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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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
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