Kirk Meets Seven Of Nine In No Time Like The Past - A Crossover Novel By Greg Cox

Star Trek: No Time Like The Past by Greg Cox

If you enjoy Star Trek crossover stories that involve lots lots of fast moving action and time travel, then you are going to love Greg Cox's No Time Like The Past.  Greg imagines what might happen if Seven of Nine from Voyager were to be unwillingly be sent back to the 23rd century to meet Captain Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise in a story that careens through time and space at breakneck speed.

The events of No Time Like The Past mostly take place about two years after the events of the third season episode, "All Our Yesterdays," in which Kirk Spock and McCoy are sent back into the history of the planet Sarpeidon.

The Crew of the USS Voyager, still in the Delta Quadrant, encounter a Starfleet distress signal from a small planet.  When an away team beams down to investigate, they discover a giant likeness of James T. Kirk carved into a cliff.  There is an opening and when the away team enters, three of them, Janeway, Tuvok, and Neelix are injured and Seven finds herself in the middle of a battle between Kirk and a group of Orions that are disrupting a diplomatic mission on the planet Yusub.

Seven left three injured Voyager crew members behind when she jumped through time and needs to return to her own time to rescue them, not to mention that she also needs to be near her alcove to regenerate.  Her time is limited and she has to find a way to return to her own time soon.  Kirk and the crew agree to help, but there are others who see an opportunity to exploit Seven's knowledge of the future including, the Orions and a Federation ambassador who has an axe to grind with them.

The only clue for how to return Seven to her own time is imprinted on a fragment of some device that Seven brought with her into her past.  On this fragment, Seven finds a stardate that refers to a past mission of the Enterprise that starts her, Kirk, and the crew on a quest that spans space and time to find three remaining fragments that when joined together will allow Seven to presumably allow Seven to return to her own time.

While this should have been a simple mission, there are many turns that keep getting in the way of the quest; a spy on the Enterprise and the Orions keep getting in the way until Kirk has enough of their interference and is forced to deal with them in a most clever way.

For me, one of the most compelling aspects of No Time Like The Past was the way that the author weaved old stories into this new one.  Along with the All Our Yesterdays episode of TOS, he also included references

to "The Apple" from the second season and "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield."  One of the best parts of the story is when Greg speculates on the history of the events that lead to the annihilation of the people of Cheron, the planet of Lokai and Bele; he take us right into the thick of what finally purged the population of the planet while the two characters from the episode were on their chase through the galaxy.  There is also a reference to another books series that I have not read yet, The Yesterday Saga novels which chronicle the aftermath of the events resulting from the relationship between Spock and Zarabeth in "All Our Yesterdays."

Any TOS fan will enjoy this story because it has everything we love in a Kirk-era story should have.  The pace is quick, the characters are larger than life, but yet remain human, there are space battles and phaser fights, and Scotty remains a miracle worker.  There is a great deal of the "final frontier" flavor that us TOS fans have come to expect in our stories.

In short, this is a good one!

Well, there it is...

Q'aplaH'!

Aliens Among Us - A Review of Dayton Ward's "From History's Shadow"

From History’s Shadow by Dayton Ward (2013)

Way back in April, Dayon Ward announced that his new novel, From History’s Shadow was to be released in July, and that it was available for pre-order.  So, it might not surprise you that I did pre-order.  Little did I realize at the time what a ride I was in for when it finally arrived on my Kindle, as promised on July 30^th.  

The action in the book is ever present, so therefore I am not going to go into a lot of plot details this time.  The plot is pretty well covered on the liner notes.

I liked everything about this story.  While it is a TOS era story, the Enterprise and Crew aren’t as dominant in the story as much as one would expect, but when Kirk and company are involved, it is an intricate part of a much larger story.  

Briefly, the Enterprise is depicted in the year 2268, about a week following the events of the TOS episode Assignment Earth.  The bulk of the story is follows events surrounding Captain Jim Wainwright from the DS-9 episode, "Little Green Men," and spans over twenty years of his life and his involvement with UFO and aliens residing on Earth, and with Project Blue Book.

A race of beings called the Certoss are convinced that if the people of the Earth learn to travel in space, they will cause the destruction of the Certoss.  The Certoss make it their mission to assure that this doesn’t happen by making sure that the people of the Earth get themselves into a nuclear war.  The US is launching a test flight of the Saturn V rocket (from "Assignment Earth"), but this test flight is actually a nuclear weapons platform.  The Certoss know that if they sabotage this rocket, it will trigger a global nuclear war.  The agents of the civilization that trained Gary Seven, as well as the crew of the Enterprise know that the Certoss and the people of Earth will have a good relationship and make have to make it their mission to be sure that the Certoss fail in their mission.  This is the main plot of the story, but there is so much more to the story.  Dayton Ward calls on his knowledge of all  the Trek episodes that are involved with alien presences on Earth.

The Roswell Incident in 1947 was actually a result of Quark, Rom, and Nog accidentally coming to earth of the past while transporting Nog to Starfleet Academy in the "Little Green Men" episode of DS-9.  In that episode, Nog tells General Rex Denning that the Ferengi are planning a full scale invasion of the Earth.  Captain Wainwright, witnesses this as an aid to the general.  Wainwright is transferred to another location soon after and becomes vigilant in monitoring alien activity, never forgetting the Ferengi threat.

Mestral, who arrives on Earth as the result of the accidental crash of a Vulcan surveyship, later decides to remain on Earth to observe.  He becomes fascinated the the people and the culture he learns about in "Carbon Creek", A small mining town in Pennsylvania, and decides that in order to get a complete picture of human culture, must travel and learn.  Eventually, he meets Wainwright, and also travels to the future to meet the Enterprise crew to assist in thwarting the Certoss plans.

Roberta Lincoln, who has begun her training as an agent under Supervisor Gary Seven, is thrust into also assisting the Enterprise crew in convincing the Certoss of their folly. Gary Seven and other agents all work to keep the Certoss at bay, and some lose their lives.

So what Dayton has done in his novel is to bring together a tapestry from the threads of several different stories in Trek lore.  I have seen all of the involved episodes, but never would have imagined how they could have been woven together so neatly.  It really speaks to the genius of the author for him to take all of the canon episodes he called on to make a story that is very coherent and logical, almost as though all of the separate stories were actually meant to be connected.

I should also mention that he calls on two other episodes not mentioned earlier in this review, those being the TOS episode Tomorrow is Yesterday in which Captain Christopher of the USAF is accidentally abducted by the Enterprise, and the Voyager two part Future’s End episodes.

I have read a lot of Star Trek novels, novellas, and short stories, and have to say that this is, in my opinion, one of the best and most enjoyable Trek stories I have ever read.

Well, there it is…

QaplaH’!

Into the New Frontier...

I have signed up on Twitter.  You can just click on the link for Twitter on the right side of the page to see my tweets.  I will also be tweeting announcements about new posts on this blog as well as my other blog that outlines what is planned to take place in my classroom.  Please follow me on Twitter so you aren't checking the blogs for nothing.

One of the first tweets I received was from Larry Nemecek, aka Dr. Star Trek which was a re-tweet of something that made me laugh  Perhaps you have seen this before, but it was completely new for me and so I am going to paste it below...

I almost choked when I saw this while taking a sip of coffee.

The SciFi Diner has posted another interview with Nicholas Eftimiades, American Government Official, author, and educator.  I haven't had a chance to listen to this yet, but will be doing so within the next few days.

I am currently still watching Voyager.  I just started the 5th season today.  Voyager really hit its stride in this season and produced some very good episodes.  One of my favorites from this season is "Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy".  It is one of the episodes that features Robert Picardo's brilliant performances as "The Doctor".  The entire episode is great with a lot of humor woven into a story in which The Doctor saves the ship from being attacked by aliens.  The best part of this episode is before the opening credits.  The Doctor is daydreaming that he is giving a recital for the crew.  While singing Le Donna e Mobile from Verdi's opera Rigoletto, Tuvok begins experiencing the Pon Far, the onset of his Vulcan mating drive which takes place once every seven years.  The Doctor deals with Tuvok's condition during the recital by improvising new lyrics to Verdi's classic.  Here's the video from YouTube:

This video has excellent resolution and looks great in full screen mode.

I am continuing to watch Fringe as well.  Still enjoying it as I am about a third of the way through the first season.

I was listening to Victor Hugo's Les Miserables on audiobook, but it is very detailed, and would take over 70 hours to get through, so I have abandoned it for the time being.  I might decide to see if I can find an abridged version of it that gets to the point faster.  The unabridged version is way too detailed to get through.  Perhaps it is because of the times we live in.  When Hugo penned his masterpiece in 1862, life was much slower then and I could imagine someone sitting and reading this by the fire or by candlelight.  It is unfortunate that those times are gone and that we have become so busy that we cannot find time to be entertained by a good book.

 So, I have begun listening to a work on non-fiction called The Physics of Star Trek by Dr. Lawrence M. Krauss of Arizona State University.  So far, this is a very interesting book as Dr. Krauss picks apart the why's and how's of many scientific aspects of Trek.  More on this later when I finish my listen.

This morning, I awoke early and decided to take advantage of the quiet in the house by finishing reading Peter David's New Frontier Trek novel, After the Fall.  This is the 15th novel in the series.  There are 18 total books in this series at this point.  This series is unique because David creates a whole new universe for Star Trek to play in with new characters, but he also includes characters that any a Trekkie would recognize.

I am not going to go into a story synopsis at this time because my memory cannot handle recapping all of the books I have read so far.  Suffice it to say that this is a great series of books and well worth reading.  Here is the cover art of the volumes in the New Frontier series in order:

There are 18 novels as I stated before.  The first four novels were published separately and then later they were combined into a single volume.

One of the things that make great sci-fi is to have a good story.  The New Frontier series is full of good stories, and each book could stand alone to tell a story, but even more than that, the best of this series are the characters.  The author has created some great characters and has also brought in some characters that we who are familiar with Trek will know.  Remember Commander Shelby from the TNG two-part episode "Best of Both Worlds"?  Shelby takes a very important part in this series.  Also Dr. Selar, another TNG character that we only see once but her name is mentioned numerous times in TNG is an integral character.

Here is a rundown of some of the characters that appear in this series...

Captain Makenzie Calhoun: Commander of the USS Excalibur.  He was a very young warlord on his home planet, Xenex.  Discovered by Jean-Luc Picard, and at whose urging was pursuaded to attend Starfleet Academy.   Mac worked hard at his studies, and managed to get into some trouble at the academy.  His solution to the Kobiaski Maru test at the academy was to destroy the ship becasue in his mind, the Romulans had already killed everyone on the Kobiashi and were just using it to lure a Starfleet vessel into an ambush.  He knows how to think on his feet and always comes out on top of a situation.  He is not opposed to bending, or even breaking the rules to accomplish his mission.  He has a sword that his most prized possession from his youth.  It was used to kill his father on Xenex, and when he came into possession of it, he used it to avenge his father's slaying.

Elizabeth Shelby: A by-the-book officer who expected to be in command of the Excalibur, but instead was assigned to be Mac's first officer.  She and Mac were involved during their Academy days.  She learned to be more flexible in her thinking and was given her own command of the USS Trident.  As an extension of their relationship, she and Mac got married.  Later Shelby was promoted to Admiral.

Burgoyne 172: A Hermat, both male and female.  Outgoing and amusing character who has many interesting qualities.  S/he is the Chief Engineer of the Excalibur.

Dr. Selar: Vulcan and Chief Medical Officer of the Excalibur.  Marries Burgoyne 172.  It is a volatile relationship because she is very Vulcan, and Burgy is very emotional.

Robin Lefler: Just as we remember her from her two appearances on TNG.  She really grows up in the series and gains a lot of self-confidence.

Mark McHenry: Brilliant navigator of the Excalibur.

Zac Kebron: Security Chief of the Excalibur.  He is from a race of people called the Brikar, a people whose biochemistry is based on silicon instead of carbon.  He is often described as being a "moving mountain" with a bad atitude.  Once he makes up his mind to something, there is very little that can move him off course.  Great character.

Soleta: Half Vulcan, half Romulan but chose to follow her Vulcan heritage.  Always in an internal struggle between her two halves, much as Spock.  She manages to hide her Romulan heritage because if it is discovered, she'll probably be kicked out of Starfleet.  When she is finally found out, she resigns from Starfleet and goes to work for the Romulans.

Morgan: Mother of Robin Lefler.  She is very old, due to being a sort of immortal, however, she finally lost her corporeal existence and became the computer on the Excalibur.  She uses her life experience to be a very effective member of the Excalibur crew.

Si Cwan: A prince of the Royal Family of the Thallonian Empire.  Serves as an un-official ambassador aboard the Excalibur, and later works to resurrect his empire.

There are a number of other characters that appear and dominate for different segments of the story arc.  Suffice it to say that this Series is an outstanding one that every Trek fan should take a look at.  Peter David is an outstanding story teller and I very much appreciate is work.  This series is available for the Kindle.

Well, there it is.

Q'aplah!