Review: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Toward the Night
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Toward the Night sees Captain Pike and his crew stumble across a century-old mystery, one that involves an older Starfleet ship, time travel, Klingons, and a heroic figure from the past of one of the Enterprise’screw. Does this adventure do justice to the hit television show?
Toward the Night comes to us from James Swallow, whose recent Star Trek books include Star Trek: Discovery – Fear Itself, Star Trek: Picard – The Dark Veil, and Star Trek: Coda – The Ashes of Tomorrow. He certainly has a healthy understanding of what makes Star Trek tick – you know, examinations of the human condition, fantastical sci-fi elements, personal struggle amid galactic sakes, all that good stuff – and as such we weren’t surprised Toward the Night is recognizably a Star Trek tale, and an enjoyable one, at that.
This book is firmly planted in season two of Strange New Worlds, although that doesn’t matter too much as far as the plot is concerned. Some important season two character beats Swallow crafts into his narrative include:
- Spock and Christine Chapel’s attraction, notably seen in “Charades.”
- Pike’s knowledge of his fate, and the locked-away emotional turmoil that causes him.
- La’An’s struggle with her Gorn past, and her encounter with the alternate James Kirk in “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.”
- M’Benga’s war experience with the Klingons, notably seen in “Under the Cloak of War.”
What’s new to the table in Toward the Night, however, is some valuable backstory for Erica Ortegas, the go-getting helmsman of the Enterprise. We’ve always thought Ortegas was the least-fleshed out character in the show, so the addition of some family backstory as a crucial element to this book was welcome. Ortegas’ Great-Grandaunt Luciana was a heroic figure for young Erica, as Luciana’s venture into Starfleet and out into the cosmos was the catalyst for Erica enlisting.
This past comes back to haunt Erica, however, as the Enterprise encounters the crew of Luciana’s ill-fated vessel. But, this being a time travel story, it’s a bit more complicated than that. Erica, Pike, Chapel, and La’An accidentally go back in time and meet this crew, and it’s no small task for Pike to navigate his need to protect the timeline, protect his crew, and try to save the surviving members of Luciana’s ship from a lonely, desolate death on an alien world. Toward the Night’s implementation and explanation of time travel isn’t anything we haven’t seen before, unlike an older Star Trek book we recently reviewed, so this book felt similar in that way. That could be a pro or con, depending on your experience with Star Trek time travel stories.
Even with galactic stakes, Swallow still zooms in on interpersonal struggle; as you can imagine, it’s quite the shock for Erica to meet her hero and have that person not be who she expected. How the young Starfleet officer deals with having her worldview turned upside down, even in a life-and-death struggle, is a good mini-lesson in growing up, charting your own path, and paying homage to those who came before you. Indeed, we think the best part of Toward the Night is that Swallow gave Erica a chance in the spotlight; hopefully the upcoming season three of Strange New Worlds follows this example.
The parallel story in this book is back in the present, as Enterprise, under Una Chin-Riley’s command, must balance facing off against a wily Klingon while determining what happened to Pike’s landing party, and then getting them back to the present. Swallow gives Una a good showing here, as the Enterprise’s first officer proves quite the cunning opponent against the stereotypically aggressive, honor-bound Klingons.
Helping Una navigate the deadly Klingons is Doctor M’Benga, who is no stranger to fighting them. The doctor’s advice, along with Una’s razer-sharp Illyrian mind and confident command style, provides an entertaining confrontation between Klingons and the Federation. We actually wouldn’t be surprised if the Klingon villain in this book turns up in another SNW story, on TV or otherwise, as it seems Una makes a worthy adversary during the events of this book.
Meanwhile, Spock sciences his way through the problem confronting the crew, as usual, but he has emotional baggage to handle; his crush, Nurse Chapel, is stuck in the past, which isn’t an easy situation for the emotionally stunted Vulcan. Playing Spock and Chapel’s relationship into this story is largely inconsequential, as not much of this plot would have changed if the two didn’t share this nascent emotional bond. This underdeveloped throughline is one of the few weak spots of Swallow’s novel, but it’s a neat plot to keep in mind as you watch Spock and Chapel interact in the back half of season two.
Other than that slight critique, Toward the Night is a worthy entry in the growing list of Kurtzman-era Star Trek novels, and serves as an effective third entry in Strange New Worlds’ publication line, following Asylum and The High Country. If you like time travel stories where it’s challenging for our heroes to do the right thing, while still maintaining a rosy focus on what it means to be a leader, a compassionate person, a smart thinker, and valuing found family, you’ll enjoy Towards the Night. Plus, that epilogue is sure to delight.
You can buy Towards the Night on Amazon now.
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