Collateral Damage - TNG Section 31 follow-up by David Mack
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I'll read it anyway. Can't wait to find out what happens with Picard and this crew because of his involvement in the coup against Zife.
Just hope there will be a follow up that deals with the fact of Uraei/Control founding and controling (Sorry for the pun :-) ) United Earth and Federation society for so long and how the characters from TNG, DS9 and maybe Voyager deal with these uncomfortable facts and how it changes them.
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I would just say that I think it's a mistake to think of Uraei/Control as having been single-handedly founding and controlling U.E. and the Federation. It certainly influenced U.E. and the Federation, but there's no indication that it outright controlled it. I doubt, for instance, that Uraei made the decision whether or not the Federation should write and sign the Khitomer Accords, or that it was behind the Jaresh-Inyo Administration's decision to cede planets with Federation colonies to the Cardassian Union, etc.
I feel like that's the sort of thing no one can ever be sure of, like many great questions of history. Control itself is an unreliable source, since it seemed to be taking credit for all sorts of things it couldn't possibly have known about that just happened to turn out well.
On the other hand, they do have practical time-travel, so they could just go back and prevent Uraei's creation and see what happens. Though that does leave the question of what if Control was just an emergent property of the Federation's computer system (since you can't seem to look at a computer in Star Trek without it developing its own personality and awareness), and there's always some kind of Control, running the algorithm, deciding what it thinks is the best thing for you to see when you look at something on a computer. It'd hardly be worse than the real-world, where commercial considerations mean that if you look up a YouTube video of, I don't know, squirrels frolicking in a yard and leave it open for a few hours, it'll eventually be showing you videos explaining that the moon landing was faked.
On the other hand, they do have practical time-travel, so they could just go back and prevent Uraei's creation and see what happens. Though that does leave the question of what if Control was just an emergent property of the Federation's computer system (since you can't seem to look at a computer in Star Trek without it developing its own personality and awareness), and there's always some kind of Control, running the algorithm, deciding what it thinks is the best thing for you to see when you look at something on a computer. It'd hardly be worse than the real-world, where commercial considerations mean that if you look up a YouTube video of, I don't know, squirrels frolicking in a yard and leave it open for a few hours, it'll eventually be showing you videos explaining that the moon landing was faked.
Nice how the "swoosh" lines behind the Enterprise frame Picard's insignia.
Really nice cover.
If the book was written after the Picard show concept where he seems to be retired, maybe the novelverse Picard retires to his vineyard with Crusher and Rene and lives almost, happily every after? Yes, a perverse part of me wants Picard convicted with a suspended sentence. If this was Kirk he would go back in time and undo everything lol
Maybe what they did was not technically illegal, the idea of the UFP being based solely on a US style political system seems a bit far fetched.
There is absolutely no political culture in the world where the armed services forcing the democratically-elected chief executive out of power at gunpoint is legal.
The Federation isn't based solely on the U.S. system. Really the relationship between the Federation President and Federation Council as described in the novels is unlike any system that exists in the real world; to the best of my knowledge, there is no system where the independently-elected President appoints members of the legislature's committees with the legislature's confirmation.
But the three coups were exactly that: Coups. They were illegal actions taken in violation of the Articles of the Federation. DS9's "Paradise Lost" was very clear that Admiral Leyton had no right to depose President Jaresh-Inyo; A Time to Heal made it very clear that Admiral Ross and co. had no right to force President Zife out at gunpoint; and The Fall was clear that the assassination of President Bacco was illegal and anti-democratic.
Eh, I didn't get the impression it was legal, just no one's going to prosecute a successful revolt.
That probably depends on what the plan is to deal with the backstory established for the show. Whatever they do, it's going to have to be a lot more complicated than just having Picard retire at the end of Collateral Damage.