prime directive – Page 4 – Deep Space Spines

#057: Power Hungry (TNG #6)

On 16 November 2018

This week, the Enterprise-D catering team delivers a few cases of Rice-a-Roni to a planet that needs to take a chill pill in more ways than one. While the planet’s ruler pushes his one-world agenda and plays around with his wood, a rebellious religious faction can’t agree on a playlist—some of them are trying to spin “Hot in Herre”, others want to bump “F___ Tha Police”—but they all think Riker might be just the DJ their movement needs. Will women ever stop finding Data so fascinating? Will Worf make the jazz combo? Can Picard decide whether they do or don’t negotiate with terrorists before the heat death of the universe? It’s the book with special guest stars Nick Offerman and Harry Chapin.

#053: Survivors (TNG #4)

By jess

On 19 October 2018

In TNG

(CW: rape)

This week, Picard sends Tasha Yar and Data to survey a planet whose president has requested Federation aid to see if the lady checks out. Tasha gets abducted by an ex gone rogue who claims she betrayed him, but when he tries to lure her away from Starfleet and make it work again, she tells him they’ll always have New Paris. Meanwhile, it’s all she can do to not make a hash of the Prime Directive when the planet plunges into all-out war. Why does every woman who meets Data want to bone him? What would be in a What Would Riker Do? book? Do androids get tired of eating the same lunch every day? It’s the book that gives Tasha Yar the fair shake she always deserved.

#037: Strangers from the Sky (TOS event novel)

By jess

On 29 June 2018

In Event Novels, TOS

Remember First Contact? Of course you do, it’s great. (At least, I recall that being the case. Not gonna lie, I’ll be kind of shook if it’s not when I revisit it.) Well, this week’s event novel is more like the supermarket tabloid version of that well-known tale. A tell-all book has just been released positing that the series of events generally accepted as Earth’s first exposure to Vulcan were in fact not as such, and that the real first contact happened twenty years prior. Meanwhile, Kirk and Spock have dreams, each independently of the other, that they were involved in the whole crazy shebang somehow. Were they? or is the book just that gripping?

#022: Shadow Lord (TOS #22)

By jess

On 16 March 2018

In TOS

Occasionally, it happens that someone who is otherwise a perfectly decent and talented writer just can’t nail down that Star Trek vibe. We’ve seen it before. For someone who only wrote one Star Trek novel, Laurence Yep has exceptional pedigree: he’s won a Newbery Medal and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, among other accolades, and he’s written a ton of highly praised books and series for children that are steeped in Chinese lore. But that doesn’t necessarily guarantee adequate characterizations and interesting stories in other universes.

#006: The Abode of Life (TOS #6)

By jess

On 24 November 2017

In TOS

As I finish this post, we are but hours away from Thanksgiving here in the United States, and I can’t seem to come up with a good intro paragraph to cap it off. By the time this goes up, it will be too late to use this post to duck into the bathroom and avoid your family for an hour, but hopefully it will be timely enough to use it to avoid crowds of mindless consumers trampling each other as the Christmas shopping season gets underway. Regardless of the time of year, it’s never a bad idea to hole up in the bathroom with your good pals here on the Enterprise and at Deep Space Spines and binge the archive until your legs fall asleep from sitting too long. Anyway, thanks for reading, and please enjoy your regularly scheduled weekly Trek literature review.

Tag: prime directive

#057: Power Hungry (TNG #6)

#053: Survivors (TNG #4)

#037: Strangers from the Sky (TOS event novel)

#022: Shadow Lord (TOS #22)

#006: The Abode of Life (TOS #6)