Forgotten Book Friday: Beyond The Beyond By Lee Goldberg

Once upon a time, there was a show on television that took the audience to the stars.  It’s characters became like family to the viewers as they visited alien worlds and brought out the best in humanity.

And about the same time, NBC ran Star Trek.

The show is Beyond the Beyond, and The Big Network wants to use a revival of it to seize its audience for its debut.  And somehow, Charlie Willis has found himself cast as Captain Pierce, captain of the starship Endeavor.  Why?  Someone’s killing off the new cast.  Willis, a troubleshooter for Pinnacle Pictures, has to discover if it’s the homicidal (and cannibalistic) head of The Company, a vicious and aggressive talent agency, or Guy Goddard, the original Captain Pierce who, unlike William Shatner, believes he is who he played.

Goddard is a pathetic character, living in a house set up to look like the Starship Endeavor and even believing the revival is an attempt by aliens to subvert The Confederation.

Willis, in the meantime, dodges The Company’s ninja-like number two, who wants to take over the agency from her boss, and fans devoted to Goddard as the one and only Captain Pierce.

Beyond the Beyond is not as solid as some of Goldberg’s Monk work or his more recent novel, The Man with the Iron-on Badge (which was an excellent send-up of seventies detective shows.)  However, I’m not sure what scares me more:  The incidents among agents and studio heads or the eerily dead-on depictions of science fiction fans who get a little too devoted to their favorite shows.

While I’ve never met anyone who committed assault (let alone homicide) over Star Trek, I have met fanficcers as severely deluded as Melvah, who honestly believes she’s right up there with Hemingway and Phil Roth.  Unlike Melvah, most of them were not willing to kill for their chosen show.

Beyond the Beyond checks in somewhat darker than Galaxy Quest, but still raccously funny.