Editor's note: This paper requires a little explanation. Frank Volny, a dear friend of mine, took AP English his senior year of high school depsite his hate of English and his firm wishes to enter the Marines. The following is his second research paper, presented as it was when he turned it in... printed out at a startling 32-point font!

Gene Rodenbury, in his own way, created a universe. This universe takes place in the future where people explore the ultimate unknown, space. In the beginning, his creation was meant for only television, but over time The Star Trek Universe has grown far beyond that. Now there are four television episodes, eight movies, hundreds of novels, comic books, models, toys, and video games. The TV episodes are the only stories to be considered ‘real startrek’, but the novels contain many of the best Star Trek stories ever thought up. One of the greatest of these story writers is Peter David. He wrote seven Star Trek novels, including the extremely popular Vendetta and Imzadi. The literature that Peter David has written is all very alike in that it contains many ellusions but it is also very diferent from all the other stories he has written.

Perhaps the best thing about the books that Peter David has written is that he uses a lot of Star Trek history. Both the books Vendetta and Imzadi contain a lot from past episodes. Imzadi has to do with traveling back in time to the enterprise, a time period covered in the episodes. But, the best thing about the way David does it is that he pulls out episods that were all wrapped up and ended for good, and he’ll bring it back into his books. The best example of this is in Vendetta. One of the main characters is the Doomsday machine from one of the episodes of the original series. A larger version actually. It is brought back to defend the galaxy from the Borg. No one else would have thought of that. Because there is a war between the Federation and the Borg, David made a lot of references to the battle of Wold 359. This must have been incredibly difficult because there was only one-two hour long episode about it. This episode was called The Best of Both Worlds. Because in this episode Captain Picard was made into a Borg and made back, Peter David also made extensive use out of it. Picard was the only one to have ever made the transition back to a human being after receiving the Borg implants until David made it happen again in his book. In order to do this he would have to know how it was done to Picard, and then explain the proceedure to the reader. David did a very good job. He not only explained the differences in the proceedure but also explained why Dr. Crusher chose to do it this way. Another great example of his ellusions is the static warp bubble used to destroy the Borg ship. Well, David didn’t allow it to work, but it was a great tactic created solely by Peter David. The static warp bubble was from an experiment gone wrong in one of the episodes that almost killed one of the crew, and he found a way of using it against the borg ship.

Since the book Imzadi had to do with time travel in a familiar Star Trek time period, Peter David used many references to events and places already created in the episodes. This book was not written linearly. It started in the future (of the Next Generation), then to the past when Troi and Riker first met. Next came the present day where Troi was murdered, and the ending takes place in the future. Half of the story delt with Riker and Troi’s meeting and how they became involved with each other. It must have been extremely difficult to write about this because David made it fit into what we already know so well. But it was really neat because when Riker went back in time because he found out that Troi was murdered, Data followed him back to stop Riker at all costs. Data lost but at the end he found out that Troi was murdered by someone in the future anyways, so no harm done. Did you ever notice that there are no bathrooms on the entire Starship Enterprise.

Peter David wrote and is still writing a lot of different literature. The Star Trek books that he wrote so far are Scoty’s biography, Rock and a Hard Place, Vendetta, Q-In-Law, Imzadi, Starfleet Academy #3: Survival, Q-Squared, and Strike Zone. Many people love Mr. David’s stories. "Imzadi is my favorite book". (Volny) Because of Peter David, Pete Miles started reading Star Trek books again. Larry K. Barfoot Jr. even posted a message on the internet requesting a hard cover version of Vendetta. (Bulletin Board, 1997) John B. of the internet said "Mr. David’s ability to mix old with new is what makes his books the best of the Star Trek World..." (Star Trek: The Untapped Resource, 1997) In fact so many people like Peter David that it’s posted on the internet that he will be attending the Star Trek convention on July 11-13 and August 1-3. This is why Peter David is a good author

B,. John. 1996. Star Trek: the untapped resource. Star Trek: First Contact. Internet. 27 January 1997. Available http://bbs.iguide.com:80/movies/contact/50/

Books i’ve read. 1997. Mile’s books. Internet. 18 February 1997. Available http://world.std.com:80/~olorin/books.html

Bulletin board. 1997. Star Trek messages. Internet. 18 February 1997. Available http://www.simonsays.com

Peter David. 1996. Alpha Ralpha Boulevard. Internet. 27 January 1997. Available http://www.catch22.com:80/~espana/SFAuthors/SFD/David,Peter/.

Star Trek the books. 1997 REference -- Personalities. Internet. 18 February 1997. Available http://www.simonsays.com

World - wide STAR TREK conventions. 1997. World Wide Collectors Digest. Internet. 18 February 1997. Available http://wwcd.com:80/shows/strekconv.html.