Spoilers PIC: The Last Best Hope by Una McCormack Review Thread

[Christopher]

The problem with starting with Last Best Hope is that the whole Romulan refugee thing ends up being a red herring for a frankly dumb plot about evil space AIs. Last Best Hope just leans into this and makes it even worse that S1 ended so poorly.

I dunno... I think the Romulan refugee crisis is mainly backstory for season 1 as it is. The present-day storyline of season 1 is about AIs from start to finish -- the synth revolt, the mystery of Dahj and Soji and why the Tal Shiar is after them, the search for Bruce Maddox, the X-Bs, etc. The refugee crisis is just leftover baggage the characters have to deal with along the way. So I think it's fine to start with the novel that puts the crisis front and center. It helps contextualize some things that were less clear in the season itself.

 

[Arpy]

I loved the refugee stuff. It felt good to actually save lives for a change. Being constructive. As opposed to stopping/destroying some force bent on killing everyone on Vulcan, Earth, the Milky Way, the universe, the multiverse, etc. Give me a break. Plus I liked visiting different parts of the Romulan empire and exploring different situations on the ground.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I really think LBH works best as a backstory novel. Having it on screen would have been

1. Canon connecting the dots for those fans who need everything explained to them

2. Even more grim than the Picard season 1 which had some crying "dystopian!" because it rained in Boston and an admiral rightly told Jean-Luc to fuck off.

 

[Stevil2001]

I dunno... I think the Romulan refugee crisis is mainly backstory for season 1 as it is. The present-day storyline of season 1 is about AIs from start to finish -- the synth revolt, the mystery of Dahj and Soji and why the Tal Shiar is after them, the search for Bruce Maddox, the X-Bs, etc. The refugee crisis is just leftover baggage the characters have to deal with along the way. So I think it's fine to start with the novel that puts the crisis front and center. It helps contextualize some things that were less clear in the season itself.

Right, my point is that if it was an opening episode, the season would have placed even more emphasis on this thing that ultimately didn't matter very much.

 

[Christopher]

Right, my point is that if it was an opening episode, the season would have placed even more emphasis on this thing that ultimately didn't matter very much.

I thought we were talking about whether it would work to read the book before watching the season. I guess I thought you were responding to Damian's comments rather than Charles Phipps's comments.

 

[Charles Phipps]

The problem with starting with Last Best Hope is that the whole Romulan refugee thing ends up being a red herring for a frankly dumb plot about evil space AIs. Last Best Hope just leans into this and makes it even worse that S1 ended so poorly.

I would disagree with that because the Romulan Refugee crisis is something that is over by the time the story starts and its finality actually makes the story stronger. The Romulan star is destroyed, everyone not evacuated dies. There's no way to make that right.

Which is a good thing because its a consequence of poor decisions.

The AI plot is a related story beat, though, rather than an unrelated one. Its still about xenophobia and intolerance.

 

[Christopher]

The AI plot is a related story beat, though, rather than an unrelated one. Its still about xenophobia and intolerance.

And it's connected through the synth revolt, which impeded the evacuation effort, leading to Picard's resignation and the general state of affairs at the start of the series.

 

[captainmkb]

Can see the "red herring" accusation being not a condemnation of the book or its narrative, but rather an overall dissatisfaction with the finale and the series theme the book was constrained to tie in to.

Having the book lead into the series strong but on a subject that wouldn't gain closure - the Romulan refugee situation, like real life refugee situations, would not have a wrap-up.

And there's no resolution for any of the various plot threads in the series and i think that goes on the showrunner and not the tie-in.

But to tell the story of Soji discovering her humanity and Picard getting his groove back — the narrative destroyed millions (if not billions) of lives, including the Romulans sacrificing their own relief effort, the refugees, Mars is still burning, the Federation and Starfleet slunk back within their borders and became isolationist and bigoted, the very top levels corrupted and infiltrated, probably many cases like Thad Riker suffering from abandoned research, families like Raffi's split by paranoia and panic, who-knows-how-many nascent AIs silenced if not purged completely

Oh, in the end, Soji learned the true meaning of Christmas and the Goldsmith score plays. it's like the cartoon where the superheroes pat each other on the back for defeating the villain while every building in the city they were trying to save is leveled.

Naturally it feels like the book deserved more it is because it was limited by the short-sightedness of the subject matter

 

[Charles Phipps]

Can see the "red herring" accusation being not a condemnation of the book or its narrative, but rather an overall dissatisfaction with the finale and the series theme the book was constrained to tie in to.

Having the book lead into the series strong but on a subject that wouldn't gain closure - the Romulan refugee situation, like real life refugee situations, would not have a wrap-up.

Is it not wrapped up, though?

The refugee story ends before the beginning of the series, doesn't it? Romulus explodes and every single person not evacuated is vaporized instantly. The refugee plot becomes their daily life like in Star Trek Online where the survivors struggle to eck out a living and all of their former territories become independent hellholes. Basically, it makes a new "wild adventure zone" for Star Trek adventures to take place in like Freecloud and the places the Fenris Rangers patrol.

The ending is the new status quo.

The storyline's answer to the Romulan plot is, "Life goes on for the survivor."

A

nd there's no resolution for any of the various plot threads in the series and i think that goes on the showrunner and not the tie-in.

Ehhhh. *waves hand* I'm not sure that it isn't as wrapped up as the complicated plots of TNG were.

B

ut to tell the story of Soji discovering her humanity and Picard getting his groove back — the narrative destroyed millions (if not billions) of lives, including the Romulans sacrificing their own relief effort, the refugees, Mars is still burning, the Federation and Starfleet slunk back within their borders and became isolationist and bigoted, the very top levels corrupted and infiltrated, probably many cases like Thad Riker suffering from abandoned research, families like Raffi's split by paranoia and panic, who-knows-how-many nascent AIs silenced if not purged completely

My opinion on this is noted on the fact that we've known Romulus was destroyed since the Kelvinverse movie as the planet is destroyed in the main timeline. It also led to the spin off in Star Trek Online where the Romulans had to resettle and while I doubt it was a direct inspiration, the story in Picard roughly follows the same lines. There's the "free" Romulans like the ones Picard resettled and the ones clinging to the old Soviet-style oppression.

A lot of bad things happened because of it like Thad Riker's death, Mar's destruction, and the ban on synthetics nearly resulting in the end of everything--but the villains are exposed and the Federation recinds its ban. Healing can begin now and that's the start of the process not the end.

O

h, in the end, Soji learned the true meaning of Christmas and the Goldsmith score plays. it's like the cartoon where the superheroes pat each other on the back for defeating the villain while every building in the city they were trying to save is leveled.

Ehhhhh. This is a weird sentiment because Star Trek ALWAYS has vast horrible consequences that it has been dealing with. Whole planets killed by parasites, Red shirts dead left and right, and massive civil wars. Our heroes stand triumphant BECAUSE of the disaster they've survived.

I mean, this is a bit like being upset there's a ceremony at the end of Star Wars when Alderaan is still destroyed. Yeah, it has been. They're still victorious.

 

[David cgc]

I mean, this is a bit like being upset there's a ceremony at the end of Star Wars when Alderaan is still destroyed. Yeah, it has been. They're still victorious.

It's a matter of focus, though. The structure of the overall narrative. While Alderaan and its destruction are objectively important in-universe, and would be a shattering tragedy if it were a real world, we never even see what it looks like on the ground for another five movies, and the only person we know from the planet is Leia herself, who doesn't bring the disaster up after-the-fact, ever. It's a sideshow to the plot of the movie.

The analogy would be if the destruction of Alderaan was the centerpiece element of Star Wars, the movie was like the first act of "Independence Day" or "Threads" or something where the movie was all about the end of the world and all the people who were killed and their desperate attempts to survive, and the planet blows up, but the final fifteen minutes is still a bunch of Rebels destroying the Death Star in a tense action scene and then having a big party when they do it (which I've argued is essentially what happens in the Vanguard finale with the scene of Kirk getting fired up about saving the day when we've just spend the whole book seeing the day be lost except for a few last scraps, and it was disturbing and subversive then, but I think it was meant to be).

It's just a bit weird and confounding to start with the big, final yet unseen story of Star Trek, change it around just enough so what little we did know no longer really counts, and rather than telling that story, either directly or through the window of the Romulan post-apocalypse, contort it into making it so Data gets to have an emotional death scene instead of just an emotional wake.

 

[Christopher]

It's just a bit weird and confounding to start with the big, final yet unseen story of Star Trek, change it around just enough so what little we did know no longer really counts

They didn't do anything of the kind. Most of what we "knew" about the supernova before was only from the non-canonical Countdown comic, and thus it never actually counted. What was actually in the movie was extremely vague, just a few lines and images. Picard doesn't contradict it, merely clarifies it in a way that makes vastly more sense than what the movie seemed to indicate or what Countdown conjectured.

 

[Charles Phipps]

It's a matter of focus, though. The structure of the overall narrative. While Alderaan and its destruction are objectively important in-universe, and would be a shattering tragedy if it were a real world, we never even see what it looks like on the ground for another five movies, and the only person we know from the planet is Leia herself, who doesn't bring the disaster up after-the-fact, ever. It's a sideshow to the plot of the movie.

The analogy would be if the destruction of Alderaan was the centerpiece element of Star Wars, the movie was like the first act of "Independence Day" or "Threads" or something where the movie was all about the end of the world and all the people who were killed and their desperate attempts to survive, and the planet blows up, but the final fifteen minutes is still a bunch of Rebels destroying the Death Star in a tense action scene and then having a big party when they do it (which I've argued is essentially what happens in the Vanguard finale with the scene of Kirk getting fired up about saving the day when we've just spend the whole book seeing the day be lost except for a few last scraps, and it was disturbing and subversive then, but I think it was meant to be).

It's just a bit weird and confounding to start with the big, final yet unseen story of Star Trek, change it around just enough so what little we did know no longer really counts, and rather than telling that story, either directly or through the window of the Romulan post-apocalypse, contort it into making it so Data gets to have an emotional death scene instead of just an emotional wake.

While true, I should also note that the time skip also influences the nature of the story. The destruction of Mars takes place in 2385, the destruction of Romulus takes place in 2387, and the events of Picard takes places in 2399.

So there's been a twelve year time skip from when Romulus is destroyed and the Synth ban happens so really the entirety of the story is dealing with the aftermath. We're seeing the long term consequences of the failure to help Romulus with the collapse of the Neutral Zone, the poverty, and lawlessness.

I do think it's sad we don't get more follow-up in Season 2 but I do think we do have a sense of how its going.

They didn't do anything of the kind. Most of what we "knew" about the supernova before was only from the non-canonical Countdown comic, and thus it never actually counted. What was actually in the movie was extremely vague, just a few lines and images. Picard doesn't contradict it, merely clarifies it in a way that makes vastly more sense than what the movie seemed to indicate or what Countdown conjectured.

Yeah, though sadly we have no idea what Spock was trying to accomplish with Red Matter now.

 

[Christopher]

Yeah, though sadly we have no idea what Spock was trying to accomplish with Red Matter now.

We had no idea before either. In the movie version, Spock launched the red matter after the supernova, which made no sense, like trying to disarm a bomb after it's gone off. The illogic was built into the original version. Picard did nothing to alter that, because it simply didn't address it.

 

[Charles Phipps]

We had no idea before either. In the movie version, Spock launched the red matter after the supernova, which made no sense, like trying to disarm a bomb after it's gone off. The illogic was built into the original version. Picard did nothing to alter that, because it simply didn't address it.

Maybe it was meant to somehow capture the lightspeed traveling explosion because apparently that is a thing that you can do.



But yes, I admit even by Star Trek insane science standards that is pretty insane.

 

[Christopher]

My best handwave is that despite the order of events shown in the movie, the supernova actually happened just after Spock released the Red Matter and before it activated. So it was only able to partially mitigate the blast rather than prevent it.

After all, what we saw was within a mind meld, so the images could've been stream-of-consciousness and out of sequence.

 

[Charles Phipps]

My best handwave is that despite the order of events shown in the movie, the supernova actually happened just after Spock released the Red Matter and before it activated. So it was only able to partially mitigate the blast rather than prevent it.

After all, what we saw was within a mind meld, so the images could've been stream-of-consciousness and out of sequence.

It might actually explain Nero's insanity if he saw Spock launch the Red Matter and the explosion happened afterward. Particularly if he's one of the "Science Deniers" equivalent that don't believe the sun is going to explode.

 

[Kertrats47]

Playing catch-up on old reviews. Just published my thoughts on this novel on TrekLit.com.
Loved it when it first came out, and my feelings on it are similar today. I just can't get enough of Una McCormack's writing, even when she's not writing about Cardassians!

 

[CaptChris42]

They didn't do anything of the kind. Most of what we "knew" about the supernova before was only from the non-canonical Countdown comic, and thus it never actually counted. What was actually in the movie was extremely vague, just a few lines and images. Picard doesn't contradict it, merely clarifies it in a way that makes vastly more sense than what the movie seemed to indicate or what Countdown conjectured.

I have mixed feelings about this. Countdown 2009 did try to explain and expand on many things, and did resolve some issues (but not others) In particular it contextualized Spock's claim about the supernova 'threatening to destroy the galaxy' by making it a freak, subspace related event with a mounting, cascading effect; even if many of the details of the Red Matter and black hole solution and so on, did not gel so neatly.

In contrast, Picard makes the whole thing seem much less substantial, and also makes Spock's account to nu-Kirk seem confused, vastly exaggerated, or considerably unreliable. So there were plus and minuses to the new approach, either way.

 

[Christopher]

In contrast, Picard makes the whole thing seem much less substantial, and also makes Spock's account to nu-Kirk seem confused, vastly exaggerated, or considerably unreliable. So there were plus and minuses to the new approach, either way.

I just ignore the "destroy the galaxy" line because it's so nonsensical and has no followup. I take it as figurative, that the astropolitical upheavals threatened to lead to widespread war and devastation. Or else, since it was a mind meld, maybe Kirk's mind misinterpreted the concepts Spock communicated. Telepathy is usually portrayed as giving perfect understanding, but the way minds store knowledge is idiosyncratic, so direct communication of concepts would probably lead to greater confusion and misinterpretations than communicating through mutually-understood spoken language.

 

[Tuskin38]

in STO they tried to explain it by saying the supernova some how also entered subspace because Iconians.

I mean the game went into deeper detail then that, but that's all I can remember.