Any other Star Trek fans on here??

[Mister Ed Horse of a Different Color Find all posts View Profile Close Mister Ed]

Yeah, I saw his name and the credits and was surprised because I had forgotten that. They do clearly name him "Latek," though, so he can't be a pre-career-change Quark.

True. Would be funny if somebody established him as a relative of Quark's somewhere, though. Even in a novel. Never happened, though, I don't think.

EDIT: It seems he did appear in a DS9 novel, though, The 34th Rule. In the novel, Quark comments on how Letek's bottom row of teeth look horrible, and Jadzia thought he looked familiar. No indication that he was a relation, though.

[SD80MAC Not a True Fan Find all posts View Profile Close SD80MAC]

And guess who wrote that novel.

[Mister Ed Horse of a Different Color Find all posts View Profile Close Mister Ed]

No need to guess when Memory Beta is so handy.

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

True. Would be funny if somebody established him as a relative of Quark's somewhere, though. Even in a novel. Never happened, though, I don't think.

EDIT: It seems he did appear in a DS9 novel, though, The 34th Rule. In the novel, Quark comments on how Letek's bottom row of teeth look horrible, and Jadzia thought he looked familiar. No indication that he was a relation, though.

In the novel Sarek, Spock related to his father that the first time they saw the Romulans the commander looked a lot like him. That made me chuckle.

[SD80MAC Not a True Fan Find all posts View Profile Close SD80MAC]

Don't forget that Akellen Macet and Skrain Dukat are cousins.

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

Don't forget that Akellen Macet and Skrain Dukat are cousins.

I forget most of the Cardassian TNG episodes, but I've come across the not-Dukat photos recently.

Not too long ago I also watched the episode where Marc Alaimo plays a Romulan. Now, if they could make a retcon for that, I would be impressed.

[Mister Ed Horse of a Different Color Find all posts View Profile Close Mister Ed]

Finished re-reading the Next Gen Section 31 novel.

No tie to the Original Series one that I can tell. I'm reading the DS9 one next. If any two were going to tie together it would be the TNG and DS9 ones, so I'll soon be able to tell for sure whether these are completely stand-alone.

This one was OK. It suffered from a common Star Trek problem, namely away team composition dictated for dramatic reasons, not practical. Somehow this is less of a glaring problem for me in a 45 minute episode than in a 300-page novel.

When the rescue mission against some rebel faction in a shuttlecraft under adverse conditions, (while there were Romulans in the system, and an important diplomatic situation underway, and with RIKER currently a captive of the rebels) consisted solely of Picard, an Admiral, and the CMO (well, until Lt. Hawk convinced them to take him along as a pilot, which probably only happened because Hawk's character was a major focus of the novel), I found myself rolling my eyes far more than I would have while watching a show that did something similar. I mean, was everybody in security busy? Sounds like a perfect job for their department to me.

Also, and this may sound strange, but I was kind of disillusioned by the picture of Section 31 painted here. On DS9, Section 31 might have been morally and ethically problematic, but they were portrayed as eerily competent for the most part. You might disagree with their goals and/or their methods, but there was little doubt that they knew exactly what they were doing, and were very, very good at it. Here we see Section 31 making a serious blunder, and not seeming all that competent.

Not that I'm ever rooting for Section 31, but I kind of preferred them being supremely effective, except when directly opposed by the best Starfleet has to offer, and even then generally having backup plans within backup plans to escape and/or mitigate any damage to their objectives.

Here their representatives seemed just as prone to miscalculation and mistakes as anybody, and kind of winging it after a while, and overall making a HUGE blunder stemming from a serious failure of intelligence gathering. I'm used to Section 31 knowing pretty much everything.

[SD80MAC Not a True Fan Find all posts View Profile Close SD80MAC]

The DS9 S31 novel ties in more with the DS9 relaunch novels, and will tie in with the upcoming S31 Disavowed novel. (Which is also sequel to The Fall, so read that first!)

[Mister Ed Horse of a Different Color Find all posts View Profile Close Mister Ed]

I'm bummed to see that they've started another spate of eBook-only titles. I thought they'd given that up, but it seems every once in a while they decide to try it again.

I don't have anything in particular against the eBooks I've read, other than the poor value. I feel like they've embraced the format SOLELY so they could publish short works and disguise how short they were, increasing their profits on them, even sometimes taking a normal book-length work and splitting it up into multiple parts so they could sell them each separately, so that the whole costs far more than a typical novel would.

Those sort of shenanigans have soured me on their eBook efforts.

[SD80MAC Not a True Fan Find all posts View Profile Close SD80MAC]

Wait, what?

[Mister Ed Horse of a Different Color Find all posts View Profile Close Mister Ed]

When I was looking into recent and upcoming releases, I saw a bunch of eBook-only titles. They had dropped that for a while, I thought, but it seems they are getting back into it again.

Were you not aware of their eBook-only titles at all, or just that they were doing more now?

[SD80MAC Not a True Fan Find all posts View Profile Close SD80MAC]

I'm aware, but I thought you were worried that some series were going eBook-only. That's not the case; they're just random novellas here and there, and they work better that way. There's no multipart eBooks, either. Most of 'em fit between previously published works, episodes, or movies, so there's not a lot of wiggle room for a massive story.

[Mister Ed Horse of a Different Color Find all posts View Profile Close Mister Ed]

I'm aware, but I thought you were worried that some series were going eBook-only. That's not the case; they're just random novellas here and there, and they work better that way. There's no multipart eBooks, either. Most of 'em fit between previously published works, episodes, or movies, so there's not a lot of wiggle room for a massive story.

There most definitely HAVE been multi-part eBooks. And a couple short series. Maybe they haven't done it recently, I stopped paying attention after a while.

I know that no line is going to go eBook only, but as somebody that owns and has read almost every Star Trek novel ever written, I find the overpriced, deceptive eBook line annoying, and yet hate feeling like I'm missing something. Just not enough to reward the practice by buying them (until recently I didn't even have an e-reader, and there was no way I was going to try to read even a short novella sitting in front of my desktop, or lug the laptop around to do so).

[SD80MAC Not a True Fan Find all posts View Profile Close SD80MAC]

Maybe you're thinking of the old SCE books? Those were ridiculously overpriced, but in their defense, eBooks weren't popular then and no one knew how to price them.

Don't be annoyed by the new eBook "line." That's in quotes, because it's rather scattered. And you're really not missing out; they're self-contained tales, and if you don't want to read 'em...then don't, and it's not like you're suddenly screwed the next time a story arc comes around. This ain't comics!

[Mister Ed Horse of a Different Color Find all posts View Profile Close Mister Ed]

The SCE books were the first foray into eBook only, yes, and they are the ones that mostly cemented my dislike for the practice, as they were overpriced and had no less than TEN instances where they split a story up just so they could sell it in smaller, overpriced chunks.

They then followed that with eBook only miniseries for TOS and TNG, with 5 or 6 "books" each.

So after all that, I haven't bothered with them. When they collect them in (far more reasonably priced) paperback versions, I buy them, but that hasn't happened for quite some time.

The problem is, I DO want to read them. I just don't want to feel like I'm getting ripped off in the process.

Though to be fair, I haven't checked the pricing in a while. Maybe they are more reasonable now. It always used to irk me that they hid how short they were (at least in the old days), too. You'd go to buy them, and there would be zero indication of pagecount.