The next novel I will be reviewing, "Dreadnought!" led me to researching "Mary Sue"s again. An interesting and scholarly article can be found on-line at http://www.merrycoz.org/papers/MARYSUE.HTM This refers to a wide variety of fiction but also to the novel in particular.

Crisis on Centaurus by Brad Ferguson (Star Trek #28, 1986)

Centaurus, an Earth colony world in the Alpha Centauri system, is devastated by a terrorist bombing. The Enterprise, suffering from a near-total breakdown of its computer systems, is ordered to lend whatever aid is possible, and to investigate the incident. Scotty must nurse the warp engines to the Centauri system by hand, while his crew patches together the life support systems and restores internal gravity. Several Enterprise crewmen are badly shaken, as they are either Centauri natives or have family there, including Dr. McCoy, whose daughter Joanna is a medical student on Centaurus. It was also where Captain Kirk met McCoy many years earlier during rehab for a serious combat injury. Kirk has become a landowner on Centaurus and has a personal interest as well. The ship arrives on Centaurus and must first deal with an out-of-control planetary defense system that has destroyed the first medical ships dispatched from Earth to help. Then, aid must be given to the injured, and finally the culprits tracked down and brought to justice.

This is Ferguson's first published work. He has since written "A Flag Full of Stars," Star Trek #55 and #2 in the "Lost Years" saga, although like many books of that era he has disavowed the final draft. A downloadable copy of the author's version was formerly available at the author's website at http://www.fred.net/thirteen/ , but I could not get the link to work just recently. Ferguson sounds like my kind of guy, as he is also a fan of classic Superman stories. Since getting published in Star Trek fiction, he has written Next Generation novels, one non-Star Trek novel, and some short stories published in Asimov's and elsewhere.

The book is a good one, although Ferguson makes some rookie author mistakes. He introduces the story in a very interesting way, but falls into the "Enterprise is damaged" trap without connecting it to the main plot. It is simply a complication, another obstacle. Also, Scotty becomes the "deus ex machina" here. He is obviously working hard to repair all systems and keep the ship going, and must nursemaid the engines with computer control out, but he also seems to find time for such things as rigging a coffeepot on the bridge. It would have made a lot more sense for someone else to do that, or for a Yeoman to simply bring it up as Janice Rand did, heating coffee with a hand phaser in an early episode.

Still, there is much to like here, as Uhura gets a shot at handling the conn for once, and even gets to do some things. There are some nice twists, and Sulu as a party animal, with Chekov falling in love with a nurse, play nicely. We get yet another assistant for Scotty, this time a big Scotsman named MacPherson. The collapse of a planetary government when the capital is bombed and most leading officials are killed is portrayed here, but is given a little shorter shrift than should have happened. The tachyonic fallout from the explosion fouling subspace is an interesting complication and advances the plot.

Of course, Ferguson makes the same mistake many authors make, which is that engineering is more than Scotty. The Enterprise has 432 crew members, some 80-100 of them presumably assigned to engineering. Of course Scotty has a paternal pride in the ship, but surely some of those guys are trusted to do something. We also have a shortage of bridge officers here, as the helm and navigation relief for Sulu and Chekov seems to be one person each. With the crew complement of the ship, there would be more people available for duty than that. Even Uhura has handled the helm in a pinch, surely some more people could be drafted into bridge duty.

Also, Ferguson errs by placing his climax near the middle of the book. It was probably not his intention, but that is the effect, and the second climax near the end becomes anticlimatic, even though he tries to save it with an outlandish move that would likely destroy the Enterprise. It just doesn't work.

Now, despite my complaints, I enjoyed the book. It has problems, but is also an entertaining story with well-written characters and good dialogue. This would make a good entry in the movie series, rewritten into script form. You could even use this plot with the Next Generation characters and have success. It would certainly be better than most of the movies we have seen lately from the Star Trek franchise.