• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Spoilers Picard Autobiography by David Goodman - Discussion and Review Thread

Please rate the Picard Autobiography by David Goodman

  • Excellent

    Votes: 5 29.4%
  • Above Average

    Votes: 3 17.6%
  • Average

    Votes: 4 23.5%
  • Below Average

    Votes: 1 5.9%
  • Poor

    Votes: 4 23.5%

  • Total voters
    17
Though I do have a pre-order in and will likely find out soon enough anyway, I'll ask the question here regardless. Does this book have an insert of pictures in the middle like the Kirk Autobiography did?
 
Does this book have an insert of pictures in the middle like the Kirk Autobiography did?
Yes!

Jean-Luc and Robert as little kids
Picard with hair next to Jack Crusher
Picard at graduation (not looking like Shinzon)
Stargazer
Enterprise-D team posed at the poker table
Picard with Samuel Clemens, aged photo - found 1962 in Clemens' possesions
"Shadows of Kataan" lecture poster, unused. [Picard with flute]
X-Ray of Locutus' skull
Intelligence report of Picard's capture by Cardassians
Wedding intivation: Jean-Luc and Beverly
"Recent" bearded Picard next to Season 3 painted portrait.
 
I don't hate TFF as much most people, but I still loved that bit in the Kirk autobiography.
 
I just started reading it and I think I saw a major typo. Well maybe. In describing Picard's family history there is mention of a World War in the 22nd Century. France was invaded by genetically engineered John Ericsson. Goodman could have intentionally changed things but his own History of the Federation book placed the Eugenics Wars in the 1990s and World War III in the 21st Century.
 
My only problem with that book was the diss of The Final Frontier.

That's fair enough. It's one thing to work around canon events with a jab or two, as was done with TATV (and even that was a little snide for my liking). To purport to erase them altogether is remarkable. I'm surprised that was permitted.
 
I just started reading it and I think I saw a major typo. Well maybe. In describing Picard's family history there is mention of a World War in the 22nd Century. France was invaded by genetically engineered John Ericsson. Goodman could have intentionally changed things but his own History of the Federation book placed the Eugenics Wars in the 1990s and World War III in the 21st Century.

Interesting. Could there have been another conflict after 2063? Would maybe partly explain the Tribunals of 2079, mentioned in "Encounter at Farpoint".
 
Could there have been another conflict after 2063? Would maybe partly explain the Tribunals of 2079, mentioned in "Encounter at Farpoint".

The idea there was that the aftermath of WWIII in mid-century left much of the world in ruins and chaos for the next few decades, and that it took time to rebuild a more enlightened, peaceful civilization out of the wreckage. I think that what Roddenberry had in mind for the latter half of the 21st century in TNG was much like the way he portrayed the early 22nd century in his Genesis II/Planet Earth pilots -- the world "cleansed" by nuclear war and an enlightened group working to reunite the surviving cultures and start over with a new, more peaceful society.

But the idea of a 22nd-century war on Earth is irreconcilable with a lot of canon. That must've been a typo, or an ill-considered attempt to rationalize the erroneous line in "Doctor Bashir, I Presume" about the Eugenics Wars being 200 years earlier.
 
Finished this last night and enjoyed it as much as the earlier Kirk bio and Federation history. I really hope Goodman has more in store for us at some point. Ben Sisko autobio maybe?

One nit on the Picard book - there is an errant footnote that shows up early on that seems to have transported itself from the Kirk autobio somehow.
 
But the idea of a 22nd-century war on Earth is irreconcilable with a lot of canon. That must've been a typo, or an ill-considered attempt to rationalize the erroneous line in "Doctor Bashir, I Presume" about the Eugenics Wars being 200 years earlier.
Yup, and even Ronald D. Moore himself admitted to the goof-up:
"This is my personal screw-up. When I was writing that speech, I was thinking about Khan and somehow his dialog from 'Wrath' started floating through my brain: 'On Earth... 200 years ago... I was a Prince...' The number 200 just stuck in my head and I put it in the script without making the necessary adjustment for the fact that 'Wrath' took place almost a hundred years prior to 'Dr. Bashir.' I wrote it, I get the blame." (AOL chat, 1997)
 
Last edited:
I would like to see Goodman write a regular Trek novel. He's a good writer, and he seems to have a pretty good handle on the franchise.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top