Rogue Elements

Watching “New Trek” is something of an assault on the senses when compared with the television of old. This book felt a bit like that, by turns a new and unsettling set of characters and species dynamics, then a good pirate-style rollick. Rios really didn’t imprint himself to me on screen, but it was quite interesting to see more of him here, even if I can’t yet bring myself to understand much of what drives him. It really doesn’t feel like a book from the old days, and perhaps that’s a good thing. The last Picard novel focused on Riker, and the first on jean-luc himself. Now we have an eye on what feels like the seedier, less seemly side of Trek.

It was only a few days ago that I watched plains mobbed by desperate civilians trying to flee Afghanistan. Being a long-time Trek reader my mind flashed back to the opening of yet another novel – Ambassador Spock is being evacuated from an embassy turned unfriendly and the novel’s point-of-view is in the support escort flight and evacuation team pushing through the angry and roiled crowds. So yes, of course we have seen the messier, less pristine before. Yet times have changed, and the politics of even the best fictional universes change too. I’m perhaps still on the fence. I still take comfort in old episodes and novels, showing us our familiar friends in familiar situations. But the story goes on, with others at the helm. Perhaps in 10, 20, 30 years, who knows. People will pine for what I consider flashy and strange. I can’t say I was hooked on Rios’s story, nor Miller’s narrative. But it’s part of the lore, and I’m glad to have had the chance to soak up more of that.