My latest novel, Bog Queen, comes out in paperback on October 13. In celebration, I’ll be presenting An Evening of Bog Lore, with fun (and spooky) facts about bogs, bog bodies, and more, at a few bookstores and libraries. Here are the first few dates:

October 14. Barnes & Noble, Atlantic Ave. Brooklyn, NY. 6:30 PM.

October 15. Greedy Reads. Baltimore, MD.

October 16. Curious Iguana. Frederick, MD. In conversation with Holly Smith, 6 PM.

Full tour details here. Come say hi! And now back to our regularly scheduled programming (to catch up, go here):

This week I watched “Code of Honor,” the third episode of the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. 

In this episode, our heroes travel to the planet Ligon II to pick up a vaccine that’s desperately needed on another planet, Styris IV, which is dealing with a deadly outbreak of Anchilles fever. I was excited to spend my Trek time this week thinking about vaccine policy!

What I did not realize was that I was heading into what many critics — and multiple members of the show’s cast and writing staff — have described as the worst episode of Star Trek ever made.

It is a challenge to write about “Code of Honor” because it is extremely racist. The Ligonians, we learn, have a highly rulebound, traditionalist culture and are obsessed with pride and honor. They are also all portrayed by Black actors, wearing outfits that Lloyd Farley at Collider recently described as “non-specific African tribal culture garb.” 

Things get worse from here. Unlike the enlightened crew of the Enterprise, the Ligonians are very sexist. They are scandalized to learn that the Enterprise chief of security is a woman, Lt. Tasha Yar. One of the Ligonians is so disdainful of her that he refuses to hand her a sample of the vaccine, but she quickly decks him and takes it.

Lutan, the Ligonian leader, is intrigued. Lt. Yar may be able to solve some problem for him, we learn. This problem is never completely specified, but Lutan soon kidnaps Yar, hoping to make her one of his wives. She is then forced into a highly choreographed trial by combat with Lutan’s current first wife, Yareena. 

I realized while writing this that the writers were maybe trying to make some kind of Yar/Yareena thing happen here. This tidbit just makes the episode that much worse, in my opinion. 

The Ligonian wife battlefield kind of looks like the laser matrix from the movie Entrapment; the weapons are iron fists covered in poisoned spines. Under completely different circumstances this part would be kind of cool. Ditto Yareena’s ruched satin battle catsuit, which looks like some outfits my Barbies had (complimentary). 

Yar wins, but the Enterprise beams Yareena aboard and Dr. Crusher saves her life at the last minute. Then, because she is mad at Lutan for trying to replace her with a kidnapped Starfleet officer, Yareena makes his friend her first husband instead. Then she makes Lutan her second husband out of pity. This sort of seems like a fine outcome for Lutan.

The Enterprise gets the vaccine, which is good for the people of Styris IV, who have been suffering and dying this whole time. Then the episode ends, which is good for all of us.

If you only read this installment and the previous one, you would conclude that Star Trek: The Next Generation is a terrible show, and wonder why I am spending my limited time on this Earth writing about it. I can only tell you that it does get better, although I am seriously considering taking some friendly advice and skipping to Season 2. 

I will also say that the issue of race and representation on TNG and in the broader Star Trek universe is complicated and layered. Starting with Nichelle Nichols as Lt. Uhura in the original series, which premiered in 1966, the show has always cast Black actors in major roles. Martin Luther King once told Nichols that thanks to her performance, Star Trek was “the only show that my wife Coretta and I will allow our little children to stay up and watch.” 

But then you have episodes like “Code of Honor,” or entire species like the Klingons that have been creepily race-coded. My understanding of all this on my first watch of TNG, as a white kid in the 1990s, was minimal. I have more tools at my disposal now, but am still far from an expert. 

As this newsletter continues, I’d like to feature interviews here, and if you are or would like to recommend an expert on race in Star Trek, get in touch! In the meantime, I am forging ahead, with trepidation, to episode 4. 

I will leave you with this analysis of “Code of Honor” by Brent Spiner, who played Data: “It was fortuitous that we did our worst that early on and it never got quite that bad again.” I hope he’s right!

What I’m reading

My little kid has been enjoying The FRUSTRATING Book, in which a squirrel gets introduced to new and unpleasant emotions.

I am reading On the Swamp: Fighting for Indigenous Environmental Justice, which is about Indigenous relationships to wetlands in Robeson County, North Carolina, and is part of a larger bog reading project I’ve been undertaking recently. More on this soon!