Relics (Mass Market Paperback)

The decision to have Star Trek fiction's most prolific author, Michael Jan Friedman, write the novelization of this poignant episode was a perfect one. "Relics" is his first novelization of an episode and, as he does with his original stories, he does a marvelous job.

As most novelizations go, the important part is adding a little bit more flavor to an already brilliant episode by bringing forth the characters thoughts and throwing in some "between the scenes on the screen" scenes. All of which, Michael Jan Friedman does with perfection in "Relics."

The cover art for "Relics" is, unfortunately, pretty much the standard fare for Star Trek novels with Scotty and LaForge pictures and the original Enterprise herself, which does add a little bit of "something different" to a Star Trek The Next Generation novel.

From the very first episode of Star Trek The Next Generation in which we saw an aged but still vital, one hundred and forty plus year old Dr. McCoy strolling down the hallways on the Enterprise NCC 1701-D with Data escorting him, many fans were wondering which, if any, characters from The Original Series would be making guest appearances. With the fifth season episode "Unification" and Leonard Nimoy's exceptionally well written and performed return to Star Trek as Spock, the fans of the genre were satiated for the moment but still hungry for more. I still vividly remember the barely containable excitement I experienced upon seeing the preview for the following weeks episode and seeing that James Doohan would be making a guest appearance and he would be bringing Scotty, one of Star Treks most beloved characters, into the twenty fourth century. Now it was time for the "how."

The premise:

Captain Picard and crew are headed to their latest mission when they receive a distress signal from the USS Jenolen which is a ship that has been reported missing for seventy five years. Upon coming out of warp they also encounter gravimetric distortions. As they move in they discover one of the most intriguing objects ever written into one of their episodes, a Dyson's Sphere. The Dyson's Sphere is a real theoretical proposal, proposed by Freeman Dyson in which a civilization could harvest an astronomical amount of resources and build a sphere around a star and live within this sphere.

Captain Picard sends Riker, Worf and LaForge over to the Jenolen and they soon discover that the transporter has been locked into a diagnostic cycle and there's a pattern in the buffer. LaForge runs the cycle through and standing there on the transporter pad is a Starfleet legend in one Captain Montgomery "Scotty" Scott!

As the story progresses, Scotty is suffering the anxiety of feeling obsolete and in the way as he tries to be helpful but only serves to annoy LaForge while he's attempting to carry out the mission given to him by Captain Picard.

What follows from there is not only one of the best episodes ever written and produced for the series but one of the best novelizations written within the Star Trek fiction genre. For those that read Star Trek novels but don't bother too much with the novelizations, they should try this one as Michael Jan Friedman does a superb job with this story and I highly recommend this novel for your Star Trek library! {ssintrepid}

My primary objection, perhaps surprisingly, is not the method of justifying (or even the very fact of) the existence of the character of Montgomery Scott nearly a hundred years after the original Star Trek series; I found myself willing and able to suspend disbelief for that concept. No, what I found troubling and implausible was the characterization of Mr. Scott, and his inability to recognize what he knew, and what he didn't, and to avoid being a danger to everyone when let loose in an engine room.

The man was no fool, and perfectly aware that technology had changed while he'd been "away". And he'd plenty of experience examining unfamiliar, superior technology. He'd not have made the stupid mistakes he was portrayed as making. Nor would he have failed to understand that a chief engineer can't be interrupted while on duty. The entire concept, essential to the story, was an insult to the character. Other than that flaw in characterization, the story was good, and it was a pleasure to see Scotty back in action. I just wish that the creator of the story had had more respect for the character.