ValueSubtracted

I might have to check this one out - I didn't realize they'd started publishing new novels that don't tie in to the current series, and this one sounds like it was written with me specifically in mind.

There's actually more information in here than I would have expected.

I’ve [Alok] been augmented, and I have been cryoed. I am cryo chambered, and I am super old, but my young gun can live for those years of the pain and or rectify the years of pain. And I think he a lot does a lot of that, he is trying to get past his stuff with the use of the team.

We wrote the backstory [for Zeph] that he’s actually paraplegic. He did it to himself by trying to augment himself. And the suit is his wheelchair. He’s completely dependent on the suit, but the suit gives him all that extra power and strength… Obviously, in the future, we’ve moved past debilitating diseases, but there are still reasons that you might need assistance or a wheelchair. And the idea was to do a really positive iteration of what a wheelchair is by it being a suit.

I think when we first come to her [Garrett] in this adventure, she’s very by the book, very tightly wound, black and white, there’s no gray area in her life. It’s right or wrong. Yes, she’s a stickler for that kind of thing, and so she appreciates the systems that she exists in. She feels comfort in knowing what’s expected of her… I’m there to look over things, to make sure we’re coloring inside the lines, at least in the beginning. I’ve been placed here as a little bit of a taskmaster, stickler for the rules, and maybe the ebbs and flows.

The Klowakhans are definitely an amusing twist on Star Trek monocultures, especially when stacked up against Klingon farmers who still can't escape the call of the warrior.

There's also a slight chance that critics who have become so used to shitting on things that they've lost their ability to enjoy anything might be a nod to internet culture in general.

Great to see Mary Chieffo's name in the credits.

Sam Witwer, too - he stepped in to play Tenavik in place of Kenneth Mitchell in Star Trek Online a few years ago, but otherwise hasn't appeared in Star Trek since "Enterprise."

Except that Trump-style government will have negative knock-on effects on the Canadian status quo, and people will inevitably blame the current administration for that...

Is the "concierge" mentioned here likely to make a difference?

Rowan does really great work, both with Trek-related content and his other stuff. Never a disappointment.

Rowan's great - there's no reason you couldn't post this to [email protected], if you want to.

In "Terra Firma" she literally goes back and tries to do things differently.

Needing to "ask for redemption" suggests there's a higher power administering cosmic judgment, which is another tenet of the ethos I was unaware of.

Yeah, I guess I forgot that the central tenet of Star Trek is that people are either Good or Bad, and there's no room for change or improvement.

The idea that a person can do horrible things but still try to reject their old ways and do things differently is against everything that Star Trek stands for?

I really don't think that's how it works.