By John Jackson Miller

Gallery Books, out now

The reason why Enterprise wasn’t part of the Klingon War…

There are certain gaps in Star Trek history that simply cry out to be filled with explanations. How the Enterprise-E crew got from Insurrection to Nemesis, for example (find out in the Time To… series) or what happened to Khan’s people between Space Seed and The Wrath of Khan (Greg Cox’s Eugenics War books). When we got no mention of Chris Pike’s Enterprise until the final shots of Discovery season 1, and then multiple hints – and even some clear statements – about their whereabouts in wartime during season 2, you could guess that Kirsten Beyer and her team would be working on a book…

This is that book, the account of Enterprise’s actions between 2256 and 2257, but it’s so much more. The differences between the Pike, Number One (or Una as she’s pretty much always called here – the usefulness of something being established on screen!), and Spock of The Cage to the way they are in Brother at the start of Discovery’s second year are explained. It’s not as simple as “Jeffrey Hunter becomes Anson Mount” – Miller knows we’re all shaped by our experiences. What he successfully does is create a Pike who would have been played by Hunter the way we saw Mount play him had the original Star Trek pilot gone to series and the events of The Enterprise War had played out as the show’s serialised third season. He’s recognisably the Chris Pike of The Cage, and also of Discovery.

Miller also references a lot of other adventures written about Pike’s Enterprise, including David Mack’s first Discovery novel which I’d feared was completely overwritten by season 2, and, of course, this is the first time that we’ve had a Spock who can think and talk about his sister, Michael Burnham. Miller doesn’t spoil season 2 for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet and whose curiosity is whetted by this story, but he does set up the reasons Spock is where he is at the start.

And amid all of this continuity juggling, Miller also tells an intriguing story in its own right. You may grimace thinking you’ve seen it all before when members of the Enterprise crew are captured and forced to work for their enemy to survive, but Miller throws in a number of curveballs that make this unique. Add in an ongoing plotline regarding a new Chief Engineer who is nowhere near as at home in an engine room as you’d hope, and you’ve got a fine Star Trek novel.

Verdict: Far, far more than just an explanation for the lack of Enterprise in the Klingon War, this is a strong addition to the Star Trek canon. 9/10

Paul Simpson