Star Trek: Voyager: Day of Honor: "Her Klingon Soul" by Michael Jan Friendman

[Damian]

I just completed this novel, the 3rd in my Day of Honor Omnibus. It takes place according to Memory Alpha in 2372, which I believe was during the 2nd season. Ensign Kim and Lt Torres are kidnapped on a planet by the Kazon-Ogla (the sect featured in "Caretaker") and the Kazon manage to trick Captain Janeway into following the wrong ship and Voyager loses track of where Kim and Torres end up. But they are not kept by the Kazon for long as another species, the Nograkh, ends up attacking the Kazon and kidnapping the Kazon, Kim and Torres and intend to use them as slave labor. Eventually the Kazon are killed by the Nograkh and they largely depart the story at that point. The ore Kim, Torres and the other prisoners (which include Nograkh political prisoners) is radioactive and they start falling ill to radiation sickness. Eventually Torres gains a respect for one of the Nograkh prisoners as she learns they have their own sense of honor similar to Klingons and after a first attempt to escape fails they work together to try again.

Meanwhile Voyager makes attempts to find their missing crewman, while they also make preliminary plans to replace them should they fail to turn up or turn up dead. There is a nice sequence in the book when Chakotay is talking to Lt. Carey and while Carey notes he and Torres had a rough start he would never have wanted any harm to come to her, and how since then he likes and respects her. They also rescue another alien, known as an Emmonac, who suffers from radiation sickness and a disease that can be easily cured. However the cure was discovered when another alien species used hers for medical experiments and she refuses the treatment because she feels it would be disrespectful to her fellow Emmonac that were used (much like Torres wanted to refuse treatment from Crell Moset in "Nothing Human", which interestingly came out about a year after the novel's release). This upsets Kes as she wants to help her and she tries to find a way to help her in such a way that she accepts the help. It is noted partly it is due to the short life span of the Ocampa and she has a hard time understanding why someone would willingly allow themselves to die if they could prevent it.

The novel is a bit formulaic. It's basically your kidnapping, prison break, rescue story. Part of what takes some of the suspense out is that you know Kim and Torres will be rescued by the end. So that takes away some of the peril. Still, it's a decent novel that kept my attention. It's interesting to see a plot line that would be taken up again in "Nothing Human" a year later. I think Friedman had the characters down pretty well, no off the wall surprises. The novel doesn't necessarily break any new ground. The Day of Honor theme comes in as Torres keeps being reminded of the Day of Honor and of course she doesn't have much use for Klingon customs. However after her encounter with the Nograkh she does experience a bit more respect for the concept of honor. Perhaps you could argue this helps in her growth as she gradually becomes more accepting of her Klingon half as the series progresses.

Overall I'd rate the novel a pretty decent average. It's not an 'oh wow' novel, but it's a good read nonetheless that doesn't get boring.

 

[Christopher]

(much like Torres wanted to refuse treatment from Crell Moset in "Nothing Human", which interestingly came out about a year after the novel's release)

That sort of thing happened a lot -- novels and episodes accidentally dealing with similar things (e.g. Seven of Nine and "Infinite Regress," or "The Seventh" and Surak's Soul). A natural enough occurrence when different writers are working with the same characters and situations, and with a similar goal of telling socially relevant stories. There might have been some recent controversy over using scientific knowledge gained from Nazi or similar experiments, inspiring both writers. I know that Josef Mengele, the inspiration for Crell Moset, was in the news in the early '90s when DNA results definitively confirmed his death.

 

[Damian]

That sort of thing happened a lot -- novels and episodes accidentally dealing with similar things (e.g. Seven of Nine and "Infinite Regress," or "The Seventh" and Surak's Soul). A natural enough occurrence when different writers are working with the same characters and situations, and with a similar goal of telling socially relevant stories. There might have been some recent controversy over using scientific knowledge gained from Nazi or similar experiments, inspiring both writers. I know that Josef Mengele, the inspiration for Crell Moset, was in the news in the early '90s when DNA results definitively confirmed his death.

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised. It's not an uncommon theme.

I just find it interesting when two writers happen to come across a similar theme and see how each writer handles it. Friedman what I thought was a decent resolution in his story, and that part of it was much different then that featured in "Nothing Human". With as many stories Star Trek has it happens quite a bit.

 

[Christopher]

Practically every time I sent in a spec script or pitched to one of the shows back in the '90s (only 2 specs and 3 pitch sessions, so not many), one thing I pitched turned out to be similar to a story they did later -- or in the case of my first spec script, one they'd already shot and that aired the week after I mailed in the script! Laypeople often assume similarity between two stories is "proof" of deliberate copying, but they have no idea how hard it is to avoid doing it by accident.

 

[Damian]

Practically every time I sent in a spec script or pitched to one of the shows back in the '90s (only 2 specs and 3 pitch sessions, so not many), one thing I pitched turned out to be similar to a story they did later -- or in the case of my first spec script, one they'd already shot and that aired the week after I mailed in the script! Laypeople often assume similarity between two stories is "proof" of deliberate copying, but they have no idea how hard it is to avoid doing it by accident.

Yeah, I wouldn't use the word 'copying' even if a work is known to be inspired by a previous work. It'd probably be hard at this point to create a truly original Star Trek story that hasn't been done in some fashion before.

I figure most of it is coincidence, perhaps a few that are genuinely inspired by other words, and maybe a few where a writer may be inspired subliminally without realizing it. But most of the time I imagine it's just because Star Trek already has thousands of stories so it'd be hard to avoid.

Besides, the publisher isn't likely to allow blatant 'copying' anyway.

 

[Damian]

Though I'll admit when I notice a story similarity I wonder if the later is inspired at all by the former. Like wondering if the whole Piper-McCoy thing from E:TFA and SFTS was at all inspired by the earlier comic. But I don't consider that copying. Even if it was inspired I'd call that more a nod or Easter egg (plus it was a minor plot point in both books).

 

[Christopher]

Generally, if we know our work is similar to something recent, we'll generally try to change it. So people who believe that similarity is evidence of imitation/homage are getting it backward. More often, it's evidence that the creators didn't know about the similarity, or else they would've made it more different.

(For instance, after selling the outline for The Captain's Oath, I realized I should read The Autobiography of James T. Kirk just to make sure I avoided repeating anything it did with regard to Kirk's first command. Turned out its approach was already very different from what I had in mind.)

 

[Damian]

Generally, if we know our work is similar to something recent, we'll generally try to change it. So people who believe that similarity is evidence of imitation/homage are getting it backward. More often, it's evidence that the creators didn't know about the similarity, or else they would've made it more different.

(For instance, after selling the outline for The Captain's Oath, I realized I should read The Autobiography of James T. Kirk just to make sure I avoided repeating anything it did with regard to Kirk's first command. Turned out its approach was already very different from what I had in mind.)

I suppose one difference to that would be when you're building off prior stories, like the relaunches. Though I guess you could say in that case you're still writing your own story, you're just picking up where the last book left off.

Or if you are intentionally putting an Easter egg in your story. But then, those are usually minor plot points.