THE CHANGLING PART 2

 

Film Title:  The Motion Picture

Air Date: 12/7/1979

Written by Alan Dean Foster and Harold Livingston

Directed by Robert Wise

Cast: William Shatner as Rear Admiral James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              Stephen Collins as Captain Willard Decker     James Doohan  as Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        George Takei  as Lieutenant  Commander Hikaru Sulu              Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Commander Nyota Uhura          Majel Barrett as Dr. Christine Chapel          Walter Koenig as Lieutenant Pavel Chekov      Persis Khambatta as Lieutenant Ilia        Grace Lee Whitney as Lieutenant Janice Rand           Michael Rougas as  Lieutenant Cleary       David Gautreaux as Commander Branch              Marcy Lafferty as Chief Petty Officer DiFalco          Terrence O'Connor as Chief Petty Officer Ross           Jon Rashad Kamal as Lieutenant  Commander Sonak                            Roger Aaron Brown as unnamed  Epsilon Technician       Gary Faga as unnamed Airlock Technician               Michele Billy Povill as unnamed Lieutenant         Howard Itzkowitz as unnamed Ensign                 John Gowans as unnamed Crewman                 Jeri McBride as unnamed Crewman          Ralph Brannen as unnamed Crewman           Ralph Byers as unnamed Crewman                                Paula Crist as unnamed Crewman             Iva Lane as unnamed Crewman             Franklyn Seales as unnamed Crewman          Momo Yashima as unnamed Crewman            Joshua Gallegos as unnamed Crewman         Junero Jennings as unnamed Crewman             Sayra Hummel as unnamed Crewman                  Leslie C. Howard as unnamed Yeoman              Lisa Chess as unnamed Yeoman              Mark Lenard as the unnamed Klingon Captain                                  Jimmie Booth as unnamed Klingon Crewman                       Joel Kramer as unnamed Klingon Crewman                           Bill McIntosh as unnamed Klingon Crewman               Dave Moordigian as unnamed Klingon Crewman         Tom Morga as unnamed Klingon Crewman        Tony Rocco as unnamed Klingon Crewman                  Joel Shultz as unnamed Klingon Crewman            Craig Thomas as unnamed Klingon Crewman              Edna Glover as unnamed Grand Master T’Sai      Norman Stuart as unnamed Vulcan Master          Paul Weber as unnamed Vulcan Master Doug Hale as the Enterprise Computer (voice)

Ships and Space Stations: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Epsilon Nine, Space-drydock, IKS Amar, two unnamed Klingon K't'inga-class, Surak VS-5047-61192259584-5, various unnamed shuttlecraft

Planets: Earth and Vulcan

My Spoiler filled summary and review: After the opening credits, the movie begins with three Klingon K’t’inga class cruisers.  The view is treated with what will be the new Klingon musical theme through the soundtrack.  The Klingons themselves have moved on from their proto-human like look from the classic series and animated series to their true traditional look. It’s a good thing too, otherwise we would be asking why there is both a Klingon commander and a Romulan commander who look just like Spock’s dad.  The Klingons’ activity is being monitored by a nearby Starfleet station, Episode Nine, who observe the Klingon ships heading to a giant space cloud.  They try to fire weapons at the cloud only to have the cloud quickly destroy them.  So, despite their new look, they played the old Klingon role of being fodder for whatever new villain or entity is making an appearance.   

The Klingons

On Vulcan, Spock is about to complete the ceremony of Kolinahr, the purging of all emotion. Spock then backs out at the last minute. This is the Vulcan equivalent of dumping at the altar.  That has happened to Spock as well, but this is Kolinahr, not pon farr so there are no hurt feelings.  The masters let Spock know his destiny is elsewhere.  On Earth Admiral Kirk makes his first live action appearance in ten years.  We see him talk briefly to Spock’s successor as science officer of the Enterprise.  Kirk has a mission that means the Enterprise needs to be ready soon, because despite the fact that they are on Earth, capital homeworld of the Federation, they only have one ship that had just completed a years-long retrofit.

Spock fails need the Enterprise

Kirk beams up to the space station and has Scotty bring him in a short-range shuttle to the space dry dock.  Here the Enterprise is finishing up its retrofit that its new Captain and Scotty had been preforming in order to take her out on the ship’s next five-year mission.  At this point we begin the episode of Extreme Home Maker Over: Starship Edition.  As Scotty slowly and with pride takes the Admiral on a ride around the exterior of the ship.  He shows Kirk, and the viewer all the changes.  Kirk comes aboard and heads to the bridge.  The bridge has also been done over.  The new bridge comes with the best command chair ever. Kirk is immediately greeted by his former bridge crew; they are all excited to have him back. Although some feel a little sad for Decker.  

Kirk confronts Decker, he tells him point blank that, he, Kirk, is taking over the ship with Decker receiving a temporary grade reduction and job as Executive Officer.  When Decker asks why Kirk notes his experience. When Decker points out the ship’s changes Kirk simply reminds him that it is why he will continue as the ship’s first officer. This will cause drama through the rest of the movie, but it will not be truly explored in the way that it should have been.  I will talk more about that in my additional thoughts section.  Immediately, however, there is an alarm from the transporter room.  Lt. Janice Rand, in her first appearance since “The Conscience of the King,” now the transporter chief, is having a horrible time.  A transporter accident has put the lives of two officers in flux, one of which is the science officer.  This ends with both officers dying.  Since Kirk can’t get a new Vulcan to act as science officer, he forces Decker into double duty. 

Kirk returning 

Kirk hosts a crew meeting where he explains the danger they will be going into and the threat that it poses to Earth.  The transporter gets fixed, and ship welcomes two more crew members. The first is Lt. Ilia who is bald, beautiful, and has a prior relationship with Decker.   For some reason, the new navigator needs to announce to everyone on the bridge that she has taken a “vow of celibacy.”  A bit presumptuous if you ask me, but Kirk lets it slide.   The second person is none other than our famous Dr. McCoy, “drafted” out of retirement using an old reactivation clause. McCoy, being himself complains about everything including needing a new head nurse that Chaple is a doctor, the new sickbay, and Kirk particularly his relationship to Decker. 

These two have some history

With the threat looming Kirk needs to take this old girl with her new look out for spin. After all the giant space cloud isn’t slowing down.  And it is at this moment that we get the most exciting part of the movie.  As the ship warps out it creates a worm hole that makes everybody’s vision blurry, and their speech is slowed. If that were all it would be funny, but a giant asteroid has also got caught in the wormhole and it’s headed right toward the ship. The helm is offline so they can’t evade.  Kirk orders it to be destroyed with phasers but Decker countermands him and orders the ship instead to fire photon torpedoes.  The explosion destroying the asteroid also causes the wormhole goes away and everything returns to normal. Later Kirk demands to know why Decker countermanded him. Decker calmly explained that in order to increase phaser power the phasers now run through the engines if the engines are offline the phaser might not work.  Kirk realizes he was right and lets him go.  McCoy then chews Kirk’s butt for his beef with Decker. 

Nevertheless, they are stuck in the middle of space until they solve their warp engines problem. Fortunately, a long-range shuttle craft comes out of nowhere. The shuttlecraft contains Mr. Spock who is here to solve all their problems.  He offers his services as chief science officer and Kirk orders his commission re-instated.  Although Spock has done them a great service fixing the engines.  It appears Spock’s time on Vulcan has dampened his social skills a bit.  McCoy even thinks Spock’s mental connection to the cloud creature might present a security risk.

Back to save the day!

The Enterprise gets to the energy barrier and is scanned. They do nothing in response.  Spock’s reading suggests that it is very powerful. However, Spock’s mental powers come in use that the creature wonders why they have not replied. Bolts of lightning fly through the warp core and into the ship’s systems injuring several including Chekov, who gives out that classic Chekov scream. Spock patterns a code from the signals being sent to transmit a message.  The lighting attack stops, Spock suggests they proceed, Decker says he finds that an unwarranted risk, but won’t explain to Kirk what he means by it.

As they move into the cloud they come across a massive ship. Uhura explains they can’t send anything out.  For their signals are just reflected back at them.  The ship is suddenly boarded by a beam of energy that Chekov thinks might be part of their crew. The energy thing moves along the bridge when it suddenly focuses on Lt. Ilia. It zaps and disappears with her.  Which causes Decker to cry out about how he defines “unwarranted.”  It turns out they don’t have to miss Ilia for very long.  Because a replacement Ilia is suddenly transported aboard.  This new Ilia is a probe for what she calls V'ger.  V'ger is that entity in the center of the cloud. This probe was created so V’ger can understand the Enterprise and its carbon-based units and see how they can be used to help V’ger with its mission.  The mission is to find the creator. For some reason V’ger thinks that its creator can be found on Earth.  Given that the probe has all of Ilia’s memories and experiences they decide that Decker will be the best one to work with her. 

Decker and the Fake Ilia

While Decker is off charming the robot, Spock has decided to take matter into his own hands.  He steals a suit and jet pack and decides to attempt to enter V’ger’s vessel solo.  He has quite a bit of success when he gets in there, he encounters images that he concludes a V’ger’s memories, including an image of what he assumes must be V’ger’s homeworld: a planet of all machines.  Spock finds the real Ilia stuck in the machine.  He attempts to mind meld with her, but he is given intense feedback by V’ger forcing him back.  Back on the Enterprise, Kirk figured out what Spock was doing and decided to rescue him.  He is there just in the nick of time and Spock is brought back to sick bay.  There Spock confides to Kirk that for all of V’ger’s knowledge it does understand basic emotions and bonds of brotherhood.  Nevertheless, it still seeks its creator.

Despite all its technology it is noted that V’ger was also trying to communicate to Earth in old radio waves. Without a reception V’ger concludes that the carbon-based life forms on the planet had somehow prevented the creator from reaching out to V’ger.  So, it sends these energy bolts and has them hover above the Earth ready to eradicate humanity.  When they determine that V’ger doesn’t consider corporal base life true life McCoy becomes the first to realize that V’ger is under the opinion that its creator is an artificial intelligence like itself.  This causes Decker to quote that we all create God in our own image.

Spock finds Ilea

Spock suggests a different strategy.  V’ger is a child and therefore should be treated like a child.  Kirk announces to fake Ilea that they know why the creator hasn’t responded and she demands they disclose the information.  Kirk orders to clear the bridge making V’ger cause the ship to rumble.  Kirk points out that if they are destroyed their knowledge goes with them.  Fake Ilea says V’ger will comply providing they turn over the information. Kirk then tells her that the message must be given to V’ger directly not to his probe. This is smart move for Kirk who is buying time to allow him to figure out the best way to get V’ger to commit suicide.  V’ger’s vessel opens its entrance allowing the Enterprise to penetrate its interior.  Chekov notes that as they enter an oxygen atmosphere forms inside the vessel that would allow humans to survive.  Kirk organizes a landing party consisting of himself, Decker, Spock, McCoy, and Fake Ilia.

The team exits the Enterprise manually, not through a transporter, they take a nice long jog to find V’ger. When they get there, they discover something very familiar about the main V’ger body.  It looks just like the old Voyager space probe.  Kirk goes to the crude covered name plate that says “V_ _ _ _ GER _” He scrapes away some of the crude and reveals the name of Voyager 6.  NASA had sent this into space almost three hundred years prior. 

At that point Kirk realizes that it has happened again.  Humans send a device out into space, it runs into some alien technology that ends up changing it, and it decides it needs to find its creator, and is willing entire star systems to get what it wants.  Last time Kirk talked the Nomad device into suicide, if he wanted to do that again, he would have to be more creative.  Kirk appeals to V’ger that “we are the creator.”  Fake Ilia disputes this but Kirk says he can prove it and he contacts Uhura, and she gives him the old radio code.  However, V’ger fries its own circuits.  Because it wants THE creator to show up so V’ger can bond with the creator and become one.  Doing so would give access to imagination and possibly other plains of existence.  Decker sees this and realizes the possibilities.  Understanding that he has only seconds to act before Kirk, as Bane of All Artificial Intelligence, talks V’ger into suicide.  Decker reroutes V’gers circuits claiming he can enter the codes manually.  When the other three try to warn him off, Decker says to Kirk that he wants this as much as Kirk wanted the Enterprise.  With that energy surrounds Decker.  Fake Ilia joins him (and maybe her connection to real Ilia makes her less fake).  The two of them embrace and energy starts to envelop everything.  Kirk, Spock, and McCoy hightail it back to the ship and all of what was V’ger, including the cloud, enveloped in energy and disappears.  Leaving only the USS Enterprise.

The Last One Standing

Back up on the bridge the three officers wonder if they have not just experienced the birth of a whole new life form.  McCoy jokes that it had been a long time since he had delivered a baby, but he hopes that they have given this one a good start.  When putting together the casualties list Kirk lists Captain Decker and Lt. Ilia as “missing.” 

Time for final thoughts

Scotty reports to Spock that they are all set to drop him off at Vulcan, but Spock says there is no need as he will be staying.  The Enterprise has completed its refit, the crew has been reunited, and with Captain Decker missing that leaves the old captain, James T. Kirk, opportunity to continue command.  It’s time for the next five-year mission.    

Additional thoughts: As a kid I disliked The Motion Picture.  Of all the classic Star Trek films it was by far my least favorite.  Although the refitted Enterprise looked cool, I had a hard time with the slow story and the ridiculous looking uniforms.  I mean why put the famous starship crew of all time in pajamas and what was that Walkman-thing they were wearing on their stomachs?  Over the years, however, I have come to appreciate what they were trying to do.  Star Trek after all is more than one thing.  Some great Star Trek is an epic space battle between two or more ships, other times it can be exploring a strange new world, an amazing time travel adventure, or we can meet a new type of life.  This movie is about one of the more sci-fi aspects of Star Trek, complete with stunning visuals.  The movie in many ways feels like an extended episode: a multiact structure with Captain’s Logs giving us updates every step of the way.  It’s important to remember that those watching in December 1979, this was the first time they were able to see this crew live action in ten years.  It must have been something special. 

The Klingons looking good!

Unfortunately, the plot wasn’t so special.  It’s “the Changeling” now bigger, better, and brighter.  This isn’t a unique criticism, every fan notices this.  So, I am not going to dwell on it too much more or risk being a type of hypocrite. On a lighter note, I do find it hilarious that they spent so much remaking the Klingons to look like the true kickass antagonists they were always meant to be, only to have them be slapped away almost without effort by something that turned out to be human space garbage.

Thinking of you again!

I realize Kirk had a great time serving with Spock but developing a strong desire to only have Vulcan science officers some type of new bigotry.  I “must have a Vulcan” seems weird for a franchise that emerged out of the 1960s, a decade that demanded an end to racial preferences.  Also, why does Decker have to do double duty?  There is no one else on the ship capable of serving as chief science officer out of a 430 person crew?  Not even in the science department?  Maybe Kirk is seeing everything through his Spock googles. Although when Spock does arrive, he so Kolinahred out that it must have been a reminder to Kirk not to view the past with too much nostalgia as the it might taint the memory. 

Everybody happy to see Spock, but Spock

With the exception of Kirk’s Admiral uniform, I don’t know why anyone thought these new uniforms looked good.  In preparing for one’s big ten-year live action return, one should want to look a feel their best.  Instead, they look like they all got invited to a pajama party, where they had to bring their own Walkman. The Enterprise, however, did get to look her best.  Already beautiful, she got to produce the best episode of Extreme Home Makeover ever.  Everything about the ship was perfect.

"I'm sexy, and I know it!"

One big disappointment was the Decker/Kirk relationship.  This should have been a great drama, it is set up to be, but instead we get muted drama.  The rival captains are placed against each other, but this never leads to anything.  To make matters worse is it is considered canon that Will Decker is the son of Matt Decker from “The Doomsday Machine.” Not only should this be a major part of their story, but it is not even mentioned.  When you think about the Kirk/Decker situation it makes sense from Starfleet’s side.  A planetary-ending level threat of unknown origin is on its way. The only ship you have has a captain who has never commanded a ship out of space dock and has spent the last two years remodeling that vessel. The last captain is nearby and has a record of defeating threats like this. Why not put the old one back and charge and have the new one be first officer for a tour since he knows the remodel. However, their personalities are going to clash. Kirk, which the movie shows, really wants his old job back. Decker, after getting over the initial shock seems totally cool with the loss of status. I think this should have been played up more. Imagine being Decker you spend two years fixing up this ship to take it out. Then you lose the command because a threat arrives and Starfleet doesn’t trust you to deal with it, but they will let be second-in-command to the captain we do trust. Also then add in the family history his father went after a similar threat years ago.  He lost everything.  His life, his ship, and his crew were all gone.  Jim Kirk went against the same threat and came away the winner, and now Starfleet wants to preemptively make the Decker/Kirk swap.

“I am taking over center seat, Will” Kirk.

“You’re what?” asked Decker.

“I am replacing you as Captain of the Enterprise.  You’ll stay on as Executive Officer, temporary grade reduction to commander.”

“May I ask why?” Decker

“My experience.  There is a very dangerous threat that can destroy multiple starships and potentially devore solar systems.  Now having gone toe to toe against Nomad, the gigantic single-cell organism, not to mention the Doomsday Machine…”

“And they don’t trust a Decker to deal with anything resembling a Doomsday Machine, do they?” Decker walks off in anger.

They could have done a lot with that.

Although it could have used more drama, the Kirk/Decker arrangement is actually shown to work.  Decker’s knowledge of the ship saves them from the asteroid in that wormhole. Nevertheless, Kirk’s experience gets them through the mission.  Throughout the film Decker displays an overwhelming amount of caution worthy of General George McClellan from the US Civil War.  Decker isn’t alone, a lot of the crew feel that way.  In fact, Kirk is almost the only person on the entire crew who understands the magnitude of the threat that V’ger makes to Earth.  The movie is already slow moving but it is amazing that the crew has such a lack of urgency considering the threat to the homeworld of most of them.  If Decker had been left in command, they never would have penetrated the cloud and Earth’s population would have been wiped out.  Good job, Captain Kirk.

Unlikely pair

              This year I am teaching 8^th grade science, and we’re doing astronomy this last month.  So, a lot of this is fresh to me.  The Voyager series stopped after Two. It’s probably this movie’s fault. NASA probably saw the movie and was like “Let’s stop building these Voyager series they might come back and try to kill us.”  Also, at their max speed it would be 80,000 years for one of them to reach the nearest solar system.  So, getting lost in a black hole to be found by alien robots was probably the most unrealistic part of the movie. (The finding a black hole part, not the alien robots.)

Voyager 2

It's too bad we never get to see any of the five-year mission that went on after The Motion Picture.  Oh, well that is why the Pocket Book Series was written. 

FINAL GRADE 3 of 5

THE ENTERPRISE VISITS A WORLD WHERE EVERYONE LOOKS LIKE THE DEVIL

 

Name: Devil World

Author: Gordon Eklund

Publication Date: 11/1979

Publisher: Bantam Books

Page Number: 153

Historian’s Note:  Some time before The Magicks of Megas-tu

Cast of Characters:  Captain James T. Kirk       Commander Spock              Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”       Lieutenant Commander Gregory           Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Lieutenant Nyota Uhura              Lieutenant Kyle                Lieutenant Radly Marcus             Nurse Christine Chapel          Ensign Pavel Chekov             Crewman Albert Schang          Crewman Doyle                      Crewman Mosley              Commodore Wilhelm Schang           Gilla Dupree        Dr. Faustus                Captain Jacob Kell         Dazi       Reni Bates                Many unnamed Danons

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Starbase 13

Planets:  Heartland

My Spoiler filled summary and review: Decades before the Enterprise’s famous five-year mission, a Lt. Marcus was leading a landing party to aid the colonists of the planet Heartland.  Yet, when they arrived, the landing party discovered that all the colonists had gone hopelessly insane. 

In the present time, the crew of the Enterprise is enjoying some well-earned shore leave on Starbase 13. Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy are all enjoying a magic show performed by a Dr. Faustus.  Dr. McCoy is annoyed with Spock ruining all the illusions by logically explaining each time how they were done. Then the show gets weird, when Faustus decides to summon demons to his show.  Ugly demons start appearing left and right.  They don’t seem to hurt anybody, but they are ugly and that bothers McCoy.  Then a woman shows up wearing a mask like it is 2020 outside, and faints.  Everyone forgets about the demons, and they focus on helping the woman.

The lady's health is our primary concern

When they get her to the station’s sickbay, McCoy gets her stable and awake.  The woman is named Gilla Dupree.  Dupree is a religious nut whose weird dieting restrictions threaten her health, but she doesn’t care because she is only concerned for her next life in the reincarnation cycle.  For a religious nut, she is aware her views aren’t “sensible” and is oddly philosophical about it. She also is a famous artist with both Kirk and Spock being amongst her legions of fans.  Dupree is looking for Captain Kirk to help her find her missing father.

Kirk goes to talk with the Starbase 13 commander, Commodore Wilhelm Schang, who happens to have been Kirk’s former boss.  Kirk explains that situation about the famous artist, her father and this forbidden planet she wants to visit in order to find him.  Schang explains that her father is the infamous former Starfleet officer, Captain Joseph Kell.  Kell left Starfleet and went to live with the Klingons.  Kirk referred to him as “Kell the traitor.”  Schang says there is no evidence he ever gave them Starfleet secrets, so he was more of turncoat than outright traitor. Kirk is still committed to find him, and also investigate if the planet should still be under quarantine.  The quarantined planet, Heartland, has a native species known as the Danons.  At their prime the Danons once ruled half the galaxy and even visited Earth.  However, their star-spanned civilization declined and all that remained were a few hundred, all living in a single village.  They gave the Federation permission to set up the colony so there would be other intelligent life on the planet.  

Please make my son not so useless

Schang has one final request.  He confesses to Kirk that he is a deadbeat dad.  He never saw his son, Albert, while he was growing up and as a result, Albert is now useless.  He pulled strings to get his son into Starfleet Academy, however being useless and lazy he washes out after the first year and sent into the fleet as a mere crewman.  He wants Kirk to take him under his wing as his captain’s steward and make him less useless.  Kirk reluctantly agrees, and part of the comic relief of the rest of the book is Crewman Schang being annoying and whiney, while making a mess of his job.

So, the Enterprise takes off for its mission with an artistic religious nut and a useless Academy washout.  When they arrive, they try to make contact with the planet hoping Kell may still have some communication equipment with him.  They make contact but not with Kell, it turns out one of the original colonists managed to retain his sanity and was not picked up by Starfleet when it sent a ship here decades ago.  Kirk decides to lead a landing party and agrees, with some reluctancy, to take both Depree and Schang with him.  They beam down and meet up with the survivor, who is named Reni Bates.  The name matches the one Spock had found amongst the colonists missing after the rescue.  Bates claims to have seen Kell, and that the Danons cannot be trusted.  Bates is willing to take them to the Danons, if Kirk agrees not to believe anything that the Danons tell him.  Kirk humors him and they head on their way.

Trust only me!

  As they approach the Danon village Bates makes himself scarce.  The Danons all look like depictions of the devil in Earth’s Christianity.  They encounter Kell, who is a jerk and won’t give them or his daughter the time of day.  The Danon leader, Dazi, seems more friendly and even arranges a place for them to sleep during the night. Kirk and Dupree have a heart to heart.  Dupree is concerned for her father and Kirk is now in love with Dupree.  (I swear the only thing a beautiful female guest star needs to do is breathe and Kirk falls head over heels for them.) Spock also reports to Kirk that he can sense a disembodied presence, but he is unsure of its nature.

Dazi stops by to make sure they are doing okay and even enjoys a game of poker with the security personnel.  At one-point Dazi whispers something to Crewman Doyle.  The next morning Doyle is missing.  They later find him completely naked, and his memory totally wiped.  The once Starfleet Security Crewman has been reduced to a mental state of infancy.  They send him back to the ship.  Kirk goes to confront Kell and informs him that they are all leaving him included.  Dell doesn’t seem convinced.  Kirk leaves Dell’s hut with him and the landing party is surrounded by Danons.  They try to beam up only to discover that the Danons are blocking the transporter signal.

Spock decides to try to make mental contact with the presence.  The presence overwhelms Spock and for a moment Spock seems to have lost his mind.  McCoy confirms this is only temporary, but he needs to get him back to the ship.  The Danons allow this.

At this point Bates reappears.  He tells Captain Kirk the story of Danons.  He explains that their reign as a great galactic power ended when they crossed swords with a species called the Torgas.  The Torgas stripped them of their empire, forcing the Danons to retreat to just their homeworld, Heartland.  In their defense they built The Great Machine.  The GM had all Danon knowledge, and the late Danons had their consciousness to be absorbed by it.  It drove back their enemies, and the Danons became to worship their creation as a god.  They would even sacrifice most of the children to it leading to a decline in population.  Eventually all the young were sent to it which is why there are only a few hundred left. The GM then suddenly needed more people and asked the Federation to set up a colony but when it tried to merge the humans to the GM’s collective consciousness it caused the humans to go insane. Kell is the only human who hasn’t so the GM has chosen him to represent it to the larger universe.  Kirk has Bates tell the story to the rest of the landing party and shortly after hearing it Depree went missing.

reminds you of the devil

Kirk goes looking for Depree only to discover that she has contacted the GM and asked to take her father’s place.  As she is younger and far more durable the GM agrees to cut ties with Kell.  Kirk tries to get her out of there, but a Danons overwhelm him.  Kirk is danger of being killed by the swarm of demon-looking people until he is saved by the no longer useless Crewman Schang.

Later, on the bridge of the Enterprise, Kirk is upset about the loss of Dupree.  Everyone else got out and back to the ship, including Kell and Bates.  McCoy lets Kirk know that he shouldn’t be so upset, because it will be Dupree who gets the last laugh.  It turns out she was terminally ill the whole time.  She wanted to find her father to say “goodbye.”  When she saw he had been turned into the agent of the GM, she volunteered to take his place knowing she would be dead in a month.  With her gone the GM will no longer have a human to reach out with and will cease once the last of the Danons die.   

Additional thoughts: The story is a fine tale with clear beginning, middle, and end.  The main problem I have with it is the side stories are more interesting than the main event.  Danons, one of the great spacefaring species that ruled the galaxy long before the present powers did.  They are like the Preservers or the Slavers.  The only difference between those other two is there are still some left.  A species that once numbered in the trillions is now reduced to a hundred living in a small village.  What is it like to be them?  What goes through one’s mind when they see their kind heading into extinction while other species are rising and thriving?  Now we have this problem with the episodes too, but the difference is they are limited by budget, books are not. 

There are also things introduced with no payoff.  We have the magician summing demons in the beginning, could they have been related to the Danons?  Nothing comes of it.  We learn that the Danons may be the reason humans came up with the Devil, despite sort of already meeting the devil.  The Devil is known to make deals for people’s souls. Could the Great Machine be responsible for that?  Could that explain what happened to Doyle?  None of this is ever explored.  

In reviewing Eklund’s other book I praised the author for having a strong understanding of the characters.  He seems to have forgotten a lot of what he knows in this book.  Starfleet doesn’t salute and never has, yet in this story Kirk keeps insisting on being saluted.  He has never done this in the past. When Commodore Schang is about to load his son onto Kirk.  Kirk says he doesn’t use servants.  Tell that to all the various yeomen, who get his coffee, clean his clothes, makes his meals etc.  Kirk complains they keep assigning him women and they get themselves confused for being his wife.  Often says he wants a male yeoman who wouldn’t be mistaking for a spouse.  Kirk’s only concern should be Crewman Schang’s incompetence.  Kirk makes a joke about going down with the ship and Scotty responds the Enterprise isn’t a ship. Since when?  They always refer to the Enterprise as a ship.

Kirk "I don't have servants!" 

In the end why didn’t Kirk talk the Great Machine into suicide like he normally does, or at the very least blow it apart with the Enterprise’s phasers?  I don’t care about the Prime Directive; Kirk has violated it for less.  Bates makes it very clear that the GM is responsible for the almost extinction of the Danons.  If Kirk ignored the Prime Directive under the justification that the local people aren’t evolving when they are being ruled by a computer, but when a local people is being exterminated by said computer why would he hesitate?  Bates himself uses the word genocide to describe what was happening.  He was probably hoping Kirk would act on his reputation.

This is a ship!

The only thing I thought was right was Kirk following hopelessly in love again.  This time for Dupree.   However, it turns out she is going to be one of those doomed loves of his.  Loving Captain Kirk can often be fatal.  It isn’t guaranteed to happen, but it must be a concern.  The book also did right by Captain Jacob Kell, as we seen with both Matt Decker and Ronald Tracey, a starship captain’s sanity cannot survive the loss of his or her crew. Kell’s loss of sanity was not as extreme as the other two, he just decided to live with the Klingons and then turn his mind over to a great computer.  Speaking of the Klingons, despite their constant mention they never show up in the story.

Why not blast it with phasers?

Given her experience with mind wipes, I wonder if Lt. Uhura could possibly help poor Crewman Doyle regain his lost mind.  After her experience with Nomad, I think she would be the best to help him find his way out of the tunnel.

In the end, we got a Star Trek story that was good but not particularly great.    

Should it be canon: Sure, I have a lot of issues with the characterization.  However, that is also true of many episodes such as “The Paradise Syndrome” and “Turnabout Intruder.”

Cover Art: The cover art is a bit of a lie and a spoiler.  It has Gilla Dupree in the center, sitting on a throne, all dressed up.  It hints of her ascension in the end where there is not a lot of foreshadowing to it in the story. She is flanked by Kirk and Sulu.  Kirk makes since but Sulu a very bit role in the story so featuring him on the cover is the lie. Behind them are some huts, so that part is honest.

Final Grade: Final Grade 3 of 5

KIRK VS. OMNE AND OMNE

 

Name: The Fate of the Phoenix  

Authors: Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath

Publication Date: 5/1979

Publisher: Bantam Books

Page Number: 262

Historian’s Note:  Immediately after The Price of the Phoenix

Cast of Characters:  Captain James T. Kirk and Prince James T. Kirk       Commander Spock              Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Dr. Joseph M'Benga            Nurse Christine Chapel          Ensign Pavel Chekov      The Romulan Fleet Commander       Subcommander Tal            Omne    Other Omne     Trevanian    Elder Hegarch of Voran Dynasty   Younger Hegarch of Voran Dynasty      The Romulan Commander-in-Chief    Doyen of the Thorvan League     Maroc     Maia Roblein           R.A. Roblein       Rovan         Varal of Voran         V'Rlee

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Phoenix ships, unnamed Romulan scout ship, unnamed Romulan heavy battle cruiser, unnamed Romulan dreadnought

Planets: Voran, Razar, and Thorva

My Spoiler filled summary and review: This book begins shortly after the authors’ last book, “The Price of the Phoenix” ends.  If the reader has not read it, that will not matter for the narrator gives a brief summary of events. The crew has been rocked by the adventure especially the Captain and First Officer.  The two wonder if they will ever be normal again.  Kirk now has a duplicate and there is a general fear that Omne, if he lives, can now make himself look like Spock.  (Why they fear this I have no idea it foreshadows this story but I don’t remember that being in the last book, more on that in My Additional Thoughts section.)  The duplicate Kirk now called James has gone to live in the Romulan Star Empire as the boytoy of the Lady Fleet Commander they first encountered in “The Enterprise Incident.”

Now the mistress of the clone Kirk

As the crew of the Enterprise continues their recovery elsewhere things are a foot.  A high-ranking Federation administrator who was about to resign after the death of a loved one now has that very same loved one returned to him somehow by a mysterious benefactor.  Not only is this fellow not retiring he announces that there will be a major conference.   This conference will be hosted by the Federation member Voran the capital and largest planet of the Voran Dynasty Hegemony.  The entire Hegemony joined the Federation as a group which gave their monarch control of a huge chunk of Federation territory near the Romulan Neutral Zone.  If they were to give up on the Federation, it would be a crippling blow putting the UFP in a distant disadvantage with both the Romulans and the Klingons.  The tone of the conference will be does the United Federation of Planets live up to its promises, the Prime Directive, and address the topic of secession.  Omne’s involvement couldn’t be clearer if there was a sign that said, “Omne’s not dead and he is behind all this.” 

Federation conferences what can go wrong?

It turns out that the Federation isn’t the only major intergalactic power with a large interplanetary sub-state.  For the Romulan Star Empire that is the Thorvan League of Planets, ruled by a constitutional monarch called, the Doyen.  The Fleet Commander has a history with the Doyen, when she captured one of her ships doing something they should not have been.  The League’s legislative body agreed that the Doyen is in her debt.  The Fleet Commander is looking for a power base if she is to stand against Omne without the support of her high command. 

It turns out that the Doyen has her own boytoy.  The Fleet Commander and the Doyen have a secret meeting/party where they exchange boytoys for the evening.  The clone James finds the whole thing a bit degrading but goes along with the kinky spirit of it.  The other boytoy is named Trevanian.  The Fleet Commander decides to invoke her right to demand a hostage and tells the Doyen that Trevanian will be that hostage.  This enrages the Doyen who demands they fight a duel of honor.   The duel doesn’t have to be to the death, but it can end that way.   The two fight the boytoys as the prize.  The Fleet Commander proves to be the better fighter and as a consequence Trevanian is going to be their guest.  The Fleet Commander did this not only to ensure Doyen loyalty but to protect James’s identity.  The hostage is allowed a kinsman.  He is talked out of it so they can say James is Trevanain and the real Trevanian is the kinsmen.  Doyen is said but will remain loyal.  

Clone Kirk, not the only Romulan boytoy

 Captain Kirk himself is made the top ambassador this conference by the Federation.  This is somewhat odd, for one the Federation would typically send an actual ambassador.  Maybe Starfleet Command felt all the first contacts and ad hoc negotiations gave him the skill they needed?  Kirk does an actually good job at defending the Federation’s positions.  He briefly meets with the old dying Hegarch and his young heir.  It is at this point the Romulan Fleet Commander shows up.  Running into her must be awkward for personal reasons, as his other self is her boytoy.  Kirk is also not sure whose she is on in this conflict or her possible motivations.  Calling into question the wisdom of allowing his other self to go live with her.

Whose side is she on?

Half-way through the conference, the attendees get to meet the new Regent of the Voran Dynasty Hegemony.  And the Regent is Omne.  Back from his apparent death, and now the leader of the subsection of the Federation looking leave, it is as if he has already won.  He even gets to enjoy humiliating Kirk.  As Omne’s position as Regent requires Kirk the Ambassador to great him as “my lord.”

Omne’s victory is short lived however when there is an assassination attempt at the conference by an individual who looks just like Spock.  The real Spock is severally injured and almost died, but is ironically saved by Omne.  Trevanian is also injured and is kidnapped by the fake Spock, with “James” going after them.  After the smoke clears Omne explains that the fake Spock was a hybrid phoenix duplicate of both himself and Mr. Spock, with the Omne personally dominating.  Omne had created him to use against Kirk but the hybrid other has Omne’s ego as well.   The Other, as Omne calls him, now has an agenda of his own and has the intelligence of both personalities at work.   

Spock injured

Kirk is forced to from an alliance with Omne, who a few chapters ago Kirk was moaning that Omne was the worst thing that ever happened to him, and the Lady Commander.  Omne is aware where the Other is heading.  Omne has a secret headquarters inside and anomaly that would spell doom for most ships. Omne has a special “Phoenix” ship that can travel through it.  Kirk, the Fleet Commander, and Spock all go on the mission with the Enterprise to follow behind with Mr. Scott in command. 

The party goes out to stop the Other, who also has a Phoenix ship, while entering the anomaly they find a Romulan scout ship also in pursuit the pilot is James, who is trying to get his fellow boytoy back from the Other.  That ship is destroyed but they are able to rescue James.  While James is in pain Kirk feels it as well.  Omne then tries to see if he can meditate and use it to reveal the Other.  This fails and Omne briefly regresses to an earlier point of his life when he wasn’t such a jerk, this only temporary and the memories all come back. 

 The Commander-In-Chief of the Romulan Star Empire shows up with a fleet of ships looking for the Fleet Commander who he suspects has betrayed the Empire to the Federation.  However, he becomes slightly outgunned when the Doyen shows up with her own fleet angry over the loss of her personal boytoy.  Although the Imperial government has more ships overall it does not have more ships here at the moment.  The two leaders exchange words when the Fleet Commander’s flagship arrives under the command of Subcommander Tal.  Tal tries to reason with both the Commander-in-Chief and the Doyen that the Fleet Commander is not a traitor and will get back the Doyen’s boytoy.  The Enterprise is stuck in the middle of all of this.

Subcommander Tal tries to reason with everyone

Kirk, Omne, and company have arrived at Omne’s world that he uses for a homebase. They must beam a good distance away from the location of the Other.  So, this landing party of mostly-enemies-now-reluctant-allies have to go over the mountain and through the woods to Omne’s headquarters they go.  They find their way there and confront the Other.  Each side tries to outwit the other, however the Other seems to have the upper hand.  The Other agrees to release Trevanain in exchange for him to be able to banish the non-hybrid Omne to another dimension.  They complete the exchange, but Omne has a trick up his sleeve and grabbed Captain Kirk so they both were transported.  Angered but not able to do anything, the remainder of the party leaves the planet and returns to the Enterprise outside the anomaly, where the starship is still in the middle of a Romulan stand still.  Spock and the Fleet Commander decide they will return to see if they can rescue Jim.  They decide to leave James behind, if they fail, he will have to become Captain Kirk again.

  Trapped in the other dimension Omne finds Kirk struck with amnesia and not much use to their cause.  Omne knows a way out of this place and leads the demented Kirk there.  However, they run into the Other who has traveled to stop them.  Then we have the Omne vs. Omne showdown.  Their final stand takes place over a bridge, that is over a deep cavern like the ones from “What are Little Girls Made of?”.  The bridge begins to collapse Omne escapes it but the Other and Kirk aren’t so lucky.  At this moment the inner Spock of the Other takes over and throws Captain Kirk to safety, while he falls to his death.  

Kirk and Omne use the Other’s technology to transport themselves back to safety.  However, Kirk gets back first and quickly grabs a phaser and gets the drop on Omne.  Turns out the Captain, never had amnesia it was just a ploy to trick Omne to let his guard down.  Kirk won’t kill Omne for he owes him for helping him.  He will use the Phoenix technology to make another Omne.  With his ego Omne can’t cooperate with a duplicate of himself.  He needs to dominate, the Other proved that.  With the anomaly about to collapse anyone left on the planet will be trapped there for quite some time.  Omne agrees to exile over duplication.  He and Kirk disagree whether or not this is his Elba or St. Helena. 

Kirk returns to the Enterprise, the situation with the Romulans is resolved, Kirk also contacts the young Hegarch.  The new monarch now seems quite capable away from Omne.  When told the Regent wouldn’t return, he is quite pleased and will remain in the Federation.  Everything seems good but Omne’s trigger transporter that he used to escape last time, is used to kidnap the clone James.  With James now trapped in exile with Omne the end has a bitter taste.  The Fleet Commander resolves to find her boytoy somehow.  The epilogue has Omne in exile meeting a mysterious someone.  It may be James or someone else.   

Additional thoughts: Okay one of the biggest challenges of this book is just getting past the premise.  A quote often attributed to the great Alfred Hitchcock “you can get someone to believe the impossible but not the improbable.”  I have no problems with the future spaceships that travel faster than light, aliens we can have sex with to make babies, and exact clone duplicates.  I cannot get on board with allowing Kirk’s duplicate, with all his knowledge, to go live with the Romulan Fleet Commander as her personal boytoy.  Not only do I find close friendliness and trust with her weird and unnatural, but just the risk of allowing the duplicate to fall into the wrong hands is way too much for me to accept.  It just strikes me as some kinky sex fantasy the writers came up with after watching “The Enterprise Incident.”

Also, after surgically altering the Kirk duplicate to look Romulan going so far as altering his blood so it would color green, why didn’t they give him a Romulan name to use most of the time?  Why is he still “James.”  Is that how the Fleet Commander introduces him to people?  “Who is that?” “Oh, it’s my little boytoy princeling James.”

The Romulan James

Spock is duplicated again.  This is not exactly original thinking.  We first saw this in “Spock Must Die,” then in the Animated Series episode “The Infinite Vulcan,” and once more in “Ni Var.”  This story does have a special twist with this clone being a hybrid of Spock and the main bad guy.  Speaking about this however the story begins with Kirk and Spock seemingly aware that a duplicate potentially exists.  Kirk goes so far to say he can never trust Spock again because he won’t know if it’s Spock. I do not remember this in the original story.  When reading this I went back and checked my original review over in case I had just forgotten.  Not finding a mention there I started reading other reviews of that book and still no mentions.  I don’t really want and won’t read that book a second time for something I am probably not going to find.  So this is either a complete retcon or so lightly covered in the first book that no one noticed.

Despite its clear flaws the book isn’t terrible there are some redeemable moments.  It also forces us to look at the villain differently as he temporally changes sides.  It reminds me of Terminator 2 thirteen years before it came out.  In the first story you introduce a seemingly unstoppable bad guy and barely stop him.  In the second you introduce a more impressive bad guy and have the former villain team up with the hero.  It allows some new insights into the villain. 

I assume Omne accepted Kirk’s amnesia story because of his own bout with the condition earlier in the story.  Either way it was funny to see Kirk win by simply “playing dumb.”  

I assumed the other Kirk was going to die at some point.  After all they can’t have two Kirks running around.  Instead he is just lost somewhere.  The Fleet Commander is on the case thought because a good boytoy is hard to find.  

Should it be canon: No, for the reasons I stated above.   The story’s very premise is overly ridiculous to be taken seriously.  Even as the alternate time line the story would be wonky. 

Cover Art:  The cover is not overly impressive.  It just has Kirk on his knees before a giant in the shadows who is clearly Omne.

Final Grade: Final Grade 3 of 5