Star Trek: The Next Generation #56: Double Helix, Book Six of Six: The First Virtue

By Michael Jan Friedman and Christie Golden

The final book in the "Double Helix" saga is a prequel, taking place during Captain Picard's command of the Stargazer and featuring the backstory of the villain, whose identity was revealed in the previous novel. Picard attempts to negotiate a peace between two hostile groups of aliens on the brink of war, while Tuvok and Jack Crusher work undercover to investigate the possibility of a third party stirring up trouble between the two groups.

Publishing The First Virtue as the final book in the series was an odd choice, considering that it takes place before the other novels and does not have anything to do with the plague virus.  However, taken on its own terms, this is a very good Star Trek book.  Michael Jan Friedman, who co-created the "Double Helix" concept with editor John J. Ordover, had written a couple of previous novels featuring the Stargazer crew, and would go on to write the Stargazer series.  I have not read those books, but after having read this one, I intend to.  Surely, that is one mark of success for these sorts of crossover projects.  I also really enjoyed the inclusion of Tuvok in this novel, and felt he made a good partner for Jack Crusher.  I had a bit of trouble keeping the various members of the Stargazer crew straight, but, again, I was intrigued enough to want to read more about them.  A good ending to an uneven series.


*Final Thoughts on "Double Helix":

The whole of the "Double Helix" miniseries was not as good as its individual parts.  While most of the novels themselves were very good, I was often frustrated by the way in which the story was told throughout the six books.  Parts one through four basically repeated the same story without advancing the plot at all.  Everything was wrapped up in the exciting fifth book, but there was really no reason you would need to read the previous four books to understand it.  Book six is a standalone prequel.  It is a failure as a mystery story, because there was no possible way to guess the identity of the villain by reading the first four books.  A miniseries like "The Captain's Table" worked very well because all of the individual titles stood completely on their own while sharing the same basic concept.  "Double Helix" seemed as though it was set up to tell one long story over the course of six novels, but failed to really deliver.  I also don't know that the story of the plague virus was ultimately interesting enough to sustain six full length novels.  I would recommend Diane Carey's excellent Red Sector and Michael Jan Friedman's and Christie Golden's The First Virtue on their own merits, and New Frontier fans will want to read Peter David's Double or Nothing.  Ultimately, though, reading all six novels back to back was rather exhausting and not very satisfying.


*Further Notes on "Double Helix":

1.) "Double Helix" was originally published as a series of six paperbacks, which were later collected in a single volume, Star Trek: The Next Generation: Double Helix Omnibus.

2.) Links to all of my previous "Double Helix" reviews: Book One: Infection, Book Two: Vectors, Book Three: Red Sector, Book Four: Quarantine, Book Five: Double or Nothing