Drastic Measures by Dayton Ward
(Memory Beta)
Bad news. I cannot recommend that you read this book. Also, if you have not seen all of Season 1 of Disco, STOP NOW. Youâre going to REGRET IT if you read on!!! Go watch the show and then read this review and then read the book if you still want to.
OK. So.
Features:
The events on Tarsus IV - which you may remember better as KODOS THE EXECUTIONER!!!
Cameos from Jim Kirk, Robert April and Michael Burnham!
Narration from the POVs of Georgiou and Prime Lorca (!!!!)
A Betazoid character serving in Starfleet, even though Betazed isnât part of the Federation yet and they donât even know Betazoids are telepaths!
An unfortunately Tom Clancy-ish plot about hunting Kodos down, which leads to Prime Lorcaâs major characteristics being essentially the same as Jack Ryanâs.
A lot of dialogue, in fact, about how great every character is, including this cloying bit about Jim Kirk: âWhile she [Georgiou] sensed his innate respect for authority figures and rules, neither did he feel the need to circumvent or even defy them. He carried himself with a self-assurance that allowed him to disregard them while not crossing the line of willful insubordination. Even while harboring memories of what he witnessed on the night of the massacre, he was able to set aside his own emotions while doing what he could to help others. How much of this was upbringing, as opposed to some natural trait? From what Georgiou could see, he was a fount of raw, untapped potential, lacking only age, education, and experience.â Note: SHE HAS KNOWN THIS KID FOR LESS THAN TEN MINUTES and suddenly feels the need to go on a mental soliloquy about how heâs gonna make a great captain someday. Cool story, bro.
Really unconvincing details about the way the famine went on Tarsus IV. I just do not believe that events occurred as theyâre described, on a very granular level, even though the macro level makes sense. I need more specificity: what foods were impacted by this contaminant? How does it travel? Etc. The novel glosses over it as though Star Trek isnât usually really interested in science and technical issues like these.
A lady (Balayna) who gets fridged before we even meet her to give Prime Lorca a reason to want vengeance on Kodos. Then sheâs put on a pedestal thereafter.
But none of this really gets at what I found objectionable. One of the great strengths of the original episode âThe Conscience of the Kingâ was that while Kirk judges Kodosâ actions, it leaves the question of whether Kodos was truly a bone-deep monster open. Could he have been simply a person caught up in a terrifying time, given too much power, trying to apply Vulcan-style logic and making errors so huge they cannot be forgiven? His actions when he discovers his daughterâs murders certainly suggest that. But this book leaves none of that wiggle room. We are never given a moment to consider that perhaps, when out of their mind with fear and anger and grief, humans do things that are wrong, even evil, and live to regret them. Kodos is transformed into a calculating, sociopathic dictator with a cultlike following who has no regret or remorse, even when Starfleetâs relief ships arrive early. Every character who encounters the situation instantly decides that Kodos is an irredeemable villain who must be âbrought to justice,â that justice ideally being a short drop and a sudden stop. And the sentence-by-sentence writing, unfortunately, isnât good enough to convince me that the characters really feel this way, only that the characters need to feel this way in order to justify paragraph upon paragraph of loving description of Starfleet service rifles.
Iâm most angry with this because Tarsus IV is such a rich setting, and it seems like a perfect setup to showcase a truly well-developed Prime Lorca. What if Lorcaâs response to tragedy - assuming the plot more or less rolls out as it does in the novel - is consistently shown to be an inner battle between his anger and the compassion that he believes he ought to show to all beings? Wouldnât that be a more interesting comparison to Mirror Lorca? What if Georgiou, on the relief vessel, was more enraged than Lorca at the situation, having conceived of herself as a savior and appearing on Tarsus IV only to find out she was too late? What if Kodos and his followers had complex ideas about ethics????? We will never know.
In conclusion, donât read this book unless you really have to. If you want to read a Star Trek novel about the Disco characters, read Desperate Hours. If you want to read a Star Trek novel with ethics in it, read Prime Directive. If you want to read a Star Trek novel about young Jim Kirk, read Best Destiny (itâs flawed and a little old-fashioned, but solidly enjoyable). The only reason to read Drastic Measures is to find out (SPOILERS behind the jump)...
