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Star Trek: The Original Series
Present Tense
Beam aboard for a bold new era in Star Trek storytelling! Beginning with this thrilling all new trilogy, the original five-year mission of the Starship Enterprise is reimagined via the many valiant crew members who served under legendary command if Capt. James T. Kirk. Who are these exceptional men and women often asked to make the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of interstellar peace and exploration? What are their stories?
Their saga begins in THE JANUS GATE - Book One of Three - PRESENT TENSE
The crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise is exploring the seemingly peaceful and uninhabited world of M-3107 when a bizarre and inexplicable transporter accident causes both Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy to vanish completely. Transporter records suggest that the two men were transported "somewhere," but their ultimate destination remains a mystery.
Now in command of the "Enterprise," Spock dispatches a search-and -rescue team -- consisting of Security Chief Giotto, Transporter Technician John Kyle, and Chief Helmsman Hikaru Sulu -- on an urgent mission to recover the missing officers.
But then the rescue team disappears as well!
Their saga begins in THE JANUS GATE - Book One of Three - PRESENT TENSE
The crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise is exploring the seemingly peaceful and uninhabited world of M-3107 when a bizarre and inexplicable transporter accident causes both Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy to vanish completely. Transporter records suggest that the two men were transported "somewhere," but their ultimate destination remains a mystery.
Now in command of the "Enterprise," Spock dispatches a search-and -rescue team -- consisting of Security Chief Giotto, Transporter Technician John Kyle, and Chief Helmsman Hikaru Sulu -- on an urgent mission to recover the missing officers.
But then the rescue team disappears as well!
272 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 1, 2002
28 people are currently reading
346 people want to read
About the author
L.A. Graf
25 books40 followersL.A. Graf reportedly stands for Let's All Get Rich and Famous. Its a pseudonym used by authors Karen Rose Cercone and Julia Ecklar.
They have co-written some eleven Star Trek novels. Their first Star Trek novel came out in 1990.
They have co-written some eleven Star Trek novels. Their first Star Trek novel came out in 1990.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
November 26, 2014
Excellent opening salvo in a new trilogy, addressing a pertinent and unanswered plot point from the Original Series - after the events of "The Naked Time", the Enterprise was sent three days into the past. What did they do during that time, where they couldn't really interact with the rest of the universe for 72 hours? Well, this series looks into that.
Well-written, great characterization, and it has many of the original characters from various episodes of the original series in situations we would've never gotten to see them in on TV. Here's to hoping the next two books continue with the same level of quality writing and interest!
Well-written, great characterization, and it has many of the original characters from various episodes of the original series in situations we would've never gotten to see them in on TV. Here's to hoping the next two books continue with the same level of quality writing and interest!
February 19, 2014
The plot is a neat idea, however the crawling around in the caves took forever. Far too long. I want to find out what happened to Kirk, what caused all this, what the force field was but I don't want to slog through book 2 and 3 just to find out. I'm sure this could have all been shortened into one book.
January 19, 2024
I'm rounding this up from 3.5 stars -- all the action in the caves starts becoming relentless in the need to keep track of so many incidental characters. That said, it's a promising start to a trilogy that takes its starting point from the fairly unexplored aftermath of "The Naked Time". It also is a concentrated effort to look at more lower deckers, and gives Chekov a more solid introduction as a crew members still in his early days aboard the Enterprise. I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes...
April 22, 2025
A nice beginning to a new series of books but it does spend a lot of time on needless peril and setup. I’m interested in seeing the outcome because these characters are depicted very well, but the padding is very obvious here.
April 21, 2019
Author L.A. Graf brings us the opening tale of the Janus Gate trilogy with Present Tense. Taking place right after the events that happened at Psi 2000 (ST:TOS: The Naked Time) Captain Kirk orders the Enterprise to pick up their servery team on the planet Tlaoli where that team has found out that the planet has nineteen crashed starships below its surface. There is also a missing team that went to explore a cave and Kirk and Uhura along with Chekov go and bring them out but along the way they stumble onto an alien transporter. This transporter has regressed Kirk to before he even joined StarFleet Academy while his father George Kirk was second in command of the Enterprise under Captain Robert April. That same transporter also made Chekov lose some of his memory plus this explains why Khan would know him in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. But as the book comes to a close we find out that it has transported an alternate timeline version of Sulu back to the past. This is an interesting star trek book and the beginning of a trilogy which I am looking forward to reading books two and three. I highly recommend this book for all star trek fans.
May 7, 2020
This is the first of three books.
The book opens dramatically with the Enterprise surviving the destruction of a planet by unintentionally going back in time three days. Not wishing to alter the timeline, as Spock often points out, the Enterprise goes to check on a group of explorers on M-3107. Once there, some things are found on the planet that shouldn't belong. Additionally, all power is drained from any electronic devices on the world, leaving a group missing. Naturally Kirk, accompanied by some necessary smaller crew members (no spoilers!), including Chekov on his first away mission, beam down and things go wrong.
This was really slow reading because there's a lot of cave exploration. Let me state that so you understand: A. Lot. Of. Cave. Exploring. There are some interesting moments for the away team, but I found my attention moving away each time more of the caves were explained. In the last quarter of the book things improved with a shuttle mission and the fate of one Enterprise character revealed. There's lots of build, but it's slow going.
I'm in for the next two installments, but my hopes aren't high.
The book opens dramatically with the Enterprise surviving the destruction of a planet by unintentionally going back in time three days. Not wishing to alter the timeline, as Spock often points out, the Enterprise goes to check on a group of explorers on M-3107. Once there, some things are found on the planet that shouldn't belong. Additionally, all power is drained from any electronic devices on the world, leaving a group missing. Naturally Kirk, accompanied by some necessary smaller crew members (no spoilers!), including Chekov on his first away mission, beam down and things go wrong.
This was really slow reading because there's a lot of cave exploration. Let me state that so you understand: A. Lot. Of. Cave. Exploring. There are some interesting moments for the away team, but I found my attention moving away each time more of the caves were explained. In the last quarter of the book things improved with a shuttle mission and the fate of one Enterprise character revealed. There's lots of build, but it's slow going.
I'm in for the next two installments, but my hopes aren't high.
September 27, 2025
Well this one peaked my interest for the rest of the trilogy as I have no idea what's going on. Ha ha! Well I have some ideas but I liked where they put the book in the show's timeline and the problems they are facing. My two gripes about the book is that this is like 3rd or 4th book of Chekov's first adventure and I think Spock would have done things a little differently on the Enterprise as he puts them in more danger than he should. I should also mention how I liked Uhura in a position of command as well and how she never actually was in charge of a landing party on the show so she has to adapt to being put in that position here. Anyway, interested to see where this goes and looking forward to the next one.
November 19, 2025
This book got interesting on page 221, which is a tough sell given that the total page count is 253. Prior to that, it’s full of unnecessary technical cave terminology and uninteresting events. The last 30 pages, though, were meaty. It likely would have been better to take those last 30 and convert them to a prologue for Book 2 of the 3-book series.
Side note: The blurb on the back refers to an older version of the manuscript that doesn’t resemble at all the actual book contents. Ugh.
Side note: The blurb on the back refers to an older version of the manuscript that doesn’t resemble at all the actual book contents. Ugh.
October 15, 2017
The Enterprise arrives at Tlaoli ahead of time and finds out Survey Team 3 is missing. The rest of the story focuses on the teams trying to find one another . The last part becomes a jumbled mess of different timelines hence the 2 star rating.. So while I mildly enjoyed the first part the to be continued ending and the different timelines NO James Kirk then I'm out!!
January 7, 2018
This is a very well written book, full of twists and turns and adventure. It leaves me with a cliff hanger so you have to read the other two, which I am anxiously waiting to arrive at my local library (I put them both on hold) I highly recommend this series of books.
July 27, 2020
The characters are good, but so much of the book is trying to survive in a cave system. Man vs. nature plots are much less compelling when the medical and technology levels are very high, and you already know a lot of the characters will survive.
October 3, 2020
Well crafted star trek tale
Intriguing start to this original series trilogy of books. Nicely written with good characterisation putting the spotlight on characters such as Chekov and Uhura is a welcome change. Looking forward to reading the next book.
Intriguing start to this original series trilogy of books. Nicely written with good characterisation putting the spotlight on characters such as Chekov and Uhura is a welcome change. Looking forward to reading the next book.
November 21, 2025
Seeing Uhura in command is a treat, complementing a great TOS plot that fills in the throwaway plot device from The Naked Time
August 10, 2024
Reads like a TOS episode in the best way possible
June 17, 2014
“Present Tense” by L.A. Graf is the first book in a trilogy of Star Trek Original Series novels entitled “The Janus Gate”. The story follows on from the events seen in the episode “The Naked Time” with their escape from the planet Psi-2000 resulting in them being flung several days back in time. In order to limit the contamination of the time line the Enterprise travels to an uninhabited world for an early rendezvous with a geological team that had dispatched prior to the events of the episode. However, upon arrival then soon discover that one of the survey teams are missing and something is draining away power from their equipment and has potentially caused previous older starships to crash. And so Kirk heads down to the planet alongside a new recruit named Chekov in order to help find the missing team and investigate the strange power drain.
To be honest I found this book to be a bit of a major surprise because the synopsis I read on the back cover bore no resemblance to what actually took place. I can only assume that at some point in the editing process half the plot was thrown out but somebody forgot to change the associated summary. Whilst it didn’t bother me too much there was still a mild sense of irritation present due to the fact that it felt like I had been mis-sold something.
The plot itself wasn’t anything new or different and it felt much like many other Star Trek stories but there was still enough adventure and fun involved to keep me engaged. As this is the first book in a series there is a fair amount of set up involved which did at times cause the pacing to suffer a little. However, there was still enough going on to ensure that I didn’t just skim over large sections of the novel. Quite simply, the plot itself is probably best described as an average but entertaining enough Star Trek adventure.
What I did really appreciate with the novel is in the fact that Graf has written a story which looks beyond the three main characters of Kirk, Spock and McCoy. A fair amount of the story is focussed on the “minor” crew such as Chekov, Uhura and Sulu which I enjoyed seeing. These characters are so often shunted off to the side but in this novel Graf has put them right in the centre of the action. She has also tried to enhance their personas so that whilst they do still feel like the characters we saw on the screen, they also felt a little bit more like complete individuals.
Overall, the plot in “Present Tense” felt like one we have seen many times before in Star Trek novels but it was still a fun, light read with the real plus point being its attempt at showcasing the “minor” crew. As it is a first novel in a series it can be a little slow in places but the mysteries introduced here have intrigued me and I am looking forward to seeing their resolutions.
To be honest I found this book to be a bit of a major surprise because the synopsis I read on the back cover bore no resemblance to what actually took place. I can only assume that at some point in the editing process half the plot was thrown out but somebody forgot to change the associated summary. Whilst it didn’t bother me too much there was still a mild sense of irritation present due to the fact that it felt like I had been mis-sold something.
The plot itself wasn’t anything new or different and it felt much like many other Star Trek stories but there was still enough adventure and fun involved to keep me engaged. As this is the first book in a series there is a fair amount of set up involved which did at times cause the pacing to suffer a little. However, there was still enough going on to ensure that I didn’t just skim over large sections of the novel. Quite simply, the plot itself is probably best described as an average but entertaining enough Star Trek adventure.
What I did really appreciate with the novel is in the fact that Graf has written a story which looks beyond the three main characters of Kirk, Spock and McCoy. A fair amount of the story is focussed on the “minor” crew such as Chekov, Uhura and Sulu which I enjoyed seeing. These characters are so often shunted off to the side but in this novel Graf has put them right in the centre of the action. She has also tried to enhance their personas so that whilst they do still feel like the characters we saw on the screen, they also felt a little bit more like complete individuals.
Overall, the plot in “Present Tense” felt like one we have seen many times before in Star Trek novels but it was still a fun, light read with the real plus point being its attempt at showcasing the “minor” crew. As it is a first novel in a series it can be a little slow in places but the mysteries introduced here have intrigued me and I am looking forward to seeing their resolutions.
April 14, 2015
The back of the book was WRONG. There is no other way to say it.
Regardless of the discrepancy between the back of the book and the novel itself, I did enjoy the story. There were two or three grammatical/spelling errors, and that bugged me, but the story itself was intriguing. I didn't want to put the book down. I wanted to get to the end, even though I knew there wouldn't really be resolution since there are two more books after it! It takes place immediately after the episode "The Naked Time," which is one of my favorites, so it was fun to revisit that, even if it was only briefly. I was reading bits at a time, so sometimes I forgot the gender of the "new" characters, since they are pretty much only referred to by last name.
Anyway...I would recommend it to anyone who likes Star Trek TOS and wants a few more adventures with the crew. Plus it has time travel, which ALWAYS pleases me.
Regardless of the discrepancy between the back of the book and the novel itself, I did enjoy the story. There were two or three grammatical/spelling errors, and that bugged me, but the story itself was intriguing. I didn't want to put the book down. I wanted to get to the end, even though I knew there wouldn't really be resolution since there are two more books after it! It takes place immediately after the episode "The Naked Time," which is one of my favorites, so it was fun to revisit that, even if it was only briefly. I was reading bits at a time, so sometimes I forgot the gender of the "new" characters, since they are pretty much only referred to by last name.
Anyway...I would recommend it to anyone who likes Star Trek TOS and wants a few more adventures with the crew. Plus it has time travel, which ALWAYS pleases me.
January 8, 2017
Although I am a huge Star Trek fan, I admit that I never understood Star Trek logic. If a team is endangered or goes missing they send a team that has members that aren't exactly replaceable.
(if you can't see the picture just go here: https://www.goodreads.com/photo/user/...)
Seriously, crew members go missing on this planet and so Captain Kirk, Lietenant Uhura, Ensign Chekov, along with other team members are sent to go rescue the missing crew members.
At first, I thought that this book was going to be another adventure that is portrayed like a typical Star Trek episode. It was until we got to the end where we were dealing with . It just confused me. But there are two more books so I'll have to wait and see.
The characters we see in this book are the characters we know and love from the original Star Trek franchise along with a few more colorful characters as well. They were fun but we mostly followed Sulu, Uhura, and Chekov. Which is interesting since they are the least popular characters of the original show.
I liked the book and I'm also looking forward to reading the next one.
(if you can't see the picture just go here: https://www.goodreads.com/photo/user/...)
Seriously, crew members go missing on this planet and so Captain Kirk, Lietenant Uhura, Ensign Chekov, along with other team members are sent to go rescue the missing crew members.
At first, I thought that this book was going to be another adventure that is portrayed like a typical Star Trek episode. It was until we got to the end where we were dealing with . It just confused me. But there are two more books so I'll have to wait and see.
The characters we see in this book are the characters we know and love from the original Star Trek franchise along with a few more colorful characters as well. They were fun but we mostly followed Sulu, Uhura, and Chekov. Which is interesting since they are the least popular characters of the original show.
I liked the book and I'm also looking forward to reading the next one.
March 19, 2008
As far as serial pulp fiction goes, this one wasn't too bad. It was rather like watching a rather long (and admitably, not particularly exciting) episode of the original series. My head kept providing just the right tones of voice for everyone on the cast.
Despite the somewhat weighty prose, and the longwinded plot (essentially an away team mission gone bad) I found it a decent read for the fact that you knew the cast. Everyone acted like they should, and it was just a harmless, easy read. Probably why I picked it as my last read before moving cities (and libraries!).
Unfortunately, I can't see how this one pans out. Being book one of three, it ends in a decently climatic place (cue tensening music, and then credits, rolling in my head). I shant be able to tune in next week for this one ...
Despite the somewhat weighty prose, and the longwinded plot (essentially an away team mission gone bad) I found it a decent read for the fact that you knew the cast. Everyone acted like they should, and it was just a harmless, easy read. Probably why I picked it as my last read before moving cities (and libraries!).
Unfortunately, I can't see how this one pans out. Being book one of three, it ends in a decently climatic place (cue tensening music, and then credits, rolling in my head). I shant be able to tune in next week for this one ...
May 25, 2010
This book directly follows the events of 'The Naked Time', in the three days that the crew get to relive. (The one with a half-naked, crazed, fencing Sulu.) In order to limit contamination of the timeline, the Enterprise travels to an uninhabited, remote world for an early rendezvous with the geological team was dispatched just prior to the events in the episode. When they arrive, they find that members of the team are missing, and the planet randomly and intermittently drains power.
The book was pretty good. It's mystery/action rather than character oriented, but the characters' voices are decent. The plot is creative and reads like a good episode without being formulaic.
I want to get started now on the next book. Sadly, I'll have to wait a few days.
The book was pretty good. It's mystery/action rather than character oriented, but the characters' voices are decent. The plot is creative and reads like a good episode without being formulaic.
I want to get started now on the next book. Sadly, I'll have to wait a few days.
January 11, 2017
A mysterious location, a relic from the past that partially functions and thus causes problems is the setting for this series. It starts as a 'stroll in the park' and then keeps going from one bad occurrence to the next. Several characters have to show their best behaviour. Mysterious, exciting, a bit of humour - typical Star Trek high class. An open, shocking end which makes you grab the next volume immediately after closing volume 1.
February 2, 2017
Great book!
I love it! Chekov's first away mission. A strange problem on a planet supposed to be as safe as it gets. A great cliffhanger! I love time traveling stories. Especially if there is an alternate future involved. A big thank you to the wonderful women who wrote this.
I love it! Chekov's first away mission. A strange problem on a planet supposed to be as safe as it gets. A great cliffhanger! I love time traveling stories. Especially if there is an alternate future involved. A big thank you to the wonderful women who wrote this.
June 30, 2015
By far my fav series by LA Graf. Good twists.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews