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In 2370, Captain Scott hatches an audacious plan to travel
back to 2293 and rescue Captain Kirk from his apparent death
on board the Enterprise B without damaging the timeline.
However, the plan does not go as expected. Though Kirk is
rescued, he, Scotty and the crew of the Enterprise
D find themselves in an altered past in which the Earth has
been assimilated by the Borg...
It
has to be said that there aren't many original ideas in this
book. As the synopsis suggests, this is pretty much Relics
(the Next Generation episode in which Scotty
is found in a transporter's pattern buffer after 75 years
in stasis) meets Generations
(the movie in which Kirk is apparently killed but is then
resurrected 78 years later), The Return (the book in
which Kirk is resurrected - again - meets the entire Next
Generation crew and battles the Borg) and First Contact
(the movie in which the Borg travel back in time to assimilate
the Earth).
Yet
Scotty's rescue attempt is an irresistible notion, even though
we know that, in terms of series continuity, it is doomed
to failure and that, this being a time-travel story, the characters
are unlikely the retain any memories of the strange events
that unfold. And the Borg are always welcome as far as I am
concerned.
To his credit, the author compensates for a particular shortcoming
of Generations by injecting some friction between the
strait-laced Picard and the reputed loose cannon that is Kirk.
He also explains how the Borg Queen "survived" the events
of The Best of Both Worlds and First Contact.
However, he hedges his bets when it comes to Scotty's comments
regarding Kirk in Relics, which implied that the engineer
had forgotten about the events of Generations (which
hadn't been filmed at the time): DeWeese suggests that Scott's
apparent forgetfulness might be down to disorientation, degradation
of his pattern, or a combination of both. In line with Relics,
but not with Star Trek: Enterprise, Kirk's legendary
command is described as being the
first starship Enterprise.
As
a result of its place in Trek continuity, there isn't
much mystery surrounding the corruption of the timeline. If
you are familiar with the films Generations and First
Contact, it's not difficult to guess how Scotty's rescue
attempt could change not only the future but also the past.
However, there is some intrigue surrounding a race that the
engineer encounters early on in the book, who at first seem
irrelevant to the story. The narrative is constructed so that
it could still work if read in context - that is, if a person
who had never before seen Generations read this book
in between that film's 23rd and 24th-century segments.
This
is a most enjoyable romp. It's a little predictable, but as
Scotty might say: ye cannae change the laws of Star Trek.
Richard
McGinlay
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