Star Trek 3 (Novel)
| Series | Star Trek |
| Published by | Bantam Books |
| Previous | Mission to Horatius (TOSMTH) |
| Next | Spock Must Die! (TOSON01) |
| Written by | James Blish |
| Released | Apr 1969 |
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A Mind-Reeling Journey! Eerie Excursions into Galaxies of Probability!
Based on the Exciting NBC-TV Series Created by Gene Roddenberry
An Extraordinary Journey into the Supernatural!
Seven chilling stories into the bizarre and unexpected with the crew of the Starship Enterprise. Travel to the unknown regions of outer space, to worlds where unearthly powers can control human beings and where unspeakable horror becomes normal. Unimaginable new galaxies of strange beings, bizarre customs, unknown dangers and awesome excitement. A world threatened by tribbles, small and furry with no eyes or faces—only a mouth. A killer planet where time and place change by telepathy. A monster robot that smashes planets and digests them. An alien being who comes to Earth to start World War III.
A Galactic Ticket to Infinite Adventure
Always Alert for Danger in the Solar Sphere, Searching for New Worlds and Bold Adventure!
Captain James Kirk—Assigned to the top position in Space Service—Starship Command—Kirk alone must make decisions in his contact with other worlds that can affect the future course of civilization throughout the Universe.
Lt. Uhura—Unbelievably beautiful, she is the most popular member of the Enterprise crew and also one of the most brilliant scan engineers around.
Science Officer Spock—Inheriting a precise, logical thinking pattern from his father, a native of the planet Vulcan, Mr. Spock maintains a dangerous Earth trait… an intense curiousity about things of alien origin.
With a crew of 400 skilled specialists, the mammoth space ship Enterprise blasts off for intergalactic intrigue in the unexplored realms of outer space.
The Trouble With Tribbles
Adapted from the episode The Trouble With Tribbles, written by David Gerrold.
The Enterprise is diverted to Deep Space Station K-7 to protect an important shipment of quadrotriticale, a specialized grain; there, Captain Kirk finds his patience severely taxed by Federation Undersecretary of Agricultural Affairs Nilz Barris and his assistant, Arne Darvin. The arrival of a Klingon ship, commanded by Captain Koloth, complicates matters further. Station Commander Lurry must grant the Klingons permission for rest and recreation on K-7 under the terms of the Organian Peace Treaty, while protecting the grain. Kirk's most serious problem turns out to be space trader Cyrano Jones, a dealer in rare commodities including "tribbles." Tribbles, living fluffballs that do nothing but coo, eat, and multiply, soon threaten to overwhelm both the Enterprise and the station. The tribbles find their way into the grain bin and devour the grain, and widespread tribble casualties reveal that the grain was poisoned. The Klingon-hating tribbles expose Darvin as a Klingon spy, and Scotty beams the Enterprise's crop of tribbles to the Klingon ship as a parting gift, "where they'll be no tribble at all."
Related Data
The Last Gunfight
Adapted from the episode Spectre of the Gun.
Written by Lee Cronin.
The Enterprise encounters a "warning buoy" marking the territorial boundary of Melkotian space. Kirk ignores their message to turn back — whereupon the Melkotians transport Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scott, and Chekov to a surrealistic recreation of a Wild West town, drawn from Kirk's mind. The landing party will reenact the famous gunfight at the OK Corral—in the losing role of the Clanton gang. But when Chekov, cast as Billy Clanton (who survived the gunfight), is "killed" before the showdown, Spock realizes that everything they are experiencing is unreal. Using the Vulcan mind meld, Spock enables his crewmates to reject the illusion, so that when their enemies, the Earps, shoot, the bullets pass harmlessly through them. Kirk refuses to return fire on the Earps and Doc Holliday, because he knows that they are merely phantoms created by the Melkots. The aliens are convinced of Kirk's peaceful intentions—and invite the Enterprise to open diplomatic relations.
Related Data
The Doomsday Machine
Adapted from the episode The Doomsday Machine.
Written by Norman Spinrad.
Investigating the destruction of several planetary systems, the Enterprise discovers the crippled starship U.S.S. Constellation. Commodore Matthew Decker, the Constellation's captain, is in a state of shock, the only person left aboard the vessel. With his ship severely damaged, Decker had transported his entire crew down to a planet since destroyed by a gigantic destructive "berserker," a planet-killing weapon constructed by a long-dead alien race. While Kirk and party stay aboard to repair the Constellation's engines and weapons systems, Decker is beamed back to the Enterprise with Dr. McCoy. The guilt-ridden Decker takes command of the Enterprise and attempts to use the starship to confront and destroy the planet killer. Kirk contacts the Enterprise and enables Spock to take command away from Decker. Kirk rigs a self-destruct switch on the Constellation and sends the damaged ship into the huge alien device. Kirk escapes the Constellation in time, just before the ship's exploding engines destroy the doomsday machine's destructive power forever.
NOTE: In the novelization of the episode, Commodore Decker is named Brand instead of Matthew, and (perhaps for print space concerns) he does not attempt to steal a shuttlecraft, and thereby survives to the end of the story. Likewise, Systems L-370 and L-374 were merged into the M-370 system for the novelization. Additionally, while Uhura was replaced by Lt. Palmer in the episode, she appears in the novelization.
Related Data
Assignment: Earth
Adapted from the episode Assignment: Earth.
Teleplay by Art Wallace.
Story by Art Wallace & Gene Roddenberry.
The Enterprise travels back in time to Earth in 1969 to discover how Humans managed to avoid destroying themselves. The ship intercepts an incredibly powerful transporter beam containing a humanoid named Gary Seven, en route to Earth. After Seven escapes, Kirk and Spock follow him to learn the truth about him, and to make sure that he does nothing to jeopardize the planet. Seven has been dispatched to Earth to prevent the launch of an orbital nuclear weapons platform by the United States of America. With the unwitting aid of his young secretary, Roberta Lincoln, Seven eludes Kirk and transports to McKinley Rocket Base to sabotage the rocket's controls. Scotty beams Seven aboard before his mission is completed, but ultimately aid him in completing his mission. Seven has diverted the rocket off course, and it is now heading back to Earth, where it will explode on impact, likely triggering a war in the process. They detonate the rocket, saving history from being changed. As the Enterprise returns to its own time, Gary Seven prepares for new missions.
NOTE: Roberta Lincoln's role in the novelization was all but eliminated, and the resolution to the story simplified, but it remained largely the same as its televised counterpart, though the date was changed to 1969.
Related Data
Mirror, Mirror
Adapted from the episode Mirror, Mirror.
Written by Jerome Bixby.
Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura transport back to the Enterprise after initiating diplomatic relations with the peaceful Halkans. As a result of turbulent atmospheric conditions the transporter malfunctions, depositing them on an Enterprise in a parallel universe, where the Federation had developed along more barbaric principles as the Terran Empire. In return, the parallel universe's Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura are deposited on the Federation's Enterprise, where they are detained by Mr. Spock soon after arriving. Transported into a hostile environment, the four struggle to remain alive until they return—if they can return. Kirk finds an ally in the Imperial Spock, who assists in their return trip. Meanwhile, the Federation Spock returns the Imperial crewmembers simultaneously, and everything returns to normal.
NOTE: The story was simplified by eliminating the Tantalus device and Marlena Moreau in the novelization. Oddly, a "Commander Moreau" was mentioned, but was explicitly a male character and would have been next in line for command after Spock. Kirk also reluctantly orders the orbital bombardment of the Halkans, rather than break character. The previous Enterprise captain is named Karl Franz, rather than Christopher Pike, and it's Chekov, not Sulu, who attempts to seduce Uhura, and he avoids the agony booth, unlike his televised counterpart.
Related Data
Friday's Child
Adapted from the episode Friday's Child.
Written by D.C. Fontana.
The Enterprise visits planet Ceres to prevent the Klingons from forming an alliance with the Cereans, a warlike but honorable people. When Captain Kirk prevents the slaughter of Eleen, the pregnant wife of deposed High Teer Akaar, he violates Cerean tradition, and as a result of his interference, the landing party and Eleen become hunted criminals. After McCoy delivers Eleen's baby, she escapes and returns to the Cereans. Eleen is killed, but her newborn son, named Leonard James Akaar, is named the new ruler. Kirk and his party leave Capella, having arranged diplomatic relations with the planet's government.
NOTE: Several details of the story were significantly altered in the novelization. Kras the Klingon was completely excised, Eleen was killed by Maab, who was then killed by the other Capellans (called Cereans in the novelization, with the additional detail that they were descendants of humans who named their colony Ceres and rejected technology). The baby was revealed to have been fathered not by Akaar but through an affair that Eleen had. The boy was nevertheless named High Teer, and his birth father was named his regent.
Related Data
Amok Time
Adapted from the episode Amok Time.
Written by Theodore Sturgeon.
Strange behavior from Spock prompts Captain Kirk to order Dr. McCoy to examine the science officer. Spock explains that he has begun the pon farr, the Vulcan mating cycle: if he does not return to Vulcan to take a wife, he will die. Disobeying direct orders from Star Fleet, Kirk takes Spock to Vulcan, rather than proceeding to inauguration ceremonies on Altair VI. Kirk and McCoy accompany Spock to the surface, where they will bear witness to the koon-ut-kal-if-fee marriage ceremony, conducted by the esteemed political figure T'Pau.
T'Pring, Spock's betrothed since childhood, invokes her right to ritual combat, demanding that Spock fight a champion of her choosing—surprising everyone by selecting Kirk as her champion, rather than her companion, Stonn. The captain agrees, only to discover that the fight is to the death. McCoy, noting that Vulcan's gravity and thin atmosphere places Kirk at a disadvantage, injects him with a high-G vitalizer. Spock, deep in the plak tow, or blood fever, apparently kills Kirk soon into the combat. His grief canceling out his mating urge, Spock returns to the Enterprise, only to find that Kirk is alive and well: McCoy injected the captain with a drug that would simulate death, rather than the tri-ox compound that he claimed he was administering.
