To: trekcreative{at}yahoogroups.com
From: Allyn Gibson 
Reply-To: trekcreative{at}yahoogroups.com

On Thursday, July 10, 2003 Garry wrote:

> The question is more than "do the physics work."  Questioning
> the fundamentals is what Star Trek is about.

Many years ago, while still in high school, I wrote a Star Trek/Foundation
crossover story.  The way I dealt with the differing physics of the two
universes, particularly FTL travel, was to say that the physics were the
same--the Trek universe used warp drive because that's how the
technological development went, while the Foundation universe used
instantaneous jump technology because that's what they discovered first,
but either would work in the other's universe. (Which made for an
interesting tactical situation late in the story; the Mule's forces
couldn't conceive of a starship that could go FTL at the drop of a hat and
with any sort of precision.)

I don't recollect it as a good story.

> But crossovers that require one setting or the other to be badly
> bruised in the process don't work.  Highly supernatural and
> scientific settings do not cross well because you either have to
> rationalize the magic, which tends ot kill it, or you have to
> cheapen the rational science for not "believing in the obvious
> magic".

I'm reminded of Clarke's Third Law--any sufficiently advanced science would
be indistinguishable from magic.

Garry, I think you brought up Fred Saberhagen's Dracula novels earlier
today.  In general I'm a fan of the series, but the two books that work the
least well for me are the two Sherlock Holmes crossovers, because I think
Saberhagen "broke the toys" in those.

I don't have any objections to Holmes battling the supernatural--I count
Loren D. Estleman's SHERLOCK HOLMES VS. DRACULA as one of the best
post-Doyle Holmes stories.  What I objected to was how Saberhagen took away
from Holmes the unique rational viewpoint that defined the character. 
Estleman put Holmes in a similar situation, but had Holmes use his rational
skills to eliminate the impossible to come up with a highly improbable
solution.  Saberhagen made Holmes into a believer in the supernatural from
the start.  The conflict between the rational and the irrational was lost.

(Also, and this is purely an aesthetic objection, I disliked how Saberhagen
made Holmes into Dracula's nephew.  Grrr.)

Allyn                                    http://www.allyngibson.net
AIM: mknzycalhn                                        ICQ: 4342396

Defeating alien menaces is what Tiggers do best.
   -- Peter David, "The TARDIS at Pooh Corner"


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