The Irredeemable Shagg joins Siskoid to talk about Peter David’s New Frontier series of Star Trek books, for their money, the best non-TV Trek you can get! A spoiler-lite discussion of the characters, stories and style of New Frontier, which they hope will encourage you to discover Sector 221-G for yourselves!
Listen to Episode 14 below!
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Credits:
“Star Trek Theme” by Alexander Courage, with the Irredeemable Shagg on vocals. End theme: “Deep Space Nine Theme” by Dennis McCarthy.
Bonus clips from: “Star Trek New Frontier: End Game” by Peter David, read by Joe Morton; Star Trek The Next Generation’s “Unification Part II” starring Leonard Nimoy; “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” by Nicholas Meyer, starring Leonard Nimoy and Kirstie Alley.
And thanks for leaving a comment!
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Well from interviews I suspect Marina Sirtis was happy that Captain Jellico was on TNG for example
“So then we got to season six, and there was the episode “Chain of Command” where we were trying out the new captain, Captain Jellico (just in case Patrick wanted too much money for next season, we were auditioning other captains), and he said to Troi “Go put on a uniform”. And lo and behold, there was one in her closet. So I put it on, and by then I was skinny, and the director and all the producers were like “she looks good in that, why wasn’t she been wearing that for the last six years?”
So I started to wear my spacesuit. I was thrilled to finally be in a spacesuit. First of all, my pips – cause I had a rank, you know. And then, it was very flattering actually, it looked really good.
Suddenly, I was smart again. My cleavage had gone. My gray matter came flooding back. I was on away teams! I was the leader of one away team! I had a medical tricorder! And unlike Beverly, I seemed to know what was wrong with people.”
http://1871atboe.tumblr.com/post/55356481786/marina-sirtis-talks-about-deanna-troi-and-the
Marina Sirtis is a treasure, and one of the greatest sins of TNG was not letting Troi have her sense of humor.
I couldn’t agree more!
“Squeaky”?
You can tell that Minbari-looking fool that, yes, I’m aware of the annoying qualities of my voice. It’s my voice, I hear it at all the time!
Guess those Matthews’ good looks skip a generation. From a Six Million Dollar Man/Kirk, to slightly taller and less yellow Minion.
First the Dominion War, now this.
He violated the Neutral Zone treaty. I think you’ve noticed Shagg and I haven’t been on a show together since the Tomed Incident.
In all seriousness, I liked, but not loved, the NF books. But my problems with them are exactly the same with my problems with PD’s writing style – sometimes I think he tries a bit too hard to hit a punchline with which he’s enamored. But overall, they’re some great yarns. And I like Calhoun quite a bit.
Oddly, I felt the books got a bit too “cosmic” for me. Not sure if that makes sense or not, but I prefer Q-level strength entities to be used sparingly.
Slightly OT, the only Trek books I have ever read where the ones where Kirk comes back to life post-GENERATIONS. I was so mad about how badly they screwed that up that I was desperate for any in-canon follow-up that undid what I saw in that movie. I don’t remember the book(s) being that great, but I was happy that they undid the movie. So…is Kirk still alive then in Trek continuity?
If you count the novels, Kirk is indeed still alive though he hasn’t done any adventuring after the events in the Captain’s Glory novel (which takes place about 2 years after Star Trek: Nemesis).
Not yet dead!
Oh and it’s not really off-topic since I open the conversation wider at the end by asking what are YOUR favorite non-TV “series” from the books.
It is a crime against good sense to abandon the Pocketverse on the basis of only having read Shatner’s stuff (whatever your feelings about Generations).
In any event, the Shatnerverse is NOT considered canonical. Not even for other Pocket novels.
Kirk’s dead. Deal with it.
Pretty harsh there, Mark. One of the beauties of Trek fandom is all the different versions and that fans simply pick and choose which they consider their own person canon (as opposed to Star Wars fans who want every single piece to fit into a single canon).
Who said they abandoned the Pocketverse? Did I miss a comment?
I’d agree with that. Since the shows/movies’ makers have never guaranteed they wouldn’t contradict novels, and indeed, often did, none of them can be called canon. They’re meant to be enjoyed in spite of that. Someone might even prefer the first meeting with Vulcans in Strangers from the Sky to Star Trek First Contact. Or wish Q-in-Law happened. Or yes, hope for a different death for Kirk. It’s not canon, but one can enjoy those stories anyway.
Strangers from the Sky is awesome!! Have read it multiple times. I love FIRST CONTACT, but prefer Strangers from the Sky!!
Well, there you go.
Fun show guys. I remember when these books came out it was quite a big deal to have a new ship that wasn’t the Enterprise and not based on a television series. I have never read any of these, but the audio book read by Joe Morton sounds intriguing.
Chris
The CD-ROM featuring the first 16 New Frontier stories are in the hardcover of Stone and Anvil.
I’m not a big reader of Star Trek novels, but I did read and enjoy the first four New Frontier novels, around the time they first came out. I primarily picked them up because I recognized Peter David from his run on Aquaman, and generally like his world-building. I never read any of the later NF novels, because I didn’t realize (or simply forgot) that the series continued on beyond those first novels. Now, I’ll have to see if I can find the others.
Did nobody else think the cover painting of MacKenzie was Alec Baldwin from “The Hunt for Red October”? Just me, then?
I read the first four books, have been meaning to catch up ever since the DVD-ROM book came out…
You’re not wrong.
I was not expecting to hear you cover New Frontier in this podcast. Well done!
Novels are not really my thing, being more a comics/TV guy. But I’m a huge Peter David fan, starting with his entire run on Incredible Hulk and everything I can find through the present day. That lead me to buy any novels he writes as well. I’m not as rabid about it, but I’ll buy one if I come across it browsing in a store. So his are most of the Star Trek novels I’ve read.
So with that, I had to give ST:NF a try, and loved it! Granted, I only own 13 of the bookes, so it’s not the complete series. But I love NF for all the reasons Siskoid and Shagg gave. And David’s writing style works so well for short-attention-span readers like myself.
I also got the chapters featuring NF in crossover novels. Captain’s Chair like Shagg mentioned (Lord, I never get tired of reading that one), Double Helix, and Gateways. The fact that NF was included in these crossovers alongside TOS, TNG, DS9, and VOY was astounding to me. We take that as a given in the comics mega-crossover events. But that was really special for Trek novels.
Now I *have* to pull out my CD-ROM and copy them to my tablet. Thanks for the idea, Shagg!
This podcast has made me want to read this series, or rather listen to it in audio format. However, the only audiobooks I can find for the series are severely abridged (Books 1-4 totally only 4.5 hours added up, etc). Does anyone know where I could find some unabridged audio version of the series? (Yes, I have Googled that. Keep finding the abridged, etc). All that aside, this was a great episode. Heck, it made me want to read the books, and I normally can’t stand the use of multiply hyphenated “alien” names.