sigel%umass-cs.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa (08/06/84)
From: Andrew D. Sigel <sigel%umass-cs.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa> David George brings up an excellent point for discussion: what are the boundaries of the Star Trek universe? Not geographically, but in terms of source material. I have noticed a few things, however. While I would certainly not be at all willing to allow the Star Trek books, as a general rule, to be official source material, I should point out that at least one original novel, to my knowledge, has been used by Harve Bennett. All through the three seasons, two characters were never given names. Oh, we knew James Kirk, Montgomery Scott, Leonard McCoy, Pavel Chekov, Christine Chapel, and even Janice Rand. But it was always Mr. Sulu, and Lieutenant Uhura. The first Star Trek novel published by Pocket Books changed that. Sulu was a key character, and was given a name: Hikaru. The novel was THE ENTROPY EFFECT by Vonda McIntyre. It was natural, therefore, for her to insert that name into the novelization of THE WRATH OF KHAN, though it never appeared in the movie. In ST III, however, the name Hikaru is said by Kirk (in the living room scene which Sarek interrupts); the quote is "Uhura, Pavel, Hikaru...". Sulu now has a first name officially inserted into the ST canon. The strange thing is that, in an informal setting, he still calls the Lt. by her last name. Well, now Uhura HAS a first name. In Diane Duane's MY ENEMY, MY ALLY, it is Nyota Uhura. (And furthermore, she is ranked a Lt. Commander, while Sulu and Chekov are still Lieutenants.) Now, I'm not sure I buy that ranking, because she's just a Commander in the most recent movie, while both Sulu and Chekov have gone beyond that rank, and I can't believe she'd be that much slower than they would. However, as far as I'm concerned, she's Nyota Uhura, and I hope the next movie or movie adaptation confirms it, because she's needed a first name for nearly 20 years. Three cheers for Diane Duane. Because Hikaru was taken from THE ENTROPY EFFECT, does that mean the novel also becomes canon? Or because characters and situations from that novel are referred to in the novelizations of the second and third movies, do they therefore gain respectability? To that latter, more than the former, I would say yes. So much of both movies ended up on the cutting room floor, some of the books are just restoring scenes that should never have been cut in the first place. And for the rest, well, I trust Vonda McIntyre. She is not only a highly competent writer, but she knows her Star Trek, and has great affection for the material. In my view, THE ENTROPY EFFECT is also to be allowed to join canon, as McIntyre has managed to integrate it so well with her movie novelizations. With less conviction, I allow certain of the novels into the canon, because they doesn't violate anything I hold dear, because they add important details (MY ENEMY, MY ALLY, and, because it introduces several characters found in MEMA, her first novel, THE WOUNDED SKY, both by Diane Duane; she gave Uhura a first name), and because they are well written AND good ST adventures. I will, as a general rule, discount any fan fiction and most of what was published by Bantam and Ballantine. I think, however, little bits of information from the cartoon series can be accepted. Specifically, the expansion of James T. Kirk to James Tiberius Kirk. Lets face it, the episode was written by David Gerrold, who wrote THE TROUBLE WITH TRIBBLES. It filled out information we had (T. to Tiberius), and Gerrold is one of the big ST mavens. I have no doubt that whoever writes ST IV is going to have, as part of the bio sheets on all the characters, the name of James Tiberius Kirk, with the added info that the T. is commonly used. Most of the criteria here is highly personalized, but I'd be willing to thrash out something more 'logical' and generalized. What do the rest of you want to do? Andrew Sigel