Covid-19 have you feeling like you’re trapped in a Vegas casino? It could be aliens.
We take a closer look at one storyline using Leslie Howsam’s four-point definition of the book in Part 2 of our Star Trek-themed episodes. In “The Royale” (Season 2, Episode 12 of Next Generation), the Enterprise investigates a planet after finding debris from a NASA shuttle and three crew members enter the plot of a second-rate novel. The sad history of astronaut Colonel Richie surfaces along with his diary and a copy of Hotel Royale, which the crew uses to escape from this weird world of alien atonement. Bookish elements abound in this episode! Listen to our discussion and play along with our game of Star Trek Mad Libs!
“‘It was a dark and stormy night…’ Not a promising beginning.”
Picard and Troi, reading Hotel Royale
“It may get better.”
For further reading, look at:
Howsam, Leslie. “The Study of Book History.” Cambridge Companion to the History of the Book, ed. Leslie Howsam, 2015.
Image sources:
- https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/The_Royale_(episode)
- https://www.tor.com/2011/09/22/star-trek-the-next-generation-rewatch-qthe-roytaleq/https://www.tor.com/2011/09/22/star-trek-the-next-generation-rewatch-qthe-roytaleq/
- https://toboldlyblahblahblah.tumblr.com/post/177881126004/a-novel-by-todd-matthews-entitled-hotel-royale
Biblio Banter 