An away team’s survey becomes a one-man test of will when the planet’s “gods” decide to fire up the PS3 and stick Data in a game of Journey. Data completes the Quest and is granted his fondest dream: to become a Real Boy™. Now he has to learn how to do human things like pick dinner and swim and look things up on the internet because he doesn’t have Wikipedia in his head anymore. This week, it’s Next Generation‘s first major event novel, Metamorphosis, or, Androids Prefer Blondes.
This week, we’re checking out Rules of Engagement, the little sitcom that could. Starring Patrick Warburton, Megyn Price, and David Spade, the show followed a group of friends in various stages of relationships: two of them newlyweds, two a veteran married couple, and one a swinging single. It lasted seven seasons, an impressive feat given its unremarkable ratings and several brushes with cancellation, and is widely considered solid, if far from innovative. Most notably, it stands as one of Sony’s few successes in syndication; although barely accruing enough episodes to qualify, it nevertheless managed, thus ensuring long-term profitability for—
Wait a minute. This is supposed to be about the Star Trek novel Rules of Engagement. My bad.
Shore Leave is the non-Trek culture arm of the Deep Space Spines website, posted every other Tuesday and made possible by donations to the site’s Patreon.
Only one item this go-around, and it’s only because I got sick enough to stay home from work that I had time to check it out: Romhacking.net recently posted a new translation of Gargoyle’s Quest, the Game Boy Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins spin-off adventure released in 1990.
This week, Riker takes a temporary transfer to troubled terraforming territory. His seemingly unhinged replacement wants you to know how he got these scars, but he’s not much of a joker. While Troi tries to figure out the new guy’s whole deal, Riker ventures where the Wild Things are when some old friends of his go missing in the boonies. Has Galaxy-class life made Riker soft? Will anyone ever appreciate the chuS’ugh? Whose idea was it to let O’Brien into the poker game? It’s the book that somehow passed the psychological exams.
This week, when most of the senior officers wait in a busted shuttlecraft for the sweet embrace of death, they decide to pass the time by telling tales out of school. Kirk can’t accept failure, Chekov goes lone wolf, Sulu deals with a death in the family, and Scotty stays spectacularly on brand. How much does it cost to build a starship? What counts as a “young” death in the Trek universe? Would anyone really waste that much paper in the 23rd century? It’s the book that passes with flying colors.