Spoilers TOS: The Antares Maelstrom by Greg Cox Review Thread

[hbquikcomjamesl]

It's an alien tea that figures in the plot. I just made up the word.

Hmm. Then (at least so far as has been written), nothing but pure coincidence, even though, conceivably, Khan could be speaking of

Spoiler: Caution: could be construed as a story idea

a place that's an alternate source of nabbia tea, and mispronouncing it as "nibia"

Then again, the first time I'd heard Khan's Melville paraphrase, I thought he was speaking of moons named after a line of skin-care products.

And speaking of Melville, there's a whole article on him in the issue of Smithsonian I'm currently reading.

 

[T'Ressa Dax]

I enjoyed this book so much. The beginning in particular, with Spock and McCoy arguing and Chekov pretending everything was "inwented" in Russia reminded me of an actual episode. I was a little disappointed that two different solutions right after each other were introduced with the word Unless?. Actually thought about rating this above average for that, but the rest of the story earned Outstanding.

 

[Kilana2]

I've just ordered it.....

 

[Ronald Held]

I will order it after I finish Enterprise war.

 

[Reanok]

I got my book the other day. I've only read a few chapters but really like the story involving all the Enterprise crew that they get storyarcs in the book.

 

[thribs]

I’m 40 pages in and I’ve spotted the STD reference. It would be funny the the Lucky Strike was the Deathstrike from the Enterprise War.

 

[XCV330]

Has the Solar Wind made an appearance in trek fiction before? Memory Beta has it also in a book written a LONG time ago, and I just wondered. That's incredibly cool if its the same old ship.

 

[Greg Cox]

Has the Solar Wind made an appearance in trek fiction before? Memory Beta has it also in a book written a LONG time ago, and I just wondered. That's incredibly cool if its the same old ship.

If so, it wasn't intentional. But I thought it was a good name for a ship so I'm not too surprised it's been used before.

 

[DEWLine]

From Joe Haldeman's novel Planet of Judgment.

 

[thribs]

120 pages in. Kelpia is mentioned in a conversation about the Federation. Does that mean they’re part of the Federation by then? Did they wipe out the Ba’ul? Those Discovery episodes were so confusing as to what happens to them after they left. If it wasn’t for the finale, I would have thought the time tsunami wiped them out.

 

[Kertrats47]

The newest Literary Treks episode is up, #279: The Young, Rash, Impetuous Russian, in which we interviewed Greg Cox about The Antares Maelstrom! It was a really fun discussion, and we were very happy to have Greg on the show.

 

[E-DUB]

Only about 70 pages in, but I will say this. If Gene's original vision for Trek was "Wagon Train to the Stars", this comes closer to that than anything I've seen for some time.

 

[Christopher]

Only about 70 pages in, but I will say this. If Gene's original vision for Trek was "Wagon Train to the Stars", this comes closer to that than anything I've seen for some time.

Contrary to modern assumptions, he didn't really mean that as "space Western," since half the shows on the air back then were Westerns and he could've picked any one. He picked Wagon Train because it was a critically acclaimed adult drama with a pseudo-anthology format, and it was a shorthand for telling network executives that he wanted to do a show in that same vein. The fact that it was a Western was incidental; in the writers' bible, he also cited Naked City as one of the classy semi-anthology dramas he wanted his writers to emulate.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Never actually saw so much as a single episode of Wagon Train, but that certainly fits how I'd always understood Roddenberry's intended meaning of the phrase: a continuing cast's adventures and encounters out in "terra incognita," usually with people, places, and situations they'd never encounter again. Never heard it described as "semi-anthology," but I suppose that's as good a term as any. As I recall, he also described it as "Hornblower in Space," and having read a Hornblower book, I get that, too.

Then again, that would make ADF's two "Mad Amos" collections "semi-anthologies," rather than anthologies. I like it.

Here we go again, with CLB and myself in what appears to be complete agreement. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

 

[Christopher]

Never heard it described as "semi-anthology," but I suppose that's as good a term as any.

In the early days of TV, the classiest shows were the anthologies, often written by noted playwrights like Reginald Rose, Paddy Chayefsky, and Rod Serling, while continuity was scorned as the stuff of cheesy soap operas and kids' movie serials -- the reverse of today's attitudes. Also, with few reruns and no home video, people couldn't guarantee getting to see every episode of a show, so it was preferable to make each episode a complete, self-contained experience. So anthologies were the ideal everyone aspired to, but continuing casts and situations had practical advantages like having committed actors under contract and being able to use standing sets and stock footage, as well as benefitting from audience loyalty toward familiar actors and characters. So the ideal was a premise that had continuing characters but put them in a completely different situation every week, getting embroiled with the guest characters who had their own complete arcs within the episode -- or even had them literally adopt a new identity every week, as in The Fugitive or Mission: Impossible. That way, you got the best of both worlds, the variety of an anthology and the consistency of an ongoing series.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

. . . the reverse of today's attitudes. . . .

I don't think I've ever heard of honest-to-God pure-anthology series being looked down upon today; I just don't recall seeing any recent examples being aired at all (Fantasy Island and The Love Boat did, after all, both have continuing characters, and they occasionally did have some depth, too; The Name of the Game and The NBC Mystery Movies were wheels; Search was a semi-wheel). Then again, about the only television I watch with any regularity these days is Jeopardy. Everything else I see, scripted or otherwise, seems like a monument to Kitman's Law ("Pure drivel tends to drive from the television screen ordinary drivel").

Are there any recent examples of a pure anthology TV series?

Then again, I suppose Love American Style counts as an example of what happens if one does very low (and not necessarily tasteful) comedy in an anthology format. (And with my luck, I've just offended a Love American Style fan.)

 

[Greg Cox]

I don't think I've ever heard of honest-to-God pure-anthology series being looked down upon today; .

At the risk of putting words in Christopher's mouth, I suspect he's referring to the modern attitude that serialized storytelling is superior to more episodic, story-of-the-week type storytelling with regards to TV series in general, not just pure anthology series.

But as for recent anthology series, there's the latest TWILIGHT ZONE reboot, TWO-SENTENCE HORROR STORIES on the CW, LOVE, DEATH, AND ROBOTS on Netflix, and I believe there are reboots of AMAZING STORIES and TALES FROM THE CRYPT in the works.

And nowadays we have seasonal anthology shows like AMERICAN HORROR STORY or FARGO or THE TERROR where they do a different story with different characters each season, but each story takes a whole season long . . ..

 

[Christopher]

I don't think I've ever heard of honest-to-God pure-anthology series being looked down upon today

As Greg said, I was referring to the perception of the relative sophistication of serial vs. standalone episodic storytelling in a series with continuing characters. I meant that the popularity of anthologies in the early days of TV was a large part of the reason that standalone episodes were preferred to serialization, and that it prompted many series with continuing characters and situations to use an anthology-like format that lent itself to putting the main characters in completely different situations and contexts every week, or helping a different set of guest characters with their problems.

 

[Greg Cox]

As Greg said, I was referring to the perception of the relative sophistication of serial vs. standalone episodic storytelling in a series with continuing characters. I meant that the popularity of anthologies in the early days of TV was a large part of the reason that standalone episodes were preferred to serialization, and that it prompted many series with continuing characters and situations to use an anthology-like format that lent itself to putting the main characters in completely different situations and contexts every week, or helping a different set of guest characters with their problems.

See also ROUTE 66.

 

[Stibbons]

I thoroughly enjoyed this. It gives a wholly believable view of how a single federation starship has to spread itself and its crew increasingly thinly to deal with a crisis situation, including trafic control, colony support and police action. And then we get the more regular monster of the week showing up as well. This is the sort of thing we didn't see so much of in the series so it's very nice to see how well and entertainingly it's protrayed.

Been waiting ever since Wrath of Khan for the Antares Maelstrom to show up somewhere and this doesn't disappoint- Outstanding.