Harman Patil (Editor)

Star Wreck (novel series)

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Author
  
Leah Rewolinski

Star Wreck is a parody series of the original Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation by Leah Rewolinski, with black and white illustrations by Harry Trumbore. While published individually, the first book has only 117 pages — many of which are illustrations — making it the length of a short story. A series premise is that there are two complete crews on a single adventuring starship. This artifice allows the crews to make open comments about the roles in the other series. (For example, the James T. Kirk character criticizing the Jean Luc-Picard character.)

Contents

A frequent running gag in at least two of the books features Goldfish wearing top hats and holding canes. It starts with Dr. Pragmatski's biology experiment in The Generation Gap. In the first illustration, they appear to be dancing out of water on the rim of the tank itself, while Dr. Pragmatski rings a bell. In subsequent drawings, they're shown in mid-air, on the bridge, being flung about like the other crew members when the ship is being rocked by turbulence.

Characters

Star Trek crew

  • James T. Smirk - The captain of the old crew, always looking for classy dames. Easy-going to extremes.
  • Mr. Smock - The Vulture officer. Has a feud with Dacron about being the most knowledgeable person on the ship.
  • Doc McCaw - The grumpy doctor, nicknamed "Moans". Employs the patent formula: "I'm a doctor, not a...." to avoid sticky choices.
  • Mr. Pavlov Checkout - The token Russian. Poor at piloting and communications.
  • Mr. Hikup Zulu - The token Oriental. Level-headed, and skilled in karate.
  • Mr. Snot - The old crew's Scottish chief engineer. Is very secretive about his trade and vocally pessimistic about his equipment's operability.
  • Lt. Yoohoo - The token black, token woman communications officer. Has a questionable aptitude for singing, and tends to bleat in fright when confronted with a crisis.

    • The Next Generation crew

  • Jean-Lucy Ricardo - The captain of the newer crew, self-conscious about his baldness, with a passion for Earl Grape Tea which makes him short-fused.
  • Commander Wilson Piker - Intellectually rather let down (he is hit on the head several times in the course of the series), his specialty is striking dramatic poses. Is habitually referred to as "Number One" by Ricardo.
  • Counselor Deanna "Dee" Troit - As a Betavoid, Troit has telepathic abilities and serves as the crew's therapist. At the end of the series, she chooses and marries Piker over Dacron, mostly out of concerns for her progeny.
  • Lt. Wart - The almost-too-aggressive Kringle defense officer of Ricardo's crew.
  • Lt. Commander Dacron - The Endocrine's token off-brand android (hence his white skin). Has a tendency to bore with his to-the-point statements, and becomes embroiled in a battle with Smock over the position of 'smartest crew member'.
  • Lt. Georgie LaForgery - The chief engineer of the new crew. Wears a prosthesis to see (and to conceal his fake, spring-mounted eyeballs).
  • Dr. Cape Pragmatski - Ricardo's medical officer in The Generation Gap who acts like a female version of Dr. McCaw.
  • Dr. Beverage Flusher - Ricardo's former medical officer "kicked upstairs by the high command" for the duration of The Generation Gap (itself a reference to Gates McFadden's absence during the second season of The Next Generation). Returns to duty on the Endocrine in a subsequent book.

    • Publications

  • Star Wreck: The Generation Gap
  • Star Wreck II: The Attack of the Jargonites
  • Star Wreck III: Time Warped: A Parody-Then, Now and Forever
  • Star Wreck IV: Live Long and Profit: A Collection of Cosmic Capers
  • Star Wreck V: The Undiscovered Nursing Home
  • Star Wreck VI: Geek Space Nine
  • Star Wreck VII: Space the Fido Frontier

    • References

    Star Wreck (novel series) Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA