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Subject: "UF Universe Trivia"     Previous Topic | Next Topic
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Conferences Undocumented Features General Topic #2354
Reading Topic #2354, reply 9
Mercutio
Member since May-26-13
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Jun-08-17, 01:10 AM (EDT)
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9. "RE: UF Universe Trivia"
In response to message #7
 
   >>I meant in Secrets, before it was retconned? (Hence the use of
>>"Original Flava.")
>
>Ah. Yes, let's refer back to the early-'90s UF story that was
>so bad I not only took it out of the timeline, but wrote a
>whole different one to cover over the hole where it used to be. By
>all means, let's do that.

Intellectually, I know Secrets is really bad. But, well... I was really young when I read it and the rest of early-era (what I define as "everything before Symphony of the Sword") UF, and a lot of it really stuck with me because it blew my mind at the time.

Same reason I have a bunch of Dragonlance books still on my shelves.

>Sarcasm aside, I had actually forgotten that was even how that one
>went. How terrifying.

Huh, really? I had just assumed that changing Gryphon's return to his home timeline to another accident was to deliberately avoid some of the weird problems that Grand Theft Starship plus the very odd conceit that literally Gryphon's entire crew weren't leaving behind any family, friends, or life goals in order to accompany him caused.

>You would think he'd at least have
>bought it in that scenario. I mean, if they were scrapping it
>anyway.

I don't think Gryphon was actually rich in the other universe; he went into Starfleet basically immediately after arriving and acclimating and I'm not sure that they pay their officers well enough to afford even a decommissioned Connie no matter how frugal they are. Maybe he made some sound investments, tho. :)

>And don't give me that nonsense about they don't buy and sell
>things in the Federation, it's obvious from context that when Kirk
>says "they're still using money" in Star Trek IV, all he means
>is that the 20th century still uses physical currency and not some
>kind of computerized banking system he can have Spock h4x0r to get
>them some local virtual gelt.

That sort of thing was somewhat unclear at the time. Like, in TOS it seemed pretty clear that the Federation was still a capitalistic society, just a version that wasn't, well, vicious and evil. Then for a few years they moved to this idea that the Federation was actually this sort of quasi-hippie vaguely transhuman spiritual space utopia and the people we saw in Starfleet were actually social freaks because they retained the capacity to do things like make war on other sentient beings and use violence to defend themselves without imploding emotionally at the horror of it all.

TNG backed way, way, way off from that but Roddenberry was still wedded to the idea of a post-capitalist utopia, and really, who can blame him? But TNG is like a hundred years later, so the Federation changing makes a certain amount of sense.

DS9, in my opinion, managed to strike the best balance between "the Federation has tried to move to a post-currency post-scarcity economy" and "some things are still scarce, and the Federation is surrounded by, and does business with, polities that have NOT moved to a post-scarcity economy." So you could have things where Ben Sisko and the Federation are capable of ponying up latinum when they need to and cutting deals without seeming like total idiots who are all "what is this 'buying' and 'selling' you speak of, primitive being."

>They weren't off by far. If they had come to 2017, presumably the
>first thing they would've done is score an unlocked iPhone on eBay and
>then jack up Apple Wallet. (I assume this is standard procedure for
>Starfleet undercover operations in semi-advanced uncontacted
>civilizations.)

That job must be so immensely fraught. I remember that TNG episode where some of their dudes get busted on a world that is right on the cusp of warp. Great episode.

-Merc
Keep Rat


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  Subject     Author     Message Date     ID  
 UF Universe Trivia [View All] Gryphonadmin May-30-17 TOP
   RE: UF Universe Trivia mdg1 May-30-17 1
   RE: UF Universe Trivia Gryphonadmin Jun-06-17 2
      RE: UF Universe Trivia VoidRandom Jun-06-17 3
      RE: UF Universe Trivia Mercutio Jun-07-17 4
          RE: UF Universe Trivia Gryphonadmin Jun-07-17 5
              RE: UF Universe Trivia Mercutio Jun-07-17 6
                  RE: UF Universe Trivia Gryphonadmin Jun-07-17 7
                     RE: UF Universe Trivia Mercutio Jun-08-17 9
                          RE: UF Universe Trivia Gryphonadmin Jun-08-17 10
                              RE: UF Universe Trivia Mercutio Jun-09-17 13
                                  RE: UF Universe Trivia Gryphonadmin Jun-09-17 15
                                      RE: UF Universe Trivia eriktown Jun-25-17 18
                                          RE: UF Universe Trivia mdg1 Jun-25-17 19
                                          RE: UF Universe Trivia Mercutio Jun-25-17 20
                                              RE: UF Universe Trivia CdrMike Jun-25-17 21
                                              RE: UF Universe Trivia Gryphonadmin Jun-25-17 22
                                              RE: UF Universe Trivia Mercutio Jun-25-17 23
                              RE: UF Universe Trivia rwpikul Jun-09-17 14
                      RE: UF Universe Trivia Matrix Dragon Jun-09-17 11
              RE: UF Universe Trivia jhosmer1 Jun-07-17 8
                  RE: UF Universe Trivia thorr_kan Jun-09-17 12
                      RE: UF Universe Trivia Star Ranger4 Jun-09-17 16
                          RE: UF Universe Trivia mdg1 Jun-10-17 17


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