Vanguard: Storming Heaven

Storming Heaven by David Mack wraps up the epic Star Trek series, Vanguard.  Set in the far reaches of explored space, this series has traced the adventures of the crew of Station 47 (Vanguard) and their struggles with the mysterious and powerful Shedai. The back copy promises an explosive conclusion, and Mack delivers. One of my favourite parts of reading novels by the newish crop of writers (over this past almost decade) is not just the great storytelling, but the Easter eggs. I won't give them away, but if you're a fan of The Big Bang Theory or the works of Joss Whedon, you'll have a few "squee!" moments.

Episode night ( Thinkgeek to my rescue)

Last night was episode night with the USS Thermopylae;ae. We weren't filming an episode ( which is really too bad because we had some really fun times) ; but rather LARPing where not everyone knew what was happening. try ad-libbing that.
Not the only thing I had to ad-lib. As I was getting dressed, and my husband was zipping up my skant for me, I noticed something white on the front that looked like the adhesive left behind when you wash something with a sticker on it. Which I would never do with costuming. When I tried to scratch it off, my finger went through! NO clue what it was- my skant was poplin so not moths. There are several spots like that, so it's ruined. Brian said that might mean it's time to get me one with nicer fabric- I said only if he paid for it.

But all was not lost. Luckily I was able to pull out my TOS Dress from Thinkgeek . Submitted for your amusement, some photos from the event :

There were a few things that made pulling off Vulcan hard for me. First, as you can see, I need waaay better ears ( add that to the very long wish list). Second, pot roast. Third, the chicken. Don't ask about the chicken. You had to be there. Fourth, PEOPLE KEPT MAKING ME LAUGH! And last of all, on the way home, The Ramones. I think I'm very far from the Path of Kohlinar.

Book: TOS: Inception by SD Perry and Britta Dennison

Before they were stationed aboard the Enterprise, Captain Kirk and Mr Spock met two brilliant women who would gain their own places in Trek history. While their relationships with Dr Carol Marcus and Leila Kalomi took different paths...with very different consequences- there is no doubt that these relationships affected them and their futures deeply. Perry and Dennison's book brings the two scientists together as colleagues. This book meets my current standard of needing to be a fast read. Enjoyable!

ENT: Harbinger

The Enterprise rescues and alien caught in a spatial anomaly. The alien appears to be dying when he is brought aboard, but it soon becomes evident that those who has placed his ship in the anomaly had sinister purposes.

ENT: Strategem

Stratagem opens with a scruffy looking Captain Archer in a shuttle with an equally scruffy Xindi Primate, Degra. It soon becomes apparent that Archer is not actually fleeing a Xindi prison camp, but has set up an elaborate ruse to get information out of Degra. While they do not get quite the information they wanted, they do get one step closer to their goals.

ST Mirror Universe: The Sorrows of Empire

Combining short stories from previous Mirror Universe collections and weaving them into a cohesive whole, The book by David Mack looks at the question of "Our Universe's crew exposed the logical Mirror Universe Spock to dangerous concepts; what did he do with them?". Starting with Spock's inevitable assassination of Captain Kirk and ending with slightly after his death, this is a must read for anyone who thinks the Mirror Universe is much cooler.

ENT: Chosen Realm, Proving Ground

In Chosen Realm, the Enterrpise meets a ship full of aliens who worship the Xindi spheres. While helping them repair their ship at first seems a way to get much needed information about the spheres, it drags the Enterprise into an internecine war. Nice use of "Let's fake an execution with the transporter".
Proving Ground has some familiar characters joining the Enterprise in Xindi space. General Shran has taken advantage of the Andorian's superior warp capability to catch up to the Enterprise, ostensibly to offer assistance. In the end, it is of course revealed that the Andorians had an ulterior motive.

IDW- Best of Star Trek:DS9

A collection of Deep Space 9 comics from early in the series run. The first story arc has the station taken over by fast growing green mold. (Something you could get here in the PNW without having to travel to the edge of the quadrant). The second story has the crew of DS9 placed in the middle of a Prime Directive straining situation between slavers and slave...whom I have to say have very creepy split forearms. Bonus is an 8 page "ashcan" story where a Klingon prison ship places Dr Bashir in Danger.

Book: TNG: Breaking the Peace

In the wake of the Borg incursion into Fedration territory, planets are left devestated, familes torn apart, and billions of beings displaced. The USS Enterprise has been tasked with patrolling the near Earth vicinity, doing whatever is needed to find the lost and alleviate suffering. Doctor Crusher has been asked to go to the ocean world of Pacifica, which escaped Borg attack but has taken in a large number of refugees. This book was fastpaced despite the lack of "action"- perhaps my timely reading of it made the book more poignant. We learn things about the families and loved ones of minor characters that we hadn't known before.

Book:ENT: The Romulan War: Under the Raptor's Wing.

This book is written by Micheal A Martin, who usually collaborates with Andy Mangels, and whose collaborations I usually love. Under the Raptor's Wing, however, I found very slow. I had to renew it in order to finish it, and it was the only book I was reading. Along with the slowly advancing plot it tries- too hard sometimes- to integrate "future" Trek with the past it has created- such as Tobin Dax, and a slew of Romulans named after "future" ships. The main reason I finished the book was because I do not want to be wondering what is going on when the next book comes out.

ENT: Carpenter Street

Daniels appears and sends Archer and T'Pol back to Detroit in 2004. A blood bank worker, under the unknowing employ of the Xindi reptilians, has been kidnapping one person of every blood type so they might use them to synthesise a bio weapon. Archer and T'Pol must navigate an unfamiliar time period and stop the Xindi before they release their weapon into the past.

Book: VOY: Unworthy by Kristen Beyer

The Delta fleet has launched with it's newly installed slipstream drive. However, many of the prominent figures on the expedition have closely held secrets- including Commander Tom Paris. How will these secrets affect first contact with a new symbiotic species group, and how will Seven' mental health be affected by that first contact?

Episode: ENT: Similtude

An engineering experiment gone awry leaves Trip with incurable brain damage. Phlox proposes and unorthodox treatment: growing a fast growing symbiont to provide needed neural tissue. Ethics are brought into question when it's discovered that, contrary to Phlox's original assessment, the symbiont would have to die to save Trip's life. The resolution of this story left me with a bad taste in my mouth (spoilers follow). It's as if you had a kid with two bad kidneys, decided to have another kid and donate his kidney, and when he is born with only one good kidney say "Sorry kid. The only reason we had you was to give Big Sib your kidney. Yoink!"

Book: Titan: Synthesis by James Swallow

Having left the water world Droplet, with one more soul aboard, Titan comes upon a binary system that is populated by sentient machines. The machines are fighting subspace incursions, and t=when the genesis of the incursions is revealed, so is the genesis of the machines. The book ends with the question unanswered as to whether Titan has gained another crew member or not.

ENT: Shipment, Twilight, North Star

In Shipment, the Enterpirse has followed the lead of Psychic Stalker Alien to a planet with a ketracite production facility which provided the fuel for the weapons both lainched and preparing to be launched against Earth. However, when Archer learns that the colonists had no idea what the ketracite was being used for, he has to learn to trust Xindi.
Twilight begins with Captain Archer waking up, shocked to find himself in Forks, WA , surrounded by vampires who.....oops- to find himself on an unknown planet, with T'Pol making him breakfast. In the course of her narrative, he discovers that 12 years previously he had been infected by parasites that prevented him from forming any new short term memories, the Xindi had destroyed most of humanity, the rag tag fugitive fleet of surviving humans had relocated to...Ceti Alpha V! You know that of course, before the end of the episode they find a way to restore history to what had been.
I can see the planning meetings for North Star. "What if we had some humans who had relocated far away from Earth, and lived like cowboys? Then we'd have...Firef...and episode of Enterprise!" Enough said.

ENT: Exile

Hoshi, alone in her quarters, hears a strange voice calling to her. At the same time, T'Pol has found evidence of another sphere in the Expanse. The voice continues to haunt Hoshi, and soon takes control of her consoles too. Hoshi tells Archer she feels compelled to find the s
trange telepathic alien who is calling to her, but he is only convinced when the alien promises information about the Xindi. The alien turns out to be an exile from his people, who fear telepaths. Of course, he is not so eager to let Hoshi go. She is returned safely, and T'Pol makes a shocking discovery about the Expanse spheres.

ENT: Impulse

The Enterprise receives a distress call from a Vulcan ship formerly lost in the Expanse. When the landing party arrives, they discover they have walked into a Romero like setting of crazy, pustulant Vulcans. As their Night of the living Vulcans continues, Phlox discovers the Vulcan madness is caused by Trellium D, the only substance which can shield the ship from the Expanse's anomalies. The episode ends with Archer assuring T'Pol they will find a way to shield the ship AND keep her sane.

ENT: Rajiin

In Our Mrs Archer, the search for both the elusive Xindi and and anomaly shielding trellium D brings the Enterprise to a trading post, where Trip gets a formula for trellium D and Archer gains a mysterious slave woman. As Trip and T'Pol heat up the shielding formula ( among other things) we learn that Saff....Rajiin has more to her than meets the eye.

TOS: Return of the Archons, Space Seed

In Return of the Archons, the Enterprise is sent to investigate the disappearance of a Starship crew. Aside from being another one of Roddenberry's thinly veiled attacks on religious thought (your god is a computer, see!), it recycles the classic "Kirk blinds the computer with illogic' plot twist.

Space Seed is THE classic TOS episode. Even my non Trekkie grandma would watch that one ( no reason to ask why). A wonderful episode with a wonderful actor, which spawned ( in this re viewer's opinion) the best of the Star Trek movies.

ENT:Extinction

While still on the search for the Xindi, the crew sends an away team to an uninhabited planet. Soon after landing, all of the party but T'Pol begin to change. While Phlox tries to discern the best way to deal with the issue, an alien ship and threatens to destroy the Enterprises infected crew members. The aliens are instructive however as the Enterprise crew learn that the planet's long gone inhabitants, the Louque'que, had become sterile and in a bid to avoid extinction, introduced a mutagenic virus into the planet's atmosphere that turned other humanoids into members of their race. Naturally they are able to retrieve their crew without any losses, while sending a cure along with the aliens.