A BIG SHIP AND A BAD ADMIRAL

 

Name: Dreadnought!

Author: Diane Carey

Publication Date: 5/1986

Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #29)

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 Hikaru Sulu              Lieutenant Nyota Uhura            Dr. Joseph M'Benga      Dr. Merete AndrusTaurus           Lieutenant Piper                     Lieutenant Sarda           Lieutenant (junior grade) Judd "Scanner" Sandage            Nurse Christine Chapel          Ensign Pavel Chekov              Ensign Diana Flores               Ensign Rachel Lanz       Crewman Baldridge       Crewman Broxon            Crewman Carr         Crewman Hopton       Crewman Meyers         Crewman Novelwry          Cadet Telosirizharcrede     Dr. Samuel Boma         Vice Admiral Vaughan Rittenhouse                  Commodore Roy Nash        Captain Stephen Leedson             Captain Sukaru Tutakai      Captain Niditoricumtu Ro      Commander Josephson                   Commander Paul Burch         Commander Lu Sing Quaid       Commander Susan Yin               Lieutenant Illya Galina                 Lieutenant Page                   Lieutenant Brian Silayna                     Lieutenant Li Wang      Ensign Booth              

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, USS Hornet NCC-1714, USS Pompeii NCC-424, USS Potemkin, USS Star Empire MKC-2331, USS Lincoln (unknown registration), Gray Matter, Stocking Cap, Wooden Shoe, Zipper Fly, and several unknown Klingon battle cruisers

Planets: Earth

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The story begins the same way The Wrath of Khan does with the Kobayashi Maru.  Lt. Piper, (who has no other name like Madonna) a graduate student at Starfleet Academy’s command program is taking the test. Her performance ends like they all do, her ship is destroyed.  She set the second longest run-time in Academy history.  This performance gets her a placement on the USS Enterprise. 

Like Saavik years later, Piper takes the Kobayashi Maru test

Piper arrives on the Enterprise and upon her arrival she meets a few roommates that she will be having.  The rooms are co-ed and co-multiple species.  Among her new roommates is a Gorn who is first ever Starfleet cadet.  She also discovers her former love interest, a Vulcan named Lt. Sarda, whom she often teases, exposing her ignorance of Vulcan culture, to his clear annoyance.  

Gorn in the Academy

Before she can even get changed Lt. Piper is summoned to the bridge.  When she gets to the bridge, she is debriefed by Kirk and Spock about their mission.  A Starfleet prototype starship called the USS Star Empire of new class of starship called the Dreadnoughts, has been stolen by rouge Starfleet officers.  The rebels have sent a message, but it can only be accessed using Lt. Piper’s bio code.  Piper has no idea why this is.  

The Enterprise warps out to meet Star Empire and a rendezvous point.  When they get there, they find the Dreadnought being attacked by four Klingon Birds of Prey.  The Enterprise intervenes by destroying one Klingon ship and crippling another.  However, two remaining still outnumber the Constitution-class starship.  Then the damaged ship the Klingons thought they were fighting turns out to be a sensor projection and that the real Star Empire is hiding.  It enters the battle and dispatches the two Klingon ships.

Dreadnought class

When it comes time to talk the Piper bio-code is given so communications are open.  Piper recognizes the man on the other end as Lt.  Brian Silayna.  Lt. Silayna reads a message from Commander Paul Burch stating that they have seized the dreadnaught in the name of galactic civility and request an ambassadorial party of Kirk, Piper, and a Vulcan (it apparently doesn’t much which one). As not one to negotiate with terrorists Kirk cuts the transmission and orders Piper arrested for conspiracy.    

Piper doesn’t stay locked up for long, using an old engineering trick she breaks out of confinement and walks into her Vulcan ex-boyfriend. Sarda is upset that by the way Starfleet is using his weapons designs, so he joins her.  He also informs her that the dreadnought is now out of range so they can’t just transport over.  Instead of a shuttlecraft they steal a 2-seat Arco-class light attack "sled" that Starfleet must have invented yesterday because I have never heard of it before.  They manage to take off before anyone realizes that they are gone.   

They don’t get to the Star Empire, however because the destroyer Pompeii drops out of warp, uses a tractor beam to haul their sled inside its hangar bay.  The two runaways meet Vice-Admiral Rittenhouse, who informs them that Commander Burch was his personal aide until he betrayed him.  The Admiral is convinced that the Commander is insane. The Enterprise arrives and interestingly Kirk doesn’t tell the Admiral that the two officers he has are there via an escape.  After the conversation with Kirk ends, Rittenhouse discusses the recent galactic political situation and hints at his desire to unite the various galactic governments under a common flag of peace.

Pompeii

Piper, becoming suspicious of Rittenhouse, uses the destroyer's computer to access Starfleet and Federation organizational charts. She and Sarda find a disturbing pattern: men that had served with Rittenhouse over the years had been placed in high levels of the civilian and military leadership, including the captains of the three other starships that are on their way. Believing Rittenhouse may be planning a military coup, Piper tries to contact the Enterprise, only to be caught and thrown in the brig, again. 

Piper explains to Sandra that Rittenhouse has dreams of galactic conquest that would never work not because it’s physically impossible but because it would violate her libertarian world view. She knows this is true because she wrote a paper on it back in college.

Piper and Sandra escape again, showing us, the brigs are kind of useless.  While escaping they recruit some help from friends they have on board, Lt. Sandage and Dr. AndrusTaurus.  Together they come across a meeting between Rittenhouse and his various captains and spy on it.  It turns out all the Enterprise officers despise one of the Admiral’s top assistants, a civilian scientist named Dr. Boma.  Kirk, refusing to go along with the Admiral’s plan to kill everyone on the Star Empire finds himself, Spock, McCoy, and Scotty all arrested.

Piper and her companions decide to rescue the senior Enterprise officers only to find that the four had already escaped themselves.  It turns out Kirk and the rest were moving to try to save Piper and her friends.  They all work to sabotage the destroyer.  Kirk’s group escapes to the Enterprise while Piper and her team continue their sabotage.  

Piper threatens to self-destruct the Arco attack sled they arrived on and take out the destroyer with it. Rittenhouse, to save himself, allows them to escape. The four of them escape in two attack sleds, skimming along the destroyer's hull to avoid being shot by the Pompeii's phaser batteries. Piper destroys one phaser bank, then the two sleds fly away from the destroyer and towards the Star Empire.

Turns out that the Star Empire has only a skeleton crew of bureaucrats who have no idea how to run a starship.  So, despite the fact that they are on a starship that should easily destroy their opponents, they really are sitting ducks.  It is Piper who is the one who gets them to stop using the computer incorrectly so they can survive.

 Enterprise enters the battle, but it does not go well and must surrender.  However, it turns out that surrender is just a ruse to allow the enemy to lower their shields and the Enterprise can then cause heavy damage to two enemy ships with a surprise phaser attack.  Due to injuries aboard Star Empire, Piper is forced to take command as the only officer with any tactical experience. She puts her ship in between their opponents and the Enterprise and threatens to destroy their four adversaries with the dreadnought’s superior fire power. Three ships retreat but the Pompeii calls her bluff and flies straight at the Star Empire. Rittenhouse is right and Piper can’t bring herself to fire upon them.  Kirk can, however, and the Enterprise destroys the Pompeii.  

With the Rittenhouse conspiracy exposed the Federation is saved from a mad military coup.  Piper is given the Medal of Valor and a promotion to the rank of Lieutenant Commander.  She closes with joke shared with Captain Kirk.

Additional thoughts: This was a fun action-packed adventure. An interesting plot with a good epic space naval battle.  I thought it was interesting that they started this adventure with a Kobayashi Maru test it was a good connection to what was established in The Wrath of Khan.   It appears that this test is set up for graduate students in Command school.  Piper like Saavik before her is already a commissioned officer in Starfleet.  In fact, Piper is already a full lieutenant where Saavik will be a lieutenant (junior grade) when her time comes.  

So, the Gorn are in Starfleet now.  One day a Gorn Captain is engaged in fisticuffs with Captain Kirk and now we are welcoming them into Starfleet.  Won’t the Metrons be so impressed with us?  They might want to get to know us better in a few centuries and not a few millennia. 

I thought it was interesting that this story centered on Starfleet officers stealing a starship when the last time the audience saw are heroes, they themselves did exactly that.  You have to wonder if Kirk and Scotty picked up any ideas on how to steal the Enterprise in The Search for Spock from the theft of the Star Empire.

So apparently Serek isn’t the only Vulcan with an eye for human ladies.  Piper’s ex-boyfriend is the Vulcan Lt. Sarda.  It’s clear why their relationship never worked.  The way Piper misunderstands and tries to tease him about his culture it’s a surprise that Sarda even puts up with Piper.

Bird of Prey

It was nice to see Klingon Birds of Prey in action.  Considering the only time, we saw the Enterprise face off against one she was severely damaged and had a crew of five.  Although Commander Kruge said that the Enterprise outguns his ship ten to one, and that under normal circumstances his little ship would be crushed, it was hard to see the Enterprise’s last battle be against something it should overwhelm but never got the opportunity to.  This time we got to see the Enterprise handle multiple Birds of Prey and destroying/damaging some. 

Bird of Prey

The Star Empire’s capabilities raise the question why starships aren’t built like this all the time anyway.  To be fair it is not made for exploration it was made for conquest.  It clearly wasn’t unbeatable as Rittenhouse had a plan to take it down with a fleet of starships.  However, it is to be noted that he would need a fleet to do that with.

I think my favorite part of this book is the return of Boma.  In my review of the episode “The Galileo Seven” I could not stand the three Starfleet lieutenants who harassed Spock.  Boma wasn’t alone in his insubordination, but he gave a lot.  Not only that but he had questionable ethics: how many lives do you risk recovering a dead body.  I am glad Mr. Scott reported him to the Captain, and he deserved to be drummed out of the service.   

bad officers

I wasn’t particularly keen on the author’s clear libertarian views, which she presents as clear historical facts, and Sarda backs up a lot of her statements.  Even agreeing that there is no real thing such as “the public good.” It was also weird when Piper argued with a crewmate who happened to victim or Orion pirates, and as such was supporting Admiral Rittenhouse.  Piper tries to argue that Rittenhouse’s method won’t work and “Klingons and Orions have a right to be what they are.”  Really, Piper.  One would think their rights to be “as they are” would end where someone else’s rights began.  If Klingons like to kill and conquer and Orions like to kill and lout, wouldn’t the right of other intelligent beings to not be the victims of such behavior be more important and worth defending.  There are other reasons to be against Rittenhouse’s plan, attacking every other galactic power all at once with the aim of total conquest seems rather suicidal no matter how many dreadnoughts you may have.

During the battle the Enterprise pretends to surrender and then attacks.  The problem is that is a war crime.  It’s called perfidy.   Is a deceptive tactic where one side pretends to act in good faith in laying down of arms and singling surrender, but does so with the deliberate intention of attacking when the other side is prepared to receive said surrender.  Now I understand the laws are different in 23^rd century but I don’t think that would have changed.

This story often gets accused of the “Mary Sue” stereotype. With Piper being the “Mary Sue.” I don’t feel that’s the case.  Piper isn’t uniquely talented or the best at anything.  She often screws up.  At times she is a real jerk, especially to her ex-boyfriend.  Although her jerkiness seems to come from more ignorance than malice.  These are traits Sues typically don’t have. Although the book does commit the sin of having the traditional Star Trek characters being reduced to guest stars in a story in their series.

Another little thing I noticed is everyone calls Vice Admiral Rittenhouse “Vice Admiral.”  This is weird because colloquially Vice Admirals are just called, “Admiral.”   

This also book also seems to be the start of “Bad Admiral” or as it is known “Badmiral” troupe.  This becomes a thing in Star Trek with these Admirals who have become corrupt and are up to no good.  In the classic series there were a lot of incompetent Federation commissioners, but no admirals.  You could point out Admiral Iota in “The Web of the Romulans” but he wasn’t bad or evil just a little misguided. Vice Admiral Vaughan Rittenhouse is our Badmiral #1.  

Should it be canon: I was originally going to say no, due to the sheer power of the Star Empire.  It doesn’t quite add up with the rest of Starfleet ship building history.  However, with its dismantling and discontinuation I suppose this story could fit.

Cover Art: The cover has Captain Kirk at the bottom towards the viewer’s left. Next to him on the viewer’s right is Lieutenants Piper and Sarda.  Above the characters is the Star Empire in all its glory.

Final Grade: Final Grade 4 of 5

 

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

 

TWICE IMPRISONED

 

Name: Dwellers in the Crucible

Author: Margaret Wander Bonanno

Publication Date: 9/1985

Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #25)

Page Number: 308

Historian’s Note: Sometime during The Wrath of Khan

Cast of Characters:  Rear Admiral James T. Kirk       Captain Spock              Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”       Commander Hikaru Sulu              Commander Nyota Uhura            Lieutenant (junior grade) Saavik      Ensign Chen          Fleet Admiral Heihachiro Nogura           Commodore José Mendez             Commander Mai-Ling Hong            Commander Tamerlane Hong         Special Agent Gadj          Cleante al-Faisal               T'Shael           Jali'lar Kandowali              Krnsandor L'am                    Resh'da Maprida'hn                   Theras shoorShras              Salet              Sekal                 Sethan          Stalek             Stimm                  T'Pei               T'Sehn                   Dr.  Palmer     Admiral Korax                Lord Tolz Kenran              Lord Krazz                   Commander Kalor                 Imperial Security Chief Dr'ell             Imperial Defense Minister Lefv               Admiral-Superlative Meru'th                    The Romulan Fleet Commander                Subcommander Tal            Centurion Delar            Chamberlin Garefv m'kh                 Unnamed Sulamids

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Galileo III NCC-1701/3, Starbase 11, USS Horizon (registry unknown), IKS Flyer's Pride, ChR Gauntlet, IKS Irik, and IKS Kalash

Planets: Earth and Vulcan

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The story opens with a kidnapping.  The kidnaped are a human named Cleante al-Faisal, a Vulcan named T'Shael, an Andorian and some Deltans.  These individuals are the Warrantors of the Peace an idea the Vulcans came up with in the time of Surak.  The Warrantors are voluntary hostages of sorts.  They are family members of government officials of various Federation member worlds.  They would first to die if their worlds attacked one of its neighbors.  Realizing that kidnapping them could be used to destabilize the Federation the Romulans and the Klingons plan to do just that.   The Romulans do the kidnapping while the Klingons hold them.

Klingons and Romulans looking to kidnap

 

The bulk of the story is told between the two main warrantors Cleante and T’Shael.  The book often flows back and forth between the present and the past.  The audience sees Cleante and T’Shael’s backstory.  They met at the Warrantors headquarters on Vulcan and formed an unlikely friendship. T’Shael leads a lonely life with a distant mother and a father who is caring but dying.  Her father is a famous musician known as the gifted one.  Her mother leaves them to serve on the Intrepid and she dies when it is destroyed by that large single-celled organism from “The Immunity Syndrome.”  Her dying father has to break the news to her that she will soon have no parents at all.  Having no family leads her to volunteer for warrantor status.

The story shifts to our normal set of heroes, who have the entire situation explained to them while being told not to do anything about it.  This becomes a recurring thing whenever the audience comes back to the Enterprise.

Two Klingons in charge of the prisoners.  They are Lord Krazz and Commander Kalor.  Trusted with such important prisoners who may be able to allow the Klingons and Romulans to bring the Federation to its knees, the two Klingons decide their physical passions are more important and try to rape the prisoners.  They are stopped however because of the mental powers of the Deltans overwhelm the Klingons, so they abandon the rape attempt.

Klingons being evil

Despite the Deltan save, the Andorian warrantor dies.  This causes protest from Andor and the Romulans themselves are upset.  On the Enterprise the crew is briefed and does nothing.  Shortly after, the Deltans all die by suicide leaving only two hostages left, the main stars of the book.

 Subcommander Tal shows up for an inspection and is appalled by the conditions the prisoners are kept in. He reports this to his Commander—the same Romulan Fleet Commander from “The Enterprise Incident”—she agrees to check on the prisoners herself. 

Tal

An unexpected earthquake leads to the death of Lord Krazz, leading Kalor in charge.  The Romulan Commander ordered Kalor to treat the prisoners better under threat of death and Kalor agrees to her demands.  While this is going on it turns out T’Shael is going through the pon farr. She instructs Cleante to bind her, so she won’t hurt her friend.  This reminds me of a werewolf.  Spock was bad but he didn’t have to be tied up.  Tal suggests they get a younger Romulan male to sleep with T’Shael, but the Commander just helps her mentally get over it.

Fleet Commander

After the Romulans leave Kalor decides to start torturing the prisoners again.  He forces T’Shael to spend the night outside in the freezing temperatures to test the Vulcans resistance to the cold.  As T’Shael is suffering Cleante decides to seduce Kalor.   He resists at first and then agrees to take her offer.  Cleante at this point starts to exhibit major Stockholm Syndrome as she finds herself starting to fall for Kalor. 

This doesn’t last however because the Romulan Commander arrives and shoots Kalor with a disruptor after catching the two in bed.  Kirk and Spock show up and find the two remaining warrantors exactly where the Commander wanted them to be found.  It appears her strategy was to kill them with kindness.  She wanted Kirk and Spock to see how nice she was to the warrantors so they would feel bad about stealing her cloaking device.  In the end Cleante doesn’t have to be a warrantor anymore, she is just happy it turns out Kalor didn’t leave her pregnant.  She decides to go to Vulcan and hangout with T’Shael who has warrantor for life status.

Additional thoughts: I had a hard time taking this story seriously as I found the premise to be absurd.  The very idea that United Federation of Planets is held together by an exchanging of hostages amongst the member worlds is beyond weird.  Apparently, the author was inspired by the exchanging of hostages in the medieval world and some Cold War theory.  It doesn’t even work in story; the warrantors themselves are supposed to be the relatives of the high-ranking officials on the various planets.  If the leader of Earth decided to invade Andora that leader would have to face the reality that their loved one would be the first to die.  However, in story the warrantors are allowed to have substitutes take their place similar to a US Civil War draftee.  This defeats the entire purpose because now it’s no longer the leader’s loved one on the firing line but a stranger. It’s explained that T’Shael is a substitute for Spock himself, who would normally have to serve because of the position of his father.  Again, this doesn’t make sense as Spock’s father is not a leader of Vulcan government but rather a diplomatic representative.  Sarek represents Vulcan but he doesn’t decide what actions it takes. Also, all the warrantors live on Vulcan even the Vulcan ones, so how is this stopping Vulcan from doing anything?

Does the Federation need to exchange hostages?

Maybe 

The time period was also hard to place.  I had originally thought it would take place between the second five-year mission between The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan.  However, it seemed might have been during the second film. Saavik is here and McCoy mentions that they have a crew of all cadets.  The crew is wearing “the monster maroons.”  Kirk is referred to as “Admiral” rather than the temporary commission of “Captain” he received in The Motion Picture.  Yet, he is in command of the Enterprise and the only time he held that command and called “Admiral” was during TWOK.  That makes the story more improbable to me that on the ship’s way to Regula 1 they stopped by and picked up the warrantors.

The story also is one in which you are introduced to a situation or character and then the reader is treated to a long flashback explaining who they are, what they are about, and what their relationships with each other are.  This is not an illegitimate form of storytelling, but it does make moving the plot forward difficult.  Without the filler the story might be only a quarter as long.

We see the Romulan Fleet Commander from “The Enterprise Incident.”  She was in the last book I read too.  Star Trek novelists seem to find her fascinating.  I tend to judge her appearance based on how they explain the aftermath of her capture and loss of cloaking device.  In the last book it was explained that she was able to escape consequence because the Praetor was her father.  In this version she did have claw her back to prominence, but it was aided by her being the Praetor's mistress.  This is clear contradiction, I hope.

She has also seemed to have learned from her boss, the Praetor, as we see her happily bed her own subordinates that she finds attractive   This includes Subcommander Tal, who it is said in the book has refused promotions so he can stay with her.  I didn’t like that as I felt the relationship between her and Tal was based on professionalism and respect. I don’t have any issue with her bedding other subordinates though it’s clearly an improvement on her from the last book where she was dealing in love slaves.  This book at least has the Commander moving in the right direction.   

Speaking of love slaves, that was some serious Stockholm Syndrome we saw from Cleante.  When she started to have feelings for Kalor and even started to sympathize with him.  She is also very insistent to McCoy and everyone else that what went on between them was consensual despite the fact that they both his prisoners and he was torturing her friend.

Although I highlight in each of my reviews the most important character and second most important character from the crew during the story this one is a bit off.  In this book the two most important members of the crew are Kirk and Spock, but they do nothing in the story.  The regular cast of characters are completely useless.  They could have been written out of the story, and nothing would have changed except the name of the ship that Cleante and T’Shael leave in.  

On the last note I found it funny that the author tried to present the Klingons as opposite of the Vulcans in that they age faster than humans. Neat idea that Star Trek didn’t stick with.

Should it be canon: I am going to say no.  There is just too much weird stuff in this book to try and have it be canonical.

Cover Art:. The cover has two young women on the bottom of the image is Cleante on the viewer’s right and T’Shael on the viewers left.  Above T’Shael is the face of Kirk and above Cleante is the face of Spock.

Final Grade: Final Grade 2 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