Review by C.J. Bunce
Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Jean-Luc Picard and Wesley Crusher have come a long way since their final mission together, an away team excursion gone bad (don’t they all) in the episode “Final Mission.” Picard and Wesley are together again in the latest Star Trek: Picard tie-in novel, Star Trek: Picard–To Defy Fate, long-time Star Trek author Dayton Ward’s latest multifaceted return to some of Trek’s favorite characters. The book is available now for pre-order here at Amazon, in stores next week. If you are a fan of the recent three-season Paramount+ streaming series Picard, get ready for a sequel that would have made a great Season 2 and Season 3 all by itself. If you haven’t seen the series or aren’t a fan, don’t worry–your understanding of all the Star Trek episodes that came before, especially time travel episodes, is all you need toenjoy this action-packed story you can absorb in one sitting.
The seventh novel for the Picard series, this story is a return to the fun provided by John Jackson Miller in his novel Star Trek: Picard–Rogue Elements (reviewed here). It also is a direct follow-up to the Star Trek Coda trilogy installment Moments Asunder (reviewed here), also by Dayton Ward, which sets in motion future Wesley Crusher and Star Trek’s version of the 21st century fiction staple, the Multiverse. Taking place soon after the events in the final season of the Picard series, the story brings together Picard, Wesley, Beverly Crusher, Seven of Nine, and Raffi Mustafar, along with players from earlier series and future series. Someone is changing the past, sporadically across history, the kind of thing that would have prompted a certain time travel authority back in the day. Alternate timelines, parallels, dire consequences, scientific theories, familiar alien races, future tech, and even a new character that made me think of the 1980s sci-fi movie Explorers and maybe one or more classic sci-fi TV characters played by Billy Mumy.
But the best reason to read this novel is the vindication it provides to Wesley Crusher–and maybe even Wil Wheaton, who for whatever reason was displaced in the Picard series by new character Jack Crusher. I am not a fan of late-breaking major characters, especially when there is the perfect character on the sidelines ready to be called in for the play. Dayton Ward gives Wesley the big story he deserves, drawing from Wesley’s agreement to join the mysterious Traveler in the TNG episode “Journey’s End” and showing readers what he’s been up to, while bringing together the appropriate key players from Trekdom for the latest mission that taps Jean-Luc Picard and the former Enterprise-D crew to attempt to save the galaxy.
The deep dives, Easter eggs, and throwbacks pull from and connect the dots of all the best Trek time travel episodes. And not just from TNG. Think movies, and not just those movies but those other movies, too. Okay, maybe not the whales. In fact a few dozen pages into the story I started tallying all the episodes I hoped Ward would encounter in this story. He didn’t miss a beat, even tapping into elements from one of my own favorite movie prequel comic books. It’d be great to know if Wheaton has read his character’s latest exploits in Moments Asunder and gets his hands on To Defy Fate–even better if he’d narrate the audio version.
The book prompted me to pull up this photo I took at San Diego Comic-Con nearly two-mumble decades ago of a panel featuring Wheaton, Ward, frequent writing partner Kevin Dilmore, and moderated by Margaret Clark, who was responsible for Star Trek publications for decades and passed away last year. Ward dedicated this novel to her. Keep your eyes open–I think I caught an Easter egg for her in the story.
As with Moments Asunder, you’ll find some of the most fun you can have in Star Trek fiction happens when writers are free to take off their gloves, roll up their sleeves, and pull in key players from throughout the 60 years of the franchise.
This one is a great read for every flavor of Star Trek fan. From Simon & Schuster/Gallery Books, Star Trek: Picard–To Defy Fate is available for pre-order now here at Amazon.
