It's the basement dwelling nerd from the 1990's ultimate fantasy - Star Trek meets Dungeons & Dragons! Gather the party - Riker the swordsman, Troi the buxom wench, Data the whip-wielding rogue, and Picard the bard. (Look at me, I made a rhyme.) Prepare thyself for the crew of the Enterprise to get medieval on your ass!
I mostly know of John Peel from his work within the Doctor Who range. He famously wrote Timewyrm: Genesys, the first novel in the Virgin New Adventures series, and was tapped to pen novelizations for some of the early Terry Nation Dalek stories such as The Chase and The Power of the Daleks in the 90's. So venturing into Here There Be Dragons I was interested to see what Peel could do for another storied sci-fi franchise.
While on a routine cataloguing expedition of a nebula, the Enterprise encounters a pleasure vessel that bizarrely opens fire on the Federation ship before self destructing. An escape pod reveals the only survivor from the cruise ship to be a long-haired rogue who got stuck with the name Castor Nayfack - presumably when the name generator website his parents were looking at crashed. Mr. Nayfack claims to be an undercover Federation intelligence agent tracking a group of big game hunters poaching large reptilian creatures said to resemble dragons from ancient Earth's mythology on a remote class M planet located inside the nebula. Nayfack informs Picard that the planet is populated by humans apparently scooped up from 13th Century Germany ahead of the Black Death and placed on this remote world by the Preservers. Unable to resist a mystery and an apparent visit into a version of Earth's past, Picard leads an away team onto the surface to the settlement known as Diesen. Picard's team is only in Diesen for mere minutes before Nayfack gives them the slip and Graebel - the local black market man posing as an honest wine merchant - has drugged them and is preparing to sell the team into the slave trade. However, it is quickly revealed that Picard suspected treachery from Nayfack's too good to be true storytelling all along, as a second away team led by Riker materializes and begins following the tracker covertly placed on Nayfack's person by Dr. Crusher...
So it's not quite a fantasy novel as may have been initially teased by the setup, but many of the trappings of generic fantasy are there, including evil rulers, grim castles, dank dungeons, and the aforementioned 'dragons'. The dragons are revealed to be less the flying and fire-breathing variety and more like giant-sized cousins of the Komodo dragon, but they turn out to be a deadly obstacle nonetheless. As we get deeper into the novel, we discover the game hunting angle is only one aspect of criminal enterprise carried out by the gang Nayfack belongs to. This gang of ne'er-do-wells is also running a scam in the art world too - selling off goods purported to be from medieval Europe as artifacts to otherwise clueless collectors across the galaxy. For some reason, both the plot and the medieval flavoring of Here There Be Dragons reminded me of certain episodes of Stargate SG-1 where the SG-1 team would inevitably meet a human society still stuck in the distant past on a planet that looks remarkably like the forests of British Columbia.
As in many episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, there is a B-plot included here as well. Perhaps realizing a clash with a gang of thieves to be a relatively low stakes affair, the author included a subplot about the gang's leader bombarding the Enterprise with gravity bombs that threaten to tear the ship apart, which the likes of Geordi, Worf, Dr. Crusher, and Barclay have to deal with.
Yes, this is apparently a rare Trek novel featuring both semi-regulars Lieutenant Barclay and Ensign Ro as part of the main cast of characters. For the most part, Barclay is portrayed as the goofy and anxiety ridden geek from this era of TNG, but Ro on the other hand... I'm thinking John Peel must've had a thing for Ro's actress Michelle Forbes, because not only is he keen to point out how attractive other characters think she is (Riker I can see, but Picard would not give a shit), but when Picard's team is taken in by the slavers, Ro is separated from the others and sent to the evil Duke's private chambers to be kept as a sex slave. No, seriously... Ro literally mulls over her potential future as a living "sex toy" at one point. Now, this is still in a mostly PG-era of Star Trek, so nothing too terribly explicit or raunchy is allowed to happen, but Peel makes sure the reader knows Ro is stripped naked and given nothing but a too-short and too-tight dress with no shoes or underwear to parade around in for most of the rest of the story. I guess if you're looking for some good Ro fan service gooning material this book will be right up your alley.
We also learn in this novel that it's not just Sherlock Holmes that Data has an obsession with, it's also Indiana Jones, as he manages to snag one of the slavers whips and does some android ass kicking with weapon in hand. The part in the aftermath of battle where Data begins to autistically pontificate about the history of 20th Century film and Indiana Jones in particular and Picard facepalms and rudely cuts him off to save himself from a migraine is probably the most on the nose example of Peel perfectly capturing these characters in prose form.
I had a good time with Here There Be Dragons and found Peel's fast paced, no nonsense prose to work in accord with the Star Trek formula. Not only would this have made for a good standalone episode of the TV series, but it's a story that could have conceivably worked within the show's budget and special effects capabilities at the time. (The dragons would probably have to be dodgy CGI, but that was to be expected on occasion.) I give this one a Captain's commendation and recommend it be enjoyed alongside a cup of Earl Grey. Hot.
No comments:
Post a Comment