The S.S. Valiant was clearly swept up by a tachyon particle conduit in space/went through a wormhole/additional BS excuse for a show never intended to last a half century. (I can make up an excuse for anything in Star Trek, which derives from my attempts to keep Santa Claus real till I was 12 and the excusatory logic therein)

"It's magic, we don't have to explain it".
 
Been there, done that ;) That said, the "British-isms" in Nimoy's Spock "accent" that always stuck out to me were "answer" and "transporter" - anything with the short "a" sound, as you say. (Though I'm probably simplifying that, but fortunately we have someone who's studied linguistics reading this thread who might be kind enough to describe the phoneme we're talking about properly.)
I'm an Aussie, so I could be way out; but isn't that a Bostonian accent? Or maybe Nimoy was attempting to convey a book-learned English.

https://www.alternatehistory.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/
 
There is, even in TOS, sufficient evidence to point to "impulse power" or "impulse engines" being capable in some way of limited superluminal speeds.

I agree with you. That's just what I posit in on my site. It's not logical, but it must be what the writers were thinking.


That's not a war--it's a slaughter. Mass your forces against fleets-in-transit, and destroy in detail. If both sides have superluminal travel, but one is simply a little faster, then you have a balanced enough technological situation that you can much more reasonably see a hard-fought, grinding war lasting years.

Which is the exact subject of my comic, No Good Deed. It is a slaughter. Can you slaughter someone in self defense?
 
The S.S. Valiant was clearly swept up by a tachyon particle conduit in space/went through a wormhole/additional BS excuse for a show never intended to last a half century. (I can make up an excuse for anything in Star Trek, which derives from my attempts to keep Santa Claus real till I was 12 with the excusatory logic therein)

Actually, the episode provides the answer. They were hit by a magnetic storm, whatever that is. They were thrown a half a light year out of the galaxy. Who knows how far they were towed before they hit the barrier?
 
Here I am with one last batch of responses for the year 2014! (Yes, I'm aware it's already 2015 in most of the world, but not in the timezone that matters most, good old EST :cool:)

But the Klingons were a change made by Roddenberry and to me it makes sense.
This is where the difference between the Puritans of my timeline and the purists of our own history comes to the fore. The "classic" continuity is the original series, TAS, and the six movies, and let's face it - a lot of good came out of those six movies. But the rubber foreheads, in my opinion, are a classic case of the Franchise Original Sin. Consider how much more imaginative alien designs were back in the 1960s - granted, the makeup and practical effects were limited by the technology of the day, but subsequent series have shown that even the Andorians and the Tellarites (let alone the Gorn, the Horta, the Tholians, etc.) look far more alien than someone with an obvious rubber appliance on their forehead (and maybe a little tinted base makeup, if they're lucky) and nothing else.

Mark2000 said:
Really, the reason why I don't just say "New Trek is right out" is because I don't want to offend my possible readership. Every walk of fan should be able to enjoy the comic. I also know I have some readers from the production staff of later shows and I don't want to openly attack their work. If I have a quibble I want to have a reasoned argument for it with a footnote that this is just my opinion and I am just some dope with an inmotion hosting account.
I often wonder if anyone from the production staff (of any series in the franchise, not just the one I've been writing about) has been reading this timeline. I can't say I've been as diplomatic as you about certain things, that's for sure. But hey, I'm in the same boat as you. Alternate history, when you get right down to it, is basically just AU fan fiction of real life.

There is, even in TOS, sufficient evidence to point to "impulse power" or "impulse engines" being capable in some way of limited superluminal speeds.
The analogy the two of us developed as we were talking this out was to the sound barrier - unlike the light barrier, not a hard physical law, but something that is tangible to a writing staff comprised largely of aviators and WWII veterans. In the 1960s, turboprop-driven airplanes capable of breaking the sound barrier were theoretically possible (which they remain today - the design top speed of the fastest turboprop plane ever built, the "Thunderscreech", was Mach 0.9, though it only reached Mach 0.83 in actual tests). If the key innovation of the jet engine had never been discovered, it's not difficult to imagine propeller-driven planes surpassing the speed of sound. I think that is the key analogy to take away from warp vs. impulse.

Warp : Jet :: Impulse : Propeller/Turboprop

By that logic, "simple impulse" could be a turboprop-like propulsion system. From the series bible, Warp 2 is 8c; Warp 3 is 27c. It's easy to imagine top impulse engines going about that fast.

The S.S. Valiant was clearly swept up by a tachyon particle conduit in space/went through a wormhole/additional BS excuse for a show never intended to last a half century. (I can make up an excuse for anything in Star Trek, which derives from my attempts to keep Santa Claus real till I was 12 with the excusatory logic therein)
I'm not sure how, in this thread about pop culture, you think I would tolerate you attempting to imply that Santa Claus is not real, and shame on you for doing so :mad:

Also, that's (sadly) literally impossible; the word "tachyon" was not coined until 1967, after the episode was written, filmed, and broadcast.

"It's magic, we don't have to explain it".
Welcome aboard, Imperator! Your quotation of Joe Quesada is frighteningly appropriate in this circumstance.

I'm an Aussie, so I could be way out; but isn't that a Bostonian accent? Or maybe Nimoy was attempting to convey a book-learned English.
No. That is not a Bostonian accent. Not even close.

If only we had a linguistics enthusiast from New England to answer your question much better than I ever could!

Nimoy has apparently said that he was attempting to speak in the accent of someone who learned English by listening to BBC Radio. He does sound more "British" (in a clipped, old-time radio announcer fashion) in the pilots than in the series proper, consistent with that explanation. (I'm not sure if that explains the yelling - I think that was more him trying to be the martinet.)

Actually, the episode provides the answer. They were hit by a magnetic storm, whatever that is. They were thrown a half a light year out of the galaxy. Who knows how far they were towed before they hit the barrier?
An excellent point. I've just re-read the transcript for the episode, and in fact, for all we know, the Valiant could have been exploring the Oort Cloud before she was swept away to the galactic barrier.
 
Brainbin, could we ever potentially see an animated Star Trek? Possibly 80s DiC-tastic?

Btw, the Trekbbs thread was bumped by USS Triumphant. I didn't know what to reply, though.
 
I hope all of you are having a great new year so far! I certainly am, although it's rather busier than previous years have been, but in all the best ways :)

Brainbin, could we ever potentially see an animated Star Trek? Possibly 80s DiC-tastic?
I should certainly hope you'll be seeing an animated Star Trek, since I devoted so much coverage to the concept in my most recent post. To be honest, I'm so excited about the idea that I've actually created the entire cast of characters already. I don't want to spoil too much, but I will tell you there's a commanding officer, a science officer, a chief medical officer, a chief engineer, and at least one woman, racial minority, and/or alien character. Also, they're flying aboard a ship. I hope I haven't given too much away already :cool:

In all seriousness, I have devised the entire cast of characters already, and the name of the ship. I'm really looking forward to writing that update, but I have a few more in the pipeline before it. I've finally broken some ground on writing my next update, which I hope to have ready fairly soon. Thanks to those of you who have already nominated That Wacky Redhead for the 2015 Turtledove Awards, it's a real honour to be amongst such august competition once again.

Emperor Norton I said:
Btw, the Trekbbs thread was bumped by USS Triumphant. I didn't know what to reply, though.
It certainly brings back memories! My mother was a big T'Pau fan - I remember hearing "Heart and Soul" and "China in Your Hand" more times than I'd care to remember growing up. Unfortunately, since the timeline ends in 1986, their formation ITTL, if it happens, will not be a topic for discussion.
 
I suppose I'll never know about the alternate stand-ins for the 25th Anniversary/Judgement Rites computer games either for that reason. Que Sera, Sera.
 
1. T'Pau - my favorite band - formed in 1986, so you're not getting off that easy. ;) (More seriously, you can obviously cover whatever you want, but I just wanted to let you know that the reason you said you can't cover this matter isn't one.)

2. If it ends with 1986, then Emperor Norton is right and you won't get to Judgment Rites or the 25th anniversary. But you *could* say something about Star Trek: The Kobayashi Alternative and Star Trek: The Promethian Prophecy games (and also about the novel series, now that I'm seeing those were published by Simon & Schuster and that comes to mind) if you want or think of anything good involving them.

3. 1986?! BOOOOOO! I was hoping you'd catch all the way up to the present! (I'm only half kidding - although I guess the matter *was* pretty much sealed with the date on the Baba Wawa interview in the first entry.) Oh well. It's been great. I hope maybe you will at least do an "epilogue" edition with any interesting notes you might have about things that would have changed between the interview and ITTL 2015 because of That Wacky Redhead? :D
 
First of all, USS Triumphant, welcome aboard - not only to this thread but also to the forum as a whole! I'm supremely flattered that my timeline was able to lure you over from TrekBBS :eek:

1. T'Pau - my favorite band - formed in 1986, so you're not getting off that easy. ;) (More seriously, you can obviously cover whatever you want, but I just wanted to let you know that the reason you said you can't cover this matter isn't one.)
The question is obviously when in 1986 the band formed. If it's after September 20th, then I'm afraid you're out of luck. But if it's before, then they still have to be plucked from obscurity, by what Wikipedia informs me was the dumb luck of their failed single having been featured in a jeans commercial.

But yes, either way, I haven't really covered music very much, and I don't think that starting now would serve any constructive purpose.

USS Triumphant said:
2. If it ends with 1986, then Emperor Norton is right and you won't get to Judgment Rites or the 25th anniversary. But you *could* say something about Star Trek: The Kobayashi Alternative and Star Trek: The Promethian Prophecy games (and also about the novel series, now that I'm seeing those were published by Simon & Schuster and that comes to mind) if you want or think of anything good involving them.
I'm a big fan of the Interplay Star Trek games - in fact, in writing for Eyes Turned Skyward, I inserted a cameo by the pirate race, the Elasi, in that timeline's version of Star Trek: Phase II.

That said, Star Trek video games are following their own, highly divergent course of development ITTL - they've been the subject of a few prior posts, and will be covered in more detail later on.

USS Triumphant said:
3. 1986?! BOOOOOO! I was hoping you'd catch all the way up to the present! (I'm only half kidding - although I guess the matter *was* pretty much sealed with the date on the Baba Wawa interview in the first entry.) Oh well. It's been great. I hope maybe you will at least do an "epilogue" edition with any interesting notes you might have about things that would have changed between the interview and ITTL 2015 because of That Wacky Redhead? :D
I admit, I've toyed with the idea of writing "epilogue" or "Where Are They Now?" material, but it's a very sticky situation. I really like the idea of writing a story with a clear beginning, middle, and end - one which, ironically, never happened to the original Star Trek series. Also, I'd have to cover almost 30 intervening years, as opposed to the 20 that span my timeline proper. That's a long time, with a lot of opportunity for drastic divergences. But I won't flat out say "no" at this juncture - we'll have to see how I feel when I get back to that interview.
 
First of all, USS Triumphant, welcome aboard - not only to this thread but also to the forum as a whole! I'm supremely flattered that my timeline was able to lure you over from TrekBBS :eek:
It is a little impressive, given how much of a creature of habit I am. But your thread is worth it by itself, and I'm a fan of alt history fiction in general, too, so here I am. :D

The question is obviously when in 1986 the band formed. If it's after September 20th, then I'm afraid you're out of luck. But if it's before, then they still have to be plucked from obscurity, by what Wikipedia informs me was the dumb luck of their failed single having been featured in a jeans commercial.

But yes, either way, I haven't really covered music very much, and I don't think that starting now would serve any constructive purpose.
True. But just now, I went ahead and asked Carol, Ronnie, and Taj (three members of the band I'm friends with on Facebook), as well as the head of their fan club, whether they chose the name before or after that date, anyway. Just for my own edification - consider it part of my internal fan fiction for your work here. ;)

I admit, I've toyed with the idea of writing "epilogue" or "Where Are They Now?" material, but it's a very sticky situation. I really like the idea of writing a story with a clear beginning, middle, and end <snipped out part that sounds contrary to what I want :D> But I won't flat out say "no" at this juncture - we'll have to see how I feel when I get back to that interview.
Well, maybe now it can have a beginning, a middle, an end, and then one of those parts people wait until after the credits of the movie for? ;)
He doesn't mince words, I'll give him that. And I certainly appreciate his candour. I don't really want to engage his arguments through an intermediary, so I'll leave it at that.
That's okay - I've engaged him with my own issues regarding what he said.
 
It is a little impressive, given how much of a creature of habit I am. But your thread is worth it by itself, and I'm a fan of alt history fiction in general, too, so here I am. :D
I'm sure you'll love the site, then - a few others have written about timelines with alternate Star Trek franchises, though (IIRC) they are all sadly dormant for the time being.

And, of course, there are other topics to read about in alternate history. There are even a few timelines on this site about... war and politics! :eek:

USS Triumphant said:
True. But just now, I went ahead and asked Carol, Ronnie, and Taj (three members of the band I'm friends with on Facebook), as well as the head of their fan club, whether they chose the name before or after that date, anyway. Just for my own edification - consider it part of my internal fan fiction for your work here. ;)
Facebook is an amazing thing - my mother (the one who likes T'Pau) is friends with all sorts of public figures. Please let me know what their response is!

USS Triumphant said:
Well, maybe now it can have a beginning, a middle, an end, and then one of those parts people wait until after the credits of the movie for? ;)
But aren't those scenes usually just blatant teases for sequels? Or was that your point all along? :p (You wouldn't be the first to be asking for That Sensible Brunette, that's for sure.)

USS Triumphant said:
That's okay - I've engaged him with my own issues regarding what he said.
And I'd like to thank both you and His Imperial Majesty for your offsite championing of TWR :) For future reference, you may find this link to be informative.

Brainbin, what is your opinion on the Shatner bald issue? And are there any alternate hairpieces compared to the OTL?
What's funny about the toupees (and the girdle, for that matter) is that everyone "knows" he wore them despite, AFAIK, no concrete evidence for their existence ever having been brought forward. (I'm pretty sure that's his real hair now - hair transplants are a wonderful thing.) I've read OTL's Turd Season described as the one where everyone's hair went crazy - and if ever hairstyling had been the perfect microcosm of a show's production difficulties as a whole, that would be the time. ITTL, everyone's hair (or hairpiece, as the case may be) remained the same through the end of the third season - and the fourth, and fifth. For The Next Voyage, Shatner wore his hair(piece) in much the same way he would for TMP IOTL. As for the cartoon... well, let's not get ahead of ourselves! ;)
 
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Well, the time has come once again for the Turtledove Awards!

Last year, That Wacky Redhead won two Turtledoves (but, sadly, no partridge in a pear tree), both awarded to That Wacky Redhead herself. If you would like to show your support for That Wacky Redhead, please consider voting for the timeline in either of the categories in which it has been nominated:

Best Continuing Cold War Era Timeline. Once again, TWR is nominated opposite some truly formidable competition (surely, this must be one of the strongest categories out there), and every vote counts. Remember the Argentine War? The rendering of the verdict in the Trial of the Century? The rise of MTV? A lot has happened in the past year! :eek:

In addition, That Wacky Redhead herself is defending her title in Best Continuing Character, and she would really appreciate your vote. Yes, she already has two Turtledoves, but IOTL Lucille Ball won four Emmy awards (seriously, just four? Helen Hunt has that many!), so there would be a nice symmetry in having her win two more this year ;)

Thanks to those of you (e of pi and nixonshead) who nominated TWR in these respective categories, and thank you all for your support and your votes over the years.

Please also consider voting for this timeline's official artist, nixonshead, in the category of Best Infobox/Other Artwork for his spectacular library of images for his own timeline, Kolyma's Shadow.
 
The rendering of the verdict in the Trial of the Century?
I didn't think about this at the time that you posted that chapter, but I'll bet the channel Court TV made it to the channel lineup a little quicker ITTL, too. ;)

BTW: The question of when the name "T'Pau" was decided on only resulted in a mild argument among those responding. So not helpful.

I'll choose to believe that ITTL, "T'Pau" would have been known as "Tamura" - despite Carol's comment about how the band might have been named "Klingon" if another episode was on, I firmly believe that a female name would have been chosen to reflect Carol's central status in the band (she's the only member that has been in the group the whole time, because her voice IS the band, really). Tamura is a little exotic for 1986/1987 UK/America, so it works I think, and I've arbitrarily decided the episode that was up in the syndication lineup while they were making the decision was the fifth season "Cassandra". Tamura charted better in the U.S. than T'Pau did IOTL, due mainly to a better educated populace having a better grasp on some of the highbrow Decker/Rogers lyrics, but also in no small part due to the band's name not having the apostrophe that proved frustrating to deciding on alphabetization in music stores and catalogs ("does this go at the beginning or the end of the Ts, or right after Pete Townsend?") , and then later to search engines on the Internet (the apostrophe would actually cause ERROR results in the early days of AltaVista and the like).

Despite their greater success, the band in its original form still did not last past their third studio album "The Promise" because, just as IOTL, stress from Decker and Rogers breaking up romantically ended things for a while. BUT - their greater visibility with the American public did result in a pretty good remake of one of their biggest hits, "Heart and Soul", being laid down by Donna Lewis and Tone Lōc in 1997 for inclusion in a movie soundtrack. ("Anastasia" as we know it, and her duet with Richard Marx, has been butterflied away due to changes in the animation industry that have already started in what you have described in TWR). It was also included on Lewis's album released in '98, "Blue Planet", and released as the first single from it (actually in anticipation of it, coordinated with the release of the film). It only peaked at #4 (IOTL, T'Pau's version peaked at #4, but ITTL, Tamura took it to #2, and then it was followed by a #1 for "China In Your Hand" - which was a #1 in the UK IOTL but never even broke the Top 40 in the US), but that was good enough to get a follow up single, "I Could Be The One" (which never charted in the US IOTL) into the Top 20, making the album a moderate success. It set Lewis up to continue on with Atlantic's support on her more successful 2002 album "Be Still", and inadvertently provided a nice setup for Tamura's '98 "comeback album" (really, Carol and a whole new band - although Rogers co-wrote some of the songs) "Red".

Sorry. That ended up a bit more than I intended. And obviously, not "canon" for TWR. :eek:
 
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Thanks to everyone who has voted for TWR so far! I really appreciate your support :)

Congrats on the nominations mate, but will we be seeing an update soon?
Fortunately for my bank account, but unfortunately for this TL, I've been very busy these last few months, and will remain so for the foreseeable future. As always, I'm ever thankful for your continued patience and understanding. I'd very much like to have the next update ready for all of you soon, but I won't commit to a firm date, only to see it fly by. I'll keep you all posted.

I remember that you saved Roger Delgado. Do you know anything about his ATL career?
Welcome aboard, HonestAbe1809! I can't say I've given a great deal of thought to how Delgado's career would look ITTL, but I imagine he'll get steady character work until he dies or retires, and certainly he'll enjoy touring the Doctor Who convention circuit (probably alongside Jon Pertwee) for the rest of his life.

I didn't think about this at the time that you posted that chapter, but I'll bet the channel Court TV made it to the channel lineup a little quicker ITTL, too. ;)
Fortunately, none of the proceedings were televised (unlike the O.J. Simpson trial IOTL), and therefore nothing was pre-empted - except perhaps when the verdicts were delivered. (Hey, Peter Jennings interrupted General Hospital to announce the return of Classic Coke IOTL; I think we can allow the Billion-Dollar Verdict to make at least the same splash ITTL.)

USS Triumphant said:
BTW: The question of when the name "T'Pau" was decided on only resulted in a mild argument among those responding. So not helpful.
To be fair, it's been almost thirty years. I can't blame them for not remembering the precise moment.

USS Triumphant said:
Sorry. That ended up a bit more than I intended. And obviously, not "canon" for TWR. :eek:
You're far from the first to go on a speculative rant about some tangential aspect of the TL, so don't worry about it :p
 
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