Tag Archives: Geordi LaForge

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Review: The Peacekeepers (TNG Novel #2)

The Peacekeepers
by Gene Deweese

How prime is the Prime Directive, really?

It is the perennial quandary. In book #2 of our TNG series, we come to the question we have continued asking since the concept first went live on the air in TOS; the true trekkers (or at least those with an internet search bar open) will note this was originally referred to as General Order One and just grew from there, firming up later as the infamous non-interference policy of Star Fleet, the application of which is… often interpretive and spotty, but none the less is forever cropping up and demanding to be minded.

As a side note, I think the Prime Directive is a kind of golden rule for space travelers. When we imagine what we Earthlings hope is waiting for us in the universe, we at minimum ask that it not be violent and would allow us to develop on our own. And so we picture that in a space utopia we would do unto others as we would have them do unto us. We would look on from a distance until a species has gotten it’s own two feet under itself and be there to welcome it to the family when the time was deemed right.

This novel essentially purposes to illustrate by comparison that what is prime for Starfleet is not the same as what is prime for other technologically advanced races. The Peacekeepers imagines another way an advanced race may potentially handle interactions with lesser developed worlds. Where the Federation might purpose to try to allow worlds to develop without interference, the titular Peacekeepers are keepers of the peace empowered by an ancient and powerful alien technology, abandoned there as a gatekeeper device which, although left unattended, none-the-less caused the desired ends of limiting planetary development. “The Builders” believed in restraining lesser developed races to their home worlds and left behind a network designed to restrain planets from ever traversing the stars.

Characters in the story have their own goals and motivations towards what they believe is best for the bigger picture in the world. When presented with the power to enact that which they believe to be for righteous causes, they engage in acts they would never have otherwise consider and are able to rationalize it for the good they are doing. For the story’s leading characters on the planet, the action of ending all nuclear weapons comes at the cost of maintaining a tyranny and maintaining it requires very tiresome and isolating paranoia to prevent others from coming into control of the technology as well. In a way, the individual empowered by the technology in the end pursues a will beyond just his own and causes the very suppression the technology intended. When Geordi himself uses the alien technology in the course of the story (in the form of a skeletal helmet which attunes the user telepathically to the alien powers) the author does a good job of showing the subtle influence the alien technology has on Geordi. This is a question about technology at the root, too: As we are using technology, are we maybe also a vehicle of other forces of the technology itself or a tool for the minds behind the tech? Are we as users of the technology also molded and formed to other ends by adopting it? (‘my precious’… cough) I can’t help but see how this becomes more and more relevant in the ‘progress’ of our own technologies at present.

Another theme I picked out of this story was that of intuition. Throughout the story, Geordi must make things up as they go along. He asks Data to follow his lead. he explains that he is “playing it by ear”: he has to allow for he people he is suddenly caught up with to believe he represents one of the “Builders” of the powerful alien Repository of Gifts. But in truth he is learning from scratch about the past 50 years on this planet he and Data have been whisked to and about the global politics that have sprung up around one man’s control of the alien technology they found in orbit of the planet.

Intuition is how Data makes connections between what has been observed on their mission-gone-wrong and what he knows in his data banks of other recorded encounters with similar technologies. The likenesses lead to helpful general assumptions to work with.

Intuition is also what lead the tyrannical leader astray and took his actions to far. He always saw what he wanted to see and was affirmed in his actions by his own successes. His intuition about his closest supporter was wrong, and lead to his demise. His intuitions were blinded by self righteousness.

Telepathic intuition also leads to the means where Troi is able to detect the location of the missing away team. By understanding something about the technical nature of how the team was transported, and paying attention to what circumstances surround each one of her empathic detection of Riker’s mind, she can deduce a means to direct the Enterprise to their location.

In the wrap up of the tale, Data has an intuition as to how to help preserve the Prime Directive and the lives of many of the people of the pre warp civilization. Through observation of his friend, Geordi, the android has learned when to employ theatrics and deceit, in service to the goals of the mission.

The final beats of the story ask what intuition really is. Data is able to give a full account of the basis for drawing his conclusions and give reasons for why given actions may lead to likely outcomes. Geordi supposes this is just as good as intuition. Data is just able to have his processes for it out in the open where he can observe his own intuition, but is it that far off from what people are doing when they arrive at an actionable hunch?

Cue the credit theme song.

P.S. I’m gonna gripe about the cover. Once again, these are not the main characters of our story. This book’s ‘A plot’ follows Data and Geordi who should be front and center, with maybe Riker or Yar. The trio of Picard, Worf, and Troi are in the book but have relatively bit parts in the story. Ironically, you could probably swap novel #1 and #2 book covers and have a more accurate representation of the featured characters.

I appreciate that these covers must be oil paintings that the editors probably needed to order ahead of publication far in advance and are probably basing the art commissions on elevator pitches of the stories which probably changed in draft. I’m curious to see at what point the covers in this paperback series become more relevant to the story.

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Review: Ghost Ship (TNG Novel #1)

Let’s take it from the top, shall we?

Since rekindling an interest in Star Trek The Next Generation novels and comics, I’ve decided to have a go at the first in the numbered novel series. That brought me to Ghost Ship, by Diane Carey. [minor spoilers ahead…]

Ghost Ship (1988)
by Diane Carey

As most fiction paperbacks are wont to do, this book tells you what you’re getting into right up front, that is via the back cover. Writing in 1988, the author sets the prologue in 1995, placing us in an as-of-then future historical fiction (heh) when a Russian Aircraft carrier is overtaken by an unexplained force. The prologue is very well written, and I almost wished she’d remained writing a book in the near future of the time in which the author was authoring this. But it does as advertised and promptly jumps us into the 24th century, where Deanna Troi is being plagued by apparitions of those unfortunate missing sailors, their life forces being trapped in an inter-dimensional entity, floating through outer space.

The book explores along a couple of themes. I think the first might be identified as something like “Perception” as it compares things like Troi’s empathy with LaForge’s augmented vision. Picard even undergoes sensory deprivation in the course of the story to try to understand what it might be like to live only as a disembodied consciousness (this is accidentally salient and if done intentionally would have been a great presaging of the future assimilation of Picard).

Another theme being explored is the question of life and its value. The debate held is over the definition of murder versus euthanasia— here we see Riker advocating for the preservation of life and holding out that it’s not the Enterprise’s business to trot about the universe deciding who is suffering or not and act to end their lives. Meanwhile Troi attests to the disembodied souls’ suffering to such a degree that she’ll put herself out of her own misery if she has to continue to endure theirs. Crusher has a side she falls on, and is ready to absolve the command crew of the matter of murder by supplying her own medical approval to count the ghostly contact as consent to die, as if being taken off a cruel form of life support, but she’s also awaiting orders. In the end the book properly turns the tables as, ultimately, situational pressure forces Riker’s hand.

I can see what Picard was doing with the self-installed “blue button”, but it seems the book may have missed out on the existence of the now well established self destruct sequence. In a more updated book it might be more satisfying to see this accomplished instead as a scene between Picard and Riker, where Picard would have instead pressured Riker to pre-authorize the two man self destruct (as established in TV episode “11001001”, the one with the Bynars), so that Picard can have his kill switch. That would have been much less odd than Picard going around setting charges on his own and would have upped the thematic pressure cooker with Riker. “I’ll do it Sir, but only because there’s no one else I trust more with my life and the lives of this crew. If this is what I have to do to prove it, so be it.” And then all the big messy questions would be down to Picard’s discernment.

Coming back to the actual events in the novel, as opposed to this reviewer’s own retcons— Data, meanwhile, takes a harsh word from Riker overly personally and decides that a fair test of his humanness might be to offer himself to the entity and see if it counts him as life or not. Which is kind of an illogical test, since if he is what he hopes to be, he will be trapped as a ghost. But let’s not try to make too much sense out of the personal choices of an Artificial Intelligence. In any event, It’s important enough as a question to him, that he is willing to go rogue to find out. (He also… builds a small cloaking device in a pinch from parts he’s secretly stashed for this potentiality? Which… let’s pretend not.)

Alluded to earlier in the book, Wesley’s current science project du’jour becomes of interest in the climactic scene; if it can be implemented at scale, they might have a way of confronting the entity. And basically the two pages addressing Wesley’s whiny attitude are probably my favorite part of this novel. I felt Wesley and Picard were presented as actually decent reflections of one another. Wesley reminded me of the brash, young, know-it-all that Picard must have been, himself. And Picard knows that a genius needs discipline to harness that potential, which Wesley must be made to appreciate. And I think in the subtext Picard knows these things personally. The author goes a step further than just “Shut up, Wesley” and gives this the weight of a life lesson.

Some of the descriptions in this book are over done. I’m not sure if it’s stylistic choice or word count fluff behind it, but either way, it could have benefited from a heavier editorial treatment. Also, its technical descriptions of the inner workings of data, for instance, seem likewise overwrought. They don’t add much, and it may be the author received some of these details in reference notes, or else made them up, but the relevance is limited.

Things I might borrow from this book: Inter-dimensional ghost ships, Wesley’s science project that amps up phasers, Picard’s cool escape maneuver using a gas giant, and the science dingy Riker pilots to go after Data.

I’d say this book is on par with an average Season 1 Next Gen episode— it’s worth watching if it happens to be on.