Star Trek: New Frontier novels

Cafe Society
1

I made it through the first four, got them free with the Palm Reader app, but it was tough going at times. Fan Fic in my opinion, right up to the Great Bird of the Galaxy.
Apparently it’s a popular series, there being several more novels.

Discussion follows. :slight_smile:

2

Yeah, I found them fun but nothing extraordinary. Mackenzie Calhoun could be an annoying and tiring SOB in most of them, but his genuinely badass moments tend to redeem him. :smiley:

Did think it was interesting that they brought together three minor characters who’d guest-starred on TNG to become regulars on the Excelsior’s crew

  • Selar, a Vulcan doctor who subbed for Pulaski one time, and then was frequently used when Beverly had to mention a colleague’s name who wouldn’t be seen onscreen,
  • Shelby, the hot-for-command young blonde who was loaned to them on the Borg hunting expedition where Picard got Locutus-ized,
  • and Robin Lefler, a legalistic engineer who had a whirlwind romance with Wesley Crusher in the middle of some alien’s attempt to take over the Enterprise with their version of subliminal pong.

All three are females, come to think of it, while the men are original creations for the books. Fascinating.

(And I think at the time the books came out, it seemed that Lefler, at least, would never return to the live-action Trek universe without being recast, because Ashley Judd had risen to the B-list as a feature film actress.)

3

I didn’t remember Lefer, but that’s the Fan Fic thing I was complaining about, er, commented on. An author tosses in IDIC pins, minor characters and Big Birds to either show how much s/he knows about Trek or make the reader believe him/herself to be a Trek expert.

Were the bisexual engineer and the rock security guard characters from an animated series or other novels?

4

Yes! There was a series of novels showing the exploits of Next generation characters in their younger days at Star FLeet Academy. The first three showed Worfs life as a cadet. Three of his fellow cadets from that novel (Soleta. Zak Kebron and Tania Tobias) would later show up in the New Frontier Novels. By a non-coincedence, Peter David wrote all of them.

5

I liked them. They were good fun, but then I tend to love most of David’s Trek work, anyway.

As for it being fan-fic, it’s par for the course. We are talking about TV series novelizations, after all.

6

The best part about them is that the characters change (in some major ways) as the series progresses. This tends to place them a bit higher on the scale then the normal media tie-in, IMO.