Re: Star Trek: Destiny - Gods Of Night REVIEW (NOTE: SPOILERS ABROAD!!
but wonder whether Hernandez would do the same. For me, I think the similarities between this and Caretaker are not coincidental, and will be extrapolated later in Mere Mortals and Lost Souls.
Regarding the story on the Titan, I found it very small, and that’s not in a bad way. A lot of the preconceptions about Destiny involved galactic epics that threatened every molecule of existence (and it does fulfill that), but it also involves people. When people refer to one’s destiny, they’re talking about other human beings, and if there’s one thing that Star Trek does well is explore the human condition, even if it’s not necessarily human beings in place. Although having some great character work for Keru, Choblik and Palzar, the story centered around Riker, Troi, Ree and Vale. We can feel for each of these characters and the situation they’re forced into. We can feel for Riker because of his duty as a Starfleet officer , a starship captain, and being Deanna’s husband. Riker’s caught in the most unfortunate dilemma in keeping balls juggling in the air, and by letting one fall, they all fall down. Riker’s sacrificed a lot to be the captain of the Titan (images of him in Kinchawn’s redoubt from A Time To Heal comes to mind), and endured years of unexpressed feelings to finally marry Deanna. He always put career first, and when he had come to accept that Deanna and him would never really get together, the events of Insurrection, and later, the A Time To series got him to that point where they became husband and wife. Now, everything’s come to a head because he cannot make a sound decision and not get somebody hurt in the process. Riker’s passionate and that passion has become a handicap for him. For Troi, the book talks about the feelings Lwaxana had when Kestral died years earlier, and Deanna remembers vividly what that did to her mother. Now, she has to deal with the potential loss of another child, and it threatens to destroy her. Her emotions are unbalanced, and she needs to seek the help of her own, and when she does, she refuses to take it. However, Deanna’s anything but stupid: she knows what Ree’s saying is right, and she knows that Vale isn’t being nasty on purpose. She knows that they’re doing their jobs. But, she’s unable to reconcile her own feelings about losing the child and in the case of holding someone accountable, since we all don’t like holding ourselves accountable, we shift the blame elsewhere. Being scripturally minded, I remember a passage from the Book of Genesis that depicts this:
And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. (Genesis 3: 11-13)
In this instance, the Lord sought to know whether Adam partook of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Being human, Adam shifted the accountability to Eve, who in turn shifted the accountability to Satan. I could go on, but this is not why I’m writing this review. For Troi, it’s a similar pattern, if not necessarily the same condition. But, now we can understand Ree and Vale’s positions.
Ree’s the example of pure objectivity: he has no interest in this, save for the life of Deanna Troi. He doesn’t want to know that a patient could die on his watch when he had a chance to prevent it. The Hippocratic Oath, ‘do no harm’, does factor into consideration here. And, knowing that there is going to be harm one way or another, Ree takes the path of least harm: terminating the pregnancy. As someone who is “pro-life”, I find the idea of abortion to be disheartening, but I understand fully well that there is...
Except that the "Warpath hiccup" was the editor's fault. 
