Course Correction Studio

Tag: Shatnerverse

  • Captain’s Glory: Say it Ain’t Sue!

    Captain’s Glory (Star Trek: Totality #3) by William Shatner, Judith Reeves-Stevens, Garfield Reeves-Stevens

    Published August 22, 2006 by Pocket Books/Star Trek

    I may have had issues with the previous installments in this series starting out slowly, but this one definitely starts with plenty of action. That is an improvement. The depiction of Kirk’s son Joseph is not. Even though Joseph has been present in each of the two previous books, something about the way his character is written still feels incredibly hokey, almost Mary Sue-ish. It’s something I just haven’t been able to get used to. An example is the way he refers to Bones and Scotty as “Uncle Bones” and “Uncle Scotty”. While it makes perfect sense that Joseph would refer to them in this manner, given their relationship with his father, it just comes across weird.

    Captain’s Glory is probably my favorite book in the Totality series. It’s so exciting, and it feels more like a Star Trek book than the others because of the heavier Starfleet presence in the plot. It feels like a Trek movie.

    Now that I’ve finished the whole series, I can confidently proclaim that Totality is all about how special Joseph is and how he is destined to be some kind of divine being who saves the universe. Captain’s Glory is definitely the best book of the series, with non-stop action almost all throughout, but the premise reeks of Mary Sue-dom. I guess when you think about it, it kind of is, being about Kirk and his son and having been written by William Shatner. Even though I went into into this knowing that, totally eyes-open, my Mary Sue meter still went crazy on this one.

    While the plot of Captain’s Glory was full of action, and the book is the best of the series, the ending leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth, and this is as an ending for the entire series, not just Captains Glory. It was a good book, but it’s Mary Sue characteristics detract from it severely. It would have been better if Joseph could’ve ended up just being a normal kid in the end, even if he did help defeat Norinda. I mean, he turned into light – he was light to Norinda’s darkness. Wow. All I can do is shake my head at that. Wow – just, wow.

  • Captain’s Blood: Kirk’s Kid is Not What I Expected

    Captain’s Blood (Star Trek: Totality #2) by William Shatner, Judith Reeves-Stevens, Garfield Reeves-Stevens

    Published December 9th 2003

    Plot

    Spock is assassinated and James T. Kirk, with the assistance of Captain Will Riker and Captain Jean-Luc Picard, sets out to investigate the murder.

    Some Questions

    • Regarding the description of Kirk and Teilani’s kid – what in the world was Shatner thinking when he came up with the idea for Joseph. I think I understand the effect he was going for, but why does the kid have to have only three fingers and a thumb on each hand???
    • Since when does Kathryn Janeway fence?
    • What’s up with the hyphenation every time Joseph says “Dad”? It’s always written “Da-ad” or “Daa-ad”. That’s really annoying. At first, I thought it was supposed to mimic the way teens address their parents when the parents have done something to embarrass the teen, or when otherwise pleading with the parent, but it’s written too often here and though the uses aren’t necessarily out of place, the frequency makes them annoying.

    Final Thoughts

    As I’d hoped, this book was better than the first in the series. Much of that can be due to the fact that it didn’t take so long for the action to begin. I’d already begun reading Captain’s Glory, the last book in the series, before going back and reading the first book, so I’ve already had a sneak peak of what’s to come. I’m certain that I’ll enjoy the final book, particularly because now I know the backstory.