THE ENTERPRISE, WITH THE KLINGONS AND ROMULANS, ENCOUNTER A MAGIC SPACE GNOME

 

Name: Trek to Madworld

Author: Stephen Goldin

Publication Date: 1/1979

Publisher: Bantam Books

Page Number: 177

Historian’s Note:  Some time in between Turnabout Intruder and More Tribbles, More Trouble

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 Kyle       Lieutenant Ramona Placer          Lieutenant Solari               Lieutenant Leaming           Lieutenant Sydney             Lieutenant Rodrigues           Nurse Christine Chapel          Ensign Pavel Chekov             Ensign Ti-Chen             Captain Kostas Spyroukis                   Metika Spyroukis          Captain Kolvor         Commander Actius Probicol        Lieutenant Marcus Claudius Breccio               Enowil      

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, IKS Destructor, ChR Talon

Planets: Babel, Enowil’s World, Epsilon Delta 4

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The story begins with Captain Kirk being very excited to have the Enterprise transport one of his boyhood heroes, Captain Kostas Spyroukis, back to his present home.  Spyroukis had been an explorer in the early part of the century who found and colonized over thirty worlds.  His final world Epsilon Delta 4 was where he decided to retire to and lead to complete Federation membership.  It was that last point to while he was on his current mission, he wanted his world not to be a colony but a fully functioning member world of the Federation right now.  He and his willful young adult daughter have argued passionately at this year’s Babel Conference.  Only to find themselves turned down flat.

Not a good Babel Conference this year

When the two came aboard Kirk was a bit let down that Captain Spyroukis didn’t want to talk, as he was both disappointed and exhausted.  His beautiful daughter on the other hand was quite willing to talk and went on and one about her position.  Kirk actually agreed with the Federation’s decision as the world was not yet developed enough, but he decides to let it go so he can continue to flirt with his hero’s hot daughter.  The two of them are getting along so well that Kirk gets to the point where he invites the young Metika Spyroukis to his cabin.  However as if he father’s senses that his daughter is about to score with Captain Kirk, he suddenly has a medical emergency and the two would be lovers are both called to sickbay.   

Kirk easily gets long with beautiful women

Captain Spyroukis is dying, but they don’t know what of.  Spock and McCoy team up and determine it is due to long-term exposure to the environment of Epsilon Delta 4.  Metika is okay because she hasn’t been there as long as her father. They, however, are unsure where the final cut off point is.  They send their research to Starfleet who tests and confirms their hypothesis.  Starfleet Command orders the Enterprise to evacuate the planet.   Kirk explains this to Metika who takes the news surprisingly well.  She is disappointed but realistic. A dying Captain Spyroukis confides to Kirk that he knew there was a risk to the settlement, but he was desperate for one last triumph.  He tells his fellow captain that he was always disappointed none of his worlds were ever named in his honor and he just wanted this last victory.  After a brief meeting with his daughter, he passes away.

Since time is of the essence Kirk studies the navigation charts to see if there is any way he can get there faster than the current five-day estimate.  He discovers they are not taking the most direct route to the planetary system.  After talking to Lt. Sulu, the Lieutenant explains that the more direct route has a hazard warning.  The type of hazard warning however is one a Constitution-class heavy cruiser should be able to push off without problem.  Kirk orders them to change course.

Change course

This turns out to be a mistake because they come across an energy bubble in space that is on course to intercept them.  Spock, on the bridge, tries to change course, but the energy bubble follows them.  The energy bubble envelops the Enterprise and power goes off all over the ship.  Despite no gravity and complete darkness Kirk makes his way to the bridge.  Shortly after Kirk arrives the power returns and this allows the Enterprise to explore this new dimension that they are now in.  

Sucked in 

What they quickly find is there are two other ships and neither one is friendly.  One if Klingon and the other is Romulan.  Each ship wonders if one of the other two is responsible for bringing them here.  The Klingon ship tries to fire but finds its weapons are useless here.  It is at this point that Enowil introduces himself.  He looks like a gnome from Earth legends, but he demonstrates abilities that remind the crew of the time they dealt with Trelane.  He can appear and disappear at will, he seems to know everything that is going on, and at one point he makes the walls on the bridge grow ears! (He quickly undoes it.)  Enowil enjoys Mr. Spock’s manner.  He admits that he both knew and disliked Trelane as he feels his parents spoiled him.  He reveals that he is an Organian, however his personality didn’t suit his fellow Organians so he was asked to leave.  He was given his own little dimension to play in.   However, he has a problem.  He doesn’t really know what that is but he would like some help trying to identify and solve it.  Whoever does this will earn a great prize.  Enowil will allow the winner to wish for anything they want and he will grant it with his powers.  His offer is open to all three crews but if they don’t want to participate, they are free to leave, in fact he can get them to where they want to go faster. 

The ship meets an interesting Gnome

Kirk has a meeting with his senior officers, his first instinct is to turn Enowil down.  However, he is afraid of the Klingons or the Romulans winning and being able to wish for anything they want which would put the Federation at a great disadvantage in the future.  Kirk then agrees to participate and organizes a landing party that will include Metika, since her world’s people have the most to lose.  Enowil uses his powers to bring them to his planet.  Its dark and dawn is about to break, when the sun rises it has Spock’s name spelled out on it.  

No friends

Throughout their time on the planet members of the three crews keep trying to guess his problem however Enowil shows the solution every time.  One guesses because his world is bare, then Enowil takes them to a special zoo with neat creatures.  Another guesses he needs a world with intelligent beings in it not just dumb animals.  Enowil shows he has quite a large population on his planet.  Another guess is everyone on the planet just does what he tells them and cannot think for themselves.  Enowil then takes them to a debate center where there are arguments.  McCoy at one-point wonders about sex.  Enowil shows that they have ever type of sex on the planet.

As this continues to go on the Klingon Captain grows tiresome.  He tries to recruit his Romulan counterpart and Kirk into a conspiracy against each other so he can win this by default.  Both turn him down flat.  He does, however, see weakness in Metika.  He uses her concern over her neighbors’ lives to manipulate her into putting a bomb on the Romulan ship.  When she attempts it, she is caught by a Romulan guard, named Breccio, who tries to shoot her, but his weapon fails.  The two of them are transported to Enowil’s world.  They fought for a bit but decided to team up and find a way out.  They go on several adventures, one which involves a pterodactyl.  By the time they make it back to the main group, the Romulan Breccio, even covers for Metkia.  This, however, doesn’t fool his commander and his fate seems sealed.  The Klingons try to put a bomb on the Enterprise but Kirk manages to stop them in time and Enowil saw to it that the bomb wouldn’t work anyway. 

Klingons placing bombs

 Kirk was able to solve the puzzle.  What Enowil needed was third party preceptive.  He needs other people who he didn’t create to appreciate and critique his creation.  Kirk wishes for Enowil to create a new planet named Spyroukis for the colonists from Epsilon Delta 4 to live on healthy and free.  Metkia and Breccio are allowed to stay too, as much as the Romulan Commander hated it.   Later, back on the ship Kirk confesses that faced with the reality of having anything he could want he just said the first thing that came to his mind as opposed to truly thinking about it. For if he thought about it for too long, he didn’t know what he might have wished for.   

Additional thoughts: This was a fun story to read.  It has the right pace, and although short it doesn’t seem rushed. Enowil is such a fun character, I like the Spock immediately makes the Trelane connection.  I also enjoy Enowil response to it.  Enowil origin turned out to be great: an Organian kicked off Organia. It is an impressive creative idea to take the ultrasoft and sensible Organians, but also all-powerful, and create one that is with an over jubilant personality.  He is not mean like other tricksters he just wants some friends.

 There were some technical issues with the book I took notice of.  The book refers to McCoy’s rank as lieutenant commander as it was in the entire classic Star Trek series.  However, in the Animated Series he wore the rank of full commander, and in the book “Vulcan” he is said to have the same rank as Spock and Dr. Tremain.  So, I would guess that means this book would take place before the Animated Series and the earlier book.  Which is fine.  The one thing I didn’t like was when they referred to the Enterprise as a Constellation-class ship, it’s a Constitution-class ship.

Something the early part of this story established is that the Federation has rules and regulations for a reason and that is a good thing.  We begin with the Spyroukis father/daughter duo trying to convince the Federation Council to ignore its standards and give their world, with its only 700 people, full Federation membership.  Then it turns the whole thing is a giant deathtrap and no one can stay there anyway.  Yes, those who write regulations know what they are doing, and I don’t think we should spend much time questioning their wisdom.

I always want to acknowledge when a writer makes a conscious effort for us to get to know members of the Enterprise crew, who aren’t part of the senior staff or bridge crew.  There are supposed to be over 430 crew members, we should see more of them.  Even that small scene we got to see with Lt. Placer as the personnel officer was great.  I also appreciate when the author has the characters refer to their past adventures in the franchise, not only does it reward long-time fans by letting them know you as the author also remember but it would also make more sense, if the crew were real then they should be able to recall past events and make comparisons.

Its good to be remembered

Like in the book “Vulcan” the Romulans are space Romans.  I mean with a name like “Marcus Claudius Breccio,” it just screams Rome.  Also, the Klingons in this book live up to their usual treachery, in the tradition of poison grain in “The Trouble with Tribbles,” this Klingon commander likes to use bombs on his enemy’s engine rooms.  This reminds me of the episode “The Time Trap” where Kor would also try the bomb-in-the-engine-room trap.

While reading the book I kept going back and forth on to imagine the ChR Talon as Romulan Bird of Prey or as a D-7R class.  The reason for this confusion is the book doesn’t clarify what it is, but it does give conflicting details.  They hint that Captain Kolvor knows about the setup of the Romulan ship because they are allies who use the same technology—indicating that it’s a D-7R as the are the same as the K't'inga-class.  However, they also say that the Romulan ship is small and does not have a large crew aboard.  This would seem to indicate that it was the Bird of Prey.  Now I suppose it’s possible the during their alliance Kolor learned some things about the Bird of Prey, but he doesn’t seem to be the person anyone should trust.   

In the end, I must wonder how many more rebel Organians are out there.

Should it be canon: Absolutely, the story is great little addition to Star Trek. Like most episodes it’s self-contained.  Anything you need to know about the story is in the story itself.  Also, everything is resolved in story as well, so it doesn’t affect anything else in the franchise.   

Cover Art: The cover has Kirk, Scotty, and Chekov on the bridge of the Enterprise and they all have a shocked look on their faces.  Kirk is standing in front of his command chair, and Scotty is behind him on the viewer’s right.  Chekov is for some reason sitting at Sulu’s station.  The whole cover is odd because neither Scotty nor Chekov are major characters in this story.  They are there but they are not justified in being featured on the cover. 

Final Grade: Final Grade 5 of 5

 

KIRK AND THE ENTERPRISE CREW FIND A SIMPLE PEOPLE ON A COMPLEX OBJECT

 

Name: The Starless World

Author: Gordon Eklund

Publication Date: 10/1978

Publisher: Bantam Books

Page Number: 152

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 Gregory           Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Lieutenant Nyota Uhura              Lieutenant Kyle                Nurse Christine Chapel          Ensign Pavel Chekov             Crewman Nathan Boggs          Crewman Arthur Kaplan          Crewman Martin      Thomas Clayton          Alhamisi Uhura       Princess Kyanna                Captain Kree         unnamed Klingon Officer   Ola                 Domo       Ay-nab

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, unnamed Klingon K't'inga-class battle cruiser, unnamed Starfleet Shuttlecraft, Lyra

Planets: None

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise is off exploring a new region of space.  No planets in this area, just some interesting stars.  The entire crew, including the Captain, is enjoying some time working on personal hobbies.  Then they find something strange, Spock reports to Kirk that they have come across a Starfleet shuttlecraft whose sole occupant claims to be Jesus Christ.  The shuttlecraft itself is from the USS Rickover, a ship that has been missing for thirty years.  When they bring the shuttlecraft onboard, they discover that “Jesus Christ” is in fact Thomas Clayton, a former Starfleet cadet.  He had been expelled from the Academy when his roommate, Jim Kirk, turned him in for cheating.  He then when into the merchant service where he enjoyed a lot of success, until he disappeared.  Now here he was saying the was the messiah and they all have to try to escape the wrath of a vengeful god.

Lost little shuttlecraft

As the Enterprise proceeds, they come across something that they never thought they would see: a Dyson’s Sphere.  It is basically a large megastructure built around a star, using most of the star’s energy to power itself.  Fascination soon turns to fear as they are pulled into the structure by a powerful and all of their navigation and weapons systems are all off-line.  Inside the sphere they discover that there exists a habitable world and a Klingon battlecruiser.  When they try to communicate with the Klingons all they get is a young officer, who is clearly not the captain, who proceeds to threaten Kirk and the Enterprise.   It is clear from his blundering that his ship is just as trapped, and he has no idea where his commanding officer is making Kirk suspect that he is on the planet.  Clayton escapes from sickbay and ends up on the bridge and seems to worship the Dyson’s Sphere before being taken into custody again.    

a nut

Kirk arranges of landing party of himself, Nurse Chapel, Lt. Uhura, Lt. Sulu, and a few red shirts to die in case things go wrong.  They beam down to the planet and begin exploring its rather pleasant environment.  Then a large predator shows up not only to threaten them—as their phasers don’t work down here—but also some local natives.  A small group of humanoids that scatter upon the predator’s appearance, leave only one young one who fell to face the creature.  However, Kirk chases the thing away and the native, who announces her name as Ola, is very pleased to be saved and is grateful to now have a strong husband in Captain Kirk.  Not familiar with local customs, Kirk nevertheless convinces Ola that he is not her husband, but they could instead be very good friends.  Although a bit disappointed she takes the landing party to her village and introduces them to the elder who is known as the Domo.  Domo seem to be a type of priest who is responsible for overseeing the worship of Ay-nab, their god.  Kirk decides to return to his original plan of talking to the Klingons and proceeds to go to where the tricorder tells him they are.

He meets the Klingon commander, Captain Kree, who immediately comes off as the friendliest Klingon that the crew has ever met.  With the Captain is a female Klingon who Kree introduces as Princess Kyanna, the rightful heir to the Klingon Empire who has been usurped by her uncle.  Kree led his ship to rebellion trying to put the Princess on the throne.  The Klingons believe that there is advanced weaponry to be found on this artificial world.  They don’t believe Ola’s people to be the dominant race and think there is another more intelligent species of Lyrians who have produced such weapons.  Ola thinks the weapons that the Klingons have found are just their sacred relics.  What the Klingons seek is to find the other species on this world.  Given that Starfleet sensory technology is superior to the Klingons, Kree thinks the Enterprise would have an easier time spotting these mystery beings than their own ship.  If Kirk is willing to cooperate, then Kree will share whatever weapons are found with him.  Ola wants to go as it is dangerous to be out at night.  Kirk tells Kree he will think about it but heads back to the huts prepared for the landing party by the Demo.  Ola asks to stay with the Captain in the hut he shares with some of the landing party.

Some Klingons are not so mean

Up on the Enterprise Thomas Clayton receives commands from Ay-nab and decides he must go back to the surface.  He steals a phaser and uses it to kidnap Dr. McCoy and Spock.  When they beam down, they are attacked by a “stranger,” one of the creatures that roam around in this world’s night.  Interestingly the phaser can work when Clayton is using it.  However, in the confusion Spock is able to nerve pinch Clayton.  They are able to take both Clayton and the stranger hostage and rendezvous with Kirk and the landing party.  It appears the “stranger” is dressed in an old Starfleet uniform, with the rank of commander, and his ship insignia is the Rickover’s.  Kirk tried to communicate with him, but the former officer is incoherent.

At this point they notice that Lt. Uhura is missing, and it turns out her father is on this world—or something that claims to be her father—and is now a “stranger” and her lures Uhura away from their huts and brings her with him to wear the strangers hang out.  Kirk goes to talk with the Demo and asks where he can find Uhura.  The Demo won’t tell him.  Kirk informs the Demo that the Enterprise has confirmed that their world is on track to crash into a black hole.  The Demo is upset by this and wishes to communicate with Ay-Nab.  Ola tells Kirk she knows where the strangers go, and Kirk allows her to lead him which allows him to rescue the Lieutenant. Ola is concerned Uhura is now a stranger, but Kirk brings her back anyway.

At this point the Demo is done communicating with Ay-Nab and is in a depressive state because his people are all going to die.  Kirk offers to bring him on his ship, but he needs to communicate with Ay-Nab too.  Ola once again steps up where Demo won’t and teaches Kirk the meditation technique to communicate with Ay-Nab.

Kirk and Ay-Nab have a discussion in which Ay-Nab explains that his people almost destroyed themselves with nuclear weapons, rebuilt, and repeated.  That this Dyson’s Sphere was constructed to give his people a new world with the understanding that he, Ay-Nab the sun, would be able to choose their end.  His choice was to fly toward a black hole.  Kirk explains to Ay-Nab that his world view is completely stupid and proceeds to outwit Ay-Nab and convinces him to let them all go.  The Enterprise, the Klingons, and Ola too.   Kirk and Spock finish the story with a conversation about the nature of Ay-Nab.   

Additional thoughts: Overall I thought this was a great book.  It reminds me a little bit of the classic episode “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky.”  In both cases you have a population that is living in a moving space vehicle that is on a collision course with another space object, so everyone is going to die unless they leave or do something to alter its path, but the people have been convinced a machine is their god and it won’t acknowledge that there is even a problem.  Granted there are important differences.  Lyra was much larger than Yonada physically, but Lyra had a much smaller population.  Kirk, unlike McCoy, didn’t fall in love with the native girl and planned to live out the rest of his life with her.  In addition to that no one from the Enterprise is dying of a strange disease this time. Also, in this story the crew has to deal with the double threat of the Klingons.

Not the first people to worship a computer

One of the elements that makes this book work so well is the author having a strong understanding of who all these characters are and what makes them tick.  Not all Star Trek books can do this.  While reading I felt as if I was watching the original cast on screen.  I appreciated the elements of side humor as well, such as the rant about a needle in a haystack.  Another part about what makes this book good is you don’t have to be familiar with Star Trek in order to enjoy it.  If this was your first experience in the franchise, you would not feel lost as everything you need to know is quickly and easily explained.

So, what is up with Kirk’s old classmates who wash out at the Academy, join the merchant service, make millions, get lost, lose their minds almost totally, and they try to capture Kirk and the Enterprise crew?  In both cases they both end up dead in the end, although Clayton here was dead from the beginning, because according to Ay-Nab all the strangers were walking dead but they didn’t always realize it.  

You can't trust Kirk's old classmate

When Spock and Kirk discussed the nature of Ay-Nab it was a moment of pride for me. I had thought throughout the story the Ay-Nab was some kind of artificial intelligence and not some deity or a sentient sun.  So, when Spock proclaims this belief as well, I felt good to have come to the same conclusion as Mr. Spock.  The only problem that when Spock explained how Ay-Nab could communicate telepathically and told Kirk he received a message from the self-proclaimed god that he and his children were fine.  As soon as he said that I felt disappointment, because I was sure this was another case of Kirk talked the AI into killing itself again.  He let the Enterprise, the Klingons, and the locals go and flew into the black hole to die.  However, by suggesting that he kept his people and survived as if black holes are just gateways to other universes, and that Ay-Nab has survived than Kirk didn’t talk him to death did he?  Now granted maybe Ay-Nub just wanted to give Kirk a comforting message prior to his death.  Yeah, that’s go with that.

So, the old ship was the USS Rickover?  As in Hyman G. Rickover, the father of the nuclear navy?  I can see him having a ship named after him, what I find odd is when this book was published, he was still actively serving and would still for another four years.

So, is Ola now the last of her kind?  I didn’t hear of any of her people escaping Lyra so she may be headed for a lonely future.  Then granted the Federation is a wonderous place it is possible that she might find that husband she was always looking for.  I hope so for her Ola was a very nice young lady.

Should it be canon: Maybe, just maybe.  Everything else is perfect but one little thing. This isn’t the author’s fault either as Star Trek hadn’t explored the inner working of the Klingon Empire yet.  (This is one of those rare exceptions where I talk about later elements of Star Trek, which I mostly refuse to do.) However, we know the Klingons do not have an emperor at this time period, and the chancellorship is not decided by hereditary rights.  It is selected by the High Council.  Yet, the other elements of Star Trek contain non canonical elements yet the episode itself is canon.  (James R. Kirk, Romulans not having Warp Drive, etc.)  In addition, Kirk himself is left uncertain about the validity of the “Princess’s” claim.  Kirk mentions that most of Starfleet doesn’t really understand internal Klingon politics that well.  It is possible that the entire story was a ruse to gain Kirk’s sympathy and trust. So, let’s call this one a maybe. 

Cover Art: Captain Kirk is on the front of the cover with two Klingons aiming disruptors at him.  The Klingon closest to him looks angry.  There is a town of huts in the background, the sky is red and there is fog on the ground.  The cover is somewhat misleading as Captain Kree was rather quite courteous with him the moments they were together. 

Final Grade: Final Grade 5 of 5