IIRC they also shot The Matrix Reloaded highway chase scene there.
Spoilers TOS: Lost to Eternity by Greg Cox Review Thread
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I've now reached the point where "the hunted" knows Kirk is on his trail. And things are starting to seem vaguely familiar to both Kirk and Saavik.
As soon as I saw the premise of the novel, I was excited to see a contemporary cold-case reinvestigation of the events of TVH from an outsider perspective. And it definitely delivered, along with the TOS and movie-era plotlines (the movie-era being a favorite of mine that I don't think has gotten enough love since it stopped being the "present day"). Some idle thoughts I noted down as I read the book.
I'm curious about the May 5th-6th date for TVH. Double-checking my memory, the newspaper they can't buy at the beginning places it at December 18-19, while the pawn shop receipt dates it to August 18-19. Just throwing a metaphorical dart at the board, or was there something in the movie that said "May"?
I never really thought about it, but there should've been two depressions in the park. There probably were, and the camera angles just showed one of them to make life easier on the production.
I caught the reference to the garbage man having been a struggling writer in the novelization, though the idea that he and his partner were running lines for a play rather than actually talking about their relationship troubles feels in retrospect a little like Vonda McIntyre (nice shout-out, BTW) walked so Diane Carey could really stick it to Jonathan Archer in his own internal monologue.
The part about the planet having a reversed rotation causing the sun to rise in the west and set in the east also ended up confusing me, because I thought north, south, east, and west were defined by the planet's rotation, so the sun would still rise in the east, but it would rotate counterclockwise around its sun viewed from the planet's north.
Some nice specificity about the Enterprise-A, mentioning the TFF lounge at the front of the saucer (though when it was mentioned at the end as just "the observation lounge," I assumed at first they were in the dining room from TUC, which is probably where the observation lounge was on the later Enterprises, behind the bridge), and the quick mention of the clocks on the bridge ticking away near the end.
I liked seeing some of the memorable background characters from TVH, like the young nuns who were part of the tour group. I started to wonder if the police detective was a background character, too, but I didn't place him as easily as the nun, the garbage man, and the FBI agent. I haven't checked, but is the reference to the nun having been a model and being in a beer commercial a reference to the actress's other gigs?
It's a little bittersweet that the novel mentions the real-world rebounding of the humpback whale population, even though they'll still end up extinct by the 23rd century. Probably one of many ecological casualties of World War III, but I guess it's a good reminder that good deeds are never one-and-done, and saving the world is a full-time job.
I've only seen Chorn in two scenes, but if anything happened to him, I'd freeze everyone here in tubes and then myself.
Small typo, when Kirk and McCoy are being held hostage in the TOS segment, the Klingon's disruptor is referred to as a Romulan weapon. I have the eBook, so since "page 332" is a little useless, the full sentence is "Gyar aimed the disruptor at Kirk, who found himself facing the Romulan weapon for the second time in barely as many hours."
I liked the revelation that, of all the things that happened in TVH, not only was it the kidney pill that was the loose end that caused this whole sequence of events to come about, it in a way led to its own invention.
The ending was very sweet, and the moment I realized Melinda was getting frozen, I was looking forward to her actually getting to meet Gillian. I felt bad that, even mortally wounded, Dennis didn't get frozen, too, McCoy might've been able to save him, and I was sad for his off-screen long-distance girlfriend (who, IIRC, was the only really close relation of either of them that came up).
I never really thought about it, but there should've been two depressions in the park. There probably were, and the camera angles just showed one of them to make life easier on the production.
I caught the reference to the garbage man having been a struggling writer in the novelization, though the idea that he and his partner were running lines for a play rather than actually talking about their relationship troubles feels in retrospect a little like Vonda McIntyre (nice shout-out, BTW) walked so Diane Carey could really stick it to Jonathan Archer in his own internal monologue.
The part about the planet having a reversed rotation causing the sun to rise in the west and set in the east also ended up confusing me, because I thought north, south, east, and west were defined by the planet's rotation, so the sun would still rise in the east, but it would rotate counterclockwise around its sun viewed from the planet's north.
Some nice specificity about the Enterprise-A, mentioning the TFF lounge at the front of the saucer (though when it was mentioned at the end as just "the observation lounge," I assumed at first they were in the dining room from TUC, which is probably where the observation lounge was on the later Enterprises, behind the bridge), and the quick mention of the clocks on the bridge ticking away near the end.
I liked seeing some of the memorable background characters from TVH, like the young nuns who were part of the tour group. I started to wonder if the police detective was a background character, too, but I didn't place him as easily as the nun, the garbage man, and the FBI agent. I haven't checked, but is the reference to the nun having been a model and being in a beer commercial a reference to the actress's other gigs?
It's a little bittersweet that the novel mentions the real-world rebounding of the humpback whale population, even though they'll still end up extinct by the 23rd century. Probably one of many ecological casualties of World War III, but I guess it's a good reminder that good deeds are never one-and-done, and saving the world is a full-time job.
I've only seen Chorn in two scenes, but if anything happened to him, I'd freeze everyone here in tubes and then myself.
Small typo, when Kirk and McCoy are being held hostage in the TOS segment, the Klingon's disruptor is referred to as a Romulan weapon. I have the eBook, so since "page 332" is a little useless, the full sentence is "Gyar aimed the disruptor at Kirk, who found himself facing the Romulan weapon for the second time in barely as many hours."
I liked the revelation that, of all the things that happened in TVH, not only was it the kidney pill that was the loose end that caused this whole sequence of events to come about, it in a way led to its own invention.
The ending was very sweet, and the moment I realized Melinda was getting frozen, I was looking forward to her actually getting to meet Gillian. I felt bad that, even mortally wounded, Dennis didn't get frozen, too, McCoy might've been able to save him, and I was sad for his off-screen long-distance girlfriend (who, IIRC, was the only really close relation of either of them that came up).
Huh? Oh, you mean contemporary with us, rather than with the original event. Maybe "present-day" would be a less confusing word to use there.
Yes, that's correct. Since there's no absolute up or down in space, it's defined relative to the planet's rotation. The direction in which the sun rises is east by definition.
We are in complete agreement. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
At any rate, if we define North in terms of 90 degrees counterclockwise of East, looking to the nadir (or clockwise, looking to the zenith), then the cardinal points are all defined by planetary rotation.
If, on the other hand, we define North by the rotational pole closest to magnetic North (and my understanding is that Earth's magnetic field has flipped more than once in the distant past), then we could end up with cardinal points looking like most published maps of the Land of Oz, which are believed to have been the result of Baum himself copying from the wrong side of a lantern slide.
Retrograde rotation would only result in the "Oz-map" effect seen in the present opus if we're defining North in terms of the direction the planet revolves about its primary. Of course, if it has an axial tilt like Uranus, then this definition of North would be essentially meaningless.
I suddenly find myself thinking of Stephen Goldin's Trek to Madworld, in which Enowil created a planet with North, South, East, and West poles (and Kirk quietly directed Spock to ignore the absurdity thereof). As I recall, that planet had a unique sunrise.
Thanks for the detailed explanation.On the platonic thing: I confess, I went back and forth on that right up to the final draft, before FINALLY settling on platonic roommates and friends. In the end, I decided that this book was big and complicated enough without including the ups and downs of a romantic relationship as well.
But, yes, I seriously considered making Melinda and Dennis a couple, right up to practically the last minute.
As for the tech, it's not supposed to be futuristic. The 2024 of the book is meant to be the same 2024 outside our windows today -- aside from the fact that some time-travelers from the future snatched a couple of humpback whales back in the eighties
Earth's "Magnetic North Pole" is actually a south pole, which is why the north pole of a compass points to it. Obvious when you think about it.
Oh, you noticed that, too.
And we're still in complete agreement. Don't be afraid. Be
terrified!
Well, that and some more advances cryonics techniques. Didn't mind that at all because that's established in the Trek universe with Space Seed and TNG's The Neutral Zone.
What do you mean by modern lore? It’s a TOS novel, so it really only has connection to the original series and films, III a little bit and IV in particular. It’s consistent with how Savik has been written in other novels, but those aren’t really modern. You won’t have needed to read anything else to enjoy it.
Thank you.
If there were references to ENT or any of the more modern series, they were subtle enough I missed them. It’s very much a TOS book and requires nothing else to enjoy it.
There are a couple passing references to a particular ENT storyline that’s pertinent to this book, but that’s about it.
I had a lot of fun with this one. The 2024 sections do a nice job of working through how a persistent amateur sleuth might piece together the footprint the crew left in 1986, while the the 2268 and 2292 sections capture the feel of TOS episodes and the TOS movies. The balance among the storylines is just right to keep the narrative momentum. I also appreciated that the antagonists were never black-hearted or tiresomely stupid; even when they’re not rounded characters, there’s a nuance to them that fits nicely with Trek’s optimistic humanism.
Reading this one me want to reread Cox’s Khan books, or rather reread the first two and read the third for the first time, since I never got around to buying it.
I had a lot of fun with this one. The 2024 sections do a nice job of working through how a persistent amateur sleuth might piece together the footprint the crew left in 1986, while the the 2268 and 2292 sections capture the feel of TOS episodes and the TOS movies. The balance among the storylines is just right to keep the narrative momentum. I also appreciated that the antagonists were never black-hearted or tiresomely stupid; even when they’re not rounded characters, there’s a nuance to them that fits nicely with Trek’s optimistic humanism.
Reading this one me want to reread Cox’s Khan books, or rather reread the first two and read the third for the first time, since I never got around to buying it.
Thanks for the info. Nothing wrong with this being a TOS novel, kind of a reminder of what it was like with just the original Bantam novels and the early days of Pocket's foray into Trek novels.
Brendan, I'll keep my eyes open for that reference you mention. Thus far, I'm only on Page 96.
This is my first post. I just want to say thank you creating this page. I saw posts and I’ve been lurking on this page for years. This book is amazing so far and everything I have read I think it will be enjoyable for years to come. Thanks to everyone who runs this site. I just want to thanks to David Cox the author and this community!