(Copy of review I just posted to my Facebook page.) Just got done listening to Star Trek: Picard: No Man’s Land (2022) full cast audio drama, written by Kirsten Beyer and Mike Johnson, and performed by Michelle Hurd and Jeri Ryan (“Raffi” and “Seven” actresses) and a number of other actors. Its run time is 1 hour 39 minutes. It is available on Amazon, Audible, and OverDrive (which your local public library might give you access to check it out from, as I did).
This is the equivalent of a short story though it is not an audio adaptation of a print release, this was written and produced specifically for the full cast audio drama format (there is no print version).
The story takes place between seasons one and two of “Star Trek: Picard”, the streaming television series that ran on CBS All Access for season one and Paramount+ for seasons two and (in 2023) season three. The focus is entirely on Raffi Musiker and Seven of Nine, picking up on the very brief moment at the end of the “Picard” season one finale episode that indicated that they might be starting a relationship with each other and where the characters later are picked up with at the start of season two.
The story here is good if a bit predictable, especially the sub-plot about an old professor who has lost his wife many years ago and is still expecting to return to her eventually, and why he is so important to a Romulan warlord. Seven, in her role as one of the Fenris Rangers, is called upon to try to save the population and cultural artifacts secreted on the planet the professor is also on before the Romulan warlord can get there, and Raffi goes along with her to assist (and also because the two of them are still trying to determine what the extent of their relationship will actually be).
The main draw here is having Hurd and Ryan here to reprise their characters. I love full cast audio dramas (more so than single reader/narrator audiobooks) but I don’t tend to listen to them very much these days as I’m usually listening to podcasts while driving in the car or working out. I need to eventually get back to listening to more of them again.
I gave Star Trek: Picard: No Man’s Land four out of five stars on GoodReads.
(Oh, and for those not aware, author Kirsten Beyer is not only the author of numerous Star Trek tie-in novels, including many of the post tv series “Star Trek: Voyager” ones, she is also co-creator and executive producer on the “Star Trek: Picard” tv series and a staff writer on “Star Trek: Discovery”. Mike Johnson is the writer of oodles of Star Trek comic book series, everything from classic Star Trek to the J.J. Abrams “Kelvin Timeline” version and the current “Star Trek: Discovery” and “Star Trek: Picard”, all for comics publisher, IDW.)
—David Young