Where No Man Has Gone Before

[T'Girl]

... arriving aboard the Enterprise, and setting off on the original five year mission. An overlapping arc probably beginning at the academy (or skipping ahead to a first assignment) and ending sometime close to WNMHGB.

Or even continuing from there, having adventures in between the original episodes. And possible during the original shows, the way DS9's troubles and tribblations took place during the TOS's the troubles with tribbles. Fill in some of the plot holes we've all noticed.


T'Girl

 

[Nerys Myk]

^

Kirk is 28 in J.J.'s film when he becomes captain, so at 34, he'll only have been captain for six years, not thirteen. Sadly though, in this new universe, I don't think we'll get to see the Kirk/Mitchell friendship.

Yeah, I don't really like this nu universe. I'll be on Delta Vega if anyone wants me... but not the Delta Vega that's in Vulcan orbit..the real one.

The one where you're dead?

I've named them Deta Vega Vulcanis and Delta Vega Extremis.

 

[Procutus]

^


I'll take D-V Extremis.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

The one where you're dead?

So. Not. Dead.

 

[Nerys Myk]

The one where you're dead?

So. Not. Dead.

Kirk wants to know why you never write.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

Well, he did drop a rock on my head. The part in my hair was never quite right after that.

 

[Nerys Myk]

You had it coming, just ask Kelso.

All the best to Elizabeth.

 

[Captain Robert April]

If Gary Lockwood could lose some of the extra padding he's put on over the past couple of decades, it could make for a really interesting story twist for Gary Mitchell to show up in the next film. Not the JJverse version of Gary, but the power-mad (and really pissed) one that Kirk dropped the aforementioned rock on.

Hey, maybe that's how he avoided getting killed by that rock; he plane shifted into JJ World.

How 'bout that, JJ? Power mad godlike nutjob big enough for ya?

 

[Kelso]

You had it coming, just ask Kelso.

Yup. Without a doubt.

 

[Procutus]

If Gary Lockwood could lose some of the extra padding he's put on over the past couple of decades, it could make for a really interesting story twist for Gary Mitchell to show up in the next film. Not the JJverse version of Gary, but the power-mad (and really pissed) one that Kirk dropped the aforementioned rock on.

Hey, maybe that's how he avoided getting killed by that rock; he plane shifted into JJ World.

How 'bout that, JJ? Power mad godlike nutjob big enough for ya?

Back in the early 80s, right after TMP and before TWoK, I always thought that a movie with Gary Mitchell, who had not died but had continued to mutate over the years until he was nearly invincible would make a great Trek story.

Sadly, this never happened, though hopefully someday, one of the talented writers who frequent this BBS may tackle that one in a novel.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

You had it coming, just ask Kelso.

Yup. Without a doubt.

You're just never going to forget about that, are you?

 

[I am not Spock]

One thing I didn't like about XI's approach to showing how the crew came together, was how they all got there by accident. McCoy is promoted when the CMO dies. Sulu takes over from a guy who is ill. Uhura replaces the linguist because she speaks Romulan. Too much coincidence for my liking.

 

[I am not Spock]

You had it coming, just ask Kelso.

Yup. Without a doubt.

You're just never going to forget about that, are you?

Oh, Mitchell and Kelso.. Will you guys just shake hands and make up?

 

[Nerys Myk]

One thing I didn't like about XI's approach to showing how the crew came together, was how they all got there by accident. McCoy is promoted when the CMO dies. Sulu takes over from a guy who is ill. Uhura replaces the linguist because she speaks Romulan. Too much coincidence for my liking.

Wouldn't it be a bigger coincedence if they all were in their usual spots from the start?

 

[Warped9]

Part of the reason JJ Abrams' film was such a jarring experience for me, very much cheating by creating its own timeline and not delivering on a tale far more epic in scope. Having spent a few decades living with these Pilots and considering them very much their own entity, with all that implied backstory to the weekly show. TOS had the realistic approach down from the start. Serving officers come and go, and aren't all in place out of the starting gate. I imagine McCoy having been in Starfleet years before Kirk. Them having met when Jim was on the long path to promotion, McCoy temporarily replacing a CMO aboard whichever ship Kirk was serving on. All this pretty occurring simultaneously while Pike was Enterprise Captain with a younger Spock in tow.

Very well said. This is far more realistic than having everyone together from the start in a cute-and-tidy way. And Trek XI completely ignores all the backstory tidbits from various episodes regarding Kirk's career before getting the Enterprise.

 

[Procutus]

One thing I didn't like about XI's approach to showing how the crew came together, was how they all got there by accident. McCoy is promoted when the CMO dies. Sulu takes over from a guy who is ill. Uhura replaces the linguist because she speaks Romulan. Too much coincidence for my liking.

Wouldn't it be a bigger coincedence if they all were in their usual spots from the start?

The thing is, in TOS, they weren't in their usual spots from the start. McCoy and Uhuru came on board after the events of WNMHGB, Sulu wasn't the ship's helmsman and Spock wasn't yet Kirk's XO (at least, without consulting my tape of the ep, I don't think he was).

The point is, these characters went to the Academy at different times and had career advancements before they all ended up on the Enterprise for the 5YM. The way it was done in the JJ-verse seems a bit contrived and forced. I still say that the entire thing was an alternate universe from the start, even before Nero arrived to cause changes in the timeline. Just my own theory, but it works for me.

 

[Orcus]

One thing I didn't like about XI's approach to showing how the crew came together, was how they all got there by accident. McCoy is promoted when the CMO dies. Sulu takes over from a guy who is ill. Uhura replaces the linguist because she speaks Romulan. Too much coincidence for my liking.

Wouldn't it be a bigger coincedence if they all were in their usual spots from the start?

The thing is, in TOS, they weren't in their usual spots from the start. McCoy and Uhuru came on board after the events of WNMHGB, Sulu wasn't the ship's helmsman and Spock wasn't yet Kirk's XO (at least, without consulting my tape of the ep, I don't think he was).

The point is, these characters went to the Academy at different times and had career advancements before they all ended up on the Enterprise for the 5YM. The way it was done in the JJ-verse seems a bit contrived and forced. I still say that the entire thing was an alternate universe from the start, even before Nero arrived to cause changes in the timeline. Just my own theory, but it works for me.

Well... yes and not one character was wearing a Cage-style uniform...

 

[Captain Robert April]

This theory seems to be catching...

 

[Nerys Myk]

One thing I didn't like about XI's approach to showing how the crew came together, was how they all got there by accident. McCoy is promoted when the CMO dies. Sulu takes over from a guy who is ill. Uhura replaces the linguist because she speaks Romulan. Too much coincidence for my liking.

Wouldn't it be a bigger coincedence if they all were in their usual spots from the start?

The thing is, in TOS, they weren't in their usual spots from the start. McCoy and Uhuru came on board after the events of WNMHGB, Sulu wasn't the ship's helmsman and Spock wasn't yet Kirk's XO (at least, without consulting my tape of the ep, I don't think he was).

Being a pilot, WNMHGB is a bit of an odd duck. Uhura and McCoy could be onboard or on leave. I'm not a fan of the out of sight not on board school of thought. I doubt every new face just came on board before an episode started. Sulu's shift from Science to Helm has always been a head scratcher for me. Seems like an odd career path. Even though the name and actor are the same, I think its a different character. Spock as XO has been debated time and time again. The evidence seems to point to Spock being the XO. I've only recently come round to this way of thinking after decades of thinking Mitchell was the XO.

The point is, these characters went to the Academy at different times and had career advancements before they all ended up on the Enterprise for the 5YM. The way it was done in the JJ-verse seems a bit contrived and forced. I still say that the entire thing was an alternate universe from the start, even before Nero arrived to cause changes in the timeline. Just my own theory, but it works for me.

Of course its contrived and its deliberate because of audience expectation. The general audience doesn't care that Chekov didn't appear until the second season or that Uhura and McCoy weren't in the second pilot. They know that Sulu is the helmsman and not a physicist. A movie featuring Dr Piper, Comm Officer Alden and helmsman Kelso is not going to meet audience expectations and the writers knew that.

WNMHGB is a great episode and while its canon it might also be somewhat apocryphal. Its "variations" make it as much a candidate for happening in an alternate universe as ST09's "variations" do.

 

[Timo]

Sulu's shift from Science to Helm has always been a head scratcher for me. Seems like an odd career path.

In the TNG era, a short stint at Helm seems like a good way to move on to command tasks. Indeed, it almost sounds like mandatory "hands-on training" for an ambitious officer like Riker, Worf, Wes Crusher or perhaps LaForge, even if their true specialities lie completely elsewhere.

Perhaps Sulu was always aiming at Command, and thought that he'd minor in Sciences (say, botany, for which he displays the occasional aptitude in TOS) - but casualties suffered in "WNMHGB" forced Kirk to rotate his officers, and Sulu got the no-brains-or-skills-needed Helm stint for the next five years, simply because he was due such a stint at some point anyway.

The general audience doesn't care that Chekov didn't appear until the second season

I know this isn't what you intended to argue about, or didn't know and acknowledge already; I'll just butt in and say that it's quite easy and natural to think Chekov was aboard for longer than that. It's not that he'd actually display real greenhorn symptoms in his inaugural "Catspaw" - indeed, he explicitly says he's not that wet behind the ears. This may be his first bridge stint, or perhaps his return to that position after a long absence, but it doesn't look or sound like his first-ever week on a starship. Or even on the Enterprise specifically, for that matter.

(Of course, "Catspaw" precedes "Space Seed" in stardate order, so that solves the oft-mentioned ST2 "problem" regarding Khan's familiarity with Chekov...)

Timo Saloniemi