MURDER WHERE THERE SHOULD BE NONE

 

Name: The Vulcan Academy Murders

Author: Jean Lorrah

Publication Date: 11/1984

Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #20)

Page Number: 280

Historian’s Note: Right in between the episodes “Journey to Babel” and “A Private Little War” (Production order, of course)

Cast of Characters:  Captain James T. Kirk       Commander Spock              Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu              Dr. Joseph M'Benga                   Ensign Pavel Chekov                 Ensign Carl Remington             Ambassador Sarek                 Amanda Grayson         Dr. Daniel Corrigan             Eleyna Miller            Sorel              T'Pau               Soton        Storn              T'Mir                   Sendet                   T'Par                   T'Zan

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

Planets: Vulcan

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The adventure begins in the middle of a battle.  The Enterprise is attacked by a Klingon warship.  Kirk quickly outmaneuvers his opponent and all but destroys the Klingon ship.  They take a few Klingons prisoner and tend to their own wounded.  One of their wounded, Ensign Carl Remington, is extremely injured.  His injuries surpass that of Captain Christopher Pike and are more like that of Joe Bonham.  Fortunately for the injured Ensign there is hope.  On Vulcan, at the Science Academy, there is currently a medical experiment being done that could reverse the Ensign’s condition. Spock knows of this because the procedure is being used to treat his mother right now.  While the ship is being repaired Kirk, Spock, and McCoy all take Remington to Vulcan.

The Enterprise captures and damages an enemy ship!

       When they arrive, they stop at Sarek’s house and then go to the hospital where they meet Dr. Daniel Corrigan and Healer Sorel, the pair who had perfected the procedure.  Dr. Corrigan first tested the process on himself. (McCoy didn’t say anything but I am sure he was proud.) Corrigan was unnaturally aging fast the under the treatment he went from being a man in his physical sixties, restored to his physical thirties.  Amanda, Spock’s mother, and Sorel’s wife T’Zan were currently undergoing the procedure.  Corrigan states that this treatment is only for conditions that would otherwise be permanently disabling or terminal.  The process is risky as the body involuntary functions are all controlled by machine.  If the device somehow loses power even for a few seconds, the patient will die.  A number of redundancy systems are installed to prevent this.  

Spock and his comrades visit his father  

However, since Chekhov's gun must be fired, there is a power failure that results in the death of T’Zan.  Since Vulcans are touch telepaths and are mentally bonded to their spouses, her sudden death led her to instinctively call out to her husband.  This message through the mental link sends Sorel into shock and his own mind starts to shut down, and Vulcan intervention is needed and they create a mind meld between Sorel and Corrigan and his friend helps him survive.  With T’Zan dead her and Sorel’s adult children, Soton and T’Mir, arrive back home with a little assistance from Captain Kirk.  During T’Zan’s funeral a male Vulcan named Sendet shows up to make an offer for T’Mir to become his mate.  Making a pass at someone during their mother’s funeral is just as off putting to Vulcans as it is for humans.  Sendet is sent packing but not before he expresses anger at humans at this ceremony.

Angry Vulcan man

After the ceremony is over T’Mir takes a pass herself at her father’s long-time friend.  It appears that T’Mir has had a Celine/Rene-type crush on Dr. Corrigan. The newly de-aged doctor starts to warm up to the idea when he discovers that her family supports the match.

Shortly after that another power loss results in the death of Ensign Remington.  The death of two patients dying in one in a million type accidents convince Captain Kirk there must have been a murder.  Others protest that there has not been a murder on Vulcan since the modern age began.  Because of what happened in “Amok Time,” Kirk doesn’t really buy that claim.  Kirk concludes that one of the patients was the target and the other was killed to through investigators off, or the target was the research team’s legitimacy someone wants to see them fail.  Kirk begins an investigation and begins to interview likely suspects.

They attempt to track which computer was used to sabotage the stasis chambers.  However, the memory banks overload, starting a fire. While helping treat the wounded McCoy notices the medical computer is giving of the wrong medical diagnosis to patients.  McCoy remembering the incident in “Court Martial” where Spock’s chess program was corrupted exposing sabotage.  (What we since the late 1980s called a “computer virus.”)  This is evidence of sabotage to the Academy’s computer system. 

Kirk, after getting treated for burns, proceeds with his investigation and he interviews T’Pau, and leaves both impressed with her and a little embarrassed about suspecting her.   After returning he is invited by Eleyna Miller to go out in the dessert to observe T'Khut and its moon.  The pressure was off as Sendet attacked Corrigan when he learned of his relationship with T’Mir.  It is now assumed that he was targeting Corrigan’s research. 

Kirk goes off on his date while Sendet is forced to undergo a Verification ceremony.   The Verification ceremony is a forced mind meld done by healers, to determine guilt or innocence.  During the Verfication's group mind meld, it is discovered that Sendet is a member of the Followers of T'Vet, a minority Vulcan group hoping to return Vulcan to its warlike past.  When they look into his actions they find he is innocent of the two murders.  He may be a throwback and follows a violent unpopular philosophy, but he is no murderer.

While Kirk and Miller are on their date, Kirk slips and is injured with a broken ancle making it impossible for him to walk.  Miller says she is going to get help but does not return.  Kirk did not fall, he was pushed.  Fortunately, he told McCoy where he was going a McCoy grabbed a vehicle and rescued Kirk.  Before Kirk could recover and revel the identity of the killer to McCoy, Miller goes ahead with her plan to kill Amanda.  She then feels that Sarek will need to be saved, and he will then fall in love with her.  She fails because she is stopped by Sarek, Spock, and Sorel.  Miller is exposed as the villain; she is judged to be mad and sent elsewhere on Vulcan for treatment.

Time to fill Amanda in

The story ends with everyone gathered around Amanda explaining to her everything that happened.

Additional thoughts: It’s not the first Star Trek story to be a murder mystery. We have seen them before in “The Conscience of the King,” “Wolf in the Fold,” and “Journey to Babel.” It’s not Star Trek’s specialty but it is something they will do from time to time. I generally enjoyed this story but for other reasons. Mostly learning about Vulcan culture, what it is like for non-Vulcans on Vulcan, and interaction between the characters.

The very beginning features a fight with Klingons.  Immediately after reading “Tears of the Singers” where Klingons, such as Kor, are treated with complexity it was a bit of a 180° shock to have Spock dismiss all Klingons as “illogical but predictable.” Well, I suppose he was just speaking in generalizations.

I couldn’t help not thinking of Captain Christopher Pike in this book.  If such medical treatment was available would Spock have risked everything to get him to Talos IV?  Could this have restored his lost abilities?

Sarek was a lot kinder and more open than he was in “Journey to Babel.”  He is actually likeable in this book. He seems generally interested in catching up with his son and getting to know his friends. There is a great scene where Kirk and Sarek are entertaining each other with stories from their pervious adventures that I enjoyed quite a bit. 

I don’t understand why T’Pau was so surprised to see Captain Kirk alive.  I thought she had been informed about what had happened by the Enterprise.  I had always assumed that is why she contacted Starfleet to clear the crew of any wrongdoing by coming there. In this book she starts as a bigoted jerk, before revealing her more complex and interesting traits.

T'Pau

The whole T’Mir-falls-in-love-with-Corrigan story has grooming vibes all over it.  I just have to keep reminding myself that these are aliens not humans with different biological and cultural standards than us.  Also, it was clearly generated by T’Mir.  If I didn’t know that author is a woman, I would swear this was a man’s fantasy.  (I say that as an unmarried 43-year-old, who will be a 44-year-old tomorrow.)

 There is some timeline confusion they often reference “Amok Time” as if it were two years ago.  However, in this book we see Dr. McCoy recruit Dr. M'Benga to the Enterprise.  This explains why he was not involved in Sarek’s operation that McCoy performed.  However, he is in the very next episode.  All of these are part of season 2, which to me has always meant that they happened in the same year roughly.

Now for the plot twist.  I have always said that a good twist is one you don’t see coming but when you go back and check the evidence has been right there all along and you blame yourself for not seeing it. This I would give this twist a “C” grade. That’s because although there was nothing that I could see that made it clear she was committing the murders. There was the warning about the desert being fatal, I totally missed it when she invited Kirk out there.  I thought it was just humans being stupid. It was actually the perfect place to try to kill him.

Should it be canon: I have no objections to this story being canon with exception to the statements about “Amok Time” being two years ago.  

Cover Art: Spock is in the Vulcan desert with T'Khut in the night sky. Spock has a phaser pointed at a le-matya.  It’s cool and all but it’s also a lie, as this scene appears nowhere in the book.

Final Grade: Final Grade 4 of 5

SPOCK GOT ZARABETH PREGNANT!

Name: Yesterday’s Son

Author: A.C. Crispin  

Publication Date: 8/1983

Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #11)

Page Number: 189

Historian’s Note:  This story takes place two years after the event s in “All Our Yesterdays” and before the events in “Yesteryear.”  Book 1 in the Yesterday Saga!

Cast of Characters:  Captain James T. Kirk       Commander Spock              Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”       Lieutenant Commander Rex Colfax    Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Lieutenant Nyota Uhura            Nurse Christine Chapel          Ensign Pavel Chekov       Ensign Teresa McNair                   Ensign Juan Cordova         Ensign David Steinberg            Admiral James Komack    Commodore Robert Wesley          Dr.  Anna Vargas                     Zarabeth               Zar          T’Pau            Commander Tal    many unnamed Federation Marines, Federation scientists, and Romulan soldiers

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, USS Lexington NCC-1709, Starbase 11,  ChR Glory Quest, numerous unnamed Starfleet and Romulan ships.

Planets: Guardian’s homeworld now called “Gateway,” Vulcan, and Sarpeidon

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The adventure begins with a young woman; named Ensign Teresa McNair who discovered something while studying archeological images from the destroyed planet Sarpeidon.  It appears to be a cave painting of a Vulcan.  She shows this to Mr. Spock asking if there were any Vulcan expeditions at that time.  Spock calmly tells the Ensign that there are many such historical coincidences such as Pan in Earth legends.

The Enterprise arrives at Starbase 11 for a much needed overhaul.  Spock at this moment requests leave time from Kirk.  Since Spock doesn’t normally request leave like this Kirk immediately knows that Spock has some sort of trouble of a personal nature, and as always Spock feels that his personal problems should be faced by him alone despite the fact that he has friends who would walk through a radiation infected engine room for him and he them.  Kirk then demands on going.  Spock tries to argue otherwise but it is useless if he wants to go on the mission Kirk is going coming along.  Spock tells him that he is convinced he fathered a son with Zarabeth as the Vulcan in the cave paintings dated to that time period.  That Vulcan was also a long haired child so it could not have been him.  With Sarpedion and its time device destroyed Spock wants to use the Guardian of Forever.

Spock's one time girlfriend

Spock contacts T’Pau on Vulcan and explains the situation; with her great authority Spock is able to secure access to the Guardian.  When he returns from the Enterprise to meet up with Kirk they find McCoy now insisting on coming along too.  They try to argue but McCoy points out they need his medical knowledge to help both Zarabeth and her son.  Kirk tries to point out that Spock only has secured permission for two, but Spock actually got it for three because he predicted McCoy’s behavior.  (I love that part.) 

T'Pau can secure access to anything

The three arrive at the Gateway planet and are greeted by Dr. Anna Vargas head of the expedition to explore the planet and the Guardian.  She is excited to meet the discoverers and the only people ever to use the Guardian.  She is amazed they got permission to do so again. They explain they are trying to save a child who is a relative of Mr. Spock, who is trapped in the past. When the three are alone with the Guardian, Spock speaks with it.  He is able to confirm that the Guardian can send them back to Sarpedion of five thousand years past.  Spock gets the Guardian to focus on the lifeform that most resembles Spock’s.  With that they jump through the great donut again. 

Once again using the Guardian

Back in the ice age of Sarpedion, this time at least they are in the summer; McCoy notices how strange the star looks.  He describes it as looking like it could blow at any moment.  The three take comfort in the knowledge that it won’t be destroyed for another five thousand years.  That night they set up a tent and sleep in it.  When they wake up they wonder around and have to dodge some predators.  They find a person has been watching him.  They catch up to this individual and discover that he is the person they have been looking for.  It appears they have miscalculated for they thought they came for a small child but they traveled to a time where Spock’s son is twenty-eight Earth years old.  They explain who they are and the man is very excited to meet his father.  He introduces himself as Zar.  Zar’s mother explained that his father came from a different point in time and space.  When they ask about Zarabeth he explains that his mother was killed in an accident some ten years ago.  He has been alone since. 

Zar takes them back to the cave the Spock and McCoy shared with Zarabeth during their adventure here.  Zar explains his life to the three.  There becomes a tense moment where Spock asks Zar to stop calling him “father” as he doesn’t think it’s right a “stranger” calls him that.  Zar is taken aback but complies.  They let them know they mean to return with him using the Guardian of Forever.  Zar packs his bag and they cremate Zarabeth’s body that Zar kept in a type of cold storage.

 As they return, Dr. Vargas is surprised to see an adult when she was expecting a child.  However, science he lived as a caveman in an ice age, Dr. Vargas now had a number of questions about his life style, all of which Zar happily answered.  They return to the ship and Dr. McCoy gives him a check-up, gives him all the necessary vaccines, and a shave and haircut.  Zar strongly resembles his father but given their closeness in actual age it is decided that he will claim to just be Spock’s relative.  Zar express a desire to use the Guardian to save his mother but Spock basically explains the grandfather paradox to him.  Spock says it’s easier to express in a mathematical formula than with words.  McCoy is uncertain how Spock and Zar’s relationship is going to progress.

Zar looks like a younger version of his father

Zar takes to life on the Enterprise like a fish to water.  Spock creates an educational program for him that he quickly aces.  His intelligence rivals that of his father’s.  Kirk bunks him with two security officers and Zar gains their friendship fast.  He learns of Vulcan culture and can reasonably present as one.  However, Spock is still treating his son more as a responsibility that is his obligation than a person whom he deeply cares about.   Zar confronts Captain Kirk about this and the Captain tells Zar about the circumstances that led to his birth.  He also told Zar that the time device on Sarpeidon had affected Spock so that he was emotionally unstable when he sought comfort in the arms of Zar’s mother.  Zar is disappointed an expresses that Spock views him as some sort of bastard what Vulcans call a “Krenath.”

  Zar goes into delayed teenage rebellion mode.  After finishing one of his lessons he gets himself a meat sandwich from the recreation room and eats in right front of Spock.  McCoy tells Kirk the Spock was very upset by his action.  There is no time to follow up on this because the Romulans have entered the Gateway planet’s solar system.  When they get there Kirk sends down a landing party to protect the scientists from the Romulans and prevent the Romulans from getting their hands on the Guardian.  The Romulans already have land troops and they attack the expedition.  All are killed including two who were bunkmates of Zar.  As they die, Zar feels their deaths.  He gets extreme pain, interrupting a conversation he was having with Ensign McNair about images of relics from his homeworld.  His reaction is similar to Spock’s in “The Immunity Syndrome.”  It takes a while but Zar recovers.  

With the Romulans on the ground and winning, the ship’s senior officers, plus Zar, are all coming up with nightmare scenarios once the Romulans have discovered the time portal.  Zar asked if it how they would know if they haven’t already used it, if history altered he reasoned wouldn’t their reality alter round them.  Lt. Uhura is one who brings the conversation back to reality.  She points out that if the Romulans knew what the Guardian was it would represent a security breach so high up in the Federation that they would have to already know that such a breach exists.  She points out the most likely scenario is the Romulans have noticed starships on regular patrols here and that has peaked their interests in the planet’s potential secrets.

Romulans taking an interest in what the Federation is hiding 

The Enterprise crew discovers that the Romulans on the planet have set up a cloaking device on the ground hiding the Guardian from the sensors.  Kirk decides he might have to destroy the Gateway world to prevent it from falling in the wrong hands.  To avoid this he sends Spock on a mission with Zar, possibly violating regulations since Zar is a civilian.  However Zar’s telepathic hunting abilities that Spock himself doesn’t have particularly the power to broadcast fear into others maybe vital to stopping the Romulans.  While on the mission Spock and Zar get a chance to speak father to son.  He tells Zar of their family history about how he is only half-Vulcan so Zar himself is a quarter.  Most importantly he explains to him that “Krenath” actually refers to parents who have wronged their child not the children themselves.  Later the two will mind meld, a process Spock earlier refused. 

A Romulan fleet enters orbit, with only the USS Enterprise, and the USS Lexington to hold them off.  A task force from Starfleet is on their way but won’t be here for another hour.  Since they can’t beam through shields Kirk and the landing party is stranded.  Commodore Bob Wesley is going to have to team up with Scotty to fight the Romulans.  

Two starships getting ready for a fight!

While trying to sabotage the Romulans’ cloaking device Zar ends up killing a Romulan guard leading to a disagreement about the proper use of killing and violence.  (Personally, I am on Zar’s side on this one.)  Either way they fail to destroy the cloaking device and must report that failure to Captain Kirk. Kirk and Spock decided to give it one more try, but Spock nerve pinches Zar so that he will stay behind.  This mission is a failure to as Kirk and Spock are both captured. 

The Captain and First Officer were now the prisoners of Commander Tal, who as Subcommander had faced off against them in “The Enterprise Incident.”  He is mad at what the two did to his previous commander so he will take some new pleasure in this assignment.   Tal demands to know why this planet is important and what they are hiding on it.  He begins to torture Captain Kirk hoping that one of the two will then tell him.

Zar recovers and he successfully rescues his father and Captain.  He does this without killing Tal which pleases his father.  The Starfleet task force arrives under the command of Admiral Komack, all the Romulans on the planet are captured.  Everything seems to be over except Zar has some news.  He is going to back to his home planet and time.  When asked why Zar explains that he was looking over some images from Enterprise’s computer with Ensign McNair and discovered that around this time his planet was supposed to undergo a social transformation that he will lead.  As they try to argue Zar pointed out that they didn’t think it was odd that his mother spoke English?  He has to go back to preserve the time line and allow his people to enjoy 5,000 years of civilization that they might not otherwise have.  With that he returns through the Guardian of Forever, back to his homeworld and time but much farther south geographically. 

 Back on the ship Kirk and Spock are talking and Kirk tells Spock that he doesn’t know how to view Zar.  As someone who is alive on the other side of a portal, or a person who died around 5,000 years ago.  Spock shows the Captain and image from Sarpeidon.  It’s an image of a Vulcan man giving the “live long and prosper” salute next to an image of the Enterprise.

Additional thoughts: Out of all the books I have reviewed for this blog so far, this one is by far the greatest.  This story set the standard for what a great Star Trek novel could be. The model that the author provides is one that was replicated by others in the four decades sense.  That model is you start with an episode from the show, in this case “All Our Yesterdays,” and use the strengths of the written medium to explore that episode’s concepts in way the sixty -minutes –with-commercials format wasn’t able to.  Include elements from other famous episodes as in this case The Guardian of Forever from “The City on the Edge of Forever.”  Finally bring the characters on an interesting and thought provoking adventure such as they have never been on before.   

What ends up making this so great is it not only tells its own great story but it adds richness to the original material.  I had always thought of “All Our Yesterdays” as a good episode, but I had my issues with it.  In my review of it for this blog I wrote the following:

“In this episode we encounter Mr. Atoz who has sent his entire planet’s population back to the past.  Your mind will quickly go numb at all the possible butterfly effects flying around.  How the Atavachron time travel device survives all these time alterations I have no clue.  It was amazing not to mention lucky for them to dodge all these potential temporal paradoxes to continue to sending their massive population to the past.  Now the Atavachron did require its subjects to go through a preparation where their cells and brainwaves were to match their intended time period.   This is interesting because we have seen our characters go back in time and have never required such a thing.”

 I continued to go through and nitpick every little part about it.  What this book did is it created in me a greater appreciation for the episode than I had before I read it.  Although I just re-read this book for my blog, I originally read this back in middle school.  I think knowing about this story made my subconscious grade “All Our Yesterdays” higher than I might have otherwise.  However let me be clear: this book makes the original source material better by being part of it.

The author’s mastery of these characters is evident in her writing.  There are such great small character moments throughout the book.  My favorite is after Kirk forces his way on to the mission Spock goes ahead and reserves three seats because he knows Dr. McCoy will try to force himself on as well so he might as well prepare now.  Speaking of McCoy, I also like how the author makes him Zar’s best mentor on the ship. 

McCoy was Zar's best mentor

Another rich character moment is also not a positive one.  It seems that Spock seems to inherited toxic father traits from Sarek.  It is often the case that children who were abused grow up to become abusers themselves.  Spock’s seems to have inherited his father’s disposition in dealing with the “disappointing child.”  Spock looks out for him and takes care of him but only as a duty and keeps him at arm’s distance to prevent any attachment from forming.  The low point was near the beginning when he demanded that Zar not call him “father.”  Now I understand that Spock was expecting a small child and is somewhat shocked to see his son fully grown up, which is no excuse he really needs to get over it.

Was not the best role model in terms of fatherhood

I also enjoyed McCoy chiding Kirk as things are getting more intense with the Romulans that he is starting to remind him of Matt Decker from “The Doomsday Machine.”  The best character moment comes when Uhura brings the senior staff back to reality when they were all in a panic about the Romulans using the Guardian of Forever. 

Uhura, "I will let you know when you're all being stupid!"

There may be many flaws with Vulcan culture but how they treat the “Krenath” versus how humans have historically treated “bastards” is not one of them.  In fact, their approach could teach humanity a number of lessons historically.   

I did love the use of Tal from “The Enterprise Incident.” It makes sense that he would have this intense hatred for Kirk and Spock considering their actions against him and his commander in that episode.  Unfortunately for him, like the Romulan Fleet Commander in that episode, he ends up a prisoner of Starfleet.

Tal returns!

Zar’s final fate explains a lot of the Earth/Sarpeidon similarities. Not only was Zarabeth and others great speakers of English, the medieval period that Kirk found himself in were almost identical to our own.  It even included witch hunts.  Now this was probably because they were limited in the costume department in the cost-cutting third season.  Having Zar help the planet in its cultural revolution has a lot of that making since retroactively.  I just wish he told his people that witches were not real.  It would have caused fewer headaches down the road.

 So I never saw the Guardian as a user friendly time machine.  There is just two much of an x-factor with it being an intelligent entity.  Also I thought Spock was a little plot stupid when he didn’t bother to ask the Guardian to make sure to send them back to Zar’s childhood.  Instead he tells the Guaridan to find the lifeform like himself and now he encounters his son almost as old as himself.  Before they used Spock’s tricorder to determine the right jumping point they didn’t ask the Guardian for the moment.  I also wondered when the Romulans showed up, why didn’t anyone suggest asking the Guardian not to let the Romulans through, sense the Guardian always pulls them back when the mission is over its not unreasonable to assume it could discriminate against certain users.. 

An error regarding the USS Lexington, its registry number is NCC-1709 not NCC-1704.  Also since Bob Wesley is a Commodore, when the Enterprise and the Lexington were in battle shouldn’t he have had overall command? 

Commodore Bob Wesley

It is interesting a year after fans saw Spock live out his final moments and die saving everyone in The Wrath of Khan we get these books that are so Spock-centric.  First was Black Fire that was all about our Mr. Spock, and now we have a follow up to one of Spock’s most famous episodes.  It’s almost like the writers were protesting the loss of such a great character.

Should it be canon: Yes, my god yes!

Cover Art: The cover has Spock’s face on the bottom of the viewer’s left.  Spock is facing the viewer. Behind him is the Guardian of Forever. The Guardian of Forever is showing the image of Sarpedion’s ice age.  Next to Spock and in front of the Guardian is Zar facing toward the viewer’s right side.  We see the entire right side of Zar’s face.   The cover does lie a little bit.  Spock’s collar is clearly from his uniform from “The Wrath of Khan” but this story doesn’t take place during that time period rather it takes place in the fifth year of the original five-year mission. 

Final Grade: Final Grade 5 of 5

 

SPOCK HAS SOME LOVE PAINS

Episode Title:  Amok Time

Air Date: 9/15/1967

Written by Theodore Sturgeon

Directed by Joseph Pevney

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel          Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley     Walter Koenig as Ensign Pavel Chekov      Byron Morrow as Admiral Komack     Celia Lovsky as T'Pau              Frank Da Vinci as Vulcan Ceremonial Aide              Arlene Martel as T'Pring             Lawrence Montaigne as Stonn             Walker Edmiston as voice of Space Central                Charles Palmer as Vulcan Litter Bearer    Joe Paz as Vulcan Ceremonial Aide               Russ Peek as Vulcan Executioner                Mary Rice as T'Pring as Child          Mauri Russell as Vulcan Litter Bearer             Gary Wright as Vulcan Litter Bearer

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  Vulcan

My Spoiler filled summary and review:  The episode begins with Dr. McCoy confiding to Captain Kirk that he concerned about Mr. Spock.  He reports that the normally stoic Mr. Spock is seemly becoming emotionally unbalanced.  Kirk can’t believe it but when they see Nurse Chapel try to give Mr. Spock some soup that he likes they become witness to Spock throwing the bowl across the room and smashing it on the wall.  When Spock makes eye contact with Kirk he makes a request for leave on Vulcan.

The Enterprise’s current mission is to go to Altair VI for an important diplomatic visit.  Altair has an inauguration for its new president and Starfleet wants to make a good impression for strategically located vital ally against the Klingons.   Kirk would like to find out what was wrong with Spock so he would stop acting weird.  When he inquires about the First Officer taking leave elsewhere Spock refuses demanding Vulcan.  Kirk decides that Spock has done enough for them over the years and orders the ship to Vulcan before stopping on Altair.

Kirk and McCoy check in on Chapel 

Unfortunately as with all the best laid plans of mice and men Kirk’s plan falls astray.  Turns out the new President of Altair wants to have his inauguration early so the Enterprise no longer has time to stop at Vulcan.  Kirk apologizes and Spock says he understands.  Later, Kirk starts to feel guilty about not letting Spock go so he calls Chekov to see if they went at maximum warp would they be able to drop Spock off and attend the inauguration.  Chekov is confused because they were already heading back to Vulcan under orders from Mr. Spock.

 Kirk confronts Spock about him changing the course of the ship to which Mr. Spock claims he doesn’t remember changing the course but thinks it is very likely that he may have given his current condition.  Kirk then orders Mr. Spock to go to sickbay.  Spock goes reluctantly and submits to Dr. McCoy’s exam under the protest of “for all the good it will do us.” Ironically it does do both of them a lot of good.  Although Dr. McCoy can’t explain it he comes to the conclusion that whatever Spock’s condition is if it’s not treated it will be fatal.  The best place for Mr. Spock is on Vulcan.  Then McCoy advocates this in front of Captain Kirk who decides to speak with Spock one more time.

Kirk sees Spock in his quarters; Spock is still hesitant to talk.  Kirk reasons with him that if he has to lose his best officer at the very least he has the right to know why.  He tells his First Officer that he will treat whatever information Spock gives him in the strictest of confidence.  Spock begins by asking him if he ever wonder how Vulcans choose their mates.  Kirk says that most assume that the choice was a logical one.  This is where explains that Vulcans are like salmon.  They have to return to the point of origin in order to take a mate and reproduce or die in the attempt.   They have a ritual called pon farr where they shroud the whole thing in ceremony.   If he doesn’t go and complete the ceremony he will die.

Kirk contacts Starfleet Command and speaks with Admiral Komack.  He tells the Admiral that they can’t go to the inauguration and he can’t tell him why but is an emergency.  The Admiral is not at all impressed and tells Kirk he better be there or else.   Kirk thinks about it and realizes Spock has saved his life so many times that if cost him his career no big deal.  Kirk orders the ship to Vulcan.

Spock seems to calm down as the ship heads to Vulcan.  He even asks Nurse Chapel to make him some of that soup from earlier.  When they arrive at Vulcan they are received and the Vulcan government even arranges for a lady Vulcan named T’Pring to communicate with Spock.  When they ask Spock who she is he responds with “She’s my wife.”  However we later learn they are not quite married yet but they are more than betrothed.

T'Pring spoils the party

As he is about to leave Spock requests that Kirk and McCoy accompany him as it is his right to have his closest friends with him at the ceremony.  The three beam down together to the hot climate that is Vulcan.  They arrive at the ceremony and Spock has to strike a gong twice and then a parade of Vulcans arrive.  All sorts of Vulcans, some of them are very mean looking.  Among the company is a woman named T’Pau.  T’Pau is a big deal in the Federation and the only person to down a seat in the Federation Council.  Kirk is almost in immediate fanboy mode when she arrives.   He tells McCoy that he had no idea Spock’s family was so important. 

Everything seems to be going as planned until T’Pring prevents Spock from striking the gong again and demands kal-if-fee.  Kirk and McCoy are told that she has rejected Spock and demands he fight for her.  She continues to shock everyone when naming her champion to fight Spock she chooses Captain Kirk.  One Vulcan, named Stonn, objects claiming that he should be the one to fight, but T’Pau tells him to shut up.  Spock tries to get T’Pau to let Kirk off.  T’Pau gives Kirk and out but McCoy said he didn’t think Spock could take Stonn in his present condition.  Realizing that his fighting skills are supreme and famed throughout the universe, Kirk reasons he might be able to knock Spock out quickly.  If not he could just quit.  He then makes a mistake by not asking more about the rules and tells T’Pau he accepts.  Then T’Pau now decides to let him know that this is a fight to the death.

 The battle begins Kirk and Spock each fight with traditional Vulcan weapons.  Kirk’s is the greatest fighter in known universe but he is fighting with restraint not wanting to hurt Spock, while Spock is a blood lusted horny Vulcan who must kill to get laid.  In addition to that it is also very hot, so hot that McCoy is convinced that Kirk has no chance.  McCoy directly challenges T’Pau, unlike Kirk he is not a fanboy so he is not so intimidated.  He tells her that the contest is rigged without giving Kirk a chance.  She doesn’t understand what can be done and McCoy says that he can inject Kirk with medicine that will counter act the heat.  She agrees and McCoy does so.   Kirk says while being injected that he can’t believe he might have to kill Spock which was the opposite of why they came. 

  

Kirk is like "this isn't my party!"

The fight continues with Spock gaining the upper hand and strangling Captain Kirk to death.  Strangling Captain Kirk is apparently better than sex as Spock is then immediately cured.  Realizing what he has done however he is in a bit of shock.  McCoy says he is in command now and he orders the Captain’s body to be brought to the Enterprise and to have them plot a course to the nearest Starbase so he can turn himself in.

Yeah this not what Kirk thought he would be doing today!

  

Spock goes to T’Pring and demands to know why she invoked the challenge and selected Kirk as her champion.  She explains that Spock has basically become a celebrity on Vulcan because of his adventures and she did not want to be the wife of a celebrity.  In addition to that she and Stonn have fallen in love.  If Stonn had fought there was a chance he would lose and die.  By choosing Kirk she was assured that however won would be so disgusted with her that neither would have her.  Spock agrees to let her go and warns Stonn with one of Spock’s greatest quotes:

“You may find in time that having is not so pleasing a thing as wanting.  It is not logical, but it is often true.”    

With that he says his good-byes to T’Pau and when she tells him to live long and prosper he responds by saying he will do neither.  He is full of guilt having killed Captain Kirk.  Fortunately for Mr. Spock his grief is short-lived as turns out Kirk is alive and well on the ship.  Turns out McCoy gave him a drug that would slow his body functions and simulate death.  Not only is Kirk alive but his career is saved as well.  T’Pau called Starfleet Command and explained that the Enterprise was at Vulcan on her request so Starfleet Command backed down and retroactively gave permission for everything that happened. 

There is just one more thing.  McCoy challenges Spock on his emotional outlet upon seeing Kirk alive, to which replies he was just showing the proper respect for Starfleet not losing such a fine captain.  So McCoy then asks if he is implying is that his response was based solely on logic.  Spock confirms it was.  As Kirk and Spock walk off McCoy says loudly “In a pig’s eye!”

Additional thoughts: Before “Amok Time” Mr. Spock was the only Vulcan fans had ever seen, and he was only half-Vulcan.  Fans often wonder what other Vulcans were like.  Well in this episode not only did we see other Vulcans but we get to go to Vulcan and see some of the inner working of their culture.  One of the major things we learn is that Vulcans are like salmon.  They are calm creatures who go crazy during mating season.  They must mate or strangle Captain Kirk, which is just as good as mating.

Our first post-Spock Vulcan is T’Pring, Mr. Spock’s intended.  Her name should be T’Prick because what a horrible person she is.  At first she seems sympathetic, she doesn’t want to go through an arranged marriage with a man who is now a celebrity and has she fallen in love with someone else.  However when she decides to pair two friends against each other in a fight to the death in order to traumatize the winner that is when she loses my sympathy.     She had other options; T’Pring could have reached out to Spock before pon farring starts and asked to be released.  Giving Spock’s high ranking family and celebrity status I think he could have easily found himself another mate. 

Everyone's least favorite Vulcans

Next we get T’Pau, the frail woman who is more powerful than Starfleet Command.  In her old age she doesn’t seem to be involved in a lot of planning ahead of things.  After all why didn’t she just tell Starfleet to bring Spock to her?  That would have avoided a lot of drama.  Also when Kirk gets invited to the challenge you think, given that Kirk is not from there, that she would have explained the rules better before he accepts.  I mean she did try to give him and out but you think she could have lead with “so you want to be in a fight to the death with your friend?”

All of Vulcan in one package!

I think a great deal of trouble could be avoided if human and Vulcan alike just learned to lie better.  If Spock has just said “I need to go to Vulcan to deal with a medical condition that only Vulcans can treat.” Would Kirk have been so hard on him?  Likely, if Kirk had said something of the same to the Admiral would the flag officer have given him such a hard time?

Spock says his good-byes and starts a tradition of Star Trek Fandom

Speaking of admirals we finally get to see one.  Another first from this to go along with planet Vulcan, Vulcans, pon farr, the Vulcan salute, and “live long and prosper;” we get our first admiral.  Up to this point every time we meet one Kirk’s Starfleet superiors it was always a commodore.  It was a good scene too, we got to see him rip Kirk a new one because Kirk can’t tell a little white lie.  Given the information Kirk was giving him I can’t blame him for his response. 

In the end everything turns out okay.  Spock and T’Pring both get what they wanted, Kirk is alive and his career is saved, and the crew of the Enterprise didn’t have to attend that boring inauguration.  All is well that ends well.

FINAL GRADE 5 of 5