Of Doctors and Captains

 

This has been a good week for news, as you know if you follow the sites linked over on the right on a regular basis. A few choice tidbits:

 

Over at the TrekBBS, Keith RA DeCandido has posted the table of contents for the upcoming Captain's Table anthology. I'm particularly looking forward to the Demora Sulu story by Davd R. George III, Heather Jarman's Kira Nerys story, and Andy Mangels and Michael Martin's William Riker story, but the others all sound promising, too.



Meanwhile, in the Whoniverse, Outpost Gallifrey's news page has had a lot of verrrry interesting news in the last couple of days. Ninth Doctor books, Lost in Time (a three-disc DVD collection of surviving episodes from incomplete serials), and a report that filming is due to begin on the new TV series in the next few days. If you're not a Who fan yet, now would be a good time to start.



(Ah, contentment. I've been snacking on something I haven't had much of since my single days: reduced-fat Pringles with hot sauce. See, you need the reduced-fat ones because they're much crispier. Hold a chip and lightly pour just a little of your favourite hot sauce. Tabasco's jalapeno sauce works very nicely, as does their chipotle sauce, or any of the varied flavours of Louisiana brand hot sauce, or Frank's RedHot Chile 'n' Lime.  I find most of my nicer, more expensive gourmet hot sauces don't work as well because they're generally hotter and thicker.)



(Now playing: Propaganda, "P-Machinery," A Secret Wish).

Better late than never...

 

Added a bunch of corrections, scans, updates, and other material provided months ago by Jason Odom and Ian McLean. Not finished yet, but I'm about halfway through.

 

Hmm... this is a different blogging interface than I have seen before. Wonder how this is going to look...

Maybe some day...



An online acquaintance of many years passed along colour scans of the front and back cover of Gene Roddenberry's notorious unpublished Star Trek novel, The God Thing. Pretty, isn't it? So I've updated the God Thing page with the new scans. Shame there's still no news about whether the damn thing will ever be published. I've only been waiting for 28 of my 41 years on this planet.

There's an interesting interview with former DS9 producer Ira Steven Behr over at TrekWeb. Well worth reading.

Rolling Stone, not one of my favourite magazines (I'm more partial to The Big Takeover and Magnet as far as music magazines are concerned), redeems itself for at least a little while with a Doonesbury cover and Garry Trudeau interview, excerpted here. I'll have to pick this one up. For a few years, it seemed Doonesbury, long one of my fave comic strips, was drifting a bit. As the RS article points out, the Bush years have inspired Trudeau, making the strip vital (and bitingly satirical) again.

David Henderson's Psi Phi website has some new Trek novel cover scans. Very nice work.

(Now playing: Roxy Music, "Triptych," Country Life.)

Whoops



I meant to mention that the people who posted the info on the Shore Leave con were ToddCam, Keith RA DeCandido, Marco Palmieri, and David Henderson. I think that's everyone who's linked to in the last post. If not, stand by for Whoops II: This Time It's Personal.



Diane Carey for State Representative?



On a number of occasions, discussions online about Carey's now apparently dormant Star Trek novel-writing career have at some point included the remark that she's been trying to focus on her own work, rather than doing more Star Trek books. I think the only thing that's come out in that time is her novelization of S.W.A.T. Anyway, not being a fan of her idiosyncratic writing style, I can't say I'm worked up about it. In fact, I'm relieved. Why she isn't making a fortune churning out hateful and jingoistic military fiction to the American conservative audience that can't get enough of the stuff and would actually enjoy seeing her express her political views as bluntly as possible is beyond me.



But in the latest reiteration over at Psi Phi, occasional Trek novelist Dave Galanter (I believe that's him, anyway, posting as "Cap"), posted a link to www.votecarey.com. She's running for State Representative in Michigan as a Republican. I thought she was more of a libertarian, but it appears from her website that she has a lot in common with the religious right.



Should I wish her well in her political career, to keep her from writing more Star Trek books? Or should I wish her well in her writing career, because the USA has too many right wing politicians already? What a dilemma.



(Now playing: Populous, "Cluster," Blue Skied an' Clear: A Morr Music Compilation.)

One of these years, I'm going to make it to the Shore Leave con in Baltimore. From what I hear it's the Trek con for Trek book fans. And Marco and the Pocket gang made quite a few announcements there this past weekend.



Here's a quick summary of the news, as extracted from a number of sources (listed and linked at the end):



TOS books



No new purely TOS books were announced, though the cover art for Christopher Bennett's forthcoming Ex Machina (which I am really looking forward to) was revealed. One book featuring Kirk and Scotty in the 24th century, Gene DeWeese's Engines of Destiny, was announced. Looks like I'll have to remove that one from the Lost Books page. Though I may wait until I actually have a copy in my hands...



TNG books



The post-Nemesis books begin with two untitled novels, one by Michael Jan Friedman and one by J.M. Dillard, following Picard and the Enterprise. Riker and the Titan will anchor a new book series (see below). There will also be a new Lost Era novel about Picard, set in the years between the loss of the Stargzer and the launching of the Enterprise-D (no author named as yet).



DS9 books



Some information was given on Worlds of Deep Space Nine Volume Three, but that was already scheduled. Sisko will appear in a Lost Era novel set during the Tzenkethi War, when Sisko served aboard the USS Okinawa (no author named as yet). As for new DS9 novels, Una McCormack is writing a sixth season novel following on from the events of the episode "In the Pale Moonlight." There will also be a four-book series called Terok Nor, set during the Cardassian occupation of Bajor, by author or authors unknown. Also, though no details were given, the DS9 relaunch will continue beyond the Worlds of Deep Space Nine books. (I'd be surprised if they didn't, personally.)



Voyager books



There will be a tenth anniversary Voyager short story anthology. There will also be a trilogy, set during the run of the series, with the working title String Theory, written by Jeffrey Lang, Kirsten Beyer, and Heather Jarman (one author per book). Set before the episode "Night," the trilogy is about the Caretaker's species.



Enterprise books



Dave Stern, author of the recent Daedalus two-parter, is writing a novel that centers on Hoshi Sato and the universal translator.



New series



Fans have been expecting a Titan series, and we're going to get one. The first book will be Taking Wing, by Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin. Set after the TNG A Time to... novels and the movie Star Trek Nemesis, this is the beginning of a series of books following the adventures of Captain William Riker of the USS Titan.



Vanguard is a 23rd century space station-set series. The first, as-yet untitled novel will be by David Mack. Unlike Challenger and New Frontier, this will not be a single-author series.



The Split Infinities alternate universe project that has been discussed several times over the last few years may be renamed Other Times. Likely to be a single anthology rather than a series.



Nonfiction



The Star Trek Fiction Companion will be something like the DS9 Companion, but for novels.



Sources



http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/showflat.php?Number=3033876#Post3033876

http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/showflat.php?Number=3034558#Post3034558

http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/showflat.php?Number=3035054#Post3035054

http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/showflat.php?Number=3041786#Post3041786

http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/showflat.php?Number=3042146#Post3042146

http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/showflat.php?Number=3042360#Post3042360

http://www.psiphi.org/cgi/upc-db/



Meanwhile...



Yesterday I finished reading Lawrence Miles's first proper Faction Paradox novel, This Town Will Never Let Us Go. It's quite an experience. There's very little connection here to anything recognizably Doctor Who-derived. Instead, with its focus on the meaning of popular culture, life during wartime, and other issues, and its experimental prose, it reminded me of a number of other things. David Cronenberg's movie Videodrome, Theodore Roszak's novel Flicker, a few different New Wave SF books from the 1960s, Max Headroom, some of the postcyberpunk postmodern SF from the late 1980s and beyond.... In general, it's pretty far removed from the usual tie-in novel. I'm not certain that it achieves all it sets out to do. There's something almost quaintly historical now about its use of videotape as a major form of media transmission, instead of satellite newsgathering feeds, VCDs, DVDs, and Internet downloads, in a book that's commenting on modern celebrity culture. Still, that does lead to some remarkable imagery in the book. And who'd expect to find any kind of sociopolitical commentary on everything from the death of Princess Diana to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in a Doctor Who spinoff? For that matter, who'd expect the first Faction Paradox novel to build on so little of the content of The Book of the War?



(Now playing: The Cure, "The Caterpillar," The Top.)

Website update and blasts from the past continued



Star Trek books editor Marco Palmieri announced on the TrekBBS that a planned trilogy by A.C. Crispin, following on from her two 1980s TOS novels about Spock's son Zar, has been cancelled. So the Lost Books page has been updated accordingly.



Blast From the Past Department: I was poking around in Google's usenet archive, looking through some of my earliest posts online, trying to figure out how long ago I started posting on usenet. I found my first Star Trek-related post:



From: Steve Roby (ae773@Freenet.carleton.ca)

Subject: Out of curiosity...

Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current

Date: 1993-07-07 14:32:06 PST



I've never posted to r.a.s.c. before, and I don't read it regularly.

Maybe that's why I've been surprised by some of what I've read here.



Out of curiosity... why do so many people here believe bullsh*t

rumors like the 7th season spoilers, but flame the guy who

posted an attributed item from a reliable source? Broadcasting &

Cable is *the* magazine to read if you want to be up on what's

happening with syndicated TV and a host of other topics. It had

information on DS9 long before Starlog or the fan club zine.



In case there are still a few skeptics, the article was *not*

referring to DS9.



A little common sense and a willingness to follow up on info,

evaluate sources, and think... these would kill a lot of dumb

rumors. Do you really believe the 7th season of TNG will be

about a Cardassian war, as some Compuserve people insist on

repeating? Roddenberry would rise from the grave and rip

off the heads of Berman and Piller if that ever happened.



--

"With a little study you'll go a long way, and I wish you'd start now."

- Groucho Marx in "Monkey Business"

ae773@freenet.carleton.ca (preferred)

sjroby@well.sf.ca.us, CIS: 76217,1455



What surprised me was the identity of the only person to respond: Kate Orman. At the time, her first novel was months away from publication, and I'd never heard of her, though later I became aware of her writing and occasionally looked at the books on store shelves. But I wasn't yet a big Doctor Who fan, so I passed. Three years ago I became a full-fledged convert and had to pay rather more for some of those books. I swapped emails with Kate a year or two ago when she was offering copies of one or two of her hard-to-find Bernice Summerfield novels for sale. She didn't remember me, of course, because it's been quite a few years since we were both part of the same Trek mailing list. I didn't post much and she left because Australia was falling too far behind for her to keep up with the DS9 discussions. So there's not much of a connection there at all. Still, it's neat to see who it was who welcomed me to rec.arts.startrek.current...



(Now playing: Siouxsie and the Banshees, "Dear Prudence," Nocturne.)

Random rumblings

Remember the CD ROM of UK comic strips I mentioned a couple weeks ago? I got my copy from Rich Handley. Lots of good stuff, nicely scanned, and there's a bonus, too: scans of the comic strips from the Power Records Star Trek book and record sets. I suggested that Rich include mp3s of the records, and he may well do so. They aren't that hard to find online.

You've probably already heard that James (Scotty) Doohan has Alzheimer's.

At least a couple years ago now, I came across a reference to a planned book on Star Trek and Judaism, Rabbi Yonassan Gershom's Where No Rabbi Has Gone Before. Gershom set up a Yahoo newsgroup to pass on news of the book's progress. I haven't been checking it very often because there aren't a lot of postings there. So the latest news is a month old now. Gershom reports that the book is finished and his agent is shopping it around. I'd be interested in reading this book; Gershom is far from the first person to comment on the presence of Jewish themes in Star Trek. It'd also be a nice change from the several Christian-oriented books out there. (I have to admit that Gershom's published books strike me as an unfortunate blend of flaky and tasteless, being about cases of Holocaust-related cases of reincarnation.)