One Star Trek fan and his little blog

"This is a great classic Star Trek story, it uses a science fiction setting to tell a morality tale about our own society. The lesson is what happens when commercially driven activities have a large negative effect on our environment. In this case the actions of the hunters cause the space phenomenon to get out of control and start consuming ships. In modern times many industries in pursuit of profits have caused massive environmental damage. Of course, the Taygetians songs were also going to lead to the destruction of their own sun if they were not told to stop. Which arguably wouldn’t have happened without the space phenomenon eating ships and that was the fault of the hunters. Maybe I shouldn’t overthink this."

"The opening scene is during a wake for Spock and the rest of the dead. This scene is not in the movie, in fact I would say 2/3 of this book is material not in the movie. The wake is a disaster, bad alcohol is served, and everyone is messed up. Kirk tries to revive his old relationship with Carol and gets shot down. Carol becomes angry and revels that she had a boyfriend recently who was one of the scientists killed by Khan. Their son David is luckier in his love life as he ends up sleeping with Saavik. We learn the reason Spock’s coffin survived is because Saavik altered its course. Instead of Spock’s body burning up in the atmosphere she placed it to be absorbed by the genesis wave."

"Commander Ael is a great role model for someone serving in a regime that turns fascist. In the end of the day Ael is a Romulan patriot but she will stand by while her government commits these horrible Josef Mengele-type crimes. She will even defect to her traditional enemies if she can see they have honor. Yet, she never supplies the Federation with more information than they need to stop these atrocities, and they do not get any real advantage over the Empire. It is also interesting to compare her actions to those that Kirk will take in “The Search for Spock” when he betrays Starfleet for the life of his friend. There are limits in his betrayal because he won’t give up Genesis to the Klingons even to save Spock."

"Now let’s talk about the Death of the Enterprise. When this movie came out in 1984, Star Trek was eighteen years old. It is hard to overstate the trauma of watching this beautiful ship die on the big screen to these Star Trek fans. For those eighteen years the starship Enterprise was the ship of their dreams. The amazing vehicle that traveled through space faster than light and took them to all their adventures both on the small screen, the big screen, live action, animated, and in literary form. The ship was where their characters returned to at the end of all their adventures. Once they were back on board, they were safe again. Although there were times when the entire ship was in danger, she would always escape whatever peril they faced just in the nick of time with the chirping of the computer equipment on the bridge. As Kirk, Scotty, and Chekov enter in the death codes what fan didn’t to hear Admiral Kirk’s voice say, “Code1-2-3-continuity, abort destruct order." Just like he did the last time they considered scuttling the ship. Thus, saving and the ship and finding another way to defeat their enemy that didn’t involve killing one of their friends. However, it was not to be here in orbit on the Genesis planet."

"The book explores the idea that Klingon honor is not simply about combat but also about intelligence, loyalty, and the ability to see beyond one’s own perspective. Krenn’s character embodies these ideals, and through his journey, which allows us to gain a more sympathetic understanding of Klingon motivations and values. His interactions with Federation characters, including a human diplomat, show that while their cultures are vastly different, mutual respect and understanding are possible."

"I was disappointed that M-5 was never mentioned in this story. As soon as the monitors were mentioned my first thought was “The Ultimate Computer.” Starfleet didn’t learn its lesson and still wants to put machines in charge of living beings. Computer programs over human instinct. Someone should have brought that up, but no one does."

"The Federation expansionists were an interesting bunch. They clearly love the Federation a lot while simultaneously not understanding anything about the Federation. These people would be much more at home in the Terran Empire of the Mirror Universe, I bet their counterparts are happy. (Or miserable, if that is the case then maybe they should switch places.) The group also reminds me a bit of American settlers that would live in the late 18th and 19th centuries would move to and live in territory that was outside the United States hoping that the nation would expand and absorb their new home territories. I also found reading this story feels very odd in a post-911 world. With their suicide mission to bring about their desired world, caring not for the people they were about to kill. It’s hard not to think of the terrorist attack while reading this."

You are a new graduate of Starfleet Academy and as such have been commissioned as an ensign in Starfleet. You also get your dream assignment serving on the USS Enterprise under the command of Captain Kirk. Here you will rub elbows with your heroes and go on adventures in space. To start you get to choose which department you serve under. You are given the bridge, science laboratory, or the engineering department.

"The story presents an interesting concept. Who wouldn’t want to be able to go faster than warp? Warp is fast, it allows ships like the Enterprise to move about the galaxy. However, it has its limits. The ship’s adventures are all intra-galactic, the inversion drive would allow them to “pop” into any part of the universe they would want to. It would be the death of distance."

"This was a fun adventure. It may be a little mistitled after I would only call the crew’s action a mutiny if they were acting within the right minds, not pawns under someone else’s control. This is not the first time the crew has had their minds messed with. We saw that during both “The Naked Time” and “This Side of Paradise.” This is more like the second case. When they went to Omicron Ceti III it led to the crew disobeying Captain Kirk and leaving the ship. The only difference is someone is directing the cause, where the locals on Omicron Ceti III were also victims. In all three cases Captain Kirk is able to overcome the mind control by just being awesome."

"This story set the standard for what a great Star Trek novel could be. The model that the author provides is one that was replicated by others in the four decades sense. That model is you start with an episode from the show, in this case “All Our Yesterdays,” and use the strengths of the written medium to explore that episode’s concepts in way the sixty -minutes –with-commercials format wasn’t able to. Include elements from other famous episodes as in this case The Guardian of Forever from “The City on the Edge of Forever.” Finally bring the characters on an interesting and thought provoking adventure such as they have never been on before."

"This book is a great statement on the values of the United Federation of Planets and those who fall short of them through paranoia. The Romulans maybe the oldest enemy of the Federation but they aren’t going to sit on their hands and allow a disease to wipe them out when know they can save them. The preservation of life, even Romulan life, is far too important. Yet people like Admiral Iota can’t see it that way he cannot stop thinking about the Romulans in tactical terms. People like him do have a place in our society, someone needs to be concerned with our safety, but the book shows that people like him shouldn’t be absolutely in charge."

The collective consciousness reminded me of the Body of Landru from “The Return of the Archons.” “Are you not of the body? Blessed is the body and all of its parts.” I have to give the authors some credit. When I read about the new human movement in the novel adaptation of The Motion Picture, I thought it was just one Gene Roddenberry’s silly ideas that never would amount to anything: like Starfleet officers having data chips in their head that lets Kirk see the opening sequence of V’ger destroying the Klingon ships. However, the authors deserve credit for taking this small thought bubble of Kirk’s and making a story out of it. A big fish vs. little fish fight with the New Human Movement’s Oneness against the Totality. If only the story were better. Unfortunately, this story has a lot of issues.

It is very interesting that after Spock’s death in the engine room of the Enterprise at the end of The Wrath of Khan the very first book published after—not counting the movie novelization—happens to be a book that focuses primarily on Spock. It is almost as if the author is trying to say something about the loss of this particular character.

Reading this book made me curious to how the whole thing was put together to begin with. It is just that there are many contradictions between the book version and the film that naturally makes one wonder about the cause. The book came out a month after the movie premiered, given I have rough idea of what it takes to get books published it is safe to say that the novelization was probably written around the same time the movie was being made. So, was the author just handed the script? Was there any active collaboration? Is the book closer to the original script than the movie? The author takes time to update us on her original character Mandala Flynn from The Entropy Effect. We can safely say that part is completely original.s

"Guess which movie I just had to watch on January 1, 1996! A great hero feeling his age and that time has passed him by, an archrival who was long-thought vanquished returns, epic naval space battle, the birth of a new world, and the death of legend. Is it really any wonder why The Wrath of Khan is considered to be such a great film. The type of film you want to watch so many times that you can quote all the dialogue along with the characters, and with such rich dialogue as this movie has it is so fun to do."

"This was a fascinating story and probably one of the best “Prime Directive” debates. Most Prime Directive debates involve “General Order Number One: Good or Bad.” This one takes a much more nuanced view and asks: are we always judging whether to make first contact based on the correct reason? As most fans know there are two levels to the Prime Directive. The first (although listed second) is no interference in the internal affairs of others. Are the Romulans having a civil war, and do you like one side more than the other? Too bad, the people of the Federation don’t get to decide the fate of the Romulans only the Romulans can. Now if the Romulans were attacked by Omne and they requested help that is different. The second part (but listed first) of the Prime Directive is its most stringent."