Post subject: Star Trek Novels, Comics and Audio Adventures
Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2018 12:10 am
Dendritic Oscillating Ontological Tesseract
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I'll try this again, as it petered out last time because I got busy with schtuff.
Ripping off a thread idea from Steven Clubb.
Here is the thread wherein I shall review various Star Trek short stories, novels, novellas, comics, and "audio adventures."
Up first, a novella by Dayton Ward & Kevin Wilmore, entitled "The First Peer."
The title comes from this quote: "Pride, the first peer and and president of hell." Daniel Dafoe, apparently.
This is one of seven novellas contained in the Trek anthology from 2010 entitled "Seven Deadly Sins." As one might guess, each yarn covers one of the seven deadlies, and as one might guess from the Dafoe quote, this one is the "Pride" chapter.
This is one of those stories set in the TOS era written way after the fact, much like the fabulous and freaky fotonovellas of the fantastic and fuzzy John Byrne. Like Byrne and so many others, Ward and Wilmore write a little continuity-bridge here. This particular one is set in between two appearances of the Romulans in the old show, "The Deadly Years" and "The Enterprise Incident." I'm trying to read this stuff in the chronologically correct place, which is kind of fun, but it means I kind of miss out on the cleverness because I haven't actually seen "Enterprise Incident" yet.
But the internet tells me that in that episode, the Romulans have improved their cloaking technology, and they also have some "D7 Klingon Battle Cruisers" as part of their fleet. Also, we all know that at some point the Klingons gain cloaking technology. Apparently no canonical Trek episode has ever gone into detail explaining any of this stuff ... ? Or maybe it has, but this story explains it all too.
So. What we have here is the story of the Romulan pro-council, Toqel, who brokers the technology exchange deal with a Klingon representative named Grodak. Toqel's deal is that she thinks of the Klingons as animalistic barbarians who will be easily duped into taking a deal that doesn't benefit them nearly as much as it does the Romulans. Pride, you see. She bargains for the use of Klingon of some Klingon D7s, with a plan to use them in a frame job -- destroying a Federation outpost and leaving a trace of the D7s' "power signatures" so that evidence will point to them.
Alas, Toqel turns out to be the Alan Moore to the Klingons' DC Comics, and they turn it around on her completely, leaving her screwed. The Klingons destroy the outpost FIRST, and plant evidence framing the Romulans. Total reversal, and Toqel is made to look like a jackass. In the end, she's assassinated by her assistant, Ditrius. Is Ditrius a traitor? A collaborator? NO!!!! He's a freakin' Klingon in disguise! The 2260s were clearly not a good time in which to hire assistants. If only Toqel had thought to buy a tribble at some point.
I guess this story was kind of interesting. Published in 2010, it's part of the latter-day approach to Trek novels, where they are all canon-ish for the "original universe." I guess since that universe has been rendered somewhat moot by the Abrams reboot, Paramount at some point gave free rein to the books and comics to be more of a saga, rather than a collection of individual stories, each of whose canonicity was always fairly dubious. The newer books and comics are free to make lasting changes to the overall Trek universe. (Peter David was even allowed to kill off Captain Janaway in one of his Next Gen novels.)
So I guess that's cool and all; the problem is that now it's a big Marvel Universe-esque soap opera with everything always referencing other books and such. I mean, I'm fine that this story is a bridge between two TOS episodes. (It also mentions, almost in passing, a diplomatic contingent made up of one Klingon, one Romulan and one human being dispatched to Nimbus III for a long-term occupation. I assumed this to be a reference to the trio depicted in Star Trek V, and the internet told me I was right. Fifty nerd points to me!!!)
But this story also makes references to all these other novels and books ... it's even annotated, just like old Marvel Comics. "See Star Trek Vanguard: Summon the Thunder for more details, true believer!" Mmmm, no, I won't, thank you.
So, this story ends up being a mixed bag. There are too many references that make me feel like I'm not getting the full significance of what I'm reading, because it's a sequel or prequel to something else. Kind of a shame, because at the core of it, I feel like there's something there. If the great Klingon/Romulan technology exchange is indeed an "untold tale" before this story, then that's interesting material to explore, and the idea of depicting the ins and outs of an early exchange between the two main enemy aliens of "TOS" is appealing. (When is the first time in canonical Trek that Klingons and Romulans are depicted as being in the same room with each other? Does that ever even happen in the TOS era?)
I think it actually is done pretty well here. At the core of the story, there is some interesting character dynamics. But the exposition does often feel very continuity-fraught, which makes for a dull read -- more dull than it ought to be, given the potential in the story's basic premise.
Up next: A Trek novel set after the end of the original 60s series, which I am on the verge of finishing up.
Post subject: Star Trek Novels, Comics and Audio Adventures
Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2018 3:14 am
Kind Of Close For One Of These Jewels.
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I'm not sure anyone is writing off the original timeline that contains TOS. After all, it also contains the Mirror, Mirror universe, which itself is just another timeline, and so this Abrams trash, umm, Trek, is yet another one of infinite timelines. None are gone, then. You just tell a story in whichever one you want.
Authors of these books and novel and novellas and whatnot can pretty much say anything, regardless, but I know of none of them that are taken as canon Trek. I'm pretty sure, for example, if somebody else wanted to write a story with Janeway in it where she wasn't dead, they could, and on a stardate after the other story. When you have infinite timelines, you can do anything.
I have read a few, but considering their numbers, not many such books and novels and novellas, so I usually see such things alluded to in other places. The ideas are often interesting, but not canonical.
Lots of fuss made for nothing more than trying to save money on props, of course. They heavily invested in Klingon props and ship models since Klingon makeup was easy compared to Vulcan or Romulan, so when they wanted to use Romulans, they just reused Klingon ships. Even worse, IIRC, they aired these out of order, so the first time the audience actually sees a D7 in TOS, it's not being used by Klingons, but Romulans. In the remastered versions, I think they added in some D7 in earlier stories so now we see Klingons using them first. It's odd such a ship didn't make the scene until season 3, but that's what happened - unless I'm mistaken.
And I also think the whole Duras storyline of Klingon/Romulan interaction from TNG harkens back to this time when the Romulans and Klingons exchanged some technologies and other things. I always felt the Romulans were getting WARP DRIVE since TOS seemed to suggest they had only impulse drive before, but everything that's come since, and just common sense, more strongly suggests they must have had warp drive before Balance of Terror, and why that flagship didn't have, or did but didn't use warp drive, we just don't know. Maybe the prototype cloaking device precluded it, or the prototype plasma energy weapon did. Not enough room for the bigger engine then, eh?
Anyway, the Romulans got a better ship and more standard weapons and a working model of something proven, and it gave them the time and breathing room to develop something even better.
I still can't prove it, but one Constitution class starship is comparable to three D7 Klingon Cruisers. Later this ratio seems to hold for one Galaxy Class comparable to 3 of the latest Klingon warships, but two Romulan D'deridex class ships. By then, the Romulans had abandoned any Klingon designs as quite inferior, but they are still looking to get their hands on a Federation ship of the line, or ship of the wall, maybe, in 3D space, so it is probably still better than what they have.
Anyway, with lots of clever Trek fans, unless you paint them into a corner, they can usually come up with some decent explanation for many things in the Trek universe and make them hold together well enough that the cohesive whole is just better and a great place to explore and play.
Post subject: Star Trek Novels, Comics and Audio Adventures
Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2018 3:55 am
Dendritic Oscillating Ontological Tesseract
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I copy and pasted a lot of this from a few years ago, when it seemed like the reboot was a bit more permanent, at least to me. But you're right, the ST canon has ended up being a bit more mutable than it seemed a few years ago. Now anything goes!
Post subject: Star Trek Novels, Comics and Audio Adventures
Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2018 1:08 am
Dendritic Oscillating Ontological Tesseract
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“From the Depths” Novel by Vic Milan (from 1993) 280 pgs.
Boring autobiographical preamble: Back in middle school and grade school, these 1990s Trek paperbacks were totes my jam. But this one I didn’t actually read until much more recently. Vic Milan is one of my favorite sci-fi authors thanks to his Wild Cards contributions. His solo Wild Cards novel, “Turn of the Cards,” was published the same year as this, his one and only Trek novel. Good year for him, as both books are awesome. “Turn of the Cards” I actually read back when it first came out, but it’s just in the last couple of years that I discovered this li’l gem in a used bookstore. (I probably saw this book on the shelves of Waldenbooks back in the day, but I’m glad it didn’t ping my radar back then, as I appreciated it much more now. I wouldn’t have really understood what Milan was going for back when I was fifteen, though it’s blindingly obvious to an adult.
The premise: A waterworld that the Federation has dubbed “Okeanos” is currently host to two races, the native Susuru and a large society of human colonists (who have been there for about 200 years or so). The Susuru have been waging war against the colonists, not wanting the humans to continue “polluting” their planet. Moriah Wayne, a senior member of a new Federation commission formed to look out for the rights of “native sentients,” is placed upon the Enterprise, with her and Kirk tasked with relocating the colonists at the request of the Susuru. When they arrive, they learn that the Susuru recently gained some new allies in their war against the human colonists: a crew of Klingons, led by Captain Kain.
The twist: Well, there are several, but the big non-spoilery one that we learn early on is that these human colonists are all gene-engineered, with their origins going back to the Eugenics Wars. I don’t know how much of this is established canon and how much is Milan’s invention, but the book says that not only were the tyrants like Khan genetically enhanced, but so were their personal servants. After the wars were ended and the tyrants deposed, the servants were placed in reservations, segregated from the rest of humanity (ostensibly for their own protection). A group of these former servants escaped, and eventually made their way to Okeanos. They retained their gene-engineering knowledge and subsequent generations continued to use it, allowing them to make adaptations for survival in the harsh environment of Okeanos. (The planet not only has 95% of its surface covered in water, but also has an atmosphere that doesn’t filter out UV radiation. In addition, its crust is made up of various metals that only increase the irradiated atmosphere. When Kirk and company beam down, it’s established they first must slather themselves in various sunblock-type lotions and also get various anti-rad vaccines hypo-sprayed into their systems.)
So, all the humans on the planet are mutants of various types. Some have gills, some are really tiny, some have armor plating covering their flesh, etc.. Moriah Wayne is horrified to learn this, as the Federation has of course outlawed gene-engineering to prevent another Eugenics War. Kirk, on the other hand, finds himself wondering whether perhaps the humans aren’t the good guys in this scenario, as the Susuru (particularly given that they’ve allied with Klingons) seem much more shady than the colonists.
Other complications include a one-night stand between Kirk and Moriah, and the fact that the Klingon leader, Kain, wants revenge on Kirk for the death of his “bond-brother.” (We learn early on that Kain’s bond-brother is one of the Klingons who was killed on Capella in the “Friday’s Child” episode of the series.)
Stardate: The events of both “Friday’s Child” and “Space Seed” are said to have occurred about “two years ago.” It’s also stated more than once that this novel is set close to the end of the Enterprise’s “five-year mission.”
The politics: Back in ’93, before Facebook and blogs and such (or at least before I was aware of the possibility of getting to know authors via “the net”), I knew nothing of Milan’s politics. Once I became friends with him on Facebook, I learned that he’s a staunch libertarian. Knowing that, it’s easy to see that the society of the gene-engineered humans (who call themselves Discordians) is Vic’s vision of a libertarian utopia. There is no government. Nothing is regulated, and all aspects of society are privatized, including Discordian’s defense militia. Capitalism is the economic model of choice for everyone in Discord, and everyone is free to walk around in public with a sidearm strapped to them. The rights of the individual are paramount, right down to the right to alter one’s own genes to however one desires. And it’s paradise!
Meanwhile, Moriah Wayne is liberal caricature. She’s convinced that the Discoridan cities are – just by being industrialized – destroying the Okeanosian ecosystem (despite being shown explicit evidence to the contrary). She hates how “militaristic” Starfleet is; she doesn’t think the Klingons should be judged harshly just for being “different”; and she even has a fetish for political correctness. (When Kirk refers to “aliens” at one point, she corrects him for the offensiveness of the term, suggesting the more appropriate “xenoforms” or “sentients”). The touchy-feely commission to which Moriah belongs is said to be run by a “Commissioner Hightower.”
It’s all rather obvious, but since I am not a snowflake like Brandon, I’m not going to whine about how they should keep politics out of my sci-fi. Indeed, the against-the-grain politics give the novel a lot of its punch.
The writing: That said, weak writing would make any polemic intolerable, no matter which side of the political spectrum it fell upon. What makes this novel work is Milan’s beautiful descriptive prose, and his talent for painting persuasive action sequences. His dialogue is also strong. All the lead character voices are on model, as are the voices of the Klingons. The book reads very, very well. It is something of a slow burn, I’ll grant. (Not unusual for Milan narratives.) After an action-packed prologue that introduces us to the Discordians and the Susuru, the book then gets pretty heavy into exposition, dialogue and character relationships. For some readers, it might take too long for things to really heat up. Personally, I enjoy this section of the book quite a bit.
Once the action kicks in, though, it doesn’t really stop. The final third of the novel is a fast-paced roller-coaster of events. Gunfights, hand-to-hand combat, starship battles, even a thermonuclear ‘splosion. Good stuff, m’friends.
Continuity: This book was written during that time before DS9’s “Trials and Tribble-lations,” when the standard line seemed to be that Klingons always had ridges on their heads, even the ones on the original series, even though it didn’t like they had ‘em. So the Klingons in this book are described as such, and the Klingon on the cover illustration looks like a film Klingon or a “Next Gen” Klingon, despite this book taking place during the Original Series era. Fortunately I don’t think there’s a direct contradiction here, insofar as the revised canon was that by this time in the Trek timeline, both smooth-cranium and pronounced-cranium Klingons were co-existing. And Kain refers to the Klingon from “Friday’s Child” as his bond-brother, rather than his blood brother. So the fact that one of ‘em is ridged and one of them ain’t doesn’t seem too problematic. (Also, in Doot canon, the Scott-Bakulan explanation for the discrepancy is not the real one. I prefer the explanation given in the “Debt of Honor” graphic novel, and this book doesn’t contradict that explanation either, so I’m all good.)
Other latter-day aspects of the Klingons make their way into this book, even though in the 1960s this stuff wasn’t there yet. Most notably the use of the Klingon native tongue, with its random capital Hs and Qs and apostrophes and what-have you. (Kain’s name is rendered in Klingonese occasionally, as “Qeyn.”)
Was “Kain” the name of the eyepatched Klingon in the “Undiscovered Country” film? I only ask because the Kain in this book has an eyepatch as well … coincidence? This book would have been published after that movie came out … I thought maybe this Kain was meant to be the same character, but he dies at the end of this book (spoilers!). Odd. Not sure what Milan’s aim was.
Update: I went and looked it up … the evil eye-patch Klingon in Star Trek VI is “Chang.” Hmmm. And this book is a good two years after that film was released. Curious. Maybe Milan was disappointed in the film and part of the aim of “From the Depths” was to try and do that film “right”? I dunno. SIDEBAR … is it Star Trek VI that first shows us that Klingons bleed pink? There is an explicit reference to pink blood after a Klingon is killed in “From the Depths.” END SIDEBAR
References: As noted above, the events of “Space Seed” and “Friday’s Child” are both referenced to have occurred two years prior to this book. For that reason, I put those two episodes close together in my Doot chronology. The Eugenics Wars exposition from “Seed” is rehashed here, and the encounter with Khan is recalled. Meanwhile, the reminiscences about “Friday’s Child” include a reminder that the baby born on the planet was named after Kirk and McCoy: “Leonard James Akaar.” This is nice, as the grown-up version of that little baby will show up in one of Peter David’s “Trek” comics, which are part of Doot canon.
For whatever reason, Milan also has a callback in his novel to the modified computer voice in “Tomorrow Is Yesterday,” the one that had Majel Barrett talking in a flirtatious tone, calling Kirk “darling” and such. In this book, that modification hasn’t been corrected, and the computer still talks that way. That seems to play holy heck with the canonical timeline, but since I like “From the Depths” so much I fudged the Doot timeline to make it fit, putting “Tomorrow Is Yesterday” midway through Season 3, and making sure all the episodes that follow it explicitly don’t feature Majel Barrett as the computer voice. So it actually can work, experiencing the stories in Doot order, for the voice to not have been fixed yet by the time of “From the Depths.”
Let’s see, what other episodes and references? The encounter with Vaal, in the episode “The Apple,” is mentioned more than once. The Klingon encounter on Starbase K-7 is, as well (“Trouble With Tribbles”). Saurian brandy is consumed. Kirk remembers coming in second in boxing tournaments to his rival, Finnegan. The Horta is name-dropped. At one point it’s established that since the events of “The Arena,” the Federation is now on friendly terms with the Gorn. I believe a reference is made at one point to Orion female dancers.
Milan also has a character note that the Klingons and the Romulans are now sharing technology, which I presume is a reference to the Romulans adopting Klingon designs in “The Enterprise Incident.” This also fits with the only other prose story I have so far added to Doot canon, “The First Peer,” all about Klingon/Romulan relations off-screen during the “Original Series” era.
Finally, Milan also gets in a reference to his pal, Melinda Snodgrass, naming an unseen Commodore after her in the early chapters. Snodgrass and Milan worked closely together on several Wild Cards novels, and by 1993 Snodgrass had already served her year as the head writer on “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Snodgrass’ own original Trek novel, “Tears of the Singers,” is one I have not read. I believe it’s considered a lesser entry in the 1990s Pocket Book series. (Li’l Jay panned it briefly in an IMWAN thread, as I recall.) On the other hand, the first episode of “Next Gen” that Snodgrass wrote, “Measure of a Man” (written on spec, like David Gerrold’s “Trouble With Tribbles’ teleplay), is considered one of the first great Next Gen episodes, if not the very first. Anyway, all of which is apropos of nothing really, but it’s cute that Milan threw the little name-drop in there.
Trek-isms: Milan hits a lot of the usual go-to’s. Kirk has a romance with Moriah before she turns out to be a complete nutcase, and very nearly has a romance with Aliah, one of the most prominent Discordians in the story. Spock and McCoy have a couple little back-and-forths. McCoy does the “I’m a doctor, not a _____” routine (twice!). Scott is asked to perform “miracles” in terms of getting more power out of the engines than is possible. Another great bit that I’m sure libertarian Milan must have relished writing is Chekhov’s line, “Don’t talk to me about capitalism. Russians INVENTED capitalism.”
Final verdict: It’s my second read of this book. I liked it even better the second time. If I were to name any misgivings, it’s that in the broader context of Trek, it hits the same clichés that a lot of the stories post-“Original Series” tend to hit: Klingons; stuff related to Khan and Eugenics; a villain who wants revenge on Kirk … Fortunately at this point in Doot order, none of this stuff is cliché yet, and instead they work nicely as a capstone to the original series. Frankly, the action and the overall scope of the story feels more cinematic than some of the actual films. It’s certainly much more exhilarating a ride than “The Motion Picture” (the next stop on the Doot Trek train).
Apart from Milan’s inability to resist hitting common Trek tropes, though, this one’s a winner. A well-written action story with all of the original crew in fine form … (I barely mentioned Spock in any of the synopsis, but he’s got some great bits in this one) … and the political allegory – while certainly not something everyone will agree with – is totally in keeping with Trek tradition and sci-fi tradition in general. It’s not terribly preachy really, and in the broader context it’s a drop in the ocean (so to speak) when you consider how much left-leaning allegory appears in both canonical and non-canonical Trek fiction.
Moving through the full series in Doot order, “From the Depths” is the first full-length original Trek novel in the canon, and it’s a great note on which to begin. At 280 pages, it’s a very brisk one. Fast-paced adventure/fantasy, with a satisfying political bite. Two thumbs up, homies. And RIP, Vic. You are one of my heroes.
Post subject: Star Trek Novels, Comics and Audio Adventures
Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2018 4:06 pm
Kind Of Close For One Of These Jewels.
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One of the Klingons from Friday's Child? There was only one that was shown, and killed - Kras. So he died in battle and a bond brother wants revenge instead of honoring the glorious death? O.K., I guess that might not be contradictory.
I would think more atmospheric water vapor would cut down on the UV radiation, but I don't know the particulars about how big the planet is.
"Sapients" would be better than "sentients."
The undiscovered evil baddy Klingon was general Chang.
So, lots of call backs, or Trek tropes (maybe too many just to demonstrate it's Trek-like, and the coincidences are not too large).
More super humans, eh? I seriously think everybody is over estimated the effectiveness of 20th century gene manipulation. Why, Abrams has it bring a dead Kirk back to life, IIRC. So stupid.
It might be a fun and interesting ride, though, to listen to arguments for or against Eugenics. But if it's so damn effective, it's a wonder most societies and most planets aren't doing it to improve their species, unless they, too, find it can't really be done without endangering the current population as the improved one tries to, or feels compelled to, dispose of the "inferior" parent stock, not waiting for natural selection to do it, or interbreeding with them, but an outright genocidal requirement. If the creators feel threatened at their creation and decide to kill off their creation, or insist on subjugating them like slaves or servants, they yeah, there's going to be a problem.
How did these super humans escape and reach this planet for colonization 2 centuries ago? One might think humanity would keep better track of such individuals. We might understand how Khan and his group escaped since he was rich and powerful and in charge for over 1/4 of the planet, so he had access, but what do captured and segregated servants have? I guess they must have kicked ass and stole a ship, but we just let them go? And a sub light ship at that? I'm not too sure the numbers would work out too well on this, but I haven't looked too closely.
Post subject: Star Trek Novels, Comics and Audio Adventures
Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2018 8:17 pm
Dendritic Oscillating Ontological Tesseract
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Cloak Novel by S.D. Perry Approximately 220 pages
This one is a very brisk read, but I liked it enough to rearrange Doot Order to accommodate it. My rule is that no novel can come in the middle of a season. It has to come between seasons. And this one takes place with “Tholian Web” just before and “The World Is Hollow” just after it. Those are both Season 3 episodes (and in the DVD order, “Web” actually comes AFTER “Hollow.”) So I re-sequenced Doot Order to make “Tholian Web” the second season finale and “The World Is Hollow” the third season premiere. All for you, little CLOAK.
Anyway, CLOAK is largely a follow-up to the events of “The Enterprise Incident” (thus now also put into Season 2 of Doot Order), and it ties in the Enterprise crew’s mission from that episode -- a bit of espionage wherein Kirk manages to steal a Romulan cloaking device. This mission turns out to have been part of an operation by Section 31, the black-ops division of Starfleet whose existence wasn’t revealed till the DS9 days (so far as I know), but was established in Deep Space 9 as having existed for years. The Abrams film INTO DARKNESS more or less confirms the existence of Section 31 as having existed canonically during Kirk times, but even before that film, the novels were doing their part to retcon 31’s existence into earlier iterations of Trek. CLOAK is, I believe, the first “Section 31” novel set during the Kirk era, and certainly the shady dealings that the crew get up to in “The Enterprise Incident” make sense as a point of connection.
SPOILERS FOLLOW
Turns out the cloaking device is being used to cloak a secret 31-sanctioned Starbase that is the site of clandestine scientific experiments. A group of scientists are attempting to create a new energy source. Many of them believe that this project will have purely benign applications, but the black-ops masterminds behind it are planning to weaponize the technology. That’s the big reveal near the end of the book (oops), although apparently not a surprise to anyone who’s seen “Voyager” (which I have not), in particular an episode about the fallout from these “Omega molecule” experiments a hundred years later. Fortunately, knowledge of that episode isn’t necessary to enjoy this book, in fact I imagine it was better for someone like me who hadn’t seen it. It increased the sense of mystery.
In fact (well, technically, in opinion – specifically mine), the novel is a very solid sci-fi mystery. The whole thing begins with Kirk and company finding a ship in space whose crew has been murdered in order to cover up the “Omega molecule” experiments, and from this “whodunit” beginning, the story winds along on an effectively dark and sinister trajectory. The intended tone with the Section 31 books – if the covers (black and white character portraits heavily shadowed) are any indication – is shadowy menace and foreboding. I think Perry pulls that off, without feeling like she’s going against the grain of the brightly-colored and adventure-filled aesthetic of the original series. The novel is tense and dark at times, but also fast-paced and rip-roarin’ when it needs to be. It’s a gen-u-ine page-turner (I read it cover to cover over the course of a few hours), and feels like it would have been at home as a two-part episode during the series’ original run. (Assuming the original run had had more episode-to-episode continuity, granted, give the book’s many allusions to “Enterprise Incident.”)
CONTINUITY REFERENCES Speaking of, the book features the return of the female Romulan commander whom Spock romanced in “Incident,” which is neat. I know D.C. Fontana disliked the way they rewrote her original draft of the episode specifically because she thought the Romulady ended coming off as too easily duped by Spock. S.D. Perry was presumably aware of this, and part of the book seems dedicated to deepening the relationship between her and Spock, slightly recontextualizing that earlier encounter to make her seem less credulous. It’s a rather sweet scene, actually.
Meanwhile, you may remember (though I didn’t), that when “The World Is Hollow” starts, McCoy has already known for a while about his terminal diagnosis of whatever. In CLOAK, we see him actually get the news. Or, I guess, give himself the news, as he realizes it while analyzing his own test results. One of the plot threads involves McCoy’s seeking out a scientist with a potential cure – which then ties into the main plot when it turns out she’s one of the scientists at the clandestine starbase. Arguably a dubious inclusion because how much drama can really be wrung from an “OMG, I’m terminal” plotline that we already saw resolved back in 1968? But tonally, it certainly fits with the overall sense of foreboding and menace that the novel attempts to create. So, what the heck, I’ll allow it.
Kirk, meanwhile, wrestles with a bit with the guilt over his complicity in the entire “Omega molecule” affair, regretting that he didn’t question the orders to infiltrate the Romulan ship during “Incident.” His ruminations on what guilt can do to a captain lead him to think of several captains from the series who lost their way, including the guys from “Doomsday Machine,” “Whom Gods Destroy,” “The Omega Glory,” and “Bread and Circuses.” (Decker, Garth, and … I don’t remember the names of the other two.)
Later, after Kirk has learned of Section 31’s existence, he has a conference with various captains and commodores that he knows he can trust. More name-dropping ensues. The commodore from “Court Martial” is there, as is the one from “The Menagerie” (who ALSO presided over a court martial) … I don’t recall who else. But, anyway, yeah. References. The Trek books love ‘em.
FINAL THOUGHTS This one gets a thumbs-up from me. It’s successful in striking a sinister tone, it’s nice and briskly paced, all the characters get to have some good moments … (I didn’t mention it, but Sulu, Uhura, Scott and Chekov all have some nice character bits. I particularly enjoyed a sequence in which Uhura is tasked with unscrambling a cipher-coded message sent to Kirk by an old friend just before that friend was taken out by 31.) A very solid story. And I like “Original Trek” stories like this, that are able to retcon elements from future Trek series, but not in a contrived way. Again, since Section 31 is established as having existed during Kirk’s time behind the scenes, a novel like CLOAK is not only within bounds but actually tightens the overall “Trek” tapestry.
Originally I had placed the short story “The First Peer” in between Season 2 and 3 of Doot Canon, but I’ve decided to excise that story. It was fine, but nothing special, and CLOAK makes a much better first prose piece to be placed chronologically in Doot canon. Congratulations, CLOAK. Take your place of honor!
Post subject: Star Trek Novels, Comics and Audio Adventures
Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2018 11:13 pm
Kind Of Close For One Of These Jewels.
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Location:
The Astral Plane, Usually.
Section 31 - so in the end, Kirk disapproved of section 31 and regretted any involvement with it? I know they can take things too far (kill the innocent just to keep their secrets) but I felt Kirk was fine with what he did in "Incident" and agreed, he normally risks his life, so why not his reputation, too, to keep Starfleet's hands clean.
I forget "when" Spock knew the plan, but I think it was early and any objection he made on the bridge about violating the neutral zone was just acting in case other bridge officers had to testify and they could blame it all on Kirk and not Spock, the others, and certainly not Starfleet.
I'm not all that convince the Romulans would care and agree, oh, it was just the captain gone crazy, well, that's O.K. then and we won't go to war.
In the end, it was clear it was done with Starfleet's approval and no war came of it, so I never really got the need for the cloak and dagger crap. I guess with the clanking tech in the Federation's hands, the Romulans felt they couldn't go to war, so if they had failed to obtain it and Kirk was caught or killed, the Federation would disavow any knowledge of his actions. Still, I don't think that would impress the Romulans and if they wanted to go to war, they would have, regardless.
Post subject: Star Trek Novels, Comics and Audio Adventures
Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2018 3:16 am
Dendritic Oscillating Ontological Tesseract
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“Assignment: Earth” issue 1
Comic book by John Byrne (script and art)
I really dug the “backdoor pilot” episode of the original series It had a lot of things that appeal to me: the spy operating in the 1960s, and using various sci-fi gadgets is very James Bond, and the partnership of the older dude and the younger lady makes it feel a bit like an American version of the British B&W "Avengers” (and also an old-man/young-lady combo is no doubt what attracted Byrne to revisiting the concept). But “Assignment: Earth” has the added benefit of being a little more far-out than James Bond or John Steed. Once you’ve got an alien cat who turns into a beautiful woman, you’re definitely more into sci-fi territory. But in a decidedly awesome way.
Anyway, bottom line is that it’s a great idea for a series and I’m glad that the “expanded universe” eventually picked up the pilot even though NBC didn’t bite.
At this point, there is a lot of Gary Seven/Roberta Lincoln/Isis fiction to be found out there, almost enough to put together an entire “season” of the show that might have been. I haven’t gotten hold of all of it yet, but what I’ve found I have mostly liked. I’ve got the series by John Byrne and several novels by Greg Cox. The latter stuff is far, far superior, but the Byrne material is nice in that it has visuals. So at the moment, in trying to assemble a Doot-Season for Seven and Roberta, I’m including a bit of both.
Chronologically speaking, the first thing we come to is the first issue of the Byrne comic, which is set three months after the events of the Trek episode.
There’s not much to it. The Byrne series wasn’t terribly ambitious – five self-contained stories over five issues – and so each issue almost by necessity has to be fairly light on story, as you’ve only got about 24 pages to play with.
But it’s a nice little warm-up to some much better Gary/Roberta stuff to come later in the “season.” It’s your typical Cold War thing involving an American nuclear project and some Soviet saboteurs. It feels overly familiar to me, but maybe that’s because I’ve read the first issue of “The Incredible Hulk” so many times. Sort of a who-dunnit dealio, as Byrne introduces an octet of scientists all working on a project, and then the mystery is “which one or two of them are actually spies?” It’s not the most elegant of mysteries … only three of the scientists are given any personality, and two of them are flagged up as the obvious guilty ones. So then it turns out that only one of those two obvious ones was actually bad, and the third one (whom Gary Seven falls for romantically over the course of a single page) ends up being the other of the two spies.
So, nothing terribly exciting, but (re-)establishes the characters, and the three main gadgets (the servo, the giant Beta computer/teleporter unit, and the green cube); it’s got a nicely subtle use of Isis; and the whole thing is pleasantly retro. I’m not nuts over it, but it gets the ball rolling in an amiable fashion.
Post subject: Star Trek Novels, Comics and Audio Adventures
Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2018 3:17 am
Dendritic Oscillating Ontological Tesseract
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The Rings of Time Novel by Greg Cox 375 pages
This li’l book is set after all three seasons of the show, but – at least as far as Doot canon is concerned – before the animated series.
I’ve come to enjoy the Trek books by Greg Cox, quite a bit. They’re nothing terribly deep, and I wouldn’t even say that Cox’s prose is particularly brilliant or clever … but dang it if the guy doesn’t create some good page-turning adventures. You can really just fly through his books – I ended up spending an entire Sunday reading “Rings of Time” cover to cover. He’s got a great sense of the Original Series characters and what makes them appealing, and an encyclopedic knowledge of the original episodes, references to which he’s constantly dropping in whenever it feels apropos, a technique which ultimately creates a nice sense of continuity.
The book alternates between two timelines: The odd chapters are all set in 2020, during humanity’s first “mission to Saturn” as undertaken by Shaun Christopher, son of John Christopher from the episode “Tomorrow Is Yesterday.” (I understand that the Enterprise episode “First Flight” expanded on this bit of Trek trivia established in the original series, and Cox’s story plays within the parameters established there.) The even-numbered chapters are set in 2270, and involve Kirk and company’s mission to a planet called Klondike VI, whose composition is very very similar to Saturn’s. The idea is that each planet is actually collapsing at the respective times of these two separate missions, and a probe sent by the Preservers (from “The Paradise Syndrome”) is trying to repair them. It’s the same probe, y’see, it’s just that Kirk is encountering it 250 years after Shaun Christopher is. Thanks to the machinations of an entity who doesn’t reveal herself until the end, Kirk and Christopher both come into physical contact with the probe, and end up switching minds. Sort of a quantum-leap dealio, with Kirk inside Christopher, 250 years in his past, and Christopher inside Kirk’s body, 250 years in his future.
After that switcheroo, both timelines follow their own parallel narratives, and they don’t actually come together until the end, when Spock and crew use the slingshot effect to travel back to 2020 and bring Kirk and Christopher together, so they can get their own minds put back. (Copious references to the similar events from “Turnabout Intruder” abound.)
As I said, it’s nothing particularly deep. But it’s a solid adventure story, and there is a lot of enjoyable novelty in the 2020 sequences, with references to blogs and YouTube and Lady Gaga, and other such things that you wouldn’t actually have seen if they’d done this storyline in actual 60s show. (I also enjoy the reference to a conspiracy theory by a 2020 blogger that “Khan Noonien Singh is still alive; after all, they never found his body.”)
Another cute bit … Kirk trying to remember as much as he can about 2020 so he can impersonate Shaun Christopher and not disrupt the timeline. At one point he tries to remember what the information network was called back in the 21st century. (“What was the name they used … the Interweb?”)
A most enjoyable read. In Doot canon, I have placed it right after the final episode of the The Original Series (which is now “The Savage Curtain,” for those keeping score).
Post subject: Star Trek Novels, Comics and Audio Adventures
Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2018 3:01 pm
Dendritic Oscillating Ontological Tesseract
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The Weight of Worlds By Greg Cox 350 pages
THE STORY! Another page-turner from Mr. Cox, which seems to be set not long after The Rings of Time. (The original publication date for these books was: “Rings” in 2012 and “Weight” in 2014.)
This book introduces us to Ephrata IV, an entire planet that is one big university, where Federation scholars can live, and do nothing but engage in scholarly pursuits all the time. Quite the utopian idea, and it very much appeals to me, an entire planet that’s laid out like a massive campus.
The utopia is shattered when a rift is opened on the planet’s surface, outta which marches an army from another reality who are caught up in a religious fervor involving an imminent apocalypse. These masked invaders, at the command of their “God-King,” are intent on spreading “The Truth” to all the worlds of our reality before “The End.” The allegory is obvious, though also suitably generic so that it could be based on pretty much any religion on 21th century Earth (or any previous century Earth, really).
At any rate, I don’t think Cox has anything too penetrating or scathing to say about religion. The whole set-up is there mainly just as an engine to drive another high-flying adventure for Kirk and company, which gets underway when the Enterprise is summoned to come to Ephrata IV’s rescue. (They are, naturally, the only ship in range.) Kirk, Spock, Sulu and a red-skirt beam down to learn that all the scholars on the planet have already converted to the religion, because they’re wearing masks that make them telepathically susceptible to all the commands of the leader of the invading party.
Fortunately, the masks are not used to control the invading aliens themselves, which means a counter-resistance group of free-thinkers does exist. They are able to provide some aid to Sulu, who finds himself swashbuckling and sword-fighting his way through various buildings on the campus in order to rescue both his damsel fair (the captured red-skirt) and also to try and sabotage a powerful tractor beam that has the Enterprise trapped in orbit.
Meanwhile, the leader of the resistance smuggles Kirk and Spock through the rift back into the invaders’ home dimension so that Kirk can take down the God-King himself. Ephrata IV is a giant university y’see, complete with a comprehensive library, and so the resistance leader has read up on Kirk’s exploits, and learned that James has basically made a side-career out of deposing godlike rulers of planets (Landru, Vaal, Apollo, that computer that ran things in “Taste of Armageddon,” that other computer that ran things in “The World Is Hollow” and on and on …). Kirk feels like his reputation is a bit overblown, and doesn’t really promise to kill the God-King, but circumstances eventually do force him into an exciting one-to-one struggle against him anyway. It does start to appear to the captain that he’s not going to change the God-King by talking, and may have to deliver some crushing blows in order to bring about any positive changes … but matters do end up going in a more Federation-friendly way, thanks to some smart behind-the-scenes work from trusty Mr. Spock.
Meanwhile, there’s some nicely choreographed material back on Ephrata IV, in which Sulu manages to rescue the Enterprise from the tractor beam, and the Enterprise in turn manages to save Sulu from the overwhelming odds arrayed against him on the planet’s surface.
THE REFERENCES! Greg Cox always goes heavy on the references. (See the above litany of all of Kirk’s triumphs over despotic and borderline-divine tyrants.) He also gets very allusion heavy very early on when he describes some of the scholarly pursuits and archaeological treasures to be had and seen on the Planet O’ Scholars. Meanwhile, the whole “underground resistance” deal has Kirk drawing some parallels between the invaders’ culture and that of the planet seen in “Cloud-Minders.”
The fact that the invaders come from another dimension leads to a few ruminations as well, on other-dimensional excursions such as the one in “Mirror Mirror” and those of the Lazarus twins in “Alternative Factor.”
FINAL REVIEW This is one of my favorites. I had expected to like “Rings of Time” more because I’m always a sucker for time-travel stuff, but that one ultimately kinda disappointed me, when the time-switch mystery was revealed to just be a totally arbitrary bit of mucking around by an all-powerful entity a la Trelane.
“Weight of Worlds,” however, foregoes any kind of “mystery” element, and as such there’s a lesser “weight” of expectations on it. The author is free to just cut loose with an all-out adventure story, and it ends up being quite grand. I love swashbuckling Sulu, and a lot of pages are given over to that trope in this book. Meanwhile, Cox has fun with the novelty of giving Uhura the center seat up on the Enterprise, after Scotty is critically wounded and LaSalle (he of “Catspaw” and other episodes) is written out unceremoniously. We get to see Uhura be a b*d*ss captain for a while, which is pretty awesome, and it’s fun to picture Nichelle Nichols in command for once, since we never actually saw that on the show.
Still, while Sulu and Uhura are in fine form, the author sticks with Kirk and Spock as the Trek’s most superheroic dynamic duo, and the bulk of the story is about their adventure on the other side of the portal. Everything that makes the Kirk/Spock partnership great – the contrasts in temperament, the complementary skills, the id/superego juxtapositions, passion vs. intellect, instinct vs. logic, raw physicality vs. calm, collected thought – is all here, and the partnership’s various qualities are utilized as well as it is in the best of the episodes to create the proper mix of drama and comedy. Both characters play a key role in the final victory, but in utterly different ways.
It’s another page-turner from ol’ G.C., and I’d say this is one of his best. Recommended.
Post subject: Star Trek Novels, Comics and Audio Adventures
Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2018 3:06 pm
Dendritic Oscillating Ontological Tesseract
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The Latter Fire Novel by James Swallow Published in 2016
PREAMBLE James Swallow is one of my favorite modern genre writers. I loved his Trek book DAY OF THE VIPERS (his first novel for the Star Trek franchise, which I will re-read and write up for this thread in due course, gods willing), and it led me to some of his other novels such as NOMAD, NEMESIS, and JADE DRAGON, all of which I adored. Granted, he’s also got some that I was less impressed by, but his prose is marvelous and I really looked forward to finally read THE LATTER FIRE, a tale of the original crew published in 2016 (the 50th anniversary of the franchise). I figured this would be one of the greatest things ever. Fresh off watching the brilliant original adventures of Kirk and company, I’d settle back in a comfy chair and watch the voyages continue with Swallow the great.
So, perhaps I raised my expectations too high. Ultimately this is an enjoyable book, but definitely can’t be looked at as any kind of “50th anniversary” celebration. It’s a solid space adventure, but not terribly ambitious in scope. The story is extremely straightforward … despite being 380 pages to the 260 that comprised Vic Milan’s FROM THE DEPTHS, this one feels actually less complex, and not as conceptually dense. Granted, some of the set pieces are rather large … If this story had been the template for “The Motion Picture,” it probably would have made a more exciting film than the psychedelic meanderings of the V’Ger encounter. That said, it’s still not a very complex story in terms of plot, and none of the reveals or plot turns of this book are at all surprising. (Quite the opposite. This is an extremely predictable novel.)
Perhaps plot twists and mysteries are simply not Swallow’s forte. DAY OF THE VIPERS is a DS9 prequel tale, the story of how Cardassia came to occupy Bajor, and it even begins with the occupation already in place before flashing back to the Cardassian/Bajoran first contact/encounter. So it’s not a novel about surprise twists or unexpected endings … It’s all about the journey. If LATTER FIRE is read in this light, then it’s a more enjoyable read. Don’t go into expecting shocking turns or unforeseen reversals. But if you’re looking for a solid adventure of Kirk and crew, then this will do you fine. And Swallow does render some marvelous prose at times (albeit not as good as in books like NEMESIS or JADE DRAGON).
PREMISE A race called the Syhaari are menaced by a gigantic cosmological menace … Once again we’re in “Doomsday Machine”/”V’Ger” territory here, with Kirk and company having to figure out a way to deal with this gigantic planet-destroying force. I won’t spoil the nature of the force as revealed in the book, even though it is fairly predictable. I will note that it seems to be an extrapolation on Swallow’s part from the premise of one of the weird aliens encountered in a specific episode of the show, an episode that is referenced several times. I won’t say which episode, as even that would give away too much. It’s actually a cool idea, although not unique. I can think of at least two examples of the idea seen in mainstream superhero comics, though I’m not sure if the concept has already shown up in “Trek” before this novel.
EXECUTION While the predictability is a problem, Swallow’s characterization is nice. He gives all six members of the core crew something to do, although Sulu arguably gets short shrift, mainly just doing some fancy piloting at one key moment. Which is the kind of thing that could be rendered in a slick way on screen, but just seeing a writer describe skillful starship flying is a bit less thrilling. But Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scott and Uhura all play key roles in the story. (No Chekov, as will be explained below.) There are some nice logistics employed during big climax, with every member of the crew being an important and distinct chess piece as the final confrontations unfold.
CONTINUITY I believe Swallow meant this to be set during the original five year mission, given his description of the uniforms. (They are the gold/blue/red tunics, not the uniforms we see in any of the movies.) Also everyone’s rank seems too low for it to be set during the film years. However, there’s an odd bit here with Chekov being reassigned right at the start of the book, and replaced with Arex, a guy with three arms and three legs. Just like Byrne’s creation for New Visions! Is this guy from “Star Trek Continues” or something? Is that what’s going on here?
When I first read that opening chapter, I thought this book was meant to be set in between “Motion Picture” and “Wrath of Khan.” I’d have thought that made perfect sense, and filled in a little continuity moment, of Chekhov getting reassigned to the ship he’s serving on at the start of “Wrath.”
That’s apparently not the intent here, which makes the scene confusing to my eyes. (Edit: Ah, he is from the animated series. Now I get it ... the book is meant to set up the status quo of the animated show, which ditched Chekhov and gave us Arex. The cat lady from the cartoon is also in this book, actually, filling in for Uhura at times.)
REFERENCES An ambassador, Xaan, from the Federation Diplomatic Corps (FDC) shows up on the ship. She’s a female, and there is a cursory nod toward a notion of there being some romantic tension between Kirk and her. But it doesn’t really go anywhere, presumably Swallow’s way of just defying cliché. But Xaan does make a reference to Kirk’s failure to ever get along with Ambassadors, and Fox is namechecked. He’s from that episode with the planet where the computers wage all the wars video-game style and the people just go into suicide chambers when the computers say they got killed.
As with a lot of these “latter”-day (so to speak) Trek novels, the writers can’t resist making little nods to the future. (Although Milan didn’t do this, come to think of it.) The big one here is at the end, when Spock demonstrates his skills as a negotiator/mediator, leading Xaan to suggest that if Spock ever retires from starship duty, he should consider becoming an ambassador like his father. There’s also a passing mention of whales on Earth being extinct, which works (when read chronologically) as a brief foreshadowing of the story of “The Voyage Home.”
Apart from that, Swallow restrains himself fairly well, keeping this adventure fairly self-contained. The one other cheeky thing he does is hinting at just a smidge of romantic tension between Spock and Uhura. It’s brief and extremely underplayed, but it’s obviously a little nod toward the Abramsverse. Spock and Uhura have a lot of scenes together in this book, and while most of it is plot driven, there’s just the slightest hint of an undercurrent, enough where a reader can imagine that maybe there’s something going on between them off-screen. Or, more conservatively, it’s just enough to believe that in a parallel world the two of them could have hooked up, even if it never happened in the “Prime” universe.
One nice little bit of synchronicity for the Doot canon is that Vic Milan actually had a scene in his novel with Uhura singing at a club at the start of the book, with Spock playing the Vulcan lyre in her backup band. It’s such a brief bit that I had forgotten about it and didn’t even note it when I wrote up FROM THE DEPTHS, but the scene is of course a nod to the flirtacious “Charlie X” sequence with Uhura singing to Spock while he accompanies her. LATTER FIRE dovetails nicely with this, as Spock and Uhura’s scenes together involve them having to collaborate on creating and broadcasting a custom-made sonic pattern of their own design. When it’s deployed at the end the book, Kirk observes that it sounds like music, and attributes the harmonic aspects of the pattern to the fact that both Spock and Uhura are musicians. Nice li’l moment.
Ah yes, also McCoy has a joking line at one point when he lists Kirk’s talents, and one of them is “the ability to talk computers into committing suicide,” a reference to him managing this feat in “Ultimate Computer” “Return of the Archons,” and “The Changeling.” (He also does it in “I, Mudd,” but in that instance I seem to recall that McCoy managed that as well, working in tandem with several other characters.)
FINAL ANALYSIS As the second novel in the Doot canon (chronologically speaking), and as the only adventure in said canon to be set in between The Motion Picture and Wrath of Khan, this is an enjoyable adventure of the original crew. It’s not Swallow’s best work, and it’s not nearly as fun as FROM THE DEPTHS, but it’s certainly in keeping with the spirit of the original show. My main complaint is that most of the classic Trek tropes are deployed in such by-the-numbers style that it renders the adventure awfully predictable. That lack of surprise is leavened by the very on-point characterization, as well as Swallow’s deftness at turning an evocative phrase. The book also makes a point of ticking off all the boxes on the classic “Trek” mission statement. Strange new worlds, check. New life, check. New civilizations, check. Boldly go where no man’s gone before, check. It’s not up there with the best of the Trek novels nor with the best of Swallow’s bibliography, but if you’re just keen to read more about Kirk and co. doing their thang, then this is a solid entry, true to the spirit of the original show if not quite as rollicking and rousing an adventure as the best Trek can be.
Post subject: Star Trek Novels, Comics and Audio Adventures
Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2018 3:07 pm
Dendritic Oscillating Ontological Tesseract
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Forgotten History Novel by Christopher L. Bennett
I really like the idea of this book, or I should say the series of which this book is a part: “The Department of Temporal Investigations.” I believe the first mention of the DTI was in the Deep Space Nine “Past Tense” two-parter, specifically the end of part two. It was kind of a throwaway joke reference, but the writers remembered it and a year and a half after that episode they actually brought in two members of the DTI, Dulmer and Lucsly (Mulder and Scully anagrammized), to help provide a framing sequence for the brilliantly conceived and executed Tribble episode of DS9.
Bennett decided to do a whole spinoff novel series based on these guys (who I guess may have also shown up in “Voyager” but I wouldn’t know). The first one is apparently attempts to resolve loose ends from the “Temporal Cold War” arc in ENTERPRISE, possibly even finally revealing the identity of the dude from the pilot … ? This sounded interesting to me, but from what I’ve read on Memory-Alpha, the book incorporates a lot of continuity from other novels, novels I have no interest in reading at the moment. So I skipped that book.
I moved on to Forgotten History, which focuses on Original Series continuity rather than Bakula continuity (although actually some elements of old Archer/T’Pol/et al adventures play an important role in this book).
The framing sequences with the DTI are set in 2383, ten years after Lucsly and Dulmur appeared in “Tribble-ations” (if that episode is set in 2373, which I believe it is). So one could argue this book should be read after watching all the Next Gen, DS9 and Voyager shows, and the Next Gen movies too, and whatever else. HOWEVER so much of it is concerned with continuity from the original series that in Doot Canon, I decided to place it closer to that source material. Specifically I have placed the first half of the book before The Motion Picture, and the second half of the book AFTER the selfsame Motion Picture. (This makes sense when one reads the book.)
SO. What is this tome actually about?
Depending on your inclinations, a book like this is either brilliantly clever or a lot of fanboy ridiculousness. I had previously suggested that the books by Greg Cox, with their pulp-adventure, page-turning potboileriness, were perfect for a fan like Li’l Jay, who enjoys just digging on the adventures of the classic superhero pair of Kirk and Spock.
This here novel I would definitely recommend to one Mr. Jilerb, as it is much more inclined to have fun celebrating and cerebrating all the fictional science that forms the basis for some of the classic Trek episodes, most specifically the time-travel ones.
The novel essentially weaves a narrative starring a group of temporal-scientists in the Federation – this group being destined eventually to become the founders of the DTI – depicting the evolution of their theories and experiments in between and in the background of the various time-travel adventures of Kirk and the Enterprise during the 2360s (i.e., the time of the original “five-year mission”). This includes the scientists debriefing Kirk, Spock and Scotty after every time-related episode in chronological order, from the brief bit of time-travelling in “Nked Time” and on through the trip through the Guardian of Forever, and all the way through to the travels seen in “All Our Yesterdays.” And then even beyond that, to include the apparently canonical animated episode “Yesteryear” (featuring another trip through the Guardian).
Along the way, the book takes time to resolve some of the inconsistencies and open questions from many of those episodes. (How did those guys on the Omega planet have a Constitution identical to ours? Why did Kirk and the Enterprise so blithely slingshot back to 1968 just to do some casual observing in “Assignment Earth”? What was up with that identical Earth from “Miri”?) While it’s very fanboyish, Bennett is clever enough to weave it all together in a way that makes sense, is fun to read (if time-travel theorizing is your cup of tea), and also serves as basically an “origin story” for the Department of Temporal Investigations.
While all of this is fun, the book DOES finally move on from Roy Thomas-ing the original series, and eventually moves on to create an original Trek adventure all its own. Set just a little bit after The Motion Picture, the story involves the crew of the TMP-era Enterprise encountering characters from the parallel universe that begat the “Miri”-Earth. It’s pretty fun, and involves a scenario in which the Vulcan/Andorian antagonisms from the Jonathan Archer era had a different outcome, leading to a galaxy overrun with Evil Vulcans. That’s right, people, EVIL VULCANS. Or at least, somewhat unsavory Vulcans.
There are certainly some shades of “Mirror, Mirror” here, an episode referenced quite often over the course of the book. (Given this and the other Trek episode from which it draws several elements, an alternate title for this novel could have been “Miri, Miri.”)
All in all, I found the book very involving. I’m a geek for time-travel theories and continuity-fixes anyway, and this book is built upon both, and ultimately it inspired me to finally give the Bakula series another try, so that was a plus as well. It also provides a satisfying answer for one last very large looming question in the Trek continuity, i.e., If time travel is so easy that Kirk and his crew do it on a regular basis, how is that there isn’t “temporal cold war” shenanigans constantly happening in the Trek universe. (The answer, without getting too spoilery, involves the idea that there is something unique and “fluke”-ish about the original Enterprise’s warp nacelles. But then how did Spock and Scotty manage –in STIV -- to time-travel in a banged-up Klingon ship as well? Don’t worry, they explain that too.)
This is a book definitely NOT for the casual Trek fan. It is drowning in continuity. And yet, despite that, it’s still got its own distinct groove to it. I hadn’t actually watched the relevant animated episodes or the relevant Bakula episodes before reading this, but my knowledge of The Original Series and DS9 was enough to keep me afloat and engaged. But it’s definitely one that rewards the reader who is fully steeped in Trek lore.
I gotta say, at the end of the day, I kinda loved it.
Last edited by Ocean Doot on Sun Sep 16, 2018 3:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Post subject: Star Trek Novels, Comics and Audio Adventures
Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2018 3:11 pm
Dendritic Oscillating Ontological Tesseract
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Probe Novel by Margaret Wander Bonanno (and Gene DeWeese, apparently)
This is a novel set just a bit after Star Trek V, which itself is set very very soon after Star Trek IV, whence we saw the coming of the Probe-That-Speaks-in-Whale-Song-Language. As per the title, this novel is all about that gigantic Probe, ostensibly its “origin story.” Though the idea for the novel, and its initial draft, sprang from the mind of Margaret Wander Bonanno, she has completely disowned it, claiming that another author – at the behest of the Powers-That-Be for Trek spinoff stuffs (Robert Arnold perhaps?) – totally rewrote it, to the point where it bore virtually nothing in common with Bonanno’s work. I presume at least some of the characters and concepts are still hers, but … well, again, she’s completely disowned it, so … who can say?
Gene DeWeese is the author whom Bonanno has fingered as the author of the rewrite, though I’ve not read anything that says DeWeese has copped to this.
So that’s the backstory. How is the novel itself?
Bonanno has said that what she really hates about the rewrite is that the characters all are lifeless with no personality to their dialogue, reduced to technobabble-spouting exposition machines. That’s probably overstating the case, although certainly one can see the source of her complaints. There is a LOT of theorizing and explicating going on here. That said, I did find it oddly compelling nonetheless.
The book is set before Star Trek VI, but I think it was published afterward, if I’m recalling correctly? One strike against it is that part of its premise is maybe a little too close to that film, only the peace talks are with the Romulans rather than the Klingons. Since Romulans didn’t stab poor li’l David Marcus, Kirk is much more of an easy-going diplomat in this context, and is actually quite keen to try and facilitate these peace talks, even befriending a Romulan captain who is essentially his counterpart for the duration of the novel (i.e., an older, seasoned captain who has had his share of war throughout his lifetime and is ready for peace).
As one might expect, much of the intrigues come in the form of covert Romulan factions who want to see the peace talks fail. As a science-fictional political thriller, the book is (as per Bonanno’s criticisms) fairly muted. The intrigues are readable enough, but it’s not exactly a gripping, edge-of-the-seat read. (There is some interesting stuff involving a Romulan instrumentalist who defects and asks the Federation for asylum. She is a music savant, which is kind of cool. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any other musical savants who have shown up in “Trek” at this point, although there may be some in “Next Generation.” TNG was big into music.)
Meanwhile, the Probe comes back. Turns out after Earth drove it off, it headed toward Romulan space, and now it is messing wit’ shizzle over there, which is exacerbating the difficulties that some factions are trying to stir with the peace talks, as those factions are attempting to spin the Probe as a human-made doomsday weapon aimed at the Romulans, with the whole “it attacked Earth first stuff” being just a bit of good ol’ fashioned fake news.
Spock pays a visit to George and Gracie, the whales from STIV, who are happy on Earth and still waiting for Gracie to give birth. (Humpback whales’ gestation periods are very long, or so the internet assures me.) But this time, the whales aren’t too helpful. The Probe is actually checking on some *Romulan* water-beasts this time, and just like us humans, the Romulans also did some bad stuff to their native aquatic creatures, which has made the Probe awful mad.
Another plot thread is a conveniently timed archaeological dig on the planet of a long-dead advanced race. The dig actually corresponds to the Romulan/Federation peace talks, and the team is made up of both Romulans and humans, a joint venture meant to facilitate the détente. So the dig being at the same time as the peace talks is not convenient; they are all tied together. But what IS convenient is that this long-dead advanced race are connected to … wait for it … the origins of The Probe.
Kinda ridiculous, really. But, what the hey. Also, this book was published back when Trek fandom was all crazy for the Borg (and rightly so, amiright?), so of course the Borg has to be involved in the Probe’s origins too.
So what is the Probe’s origin?
Well … I don’t know.
The book explains it, but in kind of a vague and disconnected way that was satisfying enough when I read it, but now when I try to recount exactly how it all pieces together, I’m kind of at a loss. I know there was this race of surface dwelling people on a planet, and then they were attacked by the Borg so they had to scatter to other planets. (Which is what happened to Guinan’s people, so maybe the implication is that this is Guinan’s race that we’re talking about. The internet tells me her people are “El-Aurians” though I don’t recall when that was established.) Anyway, it’s possible that these people’s history just mirrors what happened to Guinan’s. In any case, on one of these colonized planets were some super-intelligent aquatic whale-like beings. Eventually a meteor hit, killing the surface dwellers, but leaving some of their technology. The whale-beings evolved to become even more intelligent, and also evolved telekinetic abilities that let them make use of the humanoids’ leftover technology. These beings were lonely and built a probe to seek out life that was similar to their own. Via the probe, they managed to make contact with various other aquatic forms, such as our humpback whales or those Romulan fishies.
But then the Borg came again, and killed the whale-beings. When the Probe returned to its creators, they were gone, and the Borg tried to attack it, but the Probe drove them off. The Probe decided that humanoid creatures like the Borg were bad, and so it decided to go back and check on all the other aquatic creatures it had made contact with, and if it turned out that any of them had been exterminated by humanoids, it was gonna bring the hurt.
This is the state of mind it was in when it came to Earth in STIV, and why it wasn’t placated until George and Gracie told the Probe, “We're fine. We're all fine here now, thank you. How are you?"
So the climax of this book basically involves everybody figuring a lot of this stuff out. Also, the Romulan musical savant is able to detect musical patterns in the communications the probe is broadcasting, and she ends up teaming up with Uhura and Spock (also both musicians, as Kirk points out) to decipher the language of the Probe. (Once again, dat emphasis on the Spock/Uhura "musician" commonality, as in FROM THE DEPTHS and THE LATTER FIRE.) Once they’ve done this, Kirk sends a message to the Probe in its own language that convinces it that maybe it should hear out the little humanoids before wiping them out. Crisis averted, and that is that. And Uhura and Spock probably made out at some point, because they are both musicians and also JJ Abrams said that they dig each other, and the Abrams movies are canon, so there you go.
P.S. I may have completely misremembered that Probe origin.
Anyway, it’s not an amazingly awesome book or anything, but it’s enjoyable enough, and it’s kind of cool to see a storyline focused so heavily on Romulans set during the 2280s (i.e., the Trek II through V era), as Romulans are virtually a non-presence in any of the Trek films. (There’s a female Rom Ambassador in V, and then a male one in VI, the latter of whom is one of the conspirators in the evil plot, but that’s it, I think.)
And it’s nice that someone took the time to tease out an origin story for the Probe, fleshing it out beyond its “convenient plot device” role in its single film appearance.
I have added it to the Doot canon, mainly for that latter reason. I like that the books take the time to fill in some of these gaps.
I wouldn’t really heartily recommend the book as much as I have some of the others, but I still found it a decent read.
Last edited by Ocean Doot on Sat May 04, 2024 8:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Post subject: Star Trek Novels, Comics and Audio Adventures
Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2018 3:33 pm
Kind Of Close For One Of These Jewels.
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This is two separate books?
I think I see part two for Kindle at around $7, but maybe part 1 is $18?
Either way, it's unlikely I'd read them unless they were in e-format so I could make the print big enough and not strain my old, pretty awful eyes. I doubt they would be on audio books, but my experience is even if they were, they'd cost a pretty penny.
Anyway, I was hoping more for in-depth spoilers so I wouldn't have to buy and read them and get the highlights and answers to those questions, you may recall, to the Omega Glory constitution and the exact duplicate Earth in Miri, etc., though it sounds like I would enjoy the more involved read on my own. But seriously, it is hard for me to read regular books anymore. I'm a slow reader, and after an hour, headache, even when my prescription is new. Presbyopia sucks. It just sucks. And though I'm probably not allergic to Retinax V, I just don't have any.
And no, reading glasses don't work so well with my massive prescription for myopia, and bifocals, though I have them, don't really make lengthy reading seasons better. My eyes have always sucked pretty bad (worst in the family) but past 55 years old, and the presbyopia just pretty much stopped me from enjoying a good, long read.
Last edited by Jilerb on Sun Sep 16, 2018 3:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Post subject: Star Trek Novels, Comics and Audio Adventures
Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2018 3:42 pm
Kind Of Close For One Of These Jewels.
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53469
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The Astral Plane, Usually.
Go ahead and put some spoiler tagged entires here, in case anyone doesn't want it spoiled for them - give them that choice.
Also, toss in the Amazon link for the E-Book (I might read it even after the spoilers, money and time allowing). At least I can make the print HUGE on an e-book.
Unfortuantely, I could not find a copy in the on-line lending e-Libraries, so unless somebody knows of one, anyway you slice it, this would cost me some money. I didn't used to mind, but that's back when reading was far more enjoyable.
Post subject: Star Trek Novels, Comics and Audio Adventures
Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2018 3:43 pm
Dendritic Oscillating Ontological Tesseract
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I will get to work on some spoileriffic spoily mcspoilers. But in the meantime here's a write-up I already finished ....
Assignment: Eternity
Novel by Greg Cox
THE PREAMBLE I already mentioned in the review of the first issue of Byrne’s “Assignment Earth” series how much I love this whole concept and wish the backdoor pilot had been picked up.
Apparently G.C. was a big fan of the episode as well, and was quite keen to do an entire novel-length adventure about the Seven/Lincoln/Isis trio and their adventures. This is the first one he did, and it’s tons o’ fun.
Due to the vagaries of time-travel, this book could be placed at several different points in one’s personal reading order. I chose to put it right after Star Trek VI in “Doot” canon, as the opening scene is set congruently with one of the final scenes of that film. That said, it very quickly bounces over to 1969, a year after Roberta Lincoln and Gary Seven started working together in the backdoor-pilot episode. Gary, Roberta and Isis then use the Beta computer to time-travel (and space-travel) onto the Enterprise, circa 2269, to a few weeks after the events of “Turnabout Intruder.” Given that episode’s status as the de facto series finale, I assume that G.C. means for the action of this novel to be a kind of unofficial “80th” episode” of Trek, which is kind of nifty.
THE STORY So … wha’s happenin’ in this here book? Well, the Nimoy episodes of TNG (which aired a bit before Trek VI debuted in the theaters) quite deliberately placed a bit of continuity between those episodes and the final Shatner film, suggesting that at the Khitomer peace conference, Spock met a Romulan called Pardek. By the time of TNG, Spock and Pardek are besties, the two heads of a campaign to reunite Vulcans and Romulans in the 24th century.
But in 2269, that all is still a long way off. What’s happening in THAT era is that the Romulan Empire is still a danger, even to itself, and so the mysterious employers of Gary Seven – the Aegis -- have stationed a Romulan agent on an otherwise empty planet within the Empire, to monitor them the same way that Gary monitored 20th century Earth. This Aegis’ Romulan agent has a whole big building all to himself, which he shares with a large feline creature (who may or may not be able to turn into a dude). And he’s got a mondo large cloaking device, with power enough to keep his entire planet cloaked, which is pretty cool.
Problem is, somehow or other, an agent of the Romulan secret service (the “Tal Shiar”) has managed to discover this whole operation, and infiltrated it with a team of fellow operatives. This evil Tal Shiar agent has gotten the hang of the equipment, at least roughly, enough so that she has gotten a fix on the first meeting of Spock and Pardek in 2293, just after the end of Star Trek VI. She doesn’t want Romulus to be weakened by being re-assimilated with Vulcan, so she has decided to travel to 2293 and assassinate Spock. She succeeds, but while she’s gone, Gary’s Romulan counterpart gets a message to him in 1969, alerting him to the danger.
Upon receipt of the S.O.S., Gary, Roberta and Isis travel to 2269 and hijack the Enterprise, flying it to the cloaked planet to effect a rescue. Gary, Kirk, Sulu and Chekov beam down and rendezvous with the wild cat that was the Romulan Aegis agents’ companion, and the group stage a raid on the Aegis complex, battling the Tal Shiar operatives who have taken it over.
Meanwhile, Roberta Lincoln has a lot of comedy-laden interactions with McCoy and Spock, while Isis has to spend most of the adventure locked up in Christine Chapel’s cat-carrier, though she breaks out at the very end, just in time to turn into a beautiful lady and display a bit of last-minute brilliance at a key climactic moment. (In the “allusion” department, Kirk notes that Isis reminds him of the black cat from “Catspaw,” which is cute. Funny that two different episodes of TOS featured a black cat who turned into a beautiful lady …)
Like all of Greg Cox’s Trek books, this is another page-turner. The books are very difficult to put down, and personally I think he’s at his best when he’s writing Gary and Roberta. The light-hearted shenanigans that they get up to (or which their backdoor pilot implied that they would often be getting up to) really suits Cox’s “pulp-adventure” style. He also makes good use of Lincoln as a character, as her “everywoman” persona gives him room to make a lot of self-aware jokes. In this particular book, her observations while onboard the Enterprise lead to some nice laff-moments, as when she notes that she’s surprised that mini-skirts will still be in fashion 300 years in the future. Or the very in-jokey moment when she realizes that Chekov reminds her of “one of the Monkees.”
If you’re not a fan of the “Assignment: Earth” episode, I don’t know how much appeal this book would have for you. But if you like Gary Seven and company, then Greg Cox’s books are the way to go. Nobody does them better than he does.
This book constitutes Book One of what I think of as Cox’s “Gary Seven” Triad, with the next two books in that series being his “Eugenics Wars” duology. Appropriately enough, the end of this book has a little teaser for that pair of novels, which surprised me, as this one was published three years before those. I wonder if Cox had already been green-lighted to write Eugenics Wars at this point, so he knew his reference here would be paid off soon … ? In any case, it helps create a sense of continuity between this very self-contained book and the Eugenics Wars, which are also fabulous, and which I plan on posting about soon.
FINAL VERDICT A solid “A” for this book, but I only recommend it if you’re a fan of the “Assignment: Earth” episode of the show.
Post subject: Star Trek Novels, Comics and Audio Adventures
Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2018 3:55 pm
Kind Of Close For One Of These Jewels.
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The Astral Plane, Usually.
I would have been keen on learning more about the Eugenics wars, WWIII, and anything up to the first contact, era., yes. They might even explain why (I think, or IIRC) any discrepancies, or at least make a stab at them.
I'd also be keen to learn more about the Human/Romulan war 100 years prior to Kirk's time, which must have happened after Archer.
Post subject: Star Trek Novels, Comics and Audio Adventures
Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2018 4:39 pm
It scorched
Joined:
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68688
Bannings:
One too few . . .
I just checked mine against a listing, and the only one I'm missing is Vonda McIntyre's The Entropy Effect, which I definitely had and was one of the best ones.
_________________ Rom's kiss turned Rogue a hero.
Last edited by Li'l Jay on Sun Sep 16, 2018 4:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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