Vendetta
I can remember, back in the day, hearing about the producers for ST:TNG at conventions giving some of their own thoughts on certain subjects (it’s only cannon if it makes it to the screen…). It had been said that the doomsday machine (from the original episode of the same name) had actually been built as an anti-Borg weapon.
I have some problems with that (dealing with the original episode), but there are things to recommend the theory. Vendetta, the last of the giant novel Star Trek prestige format, is basically built around that theory.
Now, this was written around when fourth season was going, so a fair number of things hadn’t happened yet. In fact, part of the novel anticipates “I, Borg” in season five. That warp 10 was infinite speed, and unattainable for that reason, had been established, but we’re years away from Voyager‘s evolve-into-lizards story. Peter David has a different idea about what getting to warp 10 means, and I do like that version and how it helps end the story.
So, we have the Borg, the doomsday machine, and an ‘unattached’ Borg all as story elements. Oh, and a replacement for Locutus. The first two are the focus of the story, combined with an extra MacGuffin that he nicely references as inherently possible from bits of alien tech seen in previous episodes. Of course, we have to go even bigger and nastier on a bigger doomsday machine here. I don’t think that was really necessary, though the story does demand a pilot for this one, so it does need to be different. (Treknobabble annoyance: Back in “The Doomsday Machine”, Commodore Decker emphasizes it used a beam purely of anti-protons. David makes a point of it here, and equates that to inherently being very powerful. That’s just bunk. Power will depend on how many anti-protons you’re using. All anti-protons might be an impressive technical accomplishment, and there’s reasons to think it’d be very efficiently destructive, but you still need it to be a very concentrated beam to do better than anything easier but less efficient.)
There’s a good theme of obsession going on here that would pay off with better writing. We have Delcara (AKA “Vendetta”) with her single-minded pursuit of vengeance against the Borg, we have the Borg themselves, obsessed with absorbing all distinctiveness into their collective, we have Korsmo, Picard’s rival back in Starfleet Academy, who’s obsessed with how Picard’s career (and success against the Borg) have far surpassed his. With better development, this could all better reflect each other, with Picard holding a middle, largely balanced ground to hold a mirror against all of these at the same time. Better yet, not yet healed scars from his time as Locutus could send him reeling off balance into an obsession like Delcara’s, and the act of pulling back from that be the catharsis of the novel.
But that’s beyond Peter David’s abilities here (or possibly just beyond his writing schedule to do what would be a heck of a polishing job). Worse, there’s a Ferengi subplot and the rescued ex-Borg that do add to the final action, but don’t really add to the structure of the story. With better development, you could add them into the mix I outline above, but part of my point there is to use Picard as fulcrum of all these competing views, and he just doesn’t have the interactions with them for that to happen. (He is already quite busy in this novel! He also slips out of character, which also needs a round of polish to help.) So, it’s good, with possibilities to be more, but it would need a big rewrite to start approaching that promise.
After all that, you’ll understand when I say the writing here is weaker than the other four giant novels. Since it doesn’t have the plot-wrecking ending, I still like it better than Metamorphosis, but I put it below the three TOS giants. Metamorphosis gets a recommendation if you want to see the high concept, as its well developed but is otherwise a skip for destroying its own plot. Enterprise: The First Adventure gets points for it’s high concept as well, and is the best version of that one I’ve seen, and is generally well done. Final Frontier invites a few quibbles, but is very well done and excellently written. Strangers From the Sky is even better and one of my top Star Trek novel recommendations (and frankly, Final Frontier is up there too).
Discussion ¬