On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams

Dayton Ward announced on several websites that he's working with Dayton Ward and James Swallow on a project for the Star Trek "Novelverse" as we've known it these past two decades. Working title is Coda.

Owing to several divergences from content established in the "Novelverse" in what we've been seeing on Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks thus far, and expecting more divergences to come, a lot of longtime readers are expecting this project to wrap up the continuity of the "Novelverse" with some finality.

Dayton's noted that since beginning work on the Coda project, there's been a piece of "go to" music he's had on his playlist: "The Garden" by Rush, from their Clockwork Angels album.

We've got maybe over half a year before this particular trilogy of books starts arriving at retailers, but since Rush was a Canadian band, this is a good excuse for another Musical Interlude in my own blogging here. From their Clockwork Angels tour in 2012, then...

Okay, two Wednesdays ago, the first issue of House of X hit the comic book shops and the online subscription services. And Jonathan Hickman introduced this new/old thing called "Orchis". It seems to be the latest in a chain of things from the Weapon Plus program to Project Wideawake, hostile responses to the existence of superhuman mutants with heavy USGov involvement.
( More spoilerish and involved details here )

Okay, I've had this idea percolating in the Trekkish corners of my brain for a little while. I'm sharing it now before this grind/whine noise in the right ear distracts me completely: the Constitution class of starships has been in service since at least two decades before Enterprise NCC-1701 was commissioned.

You want evidence. That's good.

What I have is the confirmed - in the episodes and movies as shown on TV and in the cinema and via subscription-streaming - registry numbers of the Federation starships we know for certain to be of that class. I'm sourcing this from Memory Alpha...

NCC-956 USS Eagle
NCC-1017 USS Constellation
NCC-1631 USS Intrepid
NCC-1659 USS Potemkin
NCC-1664 USS Excalibur
NCC-1672 USS Exeter
NCC-1700 (Unknown)
NCC-1701 USS Enterprise
NCC-1703 USS Hood
NCC-1707 (Unknown)
NCC-1709 USS Lexington
NCC-1764 USS Defiant
NCC-1856 USS Emden
NCC-1895 USS Endeavour
NCC-2014 USS Korolev
NCC-2048 USS Ahwahnee

I discount Greg Jein's theory - "The Case of Jonathan Doe Starship" - that all starships docked at Starbase 10 during Kirk's court-martial re: the death of Benjamin Finney were Constitution-class. The odds of such a happenstance are too small for me to consider. And thanks to Star Trek: Discovery in general and the work of designer John Eaves in particular, we now have other options for the registries listed there.

I also prefer to assume - based on over 50 years' worth of evidence from the various series - that Federation Starfleet ship registry numbers are issued on a chronological basis, without interruption.

Up until now, I chose to believe that (1) the Constitution herself was NCC-1700, and that all ships with registry numbers prior to hers were salvaged from previous starship classes. No longer.

It may still well be that NCC-1700 belongs to a Starship Constitution...but she need not be either the first of her name or of her starship class. Not with six other starships of the class commissioned before her.

Kirk's claim of "twelve like her in the fleet"? Depends on your point of view. Going by registry numbers as confirmed, I'm willing to hazard a guess of at least three, perhaps as many as five production batches of ships. Kirk's twelve ships would certainly count as one of those three to five batches.

A lot of us have some investment in the mythology as established before DSC. I certainly did. I bought books and deck plan sets and stuff - not all of it officially licensed, but that's okay, because multiversal theory allows us to keep enjoying what we've bought as if it were official in some other version of Starfleet, somewhere in that multiverse.

Anyway, there it is. I think I wrote it out coherently enough. Fellow Treknology fans are welcome to debate whatever parts they like.

I want to piece together a list of SHIELD-affiliated characters in the Marvel Universe comic books. Alive, currently presumed dead, otherwise unavailable...shall we start with those three categories? Who fits where right now? It looks to me like Nick Fury Jr. has his own shop keeping watch on the Punisher right now, but I'm not sure of the rest of the characters we associate with SHIELD.
Would it be good if I set up a spreadsheet somewhere?

So that issue came out this week...

( Spoilers after the cut )

And there's some whiplash right there.  

I'm voting after work tomorrow. Partly to get it done. Partly to avert the temptation to vote out of fear rather than hope.

Other notes...

Busted a filling again. It's one that has older work, so maybe it was time for the upgrade. But with the not-so-new-anymore-guy, it's still pricier than it used to be. I can manage the expense, but it still pains the wallet.

(Universal dental care at long last in Canada, anyone? Please?)

Comics reading this week: Captain Canuck # 4, We Stand on Guard # 4, Avengers # 0, All-New All-Different Marvel Point-One.

The third item on this list has me wondering: is Marvel Editorial seeking to sever the link between Canada and the Alpha Flight brand?

Sometimes I get this way at movies...or even with a TV show. Thanks, XKCD!

Okay, according to my poor memory, the mother of the Blue Marvel's sons was originally a SHIELD agent assigned as his post-retirement minder.

Question: how old were his sons supposed to be as of his first mini-series?

Update - 18 Sept. 2014: Thanks to thetimesink for his help with this one. But if anyone still wants to pitch in with their own thoughts, I'll leave this open to comments for a while yet.

Okay, here we are: a publicity still from the Agents of SHIELD episode "Shadows", kicking off the second season.

My question - which I expect I'll be trying to answer for myself - is what do those 20 decorations under the pilot's wings represent about Talbot's career before crossing paths with Coulson's Crew? I'm guessing right now that this version of Talbot's been in the USAF for 25 to 30 years, so service in conflicts before 1984 is probably right out for the purpose of this version of continuity. And yes, I'm looking at a higher-resolution version of this image at home.

So...subject to revision and/or correction:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5. Aerial Achievement Medal
6.
7. Joint Meritorious Unit Award
8. Air Force Outstanding Unit Award with what looks like three Oak Leaf Clusters and a "V" Device
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15. Humanitarian Service Medal
16. Air Force Overseas Short Tour Service Ribbon
17. Air Force Longevity Service Award with what looks like one silver and three bronze oak leaf clusters. (32 years' service, then?)
18. Air Force Military Training Instructor Ribbon
19. Air Force Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon
20. Air Force Training Ribbon