THE ENTERPRISE, WITH THE KLINGONS AND ROMULANS, ENCOUNTER A MAGIC SPACE GNOME

 

Name: Trek to Madworld

Author: Stephen Goldin

Publication Date: 1/1979

Publisher: Bantam Books

Page Number: 177

Historian’s Note:  Some time in between Turnabout Intruder and More Tribbles, More Trouble

Cast of Characters:  Captain James T. Kirk       Commander Spock              Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”       Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Lieutenant Nyota Uhura              Lieutenant Kyle       Lieutenant Ramona Placer          Lieutenant Solari               Lieutenant Leaming           Lieutenant Sydney             Lieutenant Rodrigues           Nurse Christine Chapel          Ensign Pavel Chekov             Ensign Ti-Chen             Captain Kostas Spyroukis                   Metika Spyroukis          Captain Kolvor         Commander Actius Probicol        Lieutenant Marcus Claudius Breccio               Enowil      

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, IKS Destructor, ChR Talon

Planets: Babel, Enowil’s World, Epsilon Delta 4

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The story begins with Captain Kirk being very excited to have the Enterprise transport one of his boyhood heroes, Captain Kostas Spyroukis, back to his present home.  Spyroukis had been an explorer in the early part of the century who found and colonized over thirty worlds.  His final world Epsilon Delta 4 was where he decided to retire to and lead to complete Federation membership.  It was that last point to while he was on his current mission, he wanted his world not to be a colony but a fully functioning member world of the Federation right now.  He and his willful young adult daughter have argued passionately at this year’s Babel Conference.  Only to find themselves turned down flat.

Not a good Babel Conference this year

When the two came aboard Kirk was a bit let down that Captain Spyroukis didn’t want to talk, as he was both disappointed and exhausted.  His beautiful daughter on the other hand was quite willing to talk and went on and one about her position.  Kirk actually agreed with the Federation’s decision as the world was not yet developed enough, but he decides to let it go so he can continue to flirt with his hero’s hot daughter.  The two of them are getting along so well that Kirk gets to the point where he invites the young Metika Spyroukis to his cabin.  However as if he father’s senses that his daughter is about to score with Captain Kirk, he suddenly has a medical emergency and the two would be lovers are both called to sickbay.   

Kirk easily gets long with beautiful women

Captain Spyroukis is dying, but they don’t know what of.  Spock and McCoy team up and determine it is due to long-term exposure to the environment of Epsilon Delta 4.  Metika is okay because she hasn’t been there as long as her father. They, however, are unsure where the final cut off point is.  They send their research to Starfleet who tests and confirms their hypothesis.  Starfleet Command orders the Enterprise to evacuate the planet.   Kirk explains this to Metika who takes the news surprisingly well.  She is disappointed but realistic. A dying Captain Spyroukis confides to Kirk that he knew there was a risk to the settlement, but he was desperate for one last triumph.  He tells his fellow captain that he was always disappointed none of his worlds were ever named in his honor and he just wanted this last victory.  After a brief meeting with his daughter, he passes away.

Since time is of the essence Kirk studies the navigation charts to see if there is any way he can get there faster than the current five-day estimate.  He discovers they are not taking the most direct route to the planetary system.  After talking to Lt. Sulu, the Lieutenant explains that the more direct route has a hazard warning.  The type of hazard warning however is one a Constitution-class heavy cruiser should be able to push off without problem.  Kirk orders them to change course.

Change course

This turns out to be a mistake because they come across an energy bubble in space that is on course to intercept them.  Spock, on the bridge, tries to change course, but the energy bubble follows them.  The energy bubble envelops the Enterprise and power goes off all over the ship.  Despite no gravity and complete darkness Kirk makes his way to the bridge.  Shortly after Kirk arrives the power returns and this allows the Enterprise to explore this new dimension that they are now in.  

Sucked in 

What they quickly find is there are two other ships and neither one is friendly.  One if Klingon and the other is Romulan.  Each ship wonders if one of the other two is responsible for bringing them here.  The Klingon ship tries to fire but finds its weapons are useless here.  It is at this point that Enowil introduces himself.  He looks like a gnome from Earth legends, but he demonstrates abilities that remind the crew of the time they dealt with Trelane.  He can appear and disappear at will, he seems to know everything that is going on, and at one point he makes the walls on the bridge grow ears! (He quickly undoes it.)  Enowil enjoys Mr. Spock’s manner.  He admits that he both knew and disliked Trelane as he feels his parents spoiled him.  He reveals that he is an Organian, however his personality didn’t suit his fellow Organians so he was asked to leave.  He was given his own little dimension to play in.   However, he has a problem.  He doesn’t really know what that is but he would like some help trying to identify and solve it.  Whoever does this will earn a great prize.  Enowil will allow the winner to wish for anything they want and he will grant it with his powers.  His offer is open to all three crews but if they don’t want to participate, they are free to leave, in fact he can get them to where they want to go faster. 

The ship meets an interesting Gnome

Kirk has a meeting with his senior officers, his first instinct is to turn Enowil down.  However, he is afraid of the Klingons or the Romulans winning and being able to wish for anything they want which would put the Federation at a great disadvantage in the future.  Kirk then agrees to participate and organizes a landing party that will include Metika, since her world’s people have the most to lose.  Enowil uses his powers to bring them to his planet.  Its dark and dawn is about to break, when the sun rises it has Spock’s name spelled out on it.  

No friends

Throughout their time on the planet members of the three crews keep trying to guess his problem however Enowil shows the solution every time.  One guesses because his world is bare, then Enowil takes them to a special zoo with neat creatures.  Another guesses he needs a world with intelligent beings in it not just dumb animals.  Enowil shows he has quite a large population on his planet.  Another guess is everyone on the planet just does what he tells them and cannot think for themselves.  Enowil then takes them to a debate center where there are arguments.  McCoy at one-point wonders about sex.  Enowil shows that they have ever type of sex on the planet.

As this continues to go on the Klingon Captain grows tiresome.  He tries to recruit his Romulan counterpart and Kirk into a conspiracy against each other so he can win this by default.  Both turn him down flat.  He does, however, see weakness in Metika.  He uses her concern over her neighbors’ lives to manipulate her into putting a bomb on the Romulan ship.  When she attempts it, she is caught by a Romulan guard, named Breccio, who tries to shoot her, but his weapon fails.  The two of them are transported to Enowil’s world.  They fought for a bit but decided to team up and find a way out.  They go on several adventures, one which involves a pterodactyl.  By the time they make it back to the main group, the Romulan Breccio, even covers for Metkia.  This, however, doesn’t fool his commander and his fate seems sealed.  The Klingons try to put a bomb on the Enterprise but Kirk manages to stop them in time and Enowil saw to it that the bomb wouldn’t work anyway. 

Klingons placing bombs

 Kirk was able to solve the puzzle.  What Enowil needed was third party preceptive.  He needs other people who he didn’t create to appreciate and critique his creation.  Kirk wishes for Enowil to create a new planet named Spyroukis for the colonists from Epsilon Delta 4 to live on healthy and free.  Metkia and Breccio are allowed to stay too, as much as the Romulan Commander hated it.   Later, back on the ship Kirk confesses that faced with the reality of having anything he could want he just said the first thing that came to his mind as opposed to truly thinking about it. For if he thought about it for too long, he didn’t know what he might have wished for.   

Additional thoughts: This was a fun story to read.  It has the right pace, and although short it doesn’t seem rushed. Enowil is such a fun character, I like the Spock immediately makes the Trelane connection.  I also enjoy Enowil response to it.  Enowil origin turned out to be great: an Organian kicked off Organia. It is an impressive creative idea to take the ultrasoft and sensible Organians, but also all-powerful, and create one that is with an over jubilant personality.  He is not mean like other tricksters he just wants some friends.

 There were some technical issues with the book I took notice of.  The book refers to McCoy’s rank as lieutenant commander as it was in the entire classic Star Trek series.  However, in the Animated Series he wore the rank of full commander, and in the book “Vulcan” he is said to have the same rank as Spock and Dr. Tremain.  So, I would guess that means this book would take place before the Animated Series and the earlier book.  Which is fine.  The one thing I didn’t like was when they referred to the Enterprise as a Constellation-class ship, it’s a Constitution-class ship.

Something the early part of this story established is that the Federation has rules and regulations for a reason and that is a good thing.  We begin with the Spyroukis father/daughter duo trying to convince the Federation Council to ignore its standards and give their world, with its only 700 people, full Federation membership.  Then it turns the whole thing is a giant deathtrap and no one can stay there anyway.  Yes, those who write regulations know what they are doing, and I don’t think we should spend much time questioning their wisdom.

I always want to acknowledge when a writer makes a conscious effort for us to get to know members of the Enterprise crew, who aren’t part of the senior staff or bridge crew.  There are supposed to be over 430 crew members, we should see more of them.  Even that small scene we got to see with Lt. Placer as the personnel officer was great.  I also appreciate when the author has the characters refer to their past adventures in the franchise, not only does it reward long-time fans by letting them know you as the author also remember but it would also make more sense, if the crew were real then they should be able to recall past events and make comparisons.

Its good to be remembered

Like in the book “Vulcan” the Romulans are space Romans.  I mean with a name like “Marcus Claudius Breccio,” it just screams Rome.  Also, the Klingons in this book live up to their usual treachery, in the tradition of poison grain in “The Trouble with Tribbles,” this Klingon commander likes to use bombs on his enemy’s engine rooms.  This reminds me of the episode “The Time Trap” where Kor would also try the bomb-in-the-engine-room trap.

While reading the book I kept going back and forth on to imagine the ChR Talon as Romulan Bird of Prey or as a D-7R class.  The reason for this confusion is the book doesn’t clarify what it is, but it does give conflicting details.  They hint that Captain Kolvor knows about the setup of the Romulan ship because they are allies who use the same technology—indicating that it’s a D-7R as the are the same as the K't'inga-class.  However, they also say that the Romulan ship is small and does not have a large crew aboard.  This would seem to indicate that it was the Bird of Prey.  Now I suppose it’s possible the during their alliance Kolor learned some things about the Bird of Prey, but he doesn’t seem to be the person anyone should trust.   

In the end, I must wonder how many more rebel Organians are out there.

Should it be canon: Absolutely, the story is great little addition to Star Trek. Like most episodes it’s self-contained.  Anything you need to know about the story is in the story itself.  Also, everything is resolved in story as well, so it doesn’t affect anything else in the franchise.   

Cover Art: The cover has Kirk, Scotty, and Chekov on the bridge of the Enterprise and they all have a shocked look on their faces.  Kirk is standing in front of his command chair, and Scotty is behind him on the viewer’s right.  Chekov is for some reason sitting at Sulu’s station.  The whole cover is odd because neither Scotty nor Chekov are major characters in this story.  They are there but they are not justified in being featured on the cover. 

Final Grade: Final Grade 5 of 5

 

JAMES T. KIRK, A CAPTAIN WHO OBEYS THE PRIME DIRECTIVE

 

Introduction

There are many myths about Captain Kirk, which is an odd thing considering he is a fictional character.  Nevertheless, there are a number of common misconceptions with the character’s popular image that don’t exist as part of the source material.  One example is what is typically dubbed “Shatner speak.”  This is explained as the act of talking as if there is a period after the end of every word.  This is most famous satirized by Jim Carrey during his time with Saturday Night Live.  Another myth is that he is frequent rule breaker, who does whatever he feels is right regardless of orders.  This is even popularized by the show itself most recently in the series Lower Decks where frequent rule-breaker Beckett Mariner calls herself a “Kirk-type” to justify her actions.  Then there of course the classical claim that he is a crazy womanizer as popularized most recently by the pregnant “Kirk was here” cosplayers.

  One of interesting things about the Star Trek franchise is it is so large that many fans, if not most, come into it sideways.  They don’t start at the beginning they start at whatever series was on when they begin watching.  When they come across the original series it is basically history for them.  It is not at all unusual to see on Star Trek fan forums this question posted, “So I just started watching the original series, pretty good so far, when does the whole Shatner-speak start?  I am almost through the first season and I haven’t seen it yet.” There are a few scenes where Kirk does talk slowly however these are normally in situations where the Captain has to be careful with his words.  He is in diplomatic situation or something similar.  The best example I think of is Kirk’s first scene with Khan in “The Wrath of Khan.”  

Over the years there have been many articles debunking these many myths.  Larry Womack of the Huffington Post wrote a great article in 2013 titled, In Defense of (the Original) James T. Kirk, where he tackles Kirk’s reputation of being a rule breaker and womanizer in the aftermath of the Kelvin Universe Star Trek films’ version of Captain Kirk, and John E Price of Medium wrote a similar piece called You Either Believe in Yourself or You Don’t: Star Trek Discovery, James T. Kirk, and the Power of Traditional Memory. Internet essayist and Star Trek enthusiast Steve Shives created a great video in 2018 titled Is Captain Kirk Actually a Womanizer to which he takes down that myth flat.

The myth that I want to tackle is the one that states Captain Kirk is not only a rule breaker but that he repeatedly violates Starfleet’s General Order Number One: The Prime Directive.  (As if you couldn’t tell that by the title.) As all fans know, the Prime Directive states that Starfleet will not interfere in the internal development of a foreign society, and if said society has not yet developed warp drive Starfleet is not even allowed to let that society know that Starfleet and the Federation exist.  The reason the Prime Directive exists is the Federation does not want the exploration of the universe to have the same devastating effect on alien societies that European exploration and colonization did to the many aboriginal societies of Earth.  However, it has it has its drawbacks and some would argue that Prime Directive itself is immoral.  For if a Starfleet vessel were to discover a world that was like 1930s Earth where fascist regimes were engaged in genocide of persecuted peoples.  Then that vessel would not do a thing to stop it.

"No identification of self or mission. No interference with the social development of said planet. No references to space, or the fact that there are other worlds, or more advanced civilizations." Dr. McCoy in "Bread and Circuses"

Kirk’s reputation of ignoring the Prime Directive is a recognized trait of his character and is mentioned both within Star Trek (Remember Janeway’s quote about 23^rd century officers being quick to draw their phasers and slow to invoke the Prime Directive?) and without.  There was an episode of JAG where the character Bud Roberts was able to get information from a terrorist by going over Star Trek trivia.  The incident is initiated by an argument over Kirk’s violation of the Prime Directive to which Bud says Kirk did “all the time.”

This is a myth.  Kirk only violated the Prime Directive once.  Yes, that is right I said it.  He only did it once, and it was under an extreme situation.  Now I know what you are thinking: “I have seen Star Trek X-number of times and I saw him violate the Prime Directive X-number of times much higher than 1.”  I know but you’re wrong and with that let’s go over Kirk’s relationship with the Prime Directive.             

When the Captain is Clearly Obeying

People are so caught up calling out Kirk for allegedly violating the Prime Directive that they forget how much he is a defender of it.  A good example of Kirk obeying is the episode “Bread and Circuses.”  In this episode the Enterprise travels to one of the many fake Earths that they encounter during Star Trek’s classical run.  On this fake Earth they find that the Roman Empire has survived until the 20^th century and they now have their gladiator games on TV.  A Federation merchant ship was stranded on the planet and Kirk is looking to retrieve them.  While they are there, they find some underground rebels.  After hanging out with the rebels they are captured by Roman authorities and taken to the Proconsul.  It turns out the Merchant Captain told the Proconsul everything about Starfleet and the Federation, including the Prime Directive.  In this episode Kirk has the means and the motive to overwhelm the Romans of Fake Earth with fire power and take the Federation citizens there by force.  However, Captain Kirk is restrained the by the Prime Directive, understanding that he and his crew will have to come up with a less direct way of getting the actions that they desire accomplished.  Which they do, they manage to remove the Federation elements from the Fake Earth with no one from the general population being the wiser.

Kirk is trying to find a way out of this mess without violating the Prime Directive

Another example is the episode “The Paradise Syndrome.” In this episode Kirk loses his memory and for a while is living with a Native American tribe whose ancestors were placed on this planet by the ancient Preservers.  There Kirk falls in love with a local woman named Miramanee and marries her.  When Kirk fails the tribe in a major way, they turn on him and stone him as a fraud, Miramanee tries to save him and is killed as a result.  Once Kirk’s memory is restored, he does not go back to the tribe and explain to them why they were wrong and blame them for killing Miramanee.  He recognizes the Prime Directive and ceases all contact with those people. He doesn’t even bother to explain to them how to turn on the Preserver device.

He interferes here but stops when his memory returns

Someone Else Already Interfered

The first batch of Captain Kirk’s so-called “violations” are actually already covered in an established portion of Starfleet law.  That if interference on an alien culture has already happened then a Starfleet crew is allowed to correct the imbalance, try to expunge the interference, or cut the losses and make the best out of a bad situation. The first of these can be seen in the episode “A Private Little War” here Captain Kirk returns to a planet named Neural that he once visited as a young lieutenant, I am assuming before he ran into the vampire cloud, only to discover that the Klingons have shown up and armed the villagers with advanced weaponry and sent them to attack the hill people. Upon confirming the Klingons involvement Kirk arms and trains the hill people with the same weapons that Klingons provided the villagers.  Kirk isn’t breaking the Prime Directive here; he is giving the planet a course correction due to Klingon interference.

Looks like we already have interference

  The next example of this is “A Piece of the Action.”  In this episode the Enterprise travels to the planet Sigma Iotia II.  The planet was last visited by the Horizon over a century ago. At the time the Prime Directive had yet to be established and the crew thought nothing about leaving behind a book called The Chicago Mobs of the Twenties, along with some manuals about early twentieth century technology.  Now the entire population of the planet is living a world based of the gang culture of Prohibition-era Chicago.  Instead of leaving Kirk decides to undo some of the damage done by the accidental interference.  He gathers all the gangs, impresses them with his technology and fire power of his ship, and informs them that the Federation is “taking over” as “the prime operator.”  All the gangs will now have to get in line, Kirk then reorganizes their entire government for them.  

Not good!

The third case of this is one not caused by a slight error but one caused by extreme stupidity.  In the episode “Patterns of Force” a historian named John Gill travels the planet Ekos and finds it divided by war and chaos.  Amid this chaos the award-winning historian decided what this planet truly needs is some Nazism.  Nope, not kidding that is what he did.  Naturally, when the Enterprise arrives, they are shocked to say the least.  So, as such Captain Kirk and Spock go to the planet and after some great difficulty find Gill, who was no a prisoner and puppet figurehead by his deputy, they have him give a public confession and turn on his party.  The leave the planet in the hands of two allies they feel they can trust and leave.    

Exposing the Nazis

Finally, we have the episode “Omega Glory” where Captain Ronald Tracey of the Exter goes to Omega IV.  Omega IV is another one of those Fake Earth, this one where the Cold War got hot the world was destroyed and the survivors are still fighting each other even though they don’t remember why.  Tracey becomes convinced he can become immortal on this planet so he tried to aid one side by helping them fight their war by using phasers.  Kirk having discovered this moves to stop him and then helps the people of Omega IV correctly interpret their own “holy words.” With Tracey now their prisoner, Kirk and crew leave.

Its the captain with the phaser who is breaking the rules.

That Depends What Your Definition of “Developing” is

In other cases where Kirk appears to violate the Prime Directive, he doesn’t due to some creative reading of the text.  The Prime Directive states that they shall not interfere with the internal development of another culture.  Kirk reasons if the culture isn’t doing any developing then all bets are off.  I am also convinced that by the TNG era this interpretation has been eliminated via legislation.  Kind of like how Kirk led his own away missions but by the TNG era the regulations forbade a captain from doing that.

First example of this is in the episode “Miri.”  This episode is also famous for giving us our first-of-many Fake Earths.  The Enterprise arrives at this fake Earth only to discover that they took a dramatic turn from the real Earth in their version of the 1960s.  Trying to extend their natural lives into the centuries, they failed miserably and caused every adult on the planet to turn into a rabid monster that would tear things apart then quickly die.  The children did get the life extension but when they reached a point where their biological age leads them into puberty and they turn into monsters too.  Captain Kirk not only has McCoy discover away to save the landing party from the virus but he gives it to the kids and Starfleet sends teams to help the children rebuild their society.  Fake Earth culture was a frozen corpse so Kirk decided to interfere. 

This culture clearly stopped working

The second of example of this is the classic episode “The Return of the Archons.”  Here Captain Kirk and his crew travel to the planet Beta III and encounter a society that is ruled and managed by a computer.  Most people are kept in an altered mental state where they came to be part of “the body.” Those who are not are quickly made that way upon discovery.  There is evidence that this society was more advanced until a ruler named Landru created the “the body” to prevent war and bloodshed.  Kirk decides that this society is stagnant under the rule of a machine and decided to break the people free. He leaves behind some advisors to help that now free Betans to take control once again.

Weird state!

This is repeated in the second season episode “The Apple.” One on hand the episode is a clone of the pervious one discussed a society has come under the rule of computer who keeps the people in a primitive state.  There are some key differences however. Where Landru kept his people trapped in a 19^th century type society where Vaal keeps them in a Garden of Eden state.  Like before Kirk determines that this society is stagnant and not developing.  Kirk ends up destroying Vaal freeing the people to control their own destiny.

Explaining orders from Vaal!

When Starfleet Command Decides to Ignore the Prime Directive

Then there are times where Starfleet Command and the Federation decide to override the Prime Directive in certain situations.  The first example of this is the episode “Errand of Mercy.”  This is the episode that was the first appearance of the Klingons.  War has been declared between the two powers.  Starfleet recognizes the strategic location of Organian system.  As such we no longer care if they are a bunch of pre-warp primitives.  It’s not our fault the Klingons are coming anyway so Organians aren’t going to be allowed to develop naturally so this is a primitive planet is going to get a sudden upgrade.  Call it a preemptive.  It turns out the reverse happened far from the Federation and Klingon Empire dictating to the Organians, the Organians revel themselves to be gods and dictate to the two space powers.  Treaty is forced upon them and peace is saved.

When you realize they are the ones doing the telling!

The second time we see this is in the episode “Friday’s Child.”  In this case contact has been made with the natives of Capella IV in a mission that did not involve the Enterprise but one that Dr. McCoy participated in.  The reason Starfleet authorized such contact is the planet is bursting with dilithium crystals.  When the Federation sees a planet that produces dilithium crystals like this they get the same feeling that the United States does when they find an oil rich nation: that is a nation that can use some “freedom.”  Starfleet looks at Capella IV as one that can use some “advancement.” To be fair Starfleet wants this to be a voluntary transaction and they are not conquering them.  In the end with the new leader, Leonard James Akaar, enthroned Starfleet will probably have an easier time. 

Yes, we have your crystals

Speaking of involuntary we have the episode “Spretre of the Gun.”  Starfleet wants contact with the Melkotians so bad that they won’t let Kirk take “no” for an answer.  The Enterprise heads to Melkos and when the Melkotians demand they leave, Kirk’s orders tell him he must proceed anyway.  This ends up with the landing party stuck in a Western.  It’s a strange episode. 

Go Away!

The One Time Kirk Did Violate the Prime Directive

There was this one time that Captain Kirk did out right violate the Prime Directive.  That was in the episode “A Taste of Armageddon.” In this episode the Enterprise is on a diplomatic mission to the planets Eminiar VII and Vendikar.  The two worlds claim to have been at war over centuries although there is no evidence of any such thing on the surface.  It turns out they fight their war in a computer simulation.  This gives them all the casualties with none of the destruction of infrastructure.  This also means that the war where people die not only doesn’t stop it never slows down.  When the simulation is made all of those reported “killed” must report to disintegration chamber to have their vaporized and recorded as such.  They also tell the Captain that his ship was one of the casualties and therefore his entire crew must submit to be killed.  Now at this point Kirk could just escape, return to the Enterprise, and get the hell out of there.  However, he has another plan in mind.  He decides to destroy their machines and force them to fight their war for real.  Panicking at the thought of all the coming destruction the leaders of Eminiar VII agree to have Ambassador Fox agree to open negotiations with Vendikar. 

"I'm going to teach you to fight your war for real"

Now let’s be clear, there was no outside interference from either aliens, such as Klingons, or stupid humans who messed up something that Kirk had to correct.  The society was not failing to develop, in fact the whole purpose for this set-up was to allow for the society to continue to grow despite the war.  There was no command from Starfleet to ignore the Prime Directive.  Kirk just decided that he didn’t like what these people were doing so he was going to end it.  Why did Starfleet get away with it?  A novel I once read—that I can’t recall the name of—stated that the Federation was so horrified at what was being described that they chose to look the other way on the matter.

"Planning their break out!"

Conclusion

                In conclusion I hope I have convinced you that far from being a rebel, Captain Kirk was in fact a defender of Starfleet highest command. The exceptions are just that, exceptions, the reason there happens be so much is because writers need drama to have characters go through in order to give us a story.

 

ONE SPOCK, TWO SPOCKS, WHICH SPOCK IS THE REAL SPOCK?

 

Name: Spock Must Die!

Author: James Blish

Publication Date: 2/1970

Publisher: Bantam Books

Page Number: 118

Historian’s Note: I am assuming sometime after season 3. The latest episode mentioned is “Spretre of the Gun.” Events that take place during the book means it has to take place sometime after “Day of the Dove.”  

Cast of Characters:  Captain James T. Kirk    Commander Spock and another 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      Yeoman First Class Janice Rand           Admiral Kor         Commander Koloth             Ayelborne       Claymare            Trefayne    

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Fleets of unnamed Klingon K't'inga-class battle cruisers and support ships

Planets: Organia and Qo'noS

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The book begins with Captain Kirk walking into a discussion between Dr. McCoy and Mr. Scott.  The two senior officers are having an argument about the transporter.  In what I think is probably the first time in what will ultimately become a major Star Trek fan debate: McCoy is wondering if the transporter kills its users and just makes copies of them.  Scotty thinks this is a lot of hogwash and Kirk mostly agrees.

That is when the horrible news came in.  The Enterprise had received word from Starfleet Command that the planet Organia whose powerful non-corporal inhabitants had forced peace between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire, has completely disappeared.  Almost if the Klingons were expecting it, a massive invasion begins with the Klingons scoring many victories against Starfleet.  To make matters worse the Enterprise was flying through disputed space at the time of the attack, and as a result our favorite starship finds itself behind enemy lines.  They brainstorm about what to do and Sulu suggests they use the fact that no one knows where they are to launch some sneak attacks on Klingon depots and supply lines.  This would cause damage that Starfleet on the front line should be able to exploit.  It has the downside of likely getting them killed but that is looking more likely anyhow.

The Federation is under siege 

Instead, the Captain decides to take the starship to where Organia was supposed to be.  Once there they discover that the area of space the planet was supposed to be occupying was covered with a type of shield.  They have no idea what this is and speculate it might be something that the Organians themselves have created.  If they get to close to it, they not only find themselves physically effected but mentally as well. 

They can’t penetrate the shield but Scotty thinks he has a way around it.  He can rig the transporter to create a temporary tachyon duplicate of whoever is in the transporter with all the memories of the original that will be sent to Organia faster than light.  There the duplicate will attempt to make contact with the Organians before returning to the ship and transferring all its knowledge to the original before vanishing.  Since they had been to Organia before, Kirk decides that it has to be him or Spock.  Spock volunteers.

Scotty sets up the main transporter room with the necessary changes. Due to the risk the transporter itself has to be closed up during the operation.  Spock climbs in and they begin the procedure.  However, something goes wrong and when they open up the transporter, they discover that instead of a temporary tachyon duplicate, the transporter created a full-fledged in the flesh duplicate of Mr. Spock.  Both Mr. Spocks however claim that they are the original.  

Kirk must figure out who is the true Spock 

Kirk labels them “Spock One” and “Spock Two.” He sends Spock One to his (their) quarters and has a meeting with Spock Two.  During the conversation Kirk is surprised at Spock Two’s violent thoughts toward his counterpart.  Spock Two is insistent there cannot be two and the duplicate has to be destroyed.  When he talks to Spock One, he finds him to be a little more reasonable and Kirk gives him his class ring so he can tell them apart. 

Kirk decides to have the two Spocks work opposite shifts and the only other crewmembers he lets in on this are Yeoman Rand and Nurse Chapel.  This however doesn’t work because it appears one of the Spocks commits sabotage that could leave them vulnerable to the Klingons.  This causes Kirk to relive both of them, explain the situation to the crew, and make Mr. Sulu the acting first officer.  (I thought it was odd that it was Sulu and not Scotty, as Scotty was next in the chain of command. However, Scotty was also trying to unwrap the mystery of the two Spocks with the transporter.  So, I assume that Kirk felt that the transporter work would take up too much of Scotty’s time.)

Scotty must find away to put this all back together, so Sulu rises to Kirk's right hand.

Shortly thereafter Spock One barricades himself in one of Dr. McCoy’s labs.  There he demands that the other Spock be destroyed.  While dealing with one Spock locked up, Kirk allows the other to return to limited duty at the science station but does not restore his command authority.  Kirk decides to get closer to Organia but doing so brings the entire crew under a type of mental attack.  After the retreat, Spock One also claims that he has information on Organia but will not share that information until after his demands are met.

Then a fleet of Klingon ships that consists of a K't'inga-class battle cruiser and a five support ships come into attack the Enterprise.  Using his superior tactical mind, Captain Kirk outwits and destroys the Klingon fleet.  They then must speculate to why the Klingons knew they were there.  Did someone tip them off (like one of the Spocks) or were the Klingons responsible for what happened to Organia and had a fleet there to guard it?

Uhura decides to channel her inner geek and sends messages to Starfleet using James Joyce’s fictional language Eurish.  Later in a senior officers meeting Kirk goes over possibilities with his crew and the two Spocks (with Spock One participating by intercom) actually have a rare moment of agreement on the presence of the Klingons.  McCoy announces that he has found a way to tell which Spock is the real Spock.  Scotty had run tests on some animals to see if he could recreate what happened with Spock and each time he did.  McCoy then examined the pairs and noticed that one in each pair died after a few days.  It turns out the dead ones were the duplicates, the process that created them made them mirror images and as such couldn’t process normal food without some accommodation. (McCoy has a very complicated explanation about this but I am not going to rehash it all here.)  Which ever Spock is the fake has been making modifications to his food.  To test they just have to give each Spock unmodified food and see who refuses to eat it.  Spock Two says okay while Spock One runs off. Spock One steals a shuttle craft and somehow equipped it with warp drive. 

McCoy solves the mystery of the Spocks

Scotty becomes convinced that the shield around Organia is artificial in nature and he is confident that he can fix the transporter so they can beam through it.  Taking all the bonus equipment that caused the duplication mess, they can now use it as a transporter again.   As they approach the planet again the same dreed feeling came over the crew, however they ignore it long enough to beam Kirk, the Real Spock, and Scotty down to the surface. 

Once they materialize on the surface Kirk and Scotty are instantly helpless as their nightmares come to life and paralyze them with fear.  To be fair, they probably should have expected that.  Kirk comes to and seems to be in ruins of the town he visited last time he was at the planet. He seems to have found Spock but it’s the wrong one.

Only one Spock is true Spock!

We get a showdown between the Spocks, and while I had almost no idea what was going on and neither apparently did Captain Kirk.  What the two Spocks seemed to do was to fight with the illusions however it was never clear to me.  The true Spock wins and the fake Spock perishes.  They meet up with Council of Elders of Organia.  Spock and Scotty work together to get the shield off of Organia.  Then the three officers are magically sent home to the bridge of the Enterprise.  Which is just in the nick of time too.  Up to this point Mr. Sulu was leading a ship that was being chased by a Klingon fleet commanded by Koloth, and although he was giving the Klingons a good chase it was inevitable that they were going to be destroyed. However now that the Organians were out of their cage the Klingons were in a lot of trouble.    The Organians punish the Klingons by taking away their space flight capabilities for a thousand years.

Kor and company are in for a shock!

The book ends with Spock explaining to his crewmates that he and his duplicate had a semi-telepathic connection.  That connection allowed him to sense that nature of his thoughts and Spock discover that his duplicate has no loyalty to the ship and crew and might even do them harm.  Spock stated that he could not explain it however while the connection was enforced.  The book ends with Mr. Spock answering McCoy’s original question about transporter death and soul transfer as irrelevant sense there is no way to test it.

Additional thoughts: This book was published one year after the series came to an end.  In his introduction Blish is clearly outraged at Star Trek’s cancelation and infuriated with studio executives who caused it.  He makes a prediction that this would not be the end and Star Trek would return.  Unfortunately, save for the cartoon, Blish would not live to see Star Trek begin its golden age staring with the first film in 1979.  Blish got the idea for this novel in the middle of his write ups for the original series episodes that were released in a series of books.   

I am quite certain that this is the first written account of Star Trek’s great transporter debate.  Does the transporter kill us and then just create a copy of us? What would be the religious implications if this were true?  The book gives a conclusive if unsatisfactory answer, that “a difference with no distinction is no difference.”  The strangest part of this episode, and one I didn’t care for, is they were actually trying to make a sort of transporter duplicate to begin with, just one made of energy tachyons and not regular flesh—if I am understanding it correctly, this made me feel really weird.  After all, why were they surprised when they ended up with an actual duplicate in the flesh?  The ethics of making a copy of one of your crew to perform a function temporarily then die when it is over is at least as worthy for some debate as the general transporter discussion. 

I think the book was very misnamed.  “Spock Must Die” is a very misleading title considering that Spock doesn’t need to die.  I suppose Blish could have called it “A Spock Must Die.” I am told the reason for the title was to drive up readers.  Still, I think my title for the review is better. 

Some ladies like the pointed ears!

There was one really weird part in this book and it had to do with an internal thought Kirk had.  Now I one of the things I like about the books is you can really get into the heads of the characters more so than the log entries that the define the series and franchise.  Granted you are often limited to the POV characters which in this book is primarily Captain Kirk with the occasional switch to Mr. Sulu when he is left in charge of the ship, and some surprise appearances by Kor and Koloth give them some short POV time.  However, this thought was so bizarre it made me stop reading for a minute.  While bringing Rand and Chapel into the know about the two Spocks, Kirk starts wondering what makes Spock so attractive to so many women.  It is not that Kirk lacks attention from the female sex it is just Spock doesn’t seem to have to work at it.  He then concludes in his brain that Rand and Chapel think Spock is hot because of unconscious racism that makes it a social faux pas to express natural sexual attraction for an “other” can be excused because he is white.  This sounds more like Blish’s own thoughts about why Spock was popular with female fans and ridiculous thought for Kirk to possess.  To his credit Blish has McCoy call out this view as stupid when Kirk shared it with him.  However, it is still a pointless to have Kirk have this thought at all.

I really enjoyed Uhura being such a queen nerd that she was able use such geekdom to full the Klingons with her knowledge of Eurish.  In addition to her engineering and music skills our favorite communication officer has no seemingly end to her talent. 

Lt. Uhura getting things done!

One of the things I enjoyed about the book is the reference to their pervious on the original series and some other off-air adventures as well.  A good example is when Koloth is shown to want revenge not just for “The Trouble with Tribbles” but also from a previous unaired conflict between them.  

“He had encountered—and been defeated by—James Kirk and his command on two previous occasions: the affair of the Xixobrax Jewelworm, and the dispute over the colonization of Sherman’s Planet.” (pg. 106)

 What strikes me as strange is during the entire book at no point is there a mention of the episode “The Enemy Within.”  Shouldn’t that have been the first past adventure mentioned after seeing two Spocks?  

“It looks like Spock has been made into two!  Remember when that happened to me?  Can you tell me which one of you is the evil one?”

  

Now it turns out there was an evil one but not for the same reason.  In fact, one would assume if Spock were split via a transporter he would turn into a full human and a full Vulcan instead of just good/evil.  Still, the previous “character turn in two” story should have been referenced.

It was good to see some of the classic Klingons such as Kor and Koloth get some time in the book even if it was just to see their reactions to getting their butts kicked by the Organians.  I have to wonder where was Kang?  I think Blish was writing this during the time of the third season and perhaps Kang didn’t exist as a character yet.   

Should it be canon: Okay so here is the big question since the books’ canon status has always been strange.  Should this book be canon?  As much as like the story there is a major problem with it fitting.  That of course in the end of the book where the Organians shut the Klingon Empire seemingly for good.  Now I am going to break one of my rules here and discuss the Star Trek franchise beyond when this work came out.  Obviously in order for this book to fit with the rest of the franchise this problem would have be addressed, for the Klingons will play a large role in all of the Star Trek incarnations going forward.  You would have to have a follow up story to explain how the Klingons got out from underneath the Organians thumb.  Maybe the Organians realized that restraining the Klingons so harshly would mean bad things for the galaxy long-term so they let them out within a year?  Or the Klingons could do something heroic and worthy to earn their way out.  Either way it would need to be addressed so right now my answer is no. Also remove the part about Kirk speculating about why women find Spock attractive.

Cover Art: There have been multiple covers in each printing but I am only commenting on my copy which is the original.  The cover is simple and shows Spock with a mirror image of himself.  The heads of the two are touching.  Their hands seem to pass through one another as if the other isn’t real.  Also, the rank insignia on the Spocks is wrong.  The uniform looks like a mix of his classic and the one from “The Cage.”  The later editions’ covers are nicer.   

Final Grade: 3 of 5