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Star Trek: Constellations edited by Marco Palmieri
01/01/2007 . Source: Eamonn Murphy 
Pub: Simon and Schuster. 418 page enlarged paperback. Price: £ 9.99 (UK), $15.00 (US), $19.99 (CAN). ISBN: 0-7434-9254-4. Buy Star Trek: Constellations in the USA - or Buy Star Trek: Constellations in the UK  check out website: www.simonsays.co.uk and www.startrek.com
Familiarity doesn't always breed contempt. Sometimes it is comfortable as with old shoes, old friends and old Star Trek characters. Kirk and the gang have been repeating on our screens for nearly forty years now and this collection, 'Constellations', brings them out again in new stories.
Like the fans, Trek writers enjoy reprising the familiar. In 'First, Do No Harm' by Ward and Dilmore, the opening story, Mr. Spock refers to a 'multi-legged creature' on someone's shoulder as he administers a nerve pinch. In 'Where Everybody Knows Your Name' by Jeffrey Lang, Scott and McCoy get drunk on the planet Denebia, whence came those slime-devils to which a Klingon compared Kirk in 'The Trouble With Tribbles'. Commander Kor from the episode 'Errand Of Mercy' features in 'The Leader' by Dave Galanter. His errant son tries to kill Kirk in a story that nicely shows the downside of the captain's alpha male tendencies. A fan myself, I find these little touches make the stories more fun.
I really enjoyed 'The Landing Party'. Set shortly after 'Where No Man Has Gone Before' at a time when McCoy and several new crew members have just come aboard, it tells of Sulu's switch from science to command staff and his first time leading a landing party. Robert Greenberger juxtaposes an emotional Sulu in sickbay telling his story to Yeoman Rand with Spock at his console dispassionately assessing the expedition's tricorder readings to see what happened. There are some good insights into the old characters here.
The collection reflects the present in that Iraq looms over it. In 'Official Record', Chekhov leads his first landing party. Hints are made that the Federation's interest in other planets might be more for their dilithium crystals than to promote peace and freedom. A native says the Federation is 'addicted to dilithium'. Parallels with oil sprang to my mind. The last story, 'Make-Believe' is about a little boy playing with his Star Trek figurines. His father died in Iraq. We follow this in our reality through the eyes of his grieving mother and also in the make believe reality of the Star Trek story he is imagining with his figurines. It sounds weird but it works and is oddly touching.
'Fracture' was my favourite story. It has Kirk meeting one of his old heroes and provides a new insight into the Tholians of web fame. This story features a space battle, good science and alien religion. The goal of any Trekker is surely to write a yarn that would have made a great episode and Jeff Bond has done that here.
The tales in 'Constellations' ranged from acceptable to great but there wasn't a bad one in the bunch. Even the manga style comic strip at the end was okay. An excellent collection and a reminder, in the age of the three volume epic, that the short story still has pleasures to offer.
Eamonn Murphy
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