No Time Like The Past

Here is my short and sweet review of No Time Like The Past the latest Greg Cox Star Trek novel I've read, I bought the paperback on the day of release once again weighing up the cost benefits of the e-book option and again decided for a few pence more I'd prefer to own the physical book.
So No Time Like The Past at least on the surface sounds a little far fetched, granted it's scifi and Star Trek so some of more outlandish plots can be found in the genre but when done right any story can be sold as being both entertaining and consistent within the franchise. Greg in bringing together James Kirk and Seven Of Nine dallying with the potential for a disaster but by offering up a well worked time travel story with enough mystery, action and depth for the characters he pulled it off and the story never once stayed into the grave yard of cheesiness.

The basic story has Seven along with Voyager tracking an energy signature via local folk lore of a "wizard" who could transport vast distances, tempting certainly but what they find is quite surprising and more so when faced with no option Seven gets herself flung in her distant past and to a place where a certain Starship Enterprise is in orbit conducting a secretive diplomatic meeting the goal of which is to reduce the influence of the Orion syndicate in that region of space. What comes next is a race across the galaxy and the timescape to solve an aeons old mystery while dealing with a Federation Ambassador who as they do causes all sorts of problems and a determined Orion Captain and crew who see Seven as a valuable resource to be sold to any interested parties with resources to spend for access to knowledge from the future.

It was great fun seeing the crew of the original Enterprise having to deal with another time traveller, more so because in our minds we know Seven and we know Kirk and well you know but thankfully that is never an issue and it's the puzzles and adventure that really pays off. I really enjoy getting more of a taste of the worlds visited in the original tv series especially Cheron (Let That Be Your Last Battlefield) and we see the world as it was before it's fall when the civil war was in full flow leading to the tragic events which left it a barren and dead world.

I can highly recommend the novel for fans of the original series, less so for Voyager folk as it seems the love of Seven isn't universal but if you are even considering Trek then Greg has a winner as shown by the books performance on the sales charts when it was released. 

Greg's Official Site

Literary Trek 54 (Greg Cox Interview)

Amazon US and UK

Fringe Season Five

The fifth and final season of Fringe was in doubt for quite a while although John Noble went on record as saying he had no doubts since as a story teller it made no sense not to allow the show to wrap up the narrative. FOX for once did the right thing and gave the show 13 episodes which begin their run on September 28th 2012 and the finale aired January 18th 2013 (FOX in the USA).
The whole story takes place in the future of Earth during the year 2036 after The Observers had taken over, this world was first seen in the season four episode Letters of Transit and as we know thanks to being Ambered the original Fringe team were then able to pick up their lives and battle against the invaders. Walter had a master plan thanks to his relationship with September but after that collapses a second plan is revealed as Walter left instructions recorded on tape which are recovered bit by bit from the old lab in Harvard. Many of the episodes cover the search for pieces and elements of this second plan including such things as a mineral, a magnet and in a huge call back the young boy first discovered in the first season episode Inner Child. In fact this whole season rewards the long terms fans of the show by bringing together a lot of elements seen in the show so far both in very specific terms and some a little more vague but that's half the fun spotting the them just as we did looking for the Observers in earlier episodes. It was great to see the Fringe technology being used to strike back at the invaders and almost frightening to see what Walter was truly capable of by building a antimatter weapon in a matter of minutes which vaporises a building or creating a pocket universe but we've always know he really was the dangerous one.

The highlight of the season for me was Etta played by Georgina Haig who really was the child of Olivia and Peter bringing the intelligence and passion we've seen from both her parents, it was also a short lived appearance but as we know in Fringe and time travel stories death isn't always permanent.

The final season was written and planned out in advance to maximise the time and budget and as we know it's not always easy to create a conclusion to a long running series (genre or not) that will be acceptable to everyone but I think by and large this was achieved by the writers of Fringe. Of course anyone that has watched scifi and time travel stories knows in their bones that the only way to defeat a time traveller is by time manipulation and thus we get the happy ending based on what we knew from the early seasons of the show. Yes we lost many characters along the way some of them brave and courageous and some of them even came back by via alternate universes/timeline but ultimately the shows underlying theme of love wins the day with a little help.

It's the love of a parent for a child which sets everything in motion and it's that same emotion that drives the events and ultimately provides the solution albeit not in a straight forward manner.

Favourite Episodes...

• "The Bullet That Saved the World"
• "Black Blotter"
• "Liberty"
• "An Enemy of Fate"

Truth be told that really don't miss the mark with the final season episodes, the planning and fine tuning of the scripts allowed for perfect use of resources and story telling to provide us with a great spectacle.

My rewatch of the show has been very satisfying, it really does add to the experience to watch the show at pace and you do lose that monster of the week feel by watching episodes quickly, it doesn't hurt that it's easier to keep track of plot elements and call backs with less time between seasons:)

The Blu-ray boxset is excellent quality, good picture quality, very good audio and a fair amount of extras but there's always room for more commentaries:)

Star Trek Enterprise Marathon Part 20

Star Trek Enterprise Marathon Part 20
Season 3 Disk 6

E²
A dangerous short cut leads to a temporal fracture which throws the Enterprise back
over a century and eventually the two ships once again meet each other, the descendants
of the original crew failed to stop the Xindi attack but offer their help to but ultimately are
willing to sacrifice the original Enterprise.
A top notch episode with time travel and cause and effect in play which all seem to be side
stepped these days with the alternate timeline/dimension but here it's good old fashioned
cause and effect. There is a lot of humour and drama to be had as we discover who paired
with who and the advances in technology and new aliens on board the old ship but it's
T'Pol whose still alive who holds the key to the future despite the misgivings of her own son.

The Council
Archer finally gets to address the Xindi council and offers up the evidence they have
gathered from both the attacks on Earth and the sphere builders, some of the council
are willing to listen but others are too eager to embrace the promises made by the builders
and the power that they belive will come with it. As Archer pleads with the Council a strike
team is sent to a sphere to gather more evidence but before any resolution is reached Degra
becomes the victim of his own beliefs.
Another very good episode as the story builds to it's conclusion, everything is being
ramped up as the Xindi begin to doubt the word of the sphere builders but the Reptilians
and Insectoids the most aggressive of the species break away, no doubt in their mind.

Countdown
Hoshi is tortured by the Reptilians in the hopes she will be able to break the encryption
on the weapon which would allow it to be launched without the consensus required but
a rescue mission is launched with the MACO's
suffering casualties. The friendly Xindi finally throw in with the humans and engage the
Rep/Insect fleet but the sphere builders interfere creating anomalies which cause devastation
amongst the allies. Again another solid episode with spectacular space combat and one on
one fighting as the MACO's storm the weapon but as with all good stories the bad guys
escape and we go down to the wire.

Zero Hour
Archer and a few of his crew on board Degra's former ship chase down the weapon
and are joined by Shran and his warship, once again Archers decisions to do the right
thing is paying off in spades but they are all still relying on the ENterprise to destory the
focal sphere in the network. If they can destory Sphere 41 then the whole chain will collapse
and maybe the Expanse will cease to be but the risk is huge, wait too long and everyone on
board the ship will be dead. Meanwhile Daniels pays Archer a visit and shows him the birth
of the Federation which requires Archer to be part of it's inception but he fails to convince
Archer not to sacrifice his life in the attempt to destroy the weapon.
When the dust settles the Enterprise is returned to Earth via one of the Aquatic ships to be
told that Archer did not survive but upon approaching the Earth they find a sky void of
satellites and communications and then a shuttle is attacked by prop drive fighters, something
has disrupted the timeline.

What an absolutely fantastic batch of episodes to wrap up the Xindi story arc, it has been
a wonderful example of serialised story telling and while there were one or two clunkers
mostly when trying to do a standalone episode everyone involved should be proud of the
work they have done.

Disk 7
Lots of Extras

The Xindi Saga Begins
Enterprise Moments
Connor Trinneer (Profile)
Roxann Dawson (A Day in the Life)
Outtakes
Behind the Camera (Marvin Rush)
Enterprise Secrets
Commentaries
Deleted Scenes

Star Trek Enterprise Marathon Part 7

Star Trek Enterprise Marathon Part 7

Season 1 Disk 7

Two Days Two Nights
The Enterprise finally makes to Risa and guess what, only a select few are allowed down
well at least for the purposes of this episode and they are all the first watch, handy that.
Ok Trip and Malcolm go clubbing with mixed results, Hoshi is pretty much the people
person and ends up having well lets say she was quite satisfied and as for Archer well
it must be a Captain thing, go on holiday and get involved in conspiracy and intrigue
with Keyla ( Dey Young ).
This was meant as pretty much a fun episode but everything was a little too forced, I
don't think any of the writers involved specialised in humour yet they did ok with
Shuttlepod One. On the upside Phlox delivers once again, the Doctor saves the episode
which isn't the first or last time and not just in Enterprise.
I suppose credit for keeping the Risa element of a few episodes ongoing at least creates
some continuity but maybe Trek as a whole should stay well clear of the world,
they never really know how to handle it.

Shockwave Part 1
The ship visits a Paraagan mining colony and tragedy strikes as the shuttle ignites
pollutants in the atmosphere and it flash burns scouring the surface of all life.
Racked with guilt when they call from Earth with a push from the Vulcans to return
the ship and end the mission Archer willingly complies until a visit once again from
the temporal Agent Daniels who informs him the colony was never meant to burn.
It turns out other factions had engineered the destruction and changed the time line
to remove Archer and the Enterprise from the equation but even more events are
occurring as Silik ( John fleck ) demands Archers surrender to him and then vanishes.
Shockwave was a pretty decent season finale, good cliffhanger you know will be
resolved but maybe a little more shock factor would have been welcome. Daniels
proves killing a time traveller in one time stream isn't always the complete solution
you would think it would be but hey that's temporal mechanics for ya:)

Extras
Creating Enterprise
O Captain My Captain
Cast Impressions
Inside Shuttlepod One
Time Travel
Enterprise Secrets
Admiral Forrest Takes Charge
Outtakes
Celebrating Star Trek
Commentaries (Voice and Text)
Deleted Scenes

Enterprise is my second favourite Star Trek show and the first season while not the
best is really strong for a Trek series. If I was to pick an episode as an example of
the best of season 1 it may be "The Andorian Incident" because it really make good
use of the Andorians which were not fleshed out in any other series against the Vulcans
who were showing both faces long suspected by Starfleet.
There are some weak episodes as well but I didn't feel the need to skip any on this
re-watch but there a few I would never cherry pick to watch again but still a strong
first season of Enterprise.

Check out the Star Trek Enterprise themed podcast "Previously in the Alpha Quadrant"
which is part of the Trek Mate family of Trek productions.