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S.C.E.: Out of the Cocoon





	June 20 - Retro Review: Disaster Troi must take command of the ship while Picard struggles to work with three children and Worf delivers Keiko's baby. June 6 - Retro Review: Silicon Avatar A scientist pursuing the Crystalline Entity discovers that Data's brain holds her son's memories. May 30 - Retro Review: Ensign Ro A court-martialed Starfleet officer from occupied Bajor is sent to help locate a terrorist leader. May 23 - Retro Review: Darmok Picard is exiled with the leader of an alien race who speaks in incomprehensible metaphors. May 15 - Retro Review: Redemption, Part Two Picard discovers that Tasha Yar's Romulan daughter is influencing the Klingon civil war. May 9 - Retro Review: Redemption, Part One When Picard is asked as Arbiter of Succession to oversee Gowron's installation, Worf resigns from Starfleet to fight against the Duras family. May 2 - Retro Review: In Theory Data creates a romantic subroutine to experiment with love. Apr 24 - Retro Review: The Mind's Eye LaForge is kidnapped and altered by Romulans to take part in an assassination plot against a Klingon governor. Apr 17 - Retro Review: The Host Crusher falls in love with a Trill, only to discover that his real personality exists in a small symbiont living inside his body. Apr 11 - Retro Review: Half a Life A visiting scientist falls in love with Lwaxana Troi, then reveals that he is expected to commit ritual suicide. Mar 28 - Retro Review: The Drumhead A famous Starfleet admiral leads a hunt for a traitor aboard the Enterprise. Mar 20 - Retro Review: Qpid In the middle of an archaeology conference, Q turns Picard and crew into Robin Hood and his merry men. Mar 13 - Retro Review: The Nth Degree After an encounter with an alien probe, Lieutenant Barclay develops super-human intelligence. Mar 6 - Retro Review: Identity Crisis LaForge learns that every officer on an away mission to Tarchannen Three years earlier has begun to transform. Feb 28 - Retro Review: Night Terrors The crew is trapped in a rift in space where lack of dreams causes psychosis.

By Jacqueline Bundy
Posted at December 28, 2005 - 3:55 AM GMT

Title: Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers, #57 Out of the Cocoon
Author: William Leisner
Release Date: November 2005
Format: eBook
ISBN: 0-7434-9692-2

With a story that is a follow-up to the second season TNG episode "Up the Long Ladder" Strange New World alumnus William Leisner makes his Starfleet Corps of Engineers series debut with Out of the Cocoon, the 57th installment of the popular eBook series. My only prior experience with Leisner's writing has been the short story format of the three Strange New World volumes he has contributed to but with Out of the Cocoon he clearly demonstrates that he has the ability to provide a thoroughly entertaining tale in a longer format as well.

Set eleven years after "Up the Long Ladder", which saw two disparate human colonies, the Bringloidi and the Mariposans reunited, in Out of the Cocoon the U.S.S. da Vinci is sent to Mariposa when Starfleet Command receives a message from the Ficus Sector requesting that the Federation come and "...rid us of this infernal machinery, every last bloody scrap of it!" Upon arrival the crew of the da Vinci soon discovers that the integration of the two societies has not exactly gone smoothly and it is up to the S.C.E. to help them overcome more than their technical problems.

Whether or not you enjoyed the episode "Up the Long Ladder" you're bound to enjoy Out of the Cocoon. The story is engaging, well paced and nicely incorporates some great character development into the plot. I particularly appreciated and enjoyed how the author utilized even the smallest details from the episode in Out of the Cocoon.

Leisner's appreciation for the episode comes through loud and clear from the moment you hear Brenna Odell's voice in the message to Starfleet Command and it was a real pleasure to visit the characters again in this story. He also nails the characterizations of the regular S.C.E. cast providing some great moments for several of the characters, most notably in the interactions between Captain David Gold and Dr. Elizabeth Lense.

The last few S.C.E. stories have been a little on the heavy side which made the placement of a story with a lighter tone, such as Out of the Cocoon, a very welcome change at this point in the series.

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Jacqueline Bundy reviews Star Trek books for the Trek Nation, writes monthly columns for the TrekWeb newsletter and the Star Trek Galactic News, and hosts the Yahoo Star Trek Books Group weekly chat.



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