“Eighteen years ago, the Starship Enterprise thwarted an alien
invasion from another universe, and Captain Robert April took possession of the
interdimensional transfer device that made it possible. Since then, each
captain of the Enterprise, from Christopher Pike
to James T. Kirk, has guarded this secret with his life. Now, Romulan agents
have succeeded in stealing the device and using it to banish Ambassador Sarek
and Councillor Gorkon to an unknown realm in the midst of their groundbreaking
Federation-Klingon peace negotiations. With time running out as interstellar
war looms in one universe—and alien forces marshal in another—will Captain Kirk
and his crew preserve the tenuous peace and reclaim the key between the
dimensions?”
While Purgatory’s Key, the third
book in this Legacies series, has some great science fiction elements to them -indomitable and slug like foe the Jatohr- the book
is somewhat of mess and highlights why (at least to me) modern Star Trek is
caught in a rut.
Part of the
problem lies in the story itself, which would’ve made a great one-off book
(even if the ending was already known) but was ballooned out to three novels.
Again there is some complex ideas here, but like every other modern Trek TV
series, is bogged down in techno-babble and unflappable notion that luck does
indeed protect fools, small children and ships named Enterprise.
What is detracting
here is that both Klingons and Romulans are more or less the same thing. And while
book two focused on Romulans and their ship and the drama that unfolded there –leading
to a mutiny of sorts, the same exact thing happens here, but instead it’s the Klingons.
Despite honor, despite that both the Romulans and Klingons value honor and hate
the Starfleet and the Federation, both (conveniently and coincidently) have
soldiers who go against the grain. This speaks –maybe- of modern Klingons, but
in a series of novels set during season two of the original series run, these
Klingons are reflecting modernistic Star Trek notions. It’s the retcon aspect
that has pissed off hardcore Trek fans concerning not only TNG and later
series, but JJ Abrams reboot.
My
conclusion has come that Star Trek books have a place today still, fifty years
later. But until a writer –perhaps even David Gerrold himself- can write a book
that actually takes some risk, then I’ll need to stop reading them for a
while. I need to focus on stuff that stirs my brain and not rote books that
puts beloved characters in danger only for the reader to know that all will be
wrapped up in a neat bow by the end.
Finally, I
made note in my last post concerning this series, that featuring Joanna McCoy –Bones
daughter- was (again) too convenient. As it happens, back in 1987, Pocket Books
released Crisis on Centaurus by Brad Ferguson that was set sometime during the
fourth year of Enterprise's five year mission (though, as the Star Trek Wiki
points out, “the stardate in the book implies these events took place
after Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
But that’s nitpicking). The point is, a previous novel, nearly 20 years old and
set some two years after this series, had established that Joanna McCoy living
on Centaurus. My bad.
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