My Star Trek Reviews

Saturday, January 31, 2026

SPOCK SUFFERS BRAIN DAMAGE

Name: Mindshadow

Author: JM Dillard

Publication Date: 1/1986

Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #27)

Page Number: 252

Historian’s Note: Sometime between The Counter-clock Incident and The Motion Picture

Cast of Characters: Captain James T. Kirk Commander Spock Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones” Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty” Lieutenant Commander Varth Regev Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu Lieutenant Nyota Uhura Dr. Joseph M'Benga Dr. Emma Staenz Lieutenant Ingrid Tomson Lieutenant Mohamed al-Baslama Lieutenant Giorgo Mikahlis Lieutenant Mohamed Jahma Lieutenant (junior grade) Reems Nurse Christine Chapel Ensign Pavel Chekov Ensign Lyle Ensign Rachel Lanz Admiral James Komack Ambassador Sarek Amanda Grayson Tela’at Stalik T'Pala Natahia Grower Mahali various unnamed Growers unnamed Romulan pirate various unnamed Romulans

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Starbase 12, Galileo II NCC-1701/7, unnamed and unclassified small Romulan fighters

Planets: Aritani and Vulcan

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The adventure begins with a landing party from the Enterprise visiting the planet Aritani. The Aritanians are former space faring people who surrendered advanced technology to live a simple life with nature as independent farmers. So, they are like the Amish except they are from an alien world, and they don’t follow and real strict religion. Unfortunately, they are now under attack from an unknown enemy who is destroying their villages and killing their people. The Federation has offered to help. Kirk explains that they are not here to change their way of life. Although they would love to have them as Federation members Starfleet helps is free regardless. Their leader Natahia is skeptical but desperate.

Trying to help a reluctant people

Spock wants to explore the nearby hills as his tricorder as he tries to find out more about the natural minerals of the planet to see if he can explain why they have been attacked recently. When he doesn’t return, they go out looking for him. They find him and it appears that he has fallen down a steep hill and is severely injured with broken bones all down his left side. Most importantly his injuries to his head have resulted in severe brain damage. Spock’s status as a Vulcan/Human hybrid complicates potential treatment.

While Spock is being treated, Aritani is under attack again. Even though there was a shield up the enemy fighters managed to get through. They devastate Aritani and the Aritanians. It is clear from the attackers’ ships that they are Romulans. What the Romulans want with the planet and how they were able to get through the shield are mysteries. The incident kills Natahia’s faith that Starfleet is able to protect her people and she requests they leave. If the Romulans kill all of them so, be it so long as they are living their true lives.

Romulan attack!!

Back on the Enterprise, a neurologist named Dr. Emma Staenz has been transferred to the ship and given Mr. Spock’s case. Her prognosis is bleak; his injuries are affecting his logical thinking and have caused the Vulcan mind rules to vanish. He is now incapable of controlling his telepathic abilities which cause him great pain. Staenz recommends Kirk to find a temporary replacement for Mr. Spock.

Kirk and Staenz work out together. It turns out the good doctor grew up on a high gravity planet giving her great strength for a person her size. She is more than a match for Captain Kirk, as he ends up hitting the deck more than she does. There also might be something darker about her because when she is alone with Spock, she tries to force a mind meld and starts a suspicious line of questioning. She and Dr. McCoy start to see each other romantically.

Trying to treat Mr. Spock

When the pirates return the Enterprise is able to capture a pirate ship. The Romulan pirate will not cooperate refusing to answer any questions posed to him. In Sickbay Spock is getting somewhat better. His voice comes and goes; he has a hard time remembering people’s names and ranks but does enjoy hearing music. Spock is aware of his condition and is unhappy about it.

Things are starting to go bad. First, the Romulan prisoner is murdered, and the murder was made to look like suicide. Second, it appears that Mr. Spock has attempted suicide himself. When he awakes Spock claims not to remember but denies trying to commit suicide. He requests to be sent home to Vulcan and McCoy approves. Staenz objects to sending him away, leading to her first lovers quarrel with McCoy. She, however, relents.

Spock has not been himself

Their shuttlecraft, Galileo II, nearly crashes like its famous namesake predecessor, but they get out of it okay. Their trip is delayed as Scotty has to make repairs. While they are gone, back on the ship Kirk is injured in a workout routine with Staenz. While she is treating him, he kisses her and then passes out. It looks like a love triangle brewing. The next morning, Lt. Tomson, the Enterprise’s current chief of security, tells the tired Captain that her primary murder suspect is Scotty. Like the last time Scotty was accused of murder, Kirk doesn’t believe it. However, he has to let her issue an arrest warrant when he fails to appear on time.

Spock returns home to discover his parents have taken in a young Vulcan woman. Like Spock, T’Pala is half human/half Vulcan although the reverse with a human father and Vulcan mother. Her mother died and she was raised by her father she hopes to join the Vulcan diplomatic service and serve under Sarek. Her father’s status as a criminal makes this difficult.

Spock being treated at home.

Spock’s home return is not going well. He is not relearning the mind rules as expected. He refuses to help T’Pala with her control even though that is one thing he is currently good at. Worse, he ends up barking at his mother who was just trying to help. At one point he thinks about swallowing all of his pills and just ending it. He doesn’t, the next day he makes apologies to all concerned and resumes his lessons.

Spock has a difficult recovery

Back on the ship, McCoy and Staenz make up and are on romantic terms. Kirk is hosting a “Journey to Babel”-type of conference to deal with the Aritani situation. The new first officer, Lieutenant Commander Varth Regev, is very useful when it comes to dealing with the Tellarites. Scotty returns and is arrested and immediately cleared since he had an airtight alibi. This conference truly resembles the Babel Conference, when two ambassadors are murdered. Kirk becomes suspicious of the exact nature of Staenz’s mission. He discovers that she is actually a Starfleet Intelligence Agent working for Admiral James Komack. A device is discovered on Regev showing him to be a Romulan spy.

Back at home Spock drops his medication and starts to recover he relearns the mind rules in record time. His recovery is halted by an attempted assassination on him and his father. They are saved by T’Pala, who revels she had been working with the Romulans who came to her after she had been rejected for her career and felt isolated from Romulan society. She had told them of Spock’s recovery and they attacked, but she felt close toward Spock’s family, so she saved them. Before Spock loses consciousness, he sees her commit suicide with a phaser.

Since T’Pala disintegrated herself, Spock is blamed for the attack on his father which they think is a murder/suicide. Kirk upon hearing this now wants to head to Vulcan, Staenz tries to talk him out of it, but Kirk is determined to help Spock. When they get to Vulcan Kirk and McCoy go down to see Spock. When he wakes up, they explain the situation to him. Since Sarek is expected to recover Spock is not concerned about the blame as Sarek is expected to recover and will explain everything to the authorities. Spock knows why he was injured; he had to jump to avoid certain death if the Romulans had caught him. Spock tells Kirk and McCoy that the drugs Staenz gave him were delaying his recovery and increasing his symptoms not helping him. It turns out Staenz knew this would happen as she is co-author of a paper that describes its effects on Vulcans. Staenz is a double agent Romulan spy. Regev was framed. By the time they learn this she has escaped, injuring the chief of security in the process.

Back in disguise

The Enterprise heads back to Aritani where Regev managed to locate the Romulan base. Kirk disguised himself as a Romulan again, and he and Spock beam down to see if they could expose and sabotage the place. While there they run in Staenz again, whose real name is Subcommander Tanirius. It turns out she is a triple agent and that her true allegiance is not the Romulan Preator or the Federation but rather a reform movement in Romulus that seeks to bring down the tyrannical imperial government. She helps the two of them escape and sets the base up for destruction. After they get back to the ship the base is destroyed but six fighters escape leaving our mystery lady’s fate up in the air. McCoy is hopeful that she is okay. The Aritani accept the Federation’s help and defending their home.

Additional thoughts: This was one of the best Star Trek books that I had read in a while. One of the main things I liked about the story was that even though the author invented some interesting characters they didn’t displace the main Star Trek cast from the story. The story was an exciting traditional Star Trek adventure that took advantage of the book format to give us more depth.

While reading the book I referred to myself the people of Aritani as the “space Amish” since they turned their backs on technology to live like the world never developed past the 19^th century. I had to question Captain Kirk’s judgement when it came to placing the crew on shore leave on this planet. They Aritanians barely wanted the Federation’s help do really want to send down multiple landing parties of people whose sole purpose is recreation?

I thought it was creative to have Spock’s status as a Vulcan/human hybrid make it difficult for his injuries to be diagnosed and treated. The fact that Vulcan brains and human brains function differently makes it hard to plot the proper course of treatment. Do you treat him more as a human or Vulcan? One might think Vulcan, but Spock’s right-handedness suggests otherwise.

Scotty accused of murder again. Poor Mr. Scott, all he tries to do is help, yet people often want to accuse him of killing people. Good thing for him is this time it was much easier to prove that he didn’t do it.

McCoy falls hard for women, doesn’t he? He only knows them for a short time, and he gets all committed and remains in love with them for quite some time. He should learn to let go more, like his good buddy Captain Kirk.

A short while

For some time

I found the “Vulcans don’t apologize” to be a bunch of baloney. We see them apologize all the time. How else are they going to admit fault and take responsibility for their actions especially if those actions unintentionally caused someone harm. Also, sometimes people have legitimate excuses for things like tardiness, how would any society function if they were not able to address them.

Lieutenant Commander Varth Regev turned out to be a more interesting character than I originally thought. I really like the way he handled the Tellarites situation. It was a neat reveal that it turned out to be a Starfleet intelligence officer the whole time.

T’Pala was such a sad and tragic case. The Vulcan/human hybrid with nowhere to turn. It was easy to feel for the poor girl when she told Spock that no Vulcan male wanted to bond with her. All she wanted to do was fit in and this was precisely what was not allowed. She had no home anywhere and that led to her being manipulated by the Romulans. It was easy to understand why Spock and his family felt for her and he continued to cover for her so she could have dignity in death. It is too bad that Spock didn’t meet her when he was healthy and in control. She could have been his perfect mate.

Finally, the Emma Staenz reveal was perfect. The best twists in a story are ones you don’t see coming yet seem obvious when you look back on it. Her advanced strength for her size makes more sense when you remember that Vulcan/Romulans have enhanced strength. I was constantly guessing throughout the book to what side she was truly on, and every time I thought I figured it out the author would pull out some new information that made me realize I was wrong but maybe I was right before, most likely I was wrong there too.

Should it be canon: I see nothing in this story that should prevent me from being canon in official Star Trek lore. Given the story is great I love to add it to official Star Trek canon.

Cover Art: We have Spock’s left side profile on the viewer’s right and in front of Spock’s face are Kirk, McCoy, and Emma Saenz. Behind all of them is a mountain range.

Final Grade: Final Grade 5 of 5

Wednesday, December 31, 2025

Friday, November 28, 2025

TWICE IMPRISONED

Name: Dwellers in the Crucible

Author: Margaret Wander Bonanno

Publication Date: 9/1985

Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #25)

Page Number: 308

Historian’s Note: Sometime during The Wrath of Khan

Cast of Characters: Rear Admiral James T. Kirk Captain Spock Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones” Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty” Commander Hikaru Sulu Commander Nyota Uhura Lieutenant (junior grade) Saavik Ensign Chen Fleet Admiral Heihachiro Nogura Commodore José Mendez Commander Mai-Ling Hong Commander Tamerlane Hong Special Agent Gadj Cleante al-Faisal T'Shael Jali'lar Kandowali Krnsandor L'am Resh'da Maprida'hn Theras shoorShras Salet Sekal Sethan Stalek Stimm T'Pei T'Sehn Dr. Palmer Admiral Korax Lord Tolz Kenran Lord Krazz Commander Kalor Imperial Security Chief Dr'ell Imperial Defense Minister Lefv Admiral-Superlative Meru'th The Romulan Fleet Commander Subcommander Tal Centurion Delar Chamberlin Garefv m'kh Unnamed Sulamids

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Galileo III NCC-1701/3, Starbase 11, USS Horizon (registry unknown), IKS Flyer's Pride, ChR Gauntlet, IKS Irik, and IKS Kalash

Planets: Earth and Vulcan

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The story opens with a kidnapping. The kidnaped are a human named Cleante al-Faisal, a Vulcan named T'Shael, an Andorian and some Deltans. These individuals are the Warrantors of the Peace an idea the Vulcans came up with in the time of Surak. The Warrantors are voluntary hostages of sorts. They are family members of government officials of various Federation member worlds. They would first to die if their worlds attacked one of its neighbors. Realizing that kidnapping them could be used to destabilize the Federation the Romulans and the Klingons plan to do just that. The Romulans do the kidnapping while the Klingons hold them.

Klingons and Romulans looking to kidnap

The bulk of the story is told between the two main warrantors Cleante and T’Shael. The book often flows back and forth between the present and the past. The audience sees Cleante and T’Shael’s backstory. They met at the Warrantors headquarters on Vulcan and formed an unlikely friendship. T’Shael leads a lonely life with a distant mother and a father who is caring but dying. Her father is a famous musician known as the gifted one. Her mother leaves them to serve on the Intrepid and she dies when it is destroyed by that large single-celled organism from “The Immunity Syndrome.” Her dying father has to break the news to her that she will soon have no parents at all. Having no family leads her to volunteer for warrantor status.

The story shifts to our normal set of heroes, who have the entire situation explained to them while being told not to do anything about it. This becomes a recurring thing whenever the audience comes back to the Enterprise.

Two Klingons in charge of the prisoners. They are Lord Krazz and Commander Kalor. Trusted with such important prisoners who may be able to allow the Klingons and Romulans to bring the Federation to its knees, the two Klingons decide their physical passions are more important and try to rape the prisoners. They are stopped however because of the mental powers of the Deltans overwhelm the Klingons, so they abandon the rape attempt.

Klingons being evil

Despite the Deltan save, the Andorian warrantor dies. This causes protest from Andor and the Romulans themselves are upset. On the Enterprise the crew is briefed and does nothing. Shortly after, the Deltans all die by suicide leaving only two hostages left, the main stars of the book.

Subcommander Tal shows up for an inspection and is appalled by the conditions the prisoners are kept in. He reports this to his Commander—the same Romulan Fleet Commander from “The Enterprise Incident”—she agrees to check on the prisoners herself.

Tal

An unexpected earthquake leads to the death of Lord Krazz, leading Kalor in charge. The Romulan Commander ordered Kalor to treat the prisoners better under threat of death and Kalor agrees to her demands. While this is going on it turns out T’Shael is going through the pon farr. She instructs Cleante to bind her, so she won’t hurt her friend. This reminds me of a werewolf. Spock was bad but he didn’t have to be tied up. Tal suggests they get a younger Romulan male to sleep with T’Shael, but the Commander just helps her mentally get over it.

Fleet Commander

After the Romulans leave Kalor decides to start torturing the prisoners again. He forces T’Shael to spend the night outside in the freezing temperatures to test the Vulcans resistance to the cold. As T’Shael is suffering Cleante decides to seduce Kalor. He resists at first and then agrees to take her offer. Cleante at this point starts to exhibit major Stockholm Syndrome as she finds herself starting to fall for Kalor.

This doesn’t last however because the Romulan Commander arrives and shoots Kalor with a disruptor after catching the two in bed. Kirk and Spock show up and find the two remaining warrantors exactly where the Commander wanted them to be found. It appears her strategy was to kill them with kindness. She wanted Kirk and Spock to see how nice she was to the warrantors so they would feel bad about stealing her cloaking device. In the end Cleante doesn’t have to be a warrantor anymore, she is just happy it turns out Kalor didn’t leave her pregnant. She decides to go to Vulcan and hangout with T’Shael who has warrantor for life status.

Additional thoughts: I had a hard time taking this story seriously as I found the premise to be absurd. The very idea that United Federation of Planets is held together by an exchanging of hostages amongst the member worlds is beyond weird. Apparently, the author was inspired by the exchanging of hostages in the medieval world and some Cold War theory. It doesn’t even work in story; the warrantors themselves are supposed to be the relatives of the high-ranking officials on the various planets. If the leader of Earth decided to invade Andora that leader would have to face the reality that their loved one would be the first to die. However, in story the warrantors are allowed to have substitutes take their place similar to a US Civil War draftee. This defeats the entire purpose because now it’s no longer the leader’s loved one on the firing line but a stranger. It’s explained that T’Shael is a substitute for Spock himself, who would normally have to serve because of the position of his father. Again, this doesn’t make sense as Spock’s father is not a leader of Vulcan government but rather a diplomatic representative. Sarek represents Vulcan but he doesn’t decide what actions it takes. Also, all the warrantors live on Vulcan even the Vulcan ones, so how is this stopping Vulcan from doing anything?

Does the Federation need to exchange hostages?

Maybe

The time period was also hard to place. I had originally thought it would take place between the second five-year mission between The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan. However, it seemed might have been during the second film. Saavik is here and McCoy mentions that they have a crew of all cadets. The crew is wearing “the monster maroons.” Kirk is referred to as “Admiral” rather than the temporary commission of “Captain” he received in The Motion Picture. Yet, he is in command of the Enterprise and the only time he held that command and called “Admiral” was during TWOK. That makes the story more improbable to me that on the ship’s way to Regula 1 they stopped by and picked up the warrantors.

The story also is one in which you are introduced to a situation or character and then the reader is treated to a long flashback explaining who they are, what they are about, and what their relationships with each other are. This is not an illegitimate form of storytelling, but it does make moving the plot forward difficult. Without the filler the story might be only a quarter as long.

We see the Romulan Fleet Commander from “The Enterprise Incident.” She was in the last book I read too. Star Trek novelists seem to find her fascinating. I tend to judge her appearance based on how they explain the aftermath of her capture and loss of cloaking device. In the last book it was explained that she was able to escape consequence because the Praetor was her father. In this version she did have claw her back to prominence, but it was aided by her being the Praetor's mistress. This is clear contradiction, I hope.

She has also seemed to have learned from her boss, the Praetor, as we see her happily bed her own subordinates that she finds attractive This includes Subcommander Tal, who it is said in the book has refused promotions so he can stay with her. I didn’t like that as I felt the relationship between her and Tal was based on professionalism and respect. I don’t have any issue with her bedding other subordinates though it’s clearly an improvement on her from the last book where she was dealing in love slaves. This book at least has the Commander moving in the right direction.

Speaking of love slaves, that was some serious Stockholm Syndrome we saw from Cleante. When she started to have feelings for Kalor and even started to sympathize with him. She is also very insistent to McCoy and everyone else that what went on between them was consensual despite the fact that they both his prisoners and he was torturing her friend.

Although I highlight in each of my reviews the most important character and second most important character from the crew during the story this one is a bit off. In this book the two most important members of the crew are Kirk and Spock, but they do nothing in the story. The regular cast of characters are completely useless. They could have been written out of the story, and nothing would have changed except the name of the ship that Cleante and T’Shael leave in.

On the last note I found it funny that the author tried to present the Klingons as opposite of the Vulcans in that they age faster than humans. Neat idea that Star Trek didn’t stick with.

Should it be canon: I am going to say no. There is just too much weird stuff in this book to try and have it be canonical.

Cover Art:. The cover has two young women on the bottom of the image is Cleante on the viewer’s right and T’Shael on the viewers left. Above T’Shael is the face of Kirk and above Cleante is the face of Spock.

Final Grade: Final Grade 2 of 5

Tuesday, November 4, 2025

THE ENTERPRISE INCIDENT, THE SEQUEL

Name: Killing Time

Author: Della Van Hise

Publication Date: 7/1985

Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #24)

Page Number: 311

Historian’s Note: Sometime between The Counter-Clock Incident and The Motion Picture

Cast of Characters: Captain/Ensign James T. Kirk Commander/Captain Spock Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones” Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty” Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu Lieutenant Nyota Uhura Lieutenant Kevin Riley Lieutenant/Ensign Jeremy Richardson Lieutenant Anderson Nurse Christine Chapel Ensign/Commander Pavel Chekov Ensign Dane Christensen Ensign Carl Reichert Ensign Paul Donner Yeoman Third Class S'Parva Crewman Devoran Crewman Dave Donnelly Admiral S't'kal Captain Christopher Pike Dr. Palmer The Romulan Fleet Commander/Preator General Tavor Commander Tazol Subcommander Sarela Subcommander Sekor Lieutenant Rolash Centurion Selon Centurion Tasme

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701/VSS ShiKahr, VSS S'Tasmeen, VSS T'Ruda, IRV Ravon and IRV T'Favaron

Planets: Canus IV, Earth, Romulus, and Remus

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The adventure begins with Captain Kirk telling Spock of a strange dream he had. He was on the Enterprise but it wasn’t the Enterprise. In addition to that he wasn’t the captain, Spock was. Kirk in his dream never made it past ensign, and the whole time he wants to tell Spock that he is supposed to be the captain. Strangely enough Spock had a similar dream. McCoy dismisses these events as typical psychology.

We have a new crew member, Yeoman S’Parva, who is from a species that looks like anthropomorphic dogs. We also meet Lt. Jeremy Richarson, a human officer who seems to find the dog person attractive. (Thanks author!)

As Kirk goes to sleep reality changes. He is no longer Captain Kirk of the Enterprise but he is Ensign Kirk of the ShiKahr. Kirk’s life took a hard turn when he was falsely accused of murder of his instructor. The Vulcans found him guilty and subjected him to something called the Talos device that messed him up mentally and is now dependent on drugs. In this reality Spock is the captain of the ship. He takes pity on Ensign Kirk, for he studied the Talos device and recommended its decommissioning. Spock is also haunted by strange dreams. The former Ensign Chekov is now a commander and first officer in this new reality.

Kirk is no longer himself

All of Captain Spock’s attempts to reach out to Ensign Kirk almost end in failure. Kirk wants off the ship, but he wants prison less and that is his only alternative. Spock decides to separate Kirk from his abusive roommate. Kirk might not be a murderer, but he is still a huge pain in this time. Spock still feels he deserves a fair chance.

Things start to get strange from low to high. Ensign Reichert almost destroys the ship with sabotage and Spock gets an insane order from fleet command to start a war with the Romulans. McCoy finds two sets of brainwaves in the deranged Ensign. This may be a galaxy wide event.

It turns out the Romulans were behind everything, the author doesn’t try to make this a surprise. The Romulans decided that they needed to prevent the Federation from forming so they went on a mission do that. Commander Tazol is excited about this plan because he feels the Federation has been strangling the Romulan Star Empire by denying its chance of expansion. His first officer and wife, Subcommander Sarela, does not share his enthusiasm, as she pointed out other times their time travel plans did not give them the desired results. The two of them are not a good couple.

Commander Tazol is not a happy camper.

It seems the Romulans plans have all turned sour. As the Federation no longer exists but it has been replaced by a Federation-like Alliance of Planets that is centered on Vulcan and not on Earth. The Empire is only moderately bigger. It seems as if the whole thing wasn’t worth the trip.

Back on the ShiKahr Dr. McCoy makes a startling discovery. Remembering the time they went to the mirror universe, McCoy thinks that might have something to do with what they are now facing. He concludes that there are two universes, and one was created by a time alteration. The big news is their universe that they have lived their whole lives in is the wrong one. McCoy concludes that these shared dreams are of the other and real universe. McCoy hypothesis that the people who are acting out are the ones who are the most affected by the change. McCoy points out that he is probably a doctor and chief medical officer in both realities, so he is unchanged. People whose lives have been turned upside down are having a rough time. Ensign Kirk is also a good example. He might have been something very different in another life.

Spock trying to help Kirk

Their mission brings them to Canus IV, where they investigate possible Romulan activity by sending down a landing party. This causes Spock to question his decisions, and Kirk is re-traumatized. Spock is also dealing with the fact that his pon farr, is kicking in. In this reality T’Pring had more courage to just outright dump him, instead of cowardly trying to get him to murder his own friend.

Subcommander Sarela is summoned to meet with the Praetor and shocked to discover that the Praetor is actually a woman. Her name is Thea, and she is the same Romulan Fleet Commander that Kirk and Spock stole a clocking device from in the unaltered reality. She explains her father was Praetor until his recent death and since he was sonless, she took over. There is going to be a power struggle in the Empire and Sarela’s husband is on the other side. The Praetor realizes her father’s plan hasn’t worked she now wants to abduct Kirk to force Spock to impersonate the Praetor (as most people don’t know what the Praetor looks like) and present the Vulcan Tenets of Discipline to the Romulan people. After she wants Spock to use his extraordinary power as a starship commander to negotiate a peace treaty.

Big plans for Spock

The ShiKahr rendezvous with T'Ruda, a ship commanded by Spock’s former first officer, Captain Christopher Pike, the first human to command his own starship. Captains Spock and Pike agree that the orders coming from the fleet a clearly insane. Spock learns that Kirk has not been seen since returning from Canus IV. He finds Kirk in the ship's green and forcibly initiates a mind-meld, during which the two of them become more fully aware of who they were in the unaltered timeline. During the meld Kirk drops his Academy ring in the loose sand of the garden. Richardson and S'Parva also discover their true selves using the same method.

Suddenly a small Romulan scout ship appears claiming to have drifted of course. They are intercepted and the crew brought aboard. Thea and Sarela come aboard and are confined to quarters. Later, two Romulan agents disguised as Vulcan security guards, kidnap Kirk and Richardson from their cabin and transport them to the scout ship and escape to Romulan space. Thea announces her plans to Spock, and he agrees but only to turn the tables on her.

Spock lets Thea know that the timeline is now unstable and when the get to Romulus rebellions all throughout the Empire convince her that this is true. Kirk and Richardson are brought in after an escape attempt and are recruited on the mission. Thea reveals that the assassins who went back to alter the past and were androids that her father had purchased. Little does Thea know that Jim Kirk is the Bane of all Artificial Intelligence, and these androids don’t stand a chance. The Romulan ship loops around the sun in order to go back to the past.

Now in the late 21^st century they locate the figures they need to save. When the androids arrive, they attack. In the battle Richardson is killed and Spock is fatally injured. Before he passes, he gives Kirk a Romulan disruptor because, as the one who lost the most due to the time change, he should be the one to restore it. As Spock lies dying the three of them disappear.

Kirk doesn't feat andriods or any other type of AI

Back in the restored universe Kirk awakens to find he is once again Captain of the Enterprise. Still haunted by the dreams, he agrees to a mind meld with Spock. They are now aware of their other selves, and it explains a ring Kirk found in the garden that belonged to his counterpart. The ring was located exactly where he dropped it. Later Kirk puts it back and allows it to disappear.

Additional thoughts: Well, this now makes two books in row where the enemies of the Federation tried to wipe out using time travel. In “Ishmael” the Klingons try to use time travel to prevent the existence of the Federation and this time it’s the Romulans. The Klingons never succeed, in fact, their attempt to change things is itself what caused them to fail. The Romulans manage to pull it off only to realize that they did not get what they asked for and end up teaming up with our heroes to get everything back.

I am really tired of people with my name being weirdos or creeps. We got the silly Ghostbusters guy, the not so nice individual in the new Beetlejuice film. This one isn’t so bad. It’s just that he is sexually attracted to a big dog-like alien.

I enjoyed how Sarela explains to her foolish husband of the other failed time travel plots. They have tried to use time travel in the past to make life easier for themselves and at one time it led to them wiping out a planetary population. Yet the Romulans still continue to do it. You would think they would run into some heavy butterfly effects by now.

Should leave the time travel tricks to the Federation

There must be more to the Romulans changing the timeline than just the simple sling shot effect. Everywhere else in the franchise whenever the timeline has changed, hardly anyone is aware that it occurred. When the Romulans start to change it, multiple people start having bad dreams as a preview for the new reality. When reality finally does change people continue to have strange dreams about their old lives driving some of them insane. Romulans should leave the time travel adventures to the Federation.

I thought it was interesting that both the Second History crew and the First History crew went on similar missions. The Second History also had a “Mirror, Mirror” adventure. Which made me really interested in what the Mirror Universe looked like in this reality. Clearly its different or else Spock would have identified Kirk as the Mirror Universe captain.

What's their Mirror Universe like?

So, the Romulan Star Empire has a system of slavery with other Romulans as slaves. And sometimes sex slaves are given away as gifts? Yes, these slaves are still trusted as with weapons and are sent on secret missions to enemy territory. This isn’t the only version of this we saw something similar of this in the book, “The Fate of the Phoenix.”

Why was this Spock going through the pon farr now? Wouldn’t it have kicked in around the same time as the Prime Universe Spock? Are there more treatments in this reality that can delay it? That might make sense in a Vulcan-centered Alliance.

It is quite a shock to realize that your very reality that you lived in your entire life, is not real. In most time travel stories time gets mixed up and those characters who have not been changed try to restore the true reality. Understanding that your world or universe is wrong and you aren’t the “real you” requires a whole new level of thought. Of course, it’s easier when your universe is trying to destroy itself.

A typical time travel adventure

It appears we have Romulan terminators? At this point in history The Terminator had only been out for about a year. Fortunately, the time device that our heroes use doesn’t require that they travel naked, and the Romulan disruptor serves well at ending the threat and restoring reality.

Lastly, the Praetor. As the old Hitchcock quote goes, “You can get people to believe in the impossible but the improbable.” I am all right with human-looking space aliens starships and time travel. I can’t believe that someone can screw up as badly as the Romulan Fleet Commander did in “The Enterprise Incident” can not only keep her job but be promoted. I don’t care who her father is. The book “The Price of the Phoenix” also featured her in a continued leadership role. I prefer the “My Enemy, My Ally” view of it where she lost everything and correctly blames Kirk and Spock. Now this could be saved. We never saw her act as Praetor in the main universe. Yes, she was supposedly immune to the change. However, no one knows what the Praetor looks like maybe he didn’t board the ship because he didn’t want to be stuck with the “wrong memories.” What if Thea was just a bureaucratic assistant who was there to record the change and report back and she returned she was now the Praetor. She might see it as an extension of a career she should have naturally had.

This book was also infamous because of the Kirk/Spock slash fiction that was contained in the original edition that was recalled by Paramount Pictures. As my copy is not original and doesn’t contain the delated passages, I can’t really make a comment on it.

Should it be canon: Considering the whole adventure is one that the main story never actually happened except in the minds of Kirk and Spock, I don’t have an objection to it being cannon. Although I don't care for the part of the Romulan Fleet Commander being the Praetor's daughter/successor.

Cover Art: Spock is on the front of the cover wearing his Vulcan Fleet uniform. Behind him is Subcommander Sarela and the Romulan Fleet Commander turned Praetor. Behind them is a city on Romulus and a Bird of Prey flies through the sky.

Final Grade: Final Grade 4 of 5