This series continues to entertain. The move to NYC helps refresh things a bit, and the constant parade of background horror movie characters (and multiple Ghostfaces) thanks to the Halloween weekend setting was consistently amusing. I think the shrine was a bit of a stretch—even buying the handwave-y explanation given, it’s not like all that stuff came from a lot of different places and so wouldn’t be easily missed when it disappeared—but admittedly, it did make for a fun set piece for the final showdown. All in all, another enjoyable entry to a series (sorry, franchise) that started strong and even in its weaker moments is still pretty consistently entertaining.
TV And Films
The shows and movies I like (or don’t).
Year 50 Day 12
Day 12: Showing off a small portion of my Star Trek shelves, including books, a Worf notLego, a Spock teddy bear, and several Micro Machines ships from the TOS and TNG eras.
📚 Cast No Shadow by James Swallow
24/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Set seven years after the events of Star Trek VI, this does a good job of fleshing out Valeris and exploring the motivations and rationale behind her actions. It also follows up on some of the practical and political fallout for the Klingon empire of the events in the film. Definitely one of the stronger Trek novels I’ve read.
🎥 Confess, Fletch
Confess, Fletch (2022): ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Not having seen the prior Fletch films, I can’t compare Jon Hamm to Chevy Chase, but this was amusing and enjoyable. Hamm’s ongoing incredulous bemusement at the situations he’s in works quite well.
🎥 Bodies Bodies Bodies
Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022): ⭐️⭐️⭐️
An entertaining-in-the-moment but oddly paced and ultimately forgettable take on the classic “country manor house murder” mystery. Lee Pace’s involvement was a pleasant surprise, though.
📚 A Choice of Catastrophes by Michael Schuster and Steve Mollmann
22/2023 – ⭐️⭐️
Much of the story focuses on McCoy being forced to deal self-doubt driven by his past mistakes. While it’s meant to be an exploration into McCoy’s psyche and history, it ended up just kind of dragging on and getting monotonous.
🎥 Cocaine Bear
Cocaine Bear (2023): ⭐️⭐️⭐️: Exactly what it says it will be, exactly what you think it’s going to be, and exactly what we wanted for a lazy Saturday afternoon. The only thing I didn’t like was how underlit the climactic 10 minutes were (I swear movies used to have scenes at night that you could actually see). But aside from that, it’s an ideal 90 minutes of ridiculous characters getting mauled by a bear high on cocaine.
📚 The High Country by John Jackson Miller
16/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A fun, light romp of an adventure, rather perfect for the first Strange New Worlds book. Several Enterprise crew are stranded on a world where electronics don’t work and technology is tightly controlled. This results in a mishmash of the Wild West, mountainside castles, tall ships, mysterious aurora, and steampunk-ish clockwork creations. All with a welcome dash of humor throughout. I enjoyed this one a lot.
📚 Line of Fire by Peter David
4/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A short, YA story following Worf at Starfleet Academy. It feels like the first three books (of which this is the middle book) were written as a full-length (~300 page) book and then split into thirds; it references events from its predecessor, and ends with a “To be continued…”. This is the first of this series of Trek books I’d come across, and while not being a full story, it’s fine for what it is.
Really, the weirdest part is that the primary Starfleet Academy instructor is a Professor Trump. Rather unfortunate choice of character name, that one.
📚 The Children of Kings by David Stern
3/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A pre-TOS adventure with Captain Pike just a few months into his captaincy of the Enterprise with Spock and Number One under his command. A Klingon/Orion/Starfleet dustup gets a little confusing trying to keep track of the players and motivations, with a somewhat out-of-left-field twist at the end that seemed a little too convenient for my tastes.
One amusing bit: The author’s endnote indicates that he thought of this as something of a prequel to the 2009 Star Trek rebook (so still in the Prime universe), though he still pictured Jeffrey Hunter as Pike rather than Bruce Greenwood; meanwhile, having recently enjoyed the first season of Strange New Worlds, I found myself more often picturing Anson Mount as Pike. The more actors we have inhabiting key roles, the more the mental visualizations start to shift as you read, I guess.
