MUSICIAN SAVES THE DAY

Name: The Tears of the Singers

Author: Melinda Snodgrass

Publication Date: 9/1984

Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #19)

Page Number: 252

Historian’s Note: The book takes place three years after the events of Errand of Mercy, shortly after the episode The Time Trap

Cast of Characters:  Captain James T. Kirk       Commander Spock              Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”       Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu              Lieutenant Nyota Uhura            Lieutenant  Bethany Wilson                    Lieutenant T'zeela           Lieutenant Kevin Riley                Lieutenant Fred Ragsdale               Lieutenant Brentano                Lieutenant Donovan                   Lieutenant Lindenbaum             Lieutenant Fred Ragsdale               Nurse Christine Chapel          Ensign Pavel Chekov                 Yeoman First Class Chou                 Crewman Ridly         Crewman Thomas        Commander Li            Guy Maslin                  Harvey Cumberland              Commander Kor               Captain Kandi        Lieutenant Commander  Karsul  Lieutenant Commander Kali          Khant                    Korax                    Captain Shibot         

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Starbase 24, IKS Klothos, IKS Emperor’s Pride, and third unnamed Klingon K't'inga-class battle cruiser

Planets: Taygeta V

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The opening of the story begins with a murder.  A native of the planet Taygeta, is killed for its tears that leave its body and form expensive gems upon death.  The Enterprise is getting a tune up at Starbase 28 and the crew has leave. Spock and Uhura convince Kirk to join them at the concert.  The composer and pianist are the same person, a man named Guy Maslin.  Maslin is considered to be a Mozart-like musical genius and perhaps the greatest of his era.  Kirk enjoys the concert but is called away by the commanding officer of Starbase, Commander Li.

Uhura and Spock team up to get the Captain to relax!

There is a strange space phenomenon that is engulfing starships that is getting bigger near a system of unexplored space that both the Federation and the Klingon Empire have been exploring.  There is a brief discussion of tear harvesting, the killing of these local animals by hunters to make money.  Spock is upset by this because the locals’ behavior shows they may be intelligent.  Indeed, the entire population seems to be involved in this planet-wide song earning the local Taygetians the nickname “the singers.”  While this is going on Uhura has met Maslin in person and the two have hit it off and are having a romantic date.  This comes to an end as Kirk calls everyone back to the ship although Uhura goes slower than normal.

Spock upon investigation forms a hypothesis that the songs that are being made by the Taygetians that are now being disrupted by the hunters are connected to the space phenomenon that is eating up ships.  With this Kirk decides to recruit the latest celebrity that they just saw into their mission.  Uhura is asked to find him which given where she was wasn’t hard.  Maslin shows he is good immediately after listening to the Taygetians song. He instantly points out that part of it is missing, and maybe on a frequency that we can’t here.  Kirk wants him to join them, but he refuses.  It turns out Maslin is a bit of a diva when it comes to things, and he is more concerned about his career than the common good.  This forces Kirk to use a little-known Federation law that allows him to draft Maslin into Starfleet.  This enrages the musician but there is nothing he can do about it. He does reveal he has a serious medical condition, but McCoy can successfully treat it with the ship’s resources.  

The Enterprise arrives to the Singer's world

When Maslin finally accepts that he has to go on the mission, he informs the Captain that he will need a team of musicians.  Now many members of the crew of the Enterprise have musical talents.  Maslin holds auditions and competes his away party with many including Spock, Uhura, and Scotty.  Maslin still has some work to do in regard to other people; he still questions things and offers his unsolicited opinion on matters in which he knows nothing.  He thinks it is his place to tell Kirk how to run his ship at times.

Two Klingon ships arrive under the command of Kor, the Original Klingon.  Despite his record as an adversary, Kor recognizes the threat of the space phenomenon that is eating starships and is willing to work with Kirk to see how to best solve the problem.  The only issue is his first officer abord his flagship, Karsul, wants to attack the Federation starship now while they have the advantage in numbers.  At the moment it is Kor’s way that will prevail, but it will soon become apparent to Kirk that now all is right on the Klingon ships.

Kor, the Original Klingon, is back

A number of things happen rather quickly.  Spock discovers that another world in this solar system was once life-supporting and had on it a sophisticated civilization that was on par with the ancient Sumerians.  They were wiped out some 3000 years ago when the sun went nova. Yet somehow the Taygetians’ atmosphere of their world survived, allowing them to live, while their neighbor who was father away from the star did not.  In addition to Spock’s discoveries a Klingon landing party arrives among them is a female Klingon named Kandi.  She is both a lieutenant commander and the wife of Kor.  She seems friendlier than most Klingons they have met.   

Uhura is torn between loyalty to Starfleet and newfound love

Maslin feels that the reason some of the great song is missing is because many of the singers have been killed and their voices not yet replaced. Maslin’s illness catches up with him and he is forced to accept medical attention on the ship.  Spock has the misfortune to run into the humans hunting the Taygetians for their tears.  Spock tries to reason with them and explain that they are killing an intelligent self-aware species.  The hunters’ response is telling Spock off while referring to their “rights.”  They are here to get rich, and they won’t let any annoying rights of sentient beings stop them.  These same hunters run into Kandi is more vocal and willing to do more to protect the Taygetians, the hunters take her prisoner.  That turns out to be their mistake as Kor shows up and attacks them, wounding some, and rescuing his wife.  Matters start to get worse as the Enterprise and the Klingon ships both start to lose power as something is wrong with their dilithium crystals. 

Another Klingon ship arrives

  Using Spock’s theory of the singer’s activity being connected to the space phenomenon, Kirk arrests the hunters with the help of Kor.  They cry their cries and Kirk could care less. Time is running out and they need Maslin to resume his work.  Uhura, who is now openly recognizing that she is in love with him, strongly objects and nearly resigns her commission before Maslin himself talks her out of it.  Maslin is now fully committed to the mission and wants to finish what he started.  Back on the Klingon ship, Kor needs to meet with Kirk, so he takes a shuttle to the Enterprise rather than beam over because he is having a harder time controlling his crew and doesn’t trust his first officer at all.   

While Kor is on the Enterprise, the Klingon ships move into attack. It is clear that Kor is no longer in command.  Kirk tries to maneuver his ship away, but a third Klingon ship appears with no power drain in its systems.  Kirk takes the Enterprise back down tricks the other two Klingon ships into shooting each other. As the three ships start to gain on our heroes Kirk decides they need to sacrifice for the sake of the universe.  He tricks the Klingon fleet into flying into the space phenomenon with him and his crew.

  On the surface Maslin manages to communicate first to the Taygetian children and then to the adults.  The great song was created to protect the planet from the solar threat 3000 years ago; it requires their 100 percent attention most of the time making them vulnerable to the hunters.  After some misunderstandings, Maslin gets one of the Taygetians to mind meld with Spock so they can learn that the threat is past, but a different one is here that they have created through their song.  They use their power to bring all four ships back with the small change of putting Kor on his bridge.  This allows Kor to kill his first officer and take back command of his ships.  He explains to the Klingon commander of the third ship the situation and he backs down.  Taygetians’ song comes to an end and with it the space phenomenon.  There is a cost however in helping the Taygetians coordinate Maslin exhausts himself, succumbing to his disease.  Uhura morns the loss of her recently found love.

Additional thoughts: This is a great classic Star Trek story, it uses a science fiction setting to tell a morality tale about our own society. The lesson is what happens when commercially driven activities have a large negative effect on our environment.  In this case the actions of the hunters cause the space phenomenon to get out of control and start consuming ships.  In modern times many industries in pursuit of profits have caused massive environmental damage.  Of course, the Taygetians songs were also going to lead to the destruction of their own sun if they were not told to stop.  Which arguably wouldn’t have happened without the space phenomenon eating ships and that was the fault of the hunters.  Maybe I shouldn’t overthink this.

Since Star Trek is a show that takes place on a starship, where everyone has a Starfleet career, it is nice to see those in the Federation who do different things.  In this case we still have in the 23^rd century celebrity musicians, who give live performances to their fans.  On the other side of the coin, we have the ruthless hunters who are more concerned with what types of fortunes they can build than the potential life they are snuffing out.   Also, it shows that human greed still will unknowingly harm the environment around them.  For some humans in this time period, the fact that we saved our own planet from such a fate hasn’t taught them any wider lessons for the universe.

A few things I noticed.  Maslin often complains about how his tax dollars are used.  Now, I try to keep these reviews focused on when they came out and not bring up other things that occur later in the series. The franchise, however, will try to claim to have a money-free society, it seems odd that anyone would complain about their “tax dollars.”  I suppose it could just be an expression.  I also early in the book, Spock compares the Taygetian singers to the humpback whales of Earth.  They are a species that has gone extinct by the 23^rd century.  Hmm…I wonder if we may have an adventure at some point addressing that.  Lastly if the sun went nova some three thousand years ago how are the terrestrial planets in this system still here?  You would think a nova would take them out.

Lt. Cmdr. Kandi, the wife of Kor, is an interesting character.  Proud to be a Klingon, but willing to stand against certain aspects of the Klingon Empire when she feels it is wrong.  It was brave of her to go after the hunters herself.  Her relationship with Kor seems to be built on mutual respect, this helps show the Klingons beyond their stereotypes. 

This brings me to Kor and the Time Trap problem.  When reading this book, I first thought it might have taken place before that episode, as the events weren’t referenced.  Yet, in that episode he tries to kill Kirk and the Enterprise under the guise of helping them.  It would seem to be a character regression if after this adventure that was how Kor acted.  I would like to think that his character has evolved more since that day so I would say this story happened sometime after “The Time Trap.”  Of course, there is the question of why Kirk would trust him after that encounter.  However, in this adventure Kirk suspects that Kor isn’t in total command of his ships.  Perhaps he doesn’t totally blame Kor from what happened at their last encounter.

We had classic character growth from Guy Maslin.  He begins as a full-of-himself-diva who can’t be bothered with things in the universe outside of his immediate interest. He has no sense of the greater good, he complains all the time about his tax dollars.  Although a genius in his own field, he likes to give lots of commentary on matters in which he knows nothing, like running a starship or overall strategy in dealing with Klingons.  He openly insults Kirk to his face, earning the ire of all fans.  Yet, by the end of the books he reforms completely, is totally likeable, prevents Uhura from leaving Starfleet, and sacrifices himself for the greater good of the galaxy.  A great character arch.  

Should it be canon: I have no issue with this book begin part of official Star Trek canon as it doesn’t conflict with anything and is a great story.

Cover Art: On the cover Spock and Uhura are on the surface of Taygeta V.  There are mountains in the background.  Uhura is kneeling down conversing with one of the Taygetian cubs.  Spock is behind her.  Their uniforms are off, Uhura is in pants and missing her rank insignia and Spock is dressed in his Motion Picture away uniform.   

Final Grade: Final Grade 5 of 5