whee! Star Trek!
Oct. 23rd, 2007 02:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kippurbirdSo, as mentioned, I bought a bunch of books on the weekend.
One of them was Q&A, a Star Trek TNG book.
I have a weakness for Q. Because Q is awesome. And stuff.
So, of course, I bought it. And read it. And was disappointed.
The writing was solid, the characters mostly in character. However the author had a problem with suspense and tension. And Q.
The plot was a basic End of All of Reality as We Know It plot. It involved these aliens or beings (which we never see really) who are the creators of the universe and after a while, if they don't like it, they destroy it. It's "our" universe's turn and Q believes that humanity -Picard- is the one who can save them all.
The book has three major threads. One involving Picard and the Enterprise, one involving Q and his interactions with humanity and one with the rest of the universe. Eventually all three threads, as they should, come together. This vaguely reminds me of Peter David's Q-Squared except that it takes place in the same universe and the third thread is more of a "What's happening in the rest of the Universe" thread.
The nature of the whole EARWKI[*]
involved large distortions in the Space Time Continuum that swallowed things whole. They were peppered through out the book by looking at different familiar faces though out the Star Trek 'verse. However Picard doesn't find out about these until over half-way through the book. So, there was no rush on his part to solve the problem. Especially since he's in the "two days before the universe ends" time and the rest of them are in the "Day the universe ends" time. Obviously there can't be much action when your Hero doesn't even know something has happened because he's a day behind everything else. While this can be done to lead up to perhaps seeing what triggered the event, it wasn't done here. At least not very well. Here the book meandered on characters who I really didn't care about, but were "new Crew members" that the author had invented and so was taking the time to let us meet them. Better we should have gotten to know them while they were trying to handle a crisis. In fact much of the book seemed to be a "let's meet my special new characters I got to create for the Enterprise crew" than actually dealing with the EARWKI.
Trying to handle a crisis. That's the one thing that doesn't happen really. When the crisis does show up (in an almost identical incident where Worf found himself flipping through different realities, like a kid with a tv remote) Worf goes "Ah-Ha! I know how to solve this" and goes about doing it. There's no "Gosh how do I solve this problem of reality exploding around me?" And it turns out, Q was behind that first problem so that Worf would know how to solve it this time.
See, apparently all the problems that Q caused in the past was so the Enterprise Crew and others would know how to handle the end of the universe. Which he eventually tells Picard in the end.
Speaking of Q. He is a very difficult character to portray. Why? Because he's all powerful and as annoying as fuck. Most of the time when Picard first encounters him for another of his romps, he says something along the lines of "What do you want now" in the tone of the guy at the service counter who has that client that keeps on coming back having broken something that should have been fool-proof and wants only him to fix it. The trick then, is for Q to give his reason: He's lost his powers and is looking for sanctuary. He's looking for Amanda Rogers. Showing them the Danger of the Borg. But he has some sort of motive and doesn't dance around long making snide remarks before getting down to business. In whatever way he choses to.
And usually, when Q shows up, you know that Something Is Up.
However, in this book, the crew decides, after Q shows up, that ignoring him is the best way to deal with him. And Q flirts around popping in on a few people, making insulting remarks (which weren't up to standard, in fact he actually repeated a few, which he'd never do.) and then vanishing after getting ignored.
HELLO! UNIVERSE ENDING! EVEN INVOLVING Q!! I think he'd be a bit more worried than just making snide remarks. Hell, in Q-Squared, the Universe was ending and Q was plenty worried. In the Q-Continuum series, Q had a similar problem. Here, Q doesn't show a hint of worry. He's perfectly confident. Where's the fun in that? If the antagonist (who wasn't much of one) isn't antagonizing. Or the person who says that the end of the world is happening and isn't worried, why should the reader be?
If anything, Q should have been much more forceful and antagonizing about the ignoring. He can change people into amoebas. Why doesn't he start doing that unless they pay attention to him. Usually, when Q is worried, Picard gets worried, because something must be big to get Q worried. Q is a survivalist. He will do whatever it takes to survive and since this event is threatening his survival he should be much more menacing. He may not be able to actually hold Picard's hand and lead him through what he needs to do, but he needs to needle Picard, show him what is at stake if he doesn't succeed. One thing Picard knows about Q is that he doesn't lie about things that involve his own personal safety.
The third thread seems to be almost unnecessary. People see the large gaping holes, but they can't see it on their sensors and most of their reactions appear to be "Huh, isn't that interesting?" instead of "ZOMIGAWD HOLE EATING THINGS AND WE CAN'T DETECT IT!! HOW DO WE STOP IT?!" I didn't see one bit of that. No one seemed worried and we didn't stay with anyone long enough to actually GET worried.
(On a random side point, I would think that X-rays, MRIs and Ultrasounds would still be part of standard scanning, even with the hightechy stuff.)
In fact, as mentioned earlier, I never at all felt threatened. The threat never seemed real. Q was never worried. His attempt at reverse psychology seemed lame and beneath him. If anything what he should have done is shown Picard what would happen if the Borg got to that planet in the first place. There should have been more danger on the planet than just the three Warg creatures and a barrier. The Nightmare thingy where everyone thought that they were somewhere else but never in Star Fleet should have been more threatening.
And then the book ends where no one knows what happened. It's all neat and pat. There aren't any repercussions. There isn't any impact. What's the point of saving the universe if there isn't any impact? If everything is all tied up cleanly and there's no impact then the entire enterprise was useless. The people are missing. They should have stayed missing. This was the price. There was no price in this book.
When the Enterprise first encountered the Borg, Q saved them, but they lost seven crew members. That was the price for their knowledge of the Borg. That was the price for their advanced warning.
The book should have started with the Enterprise at the planet at the event where they set off the end of the universe. They should have gotten reports of all the events happening. There should be panic happening which is made worse when Q shows up. Because Q always makes a situation worse. And then it should spiral down and down and down to it feels like things are going to feel like it's really the end of the world. And then! Picard should have made his way and saved the day. But he still would have paid a price.
---
One of them was Q&A, a Star Trek TNG book.
I have a weakness for Q. Because Q is awesome. And stuff.
So, of course, I bought it. And read it. And was disappointed.
The writing was solid, the characters mostly in character. However the author had a problem with suspense and tension. And Q.
The plot was a basic End of All of Reality as We Know It plot. It involved these aliens or beings (which we never see really) who are the creators of the universe and after a while, if they don't like it, they destroy it. It's "our" universe's turn and Q believes that humanity -Picard- is the one who can save them all.
The book has three major threads. One involving Picard and the Enterprise, one involving Q and his interactions with humanity and one with the rest of the universe. Eventually all three threads, as they should, come together. This vaguely reminds me of Peter David's Q-Squared except that it takes place in the same universe and the third thread is more of a "What's happening in the rest of the Universe" thread.
The nature of the whole EARWKI[*]
involved large distortions in the Space Time Continuum that swallowed things whole. They were peppered through out the book by looking at different familiar faces though out the Star Trek 'verse. However Picard doesn't find out about these until over half-way through the book. So, there was no rush on his part to solve the problem. Especially since he's in the "two days before the universe ends" time and the rest of them are in the "Day the universe ends" time. Obviously there can't be much action when your Hero doesn't even know something has happened because he's a day behind everything else. While this can be done to lead up to perhaps seeing what triggered the event, it wasn't done here. At least not very well. Here the book meandered on characters who I really didn't care about, but were "new Crew members" that the author had invented and so was taking the time to let us meet them. Better we should have gotten to know them while they were trying to handle a crisis. In fact much of the book seemed to be a "let's meet my special new characters I got to create for the Enterprise crew" than actually dealing with the EARWKI.
Trying to handle a crisis. That's the one thing that doesn't happen really. When the crisis does show up (in an almost identical incident where Worf found himself flipping through different realities, like a kid with a tv remote) Worf goes "Ah-Ha! I know how to solve this" and goes about doing it. There's no "Gosh how do I solve this problem of reality exploding around me?" And it turns out, Q was behind that first problem so that Worf would know how to solve it this time.
See, apparently all the problems that Q caused in the past was so the Enterprise Crew and others would know how to handle the end of the universe. Which he eventually tells Picard in the end.
Speaking of Q. He is a very difficult character to portray. Why? Because he's all powerful and as annoying as fuck. Most of the time when Picard first encounters him for another of his romps, he says something along the lines of "What do you want now" in the tone of the guy at the service counter who has that client that keeps on coming back having broken something that should have been fool-proof and wants only him to fix it. The trick then, is for Q to give his reason: He's lost his powers and is looking for sanctuary. He's looking for Amanda Rogers. Showing them the Danger of the Borg. But he has some sort of motive and doesn't dance around long making snide remarks before getting down to business. In whatever way he choses to.
And usually, when Q shows up, you know that Something Is Up.
However, in this book, the crew decides, after Q shows up, that ignoring him is the best way to deal with him. And Q flirts around popping in on a few people, making insulting remarks (which weren't up to standard, in fact he actually repeated a few, which he'd never do.) and then vanishing after getting ignored.
HELLO! UNIVERSE ENDING! EVEN INVOLVING Q!! I think he'd be a bit more worried than just making snide remarks. Hell, in Q-Squared, the Universe was ending and Q was plenty worried. In the Q-Continuum series, Q had a similar problem. Here, Q doesn't show a hint of worry. He's perfectly confident. Where's the fun in that? If the antagonist (who wasn't much of one) isn't antagonizing. Or the person who says that the end of the world is happening and isn't worried, why should the reader be?
If anything, Q should have been much more forceful and antagonizing about the ignoring. He can change people into amoebas. Why doesn't he start doing that unless they pay attention to him. Usually, when Q is worried, Picard gets worried, because something must be big to get Q worried. Q is a survivalist. He will do whatever it takes to survive and since this event is threatening his survival he should be much more menacing. He may not be able to actually hold Picard's hand and lead him through what he needs to do, but he needs to needle Picard, show him what is at stake if he doesn't succeed. One thing Picard knows about Q is that he doesn't lie about things that involve his own personal safety.
The third thread seems to be almost unnecessary. People see the large gaping holes, but they can't see it on their sensors and most of their reactions appear to be "Huh, isn't that interesting?" instead of "ZOMIGAWD HOLE EATING THINGS AND WE CAN'T DETECT IT!! HOW DO WE STOP IT?!" I didn't see one bit of that. No one seemed worried and we didn't stay with anyone long enough to actually GET worried.
(On a random side point, I would think that X-rays, MRIs and Ultrasounds would still be part of standard scanning, even with the hightechy stuff.)
In fact, as mentioned earlier, I never at all felt threatened. The threat never seemed real. Q was never worried. His attempt at reverse psychology seemed lame and beneath him. If anything what he should have done is shown Picard what would happen if the Borg got to that planet in the first place. There should have been more danger on the planet than just the three Warg creatures and a barrier. The Nightmare thingy where everyone thought that they were somewhere else but never in Star Fleet should have been more threatening.
And then the book ends where no one knows what happened. It's all neat and pat. There aren't any repercussions. There isn't any impact. What's the point of saving the universe if there isn't any impact? If everything is all tied up cleanly and there's no impact then the entire enterprise was useless. The people are missing. They should have stayed missing. This was the price. There was no price in this book.
When the Enterprise first encountered the Borg, Q saved them, but they lost seven crew members. That was the price for their knowledge of the Borg. That was the price for their advanced warning.
The book should have started with the Enterprise at the planet at the event where they set off the end of the universe. They should have gotten reports of all the events happening. There should be panic happening which is made worse when Q shows up. Because Q always makes a situation worse. And then it should spiral down and down and down to it feels like things are going to feel like it's really the end of the world. And then! Picard should have made his way and saved the day. But he still would have paid a price.
---
[*]
End of All of Reality as We Know It
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no subject
Date: 2007-10-23 09:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-24 12:45 am (UTC)I should do a better write up and send it to him. XD
no subject
Date: 2007-10-24 12:55 am (UTC)Here you go!
no subject
Date: 2007-11-01 12:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-01 04:52 pm (UTC)