MORE PROBLEMS ON SHERMAN’S PLANET

 

Name: Pawns and Symbols

Author: Majliss Larson

Publication Date: 11/1985

Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #26)

Page Number: 277

Historian’s Note: Sometime between Turnabout Intruder and More Tribbles More Troubles

Cast of Characters:  Captain James T. Kirk       Commander Spock              Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”       Lieutenant Commander Barry Giotto                     Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu              Lieutenant Nyota Uhura            Lieutenant John Kyle     Lieutenant Kevin Riley         Lieutenant Daniel Alden                   Lieutenant Jerry Freeman               Lieutenant William “Bill” Hadley                Lieutenant Ross Johnson            Nurse Christine Chapel          Ensign Pavel Chekov                 Yeoman First  Class Keiko Tamura             Crewman Sanders          Crewman Banerjee        Crewman Juliette            Lieutenant Jean Czerny                      Commander Kang               Dr. Aernath                     Aethelnor      Ahmad            Eknaar              Ekthorn            Maevlynin        Tirax        Willinck         Lieutenant Reena Tertullian           

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Starbase 10, IKS Devisor, IKS Kahless, IKS Klolode II, two unnamed Klingon battlecruisers, one unnamed Romulan ship

Planets: Sherman’s Planet

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The story begins with right after a Federation outpost on Sherman's planet is devastated by an earthquake. Jean Czerny, a Starfleet officer and researcher, is trying to do math in her head to see if she will still be alive by the time the Enterprise is scheduled to arrive. She is rescued but not by the people she was expecting.  She has been saved by a Klingon ship commanded by Commander Kang.  Kang is friendly at first but soon he learns that she was on the team that developed a new strain of quadrotriticale.  He wants her to share this with him, but she refuses.  The Enterprise arrives demanding her return. Kang invokes an obscure Klingon tradition whereby, having saved her life, she and her property belong to him and refuses to hand her over.  With other Klingon ships on their way Kirk orders a retreat for now.

Kang

Czerny refuses to co-operate and Kang orders her not to be fed.  Dr. Aernath, a Klingon she has befriended, gives her food.  For this Kang orders him to die, but Czerny says she will now cooperate. They arrive in the Klingon homeworld and there Czerny learns that the Klingons are beset by famine. Czerny expresses to Kang that he should have started with that and is now more than willingly to help to counter it.

Later Kang seems to try to rape Czerny, but Aernath informs her that is trying to take her as one of his consorts to give her protection in the Empire. Kang we learn is the heir apparent to the imperial throne that is his right as the Emperor’s sister’s son.  He is allowed to have as many as he wants but we also learn Mara left him on returning from the Enterprise with pro-Federation sympathies.

            While this is all going on the Enterprise finds an abandoned Romulan ship.  They trace the escape pod to a local planet where they Reena Tertullian, the only Romulan survivor.  Thinking they are who attacked her, she panics and fires a missile that attaches to the ship with a timer that will destroy the ship the moment she tries to leave.  Reena comes to like and respect humans and even forms a relationship with Chekov and decides to defuse the weapon.  She decides to return to her own people but asks the crew to make it look as though she was tortured so she won’t be executed.

Romulan ship dead in the water

Aernath tricks Kang's crew and forcibly takes Czerny to Mara.  They are attempting to arrange a peace between the Federation and the Klingons.  She has secretly born Kang's son, Aethelnor, who is due to inherit a powerful position from her brother, putting Kang in a very strong political position.  She wants Czerny and Aernath to take him into Federation space so Kang will have to follow and negotiate with Kirk.

Kang and Mara

They meet with a Romulan who turns out to be Mr. Spock.  Spock with help from Cyrano Jones, who needs to work off his debt for the tribble incident, gets Aernath and Aethelnor off the planet.  During the transfer Czerny is captured and left behind.  Spock using a mental link makes it so she can’t be interrogated or tortured. On the ship Aernath gets in trouble for entering the dilitheium chamber bit he is exonerated when it turns out Klingons can’t see the color red.

They agree to meet

Czerny is returned to Kang, and she gets him to agree to meet Kirk, with Mara and herself at his side. At the meeting a number of settlements are reached to prevent a war. It is agreed that the Federation and the Klingons will both establish presences on Sherman's planet, with Czerny and Aernath remaining there to work on the quadrotriticale strain.  Czerny is granted a sort of divorce from Kang where she is no longer his consort but is still part of his family.  Kang has also established a relationship with his son.

Additional thoughts: This story had a lot of ups and downs.  It started strong, then fell off in the middle but ended well.  The author almost falls into the trap of being so focused on her own characters that she forgets it’s supposed to be a Star Trek story.  I did like that the Klingons had a problem that they could completely solve if they just were less mistrusting of the Federation. I did find the whole Romulan rescue sub-plot to be interesting but also pointless to the overall story.

I didn’t care for the idea of Kang being the heir to the Empire, it seems to me he would have more than one ship and not sent to the frontiers of space if that were the case.  The patriarchal but matrilineal succession to be interesting but would later be contradicted by later stories about Klingons.  I also feel the same way about the colorblind issue or not really color blind more like color difference since they can see ultra-violet. 

Should it be canon: There are some parts that can’t be: Klingon succession laws and eyesight limitations are later contradicted by other stories. Some elements of it could be made canon, such as the famine and Czerny’s intervention.

Cover Art: A person who I assume is Czerny is walking along a checkered floor.  There is some wheat growing in one of the squares.  The Enterprise is flouting above the floor.  Kirk and Kangs heads are up in the sky with Kang facing directly at Kirk and away from the viewer.

Final Grade: Final Grade 3 of 5

 

KIRK AND MOST OF HIS CREW SWITCH GENDERS

 

Name: Star Trek: The New Voyages 2 – Story 7 “The Procrustean Petard”

Author: Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath

Publication Date: 1/1978

Publisher: Bantam Books

Page Number: 45

Historian’s Note: Clearly sometime after Turnabout Intruder    

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          Nurse Christine Chapel          Ensign Pavel Chekov      Ensign Ann Aronsen   Crewman Laura Breen      Crewman Brad Collins               Crewman Adams          Admiral Komack         Ambassador Tregarth         Kang

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, unnamed Klingon K't'inga-class battle cruiser, Starbase 11

Planets: Unnamed gender-changing planet

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The adventure begins with a landing party consisting of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, and some security personnel.  They are running around an ancient city in ruins on a planet that was seemingly abandoned. Then they are all knocked out by some energy field.  Kirk wakes up first and finds himself turned into a woman. He has not been put into a woman’s body; his body has been transformed into a woman as if that was what he has always been. 

We always know landing parties are risky but not this much!

                It is not just the good Captain either.  McCoy is now also female, and like Kirk he is too is rated “hot” on the attractive scale.  Uhura is now a man.  The only difference is Spock who has remained his normal male self. If this were their only problem that would be great but it appears they are trapped, not the landing party, the entire starship Enterprise is trapped in orbit.   Nevertheless, they are able to go back to the ship easy enough.

                On the Enterprise, Kirk is having the hardest time dealing with his transformation.  Dr. McCoy thinks he will be fine as a woman as a doctor’s duty doesn’t change much.  However, now that he is a meek female, he is finding it difficult to command the respect from his crew that he was used too. Both Spock and McCoy doubt his ability to continue in such a state, but Kirk is determined to beat the odds.

                Spock surmises that this was a recreation planet like in “Shore Leave.” These aliens just had a very odd form of entertainment. While investigating the planet trying to find some way to reverse the procedure Kirk and the landing party run into their old adversary and later reluctant ally, the Klingon Commander Kang.  Kang torments the Captain by referring to him as “Miss Kirk” taking credit for their condition.  Uhura also discovers that several of the crew have gone missing.  These crewmembers are all found gender swapped as well.

From adversary to ally once again!

                Considering they had parted on good terms in “Day of the Dove,” Kirk is not only wondering how Kang had changed them but why.  Kirk gets an unexpected answer, he hasn’t.  Once again Kang and his crew are captured by the same thing that has captured the Enterprise.  It turns out after their last encounter Kang’s wife and science officer, Mara, has left him and joined a peace faction political group of the Klingon Empire.  Kang was so hurt he made sure that his next crew was all male.  Then they got caught in the force field of this planet and group by group his entire crew was transformed into females, with only Kang himself spared.  His crew was so embarrassed and ashamed that they went into hiding rather than face the crew of the Enterprise.  

                Scotty, being the miracle worker that he is, finds a way to break the Enterprise and the Klingon ship free.  Once this is accomplished the two ships head to Starbase 11 to see if there was any way to change the crews back to the way they were.  The two gender changed crews have no way of physically distinguishing themselves between those who had their gender naturally by biology.  Spock and Kang were changed just less so then the others.  They had an extra-Y chromosome making them hyper aggressive.  However, as a Klingon that helped Kang and Spock was able to use his Vulcan discipline to control it.

Mr. Spock always in control even when he gets an extra Y and Kirk becomes a lady!

                Once someone had their gender changed the planet would not change them back even if their ship beamed them down their directly.  Kirk has an idea.  He doesn’t think the planet has a way to tell if a ship that entered orbit was a ship that had returned or not.  So, they should just go back to the planet with only those who changed aboard and the planet should change them back.  There is an issue of the unchanged male.  They theorize that Spock and Kang weren’t changed because they are the strongest on their respective ship.  If they were to go back, they may acquire a third Y-chromosome.  Spock thinks the risk is acceptable but Breen, one of the females turned male, who is now the physically strongest of all of those who changed volunteers to remain male.  Breen rather likes being male so she doesn’t consider it a sacrifice.  Collins also chooses to stay female.  The plan works and everyone is back to the way they want to be.  Kirk speculates that they will have to come back to the planet to figure out a way to develop countermeasures and warn other ships.   

Additional thoughts: Well, so where do we start?  Before I begin with any critiquing, I want to talk about what I like about the story. First, I do like the concept.  Star Trek often likes to work with metaphor through science fiction and exploring the social and physical differences between the sexes is clearly with in their mandate to tell a story about. One of the reasons they thought the planet might have been recreational is because as McCoy points out, as long as its temporary, who wouldn’t want to explore how the other side lives.  It is interesting not too long ago there was this gender swap app making its way through social media. Everyone was looking to see their favorite celebrities as the opposite gender.  William Shatner himself, sharing an image of lady Captain Kirk even said, “I would do me.”

Image all over the Internet and very fit for this story!

                Some of the things I enjoyed the most were as follows.  Captain Kirk waking up in a female body and instantly recognizing that he was in a female body without even looking down was great.  Since this happened in “Turnabout Intruder” he should already be aware of the sensation.  I really enjoyed the use of the chess code trick that Kirk and Scotty use first in “Whom Gods Destroy.”  I like that Kirk was confused as to why Kang would even want to something like this to him, considering how they were helpful to each other in their original encounter.  I also thought it was hilarious that both he and McCoy were “hot” as women.  Because why not?

                Speaking of Kang, there comes a rather weird point in this story (Yeah, I know everything about this story is weird.  We’re speaking relatively.) where it seems that Kang and Lady Kirk almost hook up.  Fortunately, Spock shows up before anything can happen.  It is actually interesting that their sexual orientation changed (or did it remain the same) along with their physical bodies. If Kirk were a heterosexual woman hooking up with Kang would clearly be within the norms of Captain Kirk behaviors.

                I also thought Kirk’s grand plan had a few holes in it. He comes to the conclusion that the Enterprise is the only ship that ever managed to escape from there.  They didn’t encounter any other stuck ships while they were in there, unlike the episode “The Time Trap.” So how can come to that conclusion?  He then adds “or at least never came back.” (p.188) Again, how could be possibly know?  This seem to me to be one hell of a guess.  It turns out to be right but that is do more to the strength of plot armor than anything else.

                By far the worst part of this book is how it incorporated the worst part of “Turnabout Intruder.” Of course, I am referencing the highly institutional sexist Starfleet that won’t allow women to be captains. To be fair the story makes it clear that the prohibition is not actually law.  Kirk says in protest, when it is suggested, he can no longer command since he has a woman’s body, “No law that says I can’t. Law says I can.” (p.160) However despite the law the story made it clear that women rarely make the rank of captain and if they do, they are mostly given desk jobs.  Now in fairness to the authors the next few decades of Star Trek hadn’t happened yet.  So, they are only building off of the material they have.  But to me “Turnabout Intruder” should have been treated as the anomaly considering it completely contradicted what had come before. I find it absurd as it has been established in “The Cage” and confirmed in “The Menagerie” both parts one and two, that the Enterprise once had a woman as the First Officer. If you can be first officer it’s absurd to say you can’t be captain, as one of the first officer’s roles is to be the back-up captain.

                When you come down to it the story is a rather pessimistic view of the struggle for women’s equality.  That in the 23^rd century women are still struggling to get a seat at the table.  At one point Kirk’s internal monologue even suggests he might consider becoming a women’s liberation advocate now that he is a woman, joking to himself that he would be the movement’s strangest champion.

                The thing is much like “Turnabout Intruder” the whole “sexist Starfleet’ isn’t even necessary for the story.  Janice Lester can still be a jealous former lover who covets what her ex-boyfriend has, and is so mentally unstable that she is willing to for him to swap bodies to do it.  In this story it is suggested that since Kirk did not grow up and did not come up the ranks as a woman, he isn’t adjusted well enough in this body to operate in his normal capacity.  I imagine if I woke up in a different body overnight, I might have trouble adapting as well.  

Should it be canon: No.  It is a fun story. However, given the extremely sexist and patriarchal way Starfleet and the Federation are depicted, it flies in the face of the rest of the franchise that has developed over the last six decades.    

Cover Art: As I stated in the volume's first story:

The cover has the Enterprise flying in front of what appears to be a wrecked space station.  Both appear to be in orbit around a planet that you can see part of in the corner.  There is this red haze that surrounds everything.

Final Grade: Final Grade 4 of 5

 

FIGHTING KLINGONS WITH SWORDS

 

Episode Title:  Day of the Dove

Air Date: 11/1/1968

Written by Jerome Bixby

Directed by Marvin J. Chomsky

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Frank da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent     Roger Holloway as Lieutenant Lemli   David L. Ross as Lt. Johnson         Walter Koenig as Ensign Pavel Chekov                 Dick Geary as unnamed Security Guard         Eddie Hice as unnamed Security Guard        David Sharpe as unnamed Security Guard          Michael Ansara as Kang      Susan Howard as Mara          Mark Tobin as unnamed         Klingon solider          Phil Adams as unnamed Klingon solider             Albert Cavens as unnamed Klingon solider           Jay D. Jones as unnamed Klingon solider               Pete Kellett as unnamed Klingon solider         Hubie Kerns as unnamed Klingon solider          Victor Paul  as unnamed Klingon solider               Charlie Picerni as unnamed Klingon solider     George Sawaya  as unnamed Klingon solider       

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, unnamed Klingon K't'inga-class battle cruiser

Planets:  Beta XII-A

My Spoiler filled summary and review: Arriving at a Federation colony on Beta XII-A, Captain Kirk and his landing party are horrified to discover that the colony has been wiped out of existence.  The destruction was so through that there is now no evidence of there ever being a colony.  Kirk takes his communicator and contacts Spock on the Enterprise to report what they found.   Spock also has something to tell the Captain: a Klingon ship has entered orbit. 

Klingons vs. Starfleet

The Enterprise has it shields raised but the Klingon ship does not seem prepared for battle.  According to the Enterprise’s sensors there are numerus malfunctions all over the Klingon ship.  A Klingon landing party beams down armed with disruptors and overwhelms the Starfleet landing party.  The leader of the Klingons is the ship’s captain, Kang.  Kang and Kirk each accuse each other of attacking the other one.  Both think the other is lying.  Kang demands the Enterprise as payment for his lost vessel. If Kirk doesn’t hand it over, he will begin torturing the landing party’s members to death.  Chekov then attacks the Klingons because they killed his brother in an earlier attack some years ago.  The Klingons easily contain him and Chekov is the first “volunteer” for torture. 

Scotty finding some weapons!

In order to save Chekov, Kirk agrees to surrender.  However, when communicating with Spock he transmits a secret code that lets Spock know they are prisoners of their “guests.”  When Scotty beams them up only the Starfleet personnel re-materialize.  Mr. Scott has the Klingons patterns in the buffer.  Kirk has the security team come in and when the Klingons are solid again, they are quickly arrested.  The Klingon ship is falling apart, Kirk has the survivors transported on the Enterprise and captured.  Among them is Mara, Kang’s science officer and wife.  With the Klingon ship leaking radiation, Kirk has it destroyed.

In short order however the Enterprise begins to experience its own problems.  The ship starts to veer off course and speed up.  Making matters worse sections of the ship get sealed off giving only forty crew members with access to the entire ship.  Kirk suspects the Klingons are somehow behind this and goes and confronts Kang.  Kang denies the charges but he is amused however.  The two captain’s argument turns physical when Kirk socks Kang for doing the same on the planet.  Then swords appear everywhere and even the Enterprise crew’s phasers turn into swords.  A great battle then erupts across the starship.

Klingons brought over from their ship!

             

Kirk confers with Spock.  The Captain blames the Klingons for this, but Spock has his doubts.  The Science Officer reasons that if the Klingons have this ability, then why do they not give themselves better weapons for which to use?  As the battle rages on neither side can gain grown.  People are getting fatal injuries but instead of dying Dr. McCoy notices they completely recover and then re-join the battle.  This makes the episode the best for red shirts, since there is no damage that they can not recover from. 

Kang and Mara

At one point Kang and his men seize engineering and shut of life support everywhere else in the ship.  However, this victory is taken from him as power and life support return saving the Enterprise crew, but no one among the crew can take credit for it.  Kirk orders Sulu to retake engineering but Chekov want to be the one to do it.  When Kirk orders him to stay at his post, Chekov raises his sword to Kirk and tells him that he won’t let the Captain stop him he must avenge Pyotr.  When Sulu asks who that is, Kirk tells him it was Chekov’s brother.  Sulu informs the Captain that Chekov is an only child.

Klingons in victory!

Spock while doing scans of the ship picks up an energy-based life form on board.  They deduce that if Chekov’s memory has been altered then the reason the landing party saw no colony is that there was none.  The distress call was fake, the knowledge of a nonexistent colony had been forced into their minds.  Kirk realizes he need to communicate with Kang.  There is a bit of a problem at first when McCoy and Spock almost turn on each other but that is short lived.

Kirk leaves the bridge to find the deranged Chekov almost about to rape Mara.  After taking Chekov down he tries to reason with Mara but it takes a while for him to get through to her.  When Kang refuses to yield over the intercom, Kirk goes to engineering himself with no one but Mara.   The two of them try to get Kang to agree to a truce.  Kang refuses again and fighting resumes.  McCoy and Spock lead reinforcements for Kirk.

Kang is awed against Kirk's speed and grace!

During the battle the entity revels itself.  Spock notices it loses power as tensions decrease, and suggests positive emotions might finish it.  Kirk and Kang team up to laugh at the entity and tease it so that it gives up and leaves.  Peace is maintained and the Enterprise will drop the Klingons of a the nearest Starbase so they can be transported home.  Until then the Klingons will be their guests.  

Kirk and Kang laugh at their enemy together.

 

Additional thoughts: When deciding what to call this review my first idea was “The Power of Plot Armor” however that might mislead some poor reader into thinking that I was going to be discussing plot armor in all TV and literature instead of just making a comment on this one.  However, if you need to have a story to explain to a person what plot armor is then you have one here.  I am sorry but the ending doesn’t make any sense.  We have the energy being that is powered by hostel emotions so its pits two powers against each other in unending conflict.  During their fight it makes sure the weapons and numbers are even and then when one side begins to prevail the entity pushes the scale in the favor of the losing side.  It even shows that it has the power to alter memories to further the conflict.  So, if it can do all that why doesn’t it just alter Kirk’s and Kang’s memories so that they can’t communicate effectively and remain at each other’s throats?

I did enjoy other parts of this episode.  I thought there was a great scene when Mara explains some of the background of the Klingons.  That their home world lacks resources and that is what drove them to become an expansionist power.  Kang also was a great antagonist for Kirk as well even if the real bad guy remained hidden for most of the episode.  I really like Mr. Scott’s creative use of the transporter in the beginning.  It shows the writers are really thinking about exploring this technology that was thought up to help with the TV budget. 

When Kang has them in the dark

 I must say my favorite image of this episode is McCoy and Spock leading a number of crewmen against the Klingons.  What makes it so funny is how they are just causally walking with no sense of hurry in them. To be fair it is not good to run with a sword in hand.

One of my favorite sights ever!

This episode really could have used more Sulu. Giving we know how much he loves swords it would have been nice to see him show those Klingons a thing or too.  You know Takei would have had a fun time.

FINAL GRADE 4 of 5