We’re counting down to the January 2020 return of Jean-Luc Picard by revisiting some of the pivotal stories about the beloved Starfleet captain from across the last three decades of Star Trek: The Next Generation published fiction — welcome to the first entry in our retro review series Prelude to Picard!

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Michael Jan Friedman’s The Valiant tells the story of Jean-Luc Picard’s ascent to the rank of Starfleet captain. We know from The Next Generation episode “Tapestry” that Picard took command of the USS Stargazer – which he would go on to command for 22 years – after the previous captain of the ship was killed. The Valiant tells the story of Picard’s rise to command, the death of the ship’s previous captain Daithan Ruhalter, and the crisis that Picard must face after being thrust into the center seat.

Despite being the first chronological appearance of the USS Stargazer crew in the Pocket Books novel line, this release is actually the second novel to feature an appearance from many of these crewmembers. 1991’s Reunion, also from Friedman, was released years before The Valiant, but told the story of a Stargazer crew reunion aboard the Enterprise-D.

(Watch for that novel to appear in a future Prelude to Picard entry!)

The Valiant is a pretty wacky novel, to be honest: the name derives from one of the main subplots of the book, which is the ultimate fate of the SS Valiant — a callback to 1966’s “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” In that second Original Series pilot episode, Captain Kirk’s Enterprise encounters a message buoy from that ship released during its approach to the Galactic Barrier at the edge of the Milky Way. The opening chapters of The Valiant deal with that ship’s own encounter with the Galactic Barrier, and the decision to abandon ship.

Flash forward several hundred years, and descendants of the crew of the Valiant — who founded a colony near the Galactic Barrier, and developed telepathic abilities similar to the ill-fated Gary Mitchell — return to the Federation to warn them of an alien threat encroaching on the edge of the galaxy known as the Nuyyad.

The Stargazer is dispatched to assess the threat, with added help from a member of the Kelvans — returning from classic Trek’s “By Any Other Name” — who also inhabited a planet nearby.

If that seems like a lot… well, it very much is. The Valiant chews through story at a rapid clip. It is certainly a lot of fun, but with so many story elements crowding each other out it’s tough to give everything the time to breathe properly. And the character who suffers the most from that is Jean-Luc Picard.

There is some good development for Picard in this novel; we see his close relationship with his former captain, his grief at Ruhalter’s death, and subsequent steps towards figuring out being in command of the ship himself. Ultimately, Picard decides through the course of the novel that he is a different captain than Ruhalter, who was prone to trust only his instincts and shut out advice from his crew.

After Picard helps put down a mutiny — I told you there was a lot of story here — we do see some flashes of how Picard became the thoughtful captain of The Next Generation.

The Stargazer crew are a motley bunch. This novel went on to spur an entire Star Trek: Stargazer novel series that lasted through sic release, with the previously-mentioned Reunion being the end of the story for many of the crew a number of years later. I don’t recall many of the details of the later series, but within this book some of these characters work better than others.

Dr. Carter Greyhorse’s borderline obsession with his fellow officer, Gerda Asmund, is weirdly creepy, but the plucky yet eccentric security officer Pug Joseph is very easy to like.

The oddest part of this novel, though, are the villains. The Nuyyad are established as a serious threat to the Federation, who are beginning to encroach on the galaxy and gain a foothold. By working with the Kelvans and the descendants of the Valiant’s crew, Picard and the Stargazer are able to significantly reduce the Nuyyad’s forces in the Milky Way. But once the ship has destroyed a resupply depot for the Nuyyad the story just… stops.

What happened to the other ships? Why was that the end of the invasion? Where did they come from and what were they?

The book does not seem interested in answering any of these questions, which I find troubling as they are important questions given the story was set up to be a high stakes affair. I don’t mind races coming and going — appearing in a novel today but never used again — but within that novel their use must be justified and consistent. And ultimately when I think about the Nuyyad; what were we supposed to learn? We don’t know anything about them, really, other than that they are hostile and have powerful ships.

Meanwhile, the Galactic Barrier is more of just an odd nuisance in this novel. What is it? Where did it come from? Again, despite the Barrier being a plot point in the novel, it just sort of exists.

Through learning to trust his crew around him, Picard begins the journey towards the character seen in The Next Generation. And Picard extends greetings and cooperation to the descendants of the Valiant over the objection of his more suspicious staff, even though nobody can be sure those descendants are not as mad as Gary Mitchell was.

The Valiant is a noble effort, published in hardcover when it was first released in 2000. Two decades ago, a hardcover release was reserved only for a major releases and event books, so it is understandable that the stakes in The Valiant are high and the book is action packed. The problem, though, is that so much story has been crammed into this book that it is almost suffocated by its own plot.

Ultimately, you’ll enjoy The Valiant, but it’s likely not going to feature on your list of favorite Star Trek novels. Like the crew of the Stargazer forgot all about the Nuyyad the instant their supply depot was destroyed, you’re likely to do the same for the plot of this novel not long after you finish it.