SPOCK SUFFERS BRAIN DAMAGE

 

Name: Mindshadow

Author: JM Dillard

Publication Date: 1/1986

Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #27)

Page Number: 252

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 Varth Regev                Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu              Lieutenant Nyota Uhura            Dr. Joseph M'Benga      Dr. Emma Staenz              Lieutenant Ingrit Tomson                                 Lieutenant Giorgo Mikahlis                   Lieutenant Mohamed Jahma              Lieutenant (junior grade) Mohamed al-Baslama                   Lieutenant (junior grade) Reems                Nurse Christine Chapel          Ensign Pavel Chekov              Ensign Lyle               Ensign Rachel Lanz       Admiral James Komack          Ambassador Sarek             Amanda Grayson              Tela’at Stalik              T'Pala        Natahia             Grower Mahali        various unnamed Growers         unnamed Romulan pirate      various unnamed Romulans

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Starbase 12, Galileo II NCC-1701/7, unnamed and unclassified small Romulan fighters  

Planets: Aritani and Vulcan

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The adventure begins with a landing party from the Enterprise visiting the planet Aritani.  The Aritanians are former space faring people who surrendered advanced technology to live a simple life with nature as independent farmers.  So, they are like the Amish except they are from an alien world, and they don’t follow and real strict religion. Unfortunately, they are now under attack from an unknown enemy who is destroying their villages and killing their people.  The Federation has offered to help.  Kirk explains that they are not here to change their way of life.  Although they would love to have them as Federation members Starfleet helps is free regardless. Their leader Natahia is skeptical but desperate.

Trying to help a reluctant people

Spock wants to explore the nearby hills as his tricorder as he tries to find out more about the natural minerals of the planet to see if he can explain why they have been attacked recently.  When he doesn’t return, they go out looking for him.  They find him and it appears that he has fallen down a steep hill and is severely injured with broken bones all down his left side.  Most importantly his injuries to his head have resulted in severe brain damage.  Spock’s status as a Vulcan/Human hybrid complicates potential treatment.  

While Spock is being treated, Aritani is under attack again.  Even though there was a shield up the enemy fighters managed to get through.  They devastate Aritani and the Aritanians.  It is clear from the attackers’ ships that they are Romulans.  What the Romulans want with the planet and how they were able to get through the shield are mysteries.  The incident kills Natahia’s faith that Starfleet is able to protect her people and she requests they leave.  If the Romulans kill all of them so, be it so long as they are living their true lives. 

Romulan attack!!

Back on the Enterprise, a neurologist named Dr. Emma Staenz has been transferred to the ship and given Mr. Spock’s case.  Her prognosis is bleak; his injuries are affecting his logical thinking and have caused the Vulcan mind rules to vanish.  He is now incapable of controlling his telepathic abilities which cause him great pain.  Staenz recommends Kirk to find a temporary replacement for Mr. Spock. 

Kirk and Staenz work out together.  It turns out the good doctor grew up on a high gravity planet giving her great strength for a person her size.  She is more than a match for Captain Kirk, as he ends up hitting the deck more than she does.  There also might be something darker about her because when she is alone with Spock, she tries to force a mind meld and starts a suspicious line of questioning.  She and Dr. McCoy start to see each other romantically. 

Trying to treat Mr. Spock

When the pirates return the Enterprise is able to capture a pirate ship.  The Romulan pirate will not cooperate refusing to answer any questions posed to him.  In Sickbay Spock is getting somewhat better.  His voice comes and goes; he has a hard time remembering people’s names and ranks but does enjoy hearing music.  Spock is aware of his condition and is unhappy about it.

Things are starting to go bad.  First, the Romulan prisoner is murdered, and the murder was made to look like suicide.  Second, it appears that Mr. Spock has attempted suicide himself.  When he awakes Spock claims not to remember but denies trying to commit suicide.  He requests to be sent home to Vulcan and McCoy approves. Staenz objects to sending him away, leading to her first lovers quarrel with McCoy.  She, however, relents.  

Spock has not been himself

Their shuttlecraft, Galileo II, nearly crashes like its famous namesake predecessor, but they get out of it okay.  Their trip is delayed as Scotty has to make repairs.  While they are gone, back on the ship Kirk is injured in a workout routine with Staenz.  While she is treating him, he kisses her and then passes out.  It looks like a love triangle brewing.  The next morning, Lt. Tomson, the Enterprise’s current chief of security, tells the tired Captain that her primary murder suspect is Scotty.  Like the last time Scotty was accused of murder, Kirk doesn’t believe it.  However, he has to let her issue an arrest warrant when he fails to appear on time.

Spock returns home to discover his parents have taken in a young Vulcan woman.  Like Spock, T’Pala is half human/half Vulcan although the reverse with a human father and Vulcan mother.  Her mother died and she was raised by her father she hopes to join the Vulcan diplomatic service and serve under Sarek.  Her father’s status as a criminal makes this difficult. 

Spock being treated at home.

              Spock’s home return is not going well.  He is not relearning the mind rules as expected.  He refuses to help T’Pala with her control even though that is one thing he is currently good at.  Worse, he ends up barking at his mother who was just trying to help.  At one point he thinks about swallowing all of his pills and just ending it. He doesn’t, the next day he makes apologies to all concerned and resumes his lessons. 

Spock has a difficult recovery

Back on the ship, McCoy and Staenz make up and are on romantic terms.  Kirk is hosting a “Journey to Babel”-type of conference to deal with the Aritani situation.  The new first officer, Lieutenant Commander Varth Regev, is very useful when it comes to dealing with the Tellarites.  Scotty returns and is arrested and immediately cleared since he had an airtight alibi.  This conference truly resembles the Babel Conference, when two ambassadors are murdered.  Kirk becomes suspicious of the exact nature of Staenz’s mission.  He discovers that she is actually a Starfleet Intelligence Agent working for Admiral James Komack.  A device is discovered on Regev showing him to be a Romulan spy.

Back at home Spock drops his medication and starts to recover he relearns the mind rules in record time.  His recovery is halted by an attempted assassination on him and his father.  They are saved by T’Pala, who revels she had been working with the Romulans who came to her after she had been rejected for her career and felt isolated from Romulan society.  She had told them of Spock’s recovery and they attacked, but she felt close toward Spock’s family, so she saved them.  Before Spock loses consciousness, he sees her commit suicide with a phaser.

Since T’Pala disintegrated herself, Spock is blamed for the attack on his father which they think is a murder/suicide.  Kirk upon hearing this now wants to head to Vulcan, Staenz tries to talk him out of it, but Kirk is determined to help Spock.  When they get to Vulcan Kirk and McCoy go down to see Spock.  When he wakes up, they explain the situation to him.  Since Sarek is expected to recover Spock is not concerned about the blame as Sarek is expected to recover and will explain everything to the authorities.  Spock knows why he was injured; he had to jump to avoid certain death if the Romulans had caught him.  Spock tells Kirk and McCoy that the drugs Staenz gave him were delaying his recovery and increasing his symptoms not helping him.  It turns out Staenz knew this would happen as she is co-author of a paper that describes its effects on Vulcans.  Staenz is a double agent Romulan spy. Regev was framed. By the time they learn this she has escaped, injuring the chief of security in the process.

Back in disguise 

   The Enterprise heads back to Aritani where Regev managed to locate the Romulan base.  Kirk disguised himself as a Romulan again, and he and Spock beam down to see if they could expose and sabotage the place. While there they run in Staenz again, whose real name is Subcommander Tanirius.  It turns out she is a triple agent and that her true allegiance is not the Romulan Preator or the Federation but rather a reform movement in Romulus that seeks to bring down the tyrannical imperial government. She helps the two of them escape and sets the base up for destruction.  After they get back to the ship the base is destroyed but six fighters escape leaving our mystery lady’s fate up in the air.  McCoy is hopeful that she is okay.  The Aritani accept the Federation’s help and defending their home.   

Additional thoughts: This was one of the best Star Trek books that I had read in a while.  One of the main things I liked about the story was that even though the author invented some interesting characters they didn’t displace the main Star Trek cast from the story.  The story was an exciting traditional Star Trek adventure that took advantage of the book format to give us more depth.

While reading the book I referred to myself the people of Aritani as the “space Amish” since they turned their backs on technology to live like the world never developed past the 19^th century.  I had to question Captain Kirk’s judgement when it came to placing the crew on shore leave on this planet.  They Aritanians barely wanted the Federation’s help do really want to send down multiple landing parties of people whose sole purpose is recreation?

I thought it was creative to have Spock’s status as a Vulcan/human hybrid make it difficult for his injuries to be diagnosed and treated.  The fact that Vulcan brains and human brains function differently makes it hard to plot the proper course of treatment. Do you treat him more as a human or Vulcan?  One might think Vulcan, but Spock’s right-handedness suggests otherwise.   

Scotty accused of murder again.  Poor Mr. Scott, all he tries to do is help, yet people often want to accuse him of killing people. Good thing for him is this time it was much easier to prove that he didn’t do it.

McCoy falls hard for women, doesn’t he?  He only knows them for a short time, and he gets all committed and remains in love with them for quite some time.  He should learn to let go more, like his good buddy Captain Kirk.

A short while

For some time

I found the “Vulcans don’t apologize” to be a bunch of baloney.  We see them apologize all the time.  How else are they going to admit fault and take responsibility for their actions especially if those actions unintentionally caused someone harm.  Also, sometimes people have legitimate excuses for things like tardiness, how would any society function if they were not able to address them.

Lieutenant Commander Varth Regev turned out to be a more interesting character than I originally thought.  I really like the way he handled the Tellarites situation.  It was a neat reveal that it turned out to be a Starfleet intelligence officer the whole time.

 T’Pala was such a sad and tragic case.  The Vulcan/human hybrid with nowhere to turn. It was easy to feel for the poor girl when she told Spock that no Vulcan male wanted to bond with her.  All she wanted to do was fit in and this was precisely what was not allowed.  She had no home anywhere and that led to her being manipulated by the Romulans.  It was easy to understand why Spock and his family felt for her and he continued to cover for her so she could have dignity in death.  It is too bad that Spock didn’t meet her when he was healthy and in control.  She could have been his perfect mate.

 Finally, the Emma Staenz reveal was perfect.  The best twists in a story are ones you don’t see coming yet seem obvious when you look back on it.  Her advanced strength for her size makes more sense when you remember that Vulcan/Romulans have enhanced strength.  I was constantly guessing throughout the book to what side she was truly on, and every time I thought I figured it out the author would pull out some new information that made me realize I was wrong but maybe I was right before, most likely I was wrong there too.  

Should it be canon: I see nothing in this story that should prevent me from being canon in official Star Trek lore.  Given the story is great I love to add it to official Star Trek canon.

Cover Art: We have Spock’s left side profile on the viewer’s right and in front of Spock’s face are Kirk, McCoy, and Emma Saenz. Behind all of them is a mountain range.

Final Grade: Final Grade 5 of 5

 

SPOCK’S MIND SIFTER ADVENTURE

 

Name: Ishmael

Author: Barbara Hambly

Publication Date: 5/1985

Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #23)

Page Number: 255

Historian’s Note: In between the last episode of Star Trek season 1: “Operation Annihilate” and the first episode of Star Trek season 2: “Catspaw”

Cast of Characters:  Captain James T. Kirk       Lieutenant Commander Spock              Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”       Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu              Lieutenant Nyota Uhura            Lieutenant Kevin Riley               Lieutenant Gilden          Dr. Aurelia Steiner               Ensign Pavel Chekov                 Commander Maria Kellogg     Trae       Khin Khlaru        Colonel  Nch'rth                    Jason Bolt                 Jeremy Bolt         Joshua Bolt            Captain Roland Francis Clancey           Biddy Cloom                  Dr. Sarah Gay             Lottie Hatfield                Elizabeth Darrow            Donnelly               Katy Hoyt                 Robin Manderly                    Sheila Meyers          Joshua Norton                Mrs. O'Shaughnessy                     Candy Pruitt             Aaron Stemple            Dulcie Wainright           Elizabeth Stemple              unnamed Klingons          

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Starbase 12, IKS Rapache, and IKS Schin'char

Planets: Alpha Eridani III and Earth

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The adventure begins with the Enterprise being summoned to Starbase 12, to study the nearby Tau Eridani Cloud.  However, the Klingons are also there, and they don’t seem to be there to observe a white dwarf star.  The pair of Klingon ships are a transport and a cruiser and the transport gives off a lot of power.  Spock, with Kirk’s approval, sneaks aboard disguised as a worker from the Starbase there to unload equipment.  When it comes time to rendezvous later, he never arrives, and it appears he is still on the transport.

Klingons making trouble

Any attempt to rescue him is shot when the transport suddenly accelerates to a high warp speed and vanishes into the cloud. All is not lost however because Spock was able to send a cryptic message.  That message is “White dwarf. Khlaru. Tillman's Factor. Guardian" and along with the numbers eighteen, sixty, and seven.

Aaron Stemple

The story moves to 19th century Seattle, Washington.  Long before it was major American city instead it was just a logging town.  Aaron Stemple, a local businessman, finds Spock unconscious and appears to have been tortured.  Stemple is taken back that the land around the injured man is itself undisturbed, as if the stranger appeared out of nowhere.  Upon looking at Spock’s green blood and pointed ears, he realizes an alien from outer space. (Which, I’ll take more about in my Additional thoughts section.)  Stemple realizing the intolerance of his world—US Civil War being only a few years ago—decides not to return Spock to a local doctor.  He takes it upon himself to save the stranger so, he brings back Spock to his isolated cabin at Eagle Head Point.

 

Lottie Hatfield, owner of a local saloon bar, becomes Stemple’s confidant about Spock’s existence.  Stemple shares his concerns about what Spock’s existence means for their planet and humanity itself.   Later Lottie sees two Klingons. She wants to go back and warn Stemple, but the weather kills that plan.

Gets help

Spock wakes up with no memory of who he is, but he knows he is an alien.  He is also very depressed to the point of almost suicide.  Stemple tries to cheer him up and offers him a job as an accountant.

Back in the 23^rd century Kirk is still trying to figure out what happened to his friend and first officer.  He teams up with Commander Maria Kellogg, who is the commanding officer of Starbase 12. Kellogg points to that there is a Klingon historian named Khlaru, currently on this very Starbase. Tillmann's Factor is a mathematical constant to do with acceleration past light-speed, and the Enterprise this year accidentally created at time warp and was sent back to Earth during the 1960s. Maybe the Klingons have used the white dwarf star to create their own time warp. To Kirk, the number 18-6-7 sounds like a date. 

Kirk and crew trying to find Spock

Kellogg has a Vulcan historian Trae on staff.  Trae explains that the Klingons were conquered by the Karsid Empire centuries ago. Karsid strategy was to locate preindustrial societies and offer them economic and other help. This would lead to increasing interference on their part in those societies until they took over completely. The Klingons overthrew the Karsid Empire before founding their own and this is the reason the Karsids were never able to try this on Earth.

 Spock is given the name Ishmael Marx and is introduced into town as Stemple’s nephew.  They visit Lottie’s place where Spock learns about the town’s big situation.  Jason Bolt, who runs a lumber mill with his two brothers, Jeremy and Joshua, had to overcome a shutdown of his operation as his lumberjacks are upset that there is no female population to speak of in Seattle.  In order to save his business, he promises to find at least a hundred single young women willing to come to the frontier town and stay for a full year.  Problem is he doesn’t have the money to afford it.  So, to meet that second desperate situation he makes a literal gamble.  Stemple puts up much of the money not as a loan but as a bet the Bolt brothers will not succeed.  If the Bolt fails to marry off all the women Stemple wins Bridal Veil Mountain, with their logging company at a fraction of the costs. (This is the overall plot of the Here Come the Brides TV show.) 

Spock is more than successful as Stemple’s accountant, and his skills amaze the town.  It appears the memory plagued Vulcan is fitting in very well on 19^th century Earth.  Spock challenges his benefactor to the morality of this bet of his.  He convinces Stemple to offer the Bolt brothers a way out of the bet by just buying him off. The Bolt brothers don’t have the money, so they head to San Francisco to gamble, and Spock comes up with a method for them to gradually win money.  In a few days they were going to be able to get the $50,000 to pay off Stemple.  While this is going on they are attacked in the street, but they manage to fight them off.  They run into a woman named Sarah Gay.  Gay is a doctor but because of prejudice at the time she was not allowed to be one.  Joshua takes a liking to her.  

Spock tries to help the Bolts out

Spock’s system was working but they got greedy and Jason risks everything on poker but loses.  This means they have to leave San Francisco empty handed and the bet between the Bolts and Stemple is still on.

The ladies of the bet!

Kirk, McCoy, Maria Kellogg, and Trae investigate what the Klingons are trying to achieve. They found that the Klingons tried to destroy the relevant records, but was stopped by Khin Khlaru, who wanted to preserve the integrity of the historical record. The records reveal that the Karsids began their attempt to subvert and take over Earth in 1868, but their efforts were stopped by government of the United States. Before they could overcome that resistance, the Klingon rebellions began that brought about the downfall of the Karsid Empire.  The person most responsible for the US Government being able to resist the Karsid Empire, was no other than the United States representative from Washington Territory – Aaron Stemple.  The Klingons are hoping to stop Stemple thus allowing them to conquer the Earth and prevent the Federation from forming.  The Klingon Empire will still come into existence with no Federation to stand in the way of their territorial ambitions.

During the celebration of Jeremy Bolt and Candy Pruitt’s marriage, Jason proposes to Biddy hoping to finally win the bet.  She turns him down, although she was very flattered by the proposal, but she thinks they would not be a good match.  Sarah Gay arrives unexpectedly, having changed her mind about marrying Joshua.

Spock doing his best to fit in.

Stemple then asks Biddy to marry him, and she accepts.  This means Stemple gets the love of this life but loses the bet, this means that everyone is happy with all they have. At this point in the plot this is the perfect time for Klingon assassins from the future to show up. Seeing Klingons restores Spock’s memory and he sees them go after Stemple.  He gives chase but Spock is not in time to prevent the Klingons shooting temple who is badly wounded but not killed. Spock stops the Klingons finishing Aaron off and they leave, convinced that they fatally injured him. 

Stemple gets his girl!

Spock tries to nurse him back to health with blood transfusions enthusiastically donated by the community.  It doesn’t save him only delays the inevitable, Spock is convinced that he failed in his primary objective.  Just when he is about to come to terms with his failure Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy arrive.  They took the Enterprise back to the past via firing the warp drive around a star and here they are.  Stemple is brought back to the ship, and his life is saved.  Spock, restored to his previous self, thanks Stemple for all he had done for him.  Stemple is sent back to his own destiny.

Kirk and McCoy show up to rescue Spock!

In his final evaluation Spock conceded that he believes they have always been living in the altered time-line.  The Klingons, in their attempt to change what had happened, ended up bringing the exact events about. Spock also concludes that his mother and therefore himself are the descendants of Biddy and Aaron Stemple.  Stemple is Amanda Grayson’s middle name.

Spock restored!

Additional thoughts: This was a fun story.  In a way it reminded me of the earlier story “Mind Sifter” that involved Captain Kirk after Klingon torture being sent to Earth’s past with no idea of who was.  This was better.  Spock might not have had his memory, but he was clearly himself.  It also did not take place of an impossible timetable. 

This is not just a Star Trek book; it is crossover with another TV show from the 1960s called Here Comes the Brides.  All the characters that Spock interacts with in the 19^th century are from this series. Now I never even heard of the series before this book, so I did some reading up on it.  Like Star Trek, Brides often would deal with real world issues such as racial discrimination and the importance of tolerance.  The show lasted for two seasons and had over fifty episodes.  I suspect that the show never had a resolution for its characters because the shows main premise: women being brought in for marriage prospects and a bet between Stemple and Jason Bolt is still on going at the start of this story and finally resolved by the end of the book. All the Brides characters are in a good place at the end, with this probably being their last appearance—as unlike Star Trek they didn’t give birth to a franchise—their fans can rest easy knowing how it was all resolved.

Hopefully fans got their resolution

When I was a kid, my sisters, my cousins, and I use to play a game we called “Mix up.” We would all play characters from various franchises and come up with stories on how they could interact together. So, Luke Skywalker could team up with Captain Kirk, the Ghostbusters, and a superhero. This book kind of reminded me of that.

The scene when they were talking about the old Earth Gregorian calendar dating system and since they didn’t use it, they were unaware that BC and AD weren’t used in everyday speech.  I like how Kirk and McCoy used their experience with Edith Keeler to explain that to the base commander.  Although later in the series would make this scene not make sense as the calendar is still used by humans. 

I learned something about math that I didn’t know prior to reading this book.  X²-1=(X-1) *(X+1) I thought that was very cool.  Thank you, Mr. Spock.  

We learned a bit of Klingon history. The Karsid Empire is the Mongol Empire to the Klingons’ Russia.  The Klingons were once the victims of space conquerors until they overthrew them and used their empire to start the foundation of their own interplanetary empire.  Seems this is history that they probably shouldn’t be messing with.

I thought it was funny that the United States Library of Congress is still around despite the unification of Earth Government. 

Although Spock says he thinks they were always in the alternate timeline I have a different opinion.  This reminds me a lot of the first Terminator movie where it was a closed time loop. The attempt to change the past is what caused the very events that you didn’t want to happen to actually happen.  Hence, while the Klingons stop focusing on time travel. 

So, Aaron Stemple, who was played by Star Trek Legend Mark Lenard, turns out to be one of Spock’s human ancestors.  Amazing that Spock, he always has relatives coming out of nowhere.  It was bit of stretch that Stemple was so quick to deduce that Spock was not of this world.  I mean what would even inspire him to believe in life on other planets?  There is nothing about that in the culture of Earth at the time at least that I am aware of.  They do point out that such a world did produce H.G. Wells and his stories so I suppose it could make sense but still seemed that Stemple had formed these beliefs because of plot smarts.  Unless, does anyone who watched this TV show know if Stemple was always going on about aliens trying to invade the Earth?    

Should it be canon: I have no issues with this, I think it would be a great addition to Star Trek canon.

Cover Art: The cover has Spock in 19^th century dress playing chess with a man from that time period.  A beautiful woman looks on standing slightly behind the middle of them.  The cover has a slight deception as in the story Spock grew his hair longer to cover his ears while he was in 1867.

Final Grade: Final Grade 5 of 5

 

THE CATS ARE SICK

 

Name: Uhura's Song

Author: Janet Kagan

Publication Date: 1/1985

Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #21)

Page Number: 373

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 Hikaru Sulu              Lieutenant Nyota Uhura            Dr. Evan Wilson          Dr. Joseph M'Benga          Lieutenant Kevin Riley                Lieutenant Vuong               Nurse Christine Chapel          Ensign Pavel Chekov                 Ensign Marie-Therese Orsay         Ensign Azuela             Yeoman First Class Jaramillo                 Crewman Ridly         Crewman Thomas        Colonel Mickiewicz     Dr. Dziedzic              HotSpring to-Allanien         All Loops               Brave Tongue       Jinx to-Ennien          Catchclaw to-Ennien              EagerTalker to-Ennien       Grabfoot to-Ennien          Sunfall to-Ennien              TooLongTail to-Ennien             WhiteWhisker to-Ennien                Knots      Left Ear Patterner of Vensre            SilverTail           Brightspot to-Srallansre            CopperEye to-Srallansre       Distant Smoke to-Srallansre               Fetchstorm to-Srallansre            Quickfoot of Srallansre         Stiff Tail to-Srallansre            Winding Path to-Srallansre               Sunfall of Ennien           ThreeTimes       Rushlight to-Vensre         Settlesand to-Vensre        

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, USS Dr. Margaret Flinn (registration unknown), Dr. James Barry (registration unknown)

Planets: Eeiauo and Sivao

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise is in orbit around the planet Eeiauo, whose main inhabitants are an intelligent humanoid cat-like species. The planet is under quarantine due to a disease known as ADF syndrome that has symptoms that begin with hair loss and conclude with total body paralysis, although the brain appears normal.  Among the afflicted is Lt. Uhura’s old friend Sunfall, whom she meets as a young officer and uses to exchange songs with.  Dr. McCoy is on the surface of the planet trying to lead research into the epidemic.  To help the Enterprise out, Starfleet has assigned Dr. Evan Wilson, to temporarily take McCoy’s place as Chief Medical Officer.  The new Acting CMO has a personality that clashes with the other senior officers, particularly Spock and Kirk.  

Uhura, going over some of the cultural songs she learned from Sunfall, comes to the conclusion that the people of Eeiauo might have been originally from someplace else.  She shares her evidence with Spock, and he agrees.  When they try to confront the Eeiauoans about this they are quick to deny and wish to change the subject.  However, McCoy gets his assistant, Quickfoot, to admit the truth to them.  Two thousand years ago, their ancestors were exiled from their home world, Sivao.  The reasons are not given but it is a clear mark of shame for them.

Trying to figure out, how they will help the Eeiauoans.

Things get from bad to worse when it is discovered that ADF Syndrome can jump species and Nurse Chapel and others are infected.  The disease works faster in humans with more deadly results. Two crew members are redshirted by it.     

Uhura and Spock come up with a theory that the original home world’s inhabitants may currently hold the cure to ADF.  Using astronomical references in some of the older Eeiauoan songs, Spock and Uhura locate the planet.  Kirk leads a landing party that includes Spock, Wilson, Uhura, and Chekov.  They find the local people friendly enough but when Kirk tries to explain why they are here one of the locals slaps him.  Back on Eeiauo, McCoy comes up with a treatment that can delay the effects of ADF but does not eliminate.  The extra time is needed because he too is also infected.

McCoy discovers that humans can get this thing. 

 The reason the Sivaoians have a hard time dealing with the Enterprise’s landing party is they are not sure whether their visitors were adults.  Kirk makes the point that he commands a starship, and Starfleet does not grant such commands to children, or for that point employee children at all.  Nevertheless, they are still confused.  They discover through their friends (Sivaoians who clearly seem like adults but are legally considered children) that in order to be called adults they have to undergo a rite of passage that has them journeying to another village.  The journey can be dangerous with predators lurking and geographical challenges. One of their new friends, Jinx, tried and failed three times. 

Kirk leading the landing party!

Kirk decides the landing party will attempt the rite.  Unfortunately, they have to leave the phasers and communicators behind.  They face many challenges and must hold a night watch to guard against predators.  During the journey a bridge collapses on them sending Kirk, Wilson, and Jinx into the water.  Kirk is able to rescue Jinx, whose people have not mastered the art of swimming. When the landing party does not report Scotty goes to check up on them but doesn’t learn much.

After the landing party is reunited Chekov begins to exhibit symptoms of ADF syndrome, which he takes to it hard.  Wilson notices that Jinx, who is an apprentice healer, was unable to recognize the plague song that Uhura had learned, she suggests to Uhura that she sing the song in a different key. Uhura attempts this and that seems to end the difficulty in translation.  Jinx eventually identifies a variation of the song and explains that the disease is one that the call "Noisy Baby," easily cured it years ago.

Uhura spreading the news of the plague being beaten.

They complete their journey and are all now considered adults by local laws.  Jinx chooses AnotherStarFreedom as an adult name, in honor of Uhura.  They are able to reconnect the two groups who had separated for 2,000 years both are embarrassed by the cause of separation. The cure is passed along, saving the population in the nick of time.  The Enterprise gets three cheers from the other Starfleet vessels. 

In closing it turns out that Wilson wasn’t who she says she was. After the mission was over, she was immediately reassigned.  Kirk and McCoy decide to reach out, but when they do they meet a male Evan Wilson.  It turns out this “Evan Wilson” they were working with was a Sivaoan name Tail-Kinker to-Ennien.  She is a benevolent trickster, and this wasn’t the first time she did this.  She once impersonated an engineer named Martha Bodner who also critically helped Starfleet before. In her final message she challenges Spock to find her.

Additional thoughts: This okay Star Trek story.  One on hand there was a classic Star Trek problem of “these friendly people are dying and how do we save them?”  However, it was often slow moving and it didn’t really command my attention the way some other stories can.  I did like how Uhura has a much more prominent feature in the story.

There was, however, a big plot problem that I had with the story.  So, the local Eeiauoans are stricken with this horrible illness.  While treating them it is discovered that they originally came from a planet called Sivao.  Uhrua and Spock then to the conclusion that since the Eeiauoan people originated there, then the people living there now must possess the cure to the condition. I am sorry but that doesn’t make any sense.   That is like if a disease in the United States struck the Italian-American population hard, that since they are Italian-American and their ancestors came from Italy then logically Italy must have the cure.  Now this turns out to work because of plot armor, but I would have liked someone to make an objection.  

I also thought it was interesting that the Enterprise is told by Starfleet that the prime directive could be ignored when they arrive at Sivao. Although we saw in “Friday’s Child” that Starfleet and Federation may look the other way when their important interests are involved.  In that episode they were trying to secure dilithium mining rights.  This case is more noble, trying to save the lives of innocents from a deadly plague.

So, the character of Dr. Evan Wilson.  Throughout the book I was wondering what the point of this character was. I thought it was odd that Starfleet would send a doctor out to temporarily take over McCoy’s responsibilities when he was gone.  McCoy has other doctors on his medical staff either one of them could step into that role, M'Benga being an obvious example, why does Starfleet feel the need to send someone of equal rank to replace him?  It would be if Kirk was going away for a week and Starfleet assigning another captain instead of just having Spock runs things for him in the meantime.  Well, we get our answer in the end Dr. Wilson wasn’t Dr. Wilson, but a Sivaoian, who appears to have wanted to have a firsthand in helping to re-unite her species. It reminded me of the second part of “The Menagerie” when we learn that Commodore José Mendez was just an illusion created by the Talosians. 

Should it be canon: I don’t see anything in this story that would contradict established on film.  Therefore, I would have no problems with it being canon.

Cover Art: The cover has Spock, Uhura, and a Sivaoian (from the viewers right to left) standing in front of a planet that I assume is either Eeiauo or Sivao.  Above their heads and in front of the planet flies the Enterprise. The cover is a bit of a lie, because it shows a refitted Enterprise and Spock is wearing his “The Motion Picture” uniform.  Yet, this story takes place in the original five-year mission.

Final Grade: Final Grade 3 of 5

 

You are serving on the Enterprise!

 

Name: Voyage to Adventure

Author: Michael J. Dodge  

Publication Date: 1/1984

Publisher: Pocket Books (Which Way #15)

Page Number: 118

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  Hikaru Sulu              Lieutenant Nyota Uhura              Lieutenant Grogan                Ensign Pavel Chekov                                   Ensign {Insert your name here}         many unnamed crewmen     Admiral Traynor         Captain Robert T. April         Commander Krogan    unnamed Klingon Commander    several unnamed Klingon soldiers   Takoi Queen    hundreds of unnamed Tokoi        Mirror Universe versions of Captain James T. Kirk      Lieutenant Nyota Uhura      Ensign Black    Ensign Wu  unnamed security crewman

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, ISS Enterprise NCC-1701, a few unnamed Klingon K't'inga-class battle cruisers

Planets: Takoi world

My Spoiler filled summary and review: You are a new graduate of Starfleet Academy and as such have been commissioned as an ensign in Starfleet.  You also get your dream assignment serving on the USS Enterprise under the command of Captain Kirk. Here you will rub elbows with your heroes and go on adventures in space. To start you get to choose which department you serve under.  You are given the bridge, science laboratory, or the engineering department.

Choose engineering and you might end up in a Jefferies tube

               Each decision you make has consequences mostly for yourself.  You have a total of fifty-one possible paths.  In thirteen possible outcomes you die in the traditional Star Trek red shirt fashion.  In another scenario you are killed but you have successfully outed a spy.  Twice you go back in time to fix things and save Spock but in doing so you end up disappearing, you’re not dead technically in this situation because there is another you who will continue in the fixed timeline.  Twice your fate is unknown, and you may have died.  One of those was heroic saving Kirk and McCoy while the other was just plain stupid. In one case you save an alien race, and your physical body disintegrates.  You’re not dead but your essence is trapped there.  In one possible outcome you are trapped in a time loop where you pull a leaver for eternity.   

Finding yourself in the mirror universe 

               There are three possible outcomes where you win but are hurt in the process. One of the possible storyline scenarios has you traveling back in time with Spock to the period where Captain April commanded the Enterprise.  In three outcomes you ended up staying in April’s time.  Two by choice because you are “sick of time travel” even though you only done it once.  In one of those Spock gives his approval, in the other he is dead and you’re not going to bother to save him. One was involuntary as you went to the wrong area of the ship when the ride back home was being offered. Two outcomes involve you disappointing an alien race by either showing your violent side or just refusing to help them.  There are three outcomes where you lose the battle, but the ship gets away to safety.

Explore strange new worlds

               Nineteen outcomes are just straight up victories.  This is whether you are fighting Klingons, going to a strange new world, fixing the ship’s engines, having an adventure in the past or in the mirror universe.  My absolute favorite outcome is when you lead a boarding party on a Klingon ship and once you capture it, you are promoted to lieutenant.

 

Additional thoughts: This book is a lot of fun.  I first read it when I was eleven years old. Reading it now was a little different as I was reviewing it, I wanted to explore all options.  When I read this book just for myself, I always would take paths that I would have taken if it were real.  Although I would try out all three areas of the ship allowed, my favorite was the bridge.  One reason is in the engineering and science paths you only get to hang out with Scotty or Spock respectively, where a bridge adventure allows you to interact with the entire cast.    

Being on the bridge allows you to interact with just about everyone!

There are some contradictions in the paths that you take based on your choices.  For example, one crew member is revealed to be a Klingon spy and how soon you discover that depends on which path you choose.  However, if your journey goes in one other direction early on, that crew member doesn’t end up as a Klingon spy at all, just kind of a jerk.  In another case you are on an adventure with Spock, and he gets knocked out by a phaser set to stun.  However, if you turn in one direction you learn that it wasn’t set to stun and he died, where in every other outcome he survives.  An alien species is either kind or cruel, they either want you to save them or they are trying to steal your ship.

There were some odd things I noticed.  Captain Kirk of the mirror universe has scars.  That was interesting as he didn’t have any in the episode “Mirror, Mirror.”  Also, Spock states that Captain April commanded the Enterprise forty years ago.  Where it was actually around twenty years ago according to the traditional Star Trek timeline.  Also, I don’t remember Spock ever serving with April and if he did it couldn’t have been forty years ago as Spock wasn’t alive at the time.  The book also states that April was dead before your character was born that is baloney because we saw Robert April in the episode “The Counter-Clock Incident.”  There are some art errors such as a lieutenant with commander’s stripes and Lt. Uhura of the Mirror Universe dressed like she is from the prime universe.

Mirror Kirk and Uhura look different from their live action appearance

 

Lastly, I thought it was odd that Captain Kirk would trust a brand-new ensign to lead a boarding party on a Klingon ship.  At least the Captain understands that an ensign is a commissioned officer unlike a certain lieutenant in engineering.   

Should it be canon: Considering it involves you and multiple different endings to the same story I don’t see how it could be incorporated into canon.  It is just a fun little story.

Cover Art: Kirk and Spock are two the viewers right, a “monster” that appears in one story is on the viewers left. Underneath the creature is the Enterprise’s bridge.  It is an interesting cover.

Final Grade: Final Grade 5 of 5