Name: The Price of the Phoenix
Authors: Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath
Publication Date: 7/1977
Publisher: Bantam Books
Page Number: 182
Historian’s Note:
Sometime between The Counter-Clock Incident and The Motion Picture
Cast of Characters: Captain James T. Kirk and James T. Kirk Commander
Spock Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
AKA “Bones” Lieutenant
Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”
Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu Lieutenant Nyota Uhura Dr. Joseph M'Benga Nurse Christine Chapel Ensign Pavel Chekov The Romulan Fleet Commander Subcommander Tal Omne
Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701,
a small fleet of unnamed Romulan ships consisting of Birds of Prey and D7-Rs
Planets: Omne’s planet
My Spoiler filled summary and review: The story
begins with the reported death of Captain Kirk.
We learn that the Enterprise was invited here by the ruler, named
Omne, of this small planet. Omne is an
odd fellow his whole planet looks like something out of the wild west and he
himself is a rather large humanoid. In
addition to being tall and human-looking, he has blue blood, and has strength
to rival a Vulcan. Politically he is
very anti-Federation because he thinks they are hypocrites who interfere with
other planets despite having a prime directive that tells them otherwise. To prove his point, he arranged a woman and
her baby to die in house fire knowing Kirk would try to save them. Kirk does and is killed. From this point on
Spock and the rest of the crew regard Omne as an outright murderer. 
Their Captain is dead, or so they think.
When Spock returns to the planet,
he runs into the Romulan Fleet Commander who they robbed and kidnapped in “The Enterprise Incident.” The good Commander
is apparently over what happed back then and is very sympathetic to Spock’s
situation. Although she is representing
her government is doesn’t trust this Omne character either. As soon as they meet Omne, Spock gets right
into how much of creep he thinks he is. Omne
tries to argue with Spock a little but Spock rejects any attempt to put any
spin on Kirk’s death. To Spock Omne is
Captain Kirk’s murderer end of story. 
She's back!
That is when things get weird. Omne takes them to a new room with Captain
Kirk laying right there buck naked on the table. Spock quickly checks with the ship to see if
there is any doubt to the body they brought on board and McCoy tells him there
is none. Things get stranger when this
Kirk wakes up clearly recognizes Spock, Omne, and the Fleet Commander. Omne
explains that this new Kirk is a clone of the one who just died and has all of
his memories save for the death itself.
Kirk starts asking questions about his supposed demise. Omne explains that the new Kirk is his
property. Kirk says he doesn’t think he
is a copy but even if he was, he was still a person and he cannot be anyone’s
property. Omne clearly thinks
differently but he is going to allow Spock to rescue the new Kirk if Spock
agrees to help him. Omne wants Spock to
denounce the Federation and use his family’s resources to split Vulcan away
from it. 
Omne is hoping that Spock will tap into that T'Pau power to break up the Federation
While Spock and Omne are arguing the Fleet Commander and the Kirk clone—now clothed—explore the maze of tunnels that the underground complex is made of and there they find another Captain Kirk. This one is dressed in his Starfleet uniform but it is damaged. The damage was caused by fire. We then learn that this is the real Kirk and the dead Kirk was an unfinished clone. Kirk handles the fact that he has been duplicated rather well. To be fair it is not the first time.
 |
| Kirk gets used to this happening |
The real Kirk is eventually brought
back to Omne and the two threaten each other and fight. The fight has no resolution, despite that
Kirk is the greatest fighter in the known galaxy, he finds his attacks useless
against Omne’s alien Vulcan like strength and he feels in the disadvantaged
position for most of the fight. Spock
comes in to relive the Captain in the fight.
Finally, the two Kirks, Spock, and the Romulan Fleet Commander escape
from Omne. Once free the four discuss
what to do with this planet when they get back.
Spock and the Romulan Commander thinks it should be destroyed as it’s
not a real culture just Omne and his friends causing trouble. Kirk is actually the most merciful of the
group in calling for less destruction.
The four individuals are rescued by
the Enterprise. The Fleet
Commander sends a message to Subcommader Tal that she is a guest and not a
prisoner. The clone Kirk is now calling himself “James”
and they have to make plans for what to do with him. It is decided that it is critical that the
galaxy not know that there are now two James T. Kirks. For that would allow the universe to gain
knowledge of the Omne technology and it might lead to many conflicts between
the powers. So Fleet Commander invites James to come live in the Romulan Star
Empire with her. They can alter him to
make him look like a Romulan and she can pass him off as princeling from one of
the Romulan subject planets. Basically,
James is going to live as kept man of the Fleet Commander. The two apparently became fond of each other
on the planet.
It turns out that Omne has a
superlong range transporter and shows up on the Enterprise. He has come
to collect his property which he sees as James. They all fight again and at
one-point Omne grabs James and holds a weapon to his head. They are at a standstill until Scotty beams
the weapon out of his hand, and Kirk kills him.
However, his body is transported away apparently from a device he had on
him to trigger such an event if he were killed. So given his ability to clone
and some hints may have been cloned at one point anyway, there may be an Omne
still out there.
Additional thoughts: This was an entertaining but
often confusing story. Especially, once
you get to the two Kirks it becomes hard to follow when the two of them
interact. What is up with writers always
wanting to duplicate the characters? It
almost like its and addiction. We
have evil Kirk, Robot Kirk, a whole universe of duplicates, giant Spock, two written stories of multiple Spocks, and now a clone Kirk. What is interesting is that the clone
survives. When we first met the clone, I
thought he was the real one and the dead Kirk was fake. It turns out I was only half right. Even when we meet the real Kirk, I thought
for sure it was going to be discovered that “James” was real and one in the
Starfleet uniform was fake. I thought he
would sacrifice himself somehow by the end of the story. However, I was wrong both counts as Kirk and
his clone both make it out fine.
How did we get so friendly with the
Romulans? Last I checked we were still
enemies. Also, the Romulan Fleet
Commander was really nice to her former rivals. You would think she would be mad the way
Spock had played on her feelings so he and Kirk could steal her new cloaking
device. However, throughout the story
she is warm and friendly to both of them. She is not a reluctant ally but a
genuine friend to her former captors. 
Forgotten all the hurt she felt!
The long-term plans for the
duplicate Kirk really do not make any sense.
Why can’t they let the universe know there are two Kirks? Just reassign one to command a different
starship, problem solved. Either that or
have the two of them time share, don’t see them as two people just view it as
Captain Kirk now has the power to be in two places at once. Any solution would be better than the one
they came up with. That solution is
really weird. The duplicate is
surgically altered to appear Romulan, and becomes the live-in companion for the
Romulan Fleet Commander. So, you are going to let a brain with all the
knowledge of Captain Kirk (just think of the Starfleet secrets and
technological knowledge) and have him go live in the Romulan Star Empire. What if the two powers come into conflict
again? The only objection that is even
voiced is by Captain Kirk who doesn’t like the idea of his duplicate being a
Romulan consort because he considers that normal role of female. (I am not kidding this actually spoken
about.) I am sorry but no. They should all have more sense than that.
The threat of Omne seemed to go
away rather quickly. They were seemingly all under his power trying to escape
him but then they do and get back to the Enterprise. Then he appears using his super transporter
and is seemingly killed by Captain Kirk.
His transported back and after discussing how it happened and if he has
already arranged himself to be cloned, our heroes just shrug their shoulders
and go about their day.
I have talked in the past how I
don’t care much for ‘Spirk’ theories.
This is mostly because I don’t like when two men seem to show any type
of affection for each other there is always someone who seems to shout they
must be gay! It reminds me of middle
school. That and the fact that Shatner,
Nimoy, Roddenberry, Fontana, etc. always stated there was nothing like that
between them, it makes it odd for people to continue to insist that there
was. However, I don’t like it but that
doesn’t mean I hate it and I understand that for some fans its and important
part of their fandom. Also, there are
some moments when I see where they may be getting this. In the episode Mudd’s Passion, for
example. This book itself is full of
Spirk moments. The way Spock goes on
about Kirk’s “death” and his utter hatred for Omne really gives the vibe of something
else being there. Also, when clone Kirk
wakes up, he sees Omne and thinks he might be in Hell, then turns to see Spock
and decides he might be in Heaven.
Should it be canon: To be honest I am not sure, I
think we need to find out what is the deal with the other Kirk long-term?
Cover Art: On the cover is Mr. Spock standing
sideways with his head turned toward the viewer. Right in front of him and off
the left corner of the viewer’s left is the Romulan Fleet Commander. An image of Captain Kirk is to the right of
the viewer. In the image the Captain
appears unconscious and he is in front of some device that I can’t make out
what it is.
Final Grade: Final Grade 3 of 5
