Some of you will remember the previous editions of this, from when I was unemployed and so rather bored. Having been assimilated into the workforce, I have less time on my hands, but there is still so much of the novel 'verse left to explore. The books have confused us with twisted trilogies like String Theory and Millennium, they've unleashed the mossy terror of The Genesis Wave whether we like it or not, and recently they've had a rather nasty Fall. But keeping track of these myriad plots can be difficult. That is why this handy guide was created, and is presented here in updated form for your edification.
Note: Everything's behind spoiler tags, because many of them do give away important plot points.
.........
Dominion (War) and Delta (Quadrant)
Post-War
Setting the stage for Nemesis
Post-Nemesis
Destiny
Note: Everything's behind spoiler tags, because many of them do give away important plot points.
.........
Dominion (War) and Delta (Quadrant)
In which Section 31 defeats both a man in a silly hat and a pacifist conspirator, proving that you don’t mess with Section 31. Sisko brings his Cardassian home to show the family, but it gets ruthless pragmatism all over the carpet and things are generally awkward. Sisko desperately searches for someone willing to punish him, but Starfleet Command decides that spending the long trip to Earth with Garak nattering in your ear is punishment enough.
In which the world’s oldest man begins collecting robots, and in his senility forgets to stop. With all their robot buddies confiscated, the Federation decides to build a new one. They hide her in the security department on a starship during wartime, because she'll be safe there.
In which Voyager destroys an alien ship, blows up one of their suns and starts unravelling the universe in their backyard. The aliens give the crew a magic key in the hopes that they’ll use it to go away.
In which Voyager stops to refuel at the galaxy’s most convenient space station, which is currently infested with angels. Tuvok tries to become an angel, but you don’t escape the Voyage of the Damned that easily. The Nacene reveal that “sporocystian lifeform” is actually technobabble for “spoilt five-year old”.
In which Kes solves most of the universe’s problems, travels in time, steals someone else’s body, has a child who is accepted into the Q Continuum, duplicates herself, restores Ocampa, and works out most of Voyager’s plotholes. Despite this, her application to rejoin the crew is denied.
In which Crell Moset teaches the Jem’Hadar to feel love. Legions of Jem’Hadar are subsequently defeated through use of the Care Bear Stare.
In which the Pah-wraiths become far more complicated and three-dimensional than they were on the TV show. Since their plan this time is “destroy the universe”, that’s saying something. Odo, Quark and Garak can’t remember what they did on the night of the Withdrawal. Usually the obvious answer would be they were drinking, but this is Star Trek so it’s actually much more convoluted and implausible. So, Weyoun is the kai and has magic powers, Nog is -- okay, maybe they were drinking.
Post-War
In which Garak pens an elaborate fan fiction and posts it on the internet, reveals his life story, or some combination of the two. Having satisfied his urge to confuse people, he goes back to planting flowers.
In which Martok studies human culture in hopes of kicking off his reign with a real epic. He confuses King Arthur with Star Wars, and re-enacts the Battle of Hoth and the Battle of Camlann at the same time.
In which the galaxy’s silliest planet is in peril. Barclay must roam around collecting six crystal shards, and presumably many gold coins, while navigating the exotic levels of Gemworld. Avoiding both flying moray eels and fire-breathing turtles, he aims to collect maximum points. Yes, he eats a mushroom.
In which Worf gets roped into saving the polar bears, but can’t really be bothered. He crowns a whiny engineer “Emperor of the Polar Bears” and calls it a day.
In which several Jem’Hadar refuse to admit it’s over and plough on regardless, while the Deep Space Nine series essentially does the same thing. Kira is kicked out of the Bajoran religion for praying in church.
In which Bashir finally meets a real Bond Villain - one who wants to re-enact the plot of Moonraker, for reasons known only to himself. Ro recruits monkey cannon fodder to help bring him down, while Vaughn reveals he stole a holoship from Insurrection, continuing his attempt to tie himself to any and all events in Star Trek history.
In which many things happen, some, if not most of them, relating not at all to Taran’atar fighting Hirogen.
In which every Star Trek crew and their supporting casts are almost outwitted by a box.
In which Shar runs away to sea to escape disappointed family members, and Vaughn decides to do the same - only to then remember that his daughter is already assigned to the same ship. Vaughn dumps Prynn and Shar on a desolate world out of general spite, but has to go and retrieve them when the plot punishes him with a flashback montage; this being Vaughn, it covers practically every event since 2280.
In which Vaughn tries to leave Shar behind again, this time with Dax, but once more has to go back for them when Dax starts a revolutionary war by speaking out at the dinner table. In the alpha quadrant, Cardassia cleans out its attic and tries to foist what it finds on the Bajorans; fortunately, the Bajorans mistake it for sensitive diplomacy.
In which the Klingons kick off their own series by playing “capture the flag” and building dainty sailboats. Through the rigours of the tiddlywink competition, they teach us the true test of the warrior.
In which Julian Bashir visits a space-cathedral and loses his medical competence behind the pew cushions. Ezri loses Dax, while Nog finds a spare leg. The local priests help return the missing items but confiscate the leg. Meanwhile, tragedy strikes when the Trill delegation finds an unguarded weapons locker and begin playing with the contents. Later claims that the First Minister was actually an alien monster impress no-one.
In which Vaughn finally tracks down his wife and kills her. Back on Deep Space Nine, the crew realize that TNG season one has infiltrated the station, and declare quarantine.
In which Klag, on a mission to conquer new worlds, decides to impede efforts to conquer a new world. For the honour of the Klingon Empire, he fights the Klingon Empire and banishes it from the planet forever. The treacherous natives then backstab him and willingly join the empire, fulfilling his original mission. Martok, mistaking this for an elaborate farce, applauds all involved.
In which Jake Sisko finds the courage to claw his way back to relevance, and becomes a pirate. He plunders several lost treasures, but to his frustration all of them natter on beatifically about the Prophets. Resigned to his status as a pawn, he goes home.
In which Sisko tricks the Prophets into opening the back door to let in some air, then makes a run for it. The Prophets can’t chase after him because as soon as the door’s open Kira releases insectoid vermin into the Temple, forcing them to deal with the infestation. The plan works perfectly.
In which the Klingons send shockwaves through xenosociological circles by discovering a race with a political system even more frinxed up than theirs. Being Klingons, they celebrate by destroying it.
In which Vedek Yevir befriends a suicide bomber. The Andorians up the stakes by abducting their own Councillor.
In which the Trill realize that symbionts are yucky and get rid of them, then remember that this reduces them to being nothing more than spotted humans, so they save the last few and look sheepish. Meanwhile, Jake makes another attempt at self-determination and swiftly acquires a wife. To his annoyance, this gets overshadowed by characters from The Storyteller.
In which B’Oraq pushes for Klingon healthcare reform, by suggesting they implement some form of healthcare. Martok, upon hearing that the previous regime spent the medical budget on booze and cockfighting, decides she might be onto something. Meanwhile, Toq commits the cardinal mistake of all protagonists and goes home, thus dooming anyone still living there to a horrible death. Wol and the Fifteenth visit a farm so Goran can sow some oats.
In which the Ferengi buy the plot from the Cardassia story, add their own modifications, and sell it back for substantial profit, thus proving their business acumen. Meanwhile, the Founders teach Odo a lesson by rejecting the Link themselves while leaving him on the homeworld to fret.
In which Taran’atar, having suffered a breakdown in the last book, makes a break for it before the series does anything else to him. The plot is cunning, though, and has Prynn dragged along with him, meaning suffering for her and Vaughn as well. Eager to expand on the pain, the novel brings the Mirror Universe into play.
In which, contrary to Niner expectations, the phenomenon of “Kira overdose” is shown to be plausible. Iliana Ghemor decides that she’s the rightful Kira Nerys, because being the only one who’s actually Iliana Ghemor is the perfect criterion for judging which of you is Kira.
In which Iliana Ghemor comes to her senses and realizes that, actually, she’s the fabled leader of a militant religious cult on the other side of the galaxy, NOT Kira Nerys.
Insects on abandoned ships / Sabotaged computer chips / Crashing friends from up above / From interphasic space with love / Gomez fought a monster shii / People at an outpost die / Farmers fight a basket case / Who let monkeys into space? / Artists play computer games / Some old friends are not the same / Landru is a communist / Real Evora hissy-fit / More eugenics, guilty-free / Scotty teaches history / Giant holographic ship / war is full of death and shit / DAVID MACK WILL KILL US ALL / Corsi learns to cry and bawl / Carol does the astral dance / Pillbugs Vs walking plants / lots of family and friends / (what, you mean that’s not the end?) / Baubles will destroy the Earth / Venus tries out childbirth / Big-ears muck about in time / This here train has jumped the line / Black hole diving, snakes alive / There’s a ring around the sky / Otter men on Noah’s Ark / Mass destruction’s not a lark / Failed probes that go to war / (what’s that, readers, you want more?)/ Ships that run on nought but luck / Risa going arse-side up / Gorn that stand the test of time / (Stopping now would be a crime!) / Portlyn tries to close the deal / Strata on a spinning wheel! / Jewish-Klingon wedding rocks! / There’s a planet in a box! / Crazy Vorta are the worst / Now another universe! / Gomez nuts as squirrel poo / Crazy Vorta number two! / Corsi dates a murderer / Lense brings something back with her / Irishmen and clones as twins / Pacifistic beaver-things / Gender-shifting aliens / Miradorn are frying brains / Gold goes jumping down a mine / Scotty stories get in line / How to crack the wartime codes / (Further stories? We’ve got loads!) / Vanguard coming online soon / Bynars find a crazy room / Gomez ponders her career / Turn the series on its ear / Now we’re up to Deep Space Ten? / Borg, you’re crashing ships again / Portlyn doesn’t play it fair / Cities flying through the air / Relatives come back or die / Memories of times gone by / Pretty sure that’s all of them? / Never speak of this again.
In which the Federation regrets its plan to protect against misuse of Genesis technology by locking it away and leaving moss to grow on it. The moss becomes ambulatory, kidnaps Carol Marcus and tries to remake the galaxy in its own image, as the alarmists among us always feared. Fortunately, they only have one plan of action, which is to randomly fire their wave weapon and hope that no-one comes to investigate where it fired from. This is, after all, a scheme masterminded by moss.
In which Spock realises that every time he makes progress on reunification, the writers send him another Vulcanoid offshoot to deal with. Now up to four, he decides that he’s had enough and tries to get to the bottom of things by consulting history. Discovering that the same guy broke the Vulcanoid race into smaller and smaller chunks every time he or his family did something, Spock curses the man and banishes his katra to the desert wastes.
In which Cardassia plays kotra with itself, and loses. On the other hand, Rugal eventually decides that Cardassia is "okay at times". The Laws of Narrative consider this for a bit, then decide it’s good enough for them and destroy Cardassia for maximum angst.
Setting the stage for Nemesis
In which any Voyager crewman with a genuine claim to character development is thrown in prison for the presumption. B’Elanna, fearing that she might be next, runs away and compounds the error by committing matricide. Janeway, knowing Kim and Chakotay are fine, enlists their aid in an epic struggle to enforce a status quo despite everything.
In which Chakotay’s imaginary friend comes to life and beats the frinx out of Odo’s crippled cousin.
In which the Travellers haze Wesley by making him think that everyone’s going to die and telling him that if he helps they’ll throw him out. Presumably they all laugh heartedly as he desperately tries to cope by making Christmas Carol references and stalking Admiral Nechayev. Feather boas join the Federation only to go out of style again.
In which Enterprise receives an old TV broadcast by an honest-looking fellow and heads out to see his low, low prices, only to find that the planet which made the broadcast exploded centuries ago and it’s just some asteroids now. There are plans for a revival, but corporate sabotage from a rival company threatens to undermine this. Picard protects his new investment by bringing down the rival corporation.
In which Riker’s dad reminds people of The Icarus Factor, and global riots commence. Beverly Crusher gets them all addicted to her home-brewed vapours and patents it as a cure, making millions.
In which David Mack pulled a "Teatime from Discworld" and went all metaphysical in his bloodlust, knifing not people or planets but concepts such as the Federation's idealism and the integrity of the Presidential office.
In which Klingon terrorists wander in through the kitchen and decide to take over the Federation embassy. Worf realizes the embassy is attracting too much serious attention, so he makes Alexander the new ambassador. Elsewhere, Bacco wins the election by virtue of being the author’s great-grandmother.
Post-Nemesis
In which Picard risks the lives of Stargazer crewmen to rescue an Enterprise crewman, thus proving who’s the more important. Meanwhile, Sela, having previously been reassigned to Space-Antarctica, returns to the story when Space-Antarctic plague breaks out. Dr. Greyhorse is forgiven for murder, so Picard is finally free to fully trust doctors again, and moves in with Beverly Crusher.
In which Riker and Troi get a dinosaur and let it loose on their new ship. Also, Romulus is saved from disaster, meaning all who live upon it can now enjoy long and meaningful lives without fear of catastrophe.
In which Titan heads down the rabbit hole to retrieve Earth’s stolen property. Holy Vangar’ is successfully recaptured and the Neyel threat is eliminated. Medals are given all-round. Also, Akaar forgives Tuvok for saving his life, the bastard.
In which we watch several episodes of President Bacco’s Fun-Time Variety Hour. Much threatening to beat people with podiums ensues. Also, Cort Enaran lampshades Godwins’ Law and the Federation butchers a baby Tzenkethi in revenge for the Tzenkethi War. While they’re distracted, Donatra steals half the Romulan Empire and refuses to give it back. These are wacky hours indeed!
In which the Borg experiment with such advanced tactics as “moving your legs at a rate greater than once per minute” and “not letting enemy troops wander around unchallenged”. Picard decides to become Locutus again, because plot.
In which Riker joins Greenpeace and tries to save the whales, but is told by the whalers that if you don’t kill whales, you won’t be able to convert them into killer submarines and kill sharks, and if you don’t kill sharks they’ll eat everyone who goes near the water, and then the resort business will be ruined. Riker suggests that they ask the whales to help rather than turn them into submarines. The whalers sulk for a bit, then pretend they like the idea.
In which Picard and Worf pull the plug on the universe and desperately try to put it back in again. Rather than admit that they screwed up, they tell Admiral Janeway it was their imaginary friend Q, knowing that she believes in him too. This “Q” gets the blame and Picard’s career is saved.
In which Titan spends a thousand years screwing with some bugs, using a big magnifying glass in the sky to periodically burn them. The most spiritual crewman tries to stop the slaughter by organizing a new bug regime under his guidance, but his colleague dumps him back in time. He pulls a Valen and organizes anyway.
In which the Borg eat Pluto and Starfleet admirals take bets on the end of the world, while Seven pilots a Planet Killer and Borg ships fly out of stars. This is actually not a joke. Also, Janeway dies. With her dies the peace of the Trek BBS and all hope for reason.
In which the Enterprise tries to chase down the Borg but instead gets lost in the Japanese theatre and then assaulted by digimon. Beverly wants a baby but Jean-Luc argues “if I agree there’ll be a trilogy of epic books in which the Borg threaten to destroy everything I hold dear. So I can’t”. But he gives in, and so everyone on Barolia dies. Also, Enterprise introduces an eldritch abomination to the concept of expansion and reproduction, and sets it loose on the galaxy.
Destiny
In which Erika Hernandez skips the Romulan War by hiding with a cult of pacifist space elves, but gets in trouble when her crew double-flush the toilet, destroying space elf civilization. Many years later, the Borg come up through the piping and out of the toilet bowl, leading to an infestation.
In which Erika Hernandez converts to the Space Elf Cult and tries to convert the Titan crew as well. Troi’s dinosaur, unable to handle the mandatory vegetarianism, tries to eat Troi within days. Hernandez has a crisis of faith and locks herself in the bathroom, while Picard has a far more general crisis and starts channelling Marvin the Paranoid Android.
In which the Borg read their copy of Star Trek Star Charts and then decide that a second edition is required. Much Desolation of Deneva, Ruination of Risa, and Conflagration of Coridan ensues. Hernandez crowns herself queen and initiates Instrumentality, the Borg get hugged and turn to Tang. The galaxy is saved, and readers start searching the floor for their jaws.
Last edited:
