STAR TREK REVIEWS

  • STAR TREK TOS - Short Story  - Written by Gary Russell
    2000 B.C. / 200,000 B.C. / Year 0
    Published November 29, 2022
    Read on August 16, 2025

    Taking place 500,000 years before 2266, The Guardian tells the story of Hob and his wife Tekhan, the last human survivors of the planet Exo III which is being overtaken by androids. 

    It’s a nice prequel accompaniment to the TOS episode What Little Girls Are Made Of so I’ve placed a second reading on the timeline there as well. I believe it’s good to read in both places.

    Hob and Tekhan basically know they are doomed and slowly move through the wasteland of Exo III toward the caves where they believe there may or may not be a switch to deactivate all the androids. They make it but more or less Tekhan gives up and drinks poison. Hob talks with the android Ruk (played by Ted Cassidy in the TOS episode). Hob basically tells Ruk, who is sympathetic to the human “masters” to safeguard the equipment in hopes that it might help someone one day, which is really one final act of hubris on his part (or charity depending on how you look at it).

    I love the idea that this is the oldest moment in Star Trek (there may yet be one slightly older as a flashback in Spock’s World but I haven’t read that yet). I just love the idea that somewhere out in the stars before mankind ever existed there was a civilization further along and more doomed than we are. A distant future of the distant past. A really beautiful idea.

  • STAR TREK - Short Story
    Written by Frederick Kim
    2000 B.C. / 200,000 B.C. / Year 0
    Published June 2004
    Read on September 15, 2025

    My first thought was, “oh brother, another Borg origin story.” The Borg, like Khan, are one of Star Trek’s biggest draws and thus a humongous dead horse to be beaten again and again in film, television, and especially fiction. 

    I was shocked at how much I enjoyed this.

    Picard and the Enterprise E crew (I’m supposing around the time of Star Trek: First Contact) are called to investigate the remnants of a dead world called Havarrnus which is thought to be the Borg’s original civilization. 

    Picard is naturally troubled given his relationship with them. 

    Let me just say here, I’ve placed this story at the front of the timeline because it is told from two distinct points in time, one of which pre-dates human history. That being said, if you haven’t seen any Star Trek TNG or any at all, I’d recommend waiting to read this until you get further along and see some TNG.

    Most of the records of Havarrnus are destroyed but Picard finds remnants of a journal by one of it’s thinkers/politicians. 

    I won’t retell the story here but I’ll just say that the depiction of a pre-Borg society as a sort of Rome before the fall is really well done and the writing is engaging and spectacular. 

    Also of note: we get a mention of transparent aluminum in reference to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, as well as reference to a ship called The Archer, in reference to Star Trek Enterprise. 

    Guinan says these wise words: “The only thing more tragic than a dead world is the legacy of a people who’ve forgotten who they are”.

  • STAR TREK - Short Story  
    Written by Annie Reed 
    2000 B.C. / 200,000 B.C. / Year 0
    Published 2003
    Read on December 19, 2023

    *correction - The short story The Guardian is in fact earlier in the timeline than this but I didn’t know it at the time of writing.

    As of now, The Beginning is known from multiple sources to be the earliest point in the entire Star Trek timeline. Exactly when it takes place isn't totally clear to me. I've seen it listed in various sources as 2000 B.C., 200,000 B.C., and Year 0.

    The strange thing is, there is no indication of any placement in the timeline in the story itself, so this information must have come from an interview with it's author somewhere, one can only assume.

    The Beginning is a 12 page short story from author Annie Reed, appearing in the "speculations" section of volume VI of the Strange New Worlds short story collection.

    Strange New Worlds (not to be confused with the series) was a 10 volume series of short stories authored by fans who would enter their works in a contest with the winning entries being published therein. In essence it is fan fiction, however insofar as this timeline of mine is concerned it is canonical seeing as it was an official Star Trek publication

    In The Beginning, we meet an unnamed girl on an unnamed planet from an unnamed race during an unnamed time suffering from a terrible unnamed disease. That might sound very vague but we are hearing her point of view throughout and from her we learn that this is a fairly advanced society. 

    Our protagonist explains how she was once beautiful but is now covered in terrible sores and is confined to a secure hospital facility where her grandfather, a doctor, is taking care of her and seeking a cure. 

    Her grandfather devises a serum of nano probes designed to attack the virus but, as you might guess, this turns the young girl into the very first Borg and she quickly turns evil, takes over, and sets out to assimilate everyone.  

    The way the first person narration subtly moves from good to evil is really clever and the story is very good.  

    It doesn't feel like any sort of massive Star Trek prologue, but then I don't think it was designed to.  

    Whether or not the protagonist here is meant to be the Borg Queen we come to know from Star Trek: First Contact or not is not made clear. But if this does indeed take place before the dawn of mankind, it begs the question, how are the Borg able to maintain organic matter for thousands and thousands of years?