You Like the E-E bridge crew?

[Jarvisimo]

Dygan was really good in The Crimson Shadow, Smrhova nice too (if perhaps defined by her job). I used to rather like that Betazoid dude who was Choudhury's deputy...but he dissapeared?

I like also all the Mackian extras that have been around since A Time to Kill and A Time to Heal - the familiar names and faces who appear in his books especially (Destiny and Cold Equations). Although a good few died in each.

 

[JD]

I really like Chen, and liked Choudhury alot. Dygan and Elfiki have both had some interesting stuff in books, but not really enough to stand out.

 

[Enterprise1701]

Dygan was really good in The Crimson Shadow, Smrhova nice too (if perhaps defined by her job). I used to rather like that Betazoid dude who was Choudhury's deputy...but he dissapeared?

Rennan Konya appeared in both The Fall - The Crimson Shadow and The Fall - Peaceable Kingdoms.

 

[apollo1984]

The problem with the E-E crew is that since A Time To series we have not really had time to get a settled crew together, with transfers, deaths and a mutiny. I did like the start that was made in Q&A crew with the ops officer and security officer (reason being I liked having essentially a grunt rather than a officer in security since he gained a battlefield commission).

Since then there have been no real "stand outs" for me in terms of additional bridge crew (I have only read a few books since Destiny but to that point I did not feel like I cared for anyone) and Chen, the idea in itself is not necessarily bad but she just is not someone I could see Picard tolerating for long enough she just is not serious enough to be an important bridge member.

All in all I think that I prefer the Titan crew (with only Tuvok being the only "show" character I really care about) but the rest seem much more fleshed out than the ones I read about in any TNG books.

 

[Starfury]

[...] and Chen, the idea in itself is not necessarily bad but she just is not someone I could see Picard tolerating for long enough

Quite the contrary. We know that Picard has a habit of taking young and... difficult?... Officers under his wing (like Data, Worf, Yar, Ro) and turning them into fine officers. And Christopher and William Leisner made it believable, that Chen is kind of a practice-daughter pet project thingy for him. They have nice chemistry.

Of course, the authors have to build on that and not all are able or wiling to.

 

[Christopher]

^Yes, that was exactly my intent with T'Ryssa -- to have her be the same kind of character as Ro, someone who disrupts the cozy status quo of the crew, who doesn't seem like she could possibly work, but who develops an unlikely mentor-student relationship with Picard that grounds her while challenging him.

 

[Claudia]

ad Chen - the only memorable thing, and I mean that in a very negative sense, was her failed romance with Taurik in The Body Electric... nothing against a healthy sex life, quite the opposite in fact, especially since usually it's the males who are depicted in such a role, but deliberating that romance and having absolutely juvenile discussions about it in the face of universe-wide catastrophes seemed ridiculous to me. And I do realize that such catastrophes, because of their inconceivable nature, focuse the attention closer to home, still this plotthread didn't work at all for me amidst all the chaos and Data's emotional turmoil.

My emotional investment in the E-E-characters is finite - especially since the TV-characters left on the Enterprise, with the exception of Picard, were never my favourites to begin with. And the new characters never managed to get under my skin, so I am not really as intested in them as in for example Vaughn or O'Donnell (or all the Vanguard-characters - with the caveat that the Sagittarius crew doesn't really work for me, either, so I'll reserve judgment on Seekers for now).

 

[Tirius]

At least on DS9 and VGR things happen at a slower pace we can spend more time with the new characters and to get to know them.

This kind of sums up my thoughts as well. We need more time with the new cast to get to know them better, outside of their jobs. This is why I so liked Miranda Kadohata, and to a lesser extent Chen, who get a decent bit of screen (page) time in the books that introduced them and we continued to get to "look inside their head" as it were. Part of my issue with the earlier TNG post-finale novels was the constant changes in the new main cast, and so I'd prefer a stable lineup, less in-universe time between the stories, and time to get to know the new cast better, as Voyager and the early DS9 relaunch have done so well.

And for the record: I also like Chen. The Picard-as-mentor theme mentioned by others aside, she also serves as a good mirror to the established characters, as someone who will question the status quo. It provides a fresh perspective that I appreciate, and I suspect is one of the reasons Picard would value her as well.

 

[Kilana2]

The mixture of veterans and newbies is great, as I mentioned earlier. I will try to criticize more constructively, as I regret my harsh words about Chen earlier. She has definitely potential. But as I mentioned before, she´s not close to me yet. And as she is going to stay that may well change.
At least I can get something out of her: she is professional and deals with her mixed heritage. That´s not always easy as we can see with B´Elanna Torres. Chen had her annoying moment but she is part of the team now. Christopher will realize that T´Ryssa is the most discussed among the new personnel. That counts for something. I devoured the "A time to...." series and there was only the core team. You could hardly bond with secondary characters.
A appreciate Picard being able to deal with difficult personalities. Look what happened to Ro: from defecting to the Maquis to becoming Captain of DS9.

 

[Nathan]

I still try to get into the Chen character, and I see what the author wants to do to make it so she is not your "typical Starfleet officer". I get that, but she is too nutty/flamboyant/embracing her human side to ever be Picard's aide. Yes, Captains can mentor young people (Worf did with the Bajoran gal from the Lower Decks episode) and anyone can be anyone's mentor (Laforge with Taurik) and yeah Picard can mentor her, but being his aide.....you have to be Type-A person and politically and socially savvy with a gig like that. Maybe one day Chen will be, but I don't see it anytime soon.

Perhaps the author didn't do enough research on what you have to do be a Captain's aide or what that job entails or couldn't relate to that kind of pressure. And we aint' talking just anyone's Captain's aide....its the Federation's hero -- CPT Picard's aide.

So again, is she a contact specialist?? an aide??? on command track to command the bridge?? Or just whatever position is available so she get some time in the book, or all of the above???? ...uggh! If she all those positions, perhaps she the next Mary Sue of the E-E!!!!

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I've not read any of the books with the new crew, but have done some googling and find the new crew to still be very human-heavy and none particularly jump out as being that interesting to read about. Would need to read some to make an informed decision, but not really feeling compelled to do so unfortunately.

 

[Idran]

I still try to get into the Chen character, and I see what the author wants to do to make it so she is not your "typical Starfleet officer". I get that, but she is too nutty/flamboyant/embracing her human side to ever be Picard's aide. Yes, Captains can mentor young people (Worf did with the Bajoran gal from the Lower Decks episode) and anyone can be anyone's mentor (Laforge with Taurik) and yeah Picard can mentor her, but being his aide.....you have to be Type-A person and politically and socially savvy with a gig like that. Maybe one day Chen will be, but I don't see it anytime soon.

Perhaps the author didn't do enough research on what you have to do be a Captain's aide or what that job entails or couldn't relate to that kind of pressure. And we aint' talking just anyone's Captain's aide....its the Federation's hero -- CPT Picard's aide.

Could you go into more detail about what exactly a Captain's aide is in the modern military and why it requires such an attitude? I know very little about the military, and to me the title just sounds like a fancy yeoman or a personal assistant or something.

 

[Trek Survivor]

Last book I read was "Losing the Peace" but I gave up after that - not just through disappointment with the novel-only characters introduced, but generally the whole "Post-Nemesis" books.

And as TNG is my favourite series, this does not come easy for me! I'd still love to get some new books set during the series.

 

[Nathan]

Idran, there is a difference in being a yeoman, personal assistant, the aide is more involved and more the "Face" of the general.

You have to plan the schedule out daily...keep the boss on time as he/she has meetings constantly...(with members of his staff or other organizations), people who want to see him (unlike Picard's ready room it looks like anyone can walk in without an appointment --i.e. Ro, Troi, Worf). you have to schedule times. In Trek-land ain't there hundreds of people on the ship, department heads vying for his attention (and for the First Officer too)

The guy who I worked for only had 2 people who could walk in his office (the XO and the Chief of Staff), everyone else went through me. And usually the XO and the CoS went through me as a courtesy.

When the General is out, he's meeting with people and has to briefed ahead of time who he is seeing, he had "read ahead" notes for almost everything.

Coordinating with other Generals aides as there can be pissing matches on who is better than who.

Yeah, I get Trek is a show and who wants to read about the mundane things, so it isn't really depicted like that. Closest thing was Vanguard in Book 1 when they introduced Reyes.

Bottom line, the aide a lot of times is the "Face" of the Captain/General they are working for. It just a real bad impression when the aide messes up on something, the boss looks bad.

In this case, Picard is one of the most prominent ship captains, not the just the Captain in charge of "Stembot Production" so he's gonna have LOTS of visitors/meetings/briefings/tours etc.

yeah in Trek-land you can say everything is computer automated or quicker ways of doing things. If I was a world leader (or the World Leader's aide) I wouldn't be impress if I had to work with Chen, who is representing Picard.

Again, there is a difference with Trek stories is Real life, so you have suspend belief at times, but I think it pushing it with Chen as the aide.

You got really stupid anal stuff to plan..."who is riding with who" in the caravan of vehicles? Who sitting next to who at meetings, even dinners can be painful as with the schedule of events and who is doing what.

Its a lot of hand holding and making the boss look good and you have to give reminders on what has transpired "at the last meeting" etc just to keep it all together.

Lastly, yep, the boss I worked for I suppose mentored me a bit, but also had other soldiers that he mentored that were NOT the aide and probably got more mentoring than me as they were more operational soldiers and not the aide like me.

Hope that helps.

 

[Doom Shepherd]

deliberating that romance and having absolutely juvenile discussions about it in the face of universe-wide catastrophes seemed ridiculous to me.

Huh. I find that totally relatable, based on my circle of acquaintances.

 

[Kilana2]

yeah in Trek-land you can say everything is computer automated or quicker ways of doing things. If I was a world leader (or the World Leader's aide) I wouldn't be impress if I had to work with Chen, who is representing Picard.

What has T´Ryssa done wrong except being young and having less experience than Beverly or Picard?

Has she blundered into a sandtrap, making Picard feel ashamed in the process?

Despite my reservations about Chen and her slightly annoying cheeky and bubbly nature, she never appeared to be out of her depth regarding to her jobs. Cold Equations Trilogy is next on my list. I will wait and see.

My favorite aide by the way is Giancarlo Wu, aide of Ambassador Worf. He was always professional in his manner.

 

[BuckBokai]

Last book I read was "Losing the Peace" but I gave up after that - not just through disappointment with the novel-only characters introduced, but generally the whole "Post-Nemesis" books.

And as TNG is my favourite series, this does not come easy for me! I'd still love to get some new books set during the series.

May I ask what you didn't like about the "Post-Nemesis" books that you stopped reading them all together? I'm actually a big fan of them so I'm wondering what it might be? Totally respect your opinion though on it, to each their own, I'm just asking out of curiosity.

 

[Nathan]

Kilana2, Chen is just corny and wacky and as Chris has said (or paraphrasing) she's a different type of Starfleet officer.

She definitely not cut out to be an aide (at least as how she has been portrayed).....I see her as the Contact Specialist.

and with hundreds of people on the ship, thought it was little contrived when she running the bridge when she has absoluting no experience. Yeah, everyone at one time has no experience, but the scene where she was thrown in to it wasn't for rookies....yeah, she came out OK (hey, she was written to be successful) I just didn't buy it.

 

[Kilana2]

Kilana2, Chen is just corny and wacky and as Chris has said (or paraphrasing) she's a different type of Starfleet officer.

She definitely not cut out to be an aide (at least as how she has been portrayed).....I see her as the Contact Specialist.

and with hundreds of people on the ship, thought it was little contrived when she running the bridge when she has absoluting no experience. Yeah, everyone at one time has no experience, but the scene where she was thrown in to it wasn't for rookies....yeah, she came out OK (hey, she was written to be successful) I just didn't buy it.

So it was just about T`Ryssa having the wrong job. Now I understand your reasoning better. Keep in mind that I haven´t read the latest TNG novels yet. I remember the characters from Unas Brinkmanship, the Typhon Pact novels and Christophers Greater than the Sum.

 

[Nathan]

yeah, little bit how she had the wrong job...and yeah, I have the same gripe about Harry Kim (who I like a lot) went from Ops to HEAD of Security, I think he ill-suited too, but I think it was for plot purposes, so I just have to buy into it.

I think if Chen was in the US Navy or US Army, she wouldn't last, and yeah, I get it that Trek is not the US Army/Navy but there are a lot of similarities....Chen may last if she worked for NASA or maybe the expedititon to Antartica as a civilian scientist, but in the military, she wouldn't last.

and yeah the argument is Star Fleet a science or military outfit or both. Probably both, but you have to have some military discipline and especially working on a prominent ship like the E-E.

Again, my two cents. I truly to love Vanguard (as I think it written the most realistically, and KB Voyager too (even tho' I have the gripe about Kim in Security, I still love her work), and mostly anything by DRGIII