How Much for Just the Planet [図書館]

"How Much for Just the Planet?" by author John M. Ford continues this tradition in style. This is Ford's second (and apparently last) STAR TREK novel, following up his outstanding "The Final Reflection." But, unlike that deadly serious book, Ford boldly takes us where no TREK novel has gone before, the final frontier of humour.

The plotline begins quite conventionally, with Kirk et al of the USS Enterprise making their way to the planet Direidi, a treasure trove of dilithium (crystals vital for warp travel) to represent the United Federation of Planets. The problem is that representatives of the Klingon Empire are also on-planet negotiating for mineral rights. Even more disturbing is that the indigenous population of the planet is behaving just a little bit, well...funny.

The rest of the story is a humourous adventure of mistaken identity, valuable mcguffins, mass distraction, misplaced jealousy, Gilbert & Sullivan songs, paranoid computers, peppermint flavored Vulcan milkshakes and yes, a pie fight.

The difficulty in reading "How Much For Just the Planet?" comes from the problem of trying to convey timing through the written word. Most of the impact of comedy comes not from the written word, but from the timing in the delivery. (This is likely why no other TREK novel has followed the humourous course.) It is not enough to simply read the text in this novel, you have to actively imagine how the actors (Shatner, et al) would precisely respond in their roles. You have to take your knowledge of how they've responded in the past, in TV episodes or movies, and actively integrate it into this story. This could be difficult to do even for a real TREK fan.

But for those willing to put the effort into it, "How Much For Just the Planet?" is an extremely rewarding novel. It's a pity that Ford seems uninterested in writing another TREK novel, as this one and "The Final Reflection" (the only TREK novel that I'd argue counts as real literature) shows a willingness to play with the franchise and break out of the conventional and boring approaches to STAR TREK in almost all the other books.

There is a legitimate school of thought that says that it should get five stars, because it accomplishes what it sets out to accomplish (being a hilariously funny spoof of Star Trek) near-perfectly.

There is another school of thought which says that Star Trek is at its best when it manages to maintain a sense of humor about itself, WHILE NONETHELESS TELLING A DRAMATIC STORY. This book succeeds gloriously in maintaining a sense of humor, but fails at actually telling a dramatic story. It makes for an enjoyable read, but it a flawed Star trek novel because it misses the balance between the two.

As you can tell by the fact that I ultimately rated it four stars, I'm of the second school of thought. Still, it is a marvellous romp, reminiscent in style of Robert Asperin's "Myth" series.

(Of course, there's a third school of thought, which maintains that "THAT'S NOT FUNNY! How dare they mock Star Trek?" But just ignore that school of thought. Unless, of course, you firmly believe that Star Trek should always be taken seriously.)