March is Women’s History Month! Why? Because it contains International Women’s Day, which commemorates the day that women in Russia started the Russian Revolution by having a bread riot. The soldiers ordered to suppress the riot joined it instead, turning an angry mob into an armed angry mob, and leading directly to the abdication of Tsar Nicolas II and to a chain of events that ultimately created the Soviet Union and the Cold War. While most people who celebrate International Women’s Day worldwide probably aren’t thinking about Star Trek, the actions of women on that day in 1917 led directly to the formation of the Soviet Union and the nuclear anxieties that compelled Gene Roddenberry to create a more optimistic vision for humanity’s future. In Star Trek, the Soviet Union was represented by the Klingon Empire. Only one Klingon woman appeared in the Original Series, but many more have appeared in the licensed novels and in every Star Trek series since. Like all science fiction, Star Trek works by combining reflections on the past and present with its audiences’ hopes and fears for the future. It’s inextricably tangled with the time of its creation. Licensed novels and subsequent series have meant that both the time of Star Trek’s creation and its cast of creators have been broadly defined and diverse. These have allowed for the creation of stories about 23^rd-century Klingon women that reflect the anxieties and hopes of 20^th-century women writers.

[They embedded their anxieties and hopes in some seriously awesome characters]

Sometimes, I don’t know what I have.

In 1990, I was buying Star Trek novels as they came out. Pocket released one a month, alternating between Original Series and Next Generation titles. Sometimes, I would pick up an older release as well, if something struck my fancy or the new release ran late. Somehow, I picked up a copy of Killing Time by Della Van Hise. It was not one of the rare copies of the first edition. Even so, a well-connected fan would have known what it was. I was not a well-connected fan. I’m sure I read the book within hours of acquisition. I’m sure I loved it, because I loved them all. And then I put it on a shelf and went on to the next one and let it wait 20 years or so before picking it up again.

It’s got a great cover, this book. There are Romulan women in gold lame togas, and a Bird of Prey descending over an exotic skyline, and Spock is wearing a red cape. He looks kind of stoically embarrassed about it. The tag line frantically insists that the galaxy has gone mad. It is a cover ripe with promise, for a book that over-delivers.

[Click here for relentless madness]

You need something to get you through the cold, dark days until you can finally Trek Into Darkness, but Star Trek novels are so much more than something to tide you over until the movie comes out. Here some reasons you should consider picking up a Star Trek novel.

[Or give one as a gift on Captain Picard Day!]

Uhura has long been one of the most interesting characters in the Star Trek canon, in no small part because the series says so little about her. Nichelle Nichols noted that most scripts started with some interesting pages for her, and ended with “Hailing frequencies open, Captain.” While this was a horrible waste of a talented artist, it leaves plenty of imaginative space for novelists to work within.

Melinda Snodgrass views this space as a playground. In The Tears of the Singers, Snodgrass crafts a Star Trek adventure that is propelled by Uhura and the questions that define her life.

[She leaves the bridge! She threatens to resign her commission! I’m fairly sure she doesn’t open hailing frequencies more than once!]

Following the successes of her 1986 Star Trek novels, Dreadnought! and Battlestations! Diane Carey took another run at the Star Trek mythos in Final Frontier, a giant novel about Kirk’s dad. Not to be confused with the movie of the same title, Carey’s 1988 novel describes George Kirk’s involvement with the first ever mission of the as-yet-unnamed Enterprise, the first starship ever constructed, under the command of its first captain, Robert April. They’re off to rescue a colony ship from an ion storm, when a computer malfunction sends them on a side-trip to the heart of the Romulan Empire. George and Robert spend most of the story embroiled in an argument about the ethical use of physical force, allowing Carey to spend a lot of time explaining her political views, in case you missed them in the earlier books.

[This book isn’t really about Kirk’s dad]

Imagine there was a story with no limits – no budget, no censors, no rules. Imagine it was about James T. Kirk’s first mission with the Enterprise. Imagine it featured a My Little Pony. Guess what? That’s been written!

In Vonda McIntyre’s Enterprise: The First Adventure, Captain Kirk gets to carry a vaudeville act around Starfleet’s more remote space stations where morale is crappy. And that is why there is a winged horse in the Enterprise’s shuttle bay.

[Intergalactic Friendship is Magic!]

Vulcan is the ne plus ultra of planets for fans who think that Earth is fatally flawed. The entire planet and its complicated society and spiritual practices exist for the sole purpose of pointing out what Earth is doing wrong and how it could do better. Diane Duane’s 1988 novel, Spock’s World attempts to both enhance this vision of Vulcan and its natives, and to refute it, to bring Vulcans down off the pedestal that Terran geekdom has created for them and to show their heroic flaws. While it often takes itself far too seriously, Spock’s World is a compendium of quirky pleasures. There is mystery, there is scandal, and there is an inexplicable species of subterranean desert whales.

[Also a very serious need for Vulcan relationship counseling]

One of the cool things about Star Trek novels is the opportunity to learn new and interesting things about the characters. You get to see them from a fresh new perspective, unfettered by Paramount’s priorities and the supposed demands of the late-60s viewing audience. In Margaret Wander-Bonanno’s Strangers From the Sky, you have a rare opportunity to see Kirk for what he really is – a fragile and delicate flower. Strangers From the Sky presents a convoluted and squid-like mass of plots. None of them make Kirk look good.

[It’s mostly his own fault]

Barbara Hambly’s 1985 novel, Ishmael, is a study in contrasts. It’s deeply weird, and deeply serious. It’s densely packed with things that should be ridiculous, and are somehow alarming. The first thing that struck me about Ishmael was Captain Kirk’s emotion. In the opening pages, Kirk is grieving Spock’s death. He’s struggling with a horrible loss made more devastating by an inescapable sense of personal responsibility. Having sent Spock into danger and destruction, Kirk is now facing the powerlessness inherent in not being able to do anything about it. McCoy is the most powerful person in this scene, and all he can do is slip Jim the mickey. It’s touching and sad and heavy. The book is full of these moments, somehow, even though it’s a crossover between Star Trek and another short-lived late-60s television series and features two Doctor Who cameos.

[The allusion to Moby Dick in the title is a pretty big hint that this is one of the quirkier Star Trek novels.]

The Universal Union is a space-faring empire. The Intrepid is the flagship of its space fleet. Its away team members keep dying. The Intrepid needs more crew. John Scalzi’s Redshirts is the story of that crew. It’s a “lower decks” novel (mostly decks 6 through 12), focusing on lower-ranking crew members and their intersections with command and adventure. Redshirts is a light, fast read, but it’s also a book whose questions about storytelling and agency stay with you long after you have put it down.

[A review with minor spoilers]

There is a fine art to reading a Mary Sue. You have to remember how much work the character has put into getting to the point of whatever fabulous opportunity she is going to conquer with her wits, her love, and whatever skills she happens to have at the moment. You have to respect the challenges of that moment. You have to allow yourself to be glad to see her. You have to be ready to throw your arms around her, and wish her all the best. You have to welcome the opportunity.

Diane Carey’ 1986 novels, Dreadnought! and Battlestations! offer a fabulous opportunity to practice your Mary Sue appreciation skills. Lieutenant Piper wants to command a starship. She’s spent years in Starfleet Academy and in command training. She’s worked hard to hone her skills in the hope that she will one day be almost as awesome as her idol, James T. Kirk. And that day has finally arrived.

[Finally]

Late in season three of the original series of Star Trek, Spock went back in time to Ice Age Sarpeidon. Because of the nature of the technology involved, he reverted to a pre-civilized state. He lost control of his emotions, ate meat, and fell in love. In the Yesterday Saga, Ann Crispin explores the repercussions of this incident. The result is a confusing series of events surrounding a fascinating new character.

[Daddy Issues]

As a television show, the original series of Star Trek focused on stories about Kirk and humanity. Some of the best Star Trek novels take advantage of this well-understood background to turn the readers’ attention to characters and races that were less thoroughly explored onscreen. John M. Ford’s World’s Apart series offers two excellent and very different examples of this. The Final Reflection and How Much for Just the Planet? were originally published in 1984 and 1987 respectively. The books were not linked at initial publication, but were hitched together when they were reprinted in 1999. The Final Frontier, which was ably reviewed by Jo Walton on this site in late January, represented an early effort to explore the Klingon Empire. How Much for Just the Planet? extends Ford’s exploration of Klingon culture by combining it with musical comedy.

[It’s not easy being Klingon]

We’re all familiar with the Star Trek cliché of the guy in the red shirt who bites it in the first moments of the episode to show that whatever peril the crew is facing in the episode is really serious. But when Kirk explained the make-up of his crew in “Tomorrow is Yesterday,” it was roughly 50% female, and not all crew members on away missions were guys in red shirts – some of them were women in short red skirts. NBC’s internal limitations on the ways that women could react to dangerous situations on screen – Nichelle Nichols recalls not being allowed to punch in fight scenes – meant that a woman’s death sent a different, less dramatic message than a man’s death. Under these constraints, a woman’s corpse slumped dramatically in the Vasquez Rocks before the opening credits could easily suggest that she should have stayed on the ship, rather than that the away team is in Serious Danger. So what happened when a woman was on the away team?

[Dire Peril.]

In 1970, James Blish published the first original Star Trek novel. Last week, I found myself unexpectedly in possession of a copy.

Star Trek has always dealt in the mysterious and exotic, and how these things will be seen and understood in the future. In Spock Must Die, Blish wrestles with the exotic mysteries of transporters, women, twins, and Mr. Spock.

Spoiler Alert!

[Read more]

The women of original series Star Trek occasionally played crucial roles in the ship’s functioning or in the progress of an episode’s narrative, but mostly they were like everyone else on Star Trek – focused on the actions and well-being of the Enterprise and of the three major protagonists at the heart of her crew: Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. Women weren’t present in Star Trek to reveal something about themselves. They were present to reveal something about humanity, the five-year mission, and the men who were the driving force behind it. And they were never more revealing than when they used to date one of those men. In the first season of ST:TOS, the series introduced viewers to figures from each of the trio’s romantic past.

[Your ex-girlfriend. In space]