Star Trek: TNG — The Modala Imperative
{5/5} “When I was in the academy, the Admiral was a guest lecturer. He spoke that day on how the increased perfection of machines threatened to dominate humanity to the point where, if we weren’t careful, we would make our own instincts and intuition secondary to our instrumentation. In this great human adventure of space exploration, the Admiral was quite concerned about the loss of the human aspect.” — Picard
Star Trek: The Next Generation — The Modala Imperative by Peter David, published in 4 issues from Sep. 1991 to Oct. 1991
Modala is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its freedom from tyranny. They joined the Federation long ago, and they have invited the Enterprise to come for the celebration. They have also invited Dr. McCoy, who was actually there 100 years ago — on the original Enterprise with Captain Kirk. Then a last-minute addition joins them, when his schedule allows it — Ambassador Spock. On Modala Stroyka, once a rebel, now has some people rebelling against him.
It’s very nice to see the 24th century versions of McCoy and Spock meeting — they have an interesting discussion about Kirk and Picard. Other terrific scenes include McCoy talking to the children on the ship, and Spock and Data playing a concert.
There’s one moment where Riker gets cranky with a freighter captain that doesn’t seem in character. The Ferengi as villains aren’t my favourite. Other than that, it’s a fine conclusion to Star Trek: The Modala Imperative.
The artwork by Pablo Marcos is a bit more hit or miss than usual — some is OK but some is really not so great.
This is the 2nd time I’ve read it.
I’ve read 28 novels, 3 graphic novels, and a bunch of comic books by David. I previously reviewed Star Trek Annual #2: Starfleet Academy!