3.5, rounding up to 4 stars. This bears a strong similarity to the earlier Web of the Romulans, but I enjoyed both of them so the repetition bothers me less than it might have. What does bother me is that both the Federation and Romulan sides of this conflict appear to adhere firmly to the Smurfette principle - and the single woman with any focus on each side is stuck with the stereotypical storylines of her gender. One's a glorified and nurturing love interest, the other gets fridged. Deeply irritating. Overwhelming that irritation, however, and the thing that drags this story up almost single-handedly from the average Trek outing, is the fair and well-explored clash in philosophy between Robert April and George Kirk. As always in this series, diversity of opinion tends to lead to illumination, and in particular I'd like to see more of the idealist April in the future.