STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - THE GORN CRISIS

Written by Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta Painted by Igor Kordey ISBN: 1-84023-295-1 Published by Titan Books Price: £11.99 Buy from Amazon

This is an odd little book.

It looks fabulous in places, if Kordey's work is too your liking. The likenesses are generally good, though Deanna Troy only really looks the part when she's looking all sulky. Doctor Crusher looks nothing at all like herself, Riker is only really good when he's smug, but Picard and Data are spot on. The look of The Gorn Crisis will remind many older readers of the Trigan Empire in places, though not quite as sumptuous.

The plot of the story - during the Dominion War, the Enterprise-E is sent to negotiate an alliance with the Gorn just as the planet erupts into a civil war which the crew manage to 'solve' rather neatly - relies unfortunately on a fracturing of the character of Picard and the Federation rulebook. Without it, the whole tale could have been wrapped up far quicker.

The predictable story hinges on perceived strength and weakness - there are, therefore, Klingons in the story also. On Gorn, the Black Crest warrior caste overthrow the ruling caste and set off in a rather feeble looking fleet to drive away the Federation - those nasty weak humans. Inexplicably, Picard has decided to ignore regulations and beam down to the Council Chambers to see if he, the Doctor, Troy and two security guards can help the survivors. Data is left in charge of Enterprise.

No-one attempts to stop the Captain, no-one quotes regulations, no-one does what happens every time Picard tries the same thing in the TV show. When a plot relies on such a huge fudge of the existing 'mythos', the rest always looks a little weak regardless of how good it might be. At the end of the book, an end that can be easily predicted by about page 11, the reader is left wondering what possible help the Gorn could ever have been against the Dominion. Basically, they're rubbish!

Star Trek RPGers will be interested in this, if only for the rather predictable way it details the Gorn as they are at the time of the Dominion War. The artist contributes an interesting section to the back of the book about Gorn physiology, culture and so on, complete with useful illustrations. For the exploration of the Gorn species alone, I'd say it was worth a look.

Score: 6/10 (8/10 if you're a Trek RPG fan) .

Review by Iain Lowson