[ December 09, 2001: Message edited by: CaptainMike ]

I just love the TAS show, and also New Frontier, to combine that just gives me shivers down my spine....

Has anybody read the background stories on M�ress and Arex as given in the novels? They are great, M�ress apparently faced of Kzinti on their own warship, and Arex battled and disabled a Klingon ship, both officers in command after sneak attacks killed of the senior officers. You know, in fact, I think the backgrounds of these two officers are the only ones we know, with the obvious examples of the main characters. What do we know the careers of Uhura, Chekov, Scott and the others before the Enterprise mission?

[ October 10, 2001: Message edited by: pIn'a' Sov ]

I'm not completely extatic about letting PAD have his way with these two characters, since he usually tends to do humans better (or at least more multifaceted) than aliens. But there's no way I would skip the next NF books! And the Gateways certainly provide a simple and plausible vehicle for bringing in the TAS pair.

BTW, I think there's stuff on the TOS sidekick backgrounds in a number of novels, but the one titled "Kobayashi Maru" supposedly has the most. Others, like "Enterprise: The First Mission", have stuff on Sulu and Uhura at least, although there's little on Chekov.

The "young adult" books might have more, but I'm not gonna read those any time soon. Perhaps if ENT is cancelled, TNG movies discontinued, Duane and David and Carey all retire, and I get really desperate...

OTOH, perhaps this is an artifact of the Universal Translator, and the native names of the worlds and races are in no way related to the Federation designations?

Yeah, Caitians *could* be expected to require a cat door for their comings and goings... I wonder if PAD has a feline he can use as a model? He somehow doesn't sound the type.

Huh?!

At first I thought David was referenceing the character of M'Yra from the second volume DC comic series (which is the best trek run ever, IMO) where David included M'Ress in the 1701-A crew as a continuation of her storylines from the previous series, which was cancelled by the licensing offcie because they felt there were too many supporting characters and it needed to be 'retooled' This was the same year Gene made most of his 'TAS wasnt canon' remarks, probably in reference to this, so Paramount made them pull the first issue, white out every instance of the word 'M'Ress' and replace it with 'M'Yra' and had all of the images of her colored purple and added horns and a pointy tail. They then ordered DC to remove all the supporting characters PAD had introduced in the first 9 issues, so M'Yra transferred to the Einstein.

If Peter was referencing that it would be a nice snub to the old licensing exclusion of TAS material, i.e.. 'that was really M'Ress in my mind, transferring to the Einstein'

This still creates some problems. Chekov and Terrell were going to explore Ceti Alpha VI as a potential test site for Genesis. How could they do that if Starfleet knew there was a Gateway there? One would have to assume that SF Intel declared the planet top secret and silenced all witnesses, right after the accident of M'Ress. Not impossible.. but M'Ress did know about the Guardian, even though she wasn't actually seen ogling the device in "City on the Edge" or "Yesteryear". That sounds like a more important secret to keep.

Other nitpics: The Trident's registry (NCC-31347) is just plain silly for a Galaxy, or any TNG-era ship for that matter. Is it an in-joke of some sort? Donald Duck's car plus 47? (No, I didn't read "Restoration" - still waiting for the softcover.)

Calhoun whines about the cold at the end. This from a guy who likes to skinny-dip in space? Then again, perhaps the vacuum-cold did not quite register as cold, even though "Once Burned" makes it sound as if did.

More career silliness. Burgoyne becomes the second-in-command yet formally continues as the Chief Engineer? The XO=!1stO idiocy is perpetuated, too.

Nice to see ship phasers on stun again.

Holodecks do not have smells? I'd think that they would, post-Minuet.

Nice twists to the Gateway tale. PAD sows the floor so thick of red herrings that it's impossible not to slip at least once. Looking forward to reading more!

What bothered me is that both ships are Galaxy-class. There arent enough big, capable ships to use? I could understand the new Excalibur being a newer, larger vessel.. but i still think that Galaxy class should be fairly rare in the fleet.. the orginal run of 6-12 maintained. I wouldeven understand if after the dominion war, they maintained up to 24.. but sending all of them to one sector?

I can accept second officers pulling double duty, but it seems that Riker and Chakotay were completely dedicated to the XO role and had no secondary duties. Nor was Kira doubling as a security chief or science officer.

Given the existence of the XO position and the modern policy of NOT sending the top two officers on an away mission at the same time on a regular basis, the second officer would not have to take the center seat too often. But pulling the CEO away from his boilers every time the captain wants to take a nap or a leak? No thanks.

I don't have a huge problem with two Galaxies assigned to former Thallonian space. Starfleet might see a prospect of annexing the whole former empire at one big gulp, so this would be a priority assignment. And big and independent ships would better help solidify the UFP position than an "occupation force" of more numerous, smaller vessels scurrying about. Out of, say, a dozen Galaxies, one could certainly be spared. Out of possible postwar 20+, two doesn't seem objectionable (although PAD could just as easily have given Shelby a Nebula - he just doesn't know enough about starships to realize it would have been just as big as a Galaxy).

I do have a problem with Starfleet giving the command of the ships to the uncontrollable Calhoun and his at times wussy wife, though. Starfleet's not just troubleshooting here, it's trying to further its political interests in the region. So the ships should be controlled by somebody who puts Starfleet interests ahead of everything else at least most of the time, somebody like Picard. Or at least one of the ships should.

Yes, the Trident makes a lot more sense as an Ambassador.. I'd be glad to accept that one.

PAD's best gaffe explanation though, was when he had Captain Ariel Taggert in command of the Repulse in 'Vendetta,' without realizing that Captain Taggert had been shown as a man in 'Unnatural Selection' He wrote a scene in 'Worf's First Adventure' where Captain Taggert explained that his daughter was a young officer who he hoped would take over his command someday. Bizarre but true!!