Star Trek #33: Deep Domain

I'm not necessarily the biggest fan of Star Trek (I grew up a lightsaber groupie, you see), but I love Kirk/Spock. (I am a dirty, dirty girl.) And the only reason I read Star Trek novels is to find some sweet ship teasing.

Deep Domain does not deliver on that. At all. Spock is sent off as a scouting party (of sorts) to a watery planet (with Chekov as company), and then disappears for half of the novel. Kirk doesn't even miss him all that much - he has an obnoxious Mary Sue lieutenant, a bad joke, and McCoy to keep him company.

And it's not like I dislike Maybri. I just think having a young officer act so snotty to her commanding officer because she can't go exploring is horrid. The fact that her skin darkens according to her feelings only makes me dislike her even more.



Actually, the original characters aren't too awful. The freedom fighter/scientist was an enjoyable grizzled old man stereotype. The dictator was an adorable gentleman politician stereotype. And the main villain, the commanding officer of all the military on Water World, was a tough Lady of War stereotype with spidery tendencies. She was a plotter, and a seducer, and I imagine she has an eyepatch, too.

All badass chicks should have an eyepatch.

It was a bit annoying that this manipulator, who seems to have everything going on, messes up twice. She is determined to keep the Enterprise crew away from the local scientific and political communities, yet allows Kirk to meet with the head of the scientists, and Spock to meet the Speaker of the Senate (as it were). Was it a subordinate that allowed these parties to meet and bitch at each other? Is it sloppy logistics that had them sharing rooms at the time? (It's dumb, that's what.) Surely there's a more active, and less serendipitous, way for Kirk and friends to meet the opposition.

The main plot of the novel revolves around fish-people. Kirk's people have to prove that there is sentient life in the oceans of the watery planet and contact them before the whalers harvest ships from a neighboring planet come. This feels like a very eighties plot, and a very Star Trek one as well. SFDebris talked about the possibilites of using dolphins and whales in Star Trek:TNG, and there was the whole plot of Star Trek: The Voyage Home to consider. I mean, another story about whales in Star Trek? Why not?

The book takes place near the end of the second 5-year mission (after Star Trek: The Motion Picture), and Weinstein does a lot foreshadowing in the story, at least when it comes to the movie canon. Kirk spends his opening scenes wishing to go home. Spock tells Chekov about whales on Earth. (My favorite bit, and the one that had me looking up publishing and release dates: Spock says that while some species were able to recover from near-extinction, many were lost, and you never know if the ones you've lost will be the ones you'll need later. OH HAI STAR TREK 4.) And the novel ends with Kirk ordering the ship to head back to Earth, intent on taking a job teaching at Starfleet Academy. (OH HAI SETUP FOR STAR TREK 2)

Overall, it was all right. Weak, but all right. It's Star Trek pulp, and pretty good pulp at that. Wish there was more ship teasing, or at least more Spock. (He's on the cover, for whale-people's sake!)

Next Star Trek novels: The Yesterday Saga by A.C. Crispin.
Star Trek - the Original Series: Yesterday's Son
Time For Yesterday (Star Trek: The Original Series)