Jeremy A Perron's multiple year mission to complete an interesting and witty review for every Star Trek series, every movie, and maybe branch out into my novel collection. Spoilers! Spoilers! Spoilers beware!
Name:Star Trek: The New Voyages 2 – Story 5 “Cave-In”
Author:Jane Peyton
Publication Date: 1/1978
Publisher: Bantam Books
Page Number: 6
Historian’s Note: I have no idea
Cast of Characters: Commander Spock some unidentified person
Starships and/or Starbases: none
Planets: unknown
My Spoiler filled summary and review: Spock is
talking to someone.Who it is I have no
idea. It might be Captain Kirk, it could also Dr. McCoy, and could also be
someone else who don’t know.The voice
is teasing Spock about his origins.Calling him an experiment that the Vulcan Government allowed Sarek to
engage in.Spock denies this but the
voice keeps insisting, even going so far to suggest that was the only reason
his mother was allowed to raise him: an experiment to see how he a Vulcan/human
hybrid would turn out.At one point the
voice apologizes to Spock for annoying him and getting him in this
predicament.Spock says it is equally
both their faults.
Some strange voice is talking to him.
Additional thoughts: The editor asks us to approach
this one with an open mind and I did.However, I still didn’t like it.Its not a story.It reads like
some dialogue borrowed from a larger story and then dumped on to a page without
any context.We have no idea who Spock
is talking to or what is going on?I
know they’re trapped somewhere.The
title of the story is “Cave-In” so I suppose that is what happened, but I have
no idea.
Should it be canon: What is there to add to canon?
Cover Art: What I wrote on the review for story 1:
The cover has the Enterprise flying in front of what
appears to be a wrecked space station.Both appear to be in orbit around a planet that you can see part of in
the corner.There is this red haze that
surrounds everything.
Cast of Characters: Captain James T. KirkCommander
Spock Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
AKA “Bones”Lieutenant
Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”LieutenantHikaru SuluLieutenant Nyota UhuraLieutenant WardoffEnsign Pavel Chekovseveral unnamed security crewmenUnnamed insect-like alien
Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701
Planets: Unnamed planet in a feudal state
My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise
in sent to a primitive planet that has been labeled “off limits” by the
Federation following the Prime Directive. The reason they are here is there is a
structure that would impossible for a feudal society the planet has to have
built. While doing scans Kirk loses his
patience with their non-success and, over Spock’s objections, sends down a
landing party.However, they soon lose
contact with that party.Kirk then
decides to lead a new landing party to find them.
Dressing
in native garb, Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy, and a number of security personnel beam
down to the planet.They come to complex
and they find a door. They open it and Kirk goes in and disappears.Spock and McCoy follow and disappear as well,
but they disappeared together and end up in the same place.
Spock
and McCoy wake up in a dark corridor and as they walk down it, they find many
connected hallways some of them leading to dead ends. McCoy at this point
states it is like they are walking around in a maze (thus the title of the
story).Some of these places are
dangerous, have different environments, and at one point Spock almost loses a
foot to one of creatures in there with them.
Meanwhile
elsewhere in the structure, Captain Kirk has found himself in a cage.The entity keeping him prisoner is a large
insect-like creature.They seem to be
some laboratory and Kirk can see the creature watching Spock and McCoy struggle
on the viewer. Kirk tries to find away
out but is unable.
We can simulate anything we want.
Then
everything ends.It turns out that this
insect-like alien is a scientist who was unaware the people he was
experimenting on either the Starfleet officers or native inhabitants of the
planet were in fact intelligent sentient lifeforms.It had been operating under the assumption
that they were no more than lab rats.When it sees Kirk responds emotionally to what he sees on the monitoring
screen, it suddenly realizes, to its horror, that the experiments they were
conducting were on people like them. The creature immediately releases all the
officers and apologizes for the horrors caused and the deaths of two of the
first landing party. It turns out the whole maze was in an illusion making
device of the alien—like an environmental simulator seen in “The Practical Joker.” The alien is prepared to leave the planet as soon as the Enterprise
does.
We didn't want this!
Additional thoughts: Neil deGrasse Tyson, the famed
science educator, once engaged in a thought experiment with the question “would
aliens find us intelligent.” The idea is simple: take the difference between
humans and chimpanzees.Chimps live in
the jungle and eat bugs, while humans have an international space station.What is the smartest chimp capable of doing?Setting up an umbrella perhaps?Human children can do that.Maybe an alien may look at what our smartest
scientists can do and it reminds them of the capabilities of children.Humans are just dumb animals.
That is
basically what this story uses. Aliens so far beyond humans and other humanoids
that they don’t even notice the other living creatures are smart. It then
combines that idea with a similar one from the classic episode “The Devil in the Dark.” The concept of not everything that maybe big and scary is
necessarily bad.This time however it is
not the humans not understanding that the silicon-based Horta is intelligent,
it is the bug alien that doesn’t see that in humans.When it finally realizes what it’s doing, the
alien becomes really remorseful just like the miners in the earlier mentioned
episode. It goes from being a scary
monster to just another explorer.
Should it be canon: Yes, absolutely this story would
be a great little addition to Star Trek canon.
The cover has the Enterprise flying in front of what
appears to be a wrecked space station.Both appear to be in orbit around a planet that you can see part of in
the corner.There is this red haze that
surrounds everything.
Cast of Characters: Captain James T. KirkCommander
Spock Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
AKA “Bones”Lieutenant
Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”LieutenantHikaru SuluA number of unnamed crewman
Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701
Planets: unnamed barren planet
My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise
has uncovered a strange energy source coming from this barren planet.Since they are here to explore the unknown,
they go to check it out. Although not good for long-term survival, the planet’s
air is breathable.Captain Kirk sends a
landing party down lead by Spock with Sulu and a number of unnamed security
personnel as well.This turns out to be
a bad idea for they find that the energy that drew them here has turned now a
massive energy cloud, and as they get close the energy cloud suddenly expands
to envelop the landing party.
Having
failed to beam the landing party up, Kirk leads a new landing party down to the
planet.They find their missing crew
mates trapped in a construct contained in this energy field with their minds,
according to the tricorder, in a state of flux.Using their phasers, they are able to free Spock and Sulu but not the
others. Considering these are red shirts to most fans it will seem their fate
is sealed.
Landing party quickly captured!
Then it
is revealed that the construct is an artificial intelligence called the
Finder.Its creators sent the Finder and
others like it to search the universe for technology.This finder’s personal mission is to locate a
design for faster than life travel. It
is designed to capture those who may have this technology and transfer their
minds back to the Finder’s creators.That is what it intends for those still within the forcefield. It is not
the most efficient way of producing technology however the Finder’s masters’
culture teaches them that patience is a virtue and good things come to those
who wait.
What
the Finder doesn’t know is it is going up against James T. Kirk, the Bane of
All Artificial Intelligence.The Finder
was doomed the moment this encounter happened. It’s already dead it just
doesn’t realize it yet.
This crew can take down anything AI
After
the senior officers all talk it over, they conclude that the Finder’s creators
were a bunch of space parasites.They
don’t invent anything they just try to steal it from others. This makes them dangerous, and Mr. Spock goes
so far to suggest they may have to sacrifice the crewmen captured to prevent
it.McCoy’s horrified but he has
forgotten that red shirts usually die.
Sulu
suggested they look for its power source and that plan panned out.Realizing that the Finder is tapping into the
sun for a power source, the Enterprise cause an artificial solar
eclipse. The Finder however adjusted to this trick by tapping directly into the
Enterprise.Kirk orders Scotty to
cut the ship’s power long enough to disable the Finder’s abilities.During this time Mr. Spock finds something
interesting, the Finder’s creators were a people called the Tullvans.The most interesting thing about them is that
they went extinct over 1800 years ago.So, if the Finder tries to send minds over space there won’t be anyone
on the receiving end.
Kirk
now has the information he needs to kill this AI. He lets the Finder know his
origins and as expected the Finder now wants to die. While it is dying, the
Finder releases the redshirts, so no redshirt is sacrificed today. They all
head back to the Enterprise and onto their next adventure.
Additional thoughts: This story was originally
attended to be an episode for Star Trek: The Animated Series. It was rejected
because it didn’t “make use of the potential in animation” enough, what ever
that means.Mr. Bates would get an
episode made which would be “How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth” in the show’s
second and final season.
This
would have been a fine episode and uses many traditional Star Trek
troupes.They are fighting and
artificial intelligence that one point almost pulls the Enterprise out
of the sky, which we have seen before in both “The Return of the Archons” and
“The Apple.”McCoy and Spock fight about
many things.The ship is threatened by a
civilization that no longer exists. Both Mr. Sulu and Mr. Scott contribute in
critical moments.Kirk talks a machine
into killing itself.Most importantly
for the “anti-woke how dare Star Trek have politics in it crowd,” there are no
female characters in it so no woman could possibly do anything. (That last
sentence was called sarcasm for those who might be reading this but are not
smart enough figure that out. I know most of you are smart enough but there are
always the occasional fools.)Finally,
the episode did forget to have the redshirts die, but every now and again Kirk and
crew should be able to save them.
Nowhere to be found!
Should it be canon: I see no reason it shouldn’t
be.It was written by an actual Star
Trek writer to be an episode.It
definitely fits the lore.
The cover has the Enterprise flying in front of what appears
to be a wrecked space station.Both
appear to be in orbit around a planet that you can see part of in the corner.There is this red haze that surrounds
everything.
Cast of Characters: Captain James T. KirkCommander
Spock Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
AKA “Bones”Lieutenant
Commander Irvin DomberwickyNurse
Christine ChapelEnsign Pavel
ChekovAdministrator Gehresmany unnamed Hualans
Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701
Planets: Vestalan
My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise
has been sent to the planet Vestalan to deal with a diplomatic disaster.Vestalan is the home of a species of snake
called coatls, whose venom is used to make Derivative 249. D-249 is used to
treat pan-human neurotransmission disorders.Thousands of lives are at stake.Federation rules and morals demands that they don’t take any without the
permission of the local inhabitants, a primitive people called the
Hualans.The Hualans are organized into a
cult and that cult lately sees that the omens have turned on the Federation.They refuse the to allow the taking of the
snakes and Administrator Gehres has sent two representatives to talk to them.
The Hualans then turned the two representatives into sacrifices.
The
reason the Enterprise was chosen for this mission was not due to the
usual excuse of their being the only starship in the sector, rather because the
Enterprise’s expert in anthropology, Lt. Cmdr. Domberwicky has direct
successful experience with the Hualans.Nurse Chapel was chosen for the landing party as she had been to this
planet before with Roger Colby.Vestalan
itself is an interesting planet, hot enough it long ago melted its polar ice
caps and what little land it has left is very tropic. In addition to that the
planet is small like Earth’s moon with the gravity to match.So, they get to travel with great leaps in a
single bound.
Chapel doesn't like things that remind her of Roger
Domberwicky doesn’t return so
Kirk and Chapel go looking for him.They
get captured by the Hualans.While
captured some of the Hualans enter their cell and beat on Captain Kirk, when he
refuses to let the female Hualan molest him. When they beat on him enough, they
leave, and Kirk asks Chapel if these people ever had any nice traits. Later they come back and drag Captain Kirk out
of his cell bringing him somewhere and leaving Chapel behind.
Domberwicky
finally returns and tells Chapel he has made a deal with the Hualans to release
them.She can leave now as they have
already returned Captain Kirk to the ship. She calls him a liar and he admitted it. He
says Kirk has already been sent to the snake pit and is as good as dead.Chapel, remembering how upset Spock was when
he thought Kirk was dead in “Amok Time” refuses to leave without him.She goes down to wear the snake pit is.Kirk is in there sounded by dangerous animals
who want to leave him and pools of lava.He is wounded, mostly naked with sunburns, and barely conscious.
A traumatic experience for Mr. Spock
Chapel,
remembering she was told the Hualans often get drunk at these ceremonies and
are prone to gambling.She tells
Domberwicky to see if they will allow her to rescue him with only her knife and
she bets she can do it without injury.Domberwicky does this and the Hualans are eager and start taking bets
about this among themselves. The
conditions are Chapel will be allowed to try with only her knife as a tool and
she will have to be completely naked.
Chapel
agrees to this and she strips down and attempts her rescue.Chapel leaps into the pit and with the low
gravity is able to leap her way to the Captain.She defeats some of the snakes, and then lifts the Captain up in a
fireman’s hold.With the Captain secure
she carries him out of the snake pit.This impresses the Hualans so much that they see Chapel’s success as an
omen that they want the Federation around.Chapel has saved Captain Kirk,
completes the mission, and there will be plenty of Derivative 249 for
everyone.
All is right in the world
Additional thoughts: Well, that was fun little
story.I complained in my last review
about the supporting cast not getting its due and this story delivered.The whole story is told from Chapel’s point
of view. I liked in the beginning how we learned about Chapel’s unhappiness
with this assignment as it brought up memories of Roger.I also enjoyed how one of the reasons she is
determined to save Kirk is because of her affection for Spock.
The
fact that planet had such low gravity made it easier to imagine that Nurse
Chapel could lift Captain Kirk over her shoulder and carry him out. It created
quite the visual in my mind.
I
always think it’s weird when we are introduced to a lieutenant commander we
haven’t meet before.That is the rank
that both Dr. McCoy and Scotty hold. It was also the rank that Mr. Spock held
in the first season.Since Sulu is the
third officer of ship, I think most other officers should be beneath him in
rank with exception of some doctors.
I did
take a little bit of issue with the story claiming that Chapel was already a
doctor who just took the job of a nurse. The author apparently got this idea
from Majel Barrett, according to the footnote.However, it is clearly stated later (yes, I am violating my rule of
talking about future Star Trek in a review) in The Motion Picture that
she recently became a MD.That was my
only issue and its minor.
Should it be canon: I don’t have any problem with
this story line being added to the canon of Star Trek.I think it would be a great addition.
The cover
has the Enterprise flying in front of what appears to be a wrecked space
station.Both appear to be in orbit
around a planet that you can see part of in the corner.There is this red haze that surrounds
everything.
Cast of Characters: Captain James T. KirkCommander
Spock Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
AKA “Bones”Lieutenant
Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”LieutenantHikaru SuluLieutenant Nyota UhuraNurse Christine ChapelEnsign Pavel ChekovMoriMori’s parentsMori’s
grandfather
Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701
Planets: Arcos
My Spoiler filled summary and review: The adventure
begins as the landing party returns from a successful diplomatic mission from
Arcos.The key to their success was the
team saving the life of the young grandson of the primary member of the ruling
triumvirate.The child, named Mori, was
particularly charmed by Lt. Uhura.
All of the transporter pad we are taking a picture
It is
also apparently Captain Kirk’s birthday tomorrow and the crew is arranging a
surprise party for him.What plays out
for the rest of the story is a comedy of errors, as two primary things get in
the way of the goal of giving the Captain a nice birthday. The first is Captain Kirk is not being
particularly responsive to being directed by his crew to go places for certain
reasons. Kirk has no clue to what is actually going on and spends most of the story
getting annoyed at his crew for showing up late to duty and openly annoying
him.The second issue is there is an alien
entity on board. That entity is messing
with the starship’s equipment.At one
point the food remixer starts shooting out cake and making a mess of things. A
new problem emerges in the form of a communication from Arcos that indicates
that Mori is missing his friend.
Everything
quickly resolves itself. It turns out this entity that can assume a hairy
physical form is the friend that Moir is missing. Once he is brought back the Enterprise’s
equipment returns to normal. Captain Kirk gets his birthday party and he gets
his present from Spock as soon as he beats the Vulcan at chess. Kirk’s present
is a grand master’s certificate given how many games of chess he has prevailed
at.
Additional thoughts: As much as I love Star Trek,
some of its great supporting characters are criminally underused. Considering
that this story was written by Nichelle Nichols you would think that Lt. Uhura
would be given a little more attention.Nope,
this is a story about Kirk and Spock like almost every other Star Trek story.
The only thing that Lt. Uhura gets is a statement about how great she is with
children, and Captain Kirk confiding to Spock that he wishes he could give Lt. Uhura
her birthday spanking.Really, Nichelle!
"So, you're saying the Captain wants to spank me? It's almost like I wrote this story!"
The
story was fun but everyone’s characterization seemed to be a little off. For
example, Spock at one point picking Kirk up over his shoulder and carrying him
away from the mess hall where they are making his cake and setting up the
party, with Kirk protesting the whole time.The story seemed to try to be “The Practical Joker” but didn’t have the
same level of success.
This man is not having a fun time in either story.
Also,
something that I found really weird is in this story Kirk and Spock seem to
share a bathroom that connects both their quarters.This is strange for several reasons one of
which I was sure that Kirk and Spock’s quarters were on opposite sides of the
corridor.In the story they use this set
up to play chess with each other one play at a time when one just so happens to
walk by their quarters.In a small
subplot Spock has Uhura make his move for him and Kirk catches is her as he
just came out of the shower and accidently drops his towel.
Should it be canon: No, because the characters act
way too weird, so unless the strange creature that snuck aboard is revealed to
be responsible it should remain a fun “what if story.”
Cover Art: The cover has the Enterprise flying
in front of what appears to be a wrecked space station.Both appear to be in orbit around a planet
that you can see part of in the corner.There is this red haze that surrounds everything.
Cast of Characters: Captain James T. KirkCommander
Spock Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
AKA “Bones”Lieutenant
Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”Lieutenant Commander Andre Charvat LieutenantHikaru SuluLieutenant Nyota UhuraLieutenant Sharon Follett
Lieutenant HevelinLieutenant Bill HixonNurse Christine ChapelEnsign Pavel ChekovEnsign Bish DavoffEnsign FrostEnsign Octavio HernandezEnsign Alan HuffEnsign Bill JohnsonEnsign SikhEnsign Rosaly YbarraCrewman
Mark MooreDr. James AthelingCaptain Mohammed TafariLieutenant TabakowCrewman DelacroixThe Arivne main voiceIrapina (three representatives)
Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, USS
Lysander NCC-540, five unnamed shuttlecrafts
Planets: Anomaly
My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise
is transporting Dr. James Atheling to take over the science department at
Starfleet Academy.In his short stay,
Dr. Atheling, has become something of a celebrity among Spock’s
department.While on their way the ship
encounters a rouge planet.A rouge
planet is a planet flying through space attached to no solar system.Yet, this one is out right bizarre.For it has an Earth-like atmosphere.It also seems to be orbiting a black hole as
its “sun” despite the fact that such a system should be impossible.Since their primary mission is to explore
strange new worlds, Kirk decides to take a detour and explore this little
world.
They plan to transport to the
service but when Kirk has his landing party available it is discovered that the
transporter, for some reason, is not working. So, the Captain instructs Scotty
and his engineers to get to work on the transporters in the meantime he will
take his party to the surface via shuttlecraft.They take a shuttlecraft to the surface and while the trip was fine the
landing party discovers as soon as they land that the shuttlecraft suddenly stopped
working.The engine is off and the
communication system is out.As far as
their individual equipment goes everything but the communicators are
working.
Shuttle stuck on the ground
With the landing party not
communicating with the ship, it made Mr. Spock wonder if his they were still
alive.This is kind of extreme scenario
to jump to as there may be many things keeping the landing party from
communicating however Spock says that would be the most logical.They find the shuttle on the planet but the
sensors do not indicate any life forms. Spock sends a security team on a second
shuttle and when as soon as they touch down the Enterprise loses all
contact with them. Spock decides that instead of having just two shuttles
trapped on the planet he might as well have all five. He organizes a much
larger landing party to make use of the three shuttles. He decides to lead the
mission himself and leaves Scotty in command of the Enterprise. Spock
orders the Chief Engineer to take the ship to the Academy planet for support if
they are unable to maintain contact. (We learn that Starfleet Academy has a
whole planetary campus that we never heard about, more on that later.)With that the three shuttles leave the Enterprise
and head down to the planet.
Now with all shuttles down on the
planet and stuck the combined landing parties organize and form a perimeter to
best defend themselves against whatever might be out there.The team is caught between the Prime
Directive and its own survival.Among
the landing party is Dr. James Atheling.It turns out the Academy professor is actually a commodore in the
Starfleet reserves, and pulled rank to go on the mission.Kirk sends out scouting teams to search for
food in case they run out of rations. Over the next two days however they lose
two crewmen.They discover that the
native life forms, who were responsible for one crewman’s death, have hair all
over their bodies and they don’t have anything that looks like eyes or ears.Their mouths have no tongue their hands have
four long fingers.However, things
really hit the fan when Lt. Bill Hixon gets attacked and begins to physically
transform into one of the planet’s native inhabitants.When they find him his eyes and ears are
missing, but he has gained the ability to communicate telepathically.Everyone in the landing party is horrified by
what happened except for Nixon himself.The mutated human seems to think the changes are great and he is better
for them.I almost wanted to say “where
we’re going, we don’t need eyes to see” but that is in a different science
fiction story.
Going to the rescue
They learn from the mutated comrade
they learn that the people who live on this planet are the Arivne. (Arivne is
actual a Vulcan term but these people think term explains them so they adopt
it.) The Arivne want to test their visitors but they do not clarify the
reason.Then through some unknown power
they are able to transport all those of the landing party and the shuttlecrafts
back onto the Enterprise. The only people they keep are the science and
medical officers.When the remaining
party realizes that their companions and transports are going, McCoy accuses
them of murder.The Arivne explain what
they actually did and begin their tests.They force the remaining party to relieve some of their most unpleasant
memories.Spock relives the events of
“Amok Time,” McCoy relives the day his wife and child left him and he decided
to join Starfleet in response, Atheling revives a moment of guilt when cheated
in college, and the others also experience equally unpleasant things.
Back on the ship the crew is
relieved to have its Captain back no matter how strange it is, but they want to
know what the Arivne plan to do with their missing colleagues.Lt. Uhura also discovers that the Enterprise
is repeatedly sending out a message to Starfleet designed to look like it comes
from Captain Kirk.The message states
that they have encounter a virus that has wiped out a third of their crew, and
caused the survivors to hallucinate. The
message was so convincing that for a moment they wondered if maybe they were
hallucinating and did an attendance check to find out that the crew who were
listed as dead were actually alive. Kirk then orders the Enterprise to
return to the Anomaly planet.
At this point the Arivne confess to
the remaining Starfleet crew.They are
aware of a malevolent alien race bent on conquest called the Irapina.These nasty creatures are insectoids whose
elite rulers use the lower classes for involuntary organ donation to make
themselves immortal.The Arivne became
aware of them do to their extreme telepathic powers, and were able to
communicate. At first the Arivne were hopeful that Irapina would just ignore
them and instead conqueror the rest of the Alpha Quadrant. However, the more
they “talked” to them the Arvine came to the conclusion that they could not
trust the Irapina at to leave them alone.So, they decided to scare them off by telling them of the Federation.In order to scare the Irapina, they built up
the Federation to be far powerful than it actually is.The Irapina now want to test in contest wills
the Federation and their Starfleet officers.
The Enterprise’s trip to the
Anomaly planet is delayed when they are stopped by the USS Lysander.The Lysander has been ordered to bring
the Enterprise in.Not wanting to
fire on a Federation starship, Kirk surrenders.That is when the Arvine arrive, they now want the Enterprise back,
so they let Captain Tafari of the Lysanderknow
the truth of the matter and demonstrate their abilities to alter perceived reality.Tafari agrees to let the Enterprise go
with the understand that he and Kirk will need to be witnesses in each other’s
court-martial.
Not being patient, the Arvine use
their powers to bring Kirk back to the planet before his ship can get
there.They sent everyone else back but
quickly recalled McCoy because he was needed.The Irapina has sent three representatives to perform in the
challenges.It turns out these
challenges take place on a plane of illusion where all six members were put
into a trance and their minds were linked in a simulation.McCoy’s simulated competition was a poker
game.Despite all the normal rules being
ignored McCoy wins and his opponent is killed by his other two comrades.Kirk and Spock compete with their opponents
at the same time but on different fields. Kirk is a battle of old wooden ships on the
high seas. (Since Kirk is based off Horatio Hornblower, I wonder if this is an
intended easter egg by the author.)Spock is completing with science knowledge.The Irapina are cheating but Kirk and Spock
beat them anyway.
Kirk fighting in a different type of enviroment than he is used to. 1743 oil panting by Samuel Scott
The Irapina end the simulation and
attack them in real life.However, the
bugs learn that Captain Kirk is greatest fighter in the known universe whose
skills always leave his opponents spell bound.Spock is not a bad fighter, either.In addition, the Arvine augmented the
strength of the two officers, allowing Kirk and Spock to throw entire trees at
their opponents.
The Irapina gave up.They decided that when they get to this
sector of space, they will go an invade the Romulans instead because the
Federation was far too dangerous an opponent.With that it was time for the crew of the Enterprise to
leave.As they left the Arvine removed
from Enterprise’s computer banks the location of the Anomaly planet.So that in the future they will be left alone.
Additional thoughts: When I first read the back cover
to this story, I thought we were going to get something similar to “Shore Leave.”I like “Shore Leave”
nevertheless I was pleased that this book was nothing like that.I thought the claim from the back cover of
“Never before had their systems, instruments and weapons failed to respond” as
false. I can think of a number of times that has happened for different
reasons.However, since I started this
blog to begin my own personal re-journey through the franchise of Star Trek,
this story is much better written than all the ones that preceded it.I have read a number of Star Trek books so I
know this won’t remain the case as this journey goes on but it is my favorite
one reviewed so far.
A very different adventure
I like the use of both Star Trek’s
actual past in the series as well as making new content to tell the story.When the Arvine were making the landing party
relive their past, is the best example.Spock was forced to go the memory of getting rejected by T’Pring, having
the challenge issued, and the battle where Spock thought he killed Kirk.Haldeman’s description gives the reader a
“re-watch” of “Amok Time,” but there are added parts as well.Such as Spock’s internal thoughts on the
matter of the rejection.The challenge
is viewed as old fashioned even though it is still law.Most Vulcans who don’t want to marry their
parents’ choice usually go through the ceremony and get an annulment
later.However, the annulment is a
shameful embarrassment to both families but it is still better than the
challenge.Here the reader can see how
deep this rejection really was to Mr. Spock.
The only thing I didn’t like was
the added dialogue.In this re-telling
T’Pau tells T’Pring that once this marriage is complete, she will be like chattel
to the winner, with no rights at all.This baloney Vulcan society does not treat its women like that.They are equals.Now, in the episode it did say she would be
the “property” of the winner.I never
took that to mean in the literal sense.I always assume it was just some vestige term from a time Vulcan had a
more patriarchal society.Like “the
father ‘giving’ his daughter away” in Western society.It meant something different along time ago,
but nowadays it is just a loving tradition between father and daughter not a
property exchange.However, T’Pau’s new
dialogue rejects my interpretation and hammers home the woman-as-property
status.
McCoy’s trip to the past made him
relive the day his wife and daughter left him.McCoy’s work obsession kept him at the hospital so long that his
marriage fell apart. Once dumped he finds an ad for Starfleet medical
officers.It was some nice background
into one of Star Trek’s most popular characters and I enjoyed it.
I thought what the author did with
the other characters was interesting too.Lt. Follett re-living her decision to get an abortion so she wouldn’t
have to postpone a career in Starfleet was a daring decision.Roe v. Wade was only four years old when this
book came out, and the author chooses to include but not make that big of a
deal.By the 23rd century a
woman’s right to body autonomy is a given.Too bad that is not true in the 21st century.
Modern Star Trek fans might find a
bit of a shock that prior to Star Trek IV it was common to hear Starfleet
officers to talk about money.Dr.
Atheling talked about how he used to have to work in order to cover expenses
that his scholarships weren’t paying.It
had its benefits because it allowed him to cheat on an exam.
I also enjoyed when they went for a
second round of bad memories, Spock had a moment where he was rejected by his
human cousins, who tried to frame him for something they did.This ended the relationship of Amanda and her
sister.
I though the Arvine reminded me of
the Talosians.They had similar powers
and they needed the less evolved species to help them do something they could
not.Unlike the Talosians, the Arvine
were also highly intelligent.I do like
when it was mentioned that the Arvine tried to contact the Organians for help.
The Arvine just as powerful and more intelligent than these three!
So, Starfleet Academy has its own
planet?Why? So, they have a San
Francisco campus and a second campus that takes up an entire planet. If you
have a planetary campus then what do you need the smaller one for? Not to
mention the massive distance between the two would make the set-up seem
improbable.
Lastly, I want to talk about Kirk’s
willing surrender to Captain Tafari of the Lysander.This is such a difference from the
traditional Star Trek troupe of defying any order that the characters think is
wrong. In a typical story Kirk would have been “sorry I know my friends are in
danger, I can’t let you stop me.”And he
might even go so far to engage in battle with the other vessel to the point of
crippling it.Afterwards they would just
ask for forgiveness that they always seemed to receive off screen.In this little story once Kirk realizes that
Tafari’s orders of genuine he just complies.There is even no sign in Kirk’s internal monologue about breaking free
and getting back to the Anomaly planet.
Should it be canon: I would have no problem having
this story as official canon in Star Trek lore. It fits all my normal
standards.Like most episodes of the
classic series, the book is a self-contained adventure, where everything has
returned to the status quo for all the main characters. No major event or
discovery effects any of the traditional alien cultures such as the Vulcans,
Klingons, or Romulans.There are some
continuity conflicts such as the book’s instance that Starfleet Academy has its
own planet. I don’t see these being any different than the many later
contradicted statements in the original series.
Cover Art: The cover features the USS Enterprise as
seen from slightly below the port side. The ship appears to be flying over some
skyscrapers.The viewer cannot see much
below the skyscrapers because of clouds that obscure it.Behind the starship is a moon.Overall, it’s a striking image.
Historian’s Note:Sometime between The Counter-Clock Incident and The Motion Picture
Cast of Characters: Captain James T. Kirk and James T. KirkCommander
Spock Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
AKA “Bones”Lieutenant
Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”LieutenantHikaru SuluLieutenant Nyota UhuraDr. Joseph M'Benga Nurse Christine ChapelEnsign Pavel ChekovThe Romulan Fleet CommanderSubcommander TalOmne
Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701,
a small fleet of unnamed Romulan ships consisting of Birds of Prey and D7-Rs
Planets: Omne’s planet
My Spoiler filled summary and review: The story
begins with the reported death of Captain Kirk.We learn that the Enterprise was invited here by the ruler, named
Omne, of this small planet.Omne is an
odd fellow his whole planet looks like something out of the wild west and he
himself is a rather large humanoid.In
addition to being tall and human-looking, he has blue blood, and has strength
to rival a Vulcan.Politically he is
very anti-Federation because he thinks they are hypocrites who interfere with
other planets despite having a prime directive that tells them otherwise.To prove his point, he arranged a woman and
her baby to die in house fire knowing Kirk would try to save them. Kirk does and is killed. From this point on
Spock and the rest of the crew regard Omne as an outright murderer.
Their Captain is dead, or so they think.
When Spock returns to the planet,
he runs into the Romulan Fleet Commander who they robbed and kidnapped in “The Enterprise Incident.”The good Commander
is apparently over what happed back then and is very sympathetic to Spock’s
situation.Although she is representing
her government is doesn’t trust this Omne character either.As soon as they meet Omne, Spock gets right
into how much of creep he thinks he is.Omne
tries to argue with Spock a little but Spock rejects any attempt to put any
spin on Kirk’s death.To Spock Omne is
Captain Kirk’s murderer end of story.
She's back!
That is when things get weird.Omne takes them to a new room with Captain
Kirk laying right there buck naked on the table.Spock quickly checks with the ship to see if
there is any doubt to the body they brought on board and McCoy tells him there
is none.Things get stranger when this
Kirk wakes up clearly recognizes Spock, Omne, and the Fleet Commander. Omne
explains that this new Kirk is a clone of the one who just died and has all of
his memories save for the death itself.Kirk starts asking questions about his supposed demise.Omne explains that the new Kirk is his
property.Kirk says he doesn’t think he
is a copy but even if he was, he was still a person and he cannot be anyone’s
property.Omne clearly thinks
differently but he is going to allow Spock to rescue the new Kirk if Spock
agrees to help him.Omne wants Spock to
denounce the Federation and use his family’s resources to split Vulcan away
from it.
Omne is hoping that Spock will tap into that T'Pau power to break up the Federation
While Spock and Omne are arguing the
Fleet Commander and the Kirk clone—now clothed—explore the maze of tunnels that
the underground complex is made of and there they find another Captain
Kirk.This one is dressed in his
Starfleet uniform but it is damaged.The
damage was caused by fire.We then learn
that this is the real Kirk and the dead Kirk was an unfinished clone.Kirk handles the fact that he has been
duplicated rather well.To be fair it is
not the first time.
Kirk gets used to this happening
The real Kirk is eventually brought
back to Omne and the two threaten each other and fight.The fight has no resolution, despite that
Kirk is the greatest fighter in the known galaxy, he finds his attacks useless
against Omne’s alien Vulcan like strength and he feels in the disadvantaged
position for most of the fight.Spock
comes in to relive the Captain in the fight.Finally, the two Kirks, Spock, and the Romulan Fleet Commander escape
from Omne.Once free the four discuss
what to do with this planet when they get back.Spock and the Romulan Commander thinks it should be destroyed as it’s
not a real culture just Omne and his friends causing trouble.Kirk is actually the most merciful of the
group in calling for less destruction.
The four individuals are rescued by
the Enterprise.The Fleet
Commander sends a message to Subcommader Tal that she is a guest and not a
prisoner.The clone Kirk is now calling himself “James”
and they have to make plans for what to do with him.It is decided that it is critical that the
galaxy not know that there are now two James T. Kirks.For that would allow the universe to gain
knowledge of the Omne technology and it might lead to many conflicts between
the powers. So Fleet Commander invites James to come live in the Romulan Star
Empire with her.They can alter him to
make him look like a Romulan and she can pass him off as princeling from one of
the Romulan subject planets.Basically,
James is going to live as kept man of the Fleet Commander.The two apparently became fond of each other
on the planet.
It turns out that Omne has a
superlong range transporter and shows up on the Enterprise. He has come
to collect his property which he sees as James. They all fight again and at
one-point Omne grabs James and holds a weapon to his head.They are at a standstill until Scotty beams
the weapon out of his hand, and Kirk kills him.However, his body is transported away apparently from a device he had on
him to trigger such an event if he were killed. So given his ability to clone
and some hints may have been cloned at one point anyway, there may be an Omne
still out there.
Additional thoughts: This was an entertaining but
often confusing story.Especially, once
you get to the two Kirks it becomes hard to follow when the two of them
interact.What is up with writers always
wanting to duplicate the characters?It
almost like its and addiction. We
have evil Kirk, Robot Kirk, a whole universe of duplicates, giant Spock, two written stories of multiple Spocks, and now a clone Kirk.What is interesting is that the clone
survives.When we first met the clone, I
thought he was the real one and the dead Kirk was fake.It turns out I was only half right.Even when we meet the real Kirk, I thought
for sure it was going to be discovered that “James” was real and one in the
Starfleet uniform was fake.I thought he
would sacrifice himself somehow by the end of the story.However, I was wrong both counts as Kirk and
his clone both make it out fine.
How did we get so friendly with the
Romulans?Last I checked we were still
enemies.Also, the Romulan Fleet
Commander was really nice to her former rivals.You would think she would be mad the way
Spock had played on her feelings so he and Kirk could steal her new cloaking
device.However, throughout the story
she is warm and friendly to both of them. She is not a reluctant ally but a
genuine friend to her former captors.
Forgotten all the hurt she felt!
The long-term plans for the
duplicate Kirk really do not make any sense.Why can’t they let the universe know there are two Kirks? Just reassign one to command a different
starship, problem solved.Either that or
have the two of them time share, don’t see them as two people just view it as
Captain Kirk now has the power to be in two places at once.Any solution would be better than the one
they came up with.That solution is
really weird.The duplicate is
surgically altered to appear Romulan, and becomes the live-in companion for the
Romulan Fleet Commander. So, you are going to let a brain with all the
knowledge of Captain Kirk (just think of the Starfleet secrets and
technological knowledge) and have him go live in the Romulan Star Empire.What if the two powers come into conflict
again?The only objection that is even
voiced is by Captain Kirk who doesn’t like the idea of his duplicate being a
Romulan consort because he considers that normal role of female.(I am not kidding this actually spoken
about.)I am sorry but no.They should all have more sense than that.
The threat of Omne seemed to go
away rather quickly. They were seemingly all under his power trying to escape
him but then they do and get back to the Enterprise.Then he appears using his super transporter
and is seemingly killed by Captain Kirk.His transported back and after discussing how it happened and if he has
already arranged himself to be cloned, our heroes just shrug their shoulders
and go about their day.
I have talked in the past how I
don’t care much for ‘Spirk’ theories.This is mostly because I don’t like when two men seem to show any type
of affection for each other there is always someone who seems to shout they
must be gay!It reminds me of middle
school.That and the fact that Shatner,
Nimoy, Roddenberry, Fontana, etc. always stated there was nothing like that
between them, it makes it odd for people to continue to insist that there
was.However, I don’t like it but that
doesn’t mean I hate it and I understand that for some fans its and important
part of their fandom.Also, there are
some moments when I see where they may be getting this.In the episode Mudd’s Passion, for
example.This book itself is full of
Spirk moments.The way Spock goes on
about Kirk’s “death” and his utter hatred for Omne really gives the vibe of something
else being there.Also, when clone Kirk
wakes up, he sees Omne and thinks he might be in Hell, then turns to see Spock
and decides he might be in Heaven.
Should it be canon: To be honest I am not sure, I
think we need to find out what is the deal with the other Kirk long-term?
Cover Art: On the cover is Mr. Spock standing
sideways with his head turned toward the viewer. Right in front of him and off
the left corner of the viewer’s left is the Romulan Fleet Commander.An image of Captain Kirk is to the right of
the viewer.In the image the Captain
appears unconscious and he is in front of some device that I can’t make out
what it is.
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