Postby Elessar » Mon Nov 05, 2007 6:55 am
This topic is productive as long as we DISCUSS the inconsistencies as opposed to just saying "Yeah that book's full of crap." Can we just humor me on this, and actually hash them out, because there's plenty to be hashed out. I think the issue deserves that. And I"m not pointin this at you, CX, I'm just making a broad statement.
It depends on how you interpret how well Archer knows Trip's family and by extension the reference to him being close with Trip's parents as to whether or not his line "older or younger" indicates that he only had one sister.
If you interpret Archer to know Trip's family very well, then Archer asking "older or younger" should mean he is asking which of two existing sisters it was, implying there IS an older one. However, it would seem more sensible for someone in the position as a long time family friend to say "Was it Elizabeth...or Sonya?" just threw in the name Sonya there, but you get the point. For example, a year ago my best friend's little brother, Nick, was in an almost-fatal car crash and when my best friend told me "his brother" was in a car accident, I wouldn't have asked "older or younger", I'd have asked "Nick or Steve?"
The OTHER interpretation is the one that Archer does not in fact know Trip's family all that well (which means the intense familiarity between Archer and Trip's family in the book should be disregarded) aligns with what I, at the time of Season 3/Xindi, interpreted to be the most sensical interpretation of that line "older or younger" - which was that Archer didn't know anything about Trip's family.
The dates for First Flight should work out. I believe First Flight was indicated in the show to have been 2142-3, that being the Warp 2 trials, early stages of the NX prototype. I believe at some point in that episode they reference it as being 2140 but I cannot put my finger on exactly where and I don't have access to the episodes right now.
Plus, 12 years is a LONG time. I think if we assume that that is the first time Trip and Archer met, it is plenty long enough for the two to become familial enough that, if we WANT to accept the "Archer-very-familiar-with-Trip's-family" paradigm, it is plausible enough. I met my best friend in 4th grade when we were 11 years old. 12 years later would be NOW, when I'm 23. I consider that a really long time. His mom practically considers me another son.
The thing about "Trip's nephew" IS problematic but not unsolvable. He sends the letter to "his nephew's" class in one of the Season 1 episodes where he gets the "poop question", is that right? First of all, I think before this book came out, most people agreed to toss that line out, because before this book there was no argument that Lizzie was his only sibling. Archer said it, Phlox said it, it was agreed. I honestly don't know why they felt the need to give him the gay brother... unless it was just part of that "gay itch" that people have said Star Trek should have scratched a long time ago - that is, introducing a male gay character - into the storyline. Not that I had a problem with it, but plot-wise it seemed to create the problem.
The other possible solution, which some may find cheap, is to suggest the nephew died in between the episode where they refer to it and the Trip-T'Pol-T'Liz incident. I mean, if we acknowledge that within the fictional sphere, these are real lives, then we can't possibly chronicle every single corner of them. That's always been my philosophy about fictional universes, anyway, that you should acknowledge that it's as diverse and detailed as real life if you want it to be, and therefore you shouldn't rule anything out. Just because we never saw him die, doesn't mean he didn't die, in other words.
For the most part, in my opinion, the "Trip's family" consistency problems in TGTMD, while existent, are merely extensions of the "Trip's family" consistency problems in televised Enterprise. This debate existed before TGTMD was written, because there was a debate to be had, because there was Phlox's "only sibling" comment, Archer's "older or younger?" question, and Trip's "nephew" and "brother" references.
I would say TGTMD had inconsistencies, but I have a hard time giving it the axe for it because truthfully, I think that's one of the most screwed up parts of Enterprise. They obviously never sat down and mapped out how and when Archer and Trip met, how close they are, how well they know each other, etc. That's one of my problems with Berman/Braga style Star Trek writing in general, which isn't even related to canonicity... they just write "on the fly".
