STAR TREK NEMESIS

When reading spin-offs such as this, some performers try to imitate the original actors' voices right down to pitch and volume. Others use one element or another to suggest the character, and that's what Grover Gardner does here very well indeed. Gardner has a hard-boiled voice, almost gravelly, but when playing Captain Picard or Data or Worf or whoever is speaking, he changes pacing and intonation, and the faces of the actors leap to the listener's mind. The story concerns a mission by the ENTERPRISE to the Romulus system, where the government has been overthrown by a hitherto unsuspected clone of Picard. D.R.W. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 03]