The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway by Kathryn M Janeway

  

The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway

by Kathryn M Janeway

edited by Una McCormack

First Published 2020 by Paramount Pictures Corporation

It is odd to read the autobiography of a fictional character who wont be born for a couple of hundred years, especially, as it is an autobiography, and therefore it is written by that person, but, if you accept that person as real, then it works.

Her early childhood is happy and secure, she grows up wanting to follow in her Fathers footsteps, and join Starfleet. She works hard and gets in a year early, with the intention of becoming a Captain. Things don’t go that smoothly at the Academy, there are those who think she got her place because she is her Father’s daughter. Nothing she can do about that, except work extra hard to prove that she got there on her own merit. This doesn’t end when she graduates, there is always someone saying she got what she got because of her Father.

The book fills in what we don’t know about her before she became Captain of Voyager. I didn’t know it was her first command, though I think I knew it was a new ship, I didn’t know that her previous Captain thought that she got the post because of her late Father and not on her merit. It would have been interesting to know how he felt when the ship was reported missing, though it wouldn’t have fitted in with the narrative.

The journey through the Delta quadrant is well documented in the tv series, so it is well that she doesn’t go into too much detail, though there were a few things that I thought should have been included, but I suppose there always will be. It is what happened next that I find difficult, everyone seems to have left Voyager and lived happy lives. Though in Picard, 7 of 9 is looking for revenge after Icheb dies in her arms. Also, there is a movement towards accepting holograms, like the Doctor, as having human rights, which leads to a backlash and civil unrest. Of course, this could be accounted for in alternatives realities, there are several stories in which things go wrong, badly and then something is done that takes everyone back to before it happened and they go down another path that takes them away from the bad ending.

Whatever, it takes you into the reality of Kathryn Janeway and her life and leaves you wondering if the older Janeway, turning up to help at the end of Voyager’s journey, manages to do it without ending up dead, and if so, what did she do next, how did she get home this time, did her daughter help in that return.

Atlantic City Proof by Christopher Cook Gilmore

Atlantic City Proof

by Christopher Cook Gilmore

Copyright 1978

The book was serialised on Women’s Hour, sometime in the 1980’s, but we could never remember how it ended or what happened, apart from the fact that the engine’s on Garvey’s boats kept getting bigger and faster in an attempt to out run the coast guard. My husband found the book, so that we could find out what happened.

The book is written from Garvey’s perspective, who’s family moved into an elephant after their farm was washed away by a storm and a very high tide. His Father was always waiting for the sea to bring the farm back, but year after year, it remained under water.

Garvey loved the sea and sailing, all his endeavours are about enjoying the speed of the boats he was sailing and finding out how to make a living whilst sailing.

Then there was Minnie. Her family worked on the end of the pier, until one night the sea took away the end of the pier and her parents with it. Garvey meets Minnie whilst clam fishing and a friendship begins. It could be described as a romance, between Garvey and Minnie. It is set in Prohibition America, Garvey considered that transporting the booze from the boats in the international waters to the shore was more lucrative than digging around in the mud for clams and things moved from there to getting bigger, faster boats and riding the wave the of prohibition till it was repelled and seeing what the next big thing was after that. Minnie is an important part of the team, as it is she and her knowledge of how things work, who keeps the engines running smoothly thus enabling them to out run anyone else.

It is an easy book to read. Garvey is an easy character to feel sympathy for, he has fallen for someone who doesn’t like to make commitments. He’s in it, more for the thrill of speed than anything. He never drinks any of the booze he transports, unlike so many others connected to the network.

Dr Who The audio scripts

  

Dr Who The Audio Scripts

published 2002

This is a selection of 4 scripts from the radio Dr Who stories. I found the format a little difficult at first, but you can get used to it. They are all 4 part stories.

Loups-Garoux by Marc Pegg

The fifth Doctor and Turlough

A story of werewolves. A woman, with her heavily sedated son, flee through the night on a private train trying to evade a werewolf. The son is sedated because he is a werewolf, in fact most of the people on the train are werewolves. One of the people who isn’t is a Doctor who is trying to cure the son of being a werewolf and therefore get rid of werewolves, this is not a popular idea with the werewolves.

The Holy Terror by Robert Shearman

The Sixth Doctor and Frobisher

The Emperor and God has died, long live the next emperor and God. All who follow the old Emperor and God are now heretics and must pledge allegiance to the new one or be tortured and killed. The Emperor’s widow must also be tortured and killed. The new Emperor isn’t sure, his wife isn’t happy, she faces the same fate as the old Emperors widow if he doesn’t become God and Emperor. His brother wants to be Emperor. There are a lot of people in the story that don’t seem to mind the idea of torture and death, except non of them really exist.

The Fires of Vulcan by Steve Lyons

The seventh Doctor and Mel

The story starts in 1980 in Pompeii where an archaeologist uncovers an English Police Box under the ashes. UNIT is called in and they take the box away, the Doctor is informed.

Next, the Doctor and Mel arrive in Pompeii, the day before the volcano erupts, the problem is, how do they get away from Pompeii, but leave the Tardis to be found in 1980.

The appendix contains an alternative Part 1 to this story, where it is Ace that accompanies the seventh Doctor. She says, mostly, the same words, but it is odd how different it feels with Ace instead of Mel.

Neverland by Alan Barnes

The eighth Doctor and Charley

Charley was born on the day the Titanic sank and stowed away on the R101 when it caught fire and crashed. She was supposed to die on that day, but the Doctor intervened and this caused problems with time and space, not only there but in every place they visited. The Time Lords in Gallifrey weren’t happy, they forced the Doctor to return to help solve the problem. I’m not sure it ended all that well for the Doctor, I suspect that will be resolved in the next story, but that isn’t in this book.

The format took a bit of getting used to, but the stories were difficult to put down and it  would be interesting to hear them.