Sha-Ka-Ree, the Great Barrier, and the Center of the Galaxy

[Emperor-Tiberius]

Hi. I have a few questions.

Did the Enterprise-A really go to the Center of the Galaxy? How was that explained in the novels, especially since Star Trek: Voyager's debut?

Also, I read that the entity living in that planet was featured in one of the Q books, Continuum as I recall... Is that true?

Thanks in advance, I've just seen The Final Frontier and was wondering how did Trek Lit had dealt with those issues.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Yes, it went to the centre of the galaxy. Just like the TOS Enterprise covered 1000 light-years in 12 hours at warp 8.4 in "That Which Survives" and the TAS Enterprise visited the centre of the galaxy in "The Magicks of Megas Tu". It was Voyager that retconned warp speed down to the velocities quoted in all the old technical manuals. By TOS' reckoning, Voyager should have been home in 4 weeks!

Treklit (no idea which books) has introduced "subspace topography", where warp speed is faster in some areas of space than in others. It's a handwave glossing-over rather than a fix.

 

[Christopher]

Hi. I have a few questions.

Did the Enterprise-A really go to the Center of the Galaxy? How was that explained in the novels, especially since Star Trek: Voyager's debut?

Also, I read that the entity living in that planet was featured in one of the Q books, Continuum as I recall... Is that true?

Thanks in advance, I've just seen The Final Frontier and was wondering how did Trek Lit had dealt with those issues.

It's not so much a question of how Trek Lit has dealt with it as how canon has dealt with it. When new canon contradicts old canon, the books are pretty much obligated to follow the newer interpretation. DS9 and VGR consistently ignored TFF and "The Magicks of Megas-tu," just as all subsequent canon ignored "The Alternative Factor"'s nonsense about antimatter and "Threshold"'s nonsense about transwarp. These are aberrations that contradict the preponderance of later evidence, and the novels need to go with the preponderance. So TFF's references to travel to the center of the galaxy have been mostly ignored by Trek Lit (with some exceptions like the Q Continuum trilogy you mentioned, which did indeed include the Sha Ka Ree entity as a supporting character).

I've noticed that there are only three nearly consecutive lines in TFF where they even mention "the center of the galaxy," so if you disregard those ten seconds or so, it has no effect at all on the story (same as if you disregard the impossible 100-story-high turboshaft). So I just ignore it, or assume that "The Center of the Galaxy" was a poetic Vulcan or Romulan name for some much closer nebula or something.

 

[Timewalker]

I should think that Vulcan poetry would still be logical...

Actually, I prefer to ignore that whole movie. Practically none of it made any sense.

 

[Christopher]

I should think that Vulcan poetry would still be logical...

Maybe it's an archaic name. Vulcans still practice death combat as an alternative to marriage. They're not as infallibly logical as they pretend, and one of their great failures of logic is an overreliance on ancient tradition.

Actually, I prefer to ignore that whole movie. Practically none of it made any sense.

That used to be my approach too, but I've come to realize it has certain merits, and enough elements from it have been referenced in Trek Lit that it's easier to believe it did happen -- just that some of the specifics didn't happen quite as we were shown.

 

[captcalhoun]

the best bit of TFF is the bit where we learn Sarek had a Vulcan wife who something unspecified happened to, which means he was betrothed like Spock to T'pring in TOS.

and of course, the excellent novel Sarek explains she was a High Priest from the Kholinahr and she basically left him.

 

[Timewalker]

Actually, I prefer to ignore that whole movie. Practically none of it made any sense.

That used to be my approach too, but I've come to realize it has certain merits, and enough elements from it have been referenced in Trek Lit that it's easier to believe it did happen -- just that some of the specifics didn't happen quite as we were shown.

I will concede that there were some good lines: "Do you not know a jailbreak when you see one?" (not sure if that's spot-on, but close enough)

And this movie had an unexpected bit of inspiration for one of my other online activities:

 

[CaptainDonovin]

^ Very funny, & now I'm off to get gummy bears.