187: Lucsly's Head Would Explode

The Escape. Time travel has been covered a lot in Star Trek. Starfleet characters often find themselves thrown about the space-time continuum, usually in some sort of unintended accident. But what if there was a society out there whose entire civilization was based on controlled and regulated time travel? Torres, Neelix, and Kim find themselves at the mercy of just such a society, having inadvertently broken their highest law. The punishment? Death. This week on Literary Treks, Brandon Shea-Mutala joins hosts Dan Gunther and Bruce Gibson to help continue our look at the first original novels of each Star Trek series by going back to the very beginning of Voyager with The Escape. We discuss why this book, how well the authors capture the tone of Voyager and its characters, the plot, the society of Alcawell, inflexible bureaucracies, the characters of Kjanders and Drickel, some impractical shoes, and end with our final thoughts and ratings. In the news, we discuss the current Pocket Books release schedule, reveal some upcoming DS9 titles, rate the cover for Enigma Tales, and review issue #7 of Boldly Go. News Changes in the Book Schedule (00:03:44) Enigma Tales Cover (00:11:17) Boldly Go #7 (00:15:27) Feature: The Escape Voyager #2 (00:24:58) The Title (00:29:37) Capturing Voyager (00:33:49) The Plot (00:40:17) Inflexible Bureaucracies (00:52:10) Kjanders and Drickel (00:58:52) Impractical Shoes (01:02:52) Ratings (01:04:49) Final Thoughts (01:08:37) Hosts Dan Gunther and Bruce Gibson Guest Brandon-Shea Mutala Production Matthew Rushing (Editor and Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Patreon Manager) Ken Tripp (Associate Producer) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Associate Producer) Bruce Gibson (Associate Producer)