Spoilers Picard Autobiography by David Goodman - Discussion and Review Thread

Should order it soon. more interested in the Spock autobiography.

 

Trekmovie has a review of this book. It sounds like an intersting book.

 

https://trekmovie.com/2017/10/17/in...g-jean-luc-picard-to-write-his-autobiography/

A good interview about the book and the upcoming Spock companion.

 

BTW, I think I caught the Discovery reference Goodman mentions in that interview.

Spoiler

When the book talks about Picard and Sarek's mind meld and Picard experiences events from Sarek's life, one of them he mentions seems like it's a very vaguely worded description of Sarek saving Michael's life after the school bombing.

 

Seeing as the Picard autobio references the JJ movies, I assume the Spock one will (thankfully) also be able to follow him right up until the end of his life. I want to read about what Spock was doing after ST11.

Edit:

Meh.

 

So far, it looks like Goodman has learned a few things from the fan reactions to the Kirk "autobiography," but

Regarding Professor Galen and his paintings:
SINCE WHEN ARE THE VEDALA AN EXTINCT SPECIES?
According to TAS:Jihad, they are an immensely advanced and powerful race that travels the galaxy on asteroids converted to warp-capable spaceships.

 

Either an oversight on Galen's part or they actually did become extinct sometime between TAS: Jihad and TNG. (Or they don't count TAS as canon at all).

 

That would help explain why we never heard of such a powerful civilization after TAS. In Forgotten History, my way of addressing that issue was to establish that they'd migrated out of this region of the galaxy in the interim. (Although Serpents Among the Ruins mentions in passing that they were still around during Azetbur's term as chancellor, i.e. sometime between 2293-2311.)

 

It's been a while since I read STL5, but I seem to recall that ADF went into a bit more detail, establishing the Vedala as being extremely reclusive, jealously guarding their privacy, and that they were quite capable of going wherever they damn well pleased (which would certainly reconcile FH with Serpents).

I don't recall where they showed up in FH.

 

I wrote Forgotten History with knowledge of the mention in Serpents, so the reconciliation is built in. I'd originally intended to say the Vedala left the region pretty quickly after the novel's events, but because of the SotR reference, I instead made their departure a more gradual migration. I also drew heavily on Foster's description of the Vedala because that was the only source of information about them beyond what little the episode established.

 

Goodman has already said that the Spock autobiography will only cover his Prime Universe life, and is intended in-universe to be a manuscript that was found in his home after he disappeared during the Hobus Incident.

 

Done

Everyone, please take a moment to vote in the poll if you've already read the book. Thanks!

 

What does the book say about events circa First Contact and then post-Nemesis? Any references to where the Enterprise was during the Dominion War?

 

Spoiler: Dominion War

The Dominion War only gets one mention in the whole book, and that's actually in relation to the 602 Club in San Francisco (the bar Archer frequented in First Flight). When Picard is talking about it, there's an Editor's Note on that page going over the Club's history and significance and adding that it was destroyed in the Breen attack.

Spoiler: Enterprise E/First Contact

The Enterprise E era is glossed over. There are some details that the Sovereign class was part of Shelby's initiative to give all Starfleet ships more of a combat and tactical lean. Worf apparently turned down a posting to the E because he was in his funk he was in in Way of the Warrior and planning to leave Starfleet. The only things from First Contact mentioned are meeting Zefram Cochrane and reuniting with the Borg Queen, which includes an origin story of the Borg and the Queen which of course is nothing like we got in Destiny and doesn't even line up very well with what we learn about her in Voyager (in this version of events it makes no sense at all the Queen is from Species 125 like she claims in Dark Frontier).

Spoiler: Insurrection and Nemesis

Insurrection isn't mentioned at all (though I think Admiral Dougherty is mentioned earlier in the book) and Nemesis just gets a few paragraphs of Picard reporting to Janeway that Shinzon was his clone and Data died.

Spoiler: Post-Nemesis

Post Nemesis, Q shows up and undoes Data's death, Picard begins to feel his time in Starfleet is done and so he retires and becomes an ambassador, command of the Enterprise is turned over to Data with Geordi promoted to XO. Picard and Beverly get married, though she is soon thereafter promoted to Captain and given command of the Pasteur.

 

I approve of flat out not mentioning Insurrection vs. making it a movie like in Kirk's biography.

But "Data is repaired by Q" is basically "God did it."

 

My headcanon on Data's return was because of Geordi and Daystrom Institute successfully cracking Soong's research (Data helped from the grave) and building a new positronic brain and taking the memories from B-4 and Data was restored (though has the gap of his death).

 

I basically go with the short story in Road to 2409.

That was really touching and makes B4's sacrifice meaningful. Yes, he was mentally disadvantaged but he understood enough to sacrifice his life so Data could live.

And Data would never knowingly let another person die to save himself, let alone his childlike brother.

 

I prefer the novelverse approach where Data's resurrection didn't require B4's sacrifice. There's something very ugly and ableist about the implication that a mentally disabled being like B4 has less right to live than a genius like Data. You can try to spin it as a noble sacrifice, but there are too many stories already about minority characters sacrificing themselves for the sake of "normal" characters, and far too few about the reverse happening. So the cumulative effect is to largely erase the minority characters from the narrative -- and to imply that they "should" see themselves as disposable and existing only to serve majority characters' needs rather than their own. I'm glad Dave Mack was able to come up with a version that avoided that unfortunate cliche. Data's return still required a sacrifice, but it was the sacrifice of a father who'd already lived much more than a full life, and elements of his personality still live on in Data Soong. (Which also keeps it from being just a reset button to put Data back the way he was.)