Post by Richard Schultz: Well, not really. We're more than twice as far out from Shakespeare as
: real Trek was from us.
I'm having trouble with the math here: Shakespeare was active around
400 years ago. "Real" Trek (by which I assume you mean ST:TOS, since the
Correct - since he mentioned Scottish engineers, I took it that's what
we were talking about.
Post by Richard Schultzother series bearing the title must be considered to be non-canonical by
Indeed. Especially ENTERPRISE, but at least that turned out to be a
fictional holonovel.
Post by Richard Schultzanyone who really cares about Star Trek, and by that I mean anyone who
ever owned the AMT model of the Enterprise) is usually assumed to be
~24th century (i.e. around 300 - 400 years in the future).
Incorrect. Real Trek was 200ish years in the future. Various
references put it in the 23rd Century, but just barely. The dates in
Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise putting the TMP movie about 2220
worked out as well as could be expected.
Wrath of Khan starts with the art card "In the 23rd Century"
When TNG started, they said TNG was the beginning of the 24th Century,
and 78 years after real Trek. This fit just fine with the 2220 date as
well.
Then unfortunately they had Data give the wrong date in THE NEUTRAL ZONE
and started retconning real Trek to match TNGs mistake, finally moving
the dates that real Trek took place to be exactly 300 years after their
air dates. But honestly, the retcon TNG stuff doesn't impress me. If
TNG contradicts real Trek, then TNG is wrong.
Post by Richard SchultzST:TOS had
in its first season two mutually inconsistent direct references to the time
in which the action took place: in "The Squire of Gothos," the difference
between the 900 light years from earth on which the lonely squire is found
and the 18th century that he thinks is the "present" implies a 27th century
Don't forget Trelane can fly that planet around at trans light speed; no
telling where he was when he was looking at Earth. Also, whatever he
viewed Earth with let him HEAR, and see inside castles, so it sure
wasn't a telescope.
Post by Richard Schultzsetting, while in "Tomorrow is Yesterday," the MP tells Kirk that he's
going to lock him up for 200 years, and Kirk says that that would be just
about right, implying a late-22d century setting. Both of these references
are generally considered to be errors on the part of the script writers
that escaped the editing process.
I've never heard anyone state that the date in "Tomorrow is Yesterday"
is considered an error before now. It's obviously approximate, and in
"Space Seed" Kirk tells Khan, who he knows is from the 1990s, that they
estimate he's been sleeping for two centuries.
So. When it was aired, real Trek was about 250 years in the (1966)
future, and Shakespeare was about 360 years previous. Now, real trek is
about 210 years in the future, and Shakespeare is more like 400 years in
the past. Therefore my original statement: "We're more than twice as
far out from Shakespeare as real Trek was from us." is slightly
mistaken. I should have said "We're almost twice as far out from
Shakespeare as real Trek is from us."
Depending on what point in Shakespeare's life you want to count of
course. I initially used his date of birth, but now I'm using a nice
round number of 1600.
Post by Richard Schultz-----
Department of Chemistry, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel
Opinions expressed are mine alone, and not those of Bar-Ilan University
-----
"Logic is a wreath of pretty flowers which smell bad."
--
"No man ever notices a woman's shoes, unless they have boobs on them."
-- Mark Nobles
