Spoilers TNG: The Body Electric by David Mack Review Thread

Exactly!! We'll see Data again, no doubt. But hopefully not as a Starfleet officer, if you ask me.

 

Or if he does return to Starfleet, he should be captain with his own ship. We'll get to see his command style suffusing the ship.

 

It just occurred to me -- The Body Electric is the ultimate TNG novel. Data at center stage, Picard being stuffy... and Wesley saves the Universe by being obnoxiously smarter than everyone else, even the Body.

 

I think there have got to be more imaginative directions to take Data than just to make him the umpteenth Starfleet captain.

 

Couldn't agree more. This book was my least favorite of the trilogy but I give it high marks for ending with Data doing his own thing and not immediately re-joining Star Fleet.

 

THIS!! A HUNDRED TIMES THIS!!!!

 

Somebody upthread asked if Ensign Scagliotti,the shuttle pilot had been rescued.
Taurik's conversation with Chen(page 211)seems to confirm that she was rescued.

BTW,if I never again read anything more about Chen's love life it will be too soon.

 

Because characters should be written as flat, two-dimensional constructs without complete emotional lives?

 

Hey,were you on the writing staff of Enterprise?

 

I'm sympathetic to flandry84's view; it felt like a bit much of her. (Lasting the whole book? Really?) I would've just as soon had those scenes devoted to Geordi's love-life, honestly. A little Trys goes a long way.

 

No, I think the Trys/Taurik arc required some resolution. They introduced this arc four years ago after Destiny -- time for Taurik and Trys to commit to either being friends or lovers one way or the other. I was glad for the focus it got.

I do, however, want to see more about Trys's professional growth and development. We got a bit of this in Book II when she stared down the Atlas and the Gorn while left in command of the Enterprise; I hope they build on this as TNG progresses.

 

Agreed. That scene of her on the bridge was phenomenal. I want to see more of that Trys! And more of Trys in any case. Am I one of the few readers who really likes her character?

 

As much as I'm a big fan of Chen, even I found her story-line in the third novel a bit tiresome.
She was amazing in book 2, I want to see more of that Chen!

 

I thought that given the machines connection to V'ger and Spock's mind-meld with both V'ger and Picard,that the captain would have had just a teensy more insight into the machines motivations(or is that too tenous?)

 

Double agreed. This was the first time I've really enjoyed Chen's character. Previously she has just come across as Blossom in space to me...I had even had visions of her dancing to 'My Opinionation' with Picard, Worf, and Geordi in sequence (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4l0BS3RPvc).
I definitely wan more Silent Weapons Chen, but she did not really bother me in book three as she did some folks.

I also really liked that Elfiki got some spotlight time in the second half of the series. Actually, as a department head, wouldn't she have been the senior officer on deck during the Atlas showdown?

 

That detail was addressed by Chen's internal-monologue observation that her turn at conn was due in part to "Picardian whimsy."

 

I really did not need an image of Blossom in Trek.

 

My review of the novel:

http://unreality-sf.net/2013/02/12/star-trek-cold-equations-the-body-electric-review/

The weakest of the trilogy IMO, but still good.

 

That would be me that asked. Thanks.

And I don't feel bad for missing this.

Yeah, that was easy to overlook.