The Alternative Factor-type book

 

Name: Triangle

Authors: Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath

Publication Date: 3/1983

Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #9)

Page Number: 188

Historian’s Note:  Sometime between The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan

Cast of Characters:  Rear Admiral/ Acting Captain James T. Kirk       Commander Spock              Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”       Lieutenant  Commander Hikaru Sulu              Lieutenant Commander Nyota Uhura              Lieutenant Pavel Chekov Lieutenant Dobius           Dr. Joseph M'Benga        Dr. Christine Chapel                The unnamed Starfleet Chief of Staff                        Sola Thane       Ambassador Gailbraith       Soljenov      Viana        Argunov         Z'Ehlah        Soljenov

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets: Cephalus IV

My Spoiler filled summary and review: A collective consciousness called the Totality is assimilating entire worlds into itself.  This thing originated on the planet Zaran, where the native population has been subjugated.  The Totality is descended from a group of Humans who fled Earth during the atomic wars and now form a collective unconscious. Ironically the Federation has the New Human Movement on Earth that is sort of doing the same thing on a much smaller scale.  That group’s “leader,” Ambassador Gailbraith, wants a chance to reason with this new adversary.  He argues since his Oneness is comprises of more highly evolved beings, they stand a better chance at facing it.  At his request the USS Enterprise, with her famous captain, is assigned the task of bringing him there.   

Prime target for the New Humans!

 

                Gailbraith’s motive in requesting the Enterprise is that he feels if he can assimilate Kirk into the Oneness that would be a great moral victory that would aid in the Oneness’s ultimate triumph.  Kirk isn’t too keen on the idea, and bumps heads with the Ambassador.  Gailbraith didn’t come alone but he brought many of his Oneness to assist.  To Kirk’s horror they began to go around assimilating members of his crew. With Gailbraith insisting his people are just exercising their right to proselytize, Kirk confines them to one section of the ship.  This had limited effectiveness although Gailbraith’s disobedience allows him to save Kirk from drowning in the ship’s pool. 

The Enterprise is redirected to pick up half-Zaran Federation Free Agent Sola Thane.  Thane was a Starfleet officer who was slated to command a starship when she resigned her commission to try and free her people from the Totality.  The fact that she gave up her opportunity to command a starship is absolutely puzzling to Kirk who himself regards starship command as his life’s work.  His instructions are to put his ship and crew at her disposal, which actually puts her in command of the mission, although this amounts to any plot point or relevance in the story. When they pick Agent Thane up, she and Kirk are immediately drawn to each other.  She also is drawn to someone else.  It is here we learn the episode “Amok Time” was exactly seven years ago.  This means Spock is getting into the mating cycle again and finds Thane an alluring match.

Spock maybe going through pon farr again 

We now randomly meet Soljenov the “leader” of the Totality. It becomes clear that the whole mission has been set in motion by Gailbraith and Soljenov.  Each is hoping that Thane will bond with someone, and this will allow them to use her advanced psionic powers to lock that person in their collectives and continue to universal domination.  Thane’s people do a “mate-hunt” where the female tracts down the male and bonds with them.

Kirk and Spock are both abducted to the surface of a nearby planet, forcing Thane to follow them in a "mate-hunt" as described above. Here we learn that Spock is willing to yield Thane to Kirk because he feels guilty for forcing Kirk to give up on Edith Keeler in “The City on the Edge of Forever.”  (So much for the power of pon farr.) Back on the ship McCoy tries to form an alliance with Gailbraith that story wise leads to nothing. The three of them put the mating conversation to the side and break into Totality's citadel. Thane is able to use her knowledge of her culture to convince one of the Zarans to trigger the self-destruct.

Kirk, Spock, and a lady!

Gailbraith and Soljenov both compete for the trio to join their group, with Thane encouraged to bond with either Kirk or Spock to help them escape the destruction. However, Zaran will not be destroyed.  Instead, the Totality and the Oneness both agree not to go on a universal conquest and to only accept new members voluntarily.  All Enterprise crew members taken by either group are released.  Thane leaves with Soljenov to try and re-direct the Totality.  The Enterprise heads home.

Additional thoughts: I really like that this story takes place during that unseen 2^nd five-year mission between the first two films.  It is such a space of time that is rich with possibilities. I thought the previous book I read, Black Fire, would have worked much better as a story if it was placed during this time. 

The collective consciousness reminded me of the Body of Landru from “The Return of the Archons.” “Are you not of the body? Blessed is the body and all of its parts.”  I have to give the authors some credit.  When I read about the new human movement in the novel adaptation of The Motion Picture, I thought it was just one Gene Roddenberry’s silly ideas that never would amount to anything:  like Starfleet officers having data chips in their head that lets Kirk see the opening sequence of V’ger destroying the Klingon ships.  However, the authors deserve credit for taking this small thought bubble of Kirk’s and making a story out of it. A big fish vs. little fish fight with the New Human Movement’s Oneness against the Totality.  If only the story were better.  Unfortunately, this story has a lot of issues.

Kirk falls a little too hard for Thane, this is a repeat flaw also seen in the episode “Requiem for Methuselah.” There are also a number of story points that are brought up but never acted upon, such as Thane getting overall control of the Enterprise and Spock potentially going through pon farr again. The worst part is this book is often difficult to follow and understand.  Major story moments come out of nowhere like Soljenov showing up.  The episode reminds me so much of “The Alternative Factor.”  A lot of neat story ideas and great concepts that just fail in the overall presentation and execution.

We have been here before!

Should it be canon: I am indifferent to the idea of this book being made canon.  I guess that means no.  

Cover Art: The Enterprise is flying in front of a nebula.  Kirk and Spock’s faces are at the bottom of the page with Kirk on the viewer’s right and Spock on the viewer’s left.  The cover is bit of a lie as the Enterprise shown is clearly pre-movie refit, and the story occurs in between the first two films.

Final Grade: Final Grade 2 of 5

 

KIRK’S MEMORY GETS MESSED UP AND SPOCK BECOMES MEAN

 

Name: The Prometheus Design

Authors: Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath

Publication Date: 3/15/1982

Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #5)

Page Number: 190

Historian’s Note:  The story occurs shortly after the events of The Motion Picture

Cast of Characters:  Rear Admiral/ Acting Captain James T. Kirk       Commander Spock              Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”       Lieutenant  Commander Hikaru Sulu              Lieutenant Commander Nyota Uhura             Lieutenant Pavel Chekov       Lieutenant Dobius                Lieutenant Shirn O'tay                    Dr. Christine Chapel            Yeoman Second Class Trian         Admiral Savaj          Belen                Trath                   

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, small unnamed scout ship

Planets: Helva

My Spoiler filled summary and review: Kirk is leading the landing party on a mission to the planet Helva.  Helva is a primitive pre-warp society with a people who all have what humans would view as “devil’s horns.” That is a perfect place for hell to break loose.  For Kirk and most of the landing party start having hallucinations and memory loss.  They are all beamed up and go to sickbay for observation.  Then sealed orders come in to rendezvous with a scout ship to pick up a certain someone.  This person is a very important Vulcan, and his name was Savaj and he was Starfleet admiral who still retained his commission for special circumstances such as this. 

The Enterprise

Admiral Savaj gets right down to business and announces that due to his memory loss and hallucinations Captain Kirk is to be immediately relieved of command.  Savaj then states that Spock will be placed in command.  However, Kirk is allowed to remain on duty as first officer, despite the memory loss and hallucinations.  In addition, the Vulcan Admiral openly states he doesn’t know why Kirk was ever allowed to command Spock who is his clear mental superior.  Savaj seeks to prove this by beating Kirk at chess and suggesting Spock had been going easy on him, all while in front of the crew.

 Savaj and Spock decide to go down on an away mission themselves.  Spock also seems to have changed personalities claiming he is on “Vulcan Command Mode” and he insists that he must be deferred to all the time without question.  When pointed out that was not how they do things Spock seems not to care.  Before he and the Admiral leave, Spock gives strict orders to Kirk, who is left in charge despite the memory loss thing, that if they don’t return, they are to retreat and request an all-Vulcan ship to take over the operation.

Spock starts to act weird under Vulcan peer presure 

Kirk being Kirk he is not going to let Spock die.  Instead, when the Vulcans lose contact, and are captured Kirk launches a rescue mission and saves them.  Spock is as angry as a Vulcan can get and relieves Kirk confining him to quarters.  Despite this we learned something important: that there are other entities at work.  An advanced alien species was kidnapping the locals and doing experiments on them.  Like humans use to claim strange green men did back in the 1950s.  They suggest this means there might have been something to that. Kirk and his landing party in the rescue attempt even took some of these aliens hostage.  

Later there is an attempt on Spock’s life and Kirk is the main suspect.  Giving Kirk’s memory problems it is reasoned he was not a premeditated killer.  A security officer is posted with him at all times, however that security officer views Kirk as his natural captain so it doesn’t really restrain him much.  Kirk uses his freedom of movement to interrogate one of the prisoners and gains information that the two Vulcans both find useful.

Spock is having a difficult command

A four-person landing party of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Savaj is formed and they head down to the planet’s service. They get captured by the invaders, who are known as the Designers.  One of the Designers’ scientists is a woman named Belen.  She is beautiful and she seems to have an attraction to Captain Kirk that McCoy wants the Captain to exploit.  Kirk does actively flirt with her. 

Kirk with lady alien

Trath the male Designer is not as impressed as Belen.  Through the two of them the landing party learns that they are trying to solve the problem of Hell’s Kitchen or Prometheus Design. This we are told is not a reality TV show but rather a theory that states that intelligent lifeforms would rather live violent more exciting lives than quiet safe ones.  Trath offers to leave the Milky Way galaxy alone in exchange for Kirk surrendering himself as a specimen.  Spock refuses to allow this but Savaj overrules him.  Although to the Admiral’s credit he does offer himself up first.  

The Designers end up taking the entire landing party for their experiments and Kirk interrupts one of them between the two Vulcans.  The Designers have learned enough and decided to let everyone go.  We learn they are behind everything including arranging Savaj to come to the Enterprise to relive Captain Kirk of duty.  All odd behavior from everyone is explained by said aliens and Spock turns command of the Enterprise to Kirk. Savaj lets Kirk know he has his respect even though he spent almost the entire book disrespecting him.  

Additional thoughts: This was an odd story basically its “what if Kirk and Spock switch jobs.” I have this impression that the authors had this idea for a while and I assume when they first conceived of it, the setting would have been on the Enterprise’s classic five-year mission not the post-Motion Picture five-year mission.  The reason I think this is Kirk is a Starfleet rear admiral who is acting as a captain. The book acknowledges this, which is a detail I wish books that focuses on the second five-year mission would focus on more.  Such as, how does Kirk’s flag commission affect his dealings with other starship captains and Starbase commodores?  However, this book doesn’t do that instead after acknowledging it, the books proceed to ignore it.   In particular, if Kirk were to be relieved of his command wouldn’t his flag commission automatically just reactivate since his second captain’s commission was just a temporary thing made to give him control of the Enterprise in order to deal with V’ger.  Instead, Savaj refers to Kirk as “commander” even though there was no stated rank demotion.  Now the only thing that might make me think the authors always intended this to be right after The Motion Picture, is maybe they felt Kirk was a jerk to Will Decker and thought he deserved some of the same treatment.  Of course, that would only make sense if Savaj took command. The bigger issue I have is if Kirk’s mental problems were the reason he couldn’t be trusted with continued command, by what logic can he be the first officer?  As first officer he is one breath away from being in charge and for part of the story he is.  When Kirk goes against Spock’s orders, I don’t know how they can logically hold him to account because according to them he is mentally compromised anyway.

Maybe the authors felt like Kirk deserved some karma. 

             One of the strengths these authors have is the way they can incorporate past episodes and book adventures into their story, particularly how they affect each characters’ thought process going into certain things.  For example, the episode “Obsession” is mentioned frequently as a moment that divided Kirk and Spock.  In addition, Kirk makes reference to Omne who was the main antagonist in the authors’ pervious books The Price of the Phoenix and The Fate of the Phoenix.  So, I found it surprising that there was no reference to “The Gallio Seven,” an episode where Spock in command of a shuttlecraft crew and finds it extremely difficult to lead a crew of humans due to their vast differences in emotional state and approaches.  As Spock has difficulty enforcing his Vulcan Command Mode, it seems that someone should bring that up.

I'm amazed this didn't come up more. 

             A small objection I had in this book was the chess game. When Savaj beat him and suggested Spock was going easy on him.  Kirk's monologue suggests Spock defeat multiple times when they first started playing. This is false. These authors have a encyclopedia-like knowledge of classic Star Trek, this is just wrong.  When Kirk and Spock play chess Kirk wins.  Spock is a genius but he is not a natural military technician that Kirk is.  When ever they are shown playing Spock is frustrated by Kirk's "illogical" moves. In"Court Marital" when it looked like Kirk was going to lose his command he joked with Spock that maybe he might be able to beat his next captain in chess. 

This is something that Kirk wins!

 

This book reminds me a little bit of the short story In the Maze.  In that story the Enterprise encounters a species so advanced that it doesn’t recognize their intelligence and uses them as laboratory guinea pigs.  The difference is once the alien scientist realizes he is dealing with sentient beings becomes extremely remorseful and overcome with guilt.  Where these aliens know how smart humans are but in their view it’s not smart enough.  The best line in this story is when is arguing with Belen about what they are doing Belen counters that humans do the same thing.  Kirk defends humankind with the line, “yes, but we don’t do so on intelligent animals.”  To which Belen replies, “Neither do we.”

The ending of the story seems rushed and is very unsatisfying.  The Designers feel they learned all they need to and just give up and let everyone go.  It was almost the authors were getting bored the story and wanted to be done.  Well, I can relate to that because I was bored with the story too.   

Should it be canon: I would say no.  There are too many weird things going on in this book.  In addition to the whole Kirk/Spock thing, there is also the idea that 1/3 of Starfleet is all-Vulcan and is governed by different rules. I don’t think Starfleet should be a segregated society.

Cover Art:  The cover art is nice. It has Kirk and Spock in their TMP duds in the front. In background are the native Helvan in front of a mountain range.

Final Grade: Final Grade 2 of 5

KIRK VS. OMNE AND OMNE

 

Name: The Fate of the Phoenix  

Authors: Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath

Publication Date: 5/1979

Publisher: Bantam Books

Page Number: 262

Historian’s Note:  Immediately after The Price of the Phoenix

Cast of Characters:  Captain James T. Kirk and Prince 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            Nurse Christine Chapel          Ensign Pavel Chekov      The Romulan Fleet Commander       Subcommander Tal            Omne    Other Omne     Trevanian    Elder Hegarch of Voran Dynasty   Younger Hegarch of Voran Dynasty      The Romulan Commander-in-Chief    Doyen of the Thorvan League     Maroc     Maia Roblein           R.A. Roblein       Rovan         Varal of Voran         V'Rlee

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Phoenix ships, unnamed Romulan scout ship, unnamed Romulan heavy battle cruiser, unnamed Romulan dreadnought

Planets: Voran, Razar, and Thorva

My Spoiler filled summary and review: This book begins shortly after the authors’ last book, “The Price of the Phoenix” ends.  If the reader has not read it, that will not matter for the narrator gives a brief summary of events. The crew has been rocked by the adventure especially the Captain and First Officer.  The two wonder if they will ever be normal again.  Kirk now has a duplicate and there is a general fear that Omne, if he lives, can now make himself look like Spock.  (Why they fear this I have no idea it foreshadows this story but I don’t remember that being in the last book, more on that in My Additional Thoughts section.)  The duplicate Kirk now called James has gone to live in the Romulan Star Empire as the boytoy of the Lady Fleet Commander they first encountered in “The Enterprise Incident.”

Now the mistress of the clone Kirk

As the crew of the Enterprise continues their recovery elsewhere things are a foot.  A high-ranking Federation administrator who was about to resign after the death of a loved one now has that very same loved one returned to him somehow by a mysterious benefactor.  Not only is this fellow not retiring he announces that there will be a major conference.   This conference will be hosted by the Federation member Voran the capital and largest planet of the Voran Dynasty Hegemony.  The entire Hegemony joined the Federation as a group which gave their monarch control of a huge chunk of Federation territory near the Romulan Neutral Zone.  If they were to give up on the Federation, it would be a crippling blow putting the UFP in a distant disadvantage with both the Romulans and the Klingons.  The tone of the conference will be does the United Federation of Planets live up to its promises, the Prime Directive, and address the topic of secession.  Omne’s involvement couldn’t be clearer if there was a sign that said, “Omne’s not dead and he is behind all this.” 

Federation conferences what can go wrong?

It turns out that the Federation isn’t the only major intergalactic power with a large interplanetary sub-state.  For the Romulan Star Empire that is the Thorvan League of Planets, ruled by a constitutional monarch called, the Doyen.  The Fleet Commander has a history with the Doyen, when she captured one of her ships doing something they should not have been.  The League’s legislative body agreed that the Doyen is in her debt.  The Fleet Commander is looking for a power base if she is to stand against Omne without the support of her high command. 

It turns out that the Doyen has her own boytoy.  The Fleet Commander and the Doyen have a secret meeting/party where they exchange boytoys for the evening.  The clone James finds the whole thing a bit degrading but goes along with the kinky spirit of it.  The other boytoy is named Trevanian.  The Fleet Commander decides to invoke her right to demand a hostage and tells the Doyen that Trevanian will be that hostage.  This enrages the Doyen who demands they fight a duel of honor.   The duel doesn’t have to be to the death, but it can end that way.   The two fight the boytoys as the prize.  The Fleet Commander proves to be the better fighter and as a consequence Trevanian is going to be their guest.  The Fleet Commander did this not only to ensure Doyen loyalty but to protect James’s identity.  The hostage is allowed a kinsman.  He is talked out of it so they can say James is Trevanain and the real Trevanian is the kinsmen.  Doyen is said but will remain loyal.  

Clone Kirk, not the only Romulan boytoy

 Captain Kirk himself is made the top ambassador this conference by the Federation.  This is somewhat odd, for one the Federation would typically send an actual ambassador.  Maybe Starfleet Command felt all the first contacts and ad hoc negotiations gave him the skill they needed?  Kirk does an actually good job at defending the Federation’s positions.  He briefly meets with the old dying Hegarch and his young heir.  It is at this point the Romulan Fleet Commander shows up.  Running into her must be awkward for personal reasons, as his other self is her boytoy.  Kirk is also not sure whose she is on in this conflict or her possible motivations.  Calling into question the wisdom of allowing his other self to go live with her.

Whose side is she on?

Half-way through the conference, the attendees get to meet the new Regent of the Voran Dynasty Hegemony.  And the Regent is Omne.  Back from his apparent death, and now the leader of the subsection of the Federation looking leave, it is as if he has already won.  He even gets to enjoy humiliating Kirk.  As Omne’s position as Regent requires Kirk the Ambassador to great him as “my lord.”

Omne’s victory is short lived however when there is an assassination attempt at the conference by an individual who looks just like Spock.  The real Spock is severally injured and almost died, but is ironically saved by Omne.  Trevanian is also injured and is kidnapped by the fake Spock, with “James” going after them.  After the smoke clears Omne explains that the fake Spock was a hybrid phoenix duplicate of both himself and Mr. Spock, with the Omne personally dominating.  Omne had created him to use against Kirk but the hybrid other has Omne’s ego as well.   The Other, as Omne calls him, now has an agenda of his own and has the intelligence of both personalities at work.   

Spock injured

Kirk is forced to from an alliance with Omne, who a few chapters ago Kirk was moaning that Omne was the worst thing that ever happened to him, and the Lady Commander.  Omne is aware where the Other is heading.  Omne has a secret headquarters inside and anomaly that would spell doom for most ships. Omne has a special “Phoenix” ship that can travel through it.  Kirk, the Fleet Commander, and Spock all go on the mission with the Enterprise to follow behind with Mr. Scott in command. 

The party goes out to stop the Other, who also has a Phoenix ship, while entering the anomaly they find a Romulan scout ship also in pursuit the pilot is James, who is trying to get his fellow boytoy back from the Other.  That ship is destroyed but they are able to rescue James.  While James is in pain Kirk feels it as well.  Omne then tries to see if he can meditate and use it to reveal the Other.  This fails and Omne briefly regresses to an earlier point of his life when he wasn’t such a jerk, this only temporary and the memories all come back. 

 The Commander-In-Chief of the Romulan Star Empire shows up with a fleet of ships looking for the Fleet Commander who he suspects has betrayed the Empire to the Federation.  However, he becomes slightly outgunned when the Doyen shows up with her own fleet angry over the loss of her personal boytoy.  Although the Imperial government has more ships overall it does not have more ships here at the moment.  The two leaders exchange words when the Fleet Commander’s flagship arrives under the command of Subcommander Tal.  Tal tries to reason with both the Commander-in-Chief and the Doyen that the Fleet Commander is not a traitor and will get back the Doyen’s boytoy.  The Enterprise is stuck in the middle of all of this.

Subcommander Tal tries to reason with everyone

Kirk, Omne, and company have arrived at Omne’s world that he uses for a homebase. They must beam a good distance away from the location of the Other.  So, this landing party of mostly-enemies-now-reluctant-allies have to go over the mountain and through the woods to Omne’s headquarters they go.  They find their way there and confront the Other.  Each side tries to outwit the other, however the Other seems to have the upper hand.  The Other agrees to release Trevanain in exchange for him to be able to banish the non-hybrid Omne to another dimension.  They complete the exchange, but Omne has a trick up his sleeve and grabbed Captain Kirk so they both were transported.  Angered but not able to do anything, the remainder of the party leaves the planet and returns to the Enterprise outside the anomaly, where the starship is still in the middle of a Romulan stand still.  Spock and the Fleet Commander decide they will return to see if they can rescue Jim.  They decide to leave James behind, if they fail, he will have to become Captain Kirk again.

  Trapped in the other dimension Omne finds Kirk struck with amnesia and not much use to their cause.  Omne knows a way out of this place and leads the demented Kirk there.  However, they run into the Other who has traveled to stop them.  Then we have the Omne vs. Omne showdown.  Their final stand takes place over a bridge, that is over a deep cavern like the ones from “What are Little Girls Made of?”.  The bridge begins to collapse Omne escapes it but the Other and Kirk aren’t so lucky.  At this moment the inner Spock of the Other takes over and throws Captain Kirk to safety, while he falls to his death.  

Kirk and Omne use the Other’s technology to transport themselves back to safety.  However, Kirk gets back first and quickly grabs a phaser and gets the drop on Omne.  Turns out the Captain, never had amnesia it was just a ploy to trick Omne to let his guard down.  Kirk won’t kill Omne for he owes him for helping him.  He will use the Phoenix technology to make another Omne.  With his ego Omne can’t cooperate with a duplicate of himself.  He needs to dominate, the Other proved that.  With the anomaly about to collapse anyone left on the planet will be trapped there for quite some time.  Omne agrees to exile over duplication.  He and Kirk disagree whether or not this is his Elba or St. Helena. 

Kirk returns to the Enterprise, the situation with the Romulans is resolved, Kirk also contacts the young Hegarch.  The new monarch now seems quite capable away from Omne.  When told the Regent wouldn’t return, he is quite pleased and will remain in the Federation.  Everything seems good but Omne’s trigger transporter that he used to escape last time, is used to kidnap the clone James.  With James now trapped in exile with Omne the end has a bitter taste.  The Fleet Commander resolves to find her boytoy somehow.  The epilogue has Omne in exile meeting a mysterious someone.  It may be James or someone else.   

Additional thoughts: Okay one of the biggest challenges of this book is just getting past the premise.  A quote often attributed to the great Alfred Hitchcock “you can get someone to believe the impossible but not the improbable.”  I have no problems with the future spaceships that travel faster than light, aliens we can have sex with to make babies, and exact clone duplicates.  I cannot get on board with allowing Kirk’s duplicate, with all his knowledge, to go live with the Romulan Fleet Commander as her personal boytoy.  Not only do I find close friendliness and trust with her weird and unnatural, but just the risk of allowing the duplicate to fall into the wrong hands is way too much for me to accept.  It just strikes me as some kinky sex fantasy the writers came up with after watching “The Enterprise Incident.”

Also, after surgically altering the Kirk duplicate to look Romulan going so far as altering his blood so it would color green, why didn’t they give him a Romulan name to use most of the time?  Why is he still “James.”  Is that how the Fleet Commander introduces him to people?  “Who is that?” “Oh, it’s my little boytoy princeling James.”

The Romulan James

Spock is duplicated again.  This is not exactly original thinking.  We first saw this in “Spock Must Die,” then in the Animated Series episode “The Infinite Vulcan,” and once more in “Ni Var.”  This story does have a special twist with this clone being a hybrid of Spock and the main bad guy.  Speaking about this however the story begins with Kirk and Spock seemingly aware that a duplicate potentially exists.  Kirk goes so far to say he can never trust Spock again because he won’t know if it’s Spock. I do not remember this in the original story.  When reading this I went back and checked my original review over in case I had just forgotten.  Not finding a mention there I started reading other reviews of that book and still no mentions.  I don’t really want and won’t read that book a second time for something I am probably not going to find.  So this is either a complete retcon or so lightly covered in the first book that no one noticed.

Despite its clear flaws the book isn’t terrible there are some redeemable moments.  It also forces us to look at the villain differently as he temporally changes sides.  It reminds me of Terminator 2 thirteen years before it came out.  In the first story you introduce a seemingly unstoppable bad guy and barely stop him.  In the second you introduce a more impressive bad guy and have the former villain team up with the hero.  It allows some new insights into the villain. 

I assume Omne accepted Kirk’s amnesia story because of his own bout with the condition earlier in the story.  Either way it was funny to see Kirk win by simply “playing dumb.”  

I assumed the other Kirk was going to die at some point.  After all they can’t have two Kirks running around.  Instead he is just lost somewhere.  The Fleet Commander is on the case thought because a good boytoy is hard to find.  

Should it be canon: No, for the reasons I stated above.   The story’s very premise is overly ridiculous to be taken seriously.  Even as the alternate time line the story would be wonky. 

Cover Art:  The cover is not overly impressive.  It just has Kirk on his knees before a giant in the shadows who is clearly Omne.

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

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAPTAIN KIRK

Name: Star Trek: The New Voyages 2 – Story 1 “Surprise!”

Author: Nichelle Nichols, Sondra Marshak, and Myrna Culbreath

Publication Date: 1/1978

Publisher: Bantam Books

Page Number: 31

Historian’s Note: Sometime after The Second Season of the Animated Series   

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      Mori       Mori’s parents       Mori’s grandfather

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets: Arcos

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The adventure begins as the landing party returns from a successful diplomatic mission from Arcos.  The key to their success was the team saving the life of the young grandson of the primary member of the ruling triumvirate.  The child, named Mori, was particularly charmed by Lt. Uhura.

All of the transporter pad we are taking a picture

                It is also apparently Captain Kirk’s birthday tomorrow and the crew is arranging a surprise party for him.  What plays out for the rest of the story is a comedy of errors, as two primary things get in the way of the goal of giving the Captain a nice birthday.  The first is Captain Kirk is not being particularly responsive to being directed by his crew to go places for certain reasons. Kirk has no clue to what is actually going on and spends most of the story getting annoyed at his crew for showing up late to duty and openly annoying him.   The second issue is there is an alien entity on board.  That entity is messing with the starship’s equipment.  At one point the food remixer starts shooting out cake and making a mess of things. A new problem emerges in the form of a communication from Arcos that indicates that Mori is missing his friend.  

                Everything quickly resolves itself. It turns out this entity that can assume a hairy physical form is the friend that Moir is missing. Once he is brought back the Enterprise’s equipment returns to normal. Captain Kirk gets his birthday party and he gets his present from Spock as soon as he beats the Vulcan at chess. Kirk’s present is a grand master’s certificate given how many games of chess he has prevailed at.

Additional thoughts: As much as I love Star Trek, some of its great supporting characters are criminally underused. Considering that this story was written by Nichelle Nichols you would think that Lt. Uhura would be given a little more attention.  Nope, this is a story about Kirk and Spock like almost every other Star Trek story. The only thing that Lt. Uhura gets is a statement about how great she is with children, and Captain Kirk confiding to Spock that he wishes he could give Lt. Uhura her birthday spanking.  Really, Nichelle!

"So, you're saying the Captain wants to spank me? It's almost like I wrote this story!" 

                The story was fun but everyone’s characterization seemed to be a little off. For example, Spock at one point picking Kirk up over his shoulder and carrying him away from the mess hall where they are making his cake and setting up the party, with Kirk protesting the whole time.  The story seemed to try to be “The Practical Joker” but didn’t have the same level of success.

This man is not having a fun time in either story.

                Also, something that I found really weird is in this story Kirk and Spock seem to share a bathroom that connects both their quarters.  This is strange for several reasons one of which I was sure that Kirk and Spock’s quarters were on opposite sides of the corridor.  In the story they use this set up to play chess with each other one play at a time when one just so happens to walk by their quarters.  In a small subplot Spock has Uhura make his move for him and Kirk catches is her as he just came out of the shower and accidently drops his towel.   

Should it be canon: No, because the characters act way too weird, so unless the strange creature that snuck aboard is revealed to be responsible it should remain a fun “what if story.” 

Cover Art: 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 2 of 5