Vulcan!

Kathleen Sky

1978

Grade: F

There are a few things to enjoy here, and certainly one of the foremost is the cover. Even though the Arachnae creatures and Dr. Tremain do not resemble their descriptions in the novel, the style and coloring are outstanding as well as highlighting the main focus of the novel, namely Tremain being stranded alone on a planet with a member of the Vulcan species that is so abhorrent to her. The plot revolves around the Enterprise being sent to a border planet that will soon fall under the sway of the Romulan Empire and racing to find out if its native inhabitants are sentient thereby deserving some manner of protection. Ostensibly, they are required to take on board the eminent exobiologist Dr. Tremain who complicates life on the ship for many reasons, chief among them her bigotry towards Vulcans. Though it's not explored in any detail, the idea of how the Federation would respond to a sentient, but primitive, species falling under the sway of the Romulan Empire is definitely a field fit for sowing in the Star Trek universe. 

While this is not the most egregious mischaracterization Kirk, Spock, and McCoy have been treated with in the novels so far, it is also far from their strongest outing. Almost all of these mischaracterizations revolve around the cast’s reaction to Tremain who is simultaneously the protagonist, conflict, mcguffin, and climax. This is where the story falls most strongly into the category of fanfiction. Without knowing for certain, the impression Tremain makes is one of the author, Kathleen Sky, inserting a proxy character into a world she seems to hold dearly. Tremain is a world renowned exobiologist who is the only one the Federation will trust with the determination of the sentience of an alien species. She is sought after by every male character that comes in contact with her. She is even equal to the challenge of surviving  resourceless on a hostile alien world.  The entire novel revolves around her and seems to exist wholly as a vessel for her to confront her feelings of confounded love. It might be argued that her blatant, and comically one-dimensional, bigotry could be seen as a character flaw, but this trait is excused by all of the characters around her, “[Tremain’s] laughter did a great deal toward stilling the small voice in the back of [McCoy’s] mind which kept pointing out that this lovely woman was a bigot”(17). Sky even goes so far as to contrast Tremain against the actual racists in the crew lest the reader miss the hardly subtle indicators that the doctor’s racism is founded on something else completely than hate for the Vulcan species. She out psychologies McCoy, out sciences Spock, and in general out thinks and out understands everyone in the novel. On a personal note, though an unlikeable character should never be confused for a weakly written one, she is  petulant, sexually frivolous, “I had thought of seducing Kirk. Do you think it would do me any good?”(62-63), and, at least outwardly, racist which renders her seemingly insurmountable draw on the men around her completely unfathomable. There is an attempt to explain this lack of depth on the part of the men when McCoy points out that his, “professionalism was warring with his gonads, and it was going to be a neck-and-neck race as to which side won”(27). Obviously the insinuation that physical attractiveness trumps moral bankruptcy for men is a sexist one, but it is an explanation that I’m sure most readers would simply nod in agreement to. 

Because Tremain as a character figures so heavily as a narrative device, she is also the main cause of the plot’s failures. The most glaring of which is the uncanny lengths to which the novel goes in order to reach its ultimate goal of stranding Tremain alone with Spock. Under the auspices that only she is qualified to determine the sentience of the Arachnae, she is forced to join the Enterprise crew. This in and of itself is not an issue as this device is used often in Star Trek. Unfortunately, the narrative does not ultimately justify the Starfleet’s or the Commodore’s insistence. In fact, she ends up coming to the correct conclusion about the non-sentience of the Arachnae long before she ever sets foot on the planet and does not figure in the proof of the fact other than to relate the findings of Spock’s mindmeld. There is a completely irrelevant side story involving the Romulan’s sent to take possession of the world, the reveal that her racism is a self-defense mechanism against the pain of a lost love is paper-thin, telegraphed, and hardly an excuse for her behavior, and perhaps most frustrating is that the main cast is relegated to supporting roles. 

This is a harmless self-indulgent fantasy wherein a female reader might find herself the center of the Star Trek world and the desire of all its major characters. It’s clearly told with a great deal of love for the source material but without much attentiveness or skill. Notable for the first to name a Romulan ship Decius but would likely have been better served as a tightly plotted short story.