This note contains spoilers for the book.

Another piece of the memorial reread.

This is a Star Trek novel, but it's exceedingly atypical; to the point where at one point the guidelines explicitly said "no more books like" this one.

It's a musical comedy.

When the Klingons and the Federation survey crew finally notice the dilithium crystals on Direidi, the inhabitants are prepared to defend their planet from exploitation. It's "Plan C", the musical.

Generally I don't like Star Trek novels; Paramount required that they be not too much more interesting than the show, and many of the authors weren't putting their hearts into it. This one, though, is spectacular. It's really funny. It nails the character neuroses dead on. The natives of Direidi are smart and sensible. And, in the end, things come out well for just about everybody.

Which develops, at its climax, into a bedroom farce. Also a romp through a bunch of old movies. All in all, it's quite a spectacular production.

I'm not sure about the strange colored food in the various starships in the neighborhood. I guess it's effects of the dilithium crystals, maybe?