“We inhabit two universes” (3).
Stardate: 4011.9
First published by Bantam Books in 1970, the debut original series Star Trek adult novel Spock Must Die! was written by celebrated science fiction author James Blish, the Hugo award-winning author of A Case of Conscience. Blish is fondly remembered by Star Trek fans for having written short versions of each original series episode together with his wife, J. A. Lawrence, albeit based off original episode scripts rather than the episodes themselves. Technically, there was one earlier Trek book published before Spock Must Die! –a young adult novel entitled Mission to Horatius by Mack Reynolds which was published in 1968 during the initial run of TOS. However, for many fans, the Trek adult litverse begins chronologically with Spock Must Die!
This quasi-philosophical novella is reminiscent of the TOS episode “The Enemy Within” (an episode which sees Kirk split in two by way of a transporter malfunction). In Spock Must Die! the Enterprise is conducting a sleepy, uneventful mission –recording a “navigation grid” to establish various bench-marks for warp-drive flight not far from the Klingon Empire. The crew are ensconced in a discussion regarding the ethics of the ship’s transporter (Dr. McCoy is concerned about what actually happens to the molecules in his body when the transporter disassembles them relocates them elsewhere) when suddenly war breaks out. The Organians, from the TOS episode “Errand of Mercy,” have mysteriously disappeared and the Klingons have taken advantage by launching a war. Recall the classic TOS episode “Errand of Mercy” wherein the Organians were first introduced –despite initially appearing to be simplistic and even foolish, the Organians are later revealed to be an all-powerful alien race who manage to compel both the Klingons and the Federation to sign a peace treaty to avoid war.
Now, having lost all contact with Starfleet, the Enterprise heads for Organia to assess the situation. Where could the Organians have gone? Could such a powerful alien race possibly be defeated? In order to save time and avoid detection by the Klingons, Kirk agrees to use a bit of experimental transporter technology devised by Scotty which sends a duplicate version of Spock (a “tachyon” duplicate) at a great distance to the intended destination on Organia. There, the duplicate Spock will be able learn what has happened to the Organians before returning to the Enterprise –then he will eventually dissipate into the “tachyon” universe. But predictably this plan quickly goes awry. When Spock steps into the transporter, an identical clone emerges aboard the Enterprise rather than on Organia –in other words, now there are two Spocks aboard the Enterprise, one good and the other evil (sound familiar?).
For the rest of the book, Kirk must figure out which is the true Spock. He vacillates between Dr. McCoy (uniquely referred to as “Doc” rather than “Bones” in this novel) and Scotty, whose phonetical Scottish brogue is so thick in this novel that it’s difficult to follow at times. But when trouble arises (the computer is taken off warp drive), Kirk relieves both Spocks from their positions and he appoints Sulu as the ship’s new first officer. When questioned, Spock Two suggests that the replicant Spock must be immediately destroyed –an uncharacteristically reckless idea for Spock. Meanwhile, the Klingon fleet continues to head toward earth, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake, thus the Enterprise speeds toward Organia to help solve this whole mess before it’s too late.
Upon arrival at Organia, the whole area mysteriously appears to be a “gas giant” with a giant screen (perhaps a “tachyon reflector”) blocking access to the planet. Meanwhile, Spock One barricades himself inside Dr. McCoy’s laboratory before fleeing in a shuttlecraft he has rigged with a makeshift warp engine toward Organia. When the Enterprise arrives, Kirk beams down to Organia to find a “depressing” rocky wasteland –the familiar Organian village is now missing. However, Kirk also starts having strange visions, or “Picasso-like” nightmares. Two giant green tentacled creatures then appear and a grand battle between the two Spocks ensues. Ultimately, Spock One is defeated. Kirk and crew then devise an alternate reflector screen that eliminates the original screen around Organia (which was erected by the Klingons). We are then reunited with the Organian council of elders who are released from their planetary prison shield. They put a stop to the war by disabling the Klingon ships and confining them to their home planet for a thousand years. But did the right Spock survive in the end? We may only speculate…
I found Spock Must Die! to be a fairly bland, techno-babble heavy book. However its moral exploration of the Enterprise’s transporter technology is superb, and I was careful to note some classic literary allusions in the book, including nods to Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, William of Ockham’s “Law of Parsimony,” and James Joyce’s synthetic language called Eurish which is used by Uhura to safely and covertly communicate a message back to Starfleet in the book. Broadly speaking, the characters in the book all track with the familiar tone of the show –for example, as a random point of note, there is an odd moment early in the novel in which Kirk ruminates on Spock’s popularity among women:
“What was the source of the oddly overt response that women of all ages and degrees of experience seemed to feel toward Spock? Kirk had no answer, but he had two theories, switching from one to the other according to his mood. One was that it was a simple challenge-and-response situation: he may be cold and unresponsive to other women, but if I had the chance, I could get through to him! The other, more complex theory seemed more plausible to Kirk only in his moments of depression: that most white crewwomen, still the inheritors after two centuries of vestiges of the shameful racial prejudices of their largely Anglo-Americans forebears, saw in the Vulcan half-breed –who after all had not sprung from any Earthly colored stock—a ‘safe’ way of breaking with those vestigial prejudices –and at the same time, perhaps, satisfying the sexual curiosities which had been at the bottom of them from beginning” (27).
Another curious point of note in this novel is that Yeoman Janice Rand appears as a character even though by this point in the original series, she had already departed Star Trek (prior to the episode “Errand of Mercy”). Equally curious is the mention of Dr. McCoy’s daughter, Joanna, in the novel.
While Spock Must Die! sold fairly well at the time of release, the death of James Blish in 1975 ended any plans for a future sequel. Today, Spock Must Die! enjoys a fairly mixed reputation from fans and I would generally agree with this assessment. Spock Must Die! offers a solid Trek adventure with a philosophical examination of the transporter, the likes of which would have made Descartes proud, but it still has all the hallmarks of being a somewhat choppy early Star Trek novel. Throughout the whole book, Blish makes considerable efforts to show “Spock One” as being the evil duplicate, which led me to believe there would be some sort of a surprise twist in the end, but that was not to be. Admittedly, this was a bit anti-climactic in my view. Maybe it’s best to consider this a non-canonical Trek adventure, taking place in an entirely alternate “tachyon” reality of sorts. But for being written only a year after the show went off-air, Spock Must Die! is still an amusing little space adventure and comes recommended from me for fans of TOS.
Blish, James. Spock Must Die! Bantam Books: A Bantam Spectra Book, New York, NY, 1970 (republished in 1999).
Thank you for this book review. I just shared it with friends on Discord.
I enjoyed Mission to Horatius which gives a very good vibe of the series. Haven’t read this so thanks for a fine review.