I'm about half way through the book and although I'm enjoying it I do find the character of T'rysa very grating. I found the way she got onto the ship didn't speak very highly of starfleets selection process for choosing memebers of its supposedly elite crew. How pissed off would you have been if you were one of the highly qualified candidates for the position T'rysa eventually got? You bust your hump for years to be the best in your field and keep your nose clean but some immature screw up gets the job just cos Picard feels sorry for her? Harsh!
It wasn't just because he felt sorry for her. It was because, as she rightly pointed out, she was the only person available in all of Starfleet who'd actually
been to the cluster and contacted the entity. It was reasonable to assume that she could thus prove essential to the success of the mission, and indeed she did.
Also, perhaps, because he sensed she deserved an opportunity to prove herself. The people who've busted their humps for years and kept their noses clean don't need any help; they can handle themselves. But someone who has untapped potential and a genuine willingness to start developing it is someone who deserves to be given the opportunity. I've always felt it's backwards the way our schools and other institutions tend to encourage and support those who are already doing well more than those who could improve if given extra encouragement and support.
As for the comparisions to Barclay I think he worked as a screw up character because we didn't actually ever see that much of him he just popped up here and there making it easier for the folks who didn't like him to tolerate him.
We saw a great deal of Barclay in his introductory episode and in later focus episodes, and little or none of him the rest of the time. Trys is no different -- naturally her debut story needed to establish her, but she won't be featured equally in every story to follow, any more than any other character.
...I do like the way the TNG originals are being written, they all seem very much in character, I especilly like the little exchange between Worf and Geordi after the conference when Worf comments on the lack of men left on the bridge crew
Glad you liked that bit. It really felt like a true Worf moment when it came to me.
I also really liked the other new characters, they all seem to be very interesting. Especially Choudhury, she is definitely a very different kind of security chief that we are used to. I really think it was kind of fun the way you guys went from Leybenzon, who only cared about fighting, to Choudhury, who cries after she has to take part in a battle. Was this done on purpose?
Not exactly. I have felt for a while that too many Starfleet security characters fall into the tough guy/warrior category, and I've always preferred to play against that, something I initially did when I created Rennan Konya for SCE. (It was my hope that he would become a foil and a balance for the more aggressive Corsi, but it didn't work out that way.)
And with Choudhury, Dave had already established the character name, and I liked the idea of giving her an Indian cultural identity; too many "ethnic" human characters in Trek are still culturally American, when you get right down to it. So I wanted her to be a Hindu, and nonviolence is a part of that cultural tradition. I liked the fact that it was a very different direction from Leybenzon, but that wasn't the sole, specific reason for her being the way she is.
Now as for the Borg, I really liked the way that you were able to explain away a lot of the inconsistencies and tie up the loose ends. I'm so glad that you finally explained why some of the Borg seemed to have never been anything but Borg, because that's been something that's always bugged me.
Well, that's the way they originally were in TNG. "Q Who" said they weren't interested in people, only their technology. BoBW introduced the idea of them assimilating people, but only with Picard, and it was treated as a special case. The drones in "I, Borg" and "Descent" were portrayed as having no identity but Borg. The idea of wholesale assimilation was a retcon introduced in
First Contact and elaborated on in VGR. I'm glad I was able to find a way to reconcile TNG-style Borg with FC/VGR-style Borg.
I especially liked the Borg's message, that had to be one of the scariest things I've read in a Trek book.
Glad to hear it. It was a hard balance to find -- making them sound angry and threatening without losing their Borg coldness and contempt.
why should I spend the extra $2 on a mmpb when I know the probability of me reading it within two months is zero? 
in those few pages. Did I mention how much I despised the character? 
It's more that with Borg-book after Borg-book, I just find myself thinking, "There better be a plan here...!"
