Back in 2003-2004, Pocket Books released a terrific series of novels entitled The Lost Era that chronicled the approximately seventy-five years between Captain Kirk’s death in Star Trek: Generations and the launch of the Enterprise-D in “Encounter at Farpoint,” the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

I thoroughly enjoyed this series when it was initially released, and I’ve been wanting to re-read these novels for several years now.  Since the cliffhanger at the end of Taking Wing (the first novel in Pocket Book’s Star Trek Titan series — read my review here — following the exploits of Captain William T. Riker’s new ship) referred directly to the events of the first Lost Era novel, The Sundered, I decided to go back and re-read that novel before proceeding on to Titan book 2, The Red King.

Set in 2298, five years after Star Trek: Generations, The Sundered presents us with an adventure of Captain Sulu and the U.S.S. Excelsior.  Star Trek VI introduced the idea that former U.S.S. Enterprise helmsman Hikaru Sulu had been promoted to captain of the Excelsior, and The Sundered picks up his story as the veteran master of that vessel.  Also aboard the Excelsior are several familiar faces: Pavel Chekov is Sulu’s first officer, Janice Rand is his communications officer, and Christine Chapel is his chief medical officer.  As established in the Voyager episode “Flashback,” the young Vulcan Tuvok is also on-board, though struggling to deal with the illogical nature of all of the non-Vulcans in Starfleet.  We also learn that a young Leonard James Akaar (born in the Original Series episode “Friday’s Child” and re-introduced in the last several years of Star Trek novels as a stern elderly admiral in the post-Nemesis Next Gen era) is on board as well, and had at the time a close friendship with Tuvok.

At the risk of repeating what I have written in previous Trek novel reviews ad nauseum, I am continually delighted by the interconnectedness of the last decade’s worth of Pocket Book’s Trek novels.  Though set almost a hundred years earlier, The Sundered fits in perfectly with the current batch of post-Nemesis Next Gen novels and with the new Titan series, providing a number of interesting pieces of backstory for characters featured in those other novels.  (It of course helps that The Sundered was written by Michael A. Martin & Andy Mangels, who also wrote the first two Titan novels, Taking Wing and The Red King.)

I haven’t even mentioned the main thrust of The Sundered‘s story yet.  Tenuous peace talks with the violent, xenophobic Tholians (enigmatic aliens first introduced in the classic Original Series episode “The Tholian Web”) are imperiled when the Excelsior crew discovers the Tholians’ escalating conflict with a race of aliens from outside the Milky Way galaxy called the Neyel.  Parallel to that unfolding story on the Excelsior, Martin & Mangels chronicle the tale of the ill-fated Vanguard colony, one of five L-5 colonies in near-Earth orbit that were constructed in the 21st century.  Beginning in 2053 (about a decade before Zefram Cochrane’s first warp flight, as seen in Star Trek: First Contact) we follow the travails of the men and women aboard Vangaurd… as well as their descendants as their story unfolds over two centuries following a disaster that changes their destinies forever.  No surprise, the story of Vanguard eventually crosses with that of Sulu & co. in 2298.

Telling two stories in parallel is a tricky bit of business.  It can be easy for one story to begin to overshadow the other, with the reader getting more involved in one tale and then resenting time spent away from those characters on the other story.  But Martin & Mangels do an excellent job of keeping the two unfolding narratives in balance, cutting back and forth from one story to the other without upsetting the flow of either tale.  They also take their time in allowing the Vanguard story to come to fruition.  Though attentive readers will certainly begin to guess how the two stories connect long before they actually do, the eventual revelations that Sulu & his crew discover arrive at what feels like a natural point in the story, before one gets impatient for the revelations or annoyed at why the Excelsior crew haven’t figured out what you already have.

The Vanguard storyline in The Sundered is a juicy old-fashioned sci-fi tale, which nicely balances the Excelsior portion of the story that is steeped in Trek lore.  It’s great to learn more about what happened to the featured members of Kirk’s command team after his death, and I also enjoyed Martin & Mangels’ exploration of the bizarre Tholians (a terrific alien species that was only seldom glimpsed during the various TV shows).

The Sundered is a very solid stand-alone Trek adventure story, but it is also a key piece in the ever-growing puzzle of the expanded Star Trek literary universe.  Martin & Mangels will continue exploring Hikaru Sulu’s time as Captain of the U.S.S. Excelsior in their excellent 2008 novel Forged in Fire, and the friendship between Tuvok and Akaar that is presented here plays a key role in their first two Titan novels, as does the Neyel race.

I’ll be back here shortly with my thoughts on the second Titan installment, The Red King, which functions as a direct sequel to The Sundered, even though it takes place about a century later.

I’ve written a lot on this site about Pocket Books’ series of post-finale Deep Space Nine novels, as well as the series of post-Nemesis Next Generation novels.  But I haven’t made much mention of another top-notch series of novels that has been a big part of Pocket Books’ exciting efforts to move the Star Trek universe forward: the continuing adventures of Captain William T. Riker and the starship Titan.

There have been six Titan novels published so far, with more on the way.  Before beginning the latest novel (set after the cataclysmic events of David Mack’s Destiny trilogy, which I reviewed here), I decided to go back and re-read the series in its entirety.  Over the next few weeks (hopefully it will be weeks, and not months!) I’ll be bringing you my thoughts on all the novels in the series.

Today, we’ll start with Taking Wing, the novel that kicked everything off, by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels.

After almost a decade of near-constant conflict with alien races such as the Borg, the Cardassians, the Klingons, and, of course, the Dominion, it seems that the United Federation of Planets has finally returned to a state of peace.  As such, Starfleet decides to return to its central mission of peaceful exploration and commissions the construction of a new class of starships, the Luna class, to be sent out into the unexplored regions of the galaxy to seek out new life and new civilizations.

Newly-promoted Captain William Riker (whose promotion to captaincy was one of the only decent story-points to be found in the final Next Gen film, Star Trek: Nemesis) is filled with excitement for this new mission of exploration, and he sets out to assemble the most biologically and culturally diverse crew in Starfleet history.  (More on the Titan’s crew in just a moment.)  Unfortunately, the events of Star Trek: Nemesis (in which the clone Shinzon led a Reman plot to murder the Romulan Praetor and every member of the Senate and usurp control of the Romulan Empire for himself, before he too perished in conflict with the U.S.S. Enterprise) have left the Romulan Empire fractured and in chaos.  Titan’s mission of exploration is postponed so that Riker and his crew can travel to Romulus in the hopes of mediating some sort of power-sharing agreement and stave off a catastrophic civil war.

Taking Wing is an absolutely phenomenal novel — probably the strongest of the Titan series, and one of my favorite Trek novels from the past several years.  I really loved the Romulan storyline.  I enjoyed the way Mr. Martin & Mr. Mangels picked up the pieces from Nemesis — they really considered things that the filmmakers did not, such as what the consequences of Shinzon’s failed plot would be, and they crafted a thoroughly exciting and engaging storyline out of those questions.  There have been several novels that have fleshed out the world of Romulus (particularly the works of Diane Duane and Josepha Sherman & Susan Shwartz), and this book stands proudly with those.  Indeed, I really appreciated the way this story made a number of references to those stories as well as to many of the different filmed Trek stories that featured Romulans.  I like the way they playfully address the two different names that have been given for Romulus’ capital city; I loved seeing Pardek (from the TNG episode “Unification”) again (albeit briefly), I loved seeing Donatra (from Nemesis) again, etc. etc.  I really love the Trek novels that take the time to delve into the politics of the Trek universe (such as Keith R.A. DeCandido’s terrific novel Articles of the Federation), and one of the reasons that Taking Wing really shines for me is the attention to detail given to the lengthy sections that describe the fractious Romulan political situation.  Martin & Mangels don’t shy away from the complexity of the situation, and they avoid a too-easy solution to all of the problems.

The other aspect of this novel that is a lot of fun is all of the “world-building” that Martin & Mangels do for this new Titan series.  Much time in Taking Wing is spent introducing us to Riker’s crew.  There are some familiar faces: his wife Deanna Troi is on-board as Head Counselor and Chief Diplomatic Officer, Christine Vale (introduced in the “A Time To…” series of novels) is First Officer, and there’s also Alyssa Ogawa (a familiar nurse on the U.S.S. Enterprise from many seasons of Next Gen) and Melora Pazlar (from the 2nd season DS9 episode “Melora”) who supervises Stellar Cartography.

But, as noted above, Riker has set out to assemble as diverse a crew as possible, and so we are introduced to a number of wonderful new characters, several of whom are from entirely new-to-Trek alien species.  Among this inter-species crew is new Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ree, who is a fearsome Pahkwa-thanh (resembling a small dinosaur); Chief of Security Lt. Keru (who was introduced in the novel Section 31: Rogue as the lover of Sean Hawk, who was assimilated by the Borg in Star Trek: First Contact), a Trill; Commander Xin Ra-Havreii, the Titan’s designer who takes over as Chief Engineer, who is an Efrosian (the same race as the President of the Federation in Star Trek VI and the “Deltan” Lt. Ilia from Star Trek: The Motion Picture); Science Officer Jaza Najem, a Bajoran: Engineer Torvig, a Choblik (a diminutive race equipped with bionic enhancements); Counselor Huilan, a S’ti’ach (who is described as resembling a blue-furred bear with extra arms and dorsal spines); Chief Geologist Bralik, a talkative Ferengi; Flight Controller Aila Lavena, a Selki (an aquatic species) and many, many more.

I haven’t even mentioned two other characters who I wasn’t expecting to see appear in this series, but who (as I was happy to see) have major roles in this novel.  The first is Lt. Tuvok, who I always felt was one of the only interesting characters on Star Trek: Voyager, and who is really well-used here (though boy is he put through the wringer).  The second is Admiral Leonard James Akaar.  Akaar’s birth was seen in the Original Series episode “Friday’s Child” — he was named after Kirk and McCoy because they helped save his mother’s life.  Recent Trek novels have made a major character out of the all-grown up Akaar, who is now an influential (albeit often grumpy) Admiral in Starfleet.

As you can see, there are an ENORMOUS number of characters who appear in Taking Wing.  (There are quite a few more who I haven’t even mentioned.)  But under the steady hands of Mr. Martin and Mr. Mangels, I never felt overwhelmed or confused, as a reader, by all the familiar and unfamiliar faces.  Instead, somehow, I felt that Martin and Mangels spent the time to give proper attention to each one of these myriad characters.  They strike a perfect balance between giving everyone something to do in this novel (no character felt extraneous to me) while leaving lots of room for the many interesting faces, new and old, on-board Titan to be further explored in future installments.

Taking Wing works successfully as a stand-along adventure, and also as the “pilot” for the new series of Titan adventures.  It is also a critical piece in the detailed, exciting post-Nemesis universe of interconnected Star Trek novels that the talented Trek authors have been producing for the past several years.  It is not to be missed.

Let the Best of 2009 lists continue!  I hope you all enjoyed my list of the Top 10 TV Episodes of 2009.

Now let’s dive into my list of the Top 10 DVDs (or Blu-Rays) released in 2009!

First, I’d like to give Honorable Mentions to the complete series sets of three amazing TV shows that I had just about given up all hope of ever seeing on DVD: It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, and Andy Barker, P.I. So why aren’t these shows on my list?  Because I can’t put anything on this list that I haven’t actually watched, and I’ve been way, way too busy to get through any of these sets.  Of the three, the only one I own is Andy Richter Controls the Universe.  (That one came out first, and I’m not going to purchase the other two sets until I actually have time to watch them.)  But I take great delight in knowing that these three DVD sets exist here on planet Earth, and I know that I’ll get to them all in good time.

10. Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut (Blu-ray) — I’ve seen Watchmen quite a few times since it was released early in 2009, and while the film certainly has some weaknesses, I remain overwhelmed by the enormity of its successes.  It’s hard to believe that Zach Snyder brought this seminal graphic novel by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons, which long had been considered unadaptable, to life.  It thrills me to see such a faithful take on the material and that the filmmakers had the confidence to craft a super-hero film that was aimed squarely at adults.  The Ultimate Cut of the film is Zach Snyder’s longest version, stitching together his Director’s Cut with the animated Tales of the Black Freighter sequences.  It’s pretty astounding.  This Blu-Ray set would be much higher on this list were it not for the paltry special features.  Not only are the special features lame (this is a movie that cries out for a full-fledged making-of documentary), but this set just reproduces the special features that were already released on the Director’s Cut set.  (I guess I’ve been spoiled by the amazing extended editions of the Lord of the Rings films, which came not just with phenomenal extended versions of the films but with extraordinarily elaborate making-of documentaries that didn’t duplicate the special features on the theatrical version DVDs.)  (Read my review of the theatrical version of Watchmen here, and of the Director’s Cut here.)

9. Contact (Blu-Ray) — A beautiful film that manages to combine a serious, cerebral sci-fi tale with an effecting story of the personal journey of scientist Dr. Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster).  This is director Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) working at the top of his game.  The special effects are elaborate but never come close to overwhelming the story.  It’s a terrific special edition, chock full of special features, and the film looks positively STUNNING on Blu-Ray.  (Read my full review here.)

8. Homicide: The Criterion Collection — Another film that I have been waiting a long, long time to be released on DVD.  David Mamet’s 1991 film follows detective Bobby Gold (Joe Mantegna) and his investigation of the murder of an elderly Jewish shop owner.  What follows is a great, twisty Mamet tale, filled with tough guys and double-crosses.  But what gives the film its weight is the way the investigation story-line is wrapped in a deeper story of Bobby’s struggles with his Jewish identity.  The fine folks at Criterion hit another one out of the park with this beautiful new edition.  (My full review of Homicide is coming soon, but click here for my thoughts on a variety of other films by David Mamet.)

7. Eddie Izzard: Live From Wembley — It’s been a long, long wait since Eddie Izzard’s last stand-up DVD.  (That would be Circle, released back in 2002).  Live From Wembley isn’t exactly the freshest material — the footage is from Eddie’s Sexie tour, from several years back.  And the camera-work is surprisingly amateurish in places (quite a few shots are rather blurry, and there are several instances where Eddie isn’t properly framed on-screen).  But forget all that — it’s new Eddie Izzard stand-up material, and the performance (while not reaching the heights of Dress to Kill), is superb and very, very funny.  There’s also a terrific special feature on the disc: 40 minutes of Eddie’s stand-up from long before Live From Wembley, in which we can see him beginning to work out some of the material that would eventually be included in his Sexie show.  It’s a funny performance, and a neat look into his process.

6. Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder – The fourth and final installment in the series of Futurama direct-to-DVD films.  In this one, Fry gets inducted into a secret organization of telepaths (that have been popping up in the background of the show since its very beginning).  The film’s wide-reaching story also deals with Leela’s involvement with a group of eco-terrorists, Bender’s affair with the wife of a robot mobster, and a lot of other zaniness.  At the time, it looked like this was the end of Futurama, and the film’s final scene provided a wonderful capstone to the series’ run.  Luckily, the show has once again risen from the grave, and new episodes are being produced to air on Cartoon Network.  Hooray!  (Read my full review here.)

5. Star Trek: The Motion Picture Collection (Blu-Ray) — Star Trek comes to Blu-Ray with this fabulous set containing nicely spruced-up editions of the first six Star Trek films.  The films themselves have never looked or sounded better, and there have been a number of new featurettes created for each film.  (The set also includes almost all of the special features from the previous DVD releases.)  I still wish that the featurettes had been edited together into a longer, more comprehensive documentary for each film, but I can live without that.  Extra props to the makers of this set for choosing to use the original theatrical versions of Star Trek II and Star Trek VI on these discs.  (The previous Special Edition DVDs of those two films used slightly re-edited versions, which I found to be rather inferior to the original versions.)  For a die-hard Trek fan like myself, this set is a treasure.  (Click here for my full review of the Blu-Ray release of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.)

4. Will Ferrell: You’re Welcome, America — A recording of Will Ferrell’s stage show featuring him as Geroge W. Bush, looking back on his eight years as President.  I was a bit dubious, at first, as to whether Ferrell’s Bush impersonation could really sustain my interest for 90 minutes, but it unquestionably did.  The show is well-crafted — while the focus is on Ferrell’s monologues on Bush, there is also good fun to be had with short appearances by other characters, which keeps things interesting.  But all that would be moot if Ferrell’s Bush wasn’t so relentlessly entertaining.  My favorite moments of the show are when he dives fully into total insanity, such as his elaborate and manic story about being trapped in a mine shaft with his father.  We’re lucky that this live show has been captured for us all to enjoy.

3. Battlestar Galactica: The Plan — Ron Moore’s reinvention of Battlestar Galactica takes its final bow in this tour-de-force direct-to-DVD film.  Diving deep into the show’s mythology, The Plan winds the clock back to just before the events of the original Battlestar Galactica mini-series, and then shows us the events of the show’s first two seasons from the point of view of the Cylons.  Cleverly weaving in-and-around the events that we saw, The Plan connects events and characters into a complex and fascinating tapestry, bringing a whole new light to the show’s beginnings.  A terrific lead performance by Dean Stockwell (Quantum Leap) and mind-blowing special effects combine to give the show a far superior farewell than the actual finale episode.  I wish there were more of these direct-to-DVD BSG films being made!!  (Read my full review here.)

2. Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer’s Cut) — This six-hour documentary traces the full history of Monty Python, from the group’s beginnings to their work on feature films The Holy Grail, The Life of Brian, and The Meaning of Life.  Told almost entirely through interviews with all five surviving Pythons as well as an enormous number of their key collaborators, this documentary is endlessly interesting and also quite a riot. It’s also filled with elaborate little touches that elevate it beyond the usual sort of behind-the-scenes documentaries, such as the creation of new songs introducing each of the six episodes, sung by the same woman who sung the classic Life of Brian introductory tune.  With a third disc containing clips from their best sketches, extended interviews, and lots of other fun stuff, this set is a winner through-and-through.

1. Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II — I loved the first Robot Chicken Star Wars Special, but things are taken to a whole new level in this second go-round.  Focusing on The Empire Strikes Back (with lots of screen time for Vader, The Emperor, Boba Fett, and the other bounty hunters), this special has more laughs-per-second than anything else I saw all year.  Hard-core Star Wars fans like myself will be bowled over by the attention to detail in the recreation of key scenes and the references to obscure characters and moments in the saga, while there is also plenty of silliness for a more casual fan to enjoy.  (Who wouldn’t laugh at the image of an Imperial officer putting a styrofoam cup over the little Vader hologram on his console?)  Just having the special on DVD would have been enough for me, but not only is this set absolutely overflowing with special features (commentary tracks, behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes, and so much more), but it also contains a newly extended (almost twice-as-long) version of the original special filled with a ton of new sketches.  Phenomenal.  I can’t wait for Episode III.  (Read my full review here.)

Coming on Monday:  My list of the 10 Best Movies of 2009!  See you there!

In addition to highlighting some of the very best comic book series that are out there (click here to read about 100 Bullets or here to read about Planetary) I’ve also been having fun writing about some of the great books that I’ve been following on a monthly basis (or semi-monthly basis, as the case may be) when I make my weekly visits to the comic book shop.  Click here to read about books like Incognito, Kick-Ass, and The Nightly News, and here to read about books like Hellboy, Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man, The Dark Tower, and Batman: Streets of Gotham.

What else have I been reading?

Detective Comics — I am all for female heroes in my comic books (as well as TV shows and movies, for that matter) but generally I tend to think that female versions of male super-heroes (She-Hulk, Supergirl, etc.) are pretty lame.  So when I read that Detective Comics was going to start focusing on the newly-introduced character of Batwoman, I was less than overwhelmed.  However, when I heard that Greg Rucka and J. H. Williams III were the creators coming on board the title, I quickly changed my tune and decided to sample the series.  Boy I’m glad I did, because the first five issues of their run have been terrific.  Mr. Rucka is spinning a taught, tense mystery/adventure story (something at which he excels), and Mr. Williams III’s art is absolutely jaw-dropping.  I’m baffled as to how exactly he produces the art I’m seeing before me (and surely colorist Dave Stewart is a key player), but it seems to be a constant mix of different media and styles, presented in wonderfully eccentric panel layouts (no simple panel grids to be found here).  Each page is truly a work of art.  Really wonderful.

Star Trek Romulans: Schism — The very first time, as a kid, that I paid any notice to the names of the creators behind the comic books I was reading was because I noticed that there was one guy whose work I was enjoying way more than anyone else’s.  That was John Byrne.  He was the first artist I really followed, and I made it my business to track down back-issues of his famous work (his lengthy runs on Uncanny X-Men and Fantastic Four) as well as his less-famous work (Alpha Flight, Namor, etc.).  About the time that he was writing and illustrating the magnificent series John Byrne’s Next Men, I was convinced that he was the greatest comic book creator of the time.  Lately, Mr. Byrne seems to have fallen somewhat out of favor within the industry — he’s a name I often see criticized, and it’s been quite a while since he’s worked on a really high-profile project.  I must admit that I, too, have found myself disinterested by some of his recent work.  But I’ve found myself quite taken with his recent batch of Star Trek comics for IDW.  (I’ve long suspected that Mr. Byrne had a fondness for Star Trek, ever since noticing, as a kid, all the little Trek references that seemed to slip into his work on X-Men.)  Schism is the third part in what has turned into a trilogy of stories exploring the Klingon/Romulan alliance that was hinted at (but never really delved into) in the third season of the original Star Trek series.  Mr. Byrne has created a fascinating (no pun intended) story with lots of sci-fi action, great political intrigue, and the reappearance of a number of familiar faces (most notably the Klingons Kor and Koloth).  More, please!

X-Factor — Speaking of Star Trek, I’ve been a big, big fan of Peter David’s work ever since I noticed, back in the 80’s, that his Star Trek comics were way better than those written by anyone else.  I’ve followed Mr. David through a number of different comic book series for a number of different comic book publishers over the years, and I’ve seldom been disappointed.  I’ve also been following Mr. David’s work with X-Factor through several different incarnations of the series ever since he took over the book way back in 1991 (after the “Mutant Genesis” storyline).  As always, David’s X-Factor is full of ripping adventure yarns, terrific character development and continuity, and a lot of really funny humor.  The book has struggled a bit to find a consistent artist, but the recent work by Valentine De Landro has been very solid.  It’s by far the most bizarre, idiosyncratic of all the X-books, and that’s just the way I like it.  Here’s hoping the series continues to run for another 50 issues, at least!

Astonishing X-Men — The ridiculous delays since Warren Ellis and Simone Bianchi took over this series had tampered by enthusiasm significantly, but issue #31, which began a new story-arc with artist Phil Jiminez, absolutely blew my socks off.  Agent Brand’s encounter with the Brood on an asteroid orbiting Earth goes terribly wrong, and the X-Men have to spring into action to attempt a rescue before her escape pod burns up upon re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.  What follows is a riveting, edge-of-your-seat read.  As always, Mr, Ellis takes the sci-fi aspects of the story very seriously, which brings a real complexity and plausibility to what could easily be just another chronicle of silly super-heroics.  He is also able to masterfully pile on the tension in page after page, as each attempt by Agent Brand and the X-Men to extricate her from her situation only leads to new problems.  This issue is also the best work by Phil Jimenez that I have ever seen.  He layers an extraordinary amount of detail into every panel, all of which effectively serves his story-telling as the reader is kept clear on the ever-changing geography of the issue-long action sequence.  If the series continues with issues like this one (and if it is published on something approaching a regular schedule), then I will definitely be along for the ride!

OK, so this is about the craziest thing I’ve ever heard of — Star Wars fans worldwide are uniting on a project to re-make the original film (A New Hope), 15 seconds at a time.  Fans can claim individual 15 second moments of the film, recreate them in whatever for they desire (re-enactments, animation, etc.), and then the whole thing will ultimately be strung together.  Wild.  Click here for all the details on Star Wars Uncut, or just watch this bizarre trailer below!

Star Wars: Uncut Trailer from Casey Pugh on Vimeo.

After watching Julie & Julia with my wife Steph recently (you can read my review of the film here)  I was interested in learning more about Julie Powell, so I tracked down her Julie/Julia Project blog and her current blog (since she ended the Julie/Julia Project blog in 2003, with only one additional post in 2004 after Julia Childs’ death).  Both blogs were  fun to read through after having seen the film.

Not a week goes by, it seems, that I don’t read about Ridley Scott being attached to yet another movie-in-development.  I’m not the only one who’s noticed, it seems.  Check out this helpful guide: Know Your Ridley Scott Projects That Will Probably Never Happen.

I am an enormous Beatles fanatic.  Thus it is really painful for me that I have not yet had an opportunity to sample the newly remastered versions of all of the Beatles albums that were released last month.  Scorekeeper from AICN’s detailed run-down of each Beatles album, and how the new versions match up against the original CD releases from 1987, has only further whetted my appetite.

CHUD (Cinematic Happenings Under Development) has been running a ridiculously entertaining series of posts entitled “Bad For Us, Worse For Them.”  What is it about?  Let me quote from their intro: This is a list of forty deaths in cinema, twenty of which that have a profound affect on the viewer whether by the sheer tragedy of it, how emotionally impactful it is, or how it is a catalyst for a real descent in the progression of the story. The other twenty are deaths that go beyond the call of duty, not because they’re cool or really well executed FX, but because they are just knee-capping in their immediacy, brutality, or simple visceral impact. Kills that will probably leave a mark.  The whole list is fantastic, but I was particularly pleased to see that Spock’s death in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan merited inclusion.

Here’s a great piece from DVDActive.com (one of my favorite DVD/Blu-Ray web-sites) that calmly and methodically dissects everything wrong with X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  I will not be purchasing this film on DVD.  One viewing was more than enough for me, thank you very much.

I love the film scores of James Horner.  His score for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is one of my favorite scores of all time, so I was very excited to read this article from Movie Score Magazine that previews his work on James Cameron’s upcoming film Avatar!

Click here to check out a trailer for the new film from the director of Donnie Darko, called The Box. As I’ve commented here before, it looks just like a classic Twilight Zone story.  Can’t wait.

Speaking of trailers, the new full trailer for Toy Story 3 (that those of us who caught the Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3-D double feature got to see on the big screen) is now on-line.  Check it out:

Toy Story 3 Trailer in HD

Trailer Park | MySpace Videos

If that doesn’t put a smile on your face, then I don’t know what to tell you!

The fourth film that we showed at this year’s EZ Viewing movie-marathon was Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and we wrapped up the evening with Lola Rennt (Run, Lola, Run).

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home – We screened Star Trek II two years ago at EZ Viewing II (the year I highlighted my favorite movie sequels) and Star Trek III last year, so how could I not complete the mid-series trilogy by including Star Trek IV in this year’s EZ Viewing??

Following Kirk and crew’s mutiny and theft of the Enterprise in Star Trek III in their attempt to find and revive Spock, the opening of Star Trek IV finds Kirk and Co. still stranded on Vulcan, preparing to face the consequences of their actions. The Enterprise has been destroyed, and they don’t know if they have careers in Starfleet to return to. Spock is alive, but struggling to fully piece together his memories and personality. But the gang is spurred into action when a mysterious alien probe threatens all life on Earth, seeking a species of whales that has long-since been extinct.

Star Trek IV was, until this year’s new film by J.J. Abrams, the most financially successful of all the Star Trek movies. And it was by far the most popular outside of hard-core Trek fandom. If you’ve seen only one Star Trek film, this is probably the one you’ve seen. There are a number of reasons for that, I think. This is a much more accessible film than most of the other Star Trek movies. Much of the story takes place on Earth (in what was the present day when the film was released back in 1986). There’s a pretty simple (but still compelling) hook to the story – go back in time to find humpback whales – that I think is easier for general audiences to grasp than a lot of sci-fi elements of aliens, politics, etc.

The environmental message, I think, also enabled this film to be successful with a broader-than-usual audience. Many of the episodes of the original series dealt with difficult issues (such as racism, class struggles, involvement in foreign countries, etc.) – sometimes subtly, sometimes not. But the allegorical nature of classic Trek was sort of abandoned by the film series (not entirely mistakenly, in my opinion) in favor of more exciting action/adventure. Star Trek IV, though, gets back to those sorts of ideas, and that added a depth to this particular endeavor (bet you thought I was gonna say enterprise) that captured people’s attention.

Finally, Star Trek IV is by far the lightest, in tone, of all the Trek films, and I think people found that to be very appealing. After all the death and seriousness of Star Treks II & III, Star Trek IV is really just a romp – the producers set out to make what is pretty much a Star Trek comedy, and to a fairly surprising degree they succeeded. It’s a pretty funny film. (As opposed to, oh, I don’t know, the wince-inducing attempts at humor in the dreadful Star Trek V.)

OK, I’ve talked about why general audiences responded to Star Trek IV in far greater numbers than the other films – but what do I think of it? I think it’s great! I do tend to prefer my Star Trek to be SERIOUS (which is why II and VI and my very favorite Trek films – and don’t think that I won’t be showing VI next year, by the way!!), but Star Trek IV is so much fun that it’s very hard to resist.

Here’s what else the film has going for it, that I haven’t mentioned yet:

I. This is the only other Star Trek film that Nick Meyer, who wrote and directed Star Trek II and Star Trek VI (hmmm, didn’t I just mention that those two are my very favorite Trek films??) was involved in. Meyer scripted almost the entire back-in-time portions of the film — which makes up about 3/4ths of the movie, at least. (His first line is the film is the wonderfully snarky “Judging by the pollution content of the Earth’s atmosphere, we appear to have arrived in the latter half of the 20^th century.”) And Meyers’ involvement clearly shows in the final product. He has an understanding of – and love for – these characters that is unmatched, and he gives every character a key role in the unfolding story. He is also able to very effectively include a LOT of humor without turning the film into a farce (cough Star Trek V cough).

2. This film is unique among the Trek films (and frankly, among sci-fi and adventure films in general) in that there is really no villain. There is the threat of the alien probe that sets the story in motion, but that’s it. There’s also no fighting and, unless I’m mistaken, not a single shot is fired (by any starship, or by any character) in the entire film. Pretty neat.

3. Although this film was designed to be easily accessible to Trek newbies, it doesn’t dumb itself down and ignore previously-established Trek continuity and character arcs. Quite the contrary, the film is filled with little touches that long-time Trek fans can appreciate, such as the continuing involvement of Sarek, Spock’s father (and the callback to the father-and-son’s decades-long feud which was a major story point in the Original Series episode “Journey to Babel”). I also am always tickled by the opening scene where the Klingon ambassador angrily swears to the Federation Council that “there will be no peace as long as Kirk lives.” That scene has almost nothing to do with the rest of the movie. But its presence shows that the filmmakers were interested in exploring the repercussions of Kirk & co.’s actions in Star Trek III (rather than ignoring them, which would have been the easier choice)… and, of course, there is terrific pay-off to that moment two films later, in Star Trek VI.

Lola Rennt (Run, Lola, Run) — I reviewed this film not too long ago on the site, so you can click here for all the details.

So that was EZ Viewing IV!  Can’t wait until next year!

My faith in the continuing DS9 saga is restored!

Last week I week I wrote about my disappointment with how the spectacular DS9 novel series has sort-of petered out over the past few years, but after reading the other DS9 novel published this year, Una McCormack’s spectacular The Never-Ending Sacrifice, I am again reminded about just how amazing this series can be.

The Never-Ending Sacrifice is a sequel, of sorts, to the intriguing second-season DS9 episode “Cardassians.”  In that episode, an elderly Bajoran man arrives on the station with his adoptive son, Rugal, a Cardassian child who was left behind when the Cardassian occupation of Bajor ended.  Allegations emerge that the Bajorans are raising Rugal to hate his own kind, and when his actual father arrives on the station, relieved that the son he believed dead still lives, the Cardassian government demands that Commander Sisko turn the boy over to them.  It’s a complex episode that fleshes out a lot of the show’s back-story — including a look at what went on during the Cardassian occupation and the reasons for their withdrawal (indeed, this was the episode that revealed that the Cardassians’ name for the station was Terok Nor), as well as a lot more about the deceitful web of Cardassian politics (including more information than we’d learned at that time about Garak and Dukat) and how life on Bajor was proceeding after the Cardassian withdrawal.  Despite all those great qualities, though, I was always troubled by the ending of the episode.  After all that build-up, Sisko’s decision is revealed in the closing moments in a simplistic commander’s log (it’s as if the writers just ran out of time and realized that they had to end the episode), and I couldn’t believe that Sisko actually decided to take the boy from his adoptive parents, with whom Rugal had expressed a clear desire to stay.

It was an episode that demanded a follow-up, but none ever came during the seven-year run of the show.  Luckily, Una McCormack has stepped in to fill that void.  The Never-Ending Sacrifice follows the life of Rugal from the moment he was taken by his Cardassian father-by-blood, Kotan Pa’Dar, back to Cardassia Prime, all the way through the tumultuous events of the series and through the post-finale series of novels as well.  Ms. McCormack has masterfully woven together the intimate story of Rugal’s young life with the epic tale of the rise and fall of Cardassia.

Both aspects of the story are extraordinarily compelling.  Rugal is an interesting protagonist.  Following the events of the episode “Cardassians,” I expected him to be depicted as an angry, hateful young man because of his forced separation from his adoptive Bajoran parents.  And, indeed, there is much anger in Rugal as depicted by Ms. McCormack.  But she also shows us his intelligence, his gentleness, and above all his surprising equilibrium even when caught up in extraordinary galactic events.

I also really enjoyed Ms. McCormack’s depiction of the larger story of Cardassia.  She has written almost exclusively about Cardassia in her work for Pocket Books so far (in the novel Hollow Men, set during the 6th season of the show, as well as the terrific novella The Lotus Flower from Worlds of Deep Space Nine volume 1) and she continues to flesh out that world and its culture, history, and politics here.  She also has great fun in weaving Rugel’s story in and out of the galactic events that we saw transpire over the course of the show.  She connects a lot of dots and addresses a number of plot points that the show was somewhat vague on.  (I particularly enjoyed the way she fleshed out exactly how the Detapa Council managed to seize control of the government from the Central Command, and what happened to that government once Dukat arranged the alliance between Cardassia and the Dominion.  Those events were all hinted at by the DS9 writers, but the details had always remained tantalizingly unknown, at least until now.)

There are a lot of other fun references and appearances by familiar faces that I won’t spoil here.  Well, OK, I will tell you that, of course, a familiar former tailor makes an appearance.  His answer to the question “Did you try to pretend Tora Ziyal was still alive?” is absolutely heart-breaking, and one of the most haunting things I’ve read in a novel in quite some time.  (It’s also a great testament to the power of the Deep Space Nine story as a whole, and all the wonderful work by every one of the writers, actors, and craftsmen involved in that series, that a small reference to events like that from the series can carry such emotion and meaning.)

The Never-Ending Sacrifice is an outstanding piece of work, one that fits well into the larger continuing Deep Space Nine story-line but that is also a perfectly complete tale all on its own.  Magnificent.

(Oh, and I also have to give Ms. McCormack props for the absolutely perfect title, a lovely reference to one of my very-favorite Bashir/Garak conversations.)

Deep Space Nine remains, by an order of magnitude, my favorite of the Star Trek series.  Not surprisingly, then, it was the terrific DS9 relaunch of novels set after the series finale (which I wrote about in depth here) that rekindled my interest in (and love for) Pocket Books’ Star Trek novels.

But after the publication of David Mack’s phenomenal novel Warpath in April, 2006, the DS9 relaunch series hit something of a snag.  Warpath ended on a brutal cliffhanger, bur for whatever reason the next installment in the series, Fearful Symmetry, wasn’t scheduled to be published until a year later.  Unfortunately, it was actually over TWO years until that next novel was finally published (written by Olivia Woods, a different author than the one originally announced) in July, 2008.  Fearful Symmetry wound up being one of the shortest DS9 novels published (in the relaunch series, at least), and then we all had to wait still another year for the next novel: The Soul Key, also written by Olivia Woods, released this past August.

Such a long a wait put a lot of pressure on The Soul Key.  Things were exacerbated even more (in my mind, at least), when, a few months ago, Pocket Books released their schedule of novels for 2010.  Only one DS9 novel was included, and according to the description it will be set several years after the events of the entire DS9 relaunch series of novels, so that it can be a part of next year’s “Typhon Pact” Next Gen crossover story.  That sounds like a cool novel, but one that will be much more about the post-Destiny Next Gen stories as opposed to all of the DS9-centric stories of the DS9 relaunch.  So it might be another two years at least before more actual DS9 proper novels are published.  All of that means that Ms. Woods’ two novels (Fearful Symmetry and The Soul Key) could conceivably be the only new DS9 relaunch stories published for FIVE years.

That means that The Soul Key would have to be really magnificent to live up to all of the expectation placed upon it.  Sadly, it is not.

Although not as short as Fearful Symmetry, The Soul Key is still a fairly short novel — and it feels even shorter than it actually is.  That might be because, while there is a lot of PLOT covered in this novel (we do, at last, get some resolution to several of the story-lines that have been running through the past several DS9 novels, which means the last several YEARS of my life), there doesn’t seem to be a whole heck of a lot of depth to the proceedings.  Many of the great previous DS9 novels really explored individual characters (like Garak in A Stitch in Time) and/or explored in detail the situations that certain characters found themselves in (such as, just to pick a recent example from Warpath, the page-count Mr. Mack expends to involve the reader in Ensign Tenmei’s experience as a captive of the Jem’Hadar soldier Taranatar).  I didn’t really feel that depth in The Soul Key — the story moved along at such a brisk pace — boom, boom boom — that I didn’t really feel like sufficient time was spent focusing on any of the events that occurred.  There’s nothing wrong with fast-paced story-telling — that can make for a really exciting, action-packed novel (as Warpath was), but to me it almost felt as if Ms. Woods was just in a rush to get some of these long-running story-lines resolved already.

I also felt that Ms. Woods spent way too much time in the first half of the novel filling us in on the back-story of the characters and situations (particularly that of the two Iliana Ghemors).  This back-story is interesting stuff, but I really felt that it should have been included in the previous novel, Fearful Symmetry, whose raison d’etre seemed to me to have been the filling-in of important backstory before the story-lines moved forward.  I have no idea why some of this important info was left out of Fearful Symmetry.  It’s inclusion in that novel would have helped Fearful Symmetry feel like more of a complete story, and it would have left more room in this novel for the events depicted herein to be fleshed out more.

So… is there anything that I liked about Fearful Symmetry?  Well, yes.  There is a lot of exciting action here, and there is (as noted above), some nice resolution (finally) to some long-running story-lines.  Most of the major DS9 players have a role to play in the proceedings, which I appreciated.  In particular, I’ve been really enjoying the continued development of the created-in-the-novels character of Elias Vaughn, who gets some more tough breaks here.

I was also happy to see that, as the novel reached its conclusion, we got some tantalizing hints that other long-building DS9 story-lines (such as the emergence of the mysterious and dangerous Ascendants) had not been forgotten.  (And — small spoiler alert!! — I was quite surprised and pleased to read about the return of the Even Odds to the storyline.)  Who knows when the DS9 saga will continue (in addition to the lack of DS9 in the 2010 schedule, Pocket Books’ Star Trek line has been in upheaval recently with the firing, within the past year, of the two editors primarily responsible for shepherding the Trek novels: Marco Palmieri and Margaret Clark), but the final pages of The Soul Key give me hope that the same story-lines and questions that are on my mind are also on the minds of the Trek authors, and that we will see these stories continue (and reach a hopefully compelling conclusion).

I just hope I don’t have to wait too many more years!!

Pocket Books did publish one additional DS9 novel this past summer, albeit one that didn’t directly connect to the main story-line: The Never-Ending Sacrifice, by Una McCormack.  Was I more satisfied by that novel than I was by The Soul Key?  Indeed I was!!  I’ll be posting my thoughts on that novel next Friday.  For now, have a great weekend!

The post-Nemesis Star Trek: The Next Generation adventures continue in the latest excellent novel from Pocket Books, Losing the Peace, by William Leisner.

Following the calamitous destruction that the Borg have wrought throughout the Federation in David Mack’s terrific Destiny trilogy (see my review here), Starfleet’s exploration programs are all put on hold as every surviving starship is called upon to help pick up the pieces.  Whole planets have been destroyed, leaving countless displaced survivors stranded across space.  The surviving Federation worlds quickly find themselves overwhelmed by an enormous flood of refugees who have lost everything, and dramatic shortages of food and materiel strike everywhere.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise bounce about the quadrant, attempting to help where they can and put out whatever “fires” they might come across, but the enormous problems facing the Federation seem much larger than anything that can be addressed by one lone starship.  Meanwhile, Picard’s command crew (many of whom are new faces who have been introduced in Pocket Books’ post-Nemesis novels) each must face personal struggles as they try to come to grips with the tragedies they have survived.

Losing the Peace may be a unique Star Trek novel in that there is no villain.  There is no alien threat to be overcome, no unique science-fiction mystery to be solved.  Rather, the problems that beset Picard & co. this time are of a much more mundane — though no less perilous — nature.  It would have been easy for Mr. Leisner to have added in some sort of more traditional antagonist — an alien race trying to take advantage of the chaos in the Federation, or something like that — and he is to be commended for avoiding that somewhat obvious way to add drama to the story.  Instead, Mr. Leisner takes the time to draw the reader into a variety of much smaller-scale dramas taking place amongst Picard’s crew and all around the devastated Alpha Quadrant.  These aren’t “fate of the universe” stories of a galactic scale — they’re very “human” tales.  One might think that could make for a rather dull Star Trek novel.  Quite the contrary — I thoroughly enjoyed this very realistic take on what the Federation would logically be facing following the galactic upheavals that took place in Destiny, and all of the “small” stories to be found in Losing the Peace accumulate into a tense novel in which the Federation seems to be in far greater peril than it ever has been before.

I was also pleased at how well Mr. Leisner was able to characterize both the familiar Next Gen characters who appear (Picard, Beverly, Worf, and Geordi) as well as the new characters who have originated in the novels (Miranda Kadohata, T’Ryssa Chen, Jasminder Choudhury).  Being able to create new characters who have just as much depth of characterization as the familiar ones was one of the reasons that I found Pocket Books’ post-finale series of Deep Space Nine novels to be so successful.  (You can read my thoughts on the stellar DS9 re-launch here.)  The post-Nemesis Next Gen novels, at first, had some trouble in this area (with inconsistent characterizations of some of these new faces from novel to novel), but I am thrilled to see how the latest batch of novels (including David Mack’s Destiny as well as Greater Than the Sum, by Christopher L. Bennett) have moved well beyond those early mis-steps.  Here in Losing the Peace, these new characters feel like real, interesting people to me, and I never find myself resenting time spent with them as opposed to with our familiar characters.  Luckily, those familiar characters, too, have some great material in Losing the Peace.  I am delighted that the current crop of Trek authors are allowing Picard, Beverly, Worf, and Geordi to grow and change as the novels continue and more and more years pass from their early days together (during the seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation).  Picard and Beverly are married, Worf is the first officer… I love that the characters’ storylines are moving forward, rather than being stuck in the necessary status quo of a weekly television series.  Now, if only Geordi could get himself a girlfriend!!

As I have written before, these types of stories are what I always wished we’d gotten from the aborted series of Next Gen movies: tense, exciting tales with real dramatic stakes for our characters and for the Federation.  Can’t wait for the “Typhon Pact” series of Next Gen novels coming in 2010!

When I purchased a Blu-Ray player last year, I promised myself that I wouldn’t go out and re-purchase all the great movies that I own on DVD when they’re released on Blu-Ray.  This has been an easy promise to keep, mostly because DVDs played in my Blu-Ray player look FANTASTIC.

But when I read about the new restoration being done to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (one of my absolute favorite films — just take a look back at Wednesday’s post if you don’t believe me) for it’s release on Blu-Ray, I had to take the plunge.

I must admit, somewhat sheepishly, that this is actually the THIRD time I have bought a copy of Star Trek II.  I held off on buying the original bare-bones DVD release from 2000, preferring instead to buy the two-disc “Special Collector’s Edition” when it was released in 2002.  Unfortunately, while I enjoyed all the special features on that DVD, the version of the film included was a new Director’s Cut.  It was neat to see some additional scenes (which I hadn’t seen for years and years, ever since catching an extended TV version of the film in a hotel room once as a kid), but many of the additions were clunky and disruptive to the pitch-perfect pace of the theatrical film.  So of course I went out and picked up a copy of that first bare-bones DVD, so I could have the theatrical version to watch.

So what did I think of this new version?  Was it worth paying to own The Wrath of Khan for a third time?

Absolutely.  The movie looks FANTASTIC on Blu-Ray.  The colors are bright and vibrant (check out the main viewscreen graphics during the opening Kobayashi Maru sequence, for example), and the dark backgrounds and shadows in many of the scenes (this is a DARK movie!) are deep and rich.  The sound is terrific — the dialogue is all crystal-clear, and James Horner’s magnificent scores (one of the best movie scores EVER) is given a lot of weight and heft.

I am not an expert in things like film grain or other aspects of the restoration of old movies, but let me give you one example that, for me, highlights the excellent work done to clean up this film for its Blu-Ray release.  In every home video release of Star Trek II that I have ever seen (including both DVDs that I own), there has always been some distracting dirt or grain or something over the scene of the Enterprise leaving drydock.  There’s one shot in particular — a view of the Enterprise from behind, in which the Big E’s nacelle fills most of the left side of the screen.  Having seen this movie MANY many times, I have always noticed a large distracting piece of dirt in the frame right in the middle of the nacelle.  Now, FINALLY, on the Blu-Ray version, that dirt is gone!!

Here’s some more info on the Blu-Ray presentation of Star Trek II from the terrific Digital Bits web-site:  ”As I mentioned, the new Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan restoration looks spectacular. I’ve seen this film projected in high quality in recent years, and the new presentation captures that experience wonderfully. The film (in fact, nearly ALL the Trek films) have always had a soft look about them, owing to the stock used and the sort of “budget production” approach with which they were shot, but the overall detail is quite good and is very true to the theatrical presentation. There’s light, refined grain structure visible, and color and contrast are excellent. The image is very nicely film-like and it’s just a wonderful viewing experience. Bottom line: This is exactly how Khan is supposed to look, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”  (Read Bill Hunt’s full review here.)

I adore Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and it’s a delight to finally see this film presented the way it should be seen.  Magnificent.

I’m a big Star Trek fan.

OK, that’s probably an enormous understatement.

There has been a LOT of Trek released over the years, and while there have been some missteps (I’m looking at you, Star Trek: Nemesis), there is so much of it that I love so dearly.  The antics and new, big ideas of the original series.  The space-opera writ large of the six original Trek movies.  The serious and cerebral Star Trek: The Next Generation (which is the series I grew up on).  The dense, dark, and sophisticated Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (especially seasons 4-7).  I can even find some things to enjoy in Star Trek: Enterprise (particularly in the final two seasons).

But for me, when I think of Star Trek, I think of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.  This is the pinnacle of what Star Trek can and should be.  This is the masterpiece that I keep hoping will someday be re-captured by a new Trek adventure.  (J.J. Abrams’ new film came the closest any new Trek has come in almost 20 years, but his film is still but a shadow of Khan.)

Is there anyone reading this who doesn’t know the plot?  In the Original Series episode “Space Seed,” Captain James T. Kirk accidentally revived the charismatic megalomaniac, Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban), and 70 of his followers, all genetically enhanced supermen who had conquered a quarter of planet Earth centuries ago during the 1990s and then put themselves into cryogenic freeze when their empire fell. Khan tried to seize the Enterprise in an attempt to restore his empire, and when he failed, Kirk marooned him and his crew on the deserted planet Ceti Alpha VI.  Now, 15 years later, Khan and what’s left of his people manage to capture another ship (the ill-fated U.S.S. Reliant) and attempt to take lethal revenge on the now Admiral Kirk.

Why it’s great: Allow me to quote liberally from the sadly-now-defunct web-site dvdjournal.com’s review of Star Trek II on DVD: “Thank the heavens for The Wrath of Khan, which saved Star Trek from itself. Star Trek: The Motion Picture was an artistic and dramatic failure. Nonetheless, the box office tallies were strong, so Paramount gambled on the notion that another film could amortize the first’s enormous cost overruns and prove that the studio really did have a cash cow on its hands. After all, in show business a movie doesn’t have to be good as long as it’s profitable. But lo and behold, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was good. Really, really good. Twenty years, seven movies, and four franchise TV series later, reasoned consensus still regards it as the best Trek movie of them all. We aren’t talking good just in that “Not bad for [haughty sneer] Star Trek” way. Simply as a movie this multi-layered action picture works so well you don’t need to be a “Trekkie” to enjoy it. Supported by James Horner’s exuberant orchestral score and outstanding effects work by Industrial Lights and Magic, it is a visually rich, briskly entertaining movie constructed from a script that’s clever and witty without being “intellectual” (God forbid), that’s a pitch-perfect balance of space opera pirate saga, unforced humor, and (most welcome of all) realistic character drama. Woven into the gangbusters goings-on are meditations that humanize the larger-than-life James Kirk. Here’s our long-time galactic hero at last facing the fact that he’s not the young space cowboy he used to be (his needing spectacles is a nice touch). His unscheduled reunion with an ex-lover (Bibi Besch in her best-ever screen time) also delivers a grown-up hotheaded son he barely knows. Shortly after Khan’s first attack on the Enterprise, which leaves the ship crippled and a score of young crew members dead, Kirk must swallow the bitter pill that his own failure almost brought about their destruction. Our aging admiral and crew may descend to self-parodying plastic action figures in some later entries, but in this movie they’re allowed to be vulnerably, dimensionally human as themes of pursuit, age, death, and regeneration appear through the phaser fire.”  (Read the full review, by Mark Bourne, here.)

Amen!

Is the above not enough for you? How about some words from Quentin Tarantino, who included Star Trek II in his “QT FEST” movie marathon in 2001. The below excerpts are from aintitcoolnews.com’s report:

Now folks, I wish to God I could transport each and every last one of you to hear Quentin’s introduction of WRATH OF KHAN. He started geeking out like you just wouldn’t believe. He became possessed with the spirit of Khan, he loves this film in an amazingly equal way to the way I love this film.

Says Tarantino: “I like the original Star Trek series, I think everyone that grew up at the time period we did can’t not have a great deal of affection for these guys. But I truly feel this is Classic Trek’s Finest Hour!” Then he started chatting about Pauline Kael’s review of STAR TREK II… “Kael’s review of STAR TREK II is my favorite review of hers, and Kael is my favorite critic ever. She was actually more influential on me than any filmmaker was. Her reviews just spoke to me. Her review started off as a 3 page retrospective on the career of Ricardo Montalban. How he was a great actor stuck in the ‘Mexican’ role, the ‘Latin’ role and the ‘Chick’ role. Then Kael says that he never had a part that tested his depth or talent ‘til he played Khan in SPACE SEED and on this episodic science fiction television series he finally got the role that he was meant for. Afterwards he went into obscurity, then FANTASY ISLAND and those Corinthian Leather Car Commercials. And it looked like Ricardo’s career was dying when lo and behold Paramount decides to do a relatively big budget feature film sequel to a guest star appearance on an old Trek episode… and Ricardo Montalban knew what he had! This was the best role of his 50 some odd year career! And he performed it in some sort of weird Shakespearean/Gladiator style epic thing. This is THE REVENGE MOVIE and in this you absolutely believe he has every right to win…”

Now at this point, Quentin is so excited that he’s nearly foaming at the mouth… then in a strange beautiful geek spilling forth… “Ooooh AD-mirAL… Admiral Kirk never bothered to check up on us…. I Wish to go ON hurTING you, I’ll leave you as you left me marooned for all eternity in the center of a DEAD PLANET…. These people have sworn to live & die at my command 200 years before you were born….. Ah KIRK, My old Friend, Do you know the Klingon proverb that tells us revenge is a dish that is best served cold? IT IS VERY COLD IN SPACE!… From HELL’s heart I Stab at thee! For Hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee…. I’ll chase him round the moons of Nibia and round the Antares Maelstrom and round perdition’s flames before I give him up….”

The audience was sent into Geek Nirvana here… I mean this is Quentin basically performing all of Khan’s lines loudly and greatly exaggerated while laughing giggling and smiling like a hyena on a freshly fallen fawn. Well… Quentin said it all… I mean this movie is a thing of perfection. I love this movie deeply deeply deeply. This is the EMPIRE STRIKES BACK of Star Trek, and I would hold it equally as dearly. It doesn’t have the audacity of effects, but dammit, Montalban is just so damn good, and the crew is so dead on perfect… and the film is written to absolute perfection… Well even people that hate Trek generally will kiss the ass of Khan. It is Glorious.

I wholeheartedly agree!

I’ll be back on Friday with my thoughts on the new Blu-Ray release of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.  For today, let me leave you with one more great line from Trek II that Tarantino missed: “Khan, you bloodsucker. You’ve managed to KILL just about everybody else but like a poor marksman you keep MISSING the target!”

Here’s a fascinating/hilarious article assessing the Ghostbusters‘ Risky Business Plan.  Those of you in finance, take note!  And, speaking of Ghostbusters, here’s a link to 50 Reasons Why Ghostbusters Just Might Be The Greatest Film of All Time.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles show-runner Josh Friedman has a lengthy, funny, and sort-of-sad assessment of the cancellation of his show that is worth checking out.

Here’s an interesting piece about the Seven Director’s Cuts That You Didn’t Realize That You Wanted.   I DEFINITELY would love to see an alternate cut of The Fountain!

I loved this article about the 10 Most Polarizing Films of the Last Decade.  I strongly disagree with some of his opinions (I really enjoyed both Watchmen and Fahrenheit 9/11, while I had absolutely no patience for Eyes Wide Shut), but I was THRILLED to find someone other than me who loves the criminally underrated Vanilla Sky!!  Follow the link and join the debate.

Here’s another great list: The fine folks at DVDActive.com (one of my favorite DVD-related web-sites) have put together their list of the 10 Franchises That Deserve Better.  It’s a great read, and I am in full agreement with most of their choices.

Did you happen to catch William Shatner’s appearance on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien last month?  Check out the clip on Trekmovie.com.  It’s worth watching for the insanity of the last 30 seconds.

Have a great weekend, everyone!  See you back here on Monday!

I can’t believe I actually purchased a book with Star Trek: Voyager in the title!  (For those of you just tuning in, despite my intense love for Star Trek, I have a rather large amount of disdain for Voyager, the most boring and uninspired of the Trek series.)  And even more than that — I can’t believe I liked it!!

Pocket Books has published Star Trek: Voyager novels before (though not for several years).  So what prompted me to pick this one up?

Following David Mack’s magnificent three-book Destiny series (which I reviewed here) that involved characters from all of the 24th century Trek TV shows (Next Gen, DS9, and Voyager) and wreaked an enormous amount of havoc within the established Trek universe, I have been chomping at the bit to see where the story goes from here.  Keith R.A. DeCandidio’s excellent novel A Singular Destiny was the first follow-up (reviewed here), and two subsequent novels have been released over the past few months: Over a Torrent Sea, by Christopher L. Bennett (which explores the ramifications of the events of Destiny on Captain William Riker and his crew on the U.S.S. Titan, and which I’ll be reviewing here soon), and Kirsten Beyer’s Voyager novel, Full Circle, which bridges the gap between the series finale of Voyager (and the handful of Voyager novels that Pocket books released soon after) and the events of Destiny.

Full Circle is a lengthy book (clocking in at 561 pages) that really feels like two books combined into one.  (That is not a complaint.)  The bulk of the first half of the novel follows up on a storyline begun in the latter days of the Voyager series: the idea that a sect of Klingons has become convinced that Miral, the daughter of Tom Paris and B’Elanna Torres, is the Kuvah’magh, the long-predicted Klingon savior.  Upon Voyager’s return to the Alpha Quadrant, B’Elanna takes sanctuary with Miral at the Klingon monastery on Boreth, where she seeks to discover the truth behind the prophecies of the Kuvah’magh.  Of course, it isn’t long before Miral is kidnapped and Torres, and the rest of the crew of Voyager, find themselves swept up in a Klingon feud that is thousands of years old.

The second half of the novel jumps back in forth in time over the course of the next few years, catching the Voyager story-lines up with the events of the last few years worth of Trek novels that culminated in Destiny.  Voyager is home, and back on active duty with Starfleet in the Alpha Quadrant.  But none of the crew has had an easy time re-adjusting to life at home, and terrible tragedies continue to befall them.

I was very impressed with the way that Ms. Beyer was able to craft an engaging, emotional story-line for every main character from Voyager.  Each character has his/her own journey to travel in this book — many of them, excruciatingly difficult ones.  Despite watching seven seasons of Voyager TV episodes, I never felt the characters were fleshed out to any sort of degree — they never felt like real, living people to me.  Yet in Ms. Beyer’s book, I found myself actually caring for these characters!  I was totally swept up in each of the stories being told, and the book’s chronological jumps, that could easily have been confusing or distracting, were instead exciting and revelatory.  And I loved the sense of continuity the book created, as the stories connected to many different plot threads from the last season of Voyager and also to the recent other Trek novels (particularly the shocking death of a MAJOR Voyager character in Peter David’s Next Gen novel, Before Dishonor.)

While it definitely works as a complete story, Full Circle is also clearly an attempt to launch a new series of Voyager novels (in the fashion of Pocket Books’ successful post-finale series of DS9 and Next Gen novels).  There are a lot of story-lines that are left hanging (not in a disappointing way, but more in an “I can’t wait to see what happens next” sort of way, which is a tough balance to find).  And I really can’t wait to see what happens next!  Unbelievable.  Between Full Circle, “The Mirror-Scaled Serpent” (the Voyager novella by Keith R.A. DeCandido in the Mirror Universe anthology), and “Place of Exile” (the Voyager novella by Christopher L. Bennett in the Myriad Universes anthology), I am forced to admit that a rocking Voyager story can indeed be told!  (Too bad the actual TV series was never this good!!)

Yesterday I began reviewing a collection of short-stories entitled The Sky’s the Limit, which was part of Pocket Books’ 20th anniversary salute to Star Trek: The Next Generation.   In my last post, I reviewed the stories set during the run of the Next Gen TV show.  Today I’ll turn my attention to the stories set after “All Good Things,” Next Gen’s series finale.

‘Twould Ring the Bells of Heaven, by Amy Sisson — Set soon after the events of “All Good Things,” this tale finds Deanna Troi leading an away team assigned to help a group of scientists studying the ring system of a planet nicknamed Heaven.  There are some interesting scientific notions mixed into the story, which I enjoyed, and a nice sci-fi mystery.  It was a good idea to focus on Counselor Troi at this point in Next Gen’s history, as she began stepping into more of a leadership role among the Enterprise’s command structure.

Friends with the Sparrows, by Christopher L. Bennett — The classic Next Gen episode “Darmok” introduced us to the Children of Tama, a race of aliens who speak only in metaphor.  With this story, Mr. Bennett really dives into many of the fascinating questions that a consideration of that episode would bring: How do the Tamarians teach their vocabulary to their children?  How do they communicate technical information?  How do they convey to one another the full stories behind their myths in the first place?  It’s hard to avoid asking those questions after having watched “Darmok” a few times, and I was tickled by Mr. Bennett’s attempts to provide answers and flesh out Tamarian culture.  This story also focuses on Data’s struggles with his emotion chip (from Star Trek: Generations).  That aspect of the story is a quite a leap beyond what we saw of Data in that film, but nonetheless works when you consider how many more challenges Data must have had to struggle with (beyond what we saw in Generations) in terms of adjusting to his newfound emotions.  (I should also mention that this story contains the best line in the entire collection: “Mirab-his-sails-unfurled factor what, sir?”  Brilliant.)

Suicide Note, by Geoff Trowbridge — After the Federation’s alliance with the Romulan Empire (to fight against the Dominion, as depicted in the later seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Captain Picard is finally in a position to fulfill a promise made long before.  In the excellent third-season episode “The Defector” (one of the first scripts by Ronald D. Moore), Romulan Admiral Jarok defects to the Federation in an effort to prevent the outbreak of war.  When he discovers that he has been deceived (the evidence he thought he had discovered of Romulan war plans was just an elaborate test of his loyalty), the Admiral kills himself, leaving a message to his wife that Picard promises to one day deliver.  This is a wonderful, emotional story, and a great follow-up to a classic episode.  Just terrific.

Four Lights, by Keith R.A. DeCandido — Another great follow up to a classic Next Gen episode.  In the waning days of the Dominion War, Captain Picard and the U.S.S. Enterprise-E rescue a Cardassian survivor from a Dominion attack — Gul Madred, the Cardassian who brutally tortured Picard in the two-part episode “Chains of Command.”  Major credit to Mr. DeCandido for choosing to follow up on such a fascinating dangling story-line.  I was enjoyably surprised at the unexpected ways that Picard’s interactions with Madred unfolded.  I also loved the glimpse into just what the crew of the Enterprise was up to during the tumultuous years of the Dominion conflict.  This is a fertile ground for stories, and while a few novels have given us glimpses of some of the Enterprise’s adventures during this time period, I still feel that there are still a lot more stories to be told…

‘Til Death, by Bob Ingersoll & Thomas F. Zahler — When a terrible attack on an away mission leaves Will Riker near death just a few weeks before his marriage to Deanna Troi, he must contemplate what his final message to his imzadi could possibly be.  This is a sweet story with some fascinating connections to an episode of the Original Series.  But I must confess to some disappointment.  When I saw that there was a Riker story in this collection set before Star Trek: Nemesis, I had hoped that it would shed some light on something the films glossed over: what really prompted Riker and Troi, after years of friendship on board the Enterprise, to finally decide to resume their romantic relationship and then get married?  Yes, I know they hooked up under the sort-of-influence of the youthful properties of the Briar Patch in Star Trek: Insurrection, but was that really the only reason?  I’ve always felt there was more to that story.  This is nothing against ‘Til Death — it’s a lovely tale.  Just not the story I was hoping for.

On the Spot, by David A. McIntee — Worf deals with adopting Spot after Data’s demise in Star Trek: Nemesis, and a bizarre alien creature causes trouble on board the Enterprise.  Portions of this story are told from Spot’s perspective.  That’s an interesting choice, but not one that appealed to me.

Trust Yourself When All Men Doubt You, by Michael Schuster & Steve Mollmann — At a crossroads after the traumatic events of Star Trek: Nemesis, Jean-Luc Picard must decide whether he his truly ready to resume command of the Enterprise.  He finds some comfort in a letter to him written years earlier by Captain Thomas Halloway.  This final story is a nice bookend to the first story, also by Mr. Schuster and Mr. Mollmann, and the revelation of Captain Halloway’s ultimate fate is a powerful one.  If I have a complaint, it’s that the resolution of Picard’s emotional turmoil is a little too easy.  I think Picard’s mental state following the events of Nemesis probably warranted a longer story.

So there you have it.  The Sky’s the Limit is a terrifically entertaining collection of stories from some of Pocket Books’ most talented authors.  I really enjoyed the variety of the stories — they cover the entire time-period of the Next Generation and spread the focus amongst all of the characters.  While some stories spoke to me more than others, the over-all quality was very high.  In the end, it’s a worthy salute to The Next Generation, and reading this book made me want to go back and watch many of the episodes referenced within.  What more could I ask?

2007 was, believe it or not, the TWENTIETH anniversary of the launch of the very first Star Trek spin-off, Star Trek: The Next Generation.  The pilot episode, “Encounter at Farpoint,” is terribly clunky when looked at today, but as a kid watching that very first episode I was blown away, and hooked for life.

During 2007, Pocket Books released a number of great novels celebrating Next Gen’s 20th anniversary, but one that I missed was a short-story anthology called The Sky’s The Limit.  I’m glad that I have remedied my oversight, because this collection is a delight.  The fourteen stories are presented chronologically, spanning the years between a time immediately before “Encounter at Farpoint,” and the time immediately after the last Next Gen feature film, Star Trek: Nemesis.

Meet with Triumph and Disaster, by Michael Schuster & Steve Mollmann — As Starfleet prepares for the launch of the Enterprise-D, the man who supervised her construction, Captain Thomas Halloway, is faced with a momentous choice.  One of the shortest stories in the collection, it’s a great introduction to the era of Next Gen, and a delightful fleshing out of a man only glimpsed very briefly in one episode.

Acts of Compassion, by Dayton ward & Kevin Dilmore — Beverly Crusher and Tasha Yar are tasked with seeing to the safe return of three Starfleet Officers who were captured in Cardassian territory.  Needless to say, the mission hits a few bumps along the way.  I was glad to see that Tasha was not ignored by the authors contributing to this anthology, and I really enjoyed this glimpse at the relationship between these two women.  I can’t think of any first-season episodes that gave us much information about how Tasha and Beverly interacted, but Ward & Dilmore do a great job in conveying the very different ways that these two officers viewed the world.

Redshift, by Richard C. White — Set during Next Gen’s second season, this story focuses on the early days aboard the Enterprise of new Chief Medical Officer Dr. Katherine Pulaski.  Pulaski was an interesting character who, I feel, was done a disservice by the writers when she vanished off the show at the end of that season.  It’s nice to see her character fleshed out here, and White creates a crackling adventure scenario that keeps the story moving.

Among the Clouds, by Scott Pearson –A mishap in the lower stratosphere of a Jovian planet sends Geordi LaForge plummeting down through the clouds of ammonia ice to his certain death.  The story moves at a rapid pace, bouncing back and forth between the events that lead to Geordi’s situation and his efforts to save himself.  This is a wonderful story of exploration, and Mr. Pearson creates a vivid alien world in his depiction of this planet and the strange life that the Enterprise crew discovers living within it.  There’s a nice grounding in real science mixed with some delightful sci-fi extrapolation, all wrapped up in a great story of Geordi’s good heart and incredible engineering abilities.  One of my favorite stories in the collection.

Thinking of You, by Greg Cox — Mr. Cox sends some love towards two great Next Gen supporting characters: Ensign Ro and Lieutenant Reginald Barclay.  The unlikely pair is sent to provide engineering assistance to Lwaxana Troi, but quickly find themselves caught up in a diplomatic negotiation gone terribly wrong.  Cox has a great ear for writing the dialogue of these three distinct characters — I loved the way he bounces the three of them off one another.  There are also some fascinating digressions that explore the dynamics of just how a holodeck would work.  Great stuff.

Turncoats, by Susan Schwartz — This story is a follow-up to the sixth season episode, “Face of the Enemy.”  I am not a big fan of that episode, but was nonetheless taken by this tale.  ”Face of the Enemy” introduced the character of Stefan DeSeve, a Federation defector to Romulus who returns to the Federation bearing critical information from Ambassador Spock.  That is an intriguing idea for a character, but DeSeve doesn’t get a lot of attention in the episode — he’s there more as a plot device, and after the episode he’s never heard from again.  Ms. Schwartz sets out to tell us more of his story.  It’s an interesting choice, to focus on so minor a character, but the result was successful (although I was less taken by the Enterprise-in-jeopardy side of the tale, as that didn’t seem to track all that consistently from where “Face of the Enemy” had left off).

Ordinary Days, by James Swallow — My favorite story in this collection.  Wesley Crusher is married and living on Dorvan V when Starfleet informs the colonists that they need to relocate, because a new treaty has ceded the planet to the Cardassians.  When the colonists resist the idea of leaving their home, Starfleet sends the U.S.S. Enterprise, commanded by Edward Jellico, to supervise their relocation.  This story is a bittersweet, emotional glimpse at the life that young Wesley Crusher COULD have lived, had he suppressed his unique gifts in an effort to live a more ordinary life.  The story unfolds at a leisurely pace, allowing the reader to slowly discover what is going on (and also to get to know and sympathize with Wesley in a way that we seldom did on the show).  Mr. Swallow resists any urge to present things simplistically — while Wesley’s absence from the Enterprise resulted in some terrible tragedies befalling that ship and crew, in many ways Wesley was able to find a home and personal connections in this life that he never did in the life we saw him live over the years of Next Gen.  Ordinary Days is a sweet, sad story, and it’s absolutely dynamite.

I’ll be back on Friday to discuss the rest of the short stories from The Sky’s the Limit, set during the period of the Next Gen movies.  See you then!

Click here for a terrific three-essay series that delves into the first three Indiana Jones films.  These are all really well-written pieces, filled to the brim with love for the cinematic adventures of Dr. Jones.

Clever tourists wrecking the world one monument at a time.  Don’t think — just follow that link.  You won’t regret it.

Click here for a fascinating list of the twenty best non-fiction books for people who think they hate to read non-fiction.  I need to get on this, having only read two of the items on this list!

I’m not exactly recommending this lengthy essay, because I disagree with it wildly, but it’s sort of bizarrely fascinating two see two individuals who really don’t seem to like Star Trek at all go on an enormous length about it as they revisit the first six Trek films.  (Well, one of the two authors seems to be a fan, but he doesn’t seem to put up much of a fight whenever the other one bashes the series.)

Speaking of Trek, here is a link to a lengthy, fascinating Q & A that’s been going on over at Trekmovie.com between Star Trek screenwriters Bob Orci & Alex Kurtzman and a number of fans who, like me, had lots of questions about elements of the new movie’s plots.  I really respect Mr. Orci for engaging with the fans in this way — though I feel most of his responses are pretty flimsy.  Check it out and see what you think.  (UPDATE:  Still MORE Q & A with Mr. Orci & Mr. Kurtzman can be found here!)

It’s pretty obvious that the new Star Trek movie was pretty heavily influenced by the action and dynamism of Star Wars.  But have you considered just how deep those similarities run?  Shocking!  (And hysterical.)

Let’s close with three intriguing trailers: Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Junior, the bizarre-looking Nine and (can you believe it?) Toy Story 3.

That should keep you all good and busy until tomorrow!  See you back here then!

Big dumb summer movie trailer alert!  It’s the new trailer for Transformers 2, filled with lots of robot smashing action, and the new trailer for G.I. Joe, filled with Ninjas and, um, Eiffel Tower smashing action!  Sigh.  Hard to believe these two iconic and beloved cartoons of my youth are both now big-budget blockbuster movies coming out this summer.  Wouldn’t it be amazing if there were both really awesome?  Isn’t it sort of sad to know that they definitely won’t be?

For a peek at a movie that might actually be good, click here to check out District 9, the new sci-fi flick directed by Neill Blomkamp and executive produced by Peter Jackson (The Lord of The Rings).  Color me intrigued.

Keeping up with the trailers, here’s a glimpse at the new film from Francis Ford Coppola, Tetro.  I never saw his last film, the critically-demolished Youth Without Youth, but this looks really interesting.  It’s a new film from Francis Ford Coppola!  Of course it looks interesting!

Did you know that Robert Rodriguez is working on a new Predator film??  If it happens, it’ll be called Predators (in a clever nod to James Cameron’s sequel to Alien, entitled Aliens).  Check out the tantalizing details here.  I need to see this movie RIGHT NOW.

So it’s been ten years since The Phantom Menace, huh?  Here’s an interesting look back.  I agree with this fellow’s thoughts about the two Phantom Menace trailers (among the finest trailers ever crafted), but I certainly don’t think anywhere nearly as highly of that dreadful turd of a movie as he does.  (You can read my memories of first seeing Episode I in theatres here, and my thoughts on the movie looking back almost a decade later here.)

Did you not have enough Star Trek content here on the site for the past two weeks?  Then check out this great piece from the Onion A.V. Club: “Space Racism is Bad and 17 Other Not-So-Subtle Lessons Learned From Star Trek.”  If you’ve never seen it before, you MUST scroll down to the clip of William Shatner’s Kirk reading the Preamble to U.S. Constitution in selection #12, from the absurd Trek episode The Omega Glory.  ”WE… the… PEOPLE… not written for thekingsorthechiefsortherichorthepowerful but for ALLTHEPEOPLE!”  Classic Shatnerian magnificence. 

Since seeing J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek film, I’ve been enjoying reading all the different reactions on-line and in the press.  I always enjoy Alexandra DuPont’s film reviews when they appear (not often enough to suit me) on aintitcoolnews.com, and her take on the new film is well worth your time.  (I remember well — and agree with entirely — her spot-on evisceration of Star Trek: Nemesis, which she quotes at the start of her review.)  Star Trek author William Leisner (who wrote a terrific novella in Pocket Books’ recent Myriad Universes series, reviewed by yours truly here) has a terrific opposite take, giving a right-on-the-money account of all the problematic plot holes in the film.  Trek author Geoff Trowbridge (who also wrote an installment in Myriad Universes) has a similarly interesting take.  My own views (click here if you missed my full review) are somewhat in the middle.  I share a lot of Ms. DuPont’s love for the film, but my enjoyment was lessened by all the plot holes that Mr. Leisner and Mr. Trowbridge list.  

That’s all for today — See you back here tomorrow!

It’s been a long road.  After walking disgustedly out of the opening weekend screening of the catastrophically terrible Star Trek: Nemesis back in December, 2002, I knew that Trek was at a low point.  It seemed uncertain what, if any, future the franchise had after the release of that bomb and the subsequent cancellation of the last Trek TV show, Enterprise.  Then, about 3 years ago, word came that a new Trek film was in the works.  Gradually news began to leak out, some very exciting, some rather worrying, and I soaked up every tidbit with great anticipation, some nervousness, and extremely high hopes that one day Star Trek could be great again.  A few hours ago, I watched the result of J.J. Abrams and his team’s efforts: the simply-titled Star Trek.

Abrams and his brain-trust — consisting of Damon Lindeloff (one of the top minds behind Lost) and screen-writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman — dared to do what no man has done before: to re-cast the iconic roles of the Original Series characters.  As everyone knows by now, instead of creating new characters and situations and moving the Star Trek universe forward beyond the adventures of Picard-Sisko-Janeway-etc., they decided to go back and tell an Original Series story, with new actors playing younger versions of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and all the other familiar characters.  This was an incredibly risky move.  While similiar “how it all began” prequels such as Batman Begins and Casino Royale worked well, audiences had already become accustomed to seeing lots of different actors take on the roles of Batman and James Bond.  But could someone other than William Shatner play Kirk?  Could someone other than Leonard Nimoy play Spock?

Although sadly this film fails in some powerfully annoying ways (more on that in a few moments), I am happy to report that, in this respect — that is, in regards to the viability of rebooting and recasting Star Trek — the film succeeds magnificently.  Bravo to the choice of talented actors selected to be the new command team of the Enterprise — there is not a weak link in the bunch.  None of the actors resorts to mimicry, and yet they all, somehow, truly manage to embody their characters!

Let’s start with Chris Pine as James Tiberius Kirk.  He’s got the swagger, he’s got the arrogance, and yet he’s able to also convey a tremendous likability.  You can see that this is a man that others will follow.  The film doesn’t shy away from the “lady-killer” aspects of Kirk’s persona, but Pine never crosses the line into camp or, on the other hand, into boorishness.  Rather, there’s terrific fun to had watching, for example, Kirk get easily distracted from getting needed medical help from McCoy by the sight of a pretty lady walking by in the other direction.  Zachary Quinto, on the other hand, doesn’t shy away from making his Spock quite unlikable at the start of the film, but that works for the Spock character here.  This Spock is still young, still conflicted about his warring Vulcan/Human sides, and still trying to find a place for himself.  That makes for some compelling stuff, and Quinto plays that internal drama well.  (Much better than many of the overly-emotional Vulcans we had to suffer through on the last Trek TV series, Enterprise.)  Plus, there’s a moment late in the film when he gets to give the great “my only reply to your human emotionality is a silent raise of one pointed eyebrow,” and man does he nail that moment.

Most reviewers are singing the praise of Karl Urban (Eomer from The Lord of the Rings) as Leonard McCoy, and allow me, please, to join in the chorus.  Of all the actors cast, he was the biggest “huh?” — as his prior work didn’t lead me to think that he had any resemblance whatsoever to DeForest Kelley.  And yet, somehow, of all the actors, he is the one who is most magically able to channel his predecessor.  Urban IS Bones.  There’s just no question.  He is able to express all the grumpy technophobia wrapped up in an enormous, kind heart that DeForest Kelley was always able to portray.  And the man says “dammit, Jim!” like nobody’s business.  (But, SPOILER ALERT, we didn’t get a single “he’s dead, Jim!”  Maybe next time.)  From the trailers and all the other promotional materials, I was afraid that McCoy’s friendship with Kirk was going to be completely ignored by this film in favor of an emphasis on the Kirk-Spock dynamic.  While the trailers took that approach, I am happy to say the final film did not.  McCoy is an absolutely central character here, and his close friendship with Kirk drives much of the story.

Zoe Saldana is beautiful and brings tremendous intelligence to the role of Uhura.  (And praise be to the Great Bird of the Galaxy that we finally get her first name — long ago revealed in “unofficial” novels, etc. — said out loud on-screen!)  Smart move making her a linguistics expert in addition to just the Communications Officer who says “hailing frequencies open.”  That change makes Uhura much more central to the plot.  (Allow me to interject here and also compliment the film on the way it makes ALL the characters in the ensemble important to the plot, not just Kirk-Spock-McCoy.)  John Cho dives into the role of Hikaru Sulu with gusto, and, like Uhura, he too gets some great stuff to do in the flick — specifically, he’s involved in a critical and exciting action sequence about halfway through the film (snippets of which have been in all the trailers).  Then there’s Anton Yelchin as Pavel Chekov.  I feel the film makes a bit too much of a meal out of his over-wrought Russian accent, but that’s just a minor objection.  I keep calling these actors likable, and let me say it again here — Yelchin brings such heart and good humor to the role that a few accent-related groaners didn’t hurt his performance for me at all.  I also like that he, too, is given some moments in the movie to show his character’s expertise — specifically, at using the transporter.  Finally, rounding out the classic team is Simon Pegg as Scotty.  Pegg is positively gleeful in the role, and I wish we didn’t have to wait so long in the movie before his character enters the picture!  Great balance with the accent — it’s clearly Scotty, but, again, not just an exercise in accent-imitation.

My compliments about casting also extend to the rest of the supporting cast.  I have a lot of love for the character of Christopher Pike (played by Jeffrey Hunter in the original Star Trek pilot over 40 years ago), and I was really happy to learn he’d be in the film.  Bruce Greenwood is absolutely spectacular in the role, and he has a lot of moments to shine.  One of my favorite scenes in the film is his “I dare you to do better” speech to Kirk (that was the centerpiece of the film’s advertising campaign), but he also has some great moments of gravitas and leadership on the Enterprise bridge.  Speaking of Starfleet Captains, Faran Tahir (one of the main villains in Iron Man) is terrific as the captain of the doomed U.S.S. Kelvin — I sort of wanted to watch a whole movie about that guy!  Eric Bana does solid work as the villainous Nero, although we really don’t get a lot of time to know his character (a real weakness of the film, I think).  His Romulan was surprisingly American-sounding to me, which was a little odd but not a major problem.  He certainly was a lot more gritty and “real,” to me, than a lot of past Trek movie villains.

After the casting, the other main aspect of J.J. Abrams’ Trek reinvention is, of course, the visual look of the film.  How can one honor the look and spirit of a made-on-the-cheap 40 year-old TV show and still provide exciting visual eye-candy for today’s viewers?  For the MOST part, I am happy to say that Abrams succeeds here as well as he did with the casting.  This is a beautiful film.  My goodness it is great to finally get to watch a Star Trek movie that doesn’t look like it was filmed on a shoe-string budget!  This is a magnificently epic film, one that is filled to the absolute brim with wonders that can’t possibly all be taken in and absorbed on a single viewing.  It’s also nice to watch a Trek film that really feels like it was helmed by a visionary director.  It’s really neat the to see the way Abrams approaches some familiar Trek staples (such as the fly-by of the Enterprise’s hull, or scenes around the Captain’s chair on the bridge, or a Vulcan mind-meld) from new and different ways.  This is not a director who just set up his camera in front of some pretty sets!  There’s a real vigor and intensity to the way the camera moves and the way scenes are staged that is a delight.

And the visual effects — holy cow.  The starships look magnificent, the space-battles are amazing, and all the different planetary environments seen in the film are beautifully realized.  Let me heap particular praise on the design of the planet Vulcan, which is extraordinarily faithful to the glimpses of Vulcan that we’ve seen before but realized on a scale way above prior efforts.  And if we’re talking about design, let me also single out the cockpit design of Spock’s little ship.  Did you notice that, when the triangular-shaped chair is straight in front of the circular cockpit window, it looks exactly like the famous Vulcan IDIC (”Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations”) pendant from the original series?  Cool!

For those of you who have been reading this review and have been waiting for an enormous “BUT…” well, here it is.  All of the above is awesome and terrific.  The cast works spectacularly well, the visuals are gorgeous, and the film is directed with a skill and intensity that has been sorely lacking in Trek films since Nicholas Meyer was involved (he directed the two best Trek films, II and VI).  BUT.  The script is the weak link.

There are way too many instances when characters do things not because it is the, ahem, logical thing to do, but because that is what the plot dictates.  After Kirk questions Spock’s command decisions, Spock has him jettisoned from the Enterprise in an escape pod and marooned on an ice planet??  Say WHAT now??  That is just insanity.  Put the boy in the brig, for heavens sake!  This happens in the story because the writers needed some reason to separate Kirk from the rest of the Enterprise crew for a while, so he could meet up with old-Spock.  But the device they came up with, of Kirk getting thrown off the ship in the middle of a galactic crisis, is ludicrous.

I also got fed up, very quickly, with the way that all of our young cadet characters quickly found themselves placed in positions of authority.  The Enterprise is damaged and some of the medical staff is killed — so suddenly cadet McCoy is the Chief Medical Officer?  Aren’t there ANY other doctors on board?  Kirk gets back to the Enterprise with Scotty — who, at this point, has NEVER served aboard a starship — and in two seconds Scotty is in charge of Engineering?  Where’s the Chief Engineer?  Where are ANY of the other members of the starship’s engineering staff??  And don’t get me started on cadet Kirk getting named Captain of the Enterprise.  Come.  On.  I love how this film emphasizes the enormous size of a starship like the Enterprise, and the army of people it takes to man her.  It is not unreasonable to me that a ship like the Enterprise would have some low-level cadets on board.  But where is the ship’s middle-management??  OK, the Captain and some of the senior staff get taken out — but what about the scores of lieutenants and lieutenant commanders who must be on-board who’d be able to take charge before cadet Kirk and his buddies would get tapped?

The film is filled with plot holes like that.  After a distress call is received from Vulcan, it takes the Enterprise about 3 minutes to warp from Earth to Vulcan.  Then Nero decides to take his ship from Vulcan to Earth, and it seems to take him the entire second half of the movie to get there.  Kirk gets stranded on Delta Vega, which just HAPPENS to be the planet where old Spock has also been stranded.  And, of the ENTIRE PLANET, Kirk’s pod just HAPPENS to land right where Spock is.  And, at the old almost-abandoned Starfleet posting on that frozen rock, one of the only two officers stationed there just HAPPENS to be Montogomery Scott.

I could go on.  Just what the heck has Nero been doing during the TWENTY-FIVE years between his arrival in the past, in the film’s exciting prologue, and the beginning of his revenge-plot against Vulcan?  Delta Vega is close enough to Vulcan for Spock to be able to look up in the sky and see what Nero is doing, and yet Delta Vega itself is not at all affected by what happens?  Young Kirk gets into a bar fight in Iowa, and Captain Pike just happens to be there?  (As opposed to being, oh, I don’t know, either OUT IN SPACE or at least at Starfleet Command in SAN FRANCISCO.)  And just where is the rest of Starfleet while all of the main action of the movie is going on?  It was always a silly aspect of the Trek shows how the Enterprise consistently seemed to be “the only ship in the quadrant” whenever something bad was going down, and that silliness is found in spades in this film.  Is there not a single other starship assigned to defend Earth??  Sheesh!

Notice that, so far, I have not raised one single complaint about mangled continuity in this film.  It is clear right from the opening scenes of the film that we are dealing with an alternate reality — one changed dramatically by Nero’s arrival in the past.  This was a wise choice on the part of the film-makers, as it frees them to deviate from established canon whenever they please.  It’s not necessarily a violation of canon that we don’t see Kirk’s best-friend Gary Mitchell with him in the academy, because this is an altered timeline, so it really wouldn’t be fair of me to complain about Mitchell’s absence.  And I don’t miss Gary Mitchell!  I don’t demand his character’s inclusion in the story just because of a reference in a Trek episode from over 40 years ago!  But what I do demand of this film — of ANY film — is that it plays by its own rules, and that the story being told makes sense and doesn’t contradict itself.  As you can see from some of my above complaints, that is not the case here.

I will also take this opportunity to be critical of one other major aspect of J.J.’s Trek reboot, and that is the positively dreadful redesign of the Enterprise.  I whined about the new look of the Enterprise exterior when the first image was released, and unfortunately I didn’t like it any better seeing it in action in the movie.  I just think the new Enterprise looks awkward and ugly, and the Big E’s gorgeous silhouette is really lost.  I didn’t think much more highly of the new Enterprise’s interiors.  I think they veered way too far from the look of the classic Enterprise bridge with the overly-busy Apple-store looking new design.  Meanwhile, the Engineering sets were ridiculously low-tech, looking like those scenes all took place in some 1950’s factory and not the Engineering section of a futuristic starship.  And just what the heck was up with the Willy Wonka-esque pipes that Scotty gets stuck in, Augustus Gloop-style??  Weird.

One final complaint: I really enjoyed the talented Michael Giacchino’s score — but where was the iconic Trek theme???  With the exception of one teensy tiny moment very late in the film, I had to wait until the closing credits to hear ANY familiar Trek music, and that was a real disappointment.  I’m happy that Giacchino crafted a unique score of his own, but how about a hint of some of the great, familiar Trek themes the first time we lay eyes on the Enterprise, or the first time Kirk sits in the big chair?  Missed opportunities.

OK, time to bring this long rant to a close.  As you can see, I am conflicted.  On the one hand, it is INCREDIBLY EXCITING to see Star Trek brought back to the big screen in such a BIG, ENERGETIC way.  I am really taken with the new cast, and with the tone and direction of J.J.’s re-launch.  This movie is a visual over-load in all of the best ways, and even though I am a little luke-warm on the finished product, this is a film that I eagerly look forward to revisiting so that I can continue to soak it all in.  I just wish the story being told had been a little more carefully crafted.  I really do believe that a little more time and attention could have addressed a lot of my above complaints.  But, OK, deep breath.  Let’s take a moment to thank J.J. Abrams and his team for giving us the best Trek that we’ve seen on the big screen in a LONG time.  I am eager to see where they go with the (hopefully coming soon) next installment!  Dare I hope for the U.S.S. Enterprise to encounter… the S.S. Botany Bay??

Star Trek fever continues here at MotionPicturesComics.com!  Did you miss my list of the Top Twenty Episodes of Star Trek?  Then check it out!  Previously this week I’ve written about Pocket Books’ excellent two-book Star Trek: Mirror Universe series, as well as their follow-up Mirror Universe collection “Shards and Shadows.”

Based, I presume, on the success of the two-book Mirror Universe series in 2007, this past summer Pocket Books released a similarly formatted two-book collection (each containing three novellas, just like the Mirror Universe volumes) entitled Star Trek: Myriad Universes.  While all six Mirror Universe novellas charted the future-history of that one particular parallel universe, Myriad Universes contains six stories that are each set in entirely different alternate universes.  These aren’t return visits to alternate pasts or futures that we saw in any of the Trek TV shows — these are all completely new creations of the authors involved.  As with the Mirror Universe stories, these tales are all fantastic fun.

Volume I: “Infinity’s Prism”

A Less Perfect Union, by William Leisner — In the final episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise, as Earth took its first tentative steps towards uniting with the nearby alien races it had once feared and hated (the Vulcans, the Andorians, the Tellarites) to form what would one-day become the United Federation of Planets, a xenophobic hate-group called Terra Prime began gaining influence and followers on Earth.  In this story, we are introduced to a United Earth where the followers of Terra Prime convinced Earth’s government to reject the nascent interstellar alliance and instead expel all aliens from the planet.  Nearly a hundred years later, Captain Christopher Pike, in command of the U.E.S.S. Enterprise, comes across a distress signal from an old Earth vessel that has apparently crash-landed on a distant planet called Talos.  Astute readers will immediately recognize the story of the original Star Trek pilot, The Cage.  Unfortunately, things go a little differently for the United Earth Starship in this reality than they did in our familiar version of the story.  Captain Pike, along with several members of Earth’s government, begins to realize that the time may finally have come for Earth to once again reach out to its neighbors in the galaxy… and the one surviving member of Jonathan Archer’s Enterprise might be the key.  From the brilliant first chapter, which tells a so-familiar yet so-different version of the famous opening scenes of The Cage, right up through the parallel version of the Babel Conference (originally told in the great Classic Trek episode “Journey to Babel”) which forms the bulk of this novella, this is a marvelous story.  It is emotional, intense and, at the same time, hopeful, as all the very best Star Trek stories are.  A terrific read.

Place of Exile, by Christopher L. Bennett — In his Mirror Universe story, A Mirror-Scaled Serpent, Keith R.A. DeCandido did the impossible and actually made me care about characters from Star Trek: Voyager.  Well, Mr. Bennett performs the same miracle here.  His story begins towards the end of Voyager’s third season cliff-hanger, “Scorpion,” in which the U.S.S. Voyager finds itself in the middle of an enormous inter-stellar war between the unstoppable Borg and a mysterious foe from another universe, Species 8472.  In the televised episode, Kathryn Janeway is able to guide Voyager safely through the conflict.  Here, though, Voyager is crippled in a vicious attack by Species 8472, and the stranded crew is forced to take refuge with a nearby race of aliens called the Vostigye.  The longest story in this collection, this novella chronicles the months and years that follow, as the crew of Voyager is forced to scatter and make the best of their new lives trapped in the Delta Quadrant.  But all the while the looming Borg/8472 war draws closer, threatening total annihilation… and a determined Captain Janeway stubbornly refuses to give up her dream of rebuilding Voyager and resuming their course for home.  Holy cow, what a great story.  Bennett does everything right that the writers of Voyager did wrong.  First of all, he creates a story in which the Voyager faces an enormous and yet realistic set-back (as opposed to the show, which always depicted the ship in perfect condition, never wanting for supplies or equipment).  Secondly, he allows the characters to really grow and develop as people, as each of them respond to their new circumstances in different ways.  (Again, this is in contrast to the actual show, in which there was little-to-no character development, Janeway never had to face any real challenges to her determination to maintain Starfleet discipline even 70,000 light-years from home, and, just to pick another random example, Harry Kim remained an Ensign for seven years.)  Finally, Mr, Bennett has crafted far more satisfying resolutions to many story-lines that the Voyager writers choose to abandon, most notably the wonderfully sweet ending he gives to the Kes-Neelix relationship.  Beautiful.  A thoroughly engrossing tale.

Seeds of Dissent, by James Swallow — It’s Space Seed in reverse: Almost 400 years after Khan and his genetically enhanced followers conquered Earth, the Terran Khanate rules their corner of the galaxy with an iron fist.  But things start to unravel when Princeps Julian Bashir and his starship Defiance discover a centuries-old sleeper-ship, the Botany Bay, carrying cryogenically preserved refugees from Khan’s conquest — almost a hundred un-enhanced “basic” Humans.  Swallow’s story is a lot less epic than the other two novellas in this collection, but it is every bit as engaging.  As the story opened, it seemed that Bashir would be the main character in the tale, but as things unfolded I found myself most interested in Ezri Dax, the Trill who has spent 300 years in servitude to the Khanate.  When presented with the Botany Bay survivors, and the inflammatory evidence they possess about the true story of Khan’s bloody rise to power, Dax must make a terrible choice.  

Volume II: “Echoes and Refractions”

The Chimes at Midnight, by Geoff Trowbridge — OK, now this is an obscure one.  In the Animated Star Trek episode “Yesteryear,” a mishap involving the Guardian of Forever results in an alternate universe in which Spock is killed as a young boy on Vulcan.  As a result, years later, it would be an Andorian named Thelin, not Spock, who would serve as First Officer on the USS Enterprise under Captain Kirk.  Of course, by the end of “Yesteryear,” history is corrected and young Spock is saved, but this novella explores a universe in which Spock was never saved and that alternate timeline continued.  After a brief prologue, the story opens on the bridge of the Enterprise, in which a desperate Kirk calls out, “Scotty!  I need warp speed in three minutes or we’re all dead!”  These are the climactic moments of Star Trek II, and the crippled Enterprise is trying to escape the detonation of the Genesis wave.  In the movie, we all know that Spock’s sacrifice saves the ship — but how will the Enterprise escape without Spock’s presence?  As this clever story progresses, we follow this alternate history through the years chronicled by the rest of the original Star Trek movies (II though VI).  It is great fun seeing those familiar stories play out slightly (or, in some cases, a lot MORE than slightly) differently.  I was particularly pleased to see the way in which, in this universe, Carol Marcus and her knowledge of Genesis are involved in the aftermath of the alien probe (from Star Trek IV)’s attack on Earth (thus correcting something that has always bugged me about the later Trek films: how everyone seemed to conveniently forget about the Genesis technology).  The character of the Andorian Thelin is well fleshed out, making him a compelling character with whom to travel through this story.  I was also very pleased by the attention given to David Marcus and Saavik, and I was really tickled by the ways in which their stories intertwined.  As a kid growing up, I was captivated by Vonda N. McIntyre’s novel adaptations of the early Star Trek movies.  She always wove a lot of additional character details into those novels — and one that I always loved was her invention of a much deeper relationship between David and Saavik.  I don’t know if Mr. Trowbridge was similarly inspired by Ms. McIntyre’s work, but either way, I loved this particular story development.  If I have any complaint, it is that the end of the novella felt rushed.  There is a very dramatic event involving the Klingons late in the story, which was followed by a five year jump.  Well, I really wanted to know more about the events of those five years, and I wanted to get some more build-up to the momentous decision that Thelin makes at the story’s end.  This story cries out for an additional 50-100 pages!

A Gutted World, by Keth R.A. DeCandido — This rivals Places of Exile as my favorite novella from this series.  It is a world where the Cardassians never withdrew from Bajor.  What I expected to be a relatively small-scale story about Bajorans and Cardassians quickly escalates into an enormous epic, as the events of the later seasons of Deep Space Nine play out dramatically differently without a Federation presence in the Bajoran sector.  This is a sprawling tale that interweaves the stories of an incredibly large number of familiar characters, taking place across numerous worlds throughout the Alpha Quadrant.  Two of the main protagonists are Kira Nerys, a Bajoran resistance fighter who is given staggering information by “plain, simple tailor” Elim Garak, and Captain Jean-Luc Picard, who, immediately after stopping a Borg plot to change history, must take the Enterprise E into Klingon space to help the Klingons fight an increasingly vicious war with the Romulans.  As in so many of Mr. DeCandido’s other works, this story is jam-packed with Trek details and minutae.  Almost every character, no matter how minor, has been drawn from an appearance in a Trek episode (Ro Laren!  Damar!  Gowron!  Shelby!  Sonja Gomez!  Koval!  Erika Benteen!  Jaresh-Inyo!  Scotty!) or one of the recent Trek novels (Edmund Atkinson!  Miranda Kadohota!  Gilaad ben Zoma!  David Gold!  Charivretha zh’Thane!), and this gives great weight to their small scenes.  In one chapter we meet Federation Ambassador Krajensky — DS9 fans who recognize that character (who only appeared in one episode) and know what became of him will be put on their toes immediately, and that adds tension to the story.  The myriad Trek references enables the reader to have a lot of fun extrapolating for ourselves how these familiar characters arrived at the place where we meet them in this alternate universe.  It is apparent that Mr. DeCandido has given very careful thought to the many ripple effects that the Cardassians never leaving Bajor would cause as the events that were chronicled in the seven seasons of DS9 unfolded in this universe.  These “ripples” include what seems like a throw-away reference to both of Klingon General Martok’s eyes (in DS9, Martok lost one eye in a Jem Hadar prison camp, which never happened here because Benjamin Sisko never discovered the wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant) or a mention of Admiral Leyton having commanded a fleet against the Borg (in DS9’s fourth season, Admiral Leyton was disgraced for allowing his paranoia about shapeshifter infiltration to prompt him to stage a coup against the Federation President; but in this universe without any Federation contact with the Gamma Quadrant, none of that happened, so Leyton would be free to take command of the fleet defending Earth against the Borg during the events chronicled in Star Trek: First Contact, which took place during DS9’s fifth season.)  The story isn’t weakened in any way if you don’t get these references.  But for a Trek fan who does, they add great depth and richness to this dramatic, action-packed story filled with heroism and sacrifice.  Absolutely phenomenal.

Brave New World, by Chris Roberson — Working on Omicron Theta, Dr. Noonien Soong perfected the creation of positronic androids.  Only a few decades later, Soong-type androids can be found throughout Starfleet and the Federation.  Even more ground-breaking: utilizing Ira Graves’ work in synaptic mapping (from the Next Gen episode, “The Schizoid Man”), Federation citizens now have the ability to transfer their consciousness into nearly indestructible android bodies, prolonging life indefinitely.  But a situation brewing in the Neutral Zone threatens to disrupt the Federation’s fragile peace with the Romulan Empire, and soon Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D are confronted by the return of someone they never expected to see again: the android Data, missing for 10 years.  Like Seed of Dissent, Brave New World is a much less epic story than most of the other novellas in this collection.  But, as a smaller, more self-contained story, it remains quite entertaining, and I enjoyed this exploration of ideas that Trek often played with but never really fleshed out: specifically, how the spread of synthetic life forms and android technology might effect life in the Federation (as well as their relationship with their allies).  There are some weaknesses: I found Data to be a surprisingly passive character, and would have preferred to see him more active in developing the crisis’ ultimate solution.  Also, coming after Mr. DeCandido’s novella, in which I felt that his alternate universe was very carefully mapped out (in terms of how the central change — the Cardassians never leaving Bajor — would have effected future events), there were a lot of things in this story that seemed different just for difference’s sake, and not as a result of a change caused by the spread of Soong-type androids or Data’s disappearance.  As an example, it is clear that the Enterprise never encountered the Iconian gateways (as depicted in the second season Next Gen episode, “Contagion”), although I have no idea why that event wouldn’t have occurred, Data or no Data.  But there’s still a lot of fun to be had in this novella.  And it has a great last line.

My long anticipation is almost over — at  7:00 tonight I will be seeing J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek on IMAX!  Come back tomorrow for my full review!!  I’ll see you then!

Yesterday I discussed the two terrific collections of Star Trek: Mirror Universe novellas, “Glass Empires” and “Obsidian Alliances.”  I commented that my only real complaint was that so many of the stories ended on cliffhangers that seemed to beg for further tales to be told.

I still sense that there’s a lot more to the Mirror Universe story that we have yet to see, but for now I have to be content with Pocket Books’ recent follow-up, “Shards and Shadows.”  Rather than a collection of novellas, “Shards and Shadows” contains twelve short stories written by a “who’s-who” of great Trek authors and spanning hundreds of years of Mirror Universe future-history.

Nobunaga, by Dave Stern — Continuing the story begun in the Enterprise two-parter “In a Mirror, Darkly” and the novella Age of the Empress, this story follows the sad final days of Charles “Trip” Tucker.  His body has been broken and his mind scrambled by too many years working in close proximity to the dangerous energies produced by starship warp engines.  But beyond the pain of dying, Trip is tortured by scattered memories of something he can’t quite recall.  Was he involved in a plan by Empress Sato to construct a second ship like the miraculous 23rd century Starship Defiant?  If he was, what happened, and why can’t he remember?  Dave Stern’s story is a great mind-bender of a fractured narrative.  It also hints at what happened to the character re-introduced in the final pages of Age of the Empress, but I am still left wanting to know more about that character’s full story!  Hopefully some-day soon…

Ill Winds, by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore — A story of the Mirror Universe Robert April (commander of the Enterprise before Christopher Pike and James T. Kirk).  April and his crew aboard the I.S.S. Constellation are sent to investigate the rumors of a new super-weapon being constructed by the Klingons, but which crew will prove to be the more ruthless?  A great, brutal ending fits right in with the Mirror Universe.

The Greater Good, by Margaret Wander Bonanno — It’s the tale of how James T. Kirk gains command of the Starship Enterprise, how he meets Marlena Moreau and how he gains possession of the powerful Tantalus Device (a key plot device in the very first Mirror Universe episode, Classic Trek’s “Mirror Mirror”).  It’s one of the most well-written stories in the collection, gripping and fast-paced.  At the same time, it’s a little disappointing in that it all seems a little too, well, easy.  Kirk just happens to find the Tantalus Device?  I’d have hoped for a more epic story about his acquisition of that amazing and mysterious machine, and perhaps more information on its origin.

The Black Flag, by James Swallow — This is a Mirror Universe story about one of Pocket Books’ recent new series of novels, Star Trek: Vanguard, the story of a Federation space station in The Tantalus Reach, a turbulent region of space near the Klingons and Tholians.  I haven’t read any of the novels in that series, so I wasn’t familiar with any of the characters (well, except one, the Vulcan T’Prynn, who was part of the back-story of Elias Vaughn, a character in Pocket Book’s DS9 re-launch series of novels), but Mr. Swallow’s pirate story was still engaging and fun.  

The Traitor, by Michael Jan Friedman — This is a Mirror Universe story about another of Pocket’s series of novels, Michael Jan Friedman’s Stargazer series that followed Jean Luc Picard’s adventures before becoming captain of the Enterprise.  This is an older series than Vanguard, but it’s also one that I haven’t really followed.  So again, this story might have lost a little of its impact as I wasn’t really familiar with the characters whose Mirror Universe versions were introduced here.  However, as with The Black Flag, this is an engaging story nonetheless, filled with some great twists and turns.  It also features, in a lead role, a character that I absolutely did not expect to see.  Although the first mention of the name of that character’s ship should have tipped me off!

The Sacred Chalice, by Rudy Josephs — A throughly twisted story in which we learn that, after the total destruction of Betazed, Lwaxana Troi gathered together whatever surviving members of her race that she could find in order to form, well, the galaxy’s best brothel.  Lwaxana and her people are able to use their telepathic powers (the existence of which is a tightly-kept secret known only to other Betazoids) in order to create the perfect fantasy situations for their guests.  Things get over-turned, though, when young Deanna Troi discovers the secret that her mother has been keeping from her about her sister Kestra, long believed dead… at the same time as two Klingon visitors, Lursa and B’Etor, arrive at Lwaxana’s establishment. 

Bitter Fruit, by Susan Wright — This story picks up the tale of the surviving Mirror Universe Voyager crew-members following the events of The Mirror-Scaled Serpent.  Tuvok is still keeping Kes hidden away, for fear of her telepathic abilities being discovered by the Alliance.  But a new threat in the form of the half-breed they thought they had killed, B’Elanna Torres, brings Tuvok and Kes out of hiding.  It’s another great story, but as with Nobunaga this wasn’t quite satisfying in terms of tying up loose ends left hanging by the previous Mirror Universe novellas.  This is a complaint but also a backwards compliment about the quality of the writing — I want to read more about what happens to these characters! 

Family Matters, by Keith R.A. DeCandido — Mr. DeCandido must have a thing about using letters to tell a story.  His most recent novel, A Singular Destiny, used correspondence to start each chapter, and this short story is told entirely through back-and-forth messages.  This is a Mirror Universe version of DeCandido’s series of Klingon novels (another series that I haven’t read much of — boy, I thought I read a lot of Trek novels, but the holes in my reading are showing!!), but it features so many familiar faces (Gul Dukat, Gul Macet, Worf’s brother Kurn, Martok’s son Dex, and Captain Klag) that I had no trouble jumping right in.  

Homecoming, by Peter David — This short story continues the Mirror Universe New Frontier story begun in the novella Cutting Ties.  Calhoun and his motley crew aboard the Excalibur have been gathering allies and fomenting rebellion along the edges of Alliance territory.  But when they discover a Romulan plot to develop a terrible weapon utilizing Thalaron radiation (a nice nod to Star Trek: Nemesis), their strategy changes and Captain Calhoun begins to consider a terrifying plan.  My only complaint with this story?  Peter David also continued his story-line of the Mirror Universe New Frontier characters in a terrific recent 5-issue comic book series published by IDW, and I was really hoping for this story to connect to that one somehow.  Oh well!

A Terrible Beauty, by Jim Johnson — Taking place very shortly after the devastating events of Saturn’s Children, this story follows “Smiley” O’Brien’s attempts to pick up the pieces of the rebellion against the Alliance.  Flashback stories fill in the background of the Mirror Universe Keiko Ishikawa,who was introduced in Saturn’s Children.  This story DID answer some big questions posed by that novella, although the story of the final fate of Smiley’s rebellion is yet to be told.  The most recent DS9 novel, Fearful Symmetry, ended with Smiley’s stronghold on Terok Nor under brutal attack.  Hopefully the next DS9 book, coming this summer, will bring resolution to some of these fascinating story-lines!

Empathy, by Christopher L. Bennett — A Mirror Universe story of the Pocket Books’ Starship Titan series.  (Yes!  One that I have read!  This on-going series of five-and-counting novels follows the post-Nemesis adventures of the Titan, commanded by William Riker.)  A band of rebels, including Captain Ian Troi, Tuvok, and the savage William Riker come across an Alliance experiment that could spell great trouble for the struggling rebellion.  Can Tuvok get through to the Bajoran scientist leading the Alliance team, and convince him to change his plans?  As expected, things don’t go smoothly.  A tough, twisty tale, this story also contains a number of fascinating scientific notions, something that I have found to be a mark of Mr. Bennett’s work.

For Want of a Nail, by David Mack — What started as a rescue mission by Rebel operatives K’Ehleyr and Reg Barclay turns into something much more desperate when then discover that Alynna Nechayev has decided to defect to the Alliance.  Nechayev carries the secret to Memory Alpha, a critical component to the long-dead Spock’s far-reaching plan (introduced in the novella The Sorrows of Empire) to one day defeat the Alliance.  The adventures of the Mirror Universe team of K’Ehleyr and Barclay (two characters I never expected to read about in the Mirror Universe) is a blast — their pairing is an inspired notion.  I have high hopes that, in stories that are hopefully soon to come, we will see the culmination of Spock’s grand plan!  Nechayev’s certainty that his plan cannot succeed is alarming.  I wonder if the x-factor that will tip things over the edge in their favor is the quest to find the Mirror Universe’s Emissary, a sub-plot that began in the last DS9 novel, Fearful Symmetry.  We’ll see…

I can’t wait for more stories!  Meanwhile, more Star Trek fun tomorrow!  (And I am seeing J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek film on Thursday night, so my full review will be posted on Friday!  Don’t miss it!)