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

 

You are serving on the Enterprise!

 

Name: Voyage to Adventure

Author: Michael J. Dodge  

Publication Date: 1/1984

Publisher: Pocket Books (Which Way #15)

Page Number: 118

Historian’s Note:  Sometime between “Turnabout Intruder” and “More Tribbles, More Troubles”

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 Grogan                Ensign Pavel Chekov                                   Ensign {Insert your name here}         many unnamed crewmen     Admiral Traynor         Captain Robert T. April         Commander Krogan    unnamed Klingon Commander    several unnamed Klingon soldiers   Takoi Queen    hundreds of unnamed Tokoi        Mirror Universe versions of Captain James T. Kirk      Lieutenant Nyota Uhura      Ensign Black    Ensign Wu  unnamed security crewman

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

Planets: Takoi world

My Spoiler filled summary and review: You are a new graduate of Starfleet Academy and as such have been commissioned as an ensign in Starfleet.  You also get your dream assignment serving on the USS Enterprise under the command of Captain Kirk. Here you will rub elbows with your heroes and go on adventures in space. To start you get to choose which department you serve under.  You are given the bridge, science laboratory, or the engineering department.

Choose engineering and you might end up in a Jefferies tube

               Each decision you make has consequences mostly for yourself.  You have a total of fifty-one possible paths.  In thirteen possible outcomes you die in the traditional Star Trek red shirt fashion.  In another scenario you are killed but you have successfully outed a spy.  Twice you go back in time to fix things and save Spock but in doing so you end up disappearing, you’re not dead technically in this situation because there is another you who will continue in the fixed timeline.  Twice your fate is unknown, and you may have died.  One of those was heroic saving Kirk and McCoy while the other was just plain stupid. In one case you save an alien race, and your physical body disintegrates.  You’re not dead but your essence is trapped there.  In one possible outcome you are trapped in a time loop where you pull a leaver for eternity.   

Finding yourself in the mirror universe 

               There are three possible outcomes where you win but are hurt in the process. One of the possible storyline scenarios has you traveling back in time with Spock to the period where Captain April commanded the Enterprise.  In three outcomes you ended up staying in April’s time.  Two by choice because you are “sick of time travel” even though you only done it once.  In one of those Spock gives his approval, in the other he is dead and you’re not going to bother to save him. One was involuntary as you went to the wrong area of the ship when the ride back home was being offered. Two outcomes involve you disappointing an alien race by either showing your violent side or just refusing to help them.  There are three outcomes where you lose the battle, but the ship gets away to safety.

Explore strange new worlds

               Nineteen outcomes are just straight up victories.  This is whether you are fighting Klingons, going to a strange new world, fixing the ship’s engines, having an adventure in the past or in the mirror universe.  My absolute favorite outcome is when you lead a boarding party on a Klingon ship and once you capture it, you are promoted to lieutenant.

 

Additional thoughts: This book is a lot of fun.  I first read it when I was eleven years old. Reading it now was a little different as I was reviewing it, I wanted to explore all options.  When I read this book just for myself, I always would take paths that I would have taken if it were real.  Although I would try out all three areas of the ship allowed, my favorite was the bridge.  One reason is in the engineering and science paths you only get to hang out with Scotty or Spock respectively, where a bridge adventure allows you to interact with the entire cast.    

Being on the bridge allows you to interact with just about everyone!

There are some contradictions in the paths that you take based on your choices.  For example, one crew member is revealed to be a Klingon spy and how soon you discover that depends on which path you choose.  However, if your journey goes in one other direction early on, that crew member doesn’t end up as a Klingon spy at all, just kind of a jerk.  In another case you are on an adventure with Spock, and he gets knocked out by a phaser set to stun.  However, if you turn in one direction you learn that it wasn’t set to stun and he died, where in every other outcome he survives.  An alien species is either kind or cruel, they either want you to save them or they are trying to steal your ship.

There were some odd things I noticed.  Captain Kirk of the mirror universe has scars.  That was interesting as he didn’t have any in the episode “Mirror, Mirror.”  Also, Spock states that Captain April commanded the Enterprise forty years ago.  Where it was actually around twenty years ago according to the traditional Star Trek timeline.  Also, I don’t remember Spock ever serving with April and if he did it couldn’t have been forty years ago as Spock wasn’t alive at the time.  The book also states that April was dead before your character was born that is baloney because we saw Robert April in the episode “The Counter-Clock Incident.”  There are some art errors such as a lieutenant with commander’s stripes and Lt. Uhura of the Mirror Universe dressed like she is from the prime universe.

Mirror Kirk and Uhura look different from their live action appearance

 

Lastly, I thought it was odd that Captain Kirk would trust a brand-new ensign to lead a boarding party on a Klingon ship.  At least the Captain understands that an ensign is a commissioned officer unlike a certain lieutenant in engineering.   

Should it be canon: Considering it involves you and multiple different endings to the same story I don’t see how it could be incorporated into canon.  It is just a fun little story.

Cover Art: Kirk and Spock are two the viewers right, a “monster” that appears in one story is on the viewers left. Underneath the creature is the Enterprise’s bridge.  It is an interesting cover.

Final Grade: Final Grade 5 of 5

 

THE STARS OF STAR TREK BEAM UP TO THE ENTERPRISE

 

Name: Star Trek: The New Voyages – Story 4 “Visit to a Weird Planet--Revisited”

Author: Ruth Berman, with an introduction by Majel Barrett

Publication Date: 3/1976

Publisher: Bantam Books

Page Number: 16

Historian’s Note: Sometime between 1967-1969  

Cast of Characters:  William Shatner         Leonard Nimoy              DeForest Kelley              James Doohan    Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Vincent McEveety         Nurse Christine Chapel          Ensign Pavel Chekov     Gene L. Coon        Commodore Kor      Unnamed Klingon Officer

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, IKS Klothos

Planets: Earth the Real One, unexplored planet name in dispute

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The story begins on the set of a Star Trek episode.  I don’t know what episode exactly but it is one that is directed by Vincent McEveety.  Shatner trips getting off the transporter pad upsetting McEveety as it ruins the take.  They start over and get back on the transporter pad and that is when it happens. A strange feeling goes over the three actors as unbeknownst to them they are being beamed up to the actual USS Enterprise! 

                As soon as Shatner and Kelley step of the transporter pad, they know something is up.  They are now in an enclosed room and there are no cameras to be scene.  Nimoy is a little late to come around, he thinks this is a prank by Bob Justman and gets openly annoyed when “Jimmy” refuses to break character and continue to talk in his Scottish accent.  Shatner and Kelley force Nimoy out of the transporter room and into the corridor.  It’s at that point Nimoy realizes what his co-stars do.  That somehow and someway they are aboard the USS Enterprise for real.

Three actors on a big adventure.

                The three actors struggle but find sickbay and when they get there, they start talking about what has happened.  How did they get here and how do they get home?  Then they are called to the bridge they are being attacked by the Klingons.  Shatner has Uhura hail the Klingons and when they respond the actor finds himself face to face with Kor.  Kor tells the man he thinks is Kirk that they are claiming the planet for the Klingon Empire.  Since the Federation has the right to file a dispute that reduces the need to come up with a solution right away. 

                This convinces the three of them that something must be done about their situation.  While on the bridge Nimoy had to excuse himself before he broke into uncontrollable laughter.  He was also scared that someone might get too close to him and see that is not really a Vulcan and that his ears are fake. Shatner and Kelley didn’t have that problem since their characters are human.  However, Kelley doesn’t have any real medical knowledge to help if someone gets hurt. Only Shatner is comfortable to still “play Captain Kirk” for an unexpecting audience. 

Shatner's comfortable while the other two are in trouble

                  The three actors choose to confide in Mr. Scott.  Scott arrives armed with a phaser because is convinced the three of them are Klingon spies. They however convince him by reminding the Chief Engineer of the events from “Mirror, Mirror.”  Scott is convinced they are who they say they are, and a little concerned that he is now in command.  He realizes Shatner needs to continue to pretend to be Captain Kirk because the Klingons might want to speak with him.

                The three actors return to the bridge and there they brainstorm with Uhura, Chekov, and Sulu about what the Klingons could want with the planet.  The planet appears worthless however when Nimoy notices there are still tides on a moonless planet.  With an investigation the six of them discover that there is a new cloaking device that is hiding planet’s moon.  Since the Klingons got their cloaking technology from the Romulans they must be in on this as well. 

                Scotty has found away to swap the actors back to their universe with their counterparts.  The three of them wish Scott good-bye and good luck with the mission.  The three strangers pointed the crew of the Enterprise in the right direction but now it was time for the real Kirk, Spock, and McCoy to take over.   Back in the real world, Shatner tries to tell Gene Coon about their adventure but angers McEveety when his action once again ruins the take.

Additional thoughts: Well, that was a fun little story.  Apparently according to the introduction this one is a sort of play on another story from the fanzines that came around in the 1970s, titled “Visit to a Strange Planet.”  In the earlier story it was Kirk, Spock, and McCoy who came to the real world.  I have never read that original story in its entirety.  To be honest I don’t see how that wouldn’t turn into a horror story.  Kirk and crew discovering that they are fiction.  In this story when they explain their origins to Scotty he doesn’t completely understand what they are telling him avoiding that pitfall there.  However, if Captain Kirk showed up in the real world, wouldn’t everyone just assume William Shatner had gone insane?

                I do like how each actor responded differently to the situation. Leonard Nimoy had the hardest time coping.  If someone got too close, they could tell his ears were fake, that he didn’t have Spock’s scientific knowledge nor his Vulcan strength.  Not to mention the fact he has to be “on” all the time and not show any emotion what so ever.  Nimoy is deprived of the escape of the word: “cut!”  At one-point Nimoy has to remove himself from situation in order to prevent himself from laughing.  I love when he tried to check Spock’s viewer at his station and saw nothing since he didn’t know how to turn it on.  Although he did figure out how to work his tricorder with the help of the ship’s computer.  Kelley has the problem of no actual medical knowledge but it doesn’t come up. Shatner is actually at ease and slips into his role of Captain Kirk quite easily including handing a Klingon negotiation.

Klingons

                Speaking of the Klingons I thought it was great when Shatner, while talking with Kor, notices Kor’s assistant looks a little different despite clearly being a Klingon.  He then realizes that the other Klingon looks more like the one from “Friday’s Child” than Kor and his “Errand of Mercy” Klingons.  Fred Phillips, the make-up artist, had errored when he forgot to include the bushy eyebrows and facial hair on his second time doing the Klingons that he had done on the first.  It appears the look of Klingons has always been a problem for Star Trek.

               

Also a Klingon!

The only thing I think I would change is I would have the actors come up with a solution to the Enterprise’s problem by just remembering that they had already read the script and therefore know what the answer is. Then they just come up with an excuse to give it the crew.       

Should it be canon: No, I am sorry I love the story but I think it would be a bad idea for the suspension of disbelief if it were confirmed as a matter of canon that Star Trek wasn’t real.  Having the characters realize they are just characters in a TV show would be a terrible thing going forward. Therefore, I think it should it remain just a fun side story to enjoy.

Cover Art: What I said after the first story: 

“The cover is beautiful.  You have the Enterprise flying in all its glory in the bottom center of the image.  Behind it looks like a space station built on an asteroid.  Flying above in the opposite direction is an unknown starship whose design I don’t recognize.”  

Final Grade: Final Grade 4 of 5

A MUCH BETTER FINAL EPISODE THAN TURNABOUT INTRUDER!

 

Episode Title:  The Counter-Clock Incident

Air Date: 10/12/1974

Written by John Culver

Directed by Bill Reed

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock        DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”, Lieutenant Arex, Commodore Robert T. April, and Karl Four                           George Takei as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu                    Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, Dr. Sarah April, and Karla Five                  

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Karla’s unnamed ship

Planets: Arret

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise has a very special guest aboard.  Commodore Robert T. April who was the Enterprise’s first captain, commanding until he was relieved by his successor Captain Christopher Pike, who we first saw in “The Cage.” The Enterprise’s original captain and her current bond over their love of the ship and April talks about how he first remembered the Enterprise being put together in the San Francisco Bay yards. The Commodore isn’t the only special guest aboard or only April.  Sarah April, the Commodore’s wife, was the Enterprise’s first Chief Medical Officer was not only began a line that led to McCoy but also a revolutionary in her field.  While Kirk is bonding with the Commodore, McCoy is star struck with his guest.  They are on route to Babel, a planet they have been to before, where April will finish his last assignment as Federation Ambassador-At-Large before retiring. 

Captains bonding

At this point, as it so often does, a strange vessel popped out of nowhere, it was moving at speeds that his series would normally say was impossible and its heading toward a supernova. The Enterprise tries to communicate with them but they can not understand the person.  Running it through the universal translator, Lt. Uhura, discovers that the woman on the other ship is just speaking English backwards.  Kirk orders the use of the tractor beam to stop the ship but instead of slowing that vessel down it instead pulls the Enterprise with toward the supernova.  They try to shut it down however the tractor beam remains on.  They go through the supernova and surprised to find that they aren’t dead.  They are now in a strange alternate universe where black stars shine in a white void, time follows backwards, and ships fly nacelles and shuttle bays first.  Dr. April’s flower that only had a one-day life cycle has suddenly been rejuvenated as it is aging backwards.

Sitting around the conference table, Commodore April jokes with his fellow officers that if we are now aging backwards, soon he won’t be at retirement age anymore.  They are able to establish contact with the ship that dragged them in here.  The pilot is named Karla Five she was researching a supernova in her universe when she was pulled into ours.  Since the Enterprise crew has adjusted to the new universe, they have an easy time understanding her. 

Doctors bonding

  Karla invites the Enterprise to her home planet where her lab is located. Her home planet, Arret, happens to occupy the same point in space in their universe that Earth does in ours. (In fact, “Arret” is just Terra—Latin for Earth—spelled backwards.)  In her lab they see a child in a crib who she explains is her father, Karl Six, and an old man who is her son, Karl Four. 

in reverse space

The research indicates they must find a dual supernova (where a dead star comes to life in their universe while a star dies in ours).  Then fly though it at the same speed for which they came and they will return there just as Karla did.  The problem is the Enterprise can’t fly that fast.  The problem is resolved because Karla can just put her ship on autopilot and have it tow it back.  They thank her for giving up her ship but she lets them know it’s not that big of a sacrifice as she can always build another. They quickly locate a dual supernova and head off to return to their own galaxy. 

The other ship

However, on their way to the supernova there is a problem.  The entire ship’s crew is aging backwards and losing their adult memories. All, save Spock, become incapable of performing basic starship tasks.  In addition, the Aprils have also reversed and are now young again.  Refusing his commodore title, he dubs himself “Captain April” and takes command of the ship leading them back to our universe.  Problem is when they get back to our universe, they are all still children, except the Aprils.  As we learned in “The Lorelei Signal” the transporter can fix everything and it does.  Even the Aprils decided to return to their right age.  Because of Robert April’s performance Starfleet will review the retirement age for its officers. 

Karla Five

Additional thoughts: In 1969 the greatest science fiction series ever ended its legendary run on a sore note.  The episode “Turnabout Intruder,” although it has an interesting premise forgot a lot about the series values in particular when it comes to women.  It was so unfortunate that for years was the last of what people saw of Star Trek.  Fortunately, the successor series although much shorter gave a far greater end.  Now this episode does have its flaws and will get into those.  However, the overall adventure was great.  The new universe was fun to explore and I wish we could have spent a little more time there.

Teenage Kirk

How awesome is it to get to meet the first Captain of the Enterprise?  A name pulled from the early Roddenberry drafts and brought to life for one episode.  Not only that but we got to meet the ship’s first chief medical officer, Dr. Sarah April.  This is however where things get a little weird. Dr. April claims that she was the first CMO to serve on a warp drive vessel.  This is absurd because we learned in “Metamorphosis” that the founder of warp drive, Zefram Cochrane, was from the 21^st century.  She could have claimed she was the first doctor on any other type of ship and she was the first CMO of the Enterprise so why just stick with that.   

Young Sarah April with toddler Uhura

That wasn’t the worst part.  The worst part was the author’s total misunderstanding of warp drive.  Not only were they traveling at speeds that are not only impossible according to Star Trek regardless of which warp chart you use.  In all canon warp 36 is impossible.  Even if it were possible, or more likely the ship was probably traveling at warp 9.999999 conventual, considering how fast it was going there is no way you could catch it with a tractor beam.  They’re moving so fast that by the time Kirk just thought of what to do they would have been gone already.

I really did like the white universe/black stars reality, I thought it was a very cool concept.  The image of the Enterprise flying backwards is hilarious.  When we get to Arret and we meet Karla’s family we see the reverse aging process that is similar from aliens from Ork in a TV show four years away from this. The son is an old man while her father lives as a child in a crib.  She is Karla Five, her father is Karl Six, and her son is Karl Four.  So, what happens when they reach One?  Do they go to zero then start over?  Do they use negative numbers?  What number did they start with?

Another weak point in this episode is the de-aging crew.  I am sorry but they were not in this universe long enough for that to become an issue.  The people in this universe age backwards not faster.  The crew should have been mostly unaffected.  The only reason they were was a plot device to return Captain April to the captain’s chair again. 

Captain April in command

Once more the transporter is used as a cure all. They are able to quickly restore people to their pervious selves based on their recorded patterns in the buffer.  Somewhere along the line I think they forget this trick.  The Aprils were very philosophical about going back to their real age.  Saying such a second chance would be wonderful if they needed it, but since their lives were awesome, they don’t.

Normally all these flaws would knock my review score down a point, but I enjoyed this so much that for today it won’t.

Thus, another chapter in Star Trek history comes to an end.  This is another milestone for my blog as a now can say I have written reviews for very episode of classic Star Trek and Star Trek: The Animated Series.  Time to move on.  This is the last appearance of the famous starship before her famous movie refit.  Bring on the classic Star Trek films.

FINAL GRADE 5 of 5

THE CAPTAIN HAS DISAPPEARED

Episode Title:  The Tholian Web

Air Date: 11/15/1968

Written by Judy Burns and Chet Richards

Directed by Herb Wallerstein

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Sean Morgan as Lieutenant O'Neil                 Roger Holloway as Lieutenant Lemli   Frank da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent     Walter Koenig as Ensign Pavel Chekov                 Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel      Jeannie Malone as unnamed Yeoman          Bob Bralver as unnamed  Berserk Engineer         Louie Eliass as unnamed Crazed Crewman         Jay D. Jones as unnamed Crewman         Paul Baxley as unnamed  Defiant Captain      Barbara Babcock as Commander Loskene   

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, USS Defiant NCC-1764, two unnamed Tholian vessels

Planets:  none

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise is out looking for her sister ship, the Defiant, that had gone missing in this sector.  They find it adrift with life support off line.  Kirk forms an away team that consists of himself, Spock, McCoy, and Chekov.  When they beam aboard, they find the entire crew dead in what had been a full-scale munity on the ship.  According to Spock such a thing has never happened on a Starfleet vessel before, if you don’t count the time their entire crew decided to abandon the Enterprise for Omicron Ceti III.  I suppose you can say that in that particular case the crew were not in their right minds so it doesn’t count.  As time goes on, they will find the same for the Defiant. 

            The away team continues to explore the ship and it as bad as it seems.  In the sickbay, Dr. McCoy finds dead patients strapped to their bio-beds.  When he goes to put his hand down, he finds it passes through the table as if the table is immaterial!  He notifies Kirk that the ship is dissolving and the Captain orders them all to the bridge.  This area of space has been inter-phasing with other universes occupying the same space in different dimensions.  The Defiant seems to be phasing out of our reality.  They prepare to beam back but the inter-phasing space is playing havoc with the Enterprise’s transporter as well and they can only beam a few at a time.  Kirk orders everyone to go and he decides to stay behind.  As the rest of the away team is safely aboard the Enterprise, Scotty and O’Neil try to beam Captain Kirk back but the Defiant fades away before they can. 

Ship is in a bad state!

Not good!

Despite the Defiant’s disappearance Spock determines that the Captain is not permanently lost.  He calculates the precise time the ship will return with Captain Kirk.  There is however a problem.  The Enterprise can cannot activate any of its systems not already on—like life-support—or it will disturb the area of space and its phasing.  This means they have to sit still for a few hours, but doing so means more exposure to this space for the crew and they are already starting to experience symptoms that is too similar to what they saw on the now vanished starship.  Several members of the crew, including Ensign Chekov, have mental break downs and attack others.

Trying to save Captain Kirk!

Matters suddenly get worse when a Tholian ship arrives claiming that this is their space and Enterprise is violating it by being there.  Despite that status of this space is currently disputed, Spock is able to convince the Tholians that their mission is genuine and if they would just wait a short while the other ship will return.  The Tholian Commander agrees to give them this time.  However, Spock doesn’t consider until it is too late the effect of the Tholian engines on this space.  It causes the Defiant not to appear on its scheduled time. 

The Tholian ship attacks the Enterprise forcing Mr. Spock to retaliate.  The Enterprise easily defeats its opponent but then the defeated ship returns with a friend.  The two Tholian ships combine and then they begin building a giant energy web that if they complete it will sap the Enterprise of its remaining energy and destroy them.  On to top of that the space battle that was forced upon them has destabilized things so that they can no longer hope to recover the Captain.  James Kirk is dead.

Since Captain Kirk is now dead and the ship is breaking down and about to be looked in an energy cage, now seems to be good time for a funeral.  Spock and McCoy feud a bit about McCoy’s attendance.  McCoy reports to Spock that the Klingon nerve gas Theragen could be the key to curing what is causing the madness.  Spock thinks McCoy should be doing nothing but working on that, but McCoy won’t allow Kirk to have a funeral without him attending.  The funeral ends with another crewmember going mad. 

A visit from a ghost!

McCoy and Spock decide it is time to get back to work but McCoy insists that part of that work is hearing the Captain’s final orders.  They go to Kirk’s quarters and prepare the recording of his final orders.  In the recording Kirk predicts exactly how Spock and McCoy were going to be bickering with each other.  He then basically gives the two officers and pep talk and sends them on their way.  

Kirk pep talking from the grave!

Lt. Uhura gets a shock when the “ghost” of Captain Kirk appears in her quarters.  She reports it but everyone assumes given the state of the ship that she hallucinated and her mind was breaking down like the rest.  However other people start seeing it is well and assuming people aren’t having the same hallucination they can rule Uhura sane and Kirk alive.  McCoy is able to develop an antidote for the mental breakdowns that Scotty is happy to mix with some scotch. 

Three toast with a cure!

Spock figures out a way to save Kirk and the ship.  He calculates where the Captain will fully be pulled into our universe and uses the Enterprise’s tractor beam to grab Kirk’s space suit.  Then they tap into the energy discharge from the inter-phasing universes to move themselves free and clear of the Tholian’s web with Captain Kirk in tow.  Once the ship has stabilized they beam Kirk aboard and McCoy treats him quickly to deal with any lingering problems. 

When all is said and done, we return to the bridge of the Enterprise where Kirk gets done explaining to his crew what it was like to be trapped in the other universe.  He then asks Spock and McCoy how useful were his final orders, and the two of them pretend never to have seen them citing the crisis as reason not to have the time.  

A reflective trio of Starfleet officers

Additional thoughts: This episode is really mistitled.  It is called “The Tholian Web” but both the Tholians and their little web have little to do with the story.  They are plot devices and nothing more.  Unlike the Romulans in The Balance of Terror or the Klingons in Errand of Mercy where the new adversaries were the central attraction, the Tholians could have been substituted for anyone else.  Now I do like them using a new bad guy it shows how large space is.  However, if you put them in the title, I would expect them to at least be important.  The title of this episode should have been “Vanishing Starships!”

What an odd time for a funeral.  Spock tries to tell the Doctor that he has more important things to do than attend.  Isn’t that true for everyone?  The ship is physical danger from fading into another dimension or the Tholians whatever gets them first shouldn’t Spock be working on those problems and after they are out of danger arrange a funeral?  What is the point of the funeral if half the attendees lose their mind part way through? If they all die do they think Captain Kirk’s comments to them in the afterlife would be “I’m sorry this ship was destroyed before that happened, did you have my funeral?”

We may all die but we did give the Captain a funeral!

It seemed to me that McCoy was already getting a little crazy with his irrational accusations against Spock for coveting Kirk’s command.   If he didn’t covet it during The Paradise Syndrome, why would he be coveting it here?  Even though he was affected he still was able to whip up a cure in no time.  McCoy’s talent as a doctor can never be understated.

Tholians taking a punch!

However, it was Spock who really shined in this episode. Not only does he have his normal role of explaining everything, he saves Kirk, and gets the Enterprise out of harm’s way to boot. It’s a good thing that Captain Kirk’s space suit is lot sturdier than Captain Christopher’s plane.  Had it been otherwise, Kirk would have been in lot of trouble as they were thrown from the web!

Why is it almost every time we see another Constitution-class starship it has either a dead or soon to be dead crew?  First it was the Constellation.  Everyone on that ship was dead except the Captain, when he ordered them all down to the planet.  The same thing for the Exter, except its crew should have gone down to the planet and stayed for a while, instead only their Captain was on the planet alive.  There was what happened to the Farragut from Kirk’s past and the Intrepid might have been a connie too.  Now we have the Defiant where everyone is dead after being driven crazy.  Seem like the only time we saw a Constitution-class fly next to the Enterprise and live to tell about it was the Lexington, and even that episode saw a few go down.  I suppose since our daring crew is always getting close to being destroyed by the threat of the week it makes since to show a captain and crew that weren’t so lucky.  It helps to reinforce that what they do is dangerous. However, sometimes it makes the rest of the fleet look less than competent.

FINAL GRADE 5 of 5