Check out “The Final Reflection”. A very different version of the Klingons (it was written before STIII) but an excellent book, Star Trek or otherwise.

Which titles would that be? Kobyashi Maru is the only one I’ve read besides the Audio version of Enterprise and The Lost Years and neither of those seem to me as well-founded in the greater Star Trek universe as the later post TNG book.

Whereas I admit there could be *some* audience for this idea I don’t think many longtime Trekfans would want to endure it. Personally, I’m more interested in exploring those strange new worlds than watching cadets go to school in preparation for that.

I just watched TNG’s “Tapestry” on Sci Fi this past Monday with it’s fresh, young, cocky, horny cadets. What we know about cadets is they seem really self-entitled and elitist — like fratboys or sorority gals. I hated those types in college. If that tendency could be avoided maybe it could work but I dunno. I’d only tune in to an Academy series to see these cocky kids receive their comeupance. Of course, I’m 40 and am hardly interested in the lives of kids half my age so there’s that bias.

Damn kids with their rocky roll music…

Isn’t anyone interested in a Starfleet Academy concept? For me some of the best parts of the TOS era movies was the Enterprise leaving or entering space dock–although TMP belabored that somewhat. It created a sense of wonder and realism in Starfleet as an entity. The Wesley Crusher training episode of TNG where he stands up to that agro alien with the webbed hands also shows this aspect. Imagine the spine tingling pride at seeing the Starfleet banner to high brass music in the intro sequence. I still think it would be a good show that would bring in many new young fans.

There was no design in the Spaceflight Chronology for a Kobayashi Maru as the book predated that ship’s first mention in STII by a couple years.

Ugh! How Smallville! I hope they never do that. “Star Trek 90210″….

Anyway, never read this one but was always surprised at the cover illustration by Keith Birdsong’s use of that ship for the Kobayashi Maru (btw I never cared for Birdsong’s pedestrian mostly colored pencil covers). That ship design — by TNG senior illustrator Rick Sternbach — first appeared in the long-out-of-print “Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology” which came out ‘way back in 1980 to coincide with ST:TMP. For those not familiar with this excellent book, it was a speculative history of spaceflight from Sputnik up through the 1701 refit. Some of the designs and information in the book have been contradicted by subsequent episodes (and in 1980 there was still TNG, DS9, ENT, VOY and 9 more films yet) but it remains a fascinating resource that I highly recommend. It is, however, a rare find. I first checked this book out from a local library after STII came out and spent many years trying to track down my own copy. I finally found one at a Half-Priced Books about five years ago and it holds up amazingly well, especially in light of what was revealled about the early days of Starfleet on ENT. If you enjoyed the Star Trek Starcharts, Technical Manuals, Chronologys and/or Encyclopedias you should buy this book if you ever get the chance. Like I implied, Rick Sternbach, still many years away from working on TNG, designed all the ships and provided many full-color paintings for the book. It even had a pull-out ship-comparison timeline.

I’ve recently read a ton of Star Trek books, mostly from the 90s and 2000s so reading this one was kind of a huge let-down.

I loved the chance to see their stories aroudn the KM but Chekov’s tale was so boringly told, so many minor details, every look left, look right, up down, it was like watching someone else play a video game and I never was able to finish his tale.

Sulu’s was a bit more maudlin and emotional but still I thought rather ham-fisted and poorly told.

The shuttle stuff was also kind of dry, even though I agree the crew interaction was true to character and nicely told. Still… I skimmed a lot of this book.