How Much for Just the Planet?
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| First edition cover | |
| Author | John M. Ford |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Star Trek: TOS #36 |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Titan Books |
| Released | October 1987 |
| Media Type | Print (Hardcover, Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 1852860189 (first edition, paperback) |
How Much for Just the Planet? is a 1987 Star Trek tie-in novel by John M. Ford.
In the novel, large deposits of dilithium are detected on a colony planet, and delegations are sent by the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire to negotiate for mining rights. They find the planet and its inhabitants to be very strange indeed.
The book is an outright comedy, and received a mixed reception. Many readers loved it, but it has also been criticized by readers who felt that it did not treat the series with sufficient seriousness. (It should be noted that, while this was the first comic tie-in novel to be published, the television series itself had also had occasional comic episodes, including "The Trouble With Tribbles", often cited as one of the series' most popular episodes.)
The Klingons in this novel are based in the historical and cultural backstory created by Ford for his earlier novel The Final Reflection, which differs in many respects from the Klingon culture developed independently in later Star Trek television series. However, Ford uses elements from the Marc Okrand-developed Klingonese (which became the canonical Klingon language) mixed with Ford's own invented Klingonaase.
The U.S.S. Jefferson Randolph Smith (NCC-29407), a prospector Sulek-class Federation starship is under the command of captain Tatyana Trofimov. Oddly, John Ford named this ship after ninteenth century badman Jefferson Randolph Smith, alias Soapy Smith.
