THE STARS OF STAR TREK BEAM UP TO THE ENTERPRISE

 

Name: Star Trek: The New Voyages – Story 4 “Visit to a Weird Planet--Revisited”

Author: Ruth Berman, with an introduction by Majel Barrett

Publication Date: 3/1976

Publisher: Bantam Books

Page Number: 16

Historian’s Note: Sometime between 1967-1969  

Cast of Characters:  William Shatner         Leonard Nimoy              DeForest Kelley              James Doohan    Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Vincent McEveety         Nurse Christine Chapel          Ensign Pavel Chekov     Gene L. Coon        Commodore Kor      Unnamed Klingon Officer

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, IKS Klothos

Planets: Earth the Real One, unexplored planet name in dispute

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The story begins on the set of a Star Trek episode.  I don’t know what episode exactly but it is one that is directed by Vincent McEveety.  Shatner trips getting off the transporter pad upsetting McEveety as it ruins the take.  They start over and get back on the transporter pad and that is when it happens. A strange feeling goes over the three actors as unbeknownst to them they are being beamed up to the actual USS Enterprise! 

                As soon as Shatner and Kelley step of the transporter pad, they know something is up.  They are now in an enclosed room and there are no cameras to be scene.  Nimoy is a little late to come around, he thinks this is a prank by Bob Justman and gets openly annoyed when “Jimmy” refuses to break character and continue to talk in his Scottish accent.  Shatner and Kelley force Nimoy out of the transporter room and into the corridor.  It’s at that point Nimoy realizes what his co-stars do.  That somehow and someway they are aboard the USS Enterprise for real.

Three actors on a big adventure.

                The three actors struggle but find sickbay and when they get there, they start talking about what has happened.  How did they get here and how do they get home?  Then they are called to the bridge they are being attacked by the Klingons.  Shatner has Uhura hail the Klingons and when they respond the actor finds himself face to face with Kor.  Kor tells the man he thinks is Kirk that they are claiming the planet for the Klingon Empire.  Since the Federation has the right to file a dispute that reduces the need to come up with a solution right away. 

                This convinces the three of them that something must be done about their situation.  While on the bridge Nimoy had to excuse himself before he broke into uncontrollable laughter.  He was also scared that someone might get too close to him and see that is not really a Vulcan and that his ears are fake. Shatner and Kelley didn’t have that problem since their characters are human.  However, Kelley doesn’t have any real medical knowledge to help if someone gets hurt. Only Shatner is comfortable to still “play Captain Kirk” for an unexpecting audience. 

Shatner's comfortable while the other two are in trouble

                  The three actors choose to confide in Mr. Scott.  Scott arrives armed with a phaser because is convinced the three of them are Klingon spies. They however convince him by reminding the Chief Engineer of the events from “Mirror, Mirror.”  Scott is convinced they are who they say they are, and a little concerned that he is now in command.  He realizes Shatner needs to continue to pretend to be Captain Kirk because the Klingons might want to speak with him.

                The three actors return to the bridge and there they brainstorm with Uhura, Chekov, and Sulu about what the Klingons could want with the planet.  The planet appears worthless however when Nimoy notices there are still tides on a moonless planet.  With an investigation the six of them discover that there is a new cloaking device that is hiding planet’s moon.  Since the Klingons got their cloaking technology from the Romulans they must be in on this as well. 

                Scotty has found away to swap the actors back to their universe with their counterparts.  The three of them wish Scott good-bye and good luck with the mission.  The three strangers pointed the crew of the Enterprise in the right direction but now it was time for the real Kirk, Spock, and McCoy to take over.   Back in the real world, Shatner tries to tell Gene Coon about their adventure but angers McEveety when his action once again ruins the take.

Additional thoughts: Well, that was a fun little story.  Apparently according to the introduction this one is a sort of play on another story from the fanzines that came around in the 1970s, titled “Visit to a Strange Planet.”  In the earlier story it was Kirk, Spock, and McCoy who came to the real world.  I have never read that original story in its entirety.  To be honest I don’t see how that wouldn’t turn into a horror story.  Kirk and crew discovering that they are fiction.  In this story when they explain their origins to Scotty he doesn’t completely understand what they are telling him avoiding that pitfall there.  However, if Captain Kirk showed up in the real world, wouldn’t everyone just assume William Shatner had gone insane?

                I do like how each actor responded differently to the situation. Leonard Nimoy had the hardest time coping.  If someone got too close, they could tell his ears were fake, that he didn’t have Spock’s scientific knowledge nor his Vulcan strength.  Not to mention the fact he has to be “on” all the time and not show any emotion what so ever.  Nimoy is deprived of the escape of the word: “cut!”  At one-point Nimoy has to remove himself from situation in order to prevent himself from laughing.  I love when he tried to check Spock’s viewer at his station and saw nothing since he didn’t know how to turn it on.  Although he did figure out how to work his tricorder with the help of the ship’s computer.  Kelley has the problem of no actual medical knowledge but it doesn’t come up. Shatner is actually at ease and slips into his role of Captain Kirk quite easily including handing a Klingon negotiation.

Klingons

                Speaking of the Klingons I thought it was great when Shatner, while talking with Kor, notices Kor’s assistant looks a little different despite clearly being a Klingon.  He then realizes that the other Klingon looks more like the one from “Friday’s Child” than Kor and his “Errand of Mercy” Klingons.  Fred Phillips, the make-up artist, had errored when he forgot to include the bushy eyebrows and facial hair on his second time doing the Klingons that he had done on the first.  It appears the look of Klingons has always been a problem for Star Trek.

               

Also a Klingon!

The only thing I think I would change is I would have the actors come up with a solution to the Enterprise’s problem by just remembering that they had already read the script and therefore know what the answer is. Then they just come up with an excuse to give it the crew.       

Should it be canon: No, I am sorry I love the story but I think it would be a bad idea for the suspension of disbelief if it were confirmed as a matter of canon that Star Trek wasn’t real.  Having the characters realize they are just characters in a TV show would be a terrible thing going forward. Therefore, I think it should it remain just a fun side story to enjoy.

Cover Art: What I said after the first story: 

“The cover is beautiful.  You have the Enterprise flying in all its glory in the bottom center of the image.  Behind it looks like a space station built on an asteroid.  Flying above in the opposite direction is an unknown starship whose design I don’t recognize.”  

Final Grade: Final Grade 4 of 5