Kirk ran it through his mind again. We're relatively safe as long as we stay in here, as long as Burke knows where we are and feels in control. If we leave Burke will think he's losing control, and we're dead. But we've got to leave. Now just how the hell are you going to pull this one off, Jim?
First question: Was this novel sponsored by American Express, Coca-Cola, Hilton, and British Airways?
First question: Was this novel sponsored by American Express, Coca-Cola, Hilton, and British Airways?
Second question: Did I watch the same Star Trek as Brad Ferguson (author)?
From the outset Crisis on Centaurus (#28 Pocket, #47 Titan) (1986) by Brad Ferguson delivers a quite warped view of the Star Trek future. I'm not going to pull any punches; the story was pedestrian, characterisation was poor, and understanding of the Star Trek almost nonexistent.
Crisis on Centaurus isn't getting a good score, that's for sure.
There were so many things simply wrong about this book, it's difficult to know where to start.
Summary of Crisis on Centaurus - Memory Beta (as of time of writing detailed but incomplete).
The Story
The story was simplistic and uninspired and hinged upon beliefs and mentalities confirmed to be eradicated by this time in human history. We know that the concept of money is a little hazy and that we know that racism within humans is pretty much unheard of, and we also know that Alpha Centauri IV (or in this case Centaurus) is a thriving Federation colony (in fact a founding member of the United Federation of Planets). Much of the narrative of Crisis on Centaurus hinges on Centaurus being somewhat at odds with the Federation and Federation principles so ultimately Crisis is based on a faulty premise to begin with.
Initial conflicts of interest / principles with the Federation are apparent from the first page. What really stuck on page one was the 'American Express' cash machine. The use of real big name brands occurs throughout the book and to me indicates not only a lack of understanding of Star Trek but also a severe lack of imagination. I might have been able to ignore the rampant capitalism if Ferguson had bothered to invent an equivalent but... for me the inclusion of American Express (which highlighted a monetary system), Hilton, Coca-Cola, and strangely British Air(ways) broke my suspension of disbelief.
Stretching for ideas, Ferguson uses racism to try and make his villains more... villainous. Humans who are not only xenophobic of other species, they are also white supremacists! So, did we watch the same Star Trek or did we see two different shows? Star Trek TOS explicitly says racism doesn't exist within humans two or three times, humans have grown past that.
Additionally, part of the plot is that the planet's defence system has gone haywire and is shooting nukes at anything that flies... Sorry, are we part of the Federation or not?
The story is so badly structured and conceived that in order to have an understanding of the motivations of the plot the main remaining villain gives a long winded hypothetical exposition. Look, Ferguson, if you've got to the point where you've got to wrap up a book and the only way you can do this is by having the bad guy (who really wasn't behind the big explosion anyway) tell you everything from the motivations to the execution of the events because otherwise everyone is going to be none the wiser... you've failed.
A subplot is that the Enterprises' computer system has been damaged and it might have been sabotage! Except it wasn't and nobody really thought about it too much and took quite a cavalier attitude to the fact there might be a saboteur on the ship, in that nobody actually investigated anything. As it turns out a tiny black hole winked in and out of existence while the Enterprise was travelling at warp two and that's what damaged the computer system. It's not really investigated until the end.
Ferguson also seems to forget how the chains of command works on the Enterprise and makes a big thing about Uhura being put in charge of the Enterprise (presumably because she's black or something and it fits with his white supremacists plot point).
Characterisation
Characterisation was poor all round with Kirk having some terrible dialogue and out of character moments, just take a look at this example of sterling writing:
Stretching for ideas, Ferguson uses racism to try and make his villains more... villainous. Humans who are not only xenophobic of other species, they are also white supremacists! So, did we watch the same Star Trek or did we see two different shows? Star Trek TOS explicitly says racism doesn't exist within humans two or three times, humans have grown past that.
Additionally, part of the plot is that the planet's defence system has gone haywire and is shooting nukes at anything that flies... Sorry, are we part of the Federation or not?
The story is so badly structured and conceived that in order to have an understanding of the motivations of the plot the main remaining villain gives a long winded hypothetical exposition. Look, Ferguson, if you've got to the point where you've got to wrap up a book and the only way you can do this is by having the bad guy (who really wasn't behind the big explosion anyway) tell you everything from the motivations to the execution of the events because otherwise everyone is going to be none the wiser... you've failed.
A subplot is that the Enterprises' computer system has been damaged and it might have been sabotage! Except it wasn't and nobody really thought about it too much and took quite a cavalier attitude to the fact there might be a saboteur on the ship, in that nobody actually investigated anything. As it turns out a tiny black hole winked in and out of existence while the Enterprise was travelling at warp two and that's what damaged the computer system. It's not really investigated until the end.
Ferguson also seems to forget how the chains of command works on the Enterprise and makes a big thing about Uhura being put in charge of the Enterprise (presumably because she's black or something and it fits with his white supremacists plot point).
Characterisation
Characterisation was poor all round with Kirk having some terrible dialogue and out of character moments, just take a look at this example of sterling writing:
"You can't afford to sneer, Barclay," Kirk said. "You're too close to being dead right now. So shut that hole in your face and stay down on the floor."Um... What even is this dialogue? Much of the 'character development' for Kirk revolves around that he'd much rather kill the criminals behind the atrocity but he's going to do his duty despite his desire to end their lives himself. Laughable.
Spock gets off lightly and Ferguson puts in a few emotional lapses so he isn't a complete robot 100% of the time. No really terrible dialogue that I can recall but nothing wonderful either.
McCoy is barely in the novel, nor is his daughter Joanna. You'd think there would be character development here, McCoy being worried about his daughter, some exposition through his daughter. Well Joanna makes an appearance for about 25 pages, McCoy for reasons unknown doesn't go down to the planet to help until after she is found alive. Personally I would have thought that nothing would have stopped McCoy from going down to the planet especially since he wouldn't be going on the transporters since they are non-functional throughout the novel.
An OC nurse however does go down to the planet's surface in McCoy's stead. Her purpose is to provide some cringe inducing dialogue from Chekov and to create some sort of tragic, abortive love affair with him.
Which reminds me every-single-woman is commented on or leched at by Kirk and/or Chekov. Every time those lines came up I felt like shrivelling up in embarrassment.
The Villains are non-entities. The scientist who started the blast was a bland nothing, the bad-guys Kirk was trying to save in order for them to be taken to trial and avoid the Centauran death penalty (what?) were bland, uninteresting and 'the big bad' was cliched. The best villains were the government agents, who weren't villains at all and just wanted to arrest the terrorists under their own laws. Kirk didn't like one of them... probably because the government official was competent and doing his job unlike everyone else in this version of Star Trek.
Basically, don't read Crisis on Centaurus. It's a waste of time. It's not even a good story, let alone a good Star Trek story.
1/5 - Product Placement.
McCoy is barely in the novel, nor is his daughter Joanna. You'd think there would be character development here, McCoy being worried about his daughter, some exposition through his daughter. Well Joanna makes an appearance for about 25 pages, McCoy for reasons unknown doesn't go down to the planet to help until after she is found alive. Personally I would have thought that nothing would have stopped McCoy from going down to the planet especially since he wouldn't be going on the transporters since they are non-functional throughout the novel.
An OC nurse however does go down to the planet's surface in McCoy's stead. Her purpose is to provide some cringe inducing dialogue from Chekov and to create some sort of tragic, abortive love affair with him.
Which reminds me every-single-woman is commented on or leched at by Kirk and/or Chekov. Every time those lines came up I felt like shrivelling up in embarrassment.
The Villains are non-entities. The scientist who started the blast was a bland nothing, the bad-guys Kirk was trying to save in order for them to be taken to trial and avoid the Centauran death penalty (what?) were bland, uninteresting and 'the big bad' was cliched. The best villains were the government agents, who weren't villains at all and just wanted to arrest the terrorists under their own laws. Kirk didn't like one of them... probably because the government official was competent and doing his job unlike everyone else in this version of Star Trek.
Basically, don't read Crisis on Centaurus. It's a waste of time. It's not even a good story, let alone a good Star Trek story.
1/5 - Product Placement.
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