New ‘Star Trek’ novel calls back Dr. Gillian Taylor of ‘Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home’

New York Times bestselling novelist Greg Cox is a household name within the Trekkie literary community who’s penned dozens of “Star Trek” universe novels and short stories over the years.

Now he’s back with “Star Trek: The Original Series: Lost to Eternity,” a new 400-page trifecta of “Star Trek” movie-era tales arriving July 23, 2024, tied together with the common theme of an ancient extraterrestrial civilization and the reappearance of a fan favorite character from “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.”

Remember the sassy, pizza loving whale biologist named Dr. Gillian Taylor (played by actress Catherine Hicks) from that lighthearted 1986 “Trek” movie directed by Leonard Nimoy? She worked at the Bay Area Cetacean Institute in California where she was emotionally attached to a pair of humpback whales called George and Gracie that Kirk and Company needed to transport back to the 23rd century in a Klingon Bird of Prey to save the Earth from certain annihilation.

After Dr. Taylor left boarded the Klingon spaceship and helped deliver the two whales into a future ocean where a curious alien species traveling in a titanic tubular probe was finally able to communicate with them, she bolted off to join the crew of a Starfleet science vessel and left the demoted Admiral Kirk without barely a kiss goodbye. This new book investigates her 1986 disappearance from San Francisco and answers questions as to her fate and whereabouts.

Here’s the official synopsis:

“Three Eras. Three Mysteries. One Ancient Enemy?

“2024: Almost forty years ago, marine biologist Gillian Taylor stormed away from her dream job at Sausalito’s Cetacean Institute—and was never seen or heard from again. Now a new true crime podcast has reopened that cold case, but investigator Melinda Silver has no idea that her search for the truth about Gillian’s disappearance will ultimately stretch across time and space—and attract the attention of a ruthless obsessive with his own secret agenda.

“2268: The U.S.S. Enterprise’s five-year mission is interrupted when Captain James T. Kirk and his crew set out to recover an abducted Federation scientist whose classified secrets are being sought by the Klingons as well. The trail leads to a barbaric world off limits to both Starfleet and the Klingon Empire—and an ageless mastermind on a quest for eternity.

“2292: The Osori, an ancient alien species, has finally agreed to establish relations with its much younger neighbors: the Federation, the Klingons, and the Romulans. A joint mission involving ships from all three powers, including the Enterprise-A, turns explosive when one of the Osori envoys is apparently killed. Each side blames the others, but the truth lies buried deep, nearly three hundred years in the past…”

This intriguing narrative concept is presented in three intertwined time periods where past and present merge against the overarching exploration of what exactly happened to Dr. Gillian Taylor, and perhaps even clear up what ever became of that junky, 1976 blue Chevy pickup truck she drove. We’d always kinda hoped she and Kirk would somehow hook up in “The Voyage Home,” but there was just no time for love when “there be whales” to rescue and Earth to protect!

From Pocket Books, Greg Cox’s ‘Star Trek: The Original Series: Lost to Eternity” enters our orbit on July 23, 2024 and is available for pre-order at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audio.