Cover of original. | |
Author: | James Blish |
Illustrators: | Kazuhiko Sano (June 1999 ed.) |
Publisher: | Bantam Books |
Series: | Bantam TOS |
Published: | January 1970 |
Pages: | 118 |
Year: | 2268 |
Stardate: | 4011.9 through 4205.5 |
Reference #: |
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Cover of 1985 reprint. |
An exciting new story of interplanetary adventure!
Summary
- From the original book jacket
- Captain Kirk and the crew of the starship Enterprise find themselves in the middle of an undeclared war waged by the Klingon Empire...
- The Organians should be consulted about the war but their entire planet has disappeared -- or been destroyed...
- Mr. Spock entered the transporter chamber. His image would be flashed to Organia by the huge machine's faster-than-light tachyons. But the experiment failed. Suddenly there were two Mr. Spocks. One of them had to be destroyed...
- BUT WHICH ONE?
- From the April 1985 reprint book jacket
- Captain's log, stardate 4181.4. We are at war with the Klingon Empire.
- Launching an unprovoked attack upon the Federation, the Klingons have broken the terms of the Organian Peace Treaty -- leaving the Enterprise stranded deep in uncharted space, cut off from the rest of the Federation fleet.
- To find out what happened to the Organians, Commander Scott rigged an experimental modification of our transportation system designed to enable a tachyon replica of Mr. Spock to travel faster-than-light to Organia. But the experiment failed, and incredibly, left us with two identical Spocks: one of whom is a replica in every way the opposite of our first officer, a traitor whose continued existence poses a grave threat to the Enterprise and quite possibly the entire Federation.
- One of the Spocks must die. But which one...
- Excerpts of copyrighted sources are included for review purposes only, without any intention of infringement.
Background
This was the first original Trek novel published by Bantam Books. It was a sequel to TOS:"Errand of Mercy" written by James Blish, author of the popular "Star Trek 1" and continuing series of TOS novelizations.
The Bantam novel series have a plethora of different cover images, the English version of this novel has been released with at least three different covers, a new one for each subsequent printing. There have been three US cover printings by Bantam (February 1970, April 1985 and June 1999). The 1990s edition cover is credited to artist Kazuhiko Sano.
The concept of transporter duplication was addressed in other canonical productions, TOS: "The Enemy Within" and TNG: "Second Chances". "Second Chances", in particular, is a later occasion of the transporter being used to create an identical duplicate.
An editor at Bantam copyedited Kirk's reference to McCoy from "Bones" to "Doc," apparently being unfamiliar to the reference to McCoy's oft-used onscreen nickname. Author James Blish wrote a piece about the error in the introduction of a later novelization.
Characters
- James T. Kirk
- Enterprise captain.
- Spock
- Enterprise science officer and exec.
- Leonard H. McCoy
- Enterprise CMO.
- Montgomery Scott
- Enterprise engineer.
- Uhura
- Enterprise communications officer. She was considering spending a couple of weeks teaching a language to Lt. Purdy.
- Hikaru Sulu
- Enterprise helmsman.
- Ayelborne
- Organian.
- Claymare
- Organian.
- Trefayne
- Organian.
- Purdy
- Starfleet lieutenant statoned at Starbase 16, who wanted to be taught how to speak Eurish.
References
- Klingons
- Klingon Empire
- Organia
- Organians
- Starbase 16
- Federation starbase.
- transporter
Timeline
Other Bantam series
- Star Trek (novelizations) by James Blish
- Star Trek: The New Voyages (collections)
First in series | Novels Bantam TOS |
Next novel: The New Voyages |