Triexians could have left Edos several generations ago, and no longer see themselves as Edoans as they are a seperate people.

This also makes me consider the Neyel from the SMC (TLE: The Sundered, Titan: Red King), as genetically they are still humans, but physically and mentally they've changed so much over the 300+ years they've been seperated from humanity.

 

[F. King Daniel]

The random use of Klingon and Romulan language, usually by Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin. I don’t speak Klingon or Romulan. I know about 5 Klingon words, and one of those is the rude one from the ‘other’ Klingon language by J.M. Ford.

Two Romulans are talking. It’s in English, but we assume they’re talking amongst themselves in Romulan. But then why do they drop random Romulan words into the (translated) conversation? Why, in a room full of Romulans (in Kobayashi Maru, i think it was), would they talk in English the whole time (again, I assume translated for our benefit – why would a room of Romulans talk English?), but then start a countdown in Romulan? Numbers are numbers!

 

[Dayton Ward]

^ With respect to the "random" use of alien words, that's a precedent established on screen. ("Distance: twelve thousand kellicams (or however you spell it in Klingon).") The implication in such instances is (to me, anyway) that certain words and terms have no exact translation.

 

[JD]

That's always been my interpretation. If notice they are almost always referring to something specific when the characters do that.

 

[Cicero]

The random use of Klingon and Romulan language, usually by Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin. I don’t speak Klingon or Romulan. I know about 5 Klingon words, and one of those is the rude one from the ‘other’ Klingon language by J.M. Ford.

Two Romulans are talking. It’s in English, but we assume they’re talking amongst themselves in Romulan. But then why do they drop random Romulan words into the (translated) conversation? Why, in a room full of Romulans (in Kobayashi Maru, i think it was), would they talk in English the whole time (again, I assume translated for our benefit – why would a room of Romulans talk English?), but then start a countdown in Romulan? Numbers are numbers!

I really appreciated the non-translated Rihannsu in My Enemy, My Ally. Commander Ael spoke and was spoken to in Rihannsu while aboard a Romulan ship, but her thoughts were given in English - somewhat like the early fort sequence in The Last of the Mohicans, but clearer.

 

[Therin of Andor]

"Distance: twelve thousand kellicams (or however you spell it in Klingon)."

It was one of my favourite aspects of ST III. The Klingons are quoting distances in an unknown (to us) measurement term and when the external view comes up the two enemy ships are almost touching. It was a real OMG moment for the audience on premiere night!

 

[JustKate]

I like the "can't be translated" idea, and no doubt there are concepts that defy translation - heck, I've had that problem with something as comparatively simple as American English to British English. But...surely it wouldn't work with distance? I mean, oughtn't the Universal Translator just take X kellikams and translate it into Y meters?

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Not a peeve as such, but I'd love to see what a radically different type of writer such as Garth Ennis could do with trek in a one-off story.

I'd love to see what Warren Ellis would do with Star Trek.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I mean, oughtn't the Universal Translator just take X kellikams and translate it into Y meters?

Sure, but the audience's Universal Translator (in ST III) had never heard the term used before. So, just like the Starfleeters themselves, we must make do with a partial translation until there's a stated frame of reference.

 

[Christopher]

I like the "can't be translated" idea, and no doubt there are concepts that defy translation - heck, I've had that problem with something as comparatively simple as American English to British English. But...surely it wouldn't work with distance? I mean, oughtn't the Universal Translator just take X kellikams and translate it into Y meters?

Translator, schmanslator. It was a work of fiction, and the writer chose to use an alien unit to create a sense of alienness. What an "actual" translator would do in the "actual" situation is beside the point, because it was a matter of artistic effect. It's no different from putting latex bumps on a human actor's face. A real alien wouldn't look like a human in makeup, but when making a work of fiction, alienness is created by presenting something mostly familiar and comprehensible to the audience but with just enough bits of oddness to convey the impression of alienness. To do the same with dialogue, you have the "aliens" speak English peppered with the occasional alien word. Terms like "kellicam" and "p'takh" and "Kroykah" are the verbal equivalent of pointed ears and forehead bumps.

 

[David Mack]

I'd love to see what Warren Ellis would do with Star Trek.

It was called Switchblade Honey.

 

[Paris]

^and it was spectacular! A little known graphic novel from Ait/Planetlar, if i'm not mistaken...

 

[JustKate]

Sure, but the audience's Universal Translator (in ST III) had never heard the term used before. So, just like the Starfleeters themselves, we must make do with a partial translation until there's a stated frame of reference.

Now that's cool. What a perfect use of the Universal Translator's shortcomings.

Translator, schmanslator. It was a work of fiction, and the writer chose to use an alien unit to create a sense of alienness. What an "actual" translator would do in the "actual" situation is beside the point, because it was a matter of artistic effect. It's no different from putting latex bumps on a human actor's face. A real alien wouldn't look like a human in makeup, but when making a work of fiction, alienness is created by presenting something mostly familiar and comprehensible to the audience but with just enough bits of oddness to convey the impression of alienness. To do the same with dialogue, you have the "aliens" speak English peppered with the occasional alien word. Terms like "kellicam" and "p'takh" and "Kroykah" are the verbal equivalent of pointed ears and forehead bumps.

I understand, but like forehead bumps - like anything else, really - it can definitely be overused. If it's an important plot point or it's important for atmosphere or character development, somehow somebody needs to make it clear to the reader/viewer, either through the Universal Translator or something else. I read something recently in which quite a few words never were translated, and while I assume none of them were crucial to the plot, not having them translated made for some pretty tedious reading.

 

[Dayton Ward]

FWIW, when I do it, I consider it important (or just plain fun) as a gentle "reminder" that this ain't a human doing the talking. I also try to limit it to words/terms where the meaning/context is (or should be) obvious to the reader, such as the units of measure we've heard spoken on screen, or something else fairly innocuous.

 

[seigezunt]

Just got a DS9 relaunch ominbus, and one quibble comes to mind. Tiny print!

Buty that's why the Good Lord made magnifying glasses.

 

[Cicero]

^ I have the opposite complaint. Most books are printed with type much larger than that which I find most comfortable to read. Mission Gamma: Twilight's type size was near what I like (the type size in the 90s mass-market edition of Atlas Shrugged was prefect).

 

[William Leisner]

Just got a DS9 relaunch ominbus, and one quibble comes to mind. Tiny print!

^ I have the opposite complaint. Most books are printed with type much larger than that which I find most comfortable to read.

And then Baby TrekLit Fan said, "The type size in my book is juuuust right!"

 

[Myasishchev]

Oh, sorry - I just meant that "cunny" or "cony" or "coney" is how they used to spell "bunny" (as in Oryctolagus cuniculus) until very recently, isn't it? In fact, I've heard it said that the spelling was changed specifically because cunny became too much of a dirty word. It just hasn't happened to "pussy" yet, but probably will.

Although at least Wikipedia seems to support the idea that "cunt" was there first, and "cunny/coney" came to mean the same thing because it sounded similar and thus was a nice wordplay for something attractive covered in hair.

Our "kani" for O. cuniculus isn't old Fenno-Ugric stuff at all, but a Germanic loan related to "kanin" and the English "cunny". I don't even know what the Fenno-Ugric version would have been - "kani" completely replaced it centuries ago already (although "hare" is still the old "jänis".) So, sorry about the confusion caused by bringing Finnish into this... Just a tangent.

No, it's quite fine--just surprised by such an appellation, is all. The word "cunny" in the States or the Anglosphere in general (I concedly presume...) would not refer to a rabbit...

But I learned something new. Also, if I ever visit Finland, I have some wicked double entendres to make.

^There was an issue that had part of her first name revealed as "Eure-," and I can't think of anything that could be other than "Eureka." Unless she's named after the French department of Eure-et-Loir.

But we named the dog Eure-et-Loir.

If you interpret the final e as just a sound, you have some nice names. Eurydike, Europa, all sorts of women who got screwed by the gods.

^ With respect to the "random" use of alien words, that's a precedent established on screen. ("Distance: twelve thousand kellicams (or however you spell it in Klingon).") The implication in such instances is (to me, anyway) that certain words and terms have no exact translation.

This got me in a different way--because of "kellicams," I thought "parsec" was a made-up unit of measurement until I was, like, twenty.

 

[Therin of Andor]

^ I have the opposite complaint. Most books are printed with type much larger than that which I find most comfortable to read.

Karma. That comment may come to bite you in the bum.