In today’s episode, the Excalibur shoves off into Sector 221-G with some expected or unexpected live cargo, depending on who you ask. But as the captain looks around, he begins to wonder if maybe the toys on his island are a little too misfit. Do the kids know what selling out is anymore? Does the Excalibur have a quiet quitter? And who will budge first: the unstoppable horndog or the immovable Vulcan? All this and more in Into the Void, the book that can’t compete with that fancy store-bought dirt.

Into the Void
Author: Peter David
Pages: 151
Published: July 1997
Timeline: Follows immediately from House of Cards
Prerequisites: Commander Shelby was in the “Best of Both Worlds” two-parter (TNG 3×26/4×01). Robin Lefler’s only major TV appearance was in “The Game” (TNG 5×06).1She was also in “Darmok” a few episodes prior, which I had forgotten. Thanks, Adam! Mark McHenry and Zak Kebron recur from Peter David’s trilogy of Starfleet Academy novels, and events concerning the latter are even directly referenced.

Book one of the first New Frontier adventure ended with Soleta being held at disruptorpoint in her apartment by a mysterious intruder, and we return from commercial to find out it’s Si Cwan. Jellico told him he can’t tag along on the Excalibur, so he’s cashing in the favor he did Soleta all those years ago by allowing her to escape Thallon and asking her to sneak him aboard, to which she reluctantly agrees.

Meanwhile, that same irascible admiral has a job offer for a familiar face. Jellico thinks putting Commander Shelby2Here given the first name Elizabeth, a name she shares with the actor who played her, Elizabeth Dennehy. in the Excalibur’s XO spot will allow her to keep tabs on Calhoun so they can dump him on the nearest planet the second he screws up. Shelby is a better officer than that, however, because she makes it clear to Jellico that she’s not anyone’s puppet and that if she lands the gig, her loyalty will be 100 percent to her captain. That is an astounding show of professionalism, and even more so because she actually used to date Calhoun.

Wait a second. Run that back. So that would make the Excalibur a ship where the first officer is the captain’s ex. Is that about the size of it? Hmm. This sounds awfully familiar. I could swear I’ve seen this somewhere before. I feel like I’m right on top of it…

Go away, Seth! I’m trying to think of something here!

THAT IS NOT YOUR CONCEPT, BITCH!

In all seriousness, this is an elephant in the room that I think needs to be addressed. This is such a specific element for two TNG-adjacent series to share that it absolutely cannot be a coincidence. I would be very shocked if Seth MacFarlane, noted Next Generation superfan, had not read at least the first few books of New Frontier. Cursory googling doesn’t reveal either party addressing the matter explicitly or publicly. The only thing David has said about The Orville is a nearly five-year-old tweet expressing that he’d be down to write novels for it. That probably sounds like an innocuous comment to a lot of folks, but I personally think there’s something a little deeper to it. For you see, there are two things that are important to remember: one, Seth MacFarlane has never exactly been the most artful borrower, and two, you know if you’ve read Peter David’s writing that he’s not one to miss a reference. So I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a little bit of an “I see you” sort of pointed eye contact going on there, in verbal form.

Speaking of loved ones, we also catch up with Calhoun’s older brother D’ndai, who has done well enough for himself, though not so much for anyone else on Xenex. He’s stuck doing the bidding of Ryjaan, the Danteri representative from the negotiations in book one, who wants D’ndai to distract Calhoun from finding out about their sinister plans (probably to get their hands on Thallonian soil, a miracle energy substance that can cultivate literally anything planted in it, and get at its mysterious secrets) and kind of keep him under control. D’ndai of course knows that realistically no one can do that, but he goes along with it because he still resents Mackenzie for coming back from Starfleet and lording his high and mighty morals over him, accusing him of selling out to Danteri interests, a much harder kind of tyranny to overcome than a conflict with clear-cut good guys and bad guys. It really takes me back to the spirit of the time in which the book was published, when selling out was the worst thing any person could do. Of course, Mackenzie is completely right, which is part of what burns D’ndai’s biscuits so much. It’s still a little amusing to see it play an outsized role in characters’ motivations though—just this benign touch of instant dating.

Perhaps the most intriguing introductions are to crew members outside the binary and neurotypical molds. Those who read Peter David’s Starfleet Academy three-parter may remember that Zak Kebron, Soleta, and Mark McHenry first appeared there, but for most readers, New Frontier is likely to be where they first encountered them. In my opinion, Mark McHenry is a step forward for how a neurodivergent character is treated by the crew. Barclay was obviously the first by a long shot, and by no means faultless, but he’s often treated like a freak and/or nuisance, and I never really bought that anyone on the D ever came to fully like or accept him. (Tolerate, sure, but that’s pretty bare-minimum.) McHenry’s spaceyness, on the other hand, initially sows confusion and doubt, but as soon as he proves himself, everyone immediately accepts it as part of the package. Just another weirdo on the Ship of Fools. I think that’s the way to do it.

Burgoyne is a somewhat more delicate matter. S/he’s a Hermat, a designation that hints at both the species’s reclusive nature and dual-sex makeup. Today we would best understand hir as intersex, and the pronoun situation would probably be more standardized. But assuming a good-faith stance, I think David did all right here, especially for the time. I’ve seen some folks try to apply pronoun sets like hir/xie and xe/xem to the character, and I understand that impulse, but I think I’m going to try to roll with what David wrote for the time being. It isn’t perfect, and his choices are more than a little clunky at times (pronouncing “s/he” as directed is a chore), but ultimately I feel it pays a certain respect to the character. And anyway, there are far more salient criticisms that might be leveled at hir, which we’ll get to soon enough.

Mostly, what I enjoyed about part two was getting to see the crew in action together for the first time. Once they settled in as a unit, I found myself doing a lot of excited head nodding. Calhoun in particular is electrifying once he starts taking charge and explaining his motives, and yes, I did get a twinge of that old Quintin Stone spark. Watching this crew figure each other and all their idiosyncrasies out is so much fun that I wouldn’t be sad if that was all there was to this first four-parter. But alas, trouble is brewing, and part three promises conflict from several directions at once…

MVP & LVP

• My MVP for this part is, again, Captain Calhoun. Watching him throw his captain weight around is a thrill, and I can’t wait to see what he does when he gets some actual action in front of him. The whole knowing what everyone is thinking before they think it could get too cute by half after a while, but as of now it’s still fresh and potent.
• Speaking of fresh, my LVP in this one is Burgoyne. S/he is quite forward with Dr. Selar, and it’s not particularly charming or smooth. Plus, even though it might be a bit slippery to assign a Terran LGBTQIA+ descriptor to a non-Terran individual, it is nonetheless a little tiresome (and to some, possibly offensive) for someone who fits that bill to be portrayed as an insatiable lust hound. That said, I am interested to see if and/or how Burgoyne and Selar’s relationship develops—just not a big fan of the first impression.

Stray Bits

• Burgoyne explains how Hermat pronouns came about: “We developed those actually to simplify direct communication with UFP representatives, and also to maintain our uniqueness as a race. Actually, we were going to combine ‘she,’ ‘he,’ and ‘it’ in order to cover all possibilities, but the term we developed—’sheeit’—caused Terrans to laugh whenever we would use it, so we surmised that it had some other, inappropriate meaning and discarded it.” — This was surely meant as nothing more than lighthearted wordplay at the time, but I’d wager it wouldn’t fly today. I can’t imagine there being any malice behind it, but the times they do a-change. As for comedic impact, it got something between a groan and a chuckle out of me. (pp. 107–08)
• Into the Void features a ship called the Kayven Ryin, a vowel-shifted version of the name of then-recently departed Pocket Books editor Kevin Ryan. (p. 139)

Final Assessment

Excellent. Into the Void is a nice, chill, low-stakes installment before things surely begin to ramp up that luxuriates in the fun of getting acquainted with a new crew. This is definitely a quirky bunch, and I think watching them get just talk to each other may well be at least half the fun of any given New Frontier book.

NEXT TIME: We interrupt our edgy, R-rated Star Trek to bring you Vulcan’s Forge