Star Trek: Prime Directive (1990) Book Review

Star Trek: Prime Directive is one of those Star Trek novels that fit much more into the authorized fan fiction category than it does into the category of Star Trek novels that work as a companion piece to the TV show or movies. Of course it's written by Star Trek fans Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, a husband and wife writing duo that are the most high profile Star Trek writers from the '90s and 2000s, which contributes to the more fan fiction feel to the story.

I've read this book a few times over the years. I originally had the hardcover edition after Brad had given me a box of his old Star Trek novels. Eventually I got the paperback edition, which is the copy I have now. Each time I read it, I enjoyed the story, but this time around when I read it, originally not intending to review it, it felt different to me. While the characters all feel like the characters from the TV series, the story itself felt more like something they'd do on TNG, DS9 or Enterprise in the '90s and 2000s. In fact, the premise of the Enterprise being responsible for the destruction of an entire world was used by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga for the season 1 finale cliffhanger of Star Trek: Enterprise in 2002.

The reason it feels like a '90s story that would be done on a Star Trek series or movie of that period rather than on the original series in the '60s is that there's an undertone of certain Starfleet officers simply being out for themselves as shown by their swift inquiry which leads to Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Sulu, Chekov, and Uhura resigning from Starfleet. It's also evidenced by the portrayal of Styles, the captain of the Excelsior in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, who is a Lieutenant in this novel. He was arrogant and pompous in Star Trek III because he was in command of the Excelsior, a brand new starship that was more advanced than the aging Enterprise was at the time. Here he's just a jerk and actually comes off as a bully and someone who really shouldn't be in command of salvaging the heavily damaged Enterprise let alone in command of a starship. Which again, feels more '90s than it does '80s like the portrayal of the character in Star Trek III from 1984.

Another thing that makes this novel very '90s is the inclusion of a special interests group intent on seeing the Prime Directive get abolished, something that was quite prevalent in the '90s.

Something else that I found interesting is that Kirk had already violated the Prime Directive in numerous episodes of TOS, yet he was never punished for it because in the 23rd Century, Starfleet officers, and pretty much Starfleet as a whole, were a little too slow to invoke the Prime Directive, as Janeway put it in the episode "Flashback" from season 3 of Star Trek: Voyager. Here though, not only was Kirk punished, but everyone who was on the Bridge when Talin IV was destroyed and participated in the event, were too.

My favourite part of the book was when McCoy pretended to be a space pirate named the Black Ire in order to get to Talin IV more quickly. I mean despite this novel being written in the '90s and having the sensibilities of the '90s, that kind of thing is totally in character for Doctor McCoy. Plus, having Uhura helping him with it, is pretty great too, because it utilized her skills as a communications specialist and former Communications Officer of the Enterprise.

Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall this is a pretty good Star Trek novel. As I said at the beginning it works pretty well as a novel that fits into the category of Star Trek fan fiction or Star Trek Expanded Universe material rather than a novel that could've been an episode of the TV show or a movie. I'm giving Star Trek: Prime Directive 9/10 stars for being an interesting story despite it being something that would never have been done in an episode of TOS or a TOS movie.