No Time Like the Past

Star Trek: The Original Series

by Greg Cox

An original novel set in the universe of Star The Original Series that reveals long-held secrets about Captain Kirk's past for the first time!STARDATE 6122.5. A diplomatic mission to the planet Yusub erupts in violence when ruthless Orion raiders attempt to disrupt the crucial negotiations by force. Caught in the midst of a tense and dangerous situation, Captain James T. Kirk of the U.S.S. Enterprise finds an unexpected ally in the form of an enigmatic stranger who calls herself “Annika Seven.” STARDATE 53786.1. Seven of Nine is taking part in an archae­ological expedition on an obscure planetoid in the Delta Quadrant when a disastrous turn of events puts Voyager’s away team in jeopardy—and transports Seven across time and space to Yusub, where she comes face-to-face with one of Starfleet’s greatest legends. STARDATE 6122.5. Kirk knows better than most the danger that even a single castaway from the future can pose to the time line, so he and Seven embark on a hazardous quest to return her to her own era. But there are others who crave the knowledge Seven possesses, and they will stop at noth­ing to obtain it—even if this means seizing control of the Enterprise!

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Time Travel, Fiction, Star Trek Voyager, Star Trek Original Series, Ebooks

386 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 25, 2014

Reviews

[Alejandro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Time... the Final Paradox...
These are the voyages
of the Starship Enterprise
Its 304-pages' mission is
to explore strange already visited worlds
to help out the mysterious
"Dr. Annika Seven",
who claims to be from the future,
to boldly go where no Borg has gone before!

I wanted to read this novel but to be honest I didn't expect something extraordinary. The very basic premise was that Seven of Nine, a popular character from Star Trek: Voyager will meet the legendary Captain James T. Kirk of Star Trek: The Original Series. A fun idea to set a meeting of the original ladies' man with the galactic bombshell, but without depth in storytelling.

However, I was happily mistaken!!!

This novel by Greg Cox is truly a work of art which proudly it's a solid Star Trek: The Original Series adventure. Smart and serious. I wouldn't be surprised that "purists" Trekkies may find as "sacrilegious" to mix a character of a spin-off series, specially Voyager, with the crew of the original series. Well, if they don't want to read it, we can't force them. It will be their loss. Since, honestly, as a 20-plus-years' Trekker, I can assure you that this is a remarkable and respectful tribute for the first five-year mission of the original crew of the Starship Enterprise.

This novel is awesome!!!

The story is set in two different eras of the franchise of Star Trek. In the case of Star Trek: Voyager is during the Sixth Season, at some point between the TV episodes: "Good Shepherd" and "Live Fast and Prosper". In the case of Star Trek: The Original Series is at some point of the Fifth Year of its original exploratory mission, because of that it's harder to pinpoint it, it's two years later of the end of the original TV series and very likely then, in the middle of the time of the Animated Series.

This is a stand-alone story, so you can read it without having to read anything before. But, if you have a good knowledge of Star Trek: The Original Series, general familiarity with the theatric films with the original crew, and basic cognizance of the premise of Star Trek: Voyager and who is the character of Seven of Nine, you will be able to enjoy at full a large quantity of references and comments about all that. However, it's not vital to enjoy the mission at hand, since the info who is really linked to the plot would be fairly explained during the novel.

A curious and very good detail is that at some moment, the story mentions events from novels by another author, so always is good to appreciate when an author respects and recognized the work of another fellow writer including it in the plot as something canon of the timeline.

Without affecting my decision of rating with full 5-star rating this wonderful novel. I would prefer some editing in two scenes (don't worry, I won't spoil anything): There is a scene with Seven of Nine and Scotty that it could be way shorter, and there is a scene with some invading Orions that I felt unnecesary. Later, since the story is set at the 5th year of the original mission, it could be fantastic to include the characters of Arex and M'Ress, even now that the polemic about the canonicity of Star Trek: The Animated Series has been settled, after all, in the plot is mentioned a novel by another author, where the canon status of novels is even more obscure. And finally, the Enterprise re-visits some worlds, from TV episodes of Seasons 2 & 3, but nothing of Season 1, while there are a lot of references of the entire TV run, it could be serving for simmetry purposes if some world of Season 1 could be used.

There is a minor continuity mistake in the story, since members of the original crew "recognized" the commbadge of Seven of Nine as the emblem of Starfleet, but during the first 5-year mission, the delta-like emblem was the patch exclusively used by the crew of the Starship Enterprise. Starfleet officers from other vessels and starbases use patches with different symbols, it wasn't until the successful return to Earth by the USS Enterprise that Starfleet decided to unificate the ships' emblems using the one of Enterprise as the "new" standard. So, finding Seven of Nine wearing a commbadge with that particular shape should be a more initial shocking for them.

Highly recommended if you are fan of the Original Series, specially if you like Captain Kirk since he is wonderfully developed here, but don't worry, each member of the original crew will have a fair ammount of stuff to do. And obviously, if you are fan of the character of Seven of Nine, this is a book for you too.

Already between the best novels of Star Trek that I have ever read.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, maybe my first review disappeared for some reason, so here goes a second one. It was great to visit with the beloved Captain Kirk, (so maybe he's not politically correct) and a host of beloved characters. Just a fun read and that actually says alot.

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two nights in a row I fell asleep before getting many pages in. This does not happen to me with a good book. There's awkward writing here, and Santiago does not behave at all like a diplomat should, and we've already killed a redshirt, and Neelix is being much more annoying than charming.... P. 72; I'll try once more but won't be surprised if I dnf.

I guess that pretty much the only ST I still have the patience for are the classically styled ones from the original series. Maybe some Next Gen., if they're not too 'epic' or 'thrilling.' I guess I'm supposed to check if I missed anything by Peter David?

Ok done.

Yeah, so, I had trouble sleeping the third night, so worked through this. Battle and 'chase' scenes too drawn out for me. Left Neelix et al behind. Overall, pretty workmanlike, esp. the characters. The philosophy was at about a Jr. High level and they went on & on about it (The Temporal Prime Directive and etc.) Almost no humor or even wit.

[Gilda Felt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know why I still allow myself to be sucked into these things. I should know better. I stopped reading Star Trek books a long time ago because, once TPTB caught on to slash, they stopped allowing any sort of emotional context in their books. Especially between Kirk and Spock.

But I was hopeful. I mean, it sounded good. I like time travel stories, and what with several of TOS's episodes being highlighted, there appeared to be some meat to the story.

No such luck. Everyone is just sort of there, going through the motions. There are the usual clichés: McCoy is grumpy, Kirk is in the middle of everything and Spock is there with the answers, but there's no soul to it.

I did like that we saw some "act fives," so that we learned what happened to the People of Vaal after there was no Vaal anymore. And how did all the Cheronians kill each other off so that Bele and Lokai transported down to a dead planet? We get the answer to that, too. But the ending is weak, as everything is tied up rather too neatly.

[AndrewP · Rating 2 out of 5]

At first glance this book sounded pretty good, Kirk meets Seven of Nine, so I was expecting lots of clever banter between the main characters. Sadly that didn't happen. Personally I would rate this book as just fan fiction, and not especially well written either.
The story is paper thin and involves Seven being thrown back in time where she must recover three sections of a mysterious time device, join them together and use the completed gizmo to get back to her own time. Yes it's a straight forward story of 'quests' to recover items.
There was too much reliance on 'Trek' buzzwords here and not enough on the characters. Where there were original ideas they often veered off into the unbelievable or absurd. For example - who knew the Enterprise has an Olympic sized swimming pool and on the bottom is some inflatable furniture filled with heavier than water gas!
Even did hard fans, like me, may struggle with this one.

[Sud666 · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the title and the fact it is a "crossover" book, it should come as no surprise that this story revolves around the tried and true Star Trek trope of time travel. It tends to be a recurring story thing with Star Trek. This novel tells the crossover story of Annika Seven from the Voyager crew going back in time to run into Captain Kirk.

Seven, investigating a mysterious ruin, is transported into the past. She must find three pieces of an ancient artifact to return to her time. She has encountered the crew of the Enterprise and Kirk and the Command crew come up with an explanation for her appearance. They say she is a Doctor, but omit the fact she is from the future to prevent any time discrepancies. But, a Federation traitor working with an Orion pirate crew is also on the hunt for Seven.

A good story, though not the greatest. The time travel trope tends to get old. But I did enjoy the interactions of Seven with the crew of the Enterprise. She must conceal her Borg origins from the crew, but her interactions and conversations were an interesting read. Nothing great, but still, a good Star Trek story.

[Brett T · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the problems that Star Trek fiction had during its glut years was that a large amount of the books being written weren't much better than the fan fiction that had circulated via photocopy and fanzine in the years before the show became a big hit on the big screen. In fact, some of the fan-written work was better than the "official" stories coming out under Paramount and Pocket Books' approval. The recent scaling back of the production line might have helped stem this problem, but if Greg Cox's No Time Like the Past is any indicator, it's an issue that will be sticking around.

The Enterprise is carrying an ambassador to negotiate with a planet that has been giving aid to Orion pirates and smugglers. He's offering Federation help to them if they'll kick the Orions to the curb, but the Orions themselves have a couple of tricks up their piratical sleeves. In the midst of a sneak attack by the raiders, Captain Kirk and company are aided by a mysterious blonde woman whose cybernetic implants and no-nonsense demeanor make her stand out as much as her shooting accuracy. With good reason, because the woman who calls herself "Annika Seven" is actually former Borg drone Seven of Nine, thrown back in time from her own journey with the lost Voyager. She's trying to re-assemble a time-displacement disk that has thrown her back from her own time to Kirk's, and do it before her need for her Borg regeneration tube causes her to collapse and shut down.

The rest of the story is a quest among the Enterprise's earlier missions to find the other pieces of the disk, pursued by the Orions and attempting to ferret out the identity of a possible spy. Cox clears at least one high bar; he manages to make the ham-handed message of the broadcast episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" even more ham-handed with his revisit to the planet involved. Dead red-shirted characters, a womanizing Kirk, clueless ambassadors -- if there's a Star Trek cliché that Cox misses, it's not for lack of trying. He even ends his story with a "Well, whaddaya know?" kind of time-travel paradox that, not twenty pages earlier, he used in the exact opposite way.

There's nothing offensive about Time, although the sad thing is that there's probably a really interesting story somewhere in the mixing of the former Borg drone Seven of Nine with the original series crew. But now that Cox has written this book, that story won't be told.

Original available here.

[Tom · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave up attempting to keep up with all Star Trek books many years ago. The quality seemed to keep decreasing, with the rare exception. Every now and then I'll pick up one that catches my attention, hoping for a gem. Unfortunately, this wasn't it. It honestly seems like Greg Cox took a list of every overworked Star Trek cliche and strung them together into a book. Every time a redshirt is introduced, you know they're about to die. Nobody else, just the security guard. The banter and exposition are nothing that haven't been hashed and re-hashed over and over. No new ground is broken, and nothing new discovered.

[Ken Gulick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Continuing my quest to read every stat trek novel dvd written. This was a pretty quick read. Greg Cox always seems to throw one off Star Trek characters from TOS in his books Vaal and a couple others for this one. Also with the addition of 7 of 9 interacting with Kirks crew it kept me interested in it enough to see where this was all going as far as how the timeline would sort itself out.

[Kathryn Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for fans of Seven of Nine

Satisfying time travel and adventure yarn. Held my interest and kept my mind off the present, real-life scum and villainy destroying our civilization.

[Mark Oppenlander · Rating 3 out of 5]

Greg Cox writes a lot of TOS novels, and is well-versed in the canon. He often likes to dip into the reservoir of old episodes and provide his readers with prequels, sequels, or even alternate takes on classic stories. No Time Like the Past does that in spades, providing us with an anthology of intersections with past Star Trek tales - while also adding a Voyager twist.

Kirk escorts Federation commissioner Santiago to a negotiation with the Yusub people in an attempt to dissuade them from offering safe harbor to Orion pirates. When the mission goes disastrously wrong, a mysterious woman from the future appears. The woman is Seven of Nine, thrown back in time and across the galaxy by a force or forces unknown. She calls herself Annika Seven and admits who she really is only to Kirk, and only in private. She has been thrust out of her time at a moment of crisis, and wishes to return to save Janeway, Neelix, and the rest of her companions from death.

Knowing the damage a visitor from the future could cause, Kirk assists Seven with her quest to return to the 24th century. Their investigation takes them to several sites that featured prominently in the Enterprise's five-year mission, unearthing archaeological clues, sometimes at great peril.

Cox's familiarity with the tropes of TOS, and the settings and characters of these specific episodes gives the endeavor a comfortable feeling. The dialogue he places in the mouths of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Seven feels just right. We are in good hands, and the introduction of Seven of Nine provides a "fish out of water" element that can be kind of fun. Cox also plays with the "meta" aspect of his plot, pointing out similarities between several storylines and then positing a reason for their existence. There is a certain amount of wink-wink, nudge-nudge going on with his machinations.

The ending may tie things off a little too neatly; like a bonus track on a greatest hits album, it promises more than it delivers but never violates the joy of what has gone before. This novel proves to be an enjoyable exercise for true Star Trek fans, because it plays around with what we know and love, but brings us back home at the end. It doesn't really take us in any new directions and probably wouldn't hold up as a standalone tale. But if you know TOS well, you'll likely have a good time.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so incredibly behind on reading the Star Trek prose novels that I collect that even though I bought this book when it was published in 2014, this is the first time I've had the chance to actually sit down and read it.

Thankfully, it was an experience well worth waiting for. Though this is ostensibly an Original Series novel, it is a crossover tale where Seven of Nine from the Star Trek Voyager series through a series of events best read than explained is transported back 100 years in the past.

This leads her to meeting Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise. The circumstances of the initial meeting are less than ideal as it comes in the midst of an ambush during a delicate diplomatic conference.

Time travel, Orions, spies and the push/pull desire of learning what is to come in the future vs. not messing with the Temporal Prime Directive combine to form a thrilling narrative and the sense of adventure that is on display makes you wish that this kind of story could be the result of all crossover stories.

Simply put, I enjoyed the heck out of this book.

[Sean Randall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite feeling a little fanfic-like and the death count of redshirts seeming a little worrying, I still enjoyed this. Despite Kirk and 7 obviously being very different and there really being no rationale for them put together, it managed to keep my interest. Thinking on it at a day remove it feels a bit of a contrivance: some of 7's way of speaking didn't ring very true, and Greg always shows off his grasp of temporally accurate vernacular by contrasting landing party with away team in his crossovers. Still, a few hundred pages is not too hefty.

[John Yelverton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really expecting this novel to be a rip roaring adventure, but it started off very slowly, significantly picked up the pace, and then puttered out to an all but deus ex machina ending. I enjoyed having the two characters together, but it could have been a lot better.

['Nathan Burgoine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, that was fun, definitely worth the impulse on-sale buy, and definitely did what was on the tin. Seven and Kirk, in a very TOS-era story (via time-travel for Seven, of course), complete with dialog filled to the brim with exclamation marks, so many redshirt deaths I lost track, and so many asides and banter moments between the TOS-era crew I could hear the actors delivering them with 100% Camp mode in their voices.

It really was like reading an episode of the TOS show, and I mean that in the double-edged way of the good and the well… You know. TOS is TOS. Villains twirl their moustaches, and the ability of the crew to notice who might be acting odd is variable at best, and hey, there’s a guest Diplomat on board the Enterprise. I bet he won’t be a constant thorn in anyone’s side. ;)

But I think the think I loved the most was Kirk trying some of that ol’ Kirk charm on Seven of Nine and her being 100% "Nope." Bless you for that, Mr. Cox.

[Ian Banks · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fast-paced adventure that plays a lot of Trek Bingo and deals with the theme of just how awesome Kirk’s reputation is. There’s also plot coupons and a reset button at the climax. I didn’t want to enjoy it because it didn’t really offer anything new to the series but it was a lot of fun, despite being highly reverential and referential to the parent series - “the undiscovered country” is a phrase used at least three times in this text and there’s an awful lot of lore that could have been skipped over quite easily. However, it is nice to see a novel this late in the series referencing a couple of the much earlier books when that doesn’t normally happen. Fun but lightweight.

[Caiden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like Cox's previous Star Trek book, THE WEIGHT OF WORLDS, this book starts out dreadful, albeit boring, but slowly transforms into something worth reading. Kirk and Seven are okay together, but she has much more chemistry with Scotty. Everything was Neelix's fault though.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable, but so obviously written by a man. I found it somewhere between distracting and infuriating how often he mentioned Seven’s figure.

[Arlene Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

EXCELLENT read for fans of the brand no matter the “series” beautiful collaboration

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

While he's not quite in the same pantheon as Peter David, Greg Cox still offers up more this fair share of intriguing, well-told Star Trek tie-in novels. So when I saw the cover of No Time Like the Past promised an "epic crossover event," I was willing to give this blending of classic Trek and Voyager a chance.

And for the most part, it was a fairly fun read, even if I felt like the book overstayed its welcome by about fifty or so pages.

Thanks to some relic in the Delta Quadrant, Seven of Nine is sent back to the era of Kirk, Spock and McCoy. In order to get back and to prevent damage to the future time-line, Seven enlists the help of Kirk and company to reassemble a time-travel device and return home. Pieces of said artifact are scattered across the galaxy, all on planets that Kirk and company visited during the original seventy-nine episodes. Add in that the Klingons are aware of Seven's presence and potential value and a commodore is up the usual classic Trek standards of cluelessness and you've got all the ingredients for a fun, diverting visit to the Star Trek universe.

As he's demonstrated in the past, Cox has a firm grasp on history -- Star Trek and otherwise. That is fully on display here and I'll admit the classic Trek fan in me ate up the references and returns to some familiar locations.*

* It was almost enough to make me want to re-visit the three major episodes referenced in the story.

But the novelty and fun begin to wear out long before the novel reaches its final pages. By the mid-point of the novel, I found myself growing a bit weary of the constant reminders that everyone wants Seven for her future knowledge and potential to get a leg-up on the balance of power in the quadrant. And the book has to go to some huge lengths to have Seven regenerate since she's cut off from her Borg cubicle.

It's not to say the novel isn't a fun one. It's just that it feels a bit longer than it needs to be. There's a bit too much treading water in the middle section and that drags the story down a bit.

[Dirk Wickenden · Rating 3 out of 5]

I put off purchasing this until 2021, as I'm an original series fan and not keen on crossovers with later Trek incarnations and restrict myself to original series and original crew film-set novels. That said, Voyager has grown on me, as currently watching it on Netflix, for the first time since the original UK airing.

Onto the book, overall it was passable but not one of the best literary Treks. The characterisations were not 'natural'. Published in 2014, it pre-empted by five years, in some ways, the 'clues scattered through space and time' of the abysmal season two of the dreadful Discovery. It didn't make any real sense why a giant representation of Kirk's face would be on a planet in the delta quadrant and the explanation at the end didn't add any merit to it. Almost has bad as how the Guardian of Forever suddenly appeared on a different planet and as a man, in the even more awful Discovery season three. As for this novel, Cox luckily hadn't gone all wokey on us readers in 2014, though.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author wasted no time getting things started. Chapter 1 barely finished and someone has died, with plenty more to follow shortly after that.

No Time Like the Past features a stellar cast - James Kirk, Seven of Nine, Kathryn Janeway (however briefly). Some may find it sacrilegious to mix a character of a spin-off series with the crew of the original series, but what is there not to like about this crossover tale? If Picard had made an appearance too, it would be a grand slam of sorts.

Still, the book is not without issues. Putting aside the time-travel paradoxes, the editors should have spent more time proofreading the book because they failed to catch the erroneous "Kobyashi Maru" reference (which should have been "Kobayashi Maru") not once, but twice. I also find it irritating that whenever Chekov is mentioned, we are reminded of his "thick Russian accent".

Overall, a fun read, although it drags a bit in the middle.

[James Bowman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid Star Trek adventure that sends Voyager's Seven of Nine into the past to meet the crew of Kirk's Enterprise. The author's affection for classic Trek is obvious, with meticulously accurate characterizations, leaning hard into the show's cliches, and a story that revisits locales from a number of original series episodes. (However, he also slips in some nods to the reboot films, so one could probably imagine that version of the cast featuring as well.) The novel is far from perfect, however: most of its appeal relies on appreciation for the original series; a few elements, like the Mavelans, seem unfortunately dated; the final confrontation with the antagonist goes on a little too long, while the final resolution seems a little too short and simple; and there are a few noticeable editing mistakes. I'm not sure how much this novel would appeal to casual Trek fans, but if you're a veteran fan, this should be a fairly satisfying read. (B+)

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great interactions between Seven and the classic Trek crew make this novel a memorable one. Greg Cox really captures the voices of the original cast as well as that of Seven of Nine, and the interplay between Seven and the TOS crew felt very genuine. Additionally, revisiting some of the "greatest hits" of the original series is an interesting concept that plays out well. I especially enjoyed the exploration of the culture of Cheron.

Greg Cox has certainly shown a penchant for unique time-twisting adventures that are sure to make the most stalwart Temporal Investigations agent blanch in horror. Whenever you open a Greg Cox novel, you can be sure that a fun time will be had! No Time Like the Past marks another excellent entry into his catalogue, and I'm looking forward to his next novel, due out at the end of 2014!

Full Review: http://treklit.blogspot.com/2014/03/N...

[Jimyanni · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not a top-tier Star Trek book; the plot was fairly pedestrian; basically, the plot was simply a rationalization for the basic idea, which was to have an Original Series/Voyager crossover in which Seven of Nine meets Kirk & co. The idea was fascinating, as Mr. Spock would say, and the characterizations were pretty well-handled. But really, there wasn't much substance here. The conclusion, in which the time-and-space traveling is rationalized, is pretty well a deus ex machina, and not at all satisfying, and the idea that none of the events actually happened but Kirk and Seven nonetheless retain memory of them, is also unsatisfying. It was a very fun read, but lacked substance even by the standards of the genre.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rather than the usual Voyager books that have been released lately, this one is set during the voyage through the Delta Quadrant -- as well as during Kirk's five year mission, which made this book an enjoyable romp through time as well as space. Some of the plot twists were obvious, including the climactic one, but the resolution of the book left me gob-smacked.

[Jeff Wetherington · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though this story had its occasional bright spots, this was probably my least favorite Greg Cox novel from the Star Trek universe. Most of the time it seemed more plodding than it needed to be.

[Mike Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read a lot of Star Wars fiction, but I don't think I've read a Star Trek novel in about four decades. This one happened to come my way as a gift. It was fun, although not terribly consequential.

No Time Like the Past is a Star Trek time travel novel that brings the Star Trek: Voyager character Seven of Nine into contact with the crew of Star Trek: The Original Series. The plot is similar to many video games: someone has scattered pieces of an ancient artifact across time and space. Each artifact includes a clue to the whereabouts and "whenabouts" of the next one. Seven stumbles across the first piece during a Voyager mission and is transported to James Kirk's era and location (about a year after the end of The Original Series). Working with Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the rest of the Enterprise crew, Seven must find the remaining pieces and reassemble the artifact in the hope it will send her back to her own time. To add some tension to the plot, our heroes are being pursued by a band of green-skinned Orion marauders who want Seven for her knowledge of the future.

The fun part comes as Seven and friends realize that the missing artifact pieces are hidden in the distant pasts of three planets that Kirk and crew visited in three separate episodes of The Original Series. I can't deny the fun and nostalgia of revisiting some settings from the TV series. There are all sorts of fan-serving callouts to those episodes, and to much other Star Trek lore. Crew and ship take a beating during this adventure, but there's not much suspense because even casual fans should know that all the characters had further filmed appearances after this time. We know everyone survives. In addition, the final payoff and explanation for all these temporal hijinks are rather ordinary and flat.

Greg Cox's writing is simple and easy to read. In fact, it was almost too easy, using what at times seemed like a grade-school vocabulary. Seven and Kirk are the main viewpoint characters, but we also get scenes from several other characters' perspectives as well. Some passages sometimes felt a bit obvious, but perhaps that was Cox trying to keep the book understandable for potential readers who may not be familiar with Star Trek. It was entertaining, but not as deep or sophisticated as the swimming pool and underwater lounge on board the Enterprise.

[Michael P. Dunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I am a life long Star Trek fan, it's been a while since I'd read any of the novels. There were various reasons behind this. There were too many other novels that I wanted to read, I wasn't really satisfied with the way the characters were portrayed, or the plots were just too farfetched even for Star Trek.

Which brings us to No Time Like the Present.

I was initially intrigued by the concept. A character from the future (Voyager's Seven of Nine) is thrown back to the era of the original series, saving Captain Kirk's life and beginning a quest to get her back to her own time. I went in with the hope of, at the very least, getting a good story and good characterization.

This is one hell of a story!

Everything seemed to click here. All the TOS characters sounded spot-on, giving a bit more of an in-depth look at the relationship between Kirk, Spock and McCoy. While I do wish there had been more for Uhura, Sulu and Chekov to do in the early part of the story, they certainly come through when needed. There is an ambassador I wanted to smack multiple times, and his duplicitous aide who gets what he deserves in the end. (Can't say anything more...spoilers.) I won't mention who the main adversaries are, but it's a nice change from Klingons and Romulans.

There are also trips to several planets from the original series, especially these planets in their past. These jaunts, each critical to the main story, gives a bit of insight into how the planets got to the state they were in when first visited.

As with the original series characters, Seven (or Dr. Annika Seven, as she's referred to) is handled just as well. Her precise way of speaking, her drive to complete the task at hand were all handled well, giving further depth to the character. She grapples with possibly changing the future or leaving things as they are.

The ending left me well satisfied, wrapping everything up neatly, leaving both the past and the future in tact.

No Time Like the Past is a fast read. I actually raced through it in a matter of a couple of days. Eventually I'll go back and read it again at a slower pace. I'm going to want to savor every word.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

https://magicandmeteors.wordpress.com...

Greg Cox’s No Time Like the Past is more than a examination between Star Trek’s Original Series and Voyager. At its most basic level, it is an adventure in which Seven of Nine, displaced from her own century, must work with Captain Kirk and his crew to repair the timeline and return home. Yet the novel is also a meditation on how Star Trek itself has changed, dramatizing the dialogue between two distinct visions of the Federation and two different modes of storytelling. It does so by using time travel, revisiting familiar civilizations, contrasting technologies, and staging character interactions that highlight the cultural distance between eras.

The time travel premise is simple, but it carries weight beyond plot mechanics. Star Trek has always used temporal displacement not only to create suspense but also to think about history, memory, and responsibility. Seven’s arrival in the twenty-third century immediately raises questions: how do her experiences in a more mature, self-critical Federation compare with Kirk’s frontier-era optimism? What does it mean for her to witness Starfleet in an earlier, more improvisational phase of its development? The novel never lingers on the technicalities of how she was displaced. Instead, it uses her presence as a lens through which readers can re-examine the practices and ideals of Kirk’s time. The effect is to turn time travel into cultural commentary.

This commentary is sharpened by the decision to revisit planets from classic Original Series episodes. Gamma Trianguli VI, Cheron, and Sarpeidon all reappear, but not in the static condition in which Kirk’s crew left them. Gamma Trianguli VI, once controlled by the machine-god Vaal, is struggling to build a society after generations of enforced stagnation. Cheron, the homeworld divided by stark racial binaries, is still scarred by the destructive logic of that division. Sarpeidon, with its atavachron that could fling inhabitants into their own past, resurfaces as a reminder of how cultures grapple with time itself. In each case, Cox exposes the incompleteness of Kirk’s episodic interventions. The Original Series often closed with a neat resolution: Kirk destroys the machine, defeats the oppressor, or liberates the oppressed. By showing the aftermath, Cox reframes these planets as evolving civilizations. Their struggles remind us that history continues after the starship departs.

The interplay of characters embodies the same theme. Kirk represents improvisational boldness, charisma, and confidence, traits that often carry him through crises. Seven represents caution, precision, and the trauma of survival in a galaxy shaped by the Borg, the Dominion, and other late-century threats. The two are not caricatures; Cox treats them with respect. Seven challenges Kirk’s instinct to act first and justify later, but she also learns to appreciate the creativity and adaptability that his approach brings. Kirk admires her intellect while finding her restraint frustrating. Around them, Spock and McCoy serve as foils—Spock intrigued by her implants and scientific knowledge, McCoy skeptical of the dangers she embodies. These interactions dramatize ideological contrasts: the optimism of the early Federation against the harder-earned maturity of its later incarnation.

Technology sharpens this contrast further. The Enterprise of Kirk’s time is a tactile, analog vessel, filled with blinking lights and switches. It represents a future imagined in the era of early spaceflight, when progress meant rocket engines and mechanical consoles. Seven, in contrast, carries within her body a different future: Borg nanites, bioengineering, and knowledge of replicator technology. Her adjustments to the Enterprise’s relative primitiveness highlight just how much Starfleet has evolved. These differences are not cosmetic. Her implants provide tools the crew would not otherwise have, and her perspective on temporal mechanics prevents Kirk from rushing into dangerous improvisations. The novel thus ties technological detail directly to cultural difference, showing how machines embody ways of thinking as much as they solve practical problems.

The Orions, chosen as antagonists, embody another perspective on civilization. Their opportunism, piracy, and slave-trading have long made them stand out as one of Star Trek’s loyalty wobbly cultures who you find popping up everywhere, and Cox uses them to demonstrate how some societies resist or reject evolution. Their attempt to exploit temporal technology fits their ruthless pragmatism, and their clashes with Kirk and Seven provide a foil for the Federation’s own values. In them, we see what the Federation might have become had it embraced exploitation over exploration. Their presence reinforces the theme that not all civilizations move forward along the same arc, and that progress is contingent, fragile, and contested.

What makes the novel particularly effective is that it resists easy harmonisation. Seven does not simply transform into a swashbuckling adventurer, nor does Kirk suddenly become a cautious bureaucrat. Their collaboration works because they learn to negotiate across differences rather than erase them. In this way, the novel stages a conversation not only between characters but between storytelling traditions. The brisk, episodic optimism of the Original Series collides with the introspective, continuity-driven sensibility of Voyager. The crossover is therefore more than a gimmick. It is a self-reflexive gesture, a way of making Star Trek meet itself across time.

The effect is to invite readers to reflect on the franchise’s history. By returning to familiar planets, Cox acknowledges the nostalgic appeal of the Original Series but also critiques its tendency to treat civilizations as allegories that could be resolved in an hour. By contrasting technologies, he shows how Star Trek has always reflected contemporary ideas of progress and futurity. By staging ideological clashes between characters, he highlights the difference between two eras of storytelling, each with its own assumptions about what the Federation should represent.

No Time Like the Past therefore succeeds on two levels. It is an entertaining story, briskly paced and filled with the pleasures of seeing beloved characters interact. But it is also a clever and careful reflection on continuity, progress, and the way fictional universes carry their histories forward. In presenting civilizations that continue to evolve, technologies that embody cultural identity, and characters who represent the ideals of their respective times, Cox has crafted a narrative that is both affectionate and critical. The novel ultimately points out to us all that strength lies not in erasing differences but in allowing them to coexist—an adventure about time travel that becomes, in the end, an exploration of the science fictions own evolving identity.