“We are now in a place beyond space…”
Stardate: 6188.4
The Enterprise is leaving the neutral planetoid of Babel (famously featured in the classic episode “Journey to Babel”). But before departing, the crew picks up a pair of important passengers: Kostas Spyroukis “the renowned planetary explorer who is personally responsible for locating more than thirty colonizable worlds” and his beautiful twenty-year-old daughter Metika. The pair have just failed to lobby the council to change the status of their homeworld (Epsilon Delta 4) from a colony into a full Federation member, which would expand the colony’s mining operations and economy. Kostas is a well-known figure to members of the crew, particularly Kirk, as he is fondly looked upon as a pioneer and an inspiration, however once beamed aboard, Dr. McCoy notices Kostas seems tired and sickly. He decides to keep an eye on the old man. And, of course, Kirk cannot resist flirting with auburn-haired, blue-eyed Metika as he gives her a private tour of the Enterprise (Kirk’s tour reveals some interesting details about the Enterprise, such as the “automated food processing units” which can feed anyone from an Abalekite to a Zycothian, to the recreation room on Deck Eight, where crew members need not interrupt their workouts to salute ranks, and a holographic game room – perhaps a precursor to TNG’s holodeck – and even a fully constructed park with a fountain and blue-green carpet imported from the planet Delestra).
At any rate, Kostas’s health starts rapidly deteriorating and Spock discovers Kostas has experienced a radiation reaction from his time on Epsilon Delta 4 (specifically zeton radiation which was mixed with argon). This means the whole colony on Epsilon Delta 4 is under threat and may need to be evacuated and abandoned. On his deathbed, Kostas confesses to Kirk that he knew about the radiation problem, but he decided to stay anyway because he wanted a steady place to settle with his daughter (how does this rationale make any sense?) Kostas dies shortly thereafter and the Enterprise races to Epsilon Delta 4 to rescue the remaining 680 colonists. However, it is a four-day journey to the colony and the ship’s computer has plotted a strangely circuitous route, avoiding a “Class Two” navigational hazard in a perilous nebulous region. Kirk decides to go straight through the hazard anyway (apparently Kirk is willing to recklessly risk the lives of everyone on board the ship just to get to Epsilon Delta 4 a little faster).
However, unsurprisingly, the Enterprise immediately encounters a strange and terrifying phenomenon!
“It appeared to be nothing less than an enormous rift, a tear I the very fabric of space. Through the opening, the crew could see tantalizing glimpses of something that seemed to be of another universe altogether. This hole in reality was speeding toward them at a rate totally uncharacteristic of natural objects” (49).
This mysterious rift in space accelerates and matches the Enterprise’s movements like a predator seeking its prey. Then the Enterprise is entirely swallowed up into the hole where the space around them becomes a vibrant rainbow luminescence. Spock realizes the ship has been suspended inside some kind of interdimensional bubble floating. Then the Enterprise is confronted by both Klingon and Romulan vessels: a Klingon cruiser called the Destructor helmed by Captain Kolvor, and a Romulan ship called the Talon under Commander Actius Probicol. Naturally, there is mutual distrust as all parties quickly realize their weapons don’t work.
Suddenly, a playful impish gnome with godlike powers pops up on the bridge a la Trelane “The Squire of Gothos.” His name is Enowil. He has gold curl-toed shoes, a chartreuse cap with a little bell, and has existed for millennia. He explains that he is a former Organian (from the episode “Errand of Mercy”), but he was kicked out of the Organian order because he was suspected of being mad so he created his own little “bubble of unreality.” Now, he has brought these three ships to his bubble because he needs their help – he wants to play a game to see which of the three crews can figure out what is missing from the world he has created. The winner will receive a grand reward.
While Enowil says he can release the Enterprise back to its urgent mission on Epsilon Delta 4 if they truly wish to miss out on this game, Kirk and the crew decide to stay in the event that either the Klingons or the Romulans win the reward (which could lead to some sort of catastrophic weapon being placed in the hands of the Federation’s enemies). At the very least, the Enterprise decides stay and learn more about this highly unusual situation.
Thus, like a cosmic Willy Wonka (whom Stephen Goldin used as inspiration for the novel), Enowil offers a tour of his planet and all the fantastical being who dwell upon it, from Rafellian and Andorian aliens to half-naked women riding dragons. Eventually, the Klingon Captain Kolvor quietly persuades Metika to plant a bomb on the Romulan ship in the hopes of speeding up this whole silly game (Metika desperately wants to return to her colony for the rescue mission). However, the bomb plot goes sideways and Metika becomes trapped in an odd side-quest with a Romulan named Marcus Claudius Breccio. The two quickly become smitten with one another as they quest through a fantasy realm together.
In the end, Kirk figures out what is missing from Enowil’s world. He realizes that a creator yearns for an audience: “every creator must have someone to create for” (173). From here, the Enterprise wins the game and uses its reward to save all the Epsilon Delta 4 colonists with the godlike help of Enowil. And in a somewhat amusing twist, both Metika and Marcus Clausius Breccio decide to remain together on Enowil’s world.
Trek to Madworld is yet another early Bantam-era Trek novel filled with plot-holes. For example, why would Kirk risk the lives of the whole crew and travel through a nebulous region of space only to shave off travel time? Would it really be worth it? And why would Kostas have settled on Epsilon Delta 4 in the first place, knowing there was a serious radiation problem? Why risk the life of his daughter and 680 other colonists? Wouldn’t an experienced explorer like himself know of other places to settle down in retirement? Anyway, despite my usual quibbles with a Star Trek novel, I actually enjoyed this one far more than expected. It takes readers on some fairly silly twists and turns, and it is openly an homage to the sillier episodes of TOS, but it is still mercifully better than some of the other Bantam novels. Plus, it introduces some interesting new sections of the ship, as well as unique meals like bloodworm stew and Fimaldian mushrooms, and there are a handful of “forgotten” crew members introduced (like Lt. Leaming, Lt. Rodrigues, Solari, and Ti-Chen, among others). I would be remiss to not mention the satirical introduction by David Gerrold!
Goldin, Stephen. Trek to Madworld. Bantam Books, New York, New York, 1979 (third printing published in 1984). Goldin dedicated the book to “Dona Kerns, Sally Fink, and Pamela Faint, three of the nicest ladies one could meet at a Star Trek convention.”
Notably, Stephen Goldin’s first wife was Kathleen Sky, author of the early Star Trek novel Vulcan! as well as Death’s Angel. They divorced in 1982. He then married Mary Mason in 1987 and the two have since worked on several science fiction series together over the years. Goldin actually nearly published a second Star Trek novel that was apparently canceled. It was to be about a political change in the Federation government, something close to a neoconservative or perhaps even MAGA regime, in which the Federation would suddenly find itself under the spell of a strong anti-alien prejudice, only for Kirk and crew to lead a mutiny and restore order in the end. A three-book arc was approved for writers Goldin, Mason, and Diane Duane, but then a surprise directive came down from Paramount which canceled the project. Goldin claimed it was because the executives declared there was a prohibition against prejudice in the Star Trek universe, while Dave Stern later stated the series was canceled due to deadline issues. This whole story is wonderfully explained in Jeff Ayers’s Star Trek fiction companion entitled Voyages of Imagination.