Captain’s Glory: Say it Ain’t Sue!

Author’s Note: I published reviews for the first two books in this series a while ago, but for whatever reason, I never published my review of the third book, Captain’s Glory. So, here goes…

Captain’s Glory (Star Trek: Totality #3) by William Shatner, Judith Reeves-Stevens, Garfield Reeves-Stevens

Published August 22, 2006 by Pocket Books/Star Trek

Captain’s Glory is probably my favorite book in the Totality series. It’s so exciting, and it feels more like a Star Trek book than the others because of the heavier Starfleet presence in the plot. It feels like a Trek movie.

Mary Sue? Is That You?

I may have had issues with the previous installments in this series starting out slowly, but Glory definitely begins with plenty of action. That is an improvement. The depiction of Kirk’s son Joseph is not. Even though Joseph has been present in each of the two previous books, something about the way his character is written still feels incredibly hokey, almost Mary Sue-ish. It’s something I just haven’t been able to get used to. An example is the way he refers to Bones and Scotty as “Uncle Bones” and “Uncle Scotty”. While it makes perfect sense that Joseph would refer to them in this manner, given their relationship with his father, it still manages to come across as weird.

Who is Mary Sue?

“…a character who is important in the story, possesses unusual physical traits, and has an irrelevantly over-skilled or over-idealized nature.”

— tvtropes.org

“…an idealized character, often but not necessarily an author insert and/or wish-fulfillment.”

— wikipedia.org

Basically, she’s perfect: She’s irresistibly beautiful and exceptionally talented. Male characters fall hopelessly in love with her, even with it’s out of character for them. Often, she’s an idealized version of the author, who uses the character to live out her fantasies.

This isn’t just limited to female characters — guys can be Mary Sues, too. These male pictures of perfect awesomeness are called Gary Stu or Marty Stu. Here’s one of the most well-known:

Wesley Crusher. Appointed as an acting ensign on the Enterprise-D, Wesley is a genius who saves the ship on several occasions. The character is considered by some to be a Mary Sue for Gene Roddenberry, whose middle name was “Wesley”.

Now that I’ve finished the whole series, I can confidently proclaim that Totality is all about how special Joseph is and how he is destined to be some kind of divine being who saves the universe. Glory is definitely the best book of the series, with non-stop action almost all throughout, but the premise reeks of Mary Sue-dom (or Gary Stu, if you prefer, since we’re talking about a male character, here). I guess when you think about it, it kind of is, being about Kirk and his son and having been written by William Shatner. Even though I went into into this knowing that, totally eyes-open, my Mary Sue meter still went crazy on this one.

While the plot of Glory is full of action, and the book is the best of the series, the ending leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth, and this is as an ending for the entire Totality series, not just Glory. It was a good book, but it’s Mary Sue characteristics detract from it severely. It would have been better if Joseph could’ve ended up just being a normal kid in the end, even if he did help defeat Norinda. I mean, he turned into light — he was light to Norinda’s darkness. Wow. All I can do is shake my head at that. Wow — just, wow.

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Originally published at engagefiction.com on February 10, 2015.