My Star Trek Reviews: Spock Sub-Themed Book

Showing posts with label Spock Sub-Themed Book. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 31, 2026

KIRK AND THE CREW OF THE ENTERPRISE FIGHT TERRORISTS

Name: Crisis on Centaurus

Author: Brad Ferguson

Publication Date: 3/1986

Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #28)

Page Number: 254

Historian’s Note: Sometime between Turnabout Intruder and The Lorelei Signal

Cast of Characters: Captain James T. Kirk Commander Spock Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones” Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty” Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu Lieutenant Nyota Uhura Dr. Joseph M'Benga Lieutenant Sergei Dominico Lieutenant Peter Siderakis Nurse Christine Chapel Nurse Constance Iziharry Ensign Pavel Chekov Ensign Diana Flores Ensign Rachel Lanz Chief Petty Officer Alec MacPherson Crewman Hudson Joanna McCoy Samuel Cogley Isidore Holtzman Mr. Holtzman President Henry Erikkson Minister Nathaniel Burke Miinister Daniel Perez Reuben Barclay Thaddeus Hayes Dr. Saul Weinstein Colonel Duncan Smith Deputy Roland Samuels Deputy Winston Churchill McKnight Corporal Schmidt Teodor Vladsilovich

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Starbase 7, Galileo II NCC-1701/7, Columbus NCC-1701/2, USS Hood NCC-1703, Edith Cavell, Sakharov, and Thomas Dooley

Planets: Centaurus

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The story begins with day-to-day life at a space transport station on a Federation colony. People are worried about a malfunction on the local currency dispenser, but they don’t realize that is the least of their problems. A terrorist is about to be cornered so that is when he decides to release his Anti-matter bomb and destroys the entire city of New Athens.

Good bye New Athens

Back in our familiar setting the proud Enterprise is going through massive technical malfunctions. Artificial gravity is failing and the ship having to drop out of warp to prevent its destruction are just two of the problems. They are requesting to go to a Starbase to discover and fix what it is that has gone wrong. Unfortunately, “the only ship in the area problem” rears its ugly head and they are sent to deal with the problem on Centaurus.

We then get a flashback and learn that Kirk, while a lieutenant serving on the Farragut, spent time on Centaurus. There he bought a ranch with its own valley and named it after his former commanding officer Captain Garrovick. It was here on Centaurus that he first met Dr. McCoy and his daughter Joanna. The former who treated him after an injury. We learn that Kirk really loves his little ranch, his private getaway.

Kirk loves his little home away from home

The Enterprise’s problems are improved to the efforts of Scotty, Spock, and the rest of the engineering team. They get a strange message from Centaurus basically threatening them. Demanding that they stay away from their planet. When they arrive, they are attacked with a nuclear weapon. The Enterprise’s shields hold for now, but they won’t be able to keep doing that.

Because of the weapons used in the New Athens bombing they are unable to use normal subspace communication. They have to rely on old radio. They are able to raise the President of Centaurus who informs them that their defense system is malfunctioning and attacking everything it sees. Several Earth ships that came to aid in the relief have already been destroyed. The good news is if the defense system attacks something at it survives it assumes it succeeded in its destruction and doesn’t bother in continuing the attack.

Enterprise hoping not to get attacked again

With transporters still malfunctioning Kirk decides to send two teams down to the surface. One to deal with the planetary government and investigate what happened. The other team will try to repair the faulty defense system. Kirk will lead one team, and Spock the other. Scotty has his hands full with repairs and Sulu is needed to pilot the shuttlecraft. Therefore, Uhura is left in command of the ship, and her first job is to protect the shuttles by shooting down missiles that may attack them. She does this quite successfully.

Kirk meets with the President of Centaurus, a man named Henry Erikkson a low-ranking cabinet member who rose to the Presidency after the death of everyone else in the terrorist attack. Unfortunately, Kirk can see this man is more like Millard Filmore than Harry Truman. The man is way over his head and is eager to let Kirk take charge. The President does reveal that the main bad guys are a human white supremist group called, League for a Pure Humanity, who were angry that they cannot win an openly democratic election, so they want to blackmail their way to power via terrorism.

Kirk finds local leaders difficult

While Kirk is dealing with politicians, Spock is dealing with the reality that circumstances have made it impossible to repair the defense system. Spock suggests they can’t shut it down, but they can empty it by making the system see the sun as a threat. It will force it to launch everything it has at it. The planetary authorities are not too happy, but Kirk convinces them to go along with Spock’s plan which is successful.

At one point, we discover that Joanna McCoy is alive and well and helping on the planet. This makes Dr. McCoy very happy.

Kirk has orders to bring the culprits, if they are found back to Earth to stand trial. This puts them at odds with the local authorities who want them tried locally. The issue is the death penalty. Centaurus has one and the Federation itself does not except for violation of General Order Number 7. Samuel Cogley, Kirk’s old lawyer from “Court Martial” contacts him as the terrorists’ lawyer. He informs the Captain that the terrorists are willing to surrender but only to Kirk himself.

Cogley now needs Kirk's help

Kirk goes with Sulu to arrest the bad guys. At the hotel they are staying at Sulu is drugged and Kirk gets in a shooting match with planetary law enforcement knocking them out. He steals their uniforms and he carries out drugged Sulu. Kirk leads his group, Cogley and the suspected terrorists, to his little ranch on the valley.

While on the bridge of the Enterprise, Uhura is calling out President Erikkson and his lies pretending he has no idea what Captain Kirk is while his police force is hunting him down. Spock arrives on the bridge with Joanna McCoy and she points where Kirk’s ranch is.

Kirk, Sulu, and their companions find themselves surrounded by planetary forces. While under siege the leader of the terrorist basically confesses to Kirk everything they have done and what they are about. Kirk goes out to negotiate but he doesn’t have to because the Enterprise has entered the atmosphere and is above Kirk’s ranch.

Enterprise in the sky

The story quickly resolves the terrorists are headed to trail on Earth, but Cogley has resigned as their lawyer. The President and other officials who were hunting them down are allowed to resign and escape punishment, as they had lost families in the attack. McCoy gets to spend time with his daughter. Spock figures out what was causing the malfunctions on the Enterprise. It turns out they passed through a mini black hole, and it ruined their systems. No one was at fault.

Additional thoughts: The story was a fairly interesting one. It was a great look at one of the Federation’s colony worlds and how they act with the Federation as a whole.

Apparently, Coca-Cola, Francs, and American Express are still going to be in our 23^rd century space faring universe. Francs as a currency still exists in some countries but it lost most of its base when France went to the Euro in 1999. Something tells me they won’t be using it in the 23^rd century. I accept that people still Coca-Cola however I don’t think we ever see American Express existing with starships anywhere in the rest of the Star Trek franchise. The book is full of these things that still existed in 1984 that for some reason the author thought would be part of the great space family of the Federation and Starfleet. Some other examples include the Red Cross which has ships on its very own. The nation states of Earth such as the United States, France, and the United Kingdom exist as individual Federation members not united under a one Earth global government. The nation also has their own space fleet some of those ships lost earlier were those national ships. The book even describes the Soviet Union still existing with communism still in force and it’s said that Chekov was born on a collective farm. The Soviet regime would fall seven years after the book came out.

The “only ship in the area” is classic Star Trek troupe but such a tired one. Kirk and his crew are flouting on the bridge because of no gravity and Starfleet still charging them with going to the colony and solving the problem. It makes Starfleet look so inept.

I liked the flashbacks to Kirk’s youth and building his ranch after what happened on the Farragut. It reminds me of what Theodore Roosevelt did after his wife and mother died on the same day. I also like seeing Uhura given and chance to command the Enterprise. We saw it in the Animated Series, but it was an episode where there were only women aboard the ship.

Centaurus is such a strange planet. It seems to be the land the time forgot, as it is like the colony decided to have a world based on the 20^th century Earth complete with cars, trains, and planes. Maybe this is why League for a Pure Humanity thought they stood a chance. It’s hard to imagine any world in the Federation embracing such a bigoted view. That is another part of this story I don’t really like as it was made clear in “Let That be Your Last Battlefield” that type of human isn’t supposed to even be around anymore.

I also thought the ending was too convenient. It was as if the author became bored with his own story. One moment they have the threat of three anti-matter bombs and then they’ve been taken care of. In addition to that, the long-awaited meeting of Dr. McCoy’s daughter was overrated. We were supposed to meet her in an original episode but that was changed. Her presence adds nearly nothing to this story, despite her being on the cover.

Should it be canon: The main story could be but there are all kinds of contradictions in the way the Federation is described compared to the way it is on the show.

Cover Art: The cover has Kirk, Spock, and Joanna McCoy in between them. All three are facing the viewer. Behind them is a building or space station of some kind.

Final Grade: Final Grade 3 of 5

Wednesday, December 31, 2025

Friday, November 28, 2025

TWICE IMPRISONED

Name: Dwellers in the Crucible

Author: Margaret Wander Bonanno

Publication Date: 9/1985

Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #25)

Page Number: 308

Historian’s Note: Sometime during The Wrath of Khan

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

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

Planets: Earth and Vulcan

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

Klingons and Romulans looking to kidnap

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

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

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

Klingons being evil

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

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

Tal

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

Fleet Commander

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

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

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

Does the Federation need to exchange hostages?

Maybe

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Final Grade: Final Grade 2 of 5

Tuesday, November 4, 2025

THE ENTERPRISE INCIDENT, THE SEQUEL

Name: Killing Time

Author: Della Van Hise

Publication Date: 7/1985

Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #24)

Page Number: 311

Historian’s Note: Sometime between The Counter-Clock Incident and The Motion Picture

Cast of Characters: Captain/Ensign James T. Kirk Commander/Captain Spock Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones” Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty” Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu Lieutenant Nyota Uhura Lieutenant Kevin Riley Lieutenant/Ensign Jeremy Richardson Lieutenant Anderson Nurse Christine Chapel Ensign/Commander Pavel Chekov Ensign Dane Christensen Ensign Carl Reichert Ensign Paul Donner Yeoman Third Class S'Parva Crewman Devoran Crewman Dave Donnelly Admiral S't'kal Captain Christopher Pike Dr. Palmer The Romulan Fleet Commander/Preator General Tavor Commander Tazol Subcommander Sarela Subcommander Sekor Lieutenant Rolash Centurion Selon Centurion Tasme

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701/VSS ShiKahr, VSS S'Tasmeen, VSS T'Ruda, IRV Ravon and IRV T'Favaron

Planets: Canus IV, Earth, Romulus, and Remus

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The adventure begins with Captain Kirk telling Spock of a strange dream he had. He was on the Enterprise but it wasn’t the Enterprise. In addition to that he wasn’t the captain, Spock was. Kirk in his dream never made it past ensign, and the whole time he wants to tell Spock that he is supposed to be the captain. Strangely enough Spock had a similar dream. McCoy dismisses these events as typical psychology.

We have a new crew member, Yeoman S’Parva, who is from a species that looks like anthropomorphic dogs. We also meet Lt. Jeremy Richarson, a human officer who seems to find the dog person attractive. (Thanks author!)

As Kirk goes to sleep reality changes. He is no longer Captain Kirk of the Enterprise but he is Ensign Kirk of the ShiKahr. Kirk’s life took a hard turn when he was falsely accused of murder of his instructor. The Vulcans found him guilty and subjected him to something called the Talos device that messed him up mentally and is now dependent on drugs. In this reality Spock is the captain of the ship. He takes pity on Ensign Kirk, for he studied the Talos device and recommended its decommissioning. Spock is also haunted by strange dreams. The former Ensign Chekov is now a commander and first officer in this new reality.

Kirk is no longer himself

All of Captain Spock’s attempts to reach out to Ensign Kirk almost end in failure. Kirk wants off the ship, but he wants prison less and that is his only alternative. Spock decides to separate Kirk from his abusive roommate. Kirk might not be a murderer, but he is still a huge pain in this time. Spock still feels he deserves a fair chance.

Things start to get strange from low to high. Ensign Reichert almost destroys the ship with sabotage and Spock gets an insane order from fleet command to start a war with the Romulans. McCoy finds two sets of brainwaves in the deranged Ensign. This may be a galaxy wide event.

It turns out the Romulans were behind everything, the author doesn’t try to make this a surprise. The Romulans decided that they needed to prevent the Federation from forming so they went on a mission do that. Commander Tazol is excited about this plan because he feels the Federation has been strangling the Romulan Star Empire by denying its chance of expansion. His first officer and wife, Subcommander Sarela, does not share his enthusiasm, as she pointed out other times their time travel plans did not give them the desired results. The two of them are not a good couple.

Commander Tazol is not a happy camper.

It seems the Romulans plans have all turned sour. As the Federation no longer exists but it has been replaced by a Federation-like Alliance of Planets that is centered on Vulcan and not on Earth. The Empire is only moderately bigger. It seems as if the whole thing wasn’t worth the trip.

Back on the ShiKahr Dr. McCoy makes a startling discovery. Remembering the time they went to the mirror universe, McCoy thinks that might have something to do with what they are now facing. He concludes that there are two universes, and one was created by a time alteration. The big news is their universe that they have lived their whole lives in is the wrong one. McCoy concludes that these shared dreams are of the other and real universe. McCoy hypothesis that the people who are acting out are the ones who are the most affected by the change. McCoy points out that he is probably a doctor and chief medical officer in both realities, so he is unchanged. People whose lives have been turned upside down are having a rough time. Ensign Kirk is also a good example. He might have been something very different in another life.

Spock trying to help Kirk

Their mission brings them to Canus IV, where they investigate possible Romulan activity by sending down a landing party. This causes Spock to question his decisions, and Kirk is re-traumatized. Spock is also dealing with the fact that his pon farr, is kicking in. In this reality T’Pring had more courage to just outright dump him, instead of cowardly trying to get him to murder his own friend.

Subcommander Sarela is summoned to meet with the Praetor and shocked to discover that the Praetor is actually a woman. Her name is Thea, and she is the same Romulan Fleet Commander that Kirk and Spock stole a clocking device from in the unaltered reality. She explains her father was Praetor until his recent death and since he was sonless, she took over. There is going to be a power struggle in the Empire and Sarela’s husband is on the other side. The Praetor realizes her father’s plan hasn’t worked she now wants to abduct Kirk to force Spock to impersonate the Praetor (as most people don’t know what the Praetor looks like) and present the Vulcan Tenets of Discipline to the Romulan people. After she wants Spock to use his extraordinary power as a starship commander to negotiate a peace treaty.

Big plans for Spock

The ShiKahr rendezvous with T'Ruda, a ship commanded by Spock’s former first officer, Captain Christopher Pike, the first human to command his own starship. Captains Spock and Pike agree that the orders coming from the fleet a clearly insane. Spock learns that Kirk has not been seen since returning from Canus IV. He finds Kirk in the ship's green and forcibly initiates a mind-meld, during which the two of them become more fully aware of who they were in the unaltered timeline. During the meld Kirk drops his Academy ring in the loose sand of the garden. Richardson and S'Parva also discover their true selves using the same method.

Suddenly a small Romulan scout ship appears claiming to have drifted of course. They are intercepted and the crew brought aboard. Thea and Sarela come aboard and are confined to quarters. Later, two Romulan agents disguised as Vulcan security guards, kidnap Kirk and Richardson from their cabin and transport them to the scout ship and escape to Romulan space. Thea announces her plans to Spock, and he agrees but only to turn the tables on her.

Spock lets Thea know that the timeline is now unstable and when the get to Romulus rebellions all throughout the Empire convince her that this is true. Kirk and Richardson are brought in after an escape attempt and are recruited on the mission. Thea reveals that the assassins who went back to alter the past and were androids that her father had purchased. Little does Thea know that Jim Kirk is the Bane of all Artificial Intelligence, and these androids don’t stand a chance. The Romulan ship loops around the sun in order to go back to the past.

Now in the late 21^st century they locate the figures they need to save. When the androids arrive, they attack. In the battle Richardson is killed and Spock is fatally injured. Before he passes, he gives Kirk a Romulan disruptor because, as the one who lost the most due to the time change, he should be the one to restore it. As Spock lies dying the three of them disappear.

Kirk doesn't feat andriods or any other type of AI

Back in the restored universe Kirk awakens to find he is once again Captain of the Enterprise. Still haunted by the dreams, he agrees to a mind meld with Spock. They are now aware of their other selves, and it explains a ring Kirk found in the garden that belonged to his counterpart. The ring was located exactly where he dropped it. Later Kirk puts it back and allows it to disappear.

Additional thoughts: Well, this now makes two books in row where the enemies of the Federation tried to wipe out using time travel. In “Ishmael” the Klingons try to use time travel to prevent the existence of the Federation and this time it’s the Romulans. The Klingons never succeed, in fact, their attempt to change things is itself what caused them to fail. The Romulans manage to pull it off only to realize that they did not get what they asked for and end up teaming up with our heroes to get everything back.

I am really tired of people with my name being weirdos or creeps. We got the silly Ghostbusters guy, the not so nice individual in the new Beetlejuice film. This one isn’t so bad. It’s just that he is sexually attracted to a big dog-like alien.

I enjoyed how Sarela explains to her foolish husband of the other failed time travel plots. They have tried to use time travel in the past to make life easier for themselves and at one time it led to them wiping out a planetary population. Yet the Romulans still continue to do it. You would think they would run into some heavy butterfly effects by now.

Should leave the time travel tricks to the Federation

There must be more to the Romulans changing the timeline than just the simple sling shot effect. Everywhere else in the franchise whenever the timeline has changed, hardly anyone is aware that it occurred. When the Romulans start to change it, multiple people start having bad dreams as a preview for the new reality. When reality finally does change people continue to have strange dreams about their old lives driving some of them insane. Romulans should leave the time travel adventures to the Federation.

I thought it was interesting that both the Second History crew and the First History crew went on similar missions. The Second History also had a “Mirror, Mirror” adventure. Which made me really interested in what the Mirror Universe looked like in this reality. Clearly its different or else Spock would have identified Kirk as the Mirror Universe captain.

What's their Mirror Universe like?

So, the Romulan Star Empire has a system of slavery with other Romulans as slaves. And sometimes sex slaves are given away as gifts? Yes, these slaves are still trusted as with weapons and are sent on secret missions to enemy territory. This isn’t the only version of this we saw something similar of this in the book, “The Fate of the Phoenix.”

Why was this Spock going through the pon farr now? Wouldn’t it have kicked in around the same time as the Prime Universe Spock? Are there more treatments in this reality that can delay it? That might make sense in a Vulcan-centered Alliance.

It is quite a shock to realize that your very reality that you lived in your entire life, is not real. In most time travel stories time gets mixed up and those characters who have not been changed try to restore the true reality. Understanding that your world or universe is wrong and you aren’t the “real you” requires a whole new level of thought. Of course, it’s easier when your universe is trying to destroy itself.

A typical time travel adventure

It appears we have Romulan terminators? At this point in history The Terminator had only been out for about a year. Fortunately, the time device that our heroes use doesn’t require that they travel naked, and the Romulan disruptor serves well at ending the threat and restoring reality.

Lastly, the Praetor. As the old Hitchcock quote goes, “You can get people to believe in the impossible but the improbable.” I am all right with human-looking space aliens starships and time travel. I can’t believe that someone can screw up as badly as the Romulan Fleet Commander did in “The Enterprise Incident” can not only keep her job but be promoted. I don’t care who her father is. The book “The Price of the Phoenix” also featured her in a continued leadership role. I prefer the “My Enemy, My Ally” view of it where she lost everything and correctly blames Kirk and Spock. Now this could be saved. We never saw her act as Praetor in the main universe. Yes, she was supposedly immune to the change. However, no one knows what the Praetor looks like maybe he didn’t board the ship because he didn’t want to be stuck with the “wrong memories.” What if Thea was just a bureaucratic assistant who was there to record the change and report back and she returned she was now the Praetor. She might see it as an extension of a career she should have naturally had.

This book was also infamous because of the Kirk/Spock slash fiction that was contained in the original edition that was recalled by Paramount Pictures. As my copy is not original and doesn’t contain the delated passages, I can’t really make a comment on it.

Should it be canon: Considering the whole adventure is one that the main story never actually happened except in the minds of Kirk and Spock, I don’t have an objection to it being cannon. Although I don't care for the part of the Romulan Fleet Commander being the Praetor's daughter/successor.

Cover Art: Spock is on the front of the cover wearing his Vulcan Fleet uniform. Behind him is Subcommander Sarela and the Romulan Fleet Commander turned Praetor. Behind them is a city on Romulus and a Bird of Prey flies through the sky.

Final Grade: Final Grade 4 of 5