“Divergence” Is Brought Down By Speed 3 Subplot!

The Good: Decent retcon plot for most of the episode, Special effects, Concept in the larger Star Trek continuity. Decent character development for Phlox.
The Bad: Opening plotline, Jolene Blalock’s performance, Questionable medical science
The Basics: What could have been great is constantly undermined in “Divergence” as Star Trek: Enterprise tries to reconcile the different appearances of Klingons in the franchise.


One of the enduring mysteries in the Star Trek franchise was how the Klingons went from being the Klingons as seen in Star Trek versus how they appeared in the rest of the Star Trek franchise. The jig was up for the writers writing their way out of the problem easily when “Blood Oath” (reviewed here!) aired on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. That episode featured three Klingons from the original Star Trek appearing in modern Klingon make-up. That meant whatever happened to the Klingons, it had to be something that would change. The malleable nature of the Klingons was further suggested with the theorizing by the Defiant officers in “Trials And Tribble-ations” (reviewed here!). That the change in the Klingon appearance would be something the prequel series was forced to deal with came when “Broken Bow” (reviewed here!) started the series out with the modern Klingon make-up. “Divergence” is where the split in the Klingon race is finally made explicit.

“Divergence” is the follow-up to “Affliction” (reviewed here!). It is impossible to discuss “Divergence” without revealing aspects of “Affliction.” “Divergence” is brought down by an opening act that is troublingly dull and forced by a minute subplot introduced in the final moments of “Affliction.” Basically, the opening to “Divergence” is a ridiculous remake of Speed and it guts the momentum of the episode from the outset.

With the Enterprise forced to stay above Warp 5, lest it explode, the Columbia is sent to rescue it. Putting the Enterprise within its warp field, Columbia makes a tether to the Enterprise over which Tucker travels. Aboard the Enterprise, Tucker takes command of Engineering and works with T’Pol to disable the Klingon subroutine infecting their computer. With Reed exposed to Archer as a traitor, Archer works to discover what Reed’s alternative orders are. Reed begrudgingly agrees to put Archer in touch with Harris.

With the Klingon attack fleet headed to Koval Colony to destroy it in order to stop the plague Phlox was kidnapped to cure, Phlox is feeling pressure to perform. He and Antaak come up with a reasonable (if devious) plan. Lying to General K’Vagh, they develop a treatment for the Augment virus sweeping through the Klingon Empire. Having developed four potential treatments, Phlox reluctantly experiments on live Klingons until he finds the treatment that will work. When Archer tries to rescue Phlox as the colony falls under Klingon attack, he becomes the test subject needed for Phlox to create an accelerated treatment for the virus.

The concept of “Divergence” is one that is problematically executed. The Section 31 plotline makes less sense than one might hope. That Klingons were trying to make their own Augments is a good idea; that they would stop because of the setback in “Affliction” and “Divergence” is less believable. The explanation is an interesting one and the relationship between the Klingons and Augments is a cool idea.

On the character front, “Divergence” is most intensely focused on Reed. Over the course of the episode, Lieutenant Reed commits to Archer over Harris and while there is no compelling reason for that, it shows some growth. That Reed has only been contacted by Harris once since Reed joined the Enterprise makes little sense as well, considering the Enterprise has been involved in such things as saving the Earth from the Xindi and one might suspect Section 31 would have had a vested interest in, for example, stopping the Andorians from getting the Xindi prototype in “Proving Ground” (reviewed here!).

T’Pol is glossed over for having an emotional attachment to Tucker in “Divergence,” but that makes no real sense. T’Pol has, by this point, committed absolutely to Surak’s philosophies of unemotionalism and so she should be much more adept at hiding her emotions. Jolene Blalock’s performance is annoyingly conflicted and decidedly un-Vulcan. The other major character moment comes from Dr. Phlox. Phlox basically uses biological weapons on Klingons, with Archer’s aid and that seems like a huge character detraction. That “Divergence” offers no time to reflect upon it is even worse.

Ultimately “Divergence” is one of those episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise where the writers were given a seemingly insurmountable obstacle to overcome and they did the best they could to rectify one of the problems of the franchise.

The two biggest gaffes in “Divergence:”
2. If the Klingons were altered by Augment DNA, it makes no sense that Augments would not still be fresh in the minds of the Enterprise crew in “Space Seed” (reviewed here!) and that people like Dax would not know the truth in “Trials And Tribble-ations,”
1. How the hell does Section 31 ever develop if one of its early, powerful, operatives is an ineffective and untrustworthy operative like Harris, who is outed so easily?!

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Fourth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season here!
Thanks!]

For other works with John Schuck, please visit my reviews of:
“Muse” - Star Trek: Voyager
“The Maquis, Part 2” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

5/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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So Much Retcon! “Observer Effect”

The Good: Good acting, Moments of plot, Moments of retcon character
The Bad: Some continuity issues, Generally light on character development
The Basics: Cleverly reinserting the Organians back into the Star Trek narrative; Star Trek: Enterprise’s “Observer Effect” makes the Enterprise into an alien laboratory for a decent story!


For a science fiction geek such as myself, it is actually pretty surprising that – though I had heard the term retcon many, many times – it was not until last year that I learned what “retcon” meant. “Retcon” means “retroactive continuity:” the basic idea that ideas told to viewers or readers later in a narrative that allude to prior events have actually existed all along. A prequel series like Star Trek: Enterprise is all about retcon. In the fourth season, the show more actively attempted to lay the seeds for Star Trek (The Original Series). One of the big episodes for retcon was “Observer Effect.”

“Observer Effect” illustrates how difficult it can be to retcon well. Two masters of Star Trek history (Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens) work in the episode to retcon a story that has a virus brought to the Enterprise and while it has some problematic aspects in tying into the original Star Trek, it actually has pretty decent retcon work for the character of Hoshi Sato. After more than three years, we learn why she was not in StarFleet when Archer found her in “Broken Bow” (reviewed here!).

Opening with Reed and Mayweather, clearly possessed, playing chess and talking about an experiment in progress on the planet below in detached terms, the Enterprise crew is observed by two aliens under circumstances that always resolve with at least one death. The planet that the ship is in orbit of is described by Sato as a “Klingon garbage dump.” As she and Trip return from the planet, Trip collapses, coughing. In decon, Sato begins coughing as well. As Phlox studies their blood samples, he discovers a silicon-based life virus.

As the aliens inhabiting Reed and Mayweather become frustrated at their lack of ability to get critical information about how the crew is reacting to the virus, organisms take control of Phlox and T’Pol. After Sato leaves Quarantine, Phlox has Tucker and Sato knock themselves out. When he sees them speaking to one another, he realizes there are entities jumping between crewmembers. After his memories are erased by the entities, Phlox develops a dangerous treatment to kill the silicon-based virus.

“Observer Effect” is fun for fans of the original Star Trek when the identity of the “invaders” is revealed. Despite references to the Organian Peace Treaty even into late Star Trek, before “Observer Effect,” the Organians (before this episode) were only seen in “Errand Of Mercy” (reviewed here!). To the credit of Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, “Observer Effect” is a clever way to bring the Organians into the prequel without ruining Star Trek continuity. In fact, the Reeves-Stevens’s are smart to make multiple references to the Klingons, which puts the planet in the episode along a reasonable path for the Organians to be found farther down the line along the same vector.

Because most of the episode deals with reactions by invaders, there is very little actual character development in “Observer Effect.” The Doctor fights like hell to save Sato and Tucker, Archer does the heroic thing while trying to save their lives; these are long-established character traits. Instead, the episode’s real character development comes more from a retcon of Hoshi Sato. Sato is re-characterized as a former troublemaker, gambler, and aikido blackbelt. Given how Sato has never illustrated any combat ability before now, that aspect is an unfortunate retcon. The rest is actually gratifying to hear; why Archer handpicked a non-StarFleet officer for his communication’s officer in “Broken Bow” has been one of the show’s enduring mysteries (never actively focused upon).

The acting in “Observer Effect” is quite good. Dominic Keating and Anthony Montgomery open the episode remarkably well; their acting informs the viewers just as much as the lines they speak. Throughout the episode, all of the performers give wonderful performances. All of the primary cast is given the chance to show off a different way of presenting their “possessed” characters and they make the distinctions well, without ever going over-the-top.

Despite the continuity issues, “Observer Effect” is a worthwhile story that plays with Star Trek continuity fairly well.

The three biggest gaffes in “Observer Effect:”
3. The Federation did not encounter a silicon-based lifeform until “The Devil In The Dark” (reviewed here!), almost a hundred years after this episode. Given how close the planet with the silicon-based lifeform is to the central planets of the Federation, it is unrealistic that it would take a hundred years to encounter another one,
2. Phlox has Tucker set his hypospray to a specific drug. Even in the 24th Century, hypospray technology utilized another device to fill it with the medicine it injected. McCoy and Dr. Crusher both are seen frequently pressing the hypospray into a desk-based device to get the medicine they need to inject. Better technology should not have existed a hundred years prior,
1. The Cardassians are referenced by the Organians. Given how far out this planet would have to be, there is no logical reason they would have made it to the Organian test planet.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Fourth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season here!
Thanks!]

7/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Good Metaphor, Terrible Application (In Terms Of Continuity): “The Forge”

The Good: Themes, Decent performances, Moments of character
The Bad: Woefully misapplied concept for the Vulcans, Continuity issues (within and without)
The Basics: “The Forge” is stuck with the difficult task of reconciling the Vulcan Problem and does so with a story that would have been brilliant . . . for any race other than the Vulcans!


When Star Trek: Enterprise began, it did so with a fundamental problem: co-creator and co-executive producer Brannon Braga openly admitted he hated the original Star Trek and he did not want to be bound by what came before in creating the prequel series. After years of gruesome divergences from Star Trek continuity, Braga was replaced and the fourth season became a time where the challenge of the show was to try to make it start to resemble more the look, feel, and thematic concepts of Star Trek. One of the big problems for fans of Star Trek with Enterprise right off the bat had been the characterization of the Vulcans. Hardly logical (they were brimming with contempt for humans and played as arrogant liars from the outset), the Enterprise Vulcans bore little resemblance to the Vulcans seen throughout the rest of Star Trek. So, with “The Forge,” the writers of Star Trek: Enterprise worked to reshape the Vulcans into the more logical, familiar, Vulcans that fans knew and loved.

That task fell – for the first part of the three-episode arc – to Star Trek novelists Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. While the duo is usually spot on for making connections within the Star Trek universe, with “The Forge” they are given a virtually impossible task . . . and they dropped the ball. I love stories of religious hypocrisy and revisionism; I have no problem with institutionalized religion, but I find it seldom matches the faith that such organizations claim to be organized around. Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens seem to have a similar belief. Unfortunately, with “The Forge,” they apply such a story to the Vulcans and they open a huge can of worms for those who have any care for Star Trek continuity.

Opening seventeen years prior on Vulcan, with the discovery of an artifact pertaining to Surak, Admiral Forrest visits Vulcan. There, Ambassador Soval confesses to Forrest that Vulcans are afraid of humans because humans remind Vulcans of their primitive selves. When a bomb goes off, destroying much of the Embassy, Archer loses Forrest and the Enterprise arrives at Vulcan. There, they meet with the head of the Vulcan High Command, Administrator V’Las, and are told that there are suspects in the bombing: the Andorians and Syrranites (Vulcans who follow a corrupted version of Surak’s teachings).

While investigating the bombing, Reed and Mayweather narrowly escape another bomb’s detonation. In the process, they get DNA from the bomb, belonging to “a well-known Syrranite” named T’Pau. While Soval discredits the Syrranite angle to Archer, T’Pol’s husband Koss gives T’Pol a family heirloom, allegedly from her Syrranite mother. T’Pol uses the IDIC Koss gave her to uncover a holographic map which she believes will lead her to her mother. While Phlox discredits the DNA evidence linking T’Pau to the bombing, T’Pol and Archer begin a perilous quest along the route Surak allegedly took along the Forge, one of the most brutal locations on Vulcan.

Since “The Andorian Incident” (reviewed here!), the Vulcans have been problematically represented. As Archer notes in “The Forge,” Vulcans frequently lie; but in all subsequent incarnations of Star Trek, Vulcans are characterized as truthful to a fault. While Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens are saddled with reconciling that – as well as pretty much undoing the concept of Vulcan mind-melds being uncouth as seen in “Stigma” (reviewed here!) – their solution is nowhere near as compelling as it has to be to sway fans. The idea that Vulcans have a monolithic culture, centered around logic, is completely undermined by the idea that that culture was established during the Star Trek: Enterprise time period and witnessed by humans! Moreover, it completely undermines the character arc of Spock in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (reviewed here!) to have Spock realize that logic is only the beginning; Spock is basically retconned as a guy rebelling against his father’s beliefs, his father’s generation. You don’t get much more human than that!

The other significant issue with “The Forge” is a practical (production) element; Reed and Mayweather get an early scene and it feels like the writers and producers were just stretching to find a use for them. There’s no practical reason for the ship’s navigator/helmsman to be involved in a bomb investigation. On the minutiae side, the StarFleet embassy worker is identified as a Corporal; he was a StarFleet officer, not a M.A.C.O.S. soldier (StarFleet does not have Corporals). On the amusing front, Robert Foxworth pops up as V’Las . . . which means both times Earth facilities have been bombed in the Star Trek franchise, Robert Foxworth was cast to play an influential leader near the blast investigation (the other being “Homefront,” reviewed here!).

The acting in “The Forge” is wonderful. Vaughn Armstrong’s brief, final scene as Admiral Forrest is understated and does not telegraph what is coming. Gary Graham returns as Soval and plays him once again with perfect emotional detachment. Foxworth and Michael Nouri make great additions to the pantheons of notable actors playing Vulcans as they are able to play dispassionate expertly.

The plot of “The Forge” moves along rapidly. The episode transitions nicely from an investigation to a survival story and teases well where the arc is going. In the latter minutes of the episode, “The Forge” takes an intriguing turn that is strong enough to intrigue viewers into coming back. The a-plot and b-plot play off one another in a very watchable way.

“The Forge” is a little lighter on character development than one might hope, but it’s not bad. T’Pol is teased with the idea that her mother is a traitor. Archer does not have any real character development, but “The Forge” finds him at the beginning of the arc with a lot for Scott Bakula to do. The net result is an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise that is not bad television, but is bad Star Trek.

The three biggest gaffes in “The Forge:”
3. Archer and T’Pol encounter a Sehlat; there is no reason that an expert in biology and xenobiology like Dr. McCoy would not know what one was in “Journey To Babel” (reviewed here!),
2. A Vulcan Civil War over the most basic precepts of Vulcans would radically alter the cultural stigma and assumptions humans only a generation later would have. As a result, Spock should not have been either as much of a mystery, nor expected to be as monolithic in Star Trek,
1. Vulcans are lightyears ahead of humans in every form of technology; that Ambassador Soval still had open cuts after three days is utterly ridiculous.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Fourth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season here!
Thanks!]

For other works with Michael Nouri, please visit my reviews of:
The Proposal
The Terminal
Finding Forrester

6/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Just Plain Bad. The Millennium Trilogy Concludes With Inferno, A Terrible Ending.

The Good: It ends the trilogy
The Bad: Writing style, Predictable, Lack of character development, Makes (ultimately) little sense.
The Basics: Sacrificing character for closure, the plot-heavy Inferno puts the Millennium story to rest, with little sensibility.


On its own, Inferno, a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novel by masters of Star Trek Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens is just plain terrible. As part of the Millennium trilogy of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novels, it's awful. One has the vision that the editors of Pocket Books was whipping the pair of writers they demand they work fast, shouting "Write! Write! Sensibility be damned! Get those pages out! Write!" I certainly hope that if I ever meet them at a Star Trek convention, that is the excuse they give me.

Having reviewed volumes one and two of the Millennium trilogy, The Fall Of Terok Nor (reviewed here!) and The War Of The Prophets (reviewed here!), respectively, I felt I had to see the series through. Inferno is the third book in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Millennium Trilogy. For those who insist upon going against my ultimate recommendation and looking into this book and series, the far more economical way to do it would be to pick up the Millennium omnibus (reviewed here!). Because Pocket Books made no bones about how they were producing a trilogy with these books, they are clearly intended to fit together and those who suffer through this novel are probably going to want to find out how the book continues and ends. The best way to do that is through the omnibus edition.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to talk about Inferno without revealing the end of the last book, so . . .

Inferno begins with the end of the universe. Yup, the crew of the U.S.S. Defiant failed to stop the apocalypse and the universe has ended. Wow, that sucks for the Star Trek universe.

But wait! There's more.

Because it can't simply be ended there (especially considering that the Millennium trilogy occurs between two episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), the universe ends, but key members of the crew of the U.S.S. Defiant make it to the Red Wormhole as it and the Celestial Temple are opening and as the universe ends, they take refuge there. Inside, they discover that space station Deep Space Nine is intact and Vic Fontaine is living aboard it.

However, time and space are not functioning as normally they would within the Red Wormhole and despite the fact that the universe has ended, Sisko, Odo, Garak and Quark discover they can travel through time and space to Deep Space Nine and the Day of Withdrawal (the day the Cardassians left Terok Nor and the Bajoran system, about a week before the television series began). There they do their thing to try to prevent the entire mess, er, book from ever happening.

The most problematic aspect of Inferno is the beginning/ending. I can safely say that it will not ruin anyone's reading experience to know that the Star Trek universe is saved. The universe does not end (which one pretty much had to figure, given that this happened in the sixth season and there was a seventh season for the show) and the timeline is more or less reset (three people from the future end up in the distant past as prophets, though, so it's hard to see how that works) but Sisko is able to relate the story to the Prophets after he ascends following the series finale. This is roughly equivalent to a character talking about events in the season wipe out by the Patrick Duffy shower moment on Dallas. If it's reset and never happened, how could Sisko remember?!

But the process of getting there is an absolute mess. Characters run through various time frames trying to avoid one another and other versions of themselves. I get that, even though it's a little Back To The Future for me. But the entire premise is overdone and lacks a fundamental bit of sensibility and it is this: the idea doesn't work.

First, at the end of the first volume, Deep Space Nine is destroyed by the opening of the Red Wormhole. This is a violent rip in space and the authors describe it being torn apart. So, we see it torn to shreds, but it's perfectly intact in the Red Wormhole . . . Come to think of it, Weyoun became Kai when passing through the Red Wormhole with a fleet of ships: why didn't he see it in there? Okay, this sounds nitpicky - it's truly not, this is basic storytelling gone horribly wrong here - but perhaps the fundamental problem I have with the book will make sense to more people: the universe ends, the Red Wormhole is in the universe. Why does anything happen after that? It's not like there's some exception to the time/space continuum because it's the Red Wormhole; the apocalypse happens BECAUSE of the Red Wormhole coming into contact with the Celestial Temple. This is the equivalent to saying that when a match is lit, there is a piece that remains unignighted and it is up to something on that piece to try to put the rest of the match out. Utterly ridiculous.

And to accomplish this feat of plot resolution, in addition to gutting any conceits the Reeves-Stevens's established in the other novels, all sense of character is undone. Gone is any charm to Captain Nog, Admiral Picard and even Thomas Riker. Instead, the pocket universe with its collection of misfit encounters on Deep Space Nine reads like a French farce time travel story. It's all about plot and the characters are simply the pawns which make the plot possible. They do not so much make decisions guided by their own sense of values or ideas, they are moved around as the plot dictates, solely reacting to the situations they are faced with.

And it's just bad. On its own, it is a convoluted mess that is so self-referential that anyone who picks this book up on its own will be utterly and completely lost. There is nothing to this story to appeal to anyone who has not read the other two books. More than that, Inferno is likely to let down the vast majority of those who did read the other Millennium novels.

It's pretty bad when a fan of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine can find nothing so redeeming in a Deep Space Nine book by two authors they respect, save that the volume finally ends.

For other Star Trek novels, please visit my reviews of:
Federation by Judith And Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Avenger by William Shatner
Star Trek: The Motion Picture The Novel by Gene Roddenberry

1/10

For other novel reviews, be sure to check out my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the fiction books I have reviewed!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Millennium Trilogy Continues With The War Of The Prophets, The Best Of The Bad Bunch!

The Good: Concept with moments of execution, Hints of character
The Bad: Lack of genuine sense of danger/menace, Writing style
The Basics: Despite having a chance to recreate and destroy the Star Trek universe, two masters fall down with a decent middle act of a terrible trilogy.


Trilogies are a tough thing when they are telling a single story in three volumes. I appreciate that, as both a writer and a reader. Sometimes, though, I wonder why some people bother with them, though this more from a reader's perspective. In the case of the Millennium trilogy of books in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series, I wonder why revered Star Trek authors Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens sullied themselves with this one. If the Star Trek universe is going to end, it's not going to be done in book form, no matter how many people consider them to be cannon. Yet, from the outset of The War Of The Prophets we are meant to believe that the end of the universe is coming and there is no hope for those trying to stop it!

Having reviewed volume one of the Millennium trilogy, The Fall Of Terok Nor (reviewed here!), on its own, I felt somewhat compelled to continue with the series. The War Of The Prophets is the second book in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Millennium Trilogy. For those who insist upon going against my ultimate recommendation and looking into this book and series, the far more economical way to do it would be to pick up the Millennium omnibus (reviewed here!). Because Pocket Books made no bones about how they were producing a trilogy with these books, they are clearly intended to fit together and those who suffer through this novel are probably going to want to find out how the book continues and ends. The best way to do that is through the omnibus edition.

The War Of The Prophets explores the world of the future in the Star Trek timeline, wherein the Bajoran Ascendancy - a fanatical group led by Kai Weyoun - has just about decimated the known universe in a religious war to bring about the end of the universe. With space station Deep Space Nine destroyed by the Red Wormhole opening in Quark's Bar and most of the important crew members from it stuck on the U.S.S. Defiant and trapped outside linear space for twenty-five years, the universe has pretty much gone to hell. The Ascendancy has taken over, the result of a war with the Grigari, a race discovered on the other side of the Red Wormhole.

The crew of the USS Defiant, thrown into the future when the red wormhole opened, arrive to a very dark universe. Kai Weyoun sets about capturing Benjamin Sisko, believing his presence is needed to help bring about the apocalypse. Other members of the crew interact with the last remnants of the StarFleet of the day, which is on a desperate mission to stop the Ascendancy and make sure the end of the universe does not come. This effort is led by Captain Nog, one of the few members of the Federation/Borg alliance. He works under the senile Admiral Picard, who is doing what he can to try to save the future of the universe, despite being pretty much crazy by this point.

As Sisko resists and Thomas Riker comes into the mix, those fighting to end and save the universe clash.

Sigh. Where does one start on a project like this? Let's go with the things I enjoyed about The War Of The Prophets, because it's likely to be a short list. Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens are certainly the right people to reforge the Star Trek universe and they do a decent job of making a much darker vision of the universe. They play it out well in some respects, like references to the entire Klingon Empire being wiped out in an attempt to circumvent the Ascendancy's main forces by traveling through the Mirror Universe!

In order to make this whole concept work, the Grigari - a race mentioned in passing in the Star Trek novel Federation (reviewed here!) - are brought in to help create the menacing Bajoran Ascendancy. The Grigari end the Dominion War by simply wiping out the Dominion and Cardassia before they turn their sights to doing exactly what the Dominion was doing! In the dark future of The War Of The Prophets, they have more or less succeeded. As StarFleet attempts to use the Guardian of Forever to stop the Ascendancy, it is the Grigari who are present to try to thwart them. In other words, The War Of The Prophets is filled with characters and situations completely unique to the novel and, frankly, it stretches the limits of suspension of disbelief, even for die-hard fans of Star Trek.

Still, it is pretty cool to read about such things as Project Phoenix and Looking Glass. Captain Nog makes for an intriguing, tormented character. And the Reeves-Stevens's do something no other author has succeeded in presenting plausibly: they make us believe that the Borg Collective could have allied with the remnants of the Federation against the greater threat (the Ascendancy). In that respect, the novel works and even the passing character elements are enough to push the book up into average territory (even if I still would not recommend it).

That said, The War Of The Prophets is still pretty bad. First, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens do not seem to be up to their usual standards of writing in this book. The phrasing tends to be expository and dull, lacking in any sense of poetics. As a result, much of the book reads like a text book and far too much time is spent with characters explaining how the plot works. And some of the coolest concepts of what made the dark universe that we see in the book is reduced to a few simple lines (like what happened to the Klingon Empire).

Part of that, though, has to do with the Reeves-Stevens working in a universe they do not seem to want to believe is dark. This is not entirely their fault, but they certainly play into it in The War Of The Prophets. One of the beautiful things about Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is what is not shown on screen, which allows us to make our own conclusions. We are told in various episodes that when Cardassian joined the Dominion, one of the first favors the Dominion did for Cardassia was eradicate the Maquis. In fact, in one episode, viewers witnessed the final enclave of Maquis soldiers escaping the Jem'Hadar. The Maquis are dead in Star Trek cannon. We get it and it's pretty cool, because it instantly established the brutality of the Dominion. These are not people who wait around for a lengthy trial with appeals. You commit terrorism, bang, you're dead!

So, we are being asked to believe that while the Dominion would wipe out every terrorist on the borders, they wouldn't kill the ones that are in prison?! Come on! I am referring here to the presence of Thomas Riker. Thomas Riker is set free by the Grigari when they are wiping out the Dominion. Why do the Reeves-Stevens join the pack mentality of writers determined to keep this pointless character alive as opposed to acknowledging that when he no longer had a purpose, the Dominion would have executed him! After all, if Gul Dukat had wanted to curry favor with Major Kira by keeping Thomas Riker alive for her (the only viable theory I can come up with for his continued existence), wouldn't he have turned Riker over the moment he became the head of state of Cardassia?! And using Thomas Riker to replace William Riker is an utterly asinine idea when one understands that the Dominion is run by shapeshifters (i.e. they don't need Thomas Riker to replace William!). So, the whole plot with Thomas Riker seems pointless and is executed in a way that ultimately just kills pages in the book.

Ultimately, The War Of The Prophets is a necessary evil, a middle act that pretty much has to happen, given that the prior book opened the Red Wormhole and caused the Defiant crew to fall out of time. But what is here is a complicated narrative told to the reader and told without any real sense of style, much like a child pitching a story idea of "wouldn't it be cool if . . .?" To which the natural response is, "okay, what else, where do you want to go with that idea?" But, being a child, the response is just more ideas of "wouldn't it be cool if . . .?" And that's pretty much what happens with The War Of The Prophets.

"Wouldn't it be cool if there was a second wormhole and a race even worse than the Dominion and they enslaved most of the galaxy and was ready to bring about the end of they universe?" Okay . . . so what happens? Sadly, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens leave a lot at the end of this book to answer that question and on the surface, it seems they don't even know.

For other Star Trek novels, please check out my reviews of:
Imzadi - Peter David
The Return - William Shatner
Diplomatic Implausibility - Keith R.A. DeCandido

5/10

For other novel reviews, please check out my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the books I have reviewed!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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It's The End Of The World . . . As DS9 Knows It (I Feel Blah). The Fall Of Terok Nor Disappoints.

The Good: Sets up the middle act well, General knowledge of Star Trek history
The Bad: Boring, Obvious, Not terribly well written, Requires far too much suspension of disbelief, Sacrifices character for plot.
The Basics: In a disappointing outing from two masters of Star Trek, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens present a murder investigation that leads to an entirely different story.


The best Star Trek writers are the ones who look at the Star Trek universe and either figure out how it all fits together best (like Peter David tying elements like the Doomsday Machine into the Borg) to make the disparate elements make more sense or those who address a serious lack in the narrative of the franchise (like Michael Jan Friedman's ambitious histories of Jean-Luc Picard before he took command of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D or even the way some writers bring in neglected ethnic minorities). Two people whose work in the books was so impressive at the former concept that they were asked to write for the show are Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. Their mastery of putting together the elements in the Star Trek universe that make little sense on their own was what compelled the producers of Star Trek: Enterprise to give them a crack at making the cannon version of why there are two severely different looks for Klingons in the Star Trek universe. They delivered a story that was quite possibly the best it could be given the problematic elements of original series Klingons appearing as modern (full make-up and ridges) Klingons on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

So, no matter what, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens are two people who have proven they know the Star Trek universe backward and . . . well, with The Fall Of Terok Nor, we see their vision of "forward." Unfortunately, it is hardly as compelling as we might hope. Actually, The Fall Of Terok Nor is not so much the disappointing flash forward into the Reeves-Stevens Future of Trek, but rather an incredibly boring setup to get the reader there in the future.

The Fall Of Terok Nor is the first book in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Millennium Trilogy. For those who insist upon going against my ultimate recommendation and looking into this book and series, the far more economical way to do it would be to pick up the Millennium omnibus (reviewed here!). Because Pocket Books made no bones about how they were producing a trilogy with these books, they are clearly intended to fit together and those who suffer through this novel are probably going to want to find out how the book continues and ends. The best way to do that is through the omnibus edition. That said . . .

The Fall Of Terok Nor begins with a fairly standard murder investigation on Deep Space Nine. Set after the televised episode "The Sound of Her Voice" and before "Tears of the Prophets" at the end of the sixth season, the book begins in the darkest hours of the Dominion War. Sisko and his crew are waiting for approval for the first real offensive against the Dominion and as the crew goes about its usual thing, a trader associated with Quark is found dead. Dal Nortron, an Andorian who is helping Quark peddle the mysterious and legendary Red Orb, has been killed and Odo is convinced Quark is a murderer.

The investigation into Nortron's death exposes a mysterious section of the station that does not appear on any of the schematics, a Cardassian laboratory that has ties to the Day of Withdrawal (the day the Cardassians left Deep Space Nine), and the Bajoran pah wraith cults that have been formed around the belief in the mysterious Red Orbs of Jalbador. With Deep Space nine filling up with traders and rogues like the archaeologist Vash, it quickly becomes apparent that the Red Orbs do exist and when they are proximate to one another bad things will happen.

The premise of The Fall Of Terok Nor is that the Red Orbs, which aren't supposed to even exist, could belong to the Pah Wraiths - malevolent, non-corporal entities that are like the Prophets in Star Trek Deep Space Nine, save that they are evil. Thus, the bringing together of the three Red Orbs is supposed to trigger a cataclysmic event, in this case, the opening of a red wormhole and then - twenty-five years later - the end of the known universe. In order to make this premise work, Quark and Odo begin to remember the final days of the Occupation and the Cardassian Withdrawal, which leads them to a secret room in the bowels of the station that has somehow gone unnoticed because of shielding or just Chief O'Brien being sloppy.

But fundamentally, the problem with The Fall Of Terok Nor is that Odo, Garak, and Quark are all revealed to have memory loss surrounding the Cardassian Withdrawal that is associated with the mysterious room and the Cardassian attempts to study the Red Orbs. This is roughly equivalent to a child telling a joke (poorly) and providing vital information for the punchline after the line has been delivered (". . .what you didn't know is that the man was talking to a cocker spaniel, you know?"). In other words, in order to make this premise even partially plausible, the reader has to assume the validity of a whole lot of information that was never presented in the series.

And it's a bit of a stretch.

By "bit of a stretch," what I truly mean is "it taxes suspension of disbelief far beyond the reader's ability to buy the premise." First, The Fall Of Terok Nor begins as a very standard, pedestrian murder investigation. In other words, the novel begins with a fairly boring premise and it is only in the course of the murder of Dal Nortron that Odo stumbles into the real mystery. But between the death, the many accusations against Quark and the discovery of the Orbs Of Jalbador, it's a whole lot of boredom of the most typical and formulaic murder investigation story.

When the Red Orbs are introduced as a concept, they do not seem like a bad idea. Indeed, they make quite a bit of sense on the surface. When the Pah Wraiths were first introduced in "The Assignment" (reviewed here!), they were a fairly impressive concept: enemies for the gods of Bajor. That's a great idea, come to think of it (something that people tend to forget is even the Biblical god has enemies, indeed, much of the Old Testament is essentially god lining up humans against its enemies - "worship no other gods but me . . ."). The problem I suddenly have with the concept of the Red Orbs - coming up as I review this book and consider the way it fits into the larger Star Trek universe - is that when the Pah Wraiths first show up in "The Assignment," shouldn't they have started a massive hunt for the Red Orbs, as opposed to trying to witlessly destroy the Celestial Temple? Not addressed in The Fall Of Terok Nor.

But once the prophecy of the end of the universe is laid out from the coming together of the three orbs, the reader is pretty much just waiting for it to come true because that's how prophecies in the Star Trek universe tend to work. And Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens don't disappoint, they get there. But again, this is hardly the engaging story it could be and by the time they get where they tell us it is going, the book is over, all set up for the next volume.

Problematically, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens telegraph far too much of the book. Because of what happens in the secret room on Deep Space Nine, the reader is set up for yet another time travel type adventure which will involve characters running around avoiding alternate versions of themselves. Is that in The Fall Of Terok Nor? No, but it is set up to go there and part of the fundamental problem with the book is that it is entirely predictable.

Moreover, this is not the best-written book by this pair. The writing is very expository and it does not flow terribly well. Instead, it reads like a technical manual as the writers assemble the disparate elements of the Star Trek universe needed to tell their story. Instead of reading like a coherent narrative, it reads like a forensic team assembling a book.

In the process, the Reeve-Stevens' sacrifice even the pretense of character in favor of plot. The Fall Of Terok Nor is all about what is happening in the murder investigation and in relation to the appearance of the Red Wormhole with no real time to reflect from the characters. The closest we get is the sudden introduction of memory loss with Odo, Quark and Garak and the sudden revelation that Jake and Nog knew about a hidden holosuite where they used to play . . . it's droll, poorly presented and does not sell the rest of the series. Considering where the volumes are going, that might not be a bad thing.

It is worth noting that Reeves-Stevens do make their usual bevy of allusions, including many references to the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series premiere, "Emissary" as well as to events in the Dominion War.

For other Star Trek book reviews, please visit my takes on:
Vendetta By Peter David
Federation By Judith And Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Ashes Of Eden By William Shatner

3.5/10

For other Star Trek novels reviewed by me, please check out my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Millennium: A Dud From Two Masters Of Trek

The Good: The timeline in the back, The middle section
The Bad: Language, Storyline, Oversights, typos
The Basics: Despite a strong, interesting middle filled with exposition about cool events in an alternate timeline, Millennium is a disappointing read and not worth the effort.


I was biased toward Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Millennium from the moment it first came out. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is my favorite television show of all time. I was biased towards the Millennium books because they were written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, who have a tremendous knowledge of the Star Trek universe that I respect. They are the writing team that make William Shatner's Trek books into something other than an ego stroke for Shatner. And, to be honest, the covers of the Millennium books were downright cool.

I was biased towards the books, heavily.

So, when I saw that Pocket Books had put out an omnibus version of the Millennium books, putting all three volumes, The Fall of Terok Nor, The War Of The Prophets and Inferno into one giant book, I knew it was time for me to pick it up. I did. And I read it.

I'll make this simple and save you the real time of reading the rest of this review and the actual book; don't bother. This one is a real, absolute dud. I don't know how Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens did it, considering the quality of several of their other books (most notably Federation, reviewed here!), but they managed to write a complete piece of crap that I cannot possibly recommend.

Millennium begins with a fairly standard murder investigation on Deep Space Nine. Set after the televised episode "The Sound Of Her Voice" and before "Tears Of The Prophets" at the end of the sixth season, the book begins in the darkest hours of the Dominion War. Sisko and his crew are waiting for approval for the first real offensive against the Dominion and as the crew goes about its usual thing, a trader associated with Quark is found dead. Dal Nortron, an Andorian who is helping Quark peddle the mysterious and legendary Red Orb, has been killed and Odo is convinced Quark is a murderer.

The investigation into Nortron's death exposes a mysterious section of the station that does not appear on any of the schematics, a Cardassian laboratory that has ties to the Day of Withdrawal (the day the Cardassians left Deep Space Nine), and the Bajoran pah wraith cults that have been formed around the belief in the mysterious Red Orbs of Jalbador. The premise of the first section of the novel is that the Red Orbs, which aren't supposed to even exist, could belong to the Pah Wraiths - malevolent, non-corporal entities that are like the Prophets in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, save that they are evil. Thus, the bringing together of the three Red Orbs is supposed to trigger a cataclysmic event, in this case, the opening of a red wormhole and then - twenty-five years later - the end of the known universe.

The second portion of the novel explores the world of the future in the Star Trek timeline, wherein the Bajoran Ascendancy - a fanatical group led by Kai Weyoun - has just about decimated the known universe in a religious war to bring about the end of the universe. The crew of the USS Defiant, thrown into the future when the red wormhole opened, interacts with the last remnants of the StarFleet of the day, which is on a desperate mission to stop the Ascendancy and make sure the end of the universe does not come.

The last section of the novel resolves all of the various plotlines and puts us back into the known universe of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Okay, what sold me on buying this novel in the first place? It sounded cool. The idea of StarFleet in tatters, Weyoun - the Dominion puppet - being a religious icon in the Bajoran faith, and all of the twists that would come from twenty-five years of warfare against a brutal enemy (the Dominion is gone, replaced with the Grigari). It sounded cool and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens seemed to be the ones to pull off such a story. Indeed, the idea of a Star Trek novel directly tackling the end of the universe seemed cool.

Why did it fail?

First off, and I recognize that this book was originally three shorter books, the process of getting there is too long, far too boring, and - regrettably - not worth it when we do get there. The middle portion of the book is the strongest part. Seeing all of the differences and twists on the characters in the beleaguered remnants of StarFleet is very cool. The middle section, where we meet Captain Nog and the senile Admiral Picard, and learn about Project Pheonix and the effort to save the future of the universe is very cool.

The first major problem is that it takes far too long to get there. The book belabors the investigation into the murder of Dal Nortron, a character introduced solely to die and set an investigation into his death into motion. The problem is we have no vested interest in Dal Nortron and after the first one hundred to two hundred pages of the book, we couldn't care less who killed him. Added to that is the pointless addition of a new character, a Bajoran named Arla Rees. Rees is a Bajoran who grew up on a colony and thus missed the Occupation and has no belief in the Prophets. Rees is bland, unlikable, and serves only as a counterpoint to Major Kira and her deep seated faith in the Prophets. In short, she adds nothing to the mix and stands out in the novel as being present simply to make a point and to be relevant to the plot. And when Rees does the most significant acts that turn the plot on her character, it comes far too late in the book and the reader doesn't care a bit about her.

The first part of the book was so slow, so poorly constructed as far as keeping my interest, that I found myself turning in this omnibus edition to the edition's sole difference from the three separate volumes; a timeline of the story. Included at the back of the book is a very nice timeline that shows what happens when in this story (for the events of the first two volumes, it would be almost impossible to have added the events of the third novel into the timeline). Reading the timeline encouraged me to read the rest of the book.

What a disappointment.

Why? The timeline is much more interesting than the events of the book. For example, the timeline cites "2388 . . . Project Looking Glass. A massive Klingon fleet commanded by Chancellor Martok transitions to the Mirror Universe and attempts to take the Bajor System by force." Then there are roughly five lines that follow telling the result of the attack. I read that (and other events) in the timeline and said, "Cool. That's going to be an awesome scene when I get to it!" The problem is, in the middle of the book, while Worf is demanding of a StarFleet captain where all the Klingons are in this dark new timeperiod, the answer is almost identical to the description in the timeline. Therefore, we do not "see" Project Looking Glass, it is described to us in a few lines of exposition to answer another question that simply explains this new, decimated galaxy. Almost all of the events mentioned in the timeline are like that; they elude to interesting, very complicated scenes, which are stated in the text as simple exposition, explanations of plot events that happen "off camera."

This leads to a remarkably unsatisfying feeling when reading Millennium. All of the best parts happen in the interval between the opening of the Red Wormhole and the reappearance of the Defiant in the future.

Even more unsatisfying is the results of all of the efforts of the middle section. The middle section of the book is a build-up to the end of the universe. Because the Defiant is thrown into the future in this book between two episodes in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine television show, there are certain things the reader knows upon sitting down to read the book. The crew is going to find a way out of this predicament. We know that. There are plenty more episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine following this book. Thus, we know that everyone survives somehow and the universe is restored.

So, then, why do Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens bogart from one of the worst episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine to make the novel work? I refer to the terrible episode "Destiny," wherein a prophecy is introduced in the first act and by the end of the show it has come to pass, when those look at it from a certain perspective. In Millennium Judith and Garfield make the case that everything that happens - with all of the time-travel elements - has already happened and thus it was going to happen again the same way. However, because of the nature of the end of the universe, the universe has to end in order for our characters to make the journeys they need to to make the original events play out. If it sounds confusing, well, that's time travel.

The problem that this raises is that it makes the writers ridiculously timid. What could be a daring and dark storyline is undone from the beginning by the temporal mechanics of the story. In short, because the plot dictates that certain events will happen, things that defy the sensibilities of the plot occur as well. The universe the crew of the Defiant finds themselves in is very dark, yet the crew takes no casualties among the main cast. Indeed, at the climax of the first section, as the red wormhole is opening in Quark's Bar, it seems inconceivable that everyone would manage to get off the station. Yet, even the characters that would have very low priority for being beamed out (like Quark) manage to get rescued.

In short, the novel suffers because the authors worked the plot in such a way that made them less daring on the character and realism aspects. The real sense of peril is absent from the story once we understand the true reason why Captain Nog is determined to get back to the past. From that point on, it is simply a matter of watching how the pieces come together to make it all happen and the results are far from satisfying.

Indeed, the whole last third of the book is almost as bad as the first third, filled with questions that cannot be answered well. For example, the presence of Deep Space Nine in the pocket universe makes no real sense. Why? Deep Space Nine exists in a nonlinear frame of reference for no explicable reason. The station only disappeared once (when the Red Wormhole opened) and it appeared pretty well destroyed when that happened. There is no acceptable answer given for how the station survived being destroyed the first time, much less the presence of Vic Fontaine on it. Even worse is the senseless sense of movement throughout time that those on the station go through. People on the station jump back and forth in time on Deep Space Nine between key dates in the plot. However, Deep Space Nine only existed in the same space for one of those events. That is to say that for whatever other problems might be revealed by Deep Space Nine appearing in the pocket universe after its apparent destruction, the time travel through it makes no sense. Deep Space Nine was destroyed by the Red Wormhole when it opened. Granted. However, the crew also manages to find themselves on the station over six years in the past. The station would have been orbiting Bajor at the time. Thus, it would not have occupied the same physical space as the Deep Space Nine that was destroyed by the Red Wormhole.

The novel is peppered with a number of startling errors like that. I say "startling" because Judith and Garfield usually have the most expert sense of knowledge about the Star Trek universe. However, there are errors like the position of Deep Space Nine and Weyoun refers to the Defiant as the first starship to pass through the wormhole, though it was not. Even more annoying are the spelling errors. This book - even in its omnibus version - contains several errors in spelling. That's annoying.

In fact, after the first fifty pages, I was ready to give up on this book because it wasn't grabbing me (and I read all of Finnegan's Wake (reviewed here!) even though I couldn't understand what it was saying!) and that's something I never do. If the timeline in the book had not convinced me the opening was setting up for a very cool middle and end, I would have given up on it. The only thing I would have missed was a cheap laugh at the end.

In the final pages of this nine hundred thirty-nine page behemoth, there is an in-joke to fans of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine involving Dax and Gul Dukat. Is it worth the journey to get to that? Absolutely not.

I love Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and I've long been a fan of the Star Trek novels written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. But Star Trek Deep Space Nine Millennium is a real dud that is not worth one's time or effort to read.

This is an omnibus edition of the novels that were originally released separately as the Millennium Trilogy. They were:
The Fall Of Terok Nor
The War Of The Prophets
Inferno

3/10

For other book reviews, please visit my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the books I have reviewed!

© 2012, 2008, 2005 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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They Should Have Made This Into A Movie! Star Trek: Federation Succeeds As A Brilliant, Clever Crossover!

The Good: Good character development, Well paced, good plot, well put together, diction
The Bad: Tech-heavy
The Basics: Surprisingly engaging and intelligent, Federation succeeds for Trek fans and people who like well conceived literature.


Every now and then a series does something terribly, terribly wrong. In the case of the Star Trek franchise, I'd count the film Star Trek: First Contact (reviewed here!) as one such failure. I would encourage one to read my review of Star Trek First Contact for my reasoning. Reading this review reveals information about the Star Trek episode "Metamorphosis" that I did not reveal in my review of that episode (which is available here!).

It is, however, impossible to discuss this book without revealing the facts I purposely left out of my review of "Metamorphosis."

Star Trek First Contact was written without any respect to the principles of the original Star Trek. The "history" of the Star Trek universe is bastardized and the problems those who wrote Star Trek First Contact face are centered around the character Zephram Cochrane. Zephram Cochrane is the man, in the Star Trek universe, who first travels using warp speed, that is travels beyond the speed of light. In his wisdom, Gene Roddenberry needed a convenient way to defy physics and he did it with flair using "warp fields" which change the nature of space to make it possible to travel faster than light. There are tons of geeks that can tell you how all of this is supposed to work, I'm not one of them. The character Zephram Cochrane miraculously appears in Star Trek in the episode "Metamorphosis" as "Zephram Cochrane? Of Alpha Centauri?" It seems that important line was completely missed by those who wrote Star Trek First Contact.

Federation is an example of the series doing something incredibly right.

Ironically, the novel, Federation was written after the first Star Trek The Next Generation film Star Trek Generations. They ought to have made a film of Federation as opposed to making Star Trek Generations and, especially Star Trek First Contact. For starters, it's a better crossover between the two crews.

In truth, Federation is a triumph for the Star Trek universe and especially for the novelists. Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens are actually exemplary writers. The level of diction, their vocabulary, is higher than most every other Star Trek writer as well as most genre writers in general.

Federation is a weaving. It begins as a braid between three times in the history of the United Federation of Planets (the organization the Enterprises are in in the Star Trek universe). The first is before the actual birth of the Federation with the seminal event in human history that leads to the formation of that organization; the successful invention of the warp drive and the establishment of human colonies outside our solar system. This time period focuses on Zephram Cochrane, the man who makes the first warp flight and helps establish a colony on a planet near Alpha Centauri. Zephram Cochrane is funded by an idealist named Micah Brack (who is possibly an allusion to Flint in the Star Trek episode "Requiem for Methuselah") and hunted by a military man named Adrik Thorsen. Thorsen is one of the leaders in the Optimum Movement, a Nazi-esque regime in the late-21st Century, who believes Cochrane knows the secret to making Warp Drive - the propulsion method - into a weapon. His pursuit of the mythical and physically impossible "warp bomb" leads him to chase Zephram in a serious and deadly obsession. Their conflict is pretty much your basic "idealist wants to do what's best for humanity while villain seeks to thwart him" plot. In true Star Trek tradition, this is not a "kill the villain at the end" plot, instead it becomes a philosophical debate over how far to go in punishing the wicked.

The second part of the braid is the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise, mostly Kirk, Spock and McCoy. Why? They're the three crew people focused on in "Metamorphosis" who find Zephram Cochrane mysteriously alive and de-aged in the episode. They are also the triumvirate who promise not to tell the rest of the universe that Zephram is alive and well, at his request. Well, Federation which also alludes powerfully to the episode "Journey to Babel," focuses on what happens after the episode when Captain Kirk's sealed log is broken into and mysterious persons begin a hunt for Zephram. Unfortunately, Kirk is put in the unenviable position of having to face the problematic aspects that come with his decision. The Enterprise is then pitted in battle, then in philosophical debate with an enemy who is ruthless and believes in his cause.

The third braid is the Next Generation crew and through a series of long twists and turns, a conspiracy is created wherein the Enterprise-D comes into possession of an artifact that is ancient and contains an impressive power that threatens to destroy much of the Federation.

The first braid, obviously ends in a place that sets up what is known in "Metamorphosis" and thankfully the authors did their homework. In fact, the novel is meticulous in the attention to detail about what is known in the Trek universe. The second braid leads to a black hole and a heap of trouble, the third leads to the same stellar phenomenon for an attempt to resolve everything.

The weaving is effective and the characters, especially Zephram Cochrane, are well portrayed. They speak well, they are engaging and the moral codes they follow are compelling. Ironically, though it precedes his portrayal of Zephram Cochrane in Star Trek First Contact, there are many places where it's easy to see James Cromwell as Zephram, especially in his elder years. The novel is very well paced, in fact, it is often intriguing enough that it becomes hard to stop reading and that is very effective.

The only true fault of this novel is in the level of technobabble. There are many places that are very thick in the physics, even contrived, that make it hard to follow. Fortunately, most of this comes at the early beginning and the very end. The "crossover" aspect of the two generations is an act of physics that requires a degree to understand completely. It's still well written, but it takes a lot to keep it all straight and comprehensible.

Outside that, the novel is remarkably well put together; the three time periods are distinct, the links between them are concrete and told with realism.

But like all good and great literature, stuff above the common pulp garbage flooding the market, the characters are characters. They are interesting and they reveal deeper thoughts on the human condition. In Federation they do it very well. There are great insights into the nature of technological advancement and the nature of its relation to warfare as it applies to the development of humanity.

Suspend your disbelief, watch reference episodes of Star Trek ("Metamorphosis," "Journey to Babel," and "Requiem For Methuselah") and Star Trek The Next Generation ("Sarek") and hunker down with some cocoa for a phenomenal read!

For other Star Trek books, please check out:
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Imzadi
I, Q

7.5/10

For other book reviews, please check out my index page on the subject here!

© 2011, 2007, 2002 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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