Peter David delivered his first Star Trek novel with Stroke Zone. Originally planned to be a novel in The Original Series catalogue, it was changed and updated to take place near the beginning of season two of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Beverly Crusher is at Starfleet Medical, Dr. Pulaski has taken over as the Chief Medical Officer aboard the Enterprise, Worf is the head of security, Wesley Crusher is alone on the Enterprise, and Riker has a brand new beard.

We are introduced to a species known as the Kreel, who according to the Klingons, who they seem to be eternally in conflict with, are parasites, they are the carrion who pick over the battles and clashes the Klingons take part in. But now, on a remote planet, the Kreel have discovered an incredibly powerful weapons cache, and there may be a shift of power in the quadrant.

A Klingon ambassador and a Kreel representative are to discuss the options of peace between the two species, though the Klingon Empire and the Kreel both have their own reasons for doing what they are doing, and neither side can be trusted when dealing with the other.

And where will this discussion be held? On the remote planet with the cache.

And who is responsible for taking the representatives and their parties to the planet?

Why Captain Picard and the Enterprise D, of course.

There are some fun moments in the story, David easily inserts humour into the characters’ banter, and while Data isn’t quite out-of-character he brushes against it. There’s an interesting Wesley b-story that sees him trying to save the life of a dying friend and how it may be hiding something deeper.

Once it reaches its climax, the story gets wrapped up pretty quickly, and it has some familiar tones to it, though I do like how David writes it. It’s not quite Deus ex Machina, but it feels kind of close, but when it comes to Trek, that’s not the first, or last, time such a thing will happen. So you take it in stride, and honestly, Picard voices a lot of the same feelings I had about it.

It’s still early in the novel series, and while the series itself had been on television since late 1987, and Strike Zone was published in early 1989, the series both television, and novel, are still defining themselves, so there are a few slip-ups here and there, mostly around the Kllingons and Data. Still, they can be glossed over pretty easily.

I like the way David writes, he keeps things moving, and he keeps the characters engaging. He would later go on to helm the New Frontier book series, and I remember that fondly, but not enough to recall all of it, which means I’ll have to revisit it at some point in the near future as The Human Adventure continues…

Boldly go.