Star Trek: The General Discussion

stiggie

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This is a thread for general discussion of all things Star Trek.

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In the past few weeks, various threads have been derailed by discussion of how ridiculous J.J. Abrams' redesigned Enterprise is, debate about solutions to the Kobayashi Maru Scenario and other Star Trek related topics. So here is a thread just for that. To get things started I am going to repost the trailer for the upcoming blu-ray release of four digitally remastered episodes of The Next Generation. The entire series will be released eventually.

[video=youtube;-DZEcKM33YY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DZEcKM33YY[/video]
 
Liked everything but the original series. I watched and enjoyed all of TNG, DS9, VOY, and ENT. The films by and large have been entertaining, including the most recent.
 
I found the most recent one entertaining, but I kind of have to look at it like really expensively produced fan fiction.
 
Maybe one of the fans here can help me. I heard a quote from T. S. Eliot, and I swear that I saw it on a ship's dedication plaque.

The quote:

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.


Am I just imagining things or was that actually on a ship's plaque?
 
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Anyone ever read any of the novels? Over the years I have read maybe four or five of them.
 
I have read a few. My favorite so far is "Final Frontier", by Diane Carey. It tells the story of the classified first mission of the new Constitution class Enterprise. Its commander, Captain Robert April, hand picks a small crew to rescue a colony ship trapped in a ion storm. As his first officer, he "recruits" the Security Chief of a remote Starbase, one Commander George Kirk. On their way to rescue the colonists, the unnamed ship (Which CDR Kirk names "Enterprise".) is sabotaged and the crew find themselves in enemy space.

Another one I liked was "The Final Reflection", by John M. Ford, which is the story of a Klingon named Krenn, and how he ends up saving the Federation from a Klingon attack.

These are early novels, and get much of their information from the non-canon FASA book "The Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology" so a lot of information in those books is contradicted by subsequent movies and TV shows. If you can look beyond that, they are both good reads IMO.

Oh, and "Spock's World" by Diane Duane is another good novel. It deals with a movement on Vulcan to secede from the Federation and also tells the history of the Vulcan people.
 
I was given a novel about fifteen-odd years ago titled "Angel of Death", and it was utterly mediocre. Ignore it if you see it in the bookstore.
 
You missed the last half of Voyager? Those are the best parts of Voyager.


phoenixsac: I don't know of any ships in the shows/movies with that on their dedication plaque, but a Google search says that a couple of ships in the Star Trek Online game have it.
 
Anyone ever read any of the novels? Over the years I have read maybe four or five of them.

I spent way too much of my early teen years reading Trek books.

My thoughts:

I really like the original crew in the books, it lets them shine in larger scale / more modern stories (although there are books that predate TNG). For example there was a book called Strangers from the Sky written while TNG was airing that is the story of first contact, with Kirk involved. It involves Kirk, Spock, Gary Mitchell and McCoy being sent back in time before first contact with the Vulcans. I also like how the TOS novels from early on deal a bit less with technobabble.

Some stuff I remember:
Peter David - anything that he wrote. His stories usually involve Q, and his writing style reminds me of Douglas Adams at times. Also just remembered the Excalibur series, which was fantastic. Basically a new series focusing on a new ship (with a new captain, but some familiar faces in the crew). Excalibur is sent into a sector that just had the dominant empire collapse, and is tasked with keeping the peace.

An TOS book called "The Great Starship Race" - Pretty Kirk centric, very much a "Captain and his ship" story. Involves a space regetta and Romulans.

Personally, I liked the TNG and TOS books the best. I didn't read much DS9 though. If I remember right, DS9 would be harder to write since stories would have to be shoehorned in around the ongoing plot. Voyager had a similar problem of not having many recurring elements for the authors to really use, plus everything had to be returned right how it was in the show. TNG and TOS could draw on the whole alpha / beta quadrants as backdrops, and really expand on a lot of minor characters and races.

I'd offer up a better list of recs, but my box with all my books is at my parent's house.

I've read a few of the post TV series books, and its a bit off in my opinion. Big massive war with the Borg and it didn't feel plotted together super well (have only read a few though.) Maybe I'd grown up, but I just couldn't get back into those.
 
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As far as books go, I read one from the Section 31 series called "Rogue". It was very good. It takes place before "First Contact". While the main focus on Section 31 (Starfleets version of the CIA) it had a sub-plot with Lt. Hawk. Who, if you didn't know, was gay. But, it didn't force it in your face. It lets you view it as any other relationship.

Of course, Lt. Hawk now says "We are the Borg. We are FABULOUS! Resistance was SO last year!" Then, Worf shot him.

I'm big into the ship side of things. I'm always looking into specs, classes, building models, whatever. Blueprints. Manuals. It's almost as bad as my firearm and car hobby.

I love stuff like this...

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That's one thing about ST that always drove me nuts. It never gave you insight into too many of other classes. The Akira is definitely a more interesting ship. Hell, Starfleet has carriers that are supposedly huge.
 
May the Force be with you all.
 
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