This week, Picard brings Worf and Troi together to solve the mystery of a suspicious death, but it’s not quite the match made in heaven it will be a few years from now. As the investigation drags on, Wesley becomes the boy who knew too much, Beverly becomes the mother who knew too little, and Data gets a turn on the other side of the witness stand. Have the Kreel calmed down enough to gain Federation support? Has Worf overstepped a critical parental boundary? Have I finally become good at solving detective stories? All this and more in Contamination, a book that quite aptly could use a significant clean-up.
(This week’s review requires a content warning for rape. Proceed at your discretion.)
This week, Kirk gets a raw deal on a Freaky Friday and doesn’t even get a Handbook for the Recently Deceased to help him cope. While he struggles to keep it together (literally), his body thief does a U-turn and heads back home with the goal of putting up the ultimate “No Soliciting” sign. What magazines do the senior officers read? What’s the most depraved film Sulu has ever shown in the rec room? What possible excuse could the future have for bad coffee? All this and more in Ghost-Walker, or, The Computer Wore Captain’s Boots.
This week, while Riker plays undercover spy, Data plays third base. With the Priority One message not going to him and having to put the Enterprise in park in case Riker gets deep in it, Picard isn’t quite sure what to do with all this free time. How did Riker get into jazz? How would this book be different if Data read the Baseball Prospectus? What did Michael Jan Friedman get right and wrong about the state of baseball in the 21st century? It’s the book that’s handed out for free by the Church of the Center Field Bleachers.
Photo by Michael Ward
Vonda Neel McIntyre, Hugo- and Nebula-winning science fiction author, died of metastatic pancreatic cancer on April 1, 2019, just shy of only two months after a diagnosis thereof. She was 70.
This week, Kirk squares off with Totally-Not-Q, who banishes three of his officers to tumultuous moments in Earth’s past. While he learns how to play nice with the Klingons and work out the god-alien’s inscrutable morality, his missing crewmen struggle to reconcile their desire to return to their own time with the obligations they’ve committed to in their new surroundings. What’s a ghargh? Is Kirk always this whiny? Why don’t children ever just listen? It’s the book with a special appearance by John Larroquette!