If Only Newspapers Put As Much Effort Into Correcting Errors That Didn't Involve Captain Kirk & Captain Picard
from the trouble-with-tribbles dept
On the Media points us to a rather extensive and amusing correction from News.com.au concerning its mistake in suggesting Captain Kirk was in charge of Captain Picard's spaceship in Star Trek:YESTERDAY, a news.com.au article incorrectly stated that the Star Trek starship USS Enterprise-E, otherwise known as model NNC-1701-E, was the successor to Captain Kirk's original USS Enterprise.It goes on from there, noting additional concerns about "the incorrect use of the term 'hyperspace' in describing warp drive technology." Obviously, this is a very tongue-in-cheek mocking error correction (and, if you don't believe that, just check out the photo they included with the article), poking fun at people who take Star Trek just a bit too seriously.
It has since been brought to our attention that the NNC-1701-E in fact came two models after Captain Kirk retired and was under the command of Captain Jean Luc Picard.
User "Your Mum's Lunch" led the charge of those who correctly pointed out that after losing the original Enterprise to the Klingons, Captain Kirk was given the Excelsior Class Enterprise-B as a stop-gap measure until the refit of the Enterprise-A was completed.
Kirk's last ship was the Ambassador Class Enterprise-C.
Enterprise-D and Enterprise-E were in fact, the first of the Galaxy Class models and were under the command of Captain Picard.
Furthermore, not to jump on the Star Trek nitpick wagon here, but even the correction itself is in need of correction. Any Trekker worth their salt knows that the Enterprise's designation is "NCC-1701-E" and not "NNC-1701-E."
That said, however, what struck me is how rarely you see any sort of actual correction of this nature for important stuff that publications actually do get wrong. Usually, they just make the changes to the article, and maybe append a small note at the bottom about how "changes were made," but rarely do they explain the mistakes that were made, or publish a separate article explaining the errors. And that's why the original, error-filled stories often get more attention than the corrected versions.
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Filed Under: corrections, errors, journalism, star trek
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Time to get my Geek on.
Enterprise E was also not a galaxy class star ship, it's a Sovereign class.
So even in the midst of the Kirk vs Picard debate, they can't get their facts strait.
I don't blame them though, they have problems keeping reality strait, I wouldn't expect them to keep another universe strait.
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Re: Time to get my Geek on.
Heh, Chronno. I was thinking the same thing reading this. While the whole "Kirk died" part leads to an interesting paradox within Star Trek canon, they could have spent a few seconds on wikipedia checking their facts since there is no dispute that it happened during the maiden voyage of Enterprise-B. Of course, it wasn't just their retraction, but the fact that they used the comment from a user without verification...they said that user "Your Mum's Lunch" reported that Enterprise B was given to Kirk as a stopgap for Enterprise-A (after the original Enterprise was "lost to the Klingons".) Anyone who actually watched the third movie would know that the Enterprise was lost because Kirk blew it up in order to keep it out of the hands of the Klingons, and Kirk was given Enterprise-A at the end of the fourth movie...all of which is easily found in Wikipedia as well as on Memory Alpha and could easily be verified by news.com.au.
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Re:
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nerd check
Man I'm a nerd. Oh well, they still screwed up.
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Re: nerd check
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hey!
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Re: hey!
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Lies!
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It's a trap!
On the other hand, it's nice to know that not all errors in Murdoch's Fox News empire are politically motivated.
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actually they just got trolled really hard,
the correct info about star trek is here, http://www.reddit.com/r/scifi/comments/e0d13/newspaper_issues_star_trek_correction_makes_more/c149z1 r and other comments on that thread are relevant.
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Think of the children!!!!
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For example, what are the pan-galactic/temporal repercussions of Vulcan no longer existing? How will THAT alter the timeline over the course of 200 years?
Only time will tell...
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Re:
Time traveling into the future, it is sad I report this statement is false, as the "sequel" goes back to close this hole so the errors, er, events mentioned above continue as normal.
Wait... this just in.... Tasha lives.
Screw this. I give up. Janeway just bitched me out for breaking the Prime Directive.
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Re: (Mojo's post)
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Re: Re: (Mojo's post)
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Wrong, wrong, wrong...
*NCC*-1701-E came not two, but FIVE models later than Captain Kirk's ship. That's why it's called the Enterprise-E. As correctly pointed out above, the Enterprise-E was a Sovereign-class starship.
The original ship was just the Enterprise. NCC-1701. "No bloody A, B, C *or* D." (- Montomgery Scott, Star Trek: TNG, Relics)
The Constitution-class Enterprise-A (NCC-1701-A) was commissioned after the original Enterprise was destroyed by the Klingons in 2286, following the events of Star Trek III and Star Trek IV.
The Excelsior-class Enterprise-B (NCC-1701-B) was commissioned in 2293 and captained by John Harriman. Kirk was only on her maiden voyage and was "killed" during the shakedown cruise. (Star Trek: Generations)
The Ambassador-class Enterprise-C was never seen by Kirk. It was destroyed defending a Klingon outpost from a Romulan attack in 2344... almost sixty years after Kirk was presumed killed on the Enterprise-B.
Sources: my own nerdity for all information and Wikipedia's Timeline of Star Trek for specific "future history" dates.
Take that, News.Com.Au!
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Holy cow, you can't even get the corrections to the correction correct.
NCC-1701 was not destroyed by Klingons. NCC-1701 was set to self destruct by Kirk, Scotty, and Chekhov and exploded shortly after the Klingons borded her.
You call yourself a nerd? You must now submit your membership card for destruction. You may re-apply for nerd-hood after you have served a 7-year sentence as a commoner.
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Follow-up interview with the author of that piece
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Today is the day the line between journalists and bloggers disappeared de facto.
So say we all.
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Actually...
The NCC-1701-B was under the command of Captain John Harriman.
The NCC-1701-C was under command of Capt. Rachel Garrett.
The NCC-1701-D and NCC-1701-E were under Picard's command.
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Re: Actually...
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Waste of time.
There tech section is a joke... and the editor has his head so far up Steve Jobs A$s you can see his skull every time Steve opens his mouth.
The rest of the articles are pretty pathetic aswell... unfortunately so are all the other news sites in Australia!
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I heard you like trolls
seriosly, theres alot of trolling going on here.
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Uhh, I believe the preferred nomenclature is Trekkie - errr...
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Re: Uhh, I believe the preferred nomenclature is Trekkie - errr...
The concept has been going on for decades... it deserves respect!
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Formal recognition of (and a substantive apology for) the hatchet job they did (and continue to do) to objective journalism?
If it comes from that network and it's not partisan, it's fluff.
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News.com.au "original" apology
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Also the HMS Enterprise is a well storied vehicle as well. Not to mention the OV-101 Enterprise which paved the way for American shuttle traffic, which was actually name after the television show.
Seriously Star Trek and Techdirt makes me happy.
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Just damn.
Anyhow,
You KNOW Chewbacca would have killed Kirk on sight for his pelt.
Picard would have been safe.
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