Jeri Taylor (1946–2024)

The two narrative stands of the book - Janeway's mission to rescue Tuvok's stranded away team from attack by the Kazon; Janeway's reminisces on her childhood, youthful romances and early Starfleet career - interweave, coming together at the climax in a rather forced way. The Kazon story is interesting, if uninspired; the memoir is interesting if you're a Trekkie who particularly likes Janeway. Given I'm the latter, I ended up enjoying the story more than what I've written so far would show more suggest.

The Kazon story being fairly standard fare, the main USP is Janeway's back story, and I'd rather have had a whole novel on that subject, as there were plenty of elements which could have been explored and expanded. Given that Taylor was one the main creators of Voyager, and had defined Janeway's character for the show, she does Kathryn justice in the book. I guess the Delta Quadrant itself was a character in the show, so at the time of publication, 1996, that setting would have been important to include.

I don't think it works on its own merits, that is, it wouldn't be a good jumping on point as you have to already care for and know something about the characters to feel invested, but as fan-service it's 3.5 🌟 show less

Jeri Taylor offers exactly what a novelization of a TNG episode should; plenty of extra tidbits that add layers to what's realized onscreen, new material so as not to bore repeat tv viewers and a few fixes to flaws in the aired product.

Taylor enhances the story with the occasional theme of estranged fathers and sons, showcasing it through Riker, Picard, and Spock, linking them all in the narrative in a way that the televised episode doesn't. The final mind-meld, somewhat anticlimactic on show more television screens breathes a new life on paper, with a Taylor bringing home the emotional meaning of the story's title, Sarek, and Spock, at last, finding some unification through Picard.

The novelization substantially helps the side plot of Riker's investigation into the Vulcan hardware and helps it make a little more sense. Taylor adds some parts to broaden the investigation, for example, Riker helps interrogates the person responsible for helping to hide the what is going on at the shipyard (the captain of the mystery ship that exploded was romancing one of the low-level clerks who registered the junk ships at the yard).

There is also a secondary character introduced in the novel Ensign Naylor who adds something extra for those might be bored by just reading a straight adaption of the onscreen adventure. She starts off as a romantic possibility for Riker but is given something of a sad quality near the novel's end and more depth than just another fling for the First Officer.

Taylor livens things up at the end, something the aired product could have used, with some action involving Spock, Picard, and Data escaping the Romulans (they don't just casually walk out of the office like onscreen) and the Enterprise actually purses the Vulcan ships to the neutral zone.

Fans of the episode won't be disappointed. show less

A spaceship stranded on the other side of the galaxy continues to make its way home.

It's occasionally awful, but most episodes have something to offer, and a few are very good. A lot of the mediocre episodes manage to be boring as well (which is a first for Star Trek), which drags down the average a lot. Seven of Nine shows up, and suddenly Voyager has a well-written character. It would have been better if they'd just started writing Janeway well (or Kes, for that matter). When they briefly show more did that in season two, it was pretty great. But I'll take what I can get. Meanwhile, the inanity of the other characters intensifies.

Concept: B
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: D
Pacing: D
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: C
Music: C

Enjoyment: C plus

GPA: 1.9/4 show less

A spaceship pulled to the other side of the galaxy makes its way home.

So damn refreshing. For the first time since the seventies (or the sixties if you don't count the animated series), Star Trek is about what the famous theme song monologue says it's about - which basically boils down to science fiction adventures. The writing might not actually be any better than [early] Deep Space Nine, but when you're an adventure show, you can get away with a lot more.

Concept: B
Story: C
Characters: show more C
Dialog: D
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: B
Music: C

Enjoyment: B

GPA: 2.2/4 show less