Pantheon - Michael Jan Friedman [232]
MJF: Yes, but other things happened in between. I did a book with Kevin Ryan called Requiem (ST:TNG No. 42), in which some of the characters appeared in an extended prologue. Then I did The First Virtue, in which the crew appeared with Jack. In a three-issue arc of the comics, I did a story featuring Picard, Jack, and Ben Zoma, so there was a little whetting of the appetite along the way. But what happened was that my book Starfleet: Year One was supposed to be the first of an original book series. When official details about Enterprise started coming out, it was clear that my vision of the beginning of Starfleet was going to conflict with that vision. Rather than that series happening, we considered a Stargazer book series instead. But actually the decision to do The Valiant was independent of that. Originally, this was going to be a stand-alone book. When it became obvious that Starfleet: Year One was not going to be a series, we then switched gears and made The Valiant into essentially the first Stargazer book.
KD: Did that affect your plans for the story in any way?
MJF: To me, the seminal story in Star Trek is (the original-series episode) “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” That may still be the best hour of Star Trek in my mind. The idea that Gary becomes superhuman has stuck in my mind and has surfaced in a few of the Star Trek books I have done and will continue to surface, as it did in the My Brother’s Keeper trilogy. But I wasn’t done with Gary Mitchell. I thought it would be cool to connect what happened on the Valiant to something later on in Star Trek continuity. Originally, I wasn’t thinking of a Stargazer story for that. But I figured that I already had a crew that I could use again, and Kirk’s already been connected to the old Valiant. So let’s go ahead and connect Picard and do it in a way that also relates to another big element in continuity, which is how he got his command.
KD: And it was received well by readers.
MJF: I think its biggest virtue was that it connected all of these points. You have the Gary Mitchell back-story, the Valiant, the Kelvans from (the original-series episode) “By Any Other Name,” and Picard’s battlefield commission. That’s a lot of interesting points.
KD: Tell me about what it’s like to write Picard as a junior officer and captain on the Stargazer as opposed to writing him as commander of the Enterprise. To me, it might seem like writing the adventures of Superboy.
MJF: Yeah, it is. But it’s very difficult, actually. If you go back to (the ST:TNG episode) “Tapestry,” Picard’s a hothead and he learns not to be one.
KD: But once you get your heart poked out by a Nausicaan, usually, it tones you down.
MJF: That’s gonna happen. (laughs) So now he’s toned down. But it sort of implies in “Tapestry” that once those events were over and he learned that lesson, he could have become a Milquetoast and never been a captain. So he’s kind of forced into a middle ground, and that works very well for him in The Next Generation era, because he’s an older guy. But in Stargazer, from that incident on, what is he like? Is he like the sixty-year-old Picard from the time he was twenty-five? What the hell is he like? It’s always interesting to portray him in the Stargazer era. You don’t want to portray him too much differently from where he ends up, but you don’t want him too similar, either. He makes mistakes. It’s difficult, and to tell you the truth, I’m not sure I always succeed. Really Picard is the most complex captain we have. I love Kirk, but Kirk was on for three years and I don’t think he ever became as complex as Picard.
KD: So even though it initially was not meant to be, The Valiant was the introduction to your series of Stargazer novels, which are going strong today.
MJF:The Valiant very much sows the seeds for what happens later in the Stargazer series. And I am having fun with the new books.
KD: This is very interesting insight, Mike. Thanks for sharing it with your readers.
MJF: It was my pleasure.
Contents
Prologue
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Three
Four
Five