For the second half of our season 2 third quarter shore leave, we are going to THAT one - yes, that is right, we are going to bite the bullet and set course for the center of the galaxy to encounter God, or whatever else we might find there. Today, we set course for "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier."

Released in 1989, the fifth cinematic movie in the franchise had quite a lot of momentum behind it, having completed its most successful box office movie the last time out, and trading out one series star (Nimoy) for the other (Shatner) in the director chair, based on Shatner's own story idea. But, as is fairly commonly known, this movie did NOT achieve the high expectations of its predecessor, instead seeming to validate the 'odd number movie curse' and leave fans disappointed.

There IS a lot to chew on - Spock has a secret half-brother, the navigator gets lost at Yosemite Park, Uhura performs a naked fan dance in the desert... Romulans and Klingons and a cat woman (oh myyyyy). But the general consensus is that the movie is not equal to the sum of its parts.

And yet, there is an old Klingon proverb - like pizza, even bad Star Trek is still Star Trek, meaning that it beats eating white bean soup or cucumber sandwiches. Turns out that Rob and Butch really enjoyed watching the 4-K release a couple years ago, so give this a listen and see if you agree or if we can persuade you to agree with us.

Well, it is time for shore leave again, so we are taking our quick stop at the third Peter Pan Records audio-and-book adventure from the mid-1970s, "The Crier in Emptiness." Once again penned by Alan Dean Foster, this short Trek has the ship encounter an area of space where music pervades the entire ship at all times... what could it be? Enlisting the help of Lt. Connors, and his Edoian Elisiar (some far-our keyboard type thing) they will try to solve the mystery.

This is a nice short story, as are all the Peter Pan Records adventures - and as usual, the accompanying comic gets some details very wrong (portraying Lt. Uhura as a blonde woman and Lt. Sulu as a Black man in blue uniform), but this one in particular feels like they could've made a series episode out of the story idea.

But if you want the full scoop, you gotta give it a listen, friends.

While we here at CineMcCollough are proud of our strategy of random selection and review of the first fifty Pocket Books novels, it DOES have its drawbacks... take today's adventure, for example, where the dice of destiny selected "Time For Yesterday" by A.C. Crispin... which, while it is a sequel to the TOS third season (underrated) episode All Our Yesterdays, it is not a DIRECT sequel, because Crispin had an EARLIER novel that sets up THIS one, "Yesterday's Son" - which, because of the Dice of Death, we have not yet reviewed.

So, this IS a bit awkward, but a strategy is a strategy, so we are sticking to it. If you are not familiar, in the TOS episode on which this is based, McCoy and Spock travel back in time on the planet Sarpeidon, soon to be destroyed by a supernova, and encounter the mysterious and beautiful Zarabeth, a political prisoner exiled to a frozen wasteland. We the reader are encouraged to, shall we say, fill in some gaps from that episode, and learn that Zarabeth gave birth to Spock's son at some point thousands of years ago... and that son went on (presumably in the first book) to become a king or chieftain in ancient Sarpeidon.

But NOW, we learn that the Guardian of Forever (from the rightfully celebrated episode The City on the Edge of Forever) is malfunctioning, and Spock and Kirk both know that, for whatever reason, Spock's son on ancient Sarpeidon may be the only one that can fix it... so off to Planet Gateway to travel back for a family reunion!

If the above doesn't make a ton of sense, don't fear, the book does a better job explaining things, for the most part. Give us a listen, then give it a read - or do it in the opposite order, if you like!

Today's mission takes us to a novel published May 1985 and featuring something that, when I first saw it, I admit I scoffed at the idea. "Ishmael" by Barbara Hambly (who will go on to write two more Trek novels) tells the story of Spock being lost in time as a Klingon ship he has secretly infiltrated suddenly disappears - seemingly from existence - only to have Spock arrive in the Pacific Northwest of Earth in the 19th century frontier era!

It turns out that the Klingons are trying to do here what the Romulans tried to do a few novels ago in "Killing Time" and the Borg tried to do in "Star Trek: First Contact" -- but how can Enterprise both intervene AND save Spock? Does Spock even need saving? And is all this worth the trip back in time?

You know the deal - tune in, turn on and drop a review and find out!

On today's mission we really DO go where no one has gone before, as we join the crew in progress when they encounter a gravitational anomaly that, seemingly without warning, transports the Enterprise to another galaxy. In "Chain of Attack," prolific Trek author Gene DeWeese (in their first Trek novel) leads the ship to the center of a conflict that is seemingly centuries old, leaving them to try to survive, and also to try to solve the conflict once and for all, and (perhaps most importantly) to figure out how to get back home!

Click PLAY to hear what we have to say - but we want to hear from you as well - leave us a LIKE and SUBSCRIBE.

Our next mission finds Rob and Butch running things back to the good ol' days of the Journey to Bantam, as Bantam Books alums Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreth (of the Phoenix novel fame) try their hand at a Trek story NOT involving the baddest man in the galaxy, Omne. Instead, this March 1982 novel goes metaphysical with us, as our crew meets a group of super-powerful, otherworldly entities that may or may not be responsible for a wave of violence that seems to be threatening the existence of intelligent life in the galaxy.

If that does not strike your fancy, we also meet a legendary Vulcan (still alive) and get the full Myrna and Sondra treatment of the deification of Spock as a contender for the greatest in the galaxy.

Give us a listen, and a like, and maybe even a review!

Writer John Ford brings us the first of his two Pocket Books Star Trek novels today, "The Final Reflection." First published in May 1984, this is really a book-within-a-book, as it opens and closes with Captain Kirk reading a brand-new novel that is taking his crew by storm... a novel about a mythological Klingon hero, allegedly written by a famous Human ambassador as his firsthand account.

If you are reading that paragraph and wondering what it is like to read a book-within-a-book, well, it is weird. The entire story within has nothing whatsoever to do with our good ship and crew Enterprise, though we DO meet a teenage Spock and his parents at an ambassadorial function, and we even meet Dr. McCoy's father. But mostly what we get is a working history of the Klingon people, and a detailed look at their culture, beliefs, and practices. Of course, Star Trek would mostly go its own way in later years with the Klingons, but some of what is here ended up in the mix, and what didn't get picked up is kind of fun to think about.

What you will think about this book is dependent on whether you can overlook the absurd book-in-book premise and whether your enjoyment can overcome absence of the familiar. Find out what Rob and Butch thought with a download and leave us a review!

Back on our "Is That a Trek in Your Pocket" mission for lucky number thirteen... the one where Spock has a great fall and suffers a traumatic brain injury. "Mindshadow" was published on January 1986 and was written by J.M. Dillard, aka Jeanne Kalogridis. It is our first time picking one of her books, but there are three in the first 50 Pocket books... and she wrote the novelizations for the next six movie adaptations following Star Trek IV.

The mystery deepens when our heroes start to wonder whether Spock's injuries are due to an accident or... a Romulan plot?

Let's just say that Butch and Rob disagree on whether this is a good or a mediocre novel... tune in and find out who is on which side!

For our cinematic stop on this shore leave, we go back to when Rob and Butch were high school juniors and living a state apart (after Rob moved to Wenatchee, Washington) - arguably the most successful TOS theatrical release, the 1986 trilogy-ending "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home."

Once again directed by Leonard Nimoy, this time he has to direct HIMSELF on screen for quite a bit of the action. And action it is, at least in terms of filmmaking, as much of this film was shot on location in and around the city of San Francisco, which in Star Trek lore is the future home of Starfleet Command and the Starfleet Academy. Turns out yet another probe is threatening Earth, except this time what it wants is to talk to some humpback whales - only problem is, they are extinct! So TO THE TIME TRAVEL!

Often considered the best or second best of the TOS movies, ST-IV is literally Butch's vanity license plate (which is an Oregon plate featuring whales) -- but what do our hosts think of this movie? You KNOW you are curious...

For our second shore leave during our Season Two "Is That a Trek in Your Pocket" mission, we make another quick stop at the Peter Pan Records-and-Books series for the second short audio adventure "In Vino Veritas." Once again penned by Alan Dean Foster, this short adventure has Captain Kirk in negotiations for planetary mining rights with a Klingon AND a Romulan envoy... but what they did NOT expect is that there is an unexpected EXTRA negotiator for the Federation, who goes by the name of Jack Sprat - who is actually a notorious galactic trouble maker in disguise.

We went into all of these Short Treks with an open mind, looking for story ideas that could have maybe worked as TOS episodes had things gone that direction. Wil this one pass muster in the minds of Butch and Rob?