Pornokitsch

Uhura’s Song (Janet Kagan)

Not the first of the books to attempt to give one of the secondary characters an actual character and a role outside their usual console-jockeying, but one that does some particularly interesting things with it, Uhura’s Song is a first contact story, with the Enterprise crew given special permission to break the Prime Directive in order to prevent a Federation-wide plague (also not the only appearance of one of those). The book plays off Uhura’s friendship with one of a race of feline humanoids and her knowledge of their history and lore to find the world on which they originated, where a cure might exist.

The bulk of the novel is given over to the exploration of the newly-discovered culture of Sivao, and the crew’s need to pass a trial of endurance to prove they are adults and get access to taboo historical information. As well as giving Uhura a lot to do, and more character than she’s been given in the sum of her screen time, the book also provides an outstanding example of one of the novels’ most common features; the original character in whom the author is far more interested than the stars of the show. Dr Evan Wilson is a doctor, survival specialist, martial artist, anthropologist, perplexer-of-Spock, and mischief-maker just like in the local ballads.

Why it’s noteworthy: Apart from finally making Uhura the interesting, capable and intelligent woman we always suspected she probably was, this is one of the better attempts at a first contact story in the novels - the Sivaoan culture is post-technological, but not in the typical post-apocalyptic way; the language and cultural references feel anthropologically convincing, not just obvious analogues for human starting points, and the resolution of the crisis actually feels like it comes out of the world Kagan made. It’s unquestionably a strange confection, but it feels like it would work even without the Star Trek trappings, and possibly even better.

Ishmael (Barbara Hambly)

Hambly’s collected output is prodigious, and this is the first of three Star Trek novels she wrote. Time travel brings an amnesiac Spock to the Pacific Northwest in the 1860s and the situation of the late-60s TV series Here Come The Brides - Spock, named Ishmael by his discoverer and local guardian, helps the town in various ways before recovering his memory in time to thwart time-travelling Klingons from preventing the creation of the Federation by assassinating that guardian.

Alongside this there’s the Enterprise crew’s attempts to deduce where he’s gone, and a lot of fish-out-of-water stuff going on with Spock’s odd situation. Hambly does a far better job on the characterisation in this novel than is typically the case in this range, and what could be the Star Trek equivalent of a sitcom is surprisingly affecting.

Why it’s noteworthy: Because it’s incredibly human. Despite the interstellar scale of the behind-the-scenes threat, the bulk of the novel is focused on the lives of a small set of the people of a small town in the middle of nowhere. Their biggest concerns are around land and resource ownership, local commerce and local relationships. Spock’s presence is the catalyst for a number of changes here, and in that regard it’s little different from countless other lost traveller tales, including plenty in Star Trek settings. But unlike most of those others, you end up caring for the characters and being interested in what happens to them in the long term. Which is definitely not the case with a lot of the books’ supporting casts. 

The Romulan Way (Diane Duane and Peter Morwood)

Diane Duane has done more than anyone in history to make the Romulans interesting. Her first effort, which introduced some of the characters in this one, was the excellent My Enemy, My Ally, a story of intrigue and betrayal across The Neutral Zone. But The Romulan Way is her (and Morwoods’) History of the Founding of the Romulan Empire - though in the spirit of the work we should really call them Rihannsu, the name she coined for them in their own language.  

Told in alternating chapters between a ‘present-day’ (i.e. during the Five Year Mission) story of a Federation deep cover agent and her challenging encounter with prisoner of war Dr Leonard McCoy, the Rihannsu history, starting even before the schism with Vulcan, is rich and compelling, and goes a long way in overwriting the slightly one-note people from the TV series.

Why it’s noteworthy: Because it’s two entirely separate pretty good stories for the price of one, and it’s honestly hard to say which is the primary narrative, which takes some skill. And for the effortless way Duane and Morwood make the historical parts feel like an actual history. Duane (solo) would go on to use the same structure to tell the other side of the story in Spock’s World, which explored the history of Vulcan after The Sundering, but The Romulan Way is the original and best. Loving references to the Rihannsu litter genre fiction, and this is the book that properly put the people of ch’Rian on the map. It’s a shame that the books’ editors made no effort (or probably weren’t allowed by licence) to create an internally consistent universe where content like this influenced other authors’ direction. 

Dwellers In the Crucible (Margaret Wander Bonanno)

Yet another of the many Pocket Books stories far more concerned with the author’s own characters than the franchise stars, this one focuses on the relationship between a human and a Vulcan, in a not particularly subtle parallel to the Kirk/Spock friendship. The tale of a group of “Warrantors of the Peace” (I’ll come to that) abducted by Klingons working for the Romulans, the two leads find themselves the only survivors and forced to overcome their innate differences in order to emerge from their ordeal alive.

Why it’s noteworthy: Because of the whole “Warrantors of the Peace” thing. These Warrantors are close family members of their worlds’ leaders, and should their homeworld commit an act of aggression towards any other Federation world, they are immediately executed. Yes, executed. Quite. It’s not very enlightened is it? In fact it’s phenomenally hard to square with the Federation as presented in almost every other iteration (and note that in this case I’m talking about the organisation as an ideal whole, not the countless examples of dodgy and corrupt leadership that form a staple of Star Trek in all genres).

The Pocket Books range frequently tested the limits of Star Trek’s structure, but as with this one in some cases one is left thinking they should probably have pulled back somewhat. This is also a sad example of how unconnected the universes of the Pocket Books novels are. There’s none of the complexity of the Romulans you’d get in a Duane book; here they’re just the cunning empire of marauders that’s their default mode.

Dreadnaught! (Diane Carey)

And oh look - right on schedule, here comes a corrupt Federation/Starfleet leader with a WMD at his disposal.  Yet another book that's really more about the newbies than the primary characters, this has the advantage of being better than most of its ilk. The secret development of a Federation warship/dreadnaught - again, not very Federation-like - proves to be a ploy by an Admiral out to subjugate the Klingons, Romulans, et al. New Enterprise crewmember Lt. Piper leads a ragtag band of misfits(TM) in a desperate struggle to uncover the truth (also TM).

Why it’s noteworthy: There’s a lot of time given to developing Lt. Piper and her little gang, (though kicking it all off with her taking the Kobayashi Maru test is just unashamed Wrath of Khan fan service), and the story of the secret development of a prototype Starfleet warship and a corrupt aggressor in the ranks was actually pretty fresh back in the mid-80s before it became a recurring plot across the franchise.

At this stage in the Pocket Books licence, originated characters were allowed to recur, and Carey brought the gang back for Battlestations! (the exclamation marks are killing me). This rule would change over time, meaning a number of planned sequels by various authors, including one by Kagan for Uhura’s Song, never saw the light of day.