Star Trek: The Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard (2017) Book Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well for a Friday. I'm back with another book review, where I'm taking a look at the next book in the Star Trek: Autobiography series published by Titan Books. I don't have the Spock one, so up next is The Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard, which was written by David A. Goodman, who also wrote The Autobiography of James T. Kirk, which I reviewed on Monday. Like with the Kirk one, this book mostly contains spoilers for certain events shown on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the movies Star Trek Generations (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), and Star Trek Nemesis (2002). There's no mention of Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) though, similar to how the Kirk book didn't mention the events of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989). I will be talking about those spoilers because this book expands upon several episodes as well as the movies that are brought up in the book as well. So let's get into it.

Because The Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard was written and published before Star Trek: Picard (2020-2023) was even thought of, it presents alternative outcomes for both the fate of Picard's mother, Yvette, and the years after Nemesis and the 24th Century backstory for the 2009 Star Trek movie. While season 3 of Picard was great, the first two seasons weren't, and while Yvette's death is still tragic (she died after a fight with Irumodic Syndrome, the disease that killed Picard's body in the first season of Picard), it's preferrable to her suicide due to mental illness. And the events both between and after the backstory from Star Trek '09, are much more optimistic than those depicted in Picard. Jean-Luc and Beverly got married between Nemesis and '09, and they even invited Q to the wedding (he disguised himself of course), and then after being the Federation ambassador to Vulcan for several years, Jean-Luc retired from Federation service to the Picard Vineyard and started producing the family wine, while Beverly took command of the USS Pasteur, as she had done in the Anti-Time Future seen in the TNG series finale, "All Good Things...". Again, a much more preferrable outcome than the one we got in Picard.

However, the bulk of the book actually focuses on Picard's career aboard the Stargazer, including his rise in the ranks and the lead up to him being forced to take command after his captain was killed and the first officer, after being in command for a month as the captain. It shows the ship's role in the war with the Cardassians, the near war with the Klingons just before the Enterprise-C's sacrifice at Narendra III solidified the Federation-Klingon Alliance, and the tragic death of Jack Crusher, which was combined with Picard's encounter with the Chalnoth as mentioned in the TNG season 3 episode, "Alliances", so that the Chalnoth killed him while he was trying to rescue an away team that Picard had sent down. He also met Guinan during this period too.

The part that interested me the most though was the period between the abandonment of the Stargazer and Picard assuming command of the Enterprise-D prior to the TNG pilot episode, "Encounter at Farpoint". Picard becomes a troubleshooter for Admiral Quinn, who appeared in the season 1 episodes, "Coming of Age" and "Conspiracy", where he would go around the fleet and solve problems.

This period in Picard's history was originally depicted in the 2007 novel, The Buried Age, which was written by Christopher L. Bennett as part of the Lost Era. However, while that book had a much smaller viewpoint to focus on, as Picard only met Guinan, Deanna Troi and Data during this period, this book was much larger as he not only met Data and Deanna during this period, but he also met Tasha Yar, Geordi La Forge, and Worf during this period as well. Which is interesting because, while we knew of how Picard met Geordi through dialogue in the season 5 episode, "The Next Phase", and we also know alot about Geordi's Starfleet career prior to serving on the Enterprise, we have nothing in canon that talks about Worf's career or Tasha's. Being that Worf was a Lieutenant Junior Grade during the first two seasons of TNG, it stands to reason it hadn't been that long since he'd graduated from Starfleet Academy and therefore had had only one assignment prior to being assigned to the Enterprise. It also expands upon Worf's role on the ship during season 1. While he only acted as a relief officer for the Tactical, Ops, and Conn stations on the Bridge for most of the first season, he was also a member of Tasha's security team, hence why he was with the team that tried to apprehend Lore in "Datalore", and why Picard chose him to replace Tasha as chief of security after her death in "Skin of Evil".

I think what I like most about this book is that it does give names to some of the unseen crews and captains who were killed or assimilated during the Battle of Wolf 359. Apart from Sisko and the crew of the Saratoga, Admiral Hanson, and the few people who were there that we met in various episodes of Star Trek: Voyager, who had been assimilated, we never saw the larger scope of the battle, only that of the people I mentioned like Sisko and Hanson. But knowing that Captain DeSoto, who we never saw on screen, but who was Riker's commanding officer prior to Riker transferring to the Enterprise, as well as a friend of Picard's, Marta Batanides and Corey Zweller, who were Picard's Academy friends as seen in the season 6 episode, "Tapestry", and his former Ops officer on the Stargazer, Cheva, who is original to this book, were all there and all killed when their respective ships were destroyed, makes it that much more personal for Picard, which in turn, makes it much more personal for me as a reader.

I also like how it handles the aftermath of Picard having been captured and tortured by the Cardassians in "Chain of Command", giving weight to his disorientation when meeting Sisko in the pilot episode of DS9, "Emissary". While we got things from Picard's perspective on his first meeting with Sisko in the novelization for "Emissary", this was the first attempt to attribute him missing who Sisko was and what ship he'd served on prior to being assigned to the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards for the next three years, to his uneasiness at being at a Cardassian station as a result of his recent captivity.

My favourite part though is seeing what happened between TNG seasons 1 and 2 and seasons 2 and 3 in regards to how Geordi became chief engineer, how and why Pulaski replaced Beverly, and how Beverly returned to the Enterprise before the beginning of season 3, AND how Ten Forward was built and how Picard informed Guinan that he'd figured out how to build a bar on his ship, and that he wanted her to tend it.

I would've liked to have seen Ro Laren being mentioned and how through her Picard came to know the Bajorans as he mentioned to Sisko in "Emissary". I also would've loved to have seen what effect Ro's defection to the Maquis in "Pre-emptive Strike", which was the last regular episode of TNG before the series finale, beyond what we actually saw at the end of that episode. But for whatever reason, Goodman chose not to include anything having to do with Ro or the events in "Pre-Emptive Strike". Which is fine, but after we saw the resolution of Picard and Ro's storyline in season 3 of Picard, it would've been interesting to see that resolution told in this book since it was written and published only a year before Star Trek: Picard was commissioned by Paramount and Paramount+ (when it was known as CBS All Access).

Other than that there really aren't any particular TNG episode I would've liked seeing Picard's perspective on in this book. All the major and personal events in Picard's life are included here, and it's very well written.

Overall, this is an awesome book. I actually like it better than the Kirk one, again, also by Goodman. I think it's because Picard is my favourite Star Trek Captain, next to Janeway and Pike. If you're a Picard fan or just a fan of TNG in general I definitely recommend reading this book. It's very indepth and we get to know characters like Walker Keel and Jack Crusher, who only appeared in one episode, or appeared in holographic form and in flashback in the case of Jack.

Alright my friends, that's it for me for today. I'll be back soon with more reviews and other posts. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.