Star Trek: Titan: Difference between revisions

* [[Love Dodecahedron]]: Troi, Vale, Minuet, Lavena < [[Chick Magnet|Riker]].

* [[Martial Pacifist]]: Cheerfully invoked before being utterly quashed by Klingon General Khegh:

* [[Meaningful Funeral]]: {{spoiler|Ledrah. As is Tiburonian custom, the crew ingest her cremated remains}}.

* [[Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds]]: The ''Titan'' is oddly skilled at wrecking things, be they alien governments or ways of life, for an exploratory ship.

* [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent]]: Subverted with Dr. Ree (Shenti Yisec Eres Ree, to give his full name), who is a very friendly and gentle being...most of the time. When he's not in empathic parental protective mode, or ripping people's arms off, or biting his crewmates. Even when he is, it's simply the result of his Pahkwa-thanh heritage, and certainly not because he's intended to be abhorrent. In fact, he's one of the nicest people on board the ship. That said, most people he meets have to get over a primal revulsion to what amounts to a sentient velociraptor for a doctor. His friendly bedside manner usually helps, if his predator's sense of humour doesn't unnerve them first.

** The trope is discussed in depth in ''Seize the Fire'', and reversed by the reptilian Gorn, who show instinctive revulsion towards mammals.

* [[Running Gag]]: Fo Hachesa bungle his grammar when he trying to speaking Federation Standard. However, in [[Star Trek Destiny]] he finally learnt how to use his verbs properly, bringing the gag to an end. In fact, Hachesa leaves the ship in the aftermath, because bungling grammar was pretty much his only role in the series.

* [[Sacrificial Lamb]]: Chief Engineer Ledrah probably counts, having a reasonable amount of interaction with other characters as part of the ensemble cast, before being suddenly killed towards the end of the first book.

* [[Schrodinger's Butterfly]]: The plot of ''The Red King''. The novel features an eponymous intelligence, which resides within a protouniverse overlapping with our own. As a result of this overlap, its expansion threatens several worlds with destruction. The legends of many local races' speak of the protouniverse, or at least the associated intelligence. They describe it as a sleeping dreamer, the surrounding region of space being the content of the dream. The expansion and its resultant destruction is therefore supposedly the dream coming to an end as the being begins to wake. Frane, a native of the Neyel (whose world is part of the threatened region), describes the myth to ''Titan's'' crew:

* [[Self-Deprecation]]: The Trek universe’s tendency to ignore Beta Quadrant - and sum up the Alpha/Beta meridian region (where the Federation is located) as simply “Alpha Quadrant”- is given a wink in ''Over a Torrent Sea'', with Vale’s struggle to give a motivational speech:

* [[Selkies and Wereseals]]: Aili Lavena is a Pacifican "Selkie" who's one of Riker's former lovers. The term "selkie" is interesting when applied to her species. It brings to mind a being who, despite an aquatic nature, forms relationships with humans on land before later returning to the sea. This is indeed how visiting humans relate to Pacifica's natives (Starfleet officers on shore leave particularly); however, in Pacifican culture it's the late-stage aquatic form that's supposed to be sexually available. The younger air-breather stage is the one that's supposed to distance itself from potential sexual partners in order to focus on raising children. "Selkie" is therefore a name that somewhat obscures the reality, being based on the human visitors' perceptions. This causes some friction between Lavena and Riker when she confronts her guilt over having been his lover during her amphibious stage, and so having turned her back on her responsibilities.

* [[Shout-Out]]: The S'ti'ach. They're blue teddy bears with four arms, large black eyes, and standing a metre tall. They're said to be very dense. Read the species name again, and it should click. ([[Lilo and Stitch]]).

* [[Terraform]]: Introduced later in the series as a major theme, and now an ongoing arc. In ''Seize the Fire'', the ''Titan'' investigates an ancient terraforming station being used by the Gorn to create a new Hatchery World for their Warrior Caste. The origins of this technology are further pursued in the next novel, which will be out in the latter half of 2012.

* [[Thank the Maker]]: Choblik swear on the Great Builders, whom they revere. The Choblik are cyborgs who were non-sapient until the Builders installed their implants. Essentially, they're an example of an [[Uplifted Animal]], and the unknown race responsible for the uplift are their "gods". The Choblik religion also interprets creation in general as the work of a "builder":

* [[That's No Moon]]: It's an artificial intelligence, a First-Gen Sentry.

* [[Theme Naming]]: The starships of the ''Luna'' class are named after moons in the solar system; and all of the ''Titan'''s shuttlecraft are named after 20th century jazz artists (obviously, the captain named them.)