Whom Gods Destroy

(by Collin R. Skocik, adapted for this article) The lunatics are running the asylum. Elba II is a mental hospital for the last incorrigible criminally insane of the galaxy. Their newest inmate, Captain Garth of Izar, proves too clever to be contained, and as Kirk and Spock find out the hard way, has released all …

Elaan of Troyius

(by Collin R. Skocik) The Enterprise has to ferry Elaan, the Dohlman of Elas, to the planet Troyius to marry the Troyian ruler. Unlike her namesake, Helen of Troy, Elaan’s coming marriage will not start a ten-year war, but is intended to bring peace between the two warring planets. And unlike Helen, Elaan is a …

The Empath

(by Collin R. Skocik) Star Trek differs from a lot of science fiction, especially classic science fiction, in one important way. The fiction of Verne, Wells, Asimov, and Clarke venerates the intellect, encourages scientific pursuit and technological advancement, and discourages emotion. Humanity, much of the literature tells us, is an intermediate step between animals and …

Wink of an Eye

(by Collin R. Skocik) In 1905, in a paper titled “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies,” 26-year-old Albert Einstein proposed his Special Theory of Relativity, which suggested that as a spacecraft approached the speed of light, time would slow down, or dilate, meaning a passenger would experience far less time than an outside observer. Thus …

Plato’s Stepchildren

(by Collin R. Skocik, adapted for this article) I think one of the reasons Star Trek is so popular is because it gives voice to the voiceless. Usually this is expressed through Spock; an outsider, an alien, one who can express no emotion, working on a ship of emotional, illogical humans. Many of us, if …

The Tholian Web

(by Collin R. Skocik) The Enterprise finds the starship Defiant drifting in space, half-in and half-out of the universe, with its entire crew dead. Something drove them mad and they all killed each other, and the same thing begins to affect the Enterprise. Spock, McCoy, and Chekov manage to beam back to the Enterprise, but …

For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky

(by Collin R. Skocik, adapted for this article) Ten years before Arthur C. Clarke stunned the world with his masterpiece Rendezvous With Rama, Star Trek delivers an artificial world almost as magnificent: Yonada. A hollowed-out asteroid using an atomic engine for propulsion, Yonada has escaped from the destruction of the Fabrini homeworld and has voyaged …

Day of the Dove

(by Collin R. Skocik, adapted for this article) An alien masterminds a scenario in which a Klingon crew is transported aboard the Enterprise and the ship is sent careening towards the edge of the galaxy while the humans and Klingons fight endlessly. The alien feeds on emotions of anger and hatred, and provokes “a magnification …

Spectre of the Gun

(by Collin R. Skocik) Captain Kirk vs. Wyatt Earp! Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and Chekov beam down to the planet of the xenophobic Melkots, and as punishment, are transported to an eerie re-creation of Tombstone, Arizona, where they are forced to play the parts of the Clanton and McLaury brothers and Billy Claiborne in the …

Is There In Truth No Beauty?

(by Collin R. Skocik) The Enterprise is assigned to ferry the Medusan ambassador, Kollos, to a rendezvous where Starfleet engineers will develop new navigation techniques based on the incredibly advanced Medusan sensory knowledge. The problem is, as their name hints, the Medusans are dangerous to look at—so dangerous that a mere glimpse will drive a …