V’Ger related books

[Therin of Andor]

I read it a few years ago. I liked the characterizations and I liked how Ensign what’s his name was expanded on...

Billy Van Zandt (right) as the Rhaandarite Ensign Vaylin Zaand by Ian McLean, on Flickr

I also like how Christopher's work on the Rhaandarite species in "Ex Machina" led to us seeing quite a few more in novels over recent years.

 

[David cgc]

The Body Electric?

I feel like it's a little weird that this novel hasn't come up in the thread beyond this one quick mention but, to elaborate, the titular Body Electric is the machine civilization that found Voyager VI and turned it into V'Ger (well, set it on the path to becoming V'Ger, if Kirk's supposition about its development is correct), and that novel has the most detail on what their whole deal is of anything in off-screen Trek (aside, I suppose, from "The Return," but that book supposes that the Borg were the machine civilization that the probe encountered, and handwaves away the issue that the Borg as we know them would either assimilate Voyager, or disregard it as too primitive to be worth their time, and not do something as altruistic as to plug it into a giant spaceship to return-to-sender).

 

[DonIago]

^Okay, I got a good laugh from "Return to Sender".

 

[Christopher]

(aside, I suppose, from "The Return," but that book supposes that the Borg were the machine civilization that the probe encountered, and handwaves away the issue that the Borg as we know them would either assimilate Voyager, or disregard it as too primitive to be worth their time, and not do something as altruistic as to plug it into a giant spaceship to return-to-sender)

IIRC, The Return tried to rationalize its V-Ger/Borg link despite the massive contradictions between the two by postulating that there were several separate, independent branches of Borg that had different attributes and weren't in contact with each other -- which is silly, because in that case, why even bother to postulate a link at all? I get the impression that Shatner wanted to link the two (perhaps because Roddenberry suggested it) while the Reeves-Stevenses recognized that they just didn't go together and tried to fudge it as best they could.

 

[EnriqueH]

Billy Van Zandt (right) as the Rhaandarite Ensign Vaylin Zaand by Ian McLean, on Flickr

I also like how Christopher's work on the Rhaandarite species in "Ex Machina" led to us seeing quite a few more in novels over recent years.

did that female officer have a name? I liked how involved and passionate she seemed “What’s the problem...blah blah”

 

[Christopher]

did that female officer have a name? I liked how involved and passionate she seemed “What’s the problem...blah blah”

Not in the movie, but in my post-TMP continuity, she's Reiko Onami, a xenopsychologist. She returns in my upcoming The Higher Frontier.

 

[EnriqueH]

Not in the movie, but in my post-TMP continuity, she's Reiko Onami, a xenopsychologist. She returns in my upcoming The Higher Frontier.

Kickass. When is the release date?

 

[Christopher]

When is the release date?

March 10.

 

[tomswift2002]

I’m surprised no one’s mentioned it, but the TMP novelization is probably the top book for V’Ger. And it was just reprinted for TMP’s 40th anniversary.

 

[Reanok]

I've been looking forward to getting this book I like stories that place during the Star trek Tos movie era.

 

[Therin of Andor]

did that female officer have a name? I liked how involved and passionate she seemed “What’s the problem...blah blah”

In real life, Momo Yashima was the featured child character in a notable children's picture book, "Momo's Kitten", written by her parents!


Momo's Kitten by Mitsu & Taro Yashima by Ian McLean, on Flickr

 

[Christopher]

In real life, Momo Yashima was the featured child character in a notable children's picture book, "Momo's Kitten", written by her parents!

And she was the sister of the gravelly-voiced actor Mako Iwamatsu (better known as just Mako). Interesting story there: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taro_Yashima#Early_life

Iwamatsu was born September 21, 1908, in Nejime, Kimotsuki District, Kagoshima, and raised there on the southern coast of Kyushu. His father was a country doctor who collected oriental art and encouraged art in his son. After studying for three years at the Imperial Art Academy in Tokyo, Iwamatsu was expelled for insubordination and missing a military drill. He then joined a group of progressive artists, sympathetic to the struggles of ordinary workers and opposed to the rise of Japanese militarism. The antimilitarist movement in Japan was highly active at the time within many professional groups and crafts, and artists' posters protesting the Japanese aggression in China were widespread. Following the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, however, the Japanese government began heavy handed suppression of domestic dissent including the use of arrests and torture by the Tokkō (Special Higher Police).

Both Iwamatsu and his pregnant wife, Tomoe, were imprisoned and brutalized for their opposition to the militaristic government. In 1939, they left Japan for the United States so Iwamatsu could avoid conscription into the Japanese Army and to study art, leaving behind their son Mako (born 1933). After Pearl Harbor, Iwamatsu joined the U.S. Army and went to work as an artist for the United States Office of War Information (OWI) and, later, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). It was then that he first used the pseudonym Taro Yashima, out of fear there would be repercussions for Mako and other family members if the Japanese government knew of his employment. After the war, he and his wife were granted permanent resident status by an act of the U.S. Congress. Soon after they had their second child, Momo, while living in New York City. Iwamatsu was able to return to Japan and collect Mako in 1949.

 

[EnriqueH]

I’m surprised no one’s mentioned it, but the TMP novelization is probably the top book for V’Ger. And it was just reprinted for TMP’s 40th anniversary.

That’s cheating