Tag / Star Trek: Nemesis

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Book 10 (of 52) – Hearts And Minds

Hearts and Minds – Dayton Ward

In the 21st century, decades before Earth made their official first contact with the Vulcans, a ship from a distant planet crashed into the Georgia forest, prompting the secret agencies tasked with keeping the planet safe to go into hyperdrive to respond, in their minds, appropriately.  In the 24th century, Jean-Luc Picard and the Enterprise-E find themselves making what they believe to be first contact with a new world, but instead find themselves arrested and made to stand trial for the devastation Earth caused to the planet.  With nothing in Starfleet’s official records, can they find the truth?  Or will they suffer the same fate as their 21st century forbearers?

Hearts and Minds, a 2017 entry by Dayton Ward in the post-Star Trek: Nemesis world of The Next Generation, pulls together characters from multiple versions of Star Trek, all of whom appeared in the time-travel stories from the 20th century, and ties them into the latest adventure of the Enterprise-E.  As usual, it is nice to take a break and revisit some old friends, seeing what they are up to, and seeing what is new in their world since last we met on the movie screen.

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Post Mortem – Star Trek: Picard

A spinoff of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Picard debuted in 2020 on the CBS All Access streaming service.  Isa Briones, Alison Pill, Michelle Hurd, Santiago Cabrera, and Jeri Ryan joined Patrick Stewart for the first two seasons, telling the adventures of retired Starfleet admiral Jean-Luc Picard twenty years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis.

For the third and final season, released this spring on Paramount +, the show pivoted to a full-on reunion of the Next Gen cast.  The crew of the Enterprise D reunite for a final mission, saving the Federation, and the universe, from one more attack.  The season gives a proper sendoff to this generation of Star Trek and leaves the door open for a new future, with Seven of Nine commanding a new crew of the USS Enterprise.

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Book 18 (of 52) – The Body Electric

The Body Electric – David Mack

Nearly a year after finishing the first installment of David Mack’s Cold Equations trilogy, I worked through the third and final book, The Body Electric.  In this tale, the Enterprise encounters two old friends as an artificial intelligence threatens all life in the entire galaxy.

In this trilogy, Mack succeeds in bringing Data back from the inglorious death he suffered in Star Trek: Nemesis, the final film featuring the Next Generation cast.  He sets things up for future novels (are there any?) to bring the character back in to the main cast, if a story needed it.  I’ll need to keep my eyes open for any future Kindle sales, so I can return to the 24th century for future adventures.

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Book 21 (of 52) – The Persistence Of Memory

The Persistence of Memory - David Mack

The Persistence of Memory – David Mack

As the Star Trek franchise celebrates its 50th anniversary, another trilogy of novels from David Mack was available on the cheap from the Kindle store on Amazon, so I picked them up.  The first of the trilogy, The Persistence of Memory, follows the events of Star Trek: Nemesis and, after a mystery about the whereabouts of some stolen androids, brings Data back to life.

Had the powers that be known that Nemesis would end up being the final film with the Next Generation cast, the impetus to kill off Data, Brent Spiner’s advancing age, would have disappeared.  But, thanks to some retconning to the end of the fourth season episode Brothers, Mack finds a creative way to bring back the fan favorite character.  Unfortunately, the entire middle section of this book was merely set-up for that return.

We’ll see if any of that set-up comes back into play in the next 2 installments of the trilogy.  If they do, then that may change my opinion of this outing.  As it is, there was a lot of seemingly wasted time.