Name: Star Trek: The New Voyages 2 – Story 7 “The
Procrustean Petard”
Author: Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath
Publication Date: 1/1978
Publisher: Bantam Books
Page Number: 45
Historian’s Note: Clearly sometime after Turnabout Intruder
Cast of Characters: Captain James T. Kirk Commander
Spock Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
AKA “Bones” Lieutenant Commander Montgomery
Scott AKA “Scotty” Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu Lieutenant Nyota Uhura Nurse Christine Chapel Ensign Pavel Chekov Ensign Ann Aronsen Crewman Laura Breen Crewman Brad Collins Crewman
Adams Admiral Komack Ambassador Tregarth Kang
Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, unnamed
Klingon K't'inga-class battle cruiser, Starbase 11
Planets: Unnamed gender-changing planet
My Spoiler filled summary and review: The adventure
begins with a landing party consisting of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, and some
security personnel. They are running
around an ancient city in ruins on a planet that was seemingly abandoned. Then
they are all knocked out by some energy field.
Kirk wakes up first and finds himself turned into a woman. He has not
been put into a woman’s body; his body has been transformed into a woman as if
that was what he has always been.  |
| We always know landing parties are risky but not this much! |
It is
not just the good Captain either. McCoy
is now also female, and like Kirk he is too is rated “hot” on the attractive
scale. Uhura is now a man. The only difference is Spock who has remained
his normal male self. If this were their only problem that would be great but
it appears they are trapped, not the landing party, the entire starship Enterprise
is trapped in orbit. Nevertheless,
they are able to go back to the ship easy enough.
On the Enterprise,
Kirk is having the hardest time dealing with his transformation. Dr. McCoy thinks he will be fine as a woman
as a doctor’s duty doesn’t change much.
However, now that he is a meek female, he is finding it difficult to
command the respect from his crew that he was used too. Both Spock and McCoy
doubt his ability to continue in such a state, but Kirk is determined to beat
the odds.
Spock
surmises that this was a recreation planet like in “Shore Leave.” These aliens
just had a very odd form of entertainment. While investigating the planet
trying to find some way to reverse the procedure Kirk and the landing party run
into their old adversary and later reluctant ally, the Klingon Commander
Kang. Kang torments the Captain by
referring to him as “Miss Kirk” taking credit for their condition. Uhura also discovers that several of the crew
have gone missing. These crewmembers are
all found gender swapped as well.
 |
| From adversary to ally once again! |
Considering
they had parted on good terms in “Day of the Dove,” Kirk is not only wondering
how Kang had changed them but why. Kirk
gets an unexpected answer, he hasn’t.
Once again Kang and his crew are captured by the same thing that has
captured the Enterprise. It turns
out after their last encounter Kang’s wife and science officer, Mara, has left
him and joined a peace faction political group of the Klingon Empire. Kang was so hurt he made sure that his next
crew was all male. Then they got caught
in the force field of this planet and group by group his entire crew was
transformed into females, with only Kang himself spared. His crew was so embarrassed and ashamed that
they went into hiding rather than face the crew of the Enterprise.
Scotty,
being the miracle worker that he is, finds a way to break the Enterprise
and the Klingon ship free. Once this is
accomplished the two ships head to Starbase 11 to see if there was any way to change
the crews back to the way they were. The
two gender changed crews have no way of physically distinguishing themselves
between those who had their gender naturally by biology. Spock and Kang were changed just less so then
the others. They had an extra-Y
chromosome making them hyper aggressive.
However, as a Klingon that helped Kang and Spock was able to use his
Vulcan discipline to control it.
 |
| Mr. Spock always in control even when he gets an extra Y and Kirk becomes a lady! |
Once
someone had their gender changed the planet would not change them back even if
their ship beamed them down their directly.
Kirk has an idea. He doesn’t
think the planet has a way to tell if a ship that entered orbit was a ship that
had returned or not. So, they should
just go back to the planet with only those who changed aboard and the planet
should change them back. There is an
issue of the unchanged male. They
theorize that Spock and Kang weren’t changed because they are the strongest on
their respective ship. If they were to
go back, they may acquire a third Y-chromosome.
Spock thinks the risk is acceptable but Breen, one of the females turned
male, who is now the physically strongest of all of those who changed
volunteers to remain male. Breen rather
likes being male so she doesn’t consider it a sacrifice. Collins also chooses to stay female. The plan works and everyone is back to the
way they want to be. Kirk speculates
that they will have to come back to the planet to figure out a way to develop
countermeasures and warn other ships.
Additional thoughts: Well, so where do we start? Before I begin with any critiquing, I want to
talk about what I like about the story. First, I do like the concept. Star Trek often likes to work with metaphor
through science fiction and exploring the social and physical differences
between the sexes is clearly with in their mandate to tell a story about. One
of the reasons they thought the planet might have been recreational is because
as McCoy points out, as long as its temporary, who wouldn’t want to explore how the
other side lives. It is interesting not
too long ago there was this gender swap app making its way through social
media. Everyone was looking to see their favorite celebrities as the opposite
gender. William Shatner himself, sharing
an image of lady Captain Kirk even said, “I would do me.”
 |
| Image all over the Internet and very fit for this story! |
Some of
the things I enjoyed the most were as follows.
Captain Kirk waking up in a female body and instantly recognizing that
he was in a female body without even looking down was great. Since this happened in “Turnabout Intruder” he
should already be aware of the sensation.
I really enjoyed the use of the chess code trick that Kirk and Scotty
use first in “Whom Gods Destroy.” I like
that Kirk was confused as to why Kang would even want to something like this to
him, considering how they were helpful to each other in their original encounter. I also thought it was hilarious
that both he and McCoy were “hot” as women.
Because why not?
Speaking
of Kang, there comes a rather weird point in this story (Yeah, I know
everything about this story is weird. We’re speaking relatively.) where it seems
that Kang and Lady Kirk almost hook up.
Fortunately, Spock shows up before anything can happen. It is actually interesting that their sexual
orientation changed (or did it remain the same) along with their physical
bodies. If Kirk were a heterosexual woman hooking up with Kang would clearly be
within the norms of Captain Kirk behaviors.
I also
thought Kirk’s grand plan had a few holes in it. He comes to the conclusion
that the Enterprise is the only ship that ever managed to escape from
there. They didn’t encounter any other stuck
ships while they were in there, unlike the episode “The Time Trap.” So how can
come to that conclusion? He then adds
“or at least never came back.” (p.188) Again, how could be possibly know? This seem to me to be one hell of a
guess. It turns out to be right but that
is do more to the strength of plot armor than anything else.
By far
the worst part of this book is how it incorporated the worst part of “Turnabout Intruder.” Of course, I am referencing the highly institutional sexist
Starfleet that won’t allow women to be captains. To be fair the story makes it
clear that the prohibition is not actually law.
Kirk says in protest, when it is suggested, he can no longer command
since he has a woman’s body, “No law that says I can’t. Law says I can.” (p.160)
However despite the law the story made it clear that women rarely make the rank
of captain and if they do, they are mostly given desk jobs. Now in fairness to the authors the next few
decades of Star Trek hadn’t happened yet.
So, they are only building off of the material they have. But to me “Turnabout Intruder” should have
been treated as the anomaly considering it completely contradicted what had
come before. I find it absurd as it has been established in “The Cage” and
confirmed in “The Menagerie” both parts one and two, that the Enterprise
once had a woman as the First Officer. If you can be first officer it’s absurd
to say you can’t be captain, as one of the first officer’s roles is to be the
back-up captain.
When
you come down to it the story is a rather pessimistic view of the struggle for
women’s equality. That in the 23rd
century women are still struggling to get a seat at the table. At one point Kirk’s internal monologue even
suggests he might consider becoming a women’s liberation advocate now that he
is a woman, joking to himself that he would be the movement’s strangest
champion.
The
thing is much like “Turnabout Intruder” the whole “sexist Starfleet’ isn’t even
necessary for the story. Janice Lester
can still be a jealous former lover who covets what her ex-boyfriend has, and
is so mentally unstable that she is willing to for him to swap bodies to do
it. In this story it is suggested that
since Kirk did not grow up and did not come up the ranks as a woman, he isn’t
adjusted well enough in this body to operate in his normal capacity. I imagine if I woke up in a different body
overnight, I might have trouble adapting as well.
Should it be canon: No. It is a fun story. However, given the extremely
sexist and patriarchal way Starfleet and the Federation are depicted, it flies
in the face of the rest of the franchise that has developed over the last six
decades.
Cover Art: As I stated in the volume's first story:
The cover has the Enterprise flying
in front of what appears to be a wrecked space station. Both appear to be in orbit around a planet
that you can see part of in the corner.
There is this red haze that surrounds everything.
Final Grade: Final Grade 4 of 5
