Customer Reviews

Relics (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

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This novel is an adaptation of an episode in the "Next Generation" television show. It is well-written, and any flaws in it are not truly the fault of the author, Michael Jan Friedman, but rather of Ron Moore, the writer of the teleplay for the episode it was based on.

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.

Star Trek The Next Generation "Relics" is the superb novelization of one of the most beloved episodes from the series spectacular sixth season. The story and teleplay, written by Ron Moore deserves a high amount of praise as he found a wonderful way to write a modern STNG episode and bring "Scotty" forward into the twenty fourth century.

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}

Michael Jan Friedman tells a wonderful adventure with his first Star Trek novel, Relics. He makes you feel as though you were really aboard the Enterprise with Montgomery Scott, Picard, and the rest of the crew. After this terrific book, I'm now looking forward to reading any other Star Trek novels Friedman might write.

The episode of ST:TNG that this is based on is one of my favorites. Scotty is a passenger on the transport ship Jenolen when it encounters a Dyson Sphere. Their engines fail while they are orbiting the sphere and the ship crashes on the outer surface. Scotty and Franklin are the only survivors and with no food or water and help unlikely, Scotty comes up with a unique survival mechanism. He rigs the transporter so that it is in a continuous diagnostic cycle with a refresh mode and then he and Franklin enter it. His hope is that their patterns will be stored in the transporter until help arrives.
The Enterprise is moving through space decades later when it encounters the distress signal from the Jenolen. Even though it is most unlikely that anyone still survives, Captain Picard orders the Enterprise to investigate. When they arrive, an away team boards the crashed Jenolen and Geordi is able to recover Scotty, although Franklin's pattern is lost. Scotty immediately discovers that time and technology have passed him by and he quickly becomes despondent and feels useless.
Captain Picard then asks Geordi if he would accompany Scotty to the Jenolen to extract the data records as the Enterprise crew is having some difficulty with interfacing with the old technology. While Geordi and Scotty are on the Jenolen, the Enterprise is unwillingly pulled into the sphere and the door closes behind them. Faced with the prospect of being marooned, Scotty and Geordi combine their expertise to get the Jenolen flying again and they are able to determine how to get the doors to open again. They then use the shields of the Jenolen to hold them open until the Enterprise can escape. The dialog between Geordi and Scotty while they are repairing the Jenolen is on a par with the best ever to appear in Star Trek.
One of the advantages of novel adaptations of a series episode is that it gives the author an opportunity to flesh out the story and provide more in the way of context. This is also a disadvantage in that the author can provide unnecessary or contrary contextual material. The author does some of the latter, the material about Ensign Kane should have been left out in favor of more about Scotty, specifically what he had done after leaving the Enterprise for good. That would have been much more interesting than the antics of a spoiled child filling the uniform of an Ensign. However, despite that aspect, this book is an excellent page-turning adventure of a character that is one of the most delightful to appear in any of the Star Trek incarnations.

A good book, which follows the episode closely, with some additional scenes. The audio version even features an intorduction and conclusion from Levar Burton. A must for all ST:TNG book fans!

In most cases, book adaptations tend to be more in-depth than the episode it was adapted from. However, this goes into so much depth that your questions about the episode. For instance, it completely explains the history of the USS Jenolen and its crew, where the Dyson Sphere theory originated from, and who the other person in the transporter buffer was. This book is flawless - a quality I have come to expect from Michael Jan Friedman books.

This story really gets more into the details than the episode on TV. Great answer to the question "Who the heck is Matt Franklin?" Great intoduction to new characters. This one is a must read.

A good book. The chemistry between Scott and TNG crew is a wonderful pleasure.

Outstanding work by Michael Jan! As always he delivers an excellent story and makes the characters believeable! A MUST READ!