THE ENTERPRISE VISITS A WORLD WHERE EVERYONE LOOKS LIKE THE DEVIL

 

Name: Devil World

Author: Gordon Eklund

Publication Date: 11/1979

Publisher: Bantam Books

Page Number: 153

Historian’s Note:  Some time before The Magicks of Megas-tu

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                Lieutenant Radly Marcus             Nurse Christine Chapel          Ensign Pavel Chekov             Crewman Albert Schang          Crewman Doyle                      Crewman Mosley              Commodore Wilhelm Schang           Gilla Dupree        Dr. Faustus                Captain Jacob Kell         Dazi       Reni Bates                Many unnamed Danons

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Starbase 13

Planets:  Heartland

My Spoiler filled summary and review: Decades before the Enterprise’s famous five-year mission, a Lt. Marcus was leading a landing party to aid the colonists of the planet Heartland.  Yet, when they arrived, the landing party discovered that all the colonists had gone hopelessly insane. 

In the present time, the crew of the Enterprise is enjoying some well-earned shore leave on Starbase 13. Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy are all enjoying a magic show performed by a Dr. Faustus.  Dr. McCoy is annoyed with Spock ruining all the illusions by logically explaining each time how they were done. Then the show gets weird, when Faustus decides to summon demons to his show.  Ugly demons start appearing left and right.  They don’t seem to hurt anybody, but they are ugly and that bothers McCoy.  Then a woman shows up wearing a mask like it is 2020 outside, and faints.  Everyone forgets about the demons, and they focus on helping the woman.

The lady's health is our primary concern

When they get her to the station’s sickbay, McCoy gets her stable and awake.  The woman is named Gilla Dupree.  Dupree is a religious nut whose weird dieting restrictions threaten her health, but she doesn’t care because she is only concerned for her next life in the reincarnation cycle.  For a religious nut, she is aware her views aren’t “sensible” and is oddly philosophical about it. She also is a famous artist with both Kirk and Spock being amongst her legions of fans.  Dupree is looking for Captain Kirk to help her find her missing father.

Kirk goes to talk with the Starbase 13 commander, Commodore Wilhelm Schang, who happens to have been Kirk’s former boss.  Kirk explains that situation about the famous artist, her father and this forbidden planet she wants to visit in order to find him.  Schang explains that her father is the infamous former Starfleet officer, Captain Joseph Kell.  Kell left Starfleet and went to live with the Klingons.  Kirk referred to him as “Kell the traitor.”  Schang says there is no evidence he ever gave them Starfleet secrets, so he was more of turncoat than outright traitor. Kirk is still committed to find him, and also investigate if the planet should still be under quarantine.  The quarantined planet, Heartland, has a native species known as the Danons.  At their prime the Danons once ruled half the galaxy and even visited Earth.  However, their star-spanned civilization declined and all that remained were a few hundred, all living in a single village.  They gave the Federation permission to set up the colony so there would be other intelligent life on the planet.  

Please make my son not so useless

Schang has one final request.  He confesses to Kirk that he is a deadbeat dad.  He never saw his son, Albert, while he was growing up and as a result, Albert is now useless.  He pulled strings to get his son into Starfleet Academy, however being useless and lazy he washes out after the first year and sent into the fleet as a mere crewman.  He wants Kirk to take him under his wing as his captain’s steward and make him less useless.  Kirk reluctantly agrees, and part of the comic relief of the rest of the book is Crewman Schang being annoying and whiney, while making a mess of his job.

So, the Enterprise takes off for its mission with an artistic religious nut and a useless Academy washout.  When they arrive, they try to make contact with the planet hoping Kell may still have some communication equipment with him.  They make contact but not with Kell, it turns out one of the original colonists managed to retain his sanity and was not picked up by Starfleet when it sent a ship here decades ago.  Kirk decides to lead a landing party and agrees, with some reluctancy, to take both Depree and Schang with him.  They beam down and meet up with the survivor, who is named Reni Bates.  The name matches the one Spock had found amongst the colonists missing after the rescue.  Bates claims to have seen Kell, and that the Danons cannot be trusted.  Bates is willing to take them to the Danons, if Kirk agrees not to believe anything that the Danons tell him.  Kirk humors him and they head on their way.

Trust only me!

  As they approach the Danon village Bates makes himself scarce.  The Danons all look like depictions of the devil in Earth’s Christianity.  They encounter Kell, who is a jerk and won’t give them or his daughter the time of day.  The Danon leader, Dazi, seems more friendly and even arranges a place for them to sleep during the night. Kirk and Dupree have a heart to heart.  Dupree is concerned for her father and Kirk is now in love with Dupree.  (I swear the only thing a beautiful female guest star needs to do is breathe and Kirk falls head over heels for them.) Spock also reports to Kirk that he can sense a disembodied presence, but he is unsure of its nature.

Dazi stops by to make sure they are doing okay and even enjoys a game of poker with the security personnel.  At one-point Dazi whispers something to Crewman Doyle.  The next morning Doyle is missing.  They later find him completely naked, and his memory totally wiped.  The once Starfleet Security Crewman has been reduced to a mental state of infancy.  They send him back to the ship.  Kirk goes to confront Kell and informs him that they are all leaving him included.  Dell doesn’t seem convinced.  Kirk leaves Dell’s hut with him and the landing party is surrounded by Danons.  They try to beam up only to discover that the Danons are blocking the transporter signal.

Spock decides to try to make mental contact with the presence.  The presence overwhelms Spock and for a moment Spock seems to have lost his mind.  McCoy confirms this is only temporary, but he needs to get him back to the ship.  The Danons allow this.

At this point Bates reappears.  He tells Captain Kirk the story of Danons.  He explains that their reign as a great galactic power ended when they crossed swords with a species called the Torgas.  The Torgas stripped them of their empire, forcing the Danons to retreat to just their homeworld, Heartland.  In their defense they built The Great Machine.  The GM had all Danon knowledge, and the late Danons had their consciousness to be absorbed by it.  It drove back their enemies, and the Danons became to worship their creation as a god.  They would even sacrifice most of the children to it leading to a decline in population.  Eventually all the young were sent to it which is why there are only a few hundred left. The GM then suddenly needed more people and asked the Federation to set up a colony but when it tried to merge the humans to the GM’s collective consciousness it caused the humans to go insane. Kell is the only human who hasn’t so the GM has chosen him to represent it to the larger universe.  Kirk has Bates tell the story to the rest of the landing party and shortly after hearing it Depree went missing.

reminds you of the devil

Kirk goes looking for Depree only to discover that she has contacted the GM and asked to take her father’s place.  As she is younger and far more durable the GM agrees to cut ties with Kell.  Kirk tries to get her out of there, but a Danons overwhelm him.  Kirk is danger of being killed by the swarm of demon-looking people until he is saved by the no longer useless Crewman Schang.

Later, on the bridge of the Enterprise, Kirk is upset about the loss of Dupree.  Everyone else got out and back to the ship, including Kell and Bates.  McCoy lets Kirk know that he shouldn’t be so upset, because it will be Dupree who gets the last laugh.  It turns out she was terminally ill the whole time.  She wanted to find her father to say “goodbye.”  When she saw he had been turned into the agent of the GM, she volunteered to take his place knowing she would be dead in a month.  With her gone the GM will no longer have a human to reach out with and will cease once the last of the Danons die.   

Additional thoughts: The story is a fine tale with clear beginning, middle, and end.  The main problem I have with it is the side stories are more interesting than the main event.  Danons, one of the great spacefaring species that ruled the galaxy long before the present powers did.  They are like the Preservers or the Slavers.  The only difference between those other two is there are still some left.  A species that once numbered in the trillions is now reduced to a hundred living in a small village.  What is it like to be them?  What goes through one’s mind when they see their kind heading into extinction while other species are rising and thriving?  Now we have this problem with the episodes too, but the difference is they are limited by budget, books are not. 

There are also things introduced with no payoff.  We have the magician summing demons in the beginning, could they have been related to the Danons?  Nothing comes of it.  We learn that the Danons may be the reason humans came up with the Devil, despite sort of already meeting the devil.  The Devil is known to make deals for people’s souls. Could the Great Machine be responsible for that?  Could that explain what happened to Doyle?  None of this is ever explored.  

In reviewing Eklund’s other book I praised the author for having a strong understanding of the characters.  He seems to have forgotten a lot of what he knows in this book.  Starfleet doesn’t salute and never has, yet in this story Kirk keeps insisting on being saluted.  He has never done this in the past. When Commodore Schang is about to load his son onto Kirk.  Kirk says he doesn’t use servants.  Tell that to all the various yeomen, who get his coffee, clean his clothes, makes his meals etc.  Kirk complains they keep assigning him women and they get themselves confused for being his wife.  Often says he wants a male yeoman who wouldn’t be mistaking for a spouse.  Kirk’s only concern should be Crewman Schang’s incompetence.  Kirk makes a joke about going down with the ship and Scotty responds the Enterprise isn’t a ship. Since when?  They always refer to the Enterprise as a ship.

Kirk "I don't have servants!" 

In the end why didn’t Kirk talk the Great Machine into suicide like he normally does, or at the very least blow it apart with the Enterprise’s phasers?  I don’t care about the Prime Directive; Kirk has violated it for less.  Bates makes it very clear that the GM is responsible for the almost extinction of the Danons.  If Kirk ignored the Prime Directive under the justification that the local people aren’t evolving when they are being ruled by a computer, but when a local people is being exterminated by said computer why would he hesitate?  Bates himself uses the word genocide to describe what was happening.  He was probably hoping Kirk would act on his reputation.

This is a ship!

The only thing I thought was right was Kirk following hopelessly in love again.  This time for Dupree.   However, it turns out she is going to be one of those doomed loves of his.  Loving Captain Kirk can often be fatal.  It isn’t guaranteed to happen, but it must be a concern.  The book also did right by Captain Jacob Kell, as we seen with both Matt Decker and Ronald Tracey, a starship captain’s sanity cannot survive the loss of his or her crew. Kell’s loss of sanity was not as extreme as the other two, he just decided to live with the Klingons and then turn his mind over to a great computer.  Speaking of the Klingons, despite their constant mention they never show up in the story.

Why not blast it with phasers?

Given her experience with mind wipes, I wonder if Lt. Uhura could possibly help poor Crewman Doyle regain his lost mind.  After her experience with Nomad, I think she would be the best to help him find his way out of the tunnel.

In the end, we got a Star Trek story that was good but not particularly great.    

Should it be canon: Sure, I have a lot of issues with the characterization.  However, that is also true of many episodes such as “The Paradise Syndrome” and “Turnabout Intruder.”

Cover Art: The cover art is a bit of a lie and a spoiler.  It has Gilla Dupree in the center, sitting on a throne, all dressed up.  It hints of her ascension in the end where there is not a lot of foreshadowing to it in the story. She is flanked by Kirk and Sulu.  Kirk makes since but Sulu a very bit role in the story so featuring him on the cover is the lie. Behind them are some huts, so that part is honest.

Final Grade: Final Grade 3 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