Asso wrote:But WHY?
1. The first lesson I learned about storytelling was:
Drama is conflict. Or, as Joss Whedon put it, "Happy people make for boring TV." (In this case, books.) If TGTMD had ended, or begun, or whatever, with Trip and T'Pol blissfully together, a prime source of drama would have gone right out the window, in the first of what will hopefully be a lot of books. Not a smart business move if you want to sell those future books.
2. The Thing is canon. The Relaunch books needed to be consistent with canon. That meant a) focus on the six years before The Thing...meaning, readers know no one on the crew will die, or visibly age, or change their hairstyles...yawn... or b) focus on the time after The Thing, after Trip is dead (boo!), or c) do something else. Margaret hated The Thing. She decided on a fix-fic, bless her heart. You can quibble about the exact nature of the fix-fic, but Trip is alive, and that's better than The Thing managed to do.
3. I agree with
Elessar that T'Pol's state of mind--her deep grief over the loss of Elizabeth--prompts her thoughts in the passage quoted above. Anyone who has been as emotionally broken as T'Pol is at this point, knows that you can honestly believe that you will never feel "fixed" again. But by the book's end, T'Pol's perspective has changed because of several revelations. She's not thinking in terms of "fractures" any longer;
SPOILER!!!:
her and Trip's feelings for each other are definitely not dead, and she is hopeful that she will see him again.
Which is a great cliffhanger for that storyline, for those who are interested in what happens next.
Margaret has a game plan for these Relaunch books. Keep in mind that she accomplished for TNG what 7 years and 3 movies couldn't do--
SPOILER!!!:
she finally got Jean-Luc and Beverly together.
That right there gives me hope for T/T. But I am expecting them to get dragged through hell first, because drama is conflict.
My .02