Prime Directive
by Judith Reeves-Stevens (Author), Garfield Reeves-Stevens (Author)
Star Trek (novels) (1990.09), Star Trek: The Original Series (Unnumbered novels — 1990), Star Trek (1990.09)
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Starfleet's most sacred commandment has been violated. Its most honored captain is in disgrace, its most celebrated starship in pieces, and the crew of that ship scattered among the thousand worlds of the Federation...Thus begins Prime Directive, an epic tale of the Star Trekreg universe. Following in the bestselling tradition of Spock's World and The Lost Years, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens have crafted a thrilling tale of mystery and wonder, a novel that takes the Star Trek show more characters from the depths of despair into an electrifying new adventure that spans the galaxy. Journey with Spock, McCoy, and the rest of the former crew of the Starship EnterpriseTM to Talin -- the planet where their careers ended. A world once teeming with life that now lies ruined, its cities turned to ashes, its surface devastated by a radioactive firestorm -- because of their actions. There, they must find out how -- and why -- this tragedy occurred and discover what has become of their captain. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
What an interesting take on the Trek universe! It begins with a bang, where you find out that the Enterprise Six have been booted out of Starfleet because they broke the Prime Directive and destroyed a world.
What happens to each of them as they try to find the truth of what happened on Talin, the unfolding of the story of Talin's destruction, and all the intriguing players who were on board the Enterprise (including Lt. Carolyn Palamas, from one of my favorite episodes) are all here. Sulu and Chekhov have to live with Orion pirates on their high-gravity ship, Spock has to make his case to the Federation while living in student quarters with students who have their own agenda, and Kirk is vilified no matter where he goes or in what show more disguise he wears. McCoy questions space and Uhura stands up to everyone, and as those stories are woven the memories of the planet Talin are explored.
Definitely a good pick in the exploration of Star Trek writing. I won't use the term fan fic because it's not that, and I'm happy I picked it up and took the time to read it. show less
What happens to each of them as they try to find the truth of what happened on Talin, the unfolding of the story of Talin's destruction, and all the intriguing players who were on board the Enterprise (including Lt. Carolyn Palamas, from one of my favorite episodes) are all here. Sulu and Chekhov have to live with Orion pirates on their high-gravity ship, Spock has to make his case to the Federation while living in student quarters with students who have their own agenda, and Kirk is vilified no matter where he goes or in what show more disguise he wears. McCoy questions space and Uhura stands up to everyone, and as those stories are woven the memories of the planet Talin are explored.
Definitely a good pick in the exploration of Star Trek writing. I won't use the term fan fic because it's not that, and I'm happy I picked it up and took the time to read it. show less
Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens' Star Trek: Prime Directive reads like an episode of The Original Series. Set during the Enterprise's five year mission, the authors perfectly portray the characters, challenge the reader with new ideas, and use the story as a metaphor to discuss the continued possibility of nuclear conflict on Earth. The Reeves-Stevenses structure the story in a disjointed manner, beginning with the immediate consequences of a disaster that heavily damaged the Enterprise, caused ecological destruction on a planet, and ended the careers of most of the senior staff. From there, they flashback to the event itself, before concluding with the resolution. The authors successfully create a sense of longing for space travel, show more using aliens' experiences to mirror the feelings of humanity in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. In addition, their story further bridges the time between the end of The Original Series and The Motion Picture. Fans of Star Trek will find this a must-read. show less
This book is so good! Honestly. I originally read it on digital, and liked it so much that I sought it out in hardback to add to my collection. The thing I find so satisfying is that it takes the Prime Directive seriously in a way that the series doesn't really. You have a real sense of the damage that could be done to a culture if Starfleet mucks it up—and also the problems with the whole concept of the Prime Directive. Also, includes a running joke about BLACK FIRE, another earlier Trek novel! Great, great Trek book.
Captain Kirk and his bridge officers stand accused of destroying an entire planet and only a Hail Mary gambit will clear their names. For fans of the original Star Trek series this novel, set towards the end of the Enterprise's five-year mission, will be a fond reunion. The authors have captured something of the camaraderie between characters (or playful enmity in the case of Bones and Spock) while the story itself is certainly grand enough to warrant 400 pages. And it all moves along at a good clip even with a couple of eye-rolling plot twists.....a stint aboard an Orion pirate ship is more comedic relief than genuine peril especially after Dr. McCoy shows up.
'The fate of an entire civilised world and the fate of more than two billion beings rests in your hands, sir. What will you do?'
I'm giving this TOS adventure four stars for the promise of the plot, rather than the execution of storytelling, and for the characters. Gotta love a Star Trek writer who gets the characters (almost) right. Captain Kirk is the ever curious leader who is 'genuinely interested in just about everything', Spock the half-human Vulcan who 'decides that 'his home was space', and the crew are the loyal band of Starfleet's finest who 'make the Enterprise so special'. The whole set-up is so nostalgic and heartwarming, I could even overlook the cliched use of catchphrases - Bones gets in the best line with 'I'm a pirate, show more not a doctor' - but BUT. My one annoyance would have to be Kirk's flirtation with Carolyn Palamas, the blonde lieutenant who had to give up the chance of becoming a goddess in 'Who Mourns for Adonais?' First of all, Kirk would never get involved with a member of his crew - maybe I should qualify that with 'female' member of his crew, haha - and his attitude towards Carolyn in Adonais was 'Man up, soldier, you have a duty to Starfleet and your crewmates!' So there isn't even a canon suggestion that he would have gone there - although Scotty tried in the same episode, and failed. Secondly, WHY? The whole dalliance served no purpose whatsoever, apart from being incredibly out of character. I was equal parts confused and annoyed by that.
Anyway, The story does what is says on the tin - Kirk and the crew are accused of breaking the Prime Directive, Starfleet's Number One Rule of noninterference with alien civilisations, and destroying an entire planet in the process. Oops. The opening chapters, catching up with the 'Enterprise Five' (or the bridge crew) are the best, especially Scotty raising hell on the damaged Enterprise, and I love how fiercely loyal the gang are to Kirk, but the rest of the tale, about the aliens on 'Kirk's World' and how much they had to do with the destruction of their own planet, not to mention the blather about the Prime Directive, could almost have made this a TNG novel in disguise. I may have been guilty of speed reading after a point. And the reunion of the crew with their captain was strangely underwhelming too. But still better than a Greg Cox novel! show less
I'm giving this TOS adventure four stars for the promise of the plot, rather than the execution of storytelling, and for the characters. Gotta love a Star Trek writer who gets the characters (almost) right. Captain Kirk is the ever curious leader who is 'genuinely interested in just about everything', Spock the half-human Vulcan who 'decides that 'his home was space', and the crew are the loyal band of Starfleet's finest who 'make the Enterprise so special'. The whole set-up is so nostalgic and heartwarming, I could even overlook the cliched use of catchphrases - Bones gets in the best line with 'I'm a pirate, show more not a doctor' - but BUT. My one annoyance would have to be Kirk's flirtation with Carolyn Palamas, the blonde lieutenant who had to give up the chance of becoming a goddess in 'Who Mourns for Adonais?' First of all, Kirk would never get involved with a member of his crew - maybe I should qualify that with 'female' member of his crew, haha - and his attitude towards Carolyn in Adonais was 'Man up, soldier, you have a duty to Starfleet and your crewmates!' So there isn't even a canon suggestion that he would have gone there - although Scotty tried in the same episode, and failed. Secondly, WHY? The whole dalliance served no purpose whatsoever, apart from being incredibly out of character. I was equal parts confused and annoyed by that.
Anyway, The story does what is says on the tin - Kirk and the crew are accused of breaking the Prime Directive, Starfleet's Number One Rule of noninterference with alien civilisations, and destroying an entire planet in the process. Oops. The opening chapters, catching up with the 'Enterprise Five' (or the bridge crew) are the best, especially Scotty raising hell on the damaged Enterprise, and I love how fiercely loyal the gang are to Kirk, but the rest of the tale, about the aliens on 'Kirk's World' and how much they had to do with the destruction of their own planet, not to mention the blather about the Prime Directive, could almost have made this a TNG novel in disguise. I may have been guilty of speed reading after a point. And the reunion of the crew with their captain was strangely underwhelming too. But still better than a Greg Cox novel! show less
Published in September 1991 at the time of the 25th anniversary of Star Trek, Prime Directive is a fine example of good Trek fiction. The book notes that this story takes place during the final year of the Enterprise's five year mission. We only got three years on TV. I think this would probably be set before the adventures that occur in the animated series.
The major characters feel pretty authentic to the ones we know so well from the original series TV and film. To me that is pretty important with these books, although Sulu and Checkov have less to work with as relatively minor characters from the series and maybe that is why they came across less distinctive to me here. I think someone like Checkov is hard to define and giving him a show more few wobbly v's in speech may be the best most authors can do.
This novel is also among the best trek fiction I have read. Each of the main characters has a part to play. A planet (Talin IV) and civilization have been destroyed. The Enterprise is virtually unsalvageable. Only Scotty remains with Starfleet on board the Enterprise and he wants to resign as Spock, Kirk, Sulu etc have all resigned in disgrace. What went wrong? That is the central mystery of this excellent story. This is one of the longer Trek novels and feels only a little drawn out after a very good start, the pirate sequence with Sulu and Checkov seemed overlong and overbaked, which is perhaps my only real complaint.
All in all this was a very good adventure story, although I would say that parts of this story are better than the whole. But once this gets going, it goes. Recommended for all fans of Star Trek. show less
The major characters feel pretty authentic to the ones we know so well from the original series TV and film. To me that is pretty important with these books, although Sulu and Checkov have less to work with as relatively minor characters from the series and maybe that is why they came across less distinctive to me here. I think someone like Checkov is hard to define and giving him a show more few wobbly v's in speech may be the best most authors can do.
This novel is also among the best trek fiction I have read. Each of the main characters has a part to play. A planet (Talin IV) and civilization have been destroyed. The Enterprise is virtually unsalvageable. Only Scotty remains with Starfleet on board the Enterprise and he wants to resign as Spock, Kirk, Sulu etc have all resigned in disgrace. What went wrong? That is the central mystery of this excellent story. This is one of the longer Trek novels and feels only a little drawn out after a very good start, the pirate sequence with Sulu and Checkov seemed overlong and overbaked, which is perhaps my only real complaint.
All in all this was a very good adventure story, although I would say that parts of this story are better than the whole. But once this gets going, it goes. Recommended for all fans of Star Trek. show less
This is probably my favorite Star Trek novel. It addresses the friction between legal and moral obligations; the interaction between the institutional Federation, its civilians, and Starfleet; a pre-contact civilization; and a lot of neat science-fictiony things. The Original Series crew are in top form -- Judy and Gar make use of the ensemble like the television show never did. Give it a whirl.
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She is the author of William Shatner's bestselling Star Trek novels and are well-loved Star Trek authors in their own right--their hardcover Star Trek books include "Star Trek: Prime Directive", "Star Trek: Federation" and "The Art of Star Trek". (Bowker Author Biography)
Along with his wife Judith, Garfield Reeves-Stevens writes science fiction and screenplays. They have written Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, a behind-the-scenes look at the popular show, Star Trek: The Next Generation, a tribute to the TV series, and the thriller, Icefire. (Bowker Author Biography) Garfield is the author of William Shatner's show more bestselling Star Trek novels and are well-loved Star Trek authors in their own right--their hardcover Star Trek books include "Star Trek: Prime Directive", "Star Trek: Federation", and "The Art of Star Trek". (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Star Trek (novels)
626 works (1990.09)
Star Trek: The Original Series
97 works (Unnumbered novels — 1990)
Star Trek
1004 works (1990.09)
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Star Trek (Heyne) (50)
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- Canonical title
- Prime Directive
- Original title
- Prime Directive
- Alternate titles
- Star Trek: Prime Directive; Star Trek: Die erste Direktive
- Original publication date
- 1990 (eng.) (eng.); 1993 (deu.) (deu.)
- People/Characters
- James T. Kirk (Captain); Leonard McCoy (Bones); Spock; Nyota Uhura; Pavel Chekov; Hikaru Sulu
- Important places
- USS Enterprise NCC-1701; USS Yorktown NCC-1717; Earth; San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA; Iowa, USA
- First words
- According to the records as they existed at that time, of the original twelve Constitution-class starships that had embarked on Starfleet's visionary program of five-year-missions, five had already been lost in the service of... (show all) the United Federation of Planets: The USS Contitution as the last casualty of an ancient war, the Intrepid in the Gamma 7A system, the Excalibur in war-game maneuvers, the Defiant in the Tholian Annex, and the Enterprise during the incident at Talin IV.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And dream of stars.
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- ISBNs
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