How Much For Just the Planet?
Intro
The opening credits start just like the original classic series, except that as the Enterprise flies by, we think we catch glimpses of something weird going on, on top of the saucer section. As the theme moves beyond it’s introductory captain’s monologue, rather than the ship zooming out of planetary orbit, the image instead zooms to the top of the saucer section, where we have a tableau of the main protagonists as they appear at their most dignified; in their finest hour in the novel. Kirk in ripped cat burglar costume, shadow boxing. Klingon Captain Kaden in sodden and damaged tuxedo, dangling piano wire and other debris. Uhura and Proke tied back-to-back, in film-noir style. Scotty and Chekov wielding golf clubs. Sulu stage sword fighting with the warriors of the Black Queen of the underworld. Everyone has a strings attached to them, trailing up to two giants hovering over them all and tugging on the puppet strings: Flyter and Estervy. And behind them a full chorus line perform the lyrics of the Star Trek opening credits: Beyond the Rim of the star-light.
A Gateway to the Past; Many Journeys are Possible
This book is in tune with the depiction of Klingon culture introduced in The Final Reflection, which makes sense since both are written by John Ford. This version of Klingon culture has been developed in Dwellers in the Crucible and The IDIC Epidemic, and sort of name-checked and merged with Vonda McIntyre’s Klingon cultural innovations in Diane Carey’s novel Battlestations! I got the impression that John Ford is willingly incorporating versions of Klingon culture developed in other ST media.
In this book, the thoughts of the Klingon characters are juxtaposed with human characters, for laughs.
The Need of the One
This was an okay book, but I think it falls under the shadow of The Final Reflection for me. TFR is sooo good! And I tried very hard not to think about it, and let How Much? be it’s own thing. Surely the same author can make something interesting out of a novel that is meant to be slapstick.
I got the impression of a book that is all in on it’s targeted genre. There’s even some specific visual slapstick stuff that I almost didn’t recognize. Actually, the idea of slapstick in a novel makes me think of Peter David, an author I’ve greatly enjoyed. I found myself comparing How Much? to some of Peter David’s novels. I ended up feeling that Peter David understood better how slapstick can be made to work in prose form, even “visual” based slapstick, more effectively than John Ford manages with his novel. Whereas John Ford seems to have the ambition to do the entire novel in the genre, Peter David seems to make it work better as a few moments in his more broadly focused stories. The moment that exemplified for me that Ford wasn’t quite making it work was a moment with an elevator in the climactic chapter.
The climactic chapter, that fun farce of people running around a hotel. The good thing about the chapter is that it made me think fondly of a similar sequence from the movie Victor/Victoria. The bad thing is that it was a rather lengthy chapter, that hit me as I was entering a reading slump (and maybe a busy couple of days as well). So this runaround chapter that should have been fun ground the novel to a halt for me. I laughed, sometimes. But I also felt like I would rather have watched 10 minutes of the visual adaptation of this sequence, rather than struggling to read through 20 pages over 3 or 4 days! It just drags, in prose. One wants to see it happen!
And within that chapter is a brief moment where one person enters an elevator, hits a button, then runs out, then another character enters the elevator and misunderstands the elevators supposed automatic function, or something. I thought I had misread something. I had to flip back a couple page to re-read and make sure I hadn’t misunderstood something. Ridiculous, really. I struggled for a moment, and then eventually it dawned on me. But the joke got lost beneath my slow comprehension and irritation that I misunderstood the sequence of events. I admire John Ford’s ambition, but what he was trying to convey didn’t connect with me as a reader.
Throughout the rest of the book I really enjoyed some of the interactions with the Starfleet people and the Klingons. I felt like the Klingons were well portrayed, and that’s to be expected from John Ford’s earlier work making them interesting and relatable. I enjoyed the moment where both crews embark on a joint survey together, it was nice to see how they work together without excessive antagonism. Actually, thinking about it, my remembrance of that lack of hostility made me glum when the survey team run into a prankster scenario.
I felt the same way about Uhura and Proke’s noir subplot. I was charmed by the events that unfolded to an extent, but when both crews are getting on so well, I felt like the endgame is undermined by fun stuff where the Klingon and Federation characters are working through problems together.
I ended up feeling like the book didn’t stick the landing, because the climax irritated me after I had enjoyed most of what had come before. And I couldn’t help but wonder why John Ford focused his writing talent to write a Star Trek novel like this, in the wake of The Final Reflection. I don’t think he necessarily had to outdo The Final Reflection. I could understand wanting to be innovative, but...going from building a world and Empire and culture for the Klingons to a Blake Edwards Musical Comedy Star Trek story ended up as a disappointing direction for this author to go in. I tried very hard to be fair, give it a fair chance.
I tried to be fair to the extent of looking up a page that speculates what tunes the songs were sung to. As I’ve been writing this reflection, it took me a while to realise that I forgot about the psuedo-musical aspect of the novel. I tried for a while to get into the fun of it from that angle.
At the end of the day, unfortunately it just wasn’t for me.
The Needs of the Many
From what I gather, the chapter talking about Dilithium having quirky fourth-dimensional properties becomes something taken as serious science/psuedo-science for later ST novels, possibly including Memory Prime.
As mentioned earlier, the Klingon culture is consistent with The Final Reflection.
There was a moment where Scotty identifies a fellow bar-fight enthusiast among the Klingons, which was kind of funny, but something melancholy hung over that moment because of how Dwellers in the Crucible explored Scotty meeting up with his original Klingon bar-fight buddy from The Trouble With Tribbles. I was struck by the thoughtful, wistful moment in Dwellers, which shows Scotty facing the real consequences of what The Final Reflection established: John Ford’s Klingon’s have shorter lives. So when Scotty connected with a new bar-fight buddy in this novel, I smiled...yet was also a little haunted as well.
Final Thoughts
I wish I had liked this book more. It doesn’t take away from my love for The Final Reflection, which is still one of the top-tier ST novels that I’m glad I read. And I’ll still try out some of John Ford’s non-Trek fiction, just...with a little more caution in the future.
The Dimensions of Creation Make Our Future Choices Limitless
I made sure to read How Much for Just the Planet before Time For Yesterday because of it’s controversial nature. This would leave the next three novels I planned to read in sequence of publication order; Time For Yesterday, Spock’s World, and Memory Prime: two books by authors I whose books I love to read, and another that is notoriously high-praised.
I really like giving them space to have their own canon, separate from what people might think of official canon.
I too did have fun with it, just not as much as I had hoped.
