“How Much for Just the Planet?” by John M. Ford.
Finished “How Much for Just the Planet?” by John M. Ford.
A large dilithium deposit is discovered nearly simultaneously by both the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Since the planet is in neutral space, under the terms of the Organian Peace Treaty, whichever side demonstrates they are best able to develop. Enterprise is sent along with Ambassador Charlotte Sanchez to make contact with the colonists, and the Klingons send Captain Kaden of the IKS Fire Blossom.
But the planet is colonized entirely by theater kids. Hijinks Ensue.
The colonists lead both the Enterprise and Fire Blossom away teams on a merry chase punctuated with farce and musical numbers.
“How do you get a musical number in a prose novel?” you might ask. By printing your original lyrics to the tune of existing, well-known melodies. There's some Gilbert & Sullivan in there. The theme to Rawhide. I'm not sure what “I'm supposed to be a princess” and “I suppose you've heard the story” are meant to be set to, but I kindof feel they might fit “Do you want to build a snowman” if someone more familiar with “Frozen” wants to try it out.
The author wanted to include a key for each piece, indicating the tune that each song was meant to go with, but for some reason Pocketbooks didn't let him, leading fans on a decades long quest to try to identify the tune meant to go with each. It hasn't been updated in a couple years, but I think they did well enough for some of them.
You're telling me they let Barbara Hambly get away with crossing over another TV show, and even slip Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica cameos in willy-nilly, but they wouldn't let John M. Ford throw us a bone and give us a few song titles?
It's an amusing entry. I half wish it could have been an episode, with Buster Keaton stunts and Lucille Ball slapstick.
I also liked how the landing parties split up into mixed groups, with Federation and Klingon personnel being downright cordial, despite being rivals, and even working together. Scotty and Maglus make a big show of being adversarial, before settling in for a round of golf through a mine field.