Spoilers TNG: The Light Fantastic by Jeffrey Lang Review Thread

[JD]

Did this book ignore the animated Mudd episode, Mudd's Passion? In the Alice flashback it talks about how Mudd had been on the android planet for years, yet according to Memory Alpha I, Mudd , the android episode was in 2268, and Mudd's Passion was 2269, meaning there was only a year, or possibly less between the episodes. There is a possibility that you could fudge things and say that Passion was after Mudd and Alice left the planet, and she was just offscreen the whole time, but I'm not really sure how well that works.

 

[Christopher]

Did this book ignore the animated Mudd episode, Mudd's Passion? In the Alice flashback it talks about how Mudd had been on the android planet for years, yet according to Memory Alpha I, Mudd , the android episode was in 2268, and Mudd's Passion was 2269, meaning there was only a year, or possibly less between the episodes. There is a possibility that you could fudge things and say that Passion was after Mudd and Alice left the planet, and she was just offscreen the whole time, but I'm not really sure how well that works.

Yeah, that's tricky. I choose to disregard the date references in that chapter and assume it takes place around the end of season 3.

 

[JD]

I finished reading this last night and it gets a solid outstanding rating for me.
The Geordi/Data relationship was always a highlight of TNG for me, so I liked that this book focused pretty squarely on them. Seeing Geordi react and deal with how different the new Data is was pretty interesting.
The Data/Lal realationship was good too.
I got big kick out of all of the characters and elements from earlier stories and other series that were worked into the story. That is one thing that does have to danger of getting annoying, but I was really happy with the way everything was worked into the story.
I've always enjoyed the Moriarty episodes of TNG, and I really liked what was done with him here.
I knew about Mudd from seeing spoilers, but the way he was brought into the story was still pretty surprising.
The ending definitely makes me want another Data novel.

Spoiler: Control

I saw over in it's review thread that Data is in Control, does his appearance tie into the end of this one at all?

 

[Burning Hearts of Qo'nos]

I finished reading this last night and it gets a solid outstanding rating for me.
The Geordi/Data relationship was always a highlight of TNG for me, so I liked that this book focused pretty squarely on them. Seeing Geordi react and deal with how different the new Data is was pretty interesting.
The Data/Lal realationship was good too.
I got big kick out of all of the characters and elements from earlier stories and other series that were worked into the story. That is one thing that does have to danger of getting annoying, but I was really happy with the way everything was worked into the story.
I've always enjoyed the Moriarty episodes of TNG, and I really liked what was done with him here.
I knew about Mudd from seeing spoilers, but the way he was brought into the story was still pretty surprising.
The ending definitely makes me want another Data novel.

Spoiler: Control

I saw over in it's review thread that Data is in Control, does his appearance tie into the end of this one at all?

Spoiler

There isn't any mention of Moriarty or reference to any adventures they might have had post-Light Fantastic. He shows up in Control still living at his Casino with Lal nearby. I'm patiently waiting for the next Data novel too. I'm hoping he teams up with Moriarty and its somekinda mystery! This book sent Data and the android gang into a great direction in my opinion.

 

[Reanok]

I really like this Data novel I re-read it a few weeks ago. I wouldn't mind seeing Data appear in some more books with his daughter Lal.

 

[tomswift2002]

I really like this Data novel I re-read it a few weeks ago. I wouldn't mind seeing Data appear in some more books with his daughter Lal.

You might want to check out "Control" then.

 

[JD]

One thing I was a little surprised by that I forgot to mention in my other post, was just how much of the books was taken up by flashbacks. I don't mind non-linear storytelling, and it was nice to get those gaps filled in, but at times it felt like it was spending more time with the flashbacks than the actual main plot of the book.

 

[Reanok]

Thanks Tomswift. I did read control when it came out awhile back. I thought Control it was a good book.

 

[tomswift2002]

One thing I was a little surprised by that I forgot to mention in my other post, was just how much of the books was taken up by flashbacks. I don't mind non-linear storytelling, and it was nice to get those gaps filled in, but at times it felt like it was spending more time with the flashbacks than the actual main plot of the book.

Considering that we all knew that Soong was dead at the end of the episode "Brothers", we needed to be brought up on how Soong survived.

 

[JD]

I was talking about The Light Fantastic, Soong was in Cold Equations: Persistance of Memory. TLF was the one with Moriarty and Mudd.

 

[thribs]

Wait wait wait... was that a Dalek he had in his collection? He should know better than that.
A very enjoyable book. I’m curious what this “big threat” is the Professor talks about at the end. They need a new one since the Borg are gone and the Typhon Pact are as interesting as a dail tone.

 

[thribs]

Did this book ignore the animated Mudd episode, Mudd's Passion? In the Alice flashback it talks about how Mudd had been on the android planet for years, yet according to Memory Alpha I, Mudd , the android episode was in 2268, and Mudd's Passion was 2269, meaning there was only a year, or possibly less between the episodes. There is a possibility that you could fudge things and say that Passion was after Mudd and Alice left the planet, and she was just offscreen the whole time, but I'm not really sure how well that works.

The story could have been written in the time when TAS wasn't considered canon with the main lore. Only in the last few years did CBS say it was canon.

 

[Jinn]

The story could have been written in the time when TAS wasn't considered canon with the main lore. Only in the last few years did CBS say it was canon.

I highly doubt that. TAS has been canon since, like, 2007 while The Light Fantastic came out in 2014 and is an explicit sequel to the Cold Equations trilogy from 2012. The author has already demonstrated that he can screw up some minor timeline bits, like in Force and Motion, where he sets a chapter in 2366 but it actually has to take place in or after 2369 (see MB page of the novel). So it's probably just an oversight.

 

[thribs]

Was it really that long ago? I thought it was made canon around 2014.
I still find it funny that because of that, the anti-verse Episode is now canon.

 

[Christopher]

I highly doubt that. TAS has been canon since, like, 2007 while The Light Fantastic came out in 2014...

It was never really not canon. The infamous 1989 Roddenberry memo that supposedly "decanonized" TAS had no actual power over the screen franchise itself, since Roddenberry was in very poor health at that point and had been sidelined to a token advisory role. The shows were never forbidden from making TAS references, as when TNG: "Unification" alluded to elements from "Yesteryear" in 1991. The "no TAS" rule was only ever enforced on the tie-ins, as one of Richard Arnold's many arbitrary restrictions on what they were allowed to do while he was in charge, but he was fired literally the day after Roddenberry's death in 1991.

If you ask me, the memo was little more than an expression of a mentally deteriorating man's insecurity about his legacy and his desire to delegitimize parts of the franchise that didn't come directly from him, and probably partly a deliberate attempt to discredit D.C. Fontana's contributions to the franchise as a gambit in their struggle over creator credits to TNG. (Normally, as co-writer of the pilot script, Fontana would've been automatically guaranteed a co-creator credit for TNG, but Roddenberry and his lawyer actively fought to deny it to her, as well as to David Gerrold, who wrote the bulk of the series bible.) In fact, Roddenberry was given unprecedentedly complete creative control over TAS and could have made it entirely his own, but he chose to entrust it to Fontana, making his later repudiation of it immensely hypocritical.

 

[DimesDan]

Was it really that long ago? I thought it was made canon around 2014.
I still find it funny that because of that, the anti-verse Episode is now canon.

I find it funny that people seem to be so hung-up on what really happened (or in many cases, did not happen) within a fictional universe.

 

[thribs]

I just find that episode rather silly. I suppose a good novel about it could remedy it.