Guessing he's a fan.
Spoilers TNG: Collateral Damage by David Mack Review Thread
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You need to watch Warehouse 13.
As for why, Trek authors do this kind of thing all the time, there are a ton of minor characters throughout the books named after characters or actors from other shows and movies.
I haven't read this one yet, but apparently there is also a group of officers who are all the characters from Brooklyn Nine-Nine. One of the ones that got me was that two main characters from the Clerks movies as a couple of lower ranking crew members on one of the ships in Vanguard.
I can understand that. A whole milieu that I've created (my novel-in-progress, several short stories, and my planned model railroad layout) contain a number of allusions to the Stratemeyer Syndicate, and the various series of children's novels they produced (I freely admit to having grown up on the Bobbsey Twins). Not to mention characters named after composers and other musicians. Including a music teacher named Glenn Sweelinck, an intentional allusion to the lead character in Mr. Holland's Opus (Sweelinck, for those of you not conversant in composers from the 16th and early 17th centuries, was from Holland).
There is, after all, no doubt in my mind that Teresa Garcia, from the DTI novels and e-novellas, is an allusion to Teri Garr. And of course, Dulmur and Lucsly are an allusion to Scully and Mulder, one I caught (after somebody had practically rubbed my nose in it) even though I'd never seen an episode of The X Files.
No; I was puzzled by the obscurity of the reference: a relatively unknown actress. Kind of like naming a character after Alvy Moore ("Hank Kimball," from Green Acres) or John Volstad (the "other brother Darryl," from Newhart)
There is, after all, no doubt in my mind that Teresa Garcia, from the DTI novels and e-novellas, is an allusion to Teri Garr. And of course, Dulmur and Lucsly are an allusion to Scully and Mulder, one I caught (after somebody had practically rubbed my nose in it) even though I'd never seen an episode of The X Files.
No; I was puzzled by the obscurity of the reference: a relatively unknown actress. Kind of like naming a character after Alvy Moore ("Hank Kimball," from Green Acres) or John Volstad (the "other brother Darryl," from Newhart)
Wow, not even remotely. "Garcia" is an homage to Russell Garcia, the composer for George Pal's The Time Machine. Teresa is a nod to two old friends of mine (one high school, one college) named Theresa -- I just like the name. (I gave Chief Ross from TMP the first name Theresa in Ex Machina, forgetting that TOS had a Yeoman Teresa Ross already.) And the character overall is inspired by Natalie Morales as Wendy Watson from The Middleman.
Unlike other authors, while I do often base character names on friends or actors, I generally don't Tuckerize real people's full names (except in my upcoming The Higher Frontier, as a reward for donors in a fundraising campaign). I just feel awkward using a real person's name in that way, especially without permission. And I feel it breaks the illusion too much if a fictional character is too obviously based on a real person. So when I allude to people's names, I tend to do it in a roundabout manner so it isn't obvious, e.g. mixing and matching an actor's last name with the first name of one of their characters or vice versa, or translating the meaning of their name into another language, or anagramming/reworking their name into something alien-sounding, or the like.
In name only, though. Their characters in "Trials and Tribble-ations" are completely different from the X-Files duo. William Leisner hit it on the nose in "Gods, Fate, and Fractals" in Strange New Worlds when he portrayed Lucsly and Dulmur as essentially Joe Friday and Bill Gannon from Dragnet.
Allison Scagliotti is pretty well-known to Warehouse 13 fans, being one of its breakout stars. And Dave Mack used to write for the Sci-Fi Channel/Syfy website, and she's made numerous convention appearances over the years, so they probably know each other.
Read this book as quickly as was reasonable.
I enjoyed the worldbuilding, characters and storyline. Okona had appeared most recently as Guinan's replacement in the timeline where Lal lived and Locutus/Picard died. Bringing back the loveable rogue is much appreciated. In his current line of work, he reminds me of Operative Tom Riker, but more cheerful.
I enjoyed the worldbuilding, characters and storyline. Okona had appeared most recently as Guinan's replacement in the timeline where Lal lived and Locutus/Picard died. Bringing back the loveable rogue is much appreciated. In his current line of work, he reminds me of Operative Tom Riker, but more cheerful.
And yet, ignoring ethnicity for a moment, Garcia reminds me a lot of Roberta Lincoln, as well as a couple of Garr's other well-known characters.
I don't see the resemblance at all. Garr is known for playing goofy, flighty characters or wide-eyed, vulnerable waifs. Garcia is cool, competent, and quick with a wisecrack. She's more a Buffy than a Willow.
The James Bond pastiche....Though more of a Metal Gear Solid pastiche if I am honest...wore thin after a while. Especially when it somewhat reduced Shrmovavavava (I never remember the name)
Edit: (had to answer door mid post)
Reduced her to Daddy issues and Bond Girl Who gets shagged.
Overall...I am a bit meh. It could have been a story published years ago. Okona and his super spy shenanigans felt ike it would have been Bashir a few books back, if he was t dribbling Kanar. As a book it goes out of its way to enforce many of the divisions we discuss...there’s common profanity (regardless of STIV) and money everywhere (regardless of ST IV and many TNG lines) Starfleet is pretty much a military (admittedly less of a stretch.) and the Federation is generally a bit shady. By the end we are very fully back at status quo.
The nausicaan stuff could have been very interesting, especially when at one point it looked like Mack was toying with the idea of having them supercharge their terraforming with the stolen tech (the fact the Husnock Weapon is based on Omega particle tech is basically forgotten or ignored by the end) and a few more scenes to do with that would have been good, but would have messed with the Metal Gear story.
Edit: (had to answer door mid post)
Reduced her to Daddy issues and Bond Girl Who gets shagged.
Overall...I am a bit meh. It could have been a story published years ago. Okona and his super spy shenanigans felt ike it would have been Bashir a few books back, if he was t dribbling Kanar. As a book it goes out of its way to enforce many of the divisions we discuss...there’s common profanity (regardless of STIV) and money everywhere (regardless of ST IV and many TNG lines) Starfleet is pretty much a military (admittedly less of a stretch.) and the Federation is generally a bit shady. By the end we are very fully back at status quo.
The nausicaan stuff could have been very interesting, especially when at one point it looked like Mack was toying with the idea of having them supercharge their terraforming with the stolen tech (the fact the Husnock Weapon is based on Omega particle tech is basically forgotten or ignored by the end) and a few more scenes to do with that would have been good, but would have messed with the Metal Gear story.
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I just realized I'm 8 whole books behind. The last book with TNG characters I read was Takedown. Not sure how that happened. I am eager to catch up. Is this the last scheduled TNG book?
For now. It all depends what the powers that be decide what to do.
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that more people are familiar with Allison Scagliotti than with Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck.
Is this the first Star Trek book you've read? All that is very common in the Litverse, and has been for years, over a decade at that.
Been reading them for years. This one just took it to extremes, usually when in the Okona sections. Outrageous, I know.
Considering televised Star Trek is now dropping F-bombs, I'm not sure how a book where the most serious word is "shit" is considered extreme.
Almost done. When Worf started seriously negotiating, I was certain that a world in the Klingon Empire would be their new home.
Picard as a permanent Captain would make to effective difference for him, if this Litverse timeline continued.
Picard as a permanent Captain would make to effective difference for him, if this Litverse timeline continued.
Picard said it himself in French in TNG S1.
Wow, you've never seen The X-Files or Warehouse 13?
I don't know if I'd call her that obscure, Warehouse 13 was pretty popular with sci-fi fans, and since then she's also been on Bones, CSI, Smallville, Switched at Birth and Fresh Off the Boat.
Picards profanity was a sneak-by...and tends to mean shit.
But that’s the point, the 24th century is supposed to be different (whether some fans like that is a debate running to this day) and DSC tries to fly-by under trying to be different (it reaches hard for the edgy. Hard.) and fig-leafs It by being set ‘before’ what came before (which is ridiculous, because the whole colourful metaphors discussion is had by contemporaries...but that argument is an old chestnut.)
It’s a metal gear solid tribute, by way of Bond (some scenes almost going past tribute, but Mack does that and sometimes it’s really fun. I enjoyed his Terminator riffs in th past in particular.) and as a book designed to tie things up, perhaps something a little more...inclusive...more of a celebration of what came before would have been a better choice. As it is...it’s kind of...middle of the road. The A and B stories look like they once tied up closer (weapons, arming of lower tier civilisations, the sovereignty of the Klingon border) but somewhere they got away with each other, and the courtroom drama became...uninteresting. Beverly was sort of...just there.
With regards to the “shout-out’s” .It always drops me right out of a book when that happens and it happens a lot in Treklit.
A bridge scene where every single crewman gets namechecked??
Might be fun to some people but then again eating broccoli is fun to some people too.
A bridge scene where every single crewman gets namechecked??
Might be fun to some people but then again eating broccoli is fun to some people too.
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