I’m not quite sure how Sejanus made captain of a starship, especially one in Starfleet, and that is one of my biggest problems with the next book in the Star Trek: The Next Generation series from Simon & Schuster. Released back in 1989 the television series was about to launch its third season, but this was written before that, and the series was still finding its stride, style and characters.

With a stardate that suggests it’s in the first season, though the story and its characterizations are definitely second season, The Captain’s Honor is a bit of a mess. Sorry.

The Enterprise and the Centurion are assigned to help protect the planet Tenara from the M’dok. Simple right? Nope. The M’Dok are an aggressive feline species that will quite happily feast on humanoid flesh as they continue their conquest across the sector of space they call their own.

But that’s okay, Captain Picard will be able to handle things right?

Well, it seems Captain Sejanus has plans of his own, and his entire ship is staffed by Magna Roma. They are a world that had a parallel development with Earth, but their Roman Empire never fell and is continuing their expansion, or at least that’s Sejanus’ plans.

And while we’ve heard of Starfleet ships being staffed by all one species before, the Vulcans do it a lot, this seems like a ridiculous mistake on Starfleet’s part, especially considering how warlike these Magna Roma are. They don’t seem too interested in following the Prime Directive or Starfleet regulations.

This type of crew and ship would never have happened, and then there are a few continuity errors, but the authors didn’t know that at the time.

The stardate that is given towards the end of the episode puts it near the end of the first season which works because Dr. Crusher is on board. But Riker has his beard, and we know that didn’t happen until the second season.

There would be a lot of changes to the novel if it were written today, and I don’t think all of it would survive continuity or canon, but at the time, this was the only way we were getting our Trek novels as we waited week to week for the next episode.

The Human Adventure is just beginning, however, and there are so many stories to come as I boldy go! So let’s hope the next one is a little better.