Posted:
08:10:17 on June 06 2002
By: Steve Krutzler
Dept: Reviews - Books | Books BBS Forum
Star Trek: The Original Series
THE JANUS GATE
Book One of Three: PRESENT TENSE
and
THE JANUS GATE
Book Two of Three: FUTURE IMPERFECT
by L.A. Graf
Pocket Books, 2002
Book One, 253 pages
Book Two, 252 pages
Written by Alexander Chase
THE JANUS GATE trilogy re-launches the original Star Trek series focusing on the ensemble adventures of the Starship Enterprise Crew. Following the events depicted in the classic Star Trek episode "The Naked Time," the destructive blast of a dying planet hurls the Starship Enterprise three days into the past, and to sanctuary on a remote world that appears to be harmless. But when Kirk and other crew members begin to vanish, in STAR TREK, THE ORIGINAL SERIES: THE JANUS GATE: BOOK ONE-PRESENT TENSE, the shocking truth of this mysterious planet becomes clear. Now, with the window back to the present quickly closing, Spock, Scotty and the remaining crew must find a way to locate the missing... before they are trapped forever in the warp of time. As the search for Captain Kirk and the vanished Enterprise crew members continues in STAR TREK, THE ORIGINAL SERIES: THE JANUS GATE: BOOK TWO-FUTURE IMPERFECT, an older Sulu is suddenly found, with no recollection of Captain Kirk. All he remembers are years of combat against a powerful empire in a cataclysmic war that has shattered the Federation. If Captain Kirk isn't found, that war may become a reality; it may mean the end of the Enterprise - and humanity itself?
L.A. Graf's THE JANUS GATE: PRESENT TENSE and FUTURE IMPERFECT tells the story of the consequences of the Enterprise being hurled backward three days in time at the end of The Original Series Season one episode "The Naked Time." Contrary to the casual attitude displayed by Captain Kirk at the end of that episode, in THE JANUS GATE we discover the complications created by that brief jaunt in time. Told principally from the point of view of a very green Ensign Pavel Chekov on his first away mission, and Lieutenants Uhura and Sulu, THE JANUS GATE has it all: time travel, Spock at his meticulous and maddening best, well-known bit players from the original series including Carolyn Palamas (later to draw the eye of a God in "Who Mourns for Adonis"), Lieutenants Tomlinson and Martine (the couple being married by Kirk at the beginning of the episode "Balance of Terror"), and Geologist D'Amato (who famously bit the dust in "That Which Survives") and even alternate timeline references to Captains Robert April and Gary Mitchell!
It's just too bad THE JANUS GATE doesn't have an author who knows how to use the resources at his disposal for telling a good story. Like many stories involving time travel, L.A. Graf's THE JANUS GATE is confusing: not so much for what happens but for the sequence in which it happens. Large stretches of the book are also pedantic, which only makes things worse. Do readers really need such in-depth descriptions of Uhura's thought process as she spends hours cave climbing through darkness? Even down to mind-numbing - and often repetitive - details of each step she takes, or how she starts her "primitive" helmet lamp (the first time was surely sufficient to get the idea)? Or do we really need to know the strategic basis of Sulu's thinking as he pilots a shuttle over a Gorn fortress in the alternative future? Even the basis of those strategies in what classes he took at the academy stretches a real time sequence of a minute or so into seeming like hours. Such instances of seemingly obvious filler slow down the pacing of the books considerably. During the story, Captain Kirk is exchanged for a fifteen-year-old version of himself by an alien time transporter ("the Janus Gate" of the title), just as Chekov is exchanged for a version of himself five hours older and Sulu for a Captain Sulu from twenty years in the future of an alternative time line seemingly created by Kirk's earlier exchange (though Captain Sulu doesn't remember a Captain Kirk). While we learn a great deal about what this future Sulu and his companion, the future Commander Chekov, are up against in fighting the Gorn, the fate of Captain Kirk is completely forgotten by Graf, leaving a huge hole in the story. It is likely that in true "rabbit-out-of-the-hat" fashion Graf will give us a glimpse of what Captain Kirk has been up to in the past but after 350 or so pages of Books One and Two, we're still waiting.
THE JANUS GATE: Books One and Two are also devoid of humor, which makes it even more of a pedantic read. McCoy's ribbing of Spock comes across as bad tempered and melodramatic. In fact, the only truly funny moment in 500 plus pages occurs when Spock murmurs under his breath - drawing a logical conclusion - about McCoy's oversized nose being stuck in places where it doesn't belong. Some writers in Pocket Books' stable really need to learn that McCoy complaining all the time is not characterization - it's caricature. Strangely enough, all of these bit players from The Original Series appear but we learn precious little about them that we didn't know already (Carolyn Palamas has a soft voice, Tomlinson and Martine have a thing for each other, D'Amato doesn't talk much... convenient that last one for an author weak in original characterization ). Finally, THE JANUS GATE suffers from the obvious predictability of a Brannon Braga script dealing with time travel. As soon as the Gorn are introduced (who are also not developed to any degree except that they are big, green and smell... we knew the first two from the episode "Arena" and the third, well, we could have guessed that), the reset button alarm bells will start ringing in most knowledgeable readers' heads because if there are Gorn around, it is reasonable to conclude that there are Metrons as well. When it turns out at the end of Book Two that the source of the Gorn's instantaneous transport power is a drugged Metron held captive by the Gorn, who the Enterprise crew then proceed to free, one can easily hazard a guess as to where the story is going, i.e. with the Metrosn setting everything straight in the time line at the end with all of the panache of a John de Lancie snap of the fingers. It is all clear that this alterative time line occurs because Gary Mitchell rather than James T. Kirk fought the Gorn captain after the events on Cestus III. Mitchell killed the Gorn after he fell into a pit trap (confirming Gorn clumsiness and that Gary Mitchell is not going to get a good rap in any Trek time line).
There are things of interest to be found in THE JANUS GATE. Chekov's perceptions about his first away mission, the characterization of an older and more commanding Sulu is spot-on, as are his interactions with the present day Spock. However, there is so much one has to grudge through to find these moments, that it really doesn't make THE JANUS GATE worth the effort. THE JANUS GATE reads like over-earnest and not-too-talented fan fiction. Only recommended for the terminally bored, or Wednesday nights around the 8 o'clock hour.
TrekWeb's Rating:
