Summary
An excellent character-based piece that gives us a fresh perspective on the show and makes us yearn for a Pike spin-off.
If there was one thing that the second season of Star Trek: Discovery left us hungry for, it was the further adventures of Captain Pike and his Enterprise crew. Where the main show has boldly gone where Trek hasn’t gone before, it was hard to deny the giddy thrill of seeing that group of people in those uniforms mixing it up on a bridge that felt comfortably familiar.
John Jackson Miller, who is primarily known for his prolific work in the Star Wars expanded universe, takes inspiration from a few key moments in Trek history that were referenced in the last season. Set after the Talos IV incident (showcased in the first TOS pilot The Cage and later The Menagerie), and concurrent with the Klingon War and fallout from the Battle of the Binary Stars. It’s basically what happened to the Enterprise during Discovery‘s first season.
Out charting a region of space known as the Pergamum, Miller spilt the narrative into three distinct sections. Following the abduction of several other officers by space pirates/mercenaries, Spock and some Enterprise crewmen are indentured into serving in a multi-generational war inside self-sustaining battle suits for the Boundless. Back on the ship, Pike and his trusted Number One attempt to rescue the crew while literally working upside down. Then there’s Baladon, a kind of space pirate who attacks and scavenges tech and people on behalf of the Boundless. Cutting back and forth between the perspectives heightens the momentum, but also ensures that this is never just another Starfleet-centric view of the galaxy.
Using this technique, Miller’s book feels like an episode of the show, which is unquestionably intended as a compliment. It does what the best episodes do so well: it takes a sci-fi concept, uses it to test the fundamental principles of Gene Roddenberry’s utopian vision, and gives us a chance to explore something new about the characters in the process. Without giving away too much, the narrative takes place over the better part of a year – something the show would struggle with in a single episode – and Spock’s control is pushed to its absolute limits.
Miller’s doesn’t just show Spock’s fragile state through inner monologue, but rather through the tell-tale signs that Pike notices. Similarly, the baseball obsessed Enterprise officer Connolly, captured by the Boundless, who is so well rounded as a character that you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d been watching him this whole time.
READ MORE: Review: Star Trek: Discovery – The Way to the Stars
While Roddenberry always envisaged a future where human frailty was a thing of the past, that approach tend to suck the drama out of the room. Thankfully Miller ignores that edict, depicting a group of flawed people who work together because of those differences. There’s chief engineer Galadjian (nicknamed “Doctor Oh”), for example, a reasonably green and aloof Starfleet officer who Pike must confront about not applying his theoretical knowledge in a demonstrative fashion to the crew. (He calls the iconic Jefferies’ Tubes “Joshua Tubes.”) As a people leader for the last decade or so, it’s nice to see performance management represented in the Trek universe. Meanwhile, Pike is still haunted by his encounter with Vina and the Talosians. Or as Baladon puts it: “What is it with you Federation people, always courting misery.”
One of the most fascinating (as Spock might put it) outcomes of the novel is the new information we get in relation to Spock’s encounter with the “Red Angel” that served as the catalyst for Season 2. Fully of cheeky references for fans the show, it also provides fertile ground for further exploration of pre-TOS concepts, but proof positive that a Pike-led series is something that the world needs right now. At the very least, we have Short Treks to look forward to.
2019 | US | WRITER: John Jackson Miller | PUBLISHER: Pocket Books (US) | LENGTH: 304 pages | RELEASE DATE: 30 July 2019
