Re: TOS movie what if...
^^ I have to agree here to some extent. Carey's depiction of April is rather on the wishy-washy side and a weak aspect of the book. He seems more a diplomat or bureaucrat rather than a ship captain and deepspace explorer.
I did find it an enjoyable read, but I also found it too cute, neat and tidy to be credible that Kirk's daddy had been aboard the 1701 and that there was this great destiny thing going on. It would have been simply better if it had definitely been the
Constitution rather than the
E. Also, though, it takes the eddge off "Balance Of Terror" being the first encounter with the Romulans after a century as it was intended to be.
An aspect I did like was the idea of Robert April being involved in the development of the starship program, possibly heading it up and overseeing it to keep things focued and on track. In this capacity he could then have captained 1701 on its trial runs and then perhaps for ceremonial reasons--showing the flag so to speak and a reward for putting his flight career temporarily on hold--before handing it off to the
E's first genuine operational commander, Chris Pike. I just think that seems more believeable and somewhat more real world like than the more conventional view. April could have been brought in for his skills in getting the right people for the job and cultivating them to get the best out of them. His experience as a deepspace veteran would serve to know what the new ship would be called upon to do.
I even toyed with the idea of just such a short story where April brings in folks like a young hotshot engineer named Lawrence Marvick and a rastafarian like computer systems geek with wild untested ideas called Richard Daystrom. April would have fought committees and other departments all trying to horn in on the program and intent on making the new class of ship something almost totally divorced from what it supposed to and should be. He would have fought with people who would like the new ships to be "dreadnoughts" and superweapons.
Just some idle musings on my part.
