Whatever happened to the "Rise of the Federation" series?

[WebLurker]

It never did. There has never, ever, ever been a time in the entire 55-year history of the franchise when it didn't have continuity errors that fans needed to rationalize away. Back in the '80s when there was nothing but TOS, TAS, and a few movies, the fanzine Trek had a whole regular "Star Trek Mysteries -- Solved!" column that addressed contradictions and continuity errors, and there was enough fodder in just the original series alone to keep it going as a regular feature for year after year after year. So it's ridiculous to pretend that inconsistencies in Trek are anything new or recent. Every generation of fans makes that same complaint about whatever the newest incarnation is, and every time I hear it, it just gets more tiresome and ridiculous.

I mean, come on, season 1 of TOS is full of inconsistencies because they were literally making it up as they went. They didn't even come up with the concepts of Starfleet and the Federation until the latter half of season 1. They didn't bother to name Spock's species until "Mudd's Women" and then took another year before deciding it was "Vulcan" instead of "Vulcanian." They went back and forth on whether antimatter powered the ship or would blow up the universe. They didn't invent the Prime Directive until late in season 1, and they continued to be inconsistent about what it meant well into TNG (e.g. "Justice," where the Prime Directive prevented violating local law but had no problem with making contact with a pre-warp culture). And TNG continuity was all over the place too; for instance, "Heart of Glory" implied that the Klingon Empire had joined the Federation and given up its warlike ways, but later Trek ignored that. And the first couple of seasons of TNG portrayed Starfleet as a non-militaristic body in which the very concept of war games was considered alien, archaic, and unnecessary, but then "The Wounded" claimed that the Federation had been at war with Cardassia that whole time.

If anything, the franchise is far more consistent on the whole now than it was in the early years. Back then, the very fundamentals of the universe were in flux or undefined, and it could be inconsistent about very large things. These days, we have a much clearer, more detailed picture of how the universe works, and the inconsistencies are more about minor details.

What the fudge did I say that was so inflammatory?

I really enjoyed Gene DeWeese's novel Engines of Destiny. I get the impression I'm in the minority on that one.

I liked it. There are a few points that don't fit perfectly with the TV shows regarding the Borg, Kirk's voice seem a tad off somehow (not sure I can explain it), and I did feel like the logic of how the alternate timeline was fixed got a little fuzzy in the end, but some interesting character work and really cool demonstration of how changing one thing could have unforeseen consequences; while it's easy to do a story about one thing going differently creating a bad future, I liked the layers of cause and effect in the scenario.

But I really liked the novel. It's one of those if you could go back in time and change something would you? You might think you're doing a good thing, but you can never foresee all the consequences. You might actually make things worse.

Kinda makes me think of the 2015 video game Life is Strange. To avoid massive spoilers if you haven't played (it's really good if you haven't), you play as a character who discovers they can rewind time (within certain restrictions), allowing them/you the chance to redo choices and other stuff. There is more to the story in terms of the human interest subplots and the activities that the control on time is applied to, but there is a lot thematically about choice and consequence and how that fits into being able to take things back or rewriting a past event. There is a very Star Trek-esque part of the story, too, that really gives you an idea what it would be like to be the one making the decisions in that moment.

I really enjoyed Gene DeWeese's novel Engines of Destiny. I get the impression I'm in the minority on that one.

I liked it. There are a few points that don't fit perfectly with the TV shows regarding the Borg, Kirk's voice seem a tad off somehow (not sure I can explain it), and I did feel like the logic of how the alternate timeline was fixed got a little fuzzy in the end, but some interesting character work and really cool demonstration of how changing one thing could have unforeseen consequences; while it's easy to do a story about one thing going differently creating a bad future, I liked the layers of cause and effect in the scenario.

But I really liked the novel. It's one of those if you could go back in time and change something would you? You might think you're doing a good thing, but you can never foresee all the consequences. You might actually make things worse.

Kinda makes me think of the 2015 video game Life is Strange. To avoid massive spoilers if you haven't played (it's really good if you haven't), you play as a character who discovers they can rewind time (within certain restrictions), allowing them/you the chance to redo choices and other stuff. There is more to the story in terms of the human interest subplots and the activities that the control on time is applied to, but there is a lot thematically about choice and consequence and how that fits into being able to take things back or rewriting a past event. There is a very Star Trek-esque part of the story, too, that really gives you an idea what it would be like to be the one making the decisions in that moment.

 

[seigezunt]

Not in person, but we know they communicated by subspace radio, or at least the governments did. It could've been something like the movie Fail Safe, a tense thriller where the sheer separation and lack of communication between the parties involved is a major source of the suspense, and where contact between the rival governments happens mainly over the phone (though I think there is an ambassador present).

A little film called Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan comes to mind, where the main antagonists are never in the same room together. Though they did see each other.

 

[Ronald Held]

Christopher, given the opportunity, would you want to continue the series?

 

[Josh Kelton]

I really enjoyed Gene DeWeese's novel Engines of Destiny. I get the impression I'm in the minority on that one. But the basic gist of the story was that Scotty felt guilty about Kirk's death on the Enterprise-B so he secretly went back in time to rescue Kirk. He made sure to do it at such a point that the Enterprise-B crew still thought Kirk had died, thinking that would preserve the timeline. But because Scotty was unaware Kirk didn't actually die but was taken by the Nexus, a few years later when Picard is in the Nexus, Kirk is not there to ask for help, so the Veridian system and all the Enterprise crew are killed...and because of that the Borg succeed in assimilating Earth in First Contact.

It seems like there wouldn't be any need for the Borg to travel back in time, since Picard would no longer be around to help the fleet destroy the Borg cube in the first place.

 

[Charles Phipps]

Funny aside: I had the amusing idea that Scotty was so used to the craziness of their lives that the assumption James T. Kirk would come back from the dead (like their friend Spock had) was completely reasonable to him. As, unlike many other Starfleet officers, he was genre savvy to know that he was alive. He was also correct as Kirk DID return for a short time.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I had the amusing idea that Scotty was so used to the craziness of their lives that the assumption James T. Kirk would come back from the dead (like their friend Spock had) was completely reasonable to him.

Scotty himself had first-hand experience with this phenomenon too!

The senior officers of the original Enterprise could start their own "I've been dead before!" support group!

 

[WebLurker]

It seems like there wouldn't be any need for the Borg to travel back in time, since Picard would no longer be around to help the fleet destroy the Borg cube in the first place.

The book actually addresses it; there's a part from the Borg Queen's perspective that explains that with Picard disappearing before the invasion we see at the beginning of First Contact, the Borg conquered Earth. They then got the idea later to time travel back to 2063 and assimilate Earth in the past in order to strengthen their position.

 

[E-DUB]

Scotty himself had first-hand experience with this phenomenon too!

The senior officers of the original Enterprise could start their own "I've been dead before!" support group!

Cue the Beatles: "They said I know what it's like to be dead."