A review by octavia_cade
Masks by John Vornholt
3.0
This is deeply silly, but it's still pretty entertaining regardless. I lost count of the times I shook my head at the idiot decisions of the crew, but the pace zips along and the culture depicted is just odd enough - and over-the-top enough - to be interesting. Everyone wears masks, all the time, and the masks represent their function in society, albeit anyone at any time can be challenged to a duel and lose the mask they are wearing to the winner. There's a number of problems with this that are never, ever explored - if you're injured, do you really want to be treated by a healer who got their position by stabbing someone rather than study? - but it all becomes so farcical I found myself just going with it for amusement value.
Though I can't stop myself from asking: why is it, on this highly volcanic world where volcanoes blow at the top of a hat, is there no mention of masks as they relate to breathing problems? Instead, the crew beam down with Halloween masks, because Troi can order any fudge sundae she wants from the replicator, but no-one thinks to exploit this same technology when it comes to getting Worf something different to wear than a plastic pig face. And they're wandering round this pretty terrible landscape, and one of their local companions gets killed by a volcanic eruption and no-one, not even the doctor, says, "About all this ash... maybe we should adapt these masks so we're not breathing it in all the time and fucking up our lungs?" But nooooooo.
As I said, it's immensely silly. But it's entertaining in its silliness, certainly more so than the last few TNG tie-ins I've read, so I enjoyed myself reading it anyway.
Though I can't stop myself from asking: why is it, on this highly volcanic world where volcanoes blow at the top of a hat, is there no mention of masks as they relate to breathing problems? Instead, the crew beam down with Halloween masks, because Troi can order any fudge sundae she wants from the replicator, but no-one thinks to exploit this same technology when it comes to getting Worf something different to wear than a plastic pig face. And they're wandering round this pretty terrible landscape, and one of their local companions gets killed by a volcanic eruption and no-one, not even the doctor, says, "About all this ash... maybe we should adapt these masks so we're not breathing it in all the time and fucking up our lungs?" But nooooooo.
As I said, it's immensely silly. But it's entertaining in its silliness, certainly more so than the last few TNG tie-ins I've read, so I enjoyed myself reading it anyway.