In the last Nerd Search series book, Star Trek: Quibbles with Tribbles, fans of Star Trek’s original series were challenged about their detailed knowledge of the space adventures of Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scotty, Uhura, and Chekov. A “Where’s Waldo?” type game with puzzles just like in that doctor’s office waiting room staple Highlights magazine–requiring you know truly trivial details of the series, it was a light-hearted book of fun for Trekkers and Trekkies everywhere. In Star Trek: The Next Generation: Bloopers of the Borg, this next colorful hardcover book of the series switches gears to Star Trek: The Next Generation, and like its predecessor it will challenge every fan of the show.
Insidious. That’s the nature of the threat to all life in the trilogy of novels called Star Trek Coda, which winds-up in David Mack’s character- and action-packed novel Oblivion’s Gate, coming to bookstores tomorrow. Star Wars gave us the Death Star, but at least you could try to negotiate with the Empire. The enemy here is more like a virus, where resistance may–this time–actually really be futile.
For every effort worth fighting for, somebody will stand in the way, attempting to thwart actions even when they are aimed to benefit everyone. In this tale that role falls to Will Riker, although readers will find a different twist, different from doppelganger Thomas Riker but also similar, more Tuvix actually. And despite the twist this Riker is as brilliant as ever. As with Coda book one, Dayton Ward’s Moments Asunder (reviewed here), and book two, James Swallow’s The Ashes of Tomorrow (reviewed here), Mack pulls some of our favorite supporting characters in for a swan song of epic proportions.
Earlier this month here at borg I reviewed Moments Asunder, Dayton Ward’s first act in a trilogy of books that are intended as a major shift in the tie-in novel universe of Star Trek. The story is a giant convergence of many major nexuses of the Star Trek television series’ casts of characters from the original series to Voyager, with an older and wise Wesley Crusher as experienced Traveler (see TNG: “Journey’s End”) at the heart of the tale. The book is an engaging read and fun-filled start to the trilogy full of great throwbacks and surprises. The action doesn’t let up in the second novel, James Swallow’s The Ashes of Tomorrow, which digs deeper into the futures of all the key Deep Space Nine characters, and it pits Jean-Luc Picard against an old colleague and friend.
It may seem a long time coming, but the Star Trek tie-in novels and the new era of Star Trek television series are finally becoming one. On the heels of Disney discarding decades of Star Wars stories written after the original movie trilogy into a bin called the Expanded Universe, Star Trek’s novel writers have embarked on a shoring-up of the franchise’s decades of novels with a single trilogy of novels. Titled Star Trek Coda, the novels lean into what Star Wars can’t–it’s sci-fi multiverse. As discussed last week in my review of Rizwan Virk’s The Simulated Multiverse, lots of science fiction relies on the multiple timeline, parallel universe, alternate history tropes to expand opportunities for storytelling, something Star Trek fans have known since 1966. In the first novel of the Coda trilogy, Moments Asunder, author Dayton Ward takes the crews of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager there and back again, to places that will be both familiar and new to television audiences, while continuing stories–and characters–that fans of the novels will know well. But the future for some of your favorite Federation heroes is dicey, so take heed.
Ancient philosophers have discussed the concept for millenia: What is the nature of life? Are we part of the plan of an architect of all things or do we have a say in our future? The latest exploration of this subject uses science fiction stories as analogies to these unanswered questions in The Simulated Multiverse, by Rizwan Virk. Virk skips over the scientific method to dabble in ideas of pseudoscience like Erich von Däniken or an episode of In Search Of…, blending bits of the history of science with the “what ifs” of a Dan Brown novel, James Rollins’ The Last Odyssey, or the Wachowskis’ The Matrix. It’s an interesting trip full of elements that are integral to understanding much of pop culture fiction. The book’s impetus is an obscure postulate by science fiction’s own Philip K. Dick, and the conversation interconnects everything from Sliders to Star Trek.
Of all the new characters created since Scott Bakula’s Enterprise went off the air and J.J. Abrams and Alex Kurtzman took the reins of the Star Trek franchise, one of the best contributions is Santiago Cabrera’s Cristóbal Rios, captain of the vessel La Sirena, a ship staffed by a motley myriad of holograms that mirror Rios’s image. In John Jackson Miller’s new Star Trek: Picardtie-in novel Rogue Elements, readers will learn the back story of Rios, how he got his ship, and how he was destined to have a run-in with Jean-Luc Picard, sooner or later. A familiar brand of space pilot, call him rogue or scoundrel or buckaroo, Rios had encounters before the days of Star Trek: Picard–the series–with several characters you’ll know well from Star Trek: The Next Generation and beyond, including the most ruthless villain the Enterprise-D may have ever faced. Star Trek: Picard–Rogue Elements is just out, available now here at Amazon and bookstores everywhere.
Nausicaans, dead Ferengi, and dead Klingons? Oh, my!
When we last saw Patrick Stewart′s good Captain Jean-Luc Picard, he seemingly died and came back to life as something new. In the first season of CBS All Access’s latest live-action Star Trek incarnation, Star Trek: Picard, audiences met a primarily new crew of characters supporting the efforts of Picard–and a range of good villains. Stewart has said he decided to bring his character back to the screen because of the role he performed for even more years than Picard–Charles Xavier in the X-Men series–specifically the strong finish he was able to give the character in James Mangold’s Oscar-nominated finale Logan. Stewart succeeded, as Star Trek: Picard showcased the beloved character as Old Man Picard and wrapped far better fans’ last meeting with not only Picard, but Data, Riker, and Troi, too. And surprisingly it did that for Star Trek Voyager, specifically for Jeri Ryan′s Seven of Nine, who also had a rather anticlimactic finale in the last episode of that series.
Now audiences have a first look at Season 2, and an official poster with hints at a voyage back to an era closer to our own time as seen in Star Trek Voyager and Star Trek IV–and echoes of the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Check it out below.
It really has all the mirrors, at least as far as Star Trek: The Next Generation is concerned–the TV series that never got around to an official Mirror Universe episode–although a few episodes came close. For fans of Jean-Luc Picard, Data, Worf, Riker, Troi, Crusher, and LaForge, few efforts have come as close to original episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation since the series finale aired 27 years ago as IDW Publishing’s continuing adventures of the crew in the pages of the comic books. J.K. Woodward painted a brilliant new story of the Star Trek: The Next Generation era with writers David Tipton and Scott Tipton in IDW Publishing’s nostalgic Mirror Broken series, and Woodward’s work is among the best of the past decade. Known already for his beautiful illustrations in the Star Trek/Doctor Who crossover miniseries Assimilation², the IDW adaptation of Star Trek: The City on the Edge of Forever, also with the Tipton brothers, and the covers of the Star Trek/Green Lantern crossover miniseries, Woodward brought his jaw-dropping photo-real paintings to Mirror Broken–providing poster-worthy interior artwork for every page of the series. Woodward not only gave fans their first look at the ships and places in the Mirror universe of the TNG years, he created the never-before-seen look of each character for the franchise.
J.K. Woodward homage to the NextGen crew, Mirror style, based on the 10th anniversary Continuing Mission photo.
For most television viewers, the names after a show scroll by without much notice. But if you pay attention, you may find the writer of one of your favorite episodes is the writer of many of your favorites, which may point you to other series and episodes you’ve not seen yet that you may like. You might not have heard of Paul Robert Coyle, but it’s likely that anyone who is a fan of one or more genre shows has watched the results of his work. Or maybe you haven’t heard of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Star Trek Voyager, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Superboy, The Dead Zone, Simon & Simon, or earlier detective and police series like The Streets of San Francisco, Barnaby Jones,Crazy Like a Fox, Jake and the Fat Man, and CHiPs. Coyle wrote for these series, and readers of his new book Swords, Starships, and Superheroes: A TV Writer’s Life Scripting the Stories of Heroes may find he wrote some of their favorite episodes.
Surprisingly for a Star Trek series, we haven’t seen much by way of tie-ins for this year’s newest small-screen incarnation, Star Trek Picard. We at borgenjoyed the series, the Star Trek version of the Old Man trope that actor Patrick Stewart contributed to so well with Hugh Jackman in the Old Man Logan movie, Logan. We especially liked the new Romulan characters the series introduced, and Jonathan Frakes’ Will Riker back in the captain’s chair was hard to beat. Patrick Stewart has taken his beloved Jean-Luc Picard there and back again many times, so maybe we haven’t seen a lot more because it’s already been done before. But out now for holiday gift-giving is a new look back at the good captain and his memorable commentary across seven seasons of The Next Generation, four feature films, and the first season of his new series. It’s The Wisdom of Picard, a book full of his most memorable utterances.
