Alternate History in Star Trek, part 4: Early Novels, the TOS Movies and More Comics

[Gary Oswald]

Discuss this article by @Thande here

 

[Charles EP M.]

As you may have gathered from some of the titles above, the Star Trek fandom in this era was a bit obsessed with Spock, to put it mildly

In his Roddenberry biography, Lance Parkin argues part of TNG's "no bringing back old stuff like Vulcans" edict was to break that connection between Spock and Star Trek, so it would no longer be as dominated by this one character played by one actor - because then it's not All Gene's Vision. (Which in the long run ends up being the healthier decision for the franchise)

This isn’t great, although it’s still a heck of a lot better than how DS9 would eventually resolve it.

That one's interesting because it starts with 'what if Kirk screwed up in an older story', but the screwup is 'what if the Terrans being less nasty is BAD', and the specific thinking by the writer was: "Empires aren't usually brutal unless there's a reason. There are usually external or internal pressures that cause them to be that way. So I just thought that if the parallel Earth was that brutal, there had to be a reason. And the reason was that the barbarians (the Klingons and the Cardassians) were at the gate."

And that's a bit suspicious as reasoning, especially from the Mirrorverse we actually saw - they clearly weren't worried about an enemy empire coming for them at any moment. A 'nicer' Terran Empire would also just be a more grumpy Starfleet, who manage fine at holding back Cardassians and (sometimes depending on plot) Klingons. It makes more sense if you assume the Terran threat caused the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance (IIRC some comics do go with that) and thus created its own eventual downfall.

 

[Thande]

In his Roddenberry biography, Lance Parkin argues part of TNG's "no bringing back old stuff like Vulcans" edict was to break that connection between Spock and Star Trek, so it would no longer be as dominated by this one character played by one actor - because then it's not All Gene's Vision. (Which in the long run ends up being the healthier decision for the franchise)

That's an interesting argument, though it does go against @Makemakean 's thesis about all Roddenberry's decisions being negative

 

[Charles EP M.]

That's an interesting argument, though it does go against @Makemakean 's thesis about all Roddenberry's decisions being negative

Parkin's big argument, along with "Roddenberry convinced himself that he must have had this utopian vision because everyone kept saying so" and that Roddenberry had decided the best response to professional barriers was aggression (even though it often blew up in his face), is that Roddenberry had lots of interesting and valid ideas, but he wasn't quite at the level needed to execute them properly. I'd say TNG bears that out, the general vision he had of the show works when he's not the one in charge anymore and they can brush away some of his odder fixations.

 

[OwenM]

Wasn't Salvatore told to do that rather than it being a personal decision?

 

[OwenM]

As a broader comment I think a Mirror Universe type idea can work well (though there are issues with the Discovery take as you mention) and DS9's biggest problem is insisting on it being the same Mirror Universe.

 

[Charles EP M.]

As a broader comment I think a Mirror Universe type idea can work well (though there are issues with the Discovery take as you mention) and DS9's biggest problem is insisting on it being the same Mirror Universe.

One review I saw talked about DS9's first Mirrorverse ep being a mirror darkly of Terok Nor, and the humans who got to go "cor sure sad what's happening over there oh well" are now the Bajorans

 

[M_Kresal]

That one's interesting because it starts with 'what if Kirk screwed up in an older story', but the screwup is 'what if the Terrans being less nasty is BAD', and the specific thinking by the writer was: "Empires aren't usually brutal unless there's a reason. There are usually external or internal pressures that cause them to be that way. So I just thought that if the parallel Earth was that brutal, there had to be a reason. And the reason was that the barbarians (the Klingons and the Cardassians) were at the gate."

And that's a bit suspicious as reasoning, especially from the Mirrorverse we actually saw - they clearly weren't worried about an enemy empire coming for them at any moment. A 'nicer' Terran Empire would also just be a more grumpy Starfleet, who manage fine at holding back Cardassians and (sometimes depending on plot) Klingons. It makes more sense if you assume the Terran threat caused the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance (IIRC some comics do go with that) and thus created its own eventual downfall.

I'm fond of the theory, made to fit retroactively because of events depicted in Enterprise's Mirrorverse two-parter, that it's the consequence of the events of First Contact from a version of history where the TNG crew didn't beam down to stick around to fix the damage the Borg caused. Which would explain why you get the version of "first contact" that happens in flashback for that two-parter and the depiction of the early Terran Empire when it moves to the present day of that series. It's also, based from what I've seen, the line being taken as part of the Coda trilogy of novels.

As for the causing their own downfall, I know that's likewise the line taken in the novels. Specifically one called The Sorrows of Empire which sees Spock rising from the captain of the ISS Enterprise after knocking off Mirror Kirk to becoming head of the Empire, working with Sarek and manipulating events to bring down the Empire. There's a sequel novel Rise Like Lions that's set in the TNG/DS9 era I need to get around to reading at some point.