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.
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| 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 21st 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.
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| 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.
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| 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 end story never actually happened except in the minds of Kirk
and Spock I don’t have an objection to it being cannon.
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
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