Star Trek: The Next Generation #51: Double Helix, Book One of Six: Infection

By John Gregory Betancourt

Infection, the first book in the "Double Helix" miniseries, is a good, if not great, Star Trek novel.  The story takes place during the early part of TNG's first season, back when Tasha Yar was still alive, Geordi LaForge was a helmsman, and the crew of the Enterprise-D were still getting to know one another.  A planet called Archaria III is suffering a horrible plague epidemic, and when the Enterprise arrives to offer aid and possibly find a cure, the ship becomes infected with the insidious virus.  Archaria III is a failed Federation colony world, where the human settlers live jointly, but not peacefully, with an alien race called the Paladians.  When Dr. Crusher discovers that the virus has been deliberately manufactured to target human/alien crossbreeds, known as "mixers" on the planet, the bigoted humans of Archaria III become suspect.  Inevitably, Deanna Troi contracts the virus.

I liked that this book was set during the early days of TNG.  It was fun to read about Tasha Yar, and the subtly different ways the crew interacted with one another during the early days of their continuing mission.  The lack of any scenes involving a young Wesley Crusher was a missed opportunity in my opinion, but I realize I'm in the minority regarding my affection for that character.  I also enjoyed the way in which the book handled the scientific explanations for how the disease worked.  I don't know a lot about science, but I've always enjoyed when Star Trek finds a way to work real-world science into the stories.

While the book offered an intriguing mystery and an increasingly tense plot, it is a short novel with a startlingly abrupt conclusion.  Many potentially interesting scenarios are introduced, enough to fill a novel twice as long, but never fully explored.  Tasha Yar and Data stumble across the Orion Syndicate agent responsible for releasing the plague on Archaria III purely by chance, and Dr. Crusher finally realizes the key to curing the virus just by sitting down and thinking hard about it.  It was almost as though the writer reached the end of his assigned page count and had to quickly wrap things up without bringing the book to a satisfactory conclusion.  I realize this is only the first part in a six part miniseries, and the true identity of the person responsible for the virus should make an intriguing mystery throughout the rest of the books, but I still wish this book had provided a more satisfactory reading experience.