by Daniel Cohen
The chase leads both ships into unknown territory. This territory happens to be claimed by the Metrons, and they don’t like trespassers, either. The Metrons are an extremely advanced race, with a very powerful technology. They are far more powerful than either the humans or the Gorns. Both ships are captured and held. Kirk and the Gorn captain are whisked off to an uninhabited asteroid.
The Metrons are quite human in appearance. In fact, the one that appears looks rather like an ancient Greek god. The Metrons have some definite ideas about fighting. They don’t think groups should fight one another. They think that all fights should be settled between individuals.
That is why Kirk and the Gorn captain have been brought to the asteroid. They are to fight it out with one another. The winner and his ship will be freed. The loser and his ship will be destroyed.
Both captains are unarmed. At first it looks as if the Gorn has a tremendous advantage. It is a very large creature, about seven feet tall. More than anything else, it resembles the tyrannosaurus, a flesh-eating dinosaur that once roamed the earth. The Gorn is green, has glowing eyes, long claws, and tremendous strength.
Gorn
But Kirk has some advantages, too. He is much faster. Though the Gorn is intelligent, Kirk is more intelligent. Kirk manages to make gunpowder out of the asteroid’s minerals. He then builds a simple cannon and is able to wound the Gorn. But he refuses to kill his opponent.
This act of mercy surprises and pleases the Metrons. They decide that perhaps humans are not so bad, after all. They then return both captains to their ships and send the ships out of their territory.
The United Federation of Planets is made up of a number of different races from different star systems. The Federation is basically democratic, and the different peoples in it generally cooperate well. But every once in a while there are sharp differences of opinion over specific issues. One such issue is the admission of Coridan to the Federation. The Coridan System has several underpopulated and unprotected planets. These planets contain a huge supply of valuable Dilithium crystals, the basic mineral substance needed to power starships.
The Enterprise is given the delicate job of transporting the representatives of several different planets to a conference on Coridan admission. In this episode, called “Journey to Babel,” we meet the representatives of several different alien races. The most striking is Sarek the Vulcan, Spock’s father. Sarek and his son have not spoken for years, and that just complicates the problem.
A major source of conflict is Gav, a Tellerite. The Tellerites are generally human in appearance. They are short and heavy. Their pink faces have blunt, pig-like noses. While they are not a bad folk at all, the Tellerites do love to argue just for the sake of argument. This they do in aloud and irritating voice.
A Tellerite
Gav is against Coridan admission. Sarek favors it, and the two quarrel. Later Gav is found stabbed to death. Sarek is the number-one suspect in the killing.
However, there are others aboard the Enterprise. One is Thelev the Andorian. The Andorians are also roughly humanoid in form. But there are some very obvious differences, as well. They have blue skin, a full head of white hair, and two small knobbed antennae high on their foreheads.
Andorians are slim in build and speak softly with a slight lisp. At first glance one might think they are a gentle race, but that impression would be wrong. Actually, they are very strong and fierce fighters. But they do not fight without good reason. They are among the more numerous of the races in the Federation, and they appear in several “Star Trek” episodes.
An Andorian
In this case, however, Thelev turns out not to be an Andorian, after all. He is really an Orion in disguise. The Orions are not Federation members. They are an extremely treacherous people who live mainly by piracy. They have been stealing from Coridan for a long time. They were afraid that if Coridan became a member of the Federation, their profitable and illegal operations would be ended. A spy disguised as an Andorian was sent to the Enterprise to disrupt the possible treaty with Coridan. It was the spy that stabbed Gav.
An Orion ship which has been tracking the Enterprise destroys itself When the plot is discovered, and the spy kills himself.
Chapter 8
Androids, Computers, and Mad Machines
Not all of the menaces faced by the Enterprise are alive. Androids figure prominently in several “Star Trek” episodes. Androids are life-like mechanical figures.
Take, for example, the androids of the planet Exo III. At some point in the distant past, the surface of Exo III became too cold to live on. The inhabitants—called the Old Ones—moved to underground caverns. There they built nearly perfect androids to serve them. Instead of serving them, however, the androids destroyed the Old Ones.
Much later, Dr. Roger Korby, a brilliant biologist, discovers the caverns. Only one of the original androids is left. His name is Ruk, a gaunt, hairless giant who probably resembled the Old Ones. Ruk helps Korby learn the secret of making androids. Korby even builds an android to replace his own body when it is badly frozen.
Ruk
Korby plans to make android duplicates of important members of the Federation and substitute them for the originals. In this way he hopes to take over the galaxy.
The Enterprise finds Korby. Korby captures Kirk and sends an android duplicate back to the ship, but Spock quickly sees through the scheme.
Meanwhile, Kirk is being held prisoner and guarded by Ruk. The captain manages to convince the android that Korby is a threat to his “perfect” way of life. Ruk attacks Korby, but is destroyed.
Then Kirk turns his powers of persuasion on Korby himself. He points out that since taking over an android body, Korby has lost many of his basic human feelings. Korby realizes this is true, and horrified, he kills himself.
There are androids in the episode called “Mudd’s Planet.” These androids are trying to be helpful. But they are trying too hard. They nearly kill you with kindness. The androids had been programmed to serve human beings. However, the race that built them died out. The androids have had nothing to do for 1,743,912 years. Then the planet was discovered by one of Captain Kirk’s old enemies, Harry Mudd, a space-traveling crook.
Mudd sets himself up as king of the planet. The androids are more than happy to serve him. But after a while Mudd realizes that he is less a king than a prisoner. With no one else to serve, the androids won’t let him leave.
So Mudd hatches a plot to kidnap the Enterprise. He hopes to exchange his freedom for an entire starship of humans that the androids can serve. The androids have bigger plans. They wish to use the Enterprise to spread out and help humans all over the galaxy. Mudd is still stuck.
In order to escape these all-too-helpful machines, Mudd even agrees to cooperate with Kirk. As part of their plan, all the humans begin behaving illogically. Even the ever-logical Spock acts strangely. The androids can’t cope with this sort of behavior. They begin to short-circuit. Finally, the crew of the Enterprise is able to escape. Mudd is left behind in the custody of the remaining androids. He is to be released only if he reforms. No one thinks that will be soon.
Like the androids of Mudd’s Planet, Vaal is a bit over-protective. Vaal is a huge computer-like machine that rules the planet Gamma Trianguli VI. Above ground it appears as a carved stone serpent. Its mouth is open and large enough for a person to walk into. Its eyes glow and it hums softly. The real power of Vaal, however, is in its underground machinery.
Who built Vaal, and for what purpose, no one knows anymore. The machine has made life sort of a paradise for the inhabitants of Gamma Trianguli VI. But they are also completely dependent upon the machine. When a landing party from the Enterprise arrives, Vaal turns nasty. The machine does not like anyone interfering with its plans. It tries to pull the ship out of orbit. In order to save the Enterprise, Kirk must destroy Vaal. This he does, though after a considerable struggle.
Without Vaal, the people of Gamma Trianguli VI are on their ow
n, and must develop their own way of life.
The computer-like device which runs the planet Sigma Draconis VI needs a brain to keep operating correctly. So it decides to get the best brain around—Spock’s brain.
A mysterious woman named Kara appears aboard the Enterprise. She puts everyone on the ship to sleep. When they wake up she is gone, and so is Spock’s brain. His body is kept alive, while the Enterprise goes in search of the missing brain. The search is an urgent one, for without a brain the body will die within twenty-four hours.
Kara is found on Sigma Draconis VI. It is a planet with a strange culture. All the males live in a primitive state on its ice-covered surface. All the females live underground. They have an advanced technology but do not understand how it works.
Kirk realizes that Kara and the other females are controlled by a gigantic teaching machine. The machine is called the Great Teacher of All Ancient Knowledge. It was created by ancient scientists now long dead. The Great Teacher can program the females of Sigma Draconis VI to do certain specific tasks. But they do not retain the knowledge for long.
By the time the Enterprise arrives, Spock’s brain has already been wired into the machine. It is intended to help run the machinery for ten thousand years. Spock’s brain cannot be taken from the machinery and safely put back in his own body without knowledge contained in the Great Teacher. Kara cannot and will not help. So McCoy undergoes a treatment by the teaching machine. With the knowledge he has gained, he returns Spock’s brain to its proper place. In the process, the controlling machinery of Sigma Draconis VI is destroyed. The women must now go live on the surface with the men and hopefully develop a more normal civilization.
A computer whose original purpose has been lost or distorted is also the villain of the episode called “For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky.” Ages ago the computer was put in control of a hollow asteroid called Yonada. The asteroid was to serve as a “seed ship” by a people whose home, one of the planets of the star Fabrina, was about to be destroyed. Refugees from the destruction were to live inside the asteroid. The asteroid was then to be sent on a journey across space. In ten thousand years it was hoped that the asteroid would reach another solar system which could be inhabited by the descendants of the original builders.
But their journey has taken too long. The people living inside the asteroid have forgotten their mission. They have even forgotten that they are living inside an asteroid. They think that the small, hollow asteroid is the whole world.
During the trip the master computer has malfunctioned. It is no longer acting as a guide to the people of Yonada; it has become a sort of god. It demands that people worship the original Fabrini who built it as “the Creators.” People no longer think of them simply as ancestors. The computer itself is called The Oracle of the People.
Everybody on Yonada is controlled by Instruments of Obedience. These are small devices placed under the skin. Through them the Oracle can inflict pain or death. It also uses them to read the thoughts and actions of the people of Yonada. It can protect itself from outsiders by throwing off bolts of electricity or raising the temperature of a room to the boiling point. The Oracle denounces any attempt to meddle with its machinery as a “sacrilege against the people.” Its punishment is severe and merciless.
Not only has the computer malfunction kept Yonada wandering through space far too long, but it has also set the asteroid spaceship on a collision course with one of the Federation planets. This is where the Enterprise comes in.
After many complications, Spock and Kirk are able to locate the computer’s central controls. Spock figures out what is wrong, puts Yonada back on course, and destroys the Oracle’ s god-like pretensions.
Nomad is another machine that malfunctioned—in human terms you might say it has gone crazy. Nomad is a cylindrical metal object about five feet high. It has several antennae, and moves by floating through the air. In many ways it looks rather primitive. And it is. As far as the Enterprise is concerned, it is part of ancient space history.
Nomad is an early Earth space probe. It was launched in the year 2002. Nomad’s original purpose was to seek out alien life forms. But during it’s journey it was struck by a meteor and severely damaged. At some later date it came in contact with an alien space probe called Tan Ru. The purpose of Tan Ru was to sterilize soil samples. The two probes combined. They used their self-repair systems to produce an entirely new and deadly machine. The combined probes now act as if their mission is to find alien life, and get rid of everything that is not perfect.
By the time Nomad encounters the Enterprise, it has already destroyed several planets. It does considerable damage to the Enterprise until it becomes aware of Kirk’s name. Nomad believes that it has found “the Kirk,” the man who created it in the first place. Actually, the man who built Nomad was named Jackson Roykirk, a brilliant but unstable twenty-first century scientist. When he designed the probe, he built into it a reverence for himself.
To get rid of the deadly hybrid, Kirk points out that he is not Roykirk. Nomad has made a mistake; therefore, it is not perfect and must be destroyed. The machine is persuaded by Kirk’s argument and blows itself up.
Nomad and the other machines described in this chapter so far are dangerous because they are not working as they had been designed to work. The berserker is dangerous because it is doing exactly what it was designed to do. It was designed as a doomsday machine, a gigantic weapon that can destroy entire solar systems.
The berserker is a cone-shaped robot ship, a hundred times the size of an ordinary starship. It breaks up entire planets and converts them into energy to sustain itself. It can follow starships, and disable and destroy them with ease.
Spock describes the thing as “an automated weapon of immense size and power, self-sustaining as long as there are planetary bodies to feed on.” It was built as a weapon by some now-extinct race. Kirk believes that the thing was built mainly as a bluff, that it had never been meant to be used, because it would destroy both sides in any war. But it may have been used, anyway, for its builders are gone, but it is still around.
The berserker wanders into the galaxy and destroys several solar systems for fuel. Then it is attacked by the starship Constellation. It is a battle the berserker wins easily. The Constellation is crippled. Everyone in the crew is killed except the ship’s commander, Commodore Matthew Decker. The Enterprise saves Decker’s life, but he has become obsessed with the idea of destroying the monster ship.
Kirk and Scotty are trapped on the Constellation. When the berserker returns, Decker takes over the Enterprise. He wants to destroy the berserker, but goes about it the wrong way. As a result, the Enterprise itself is nearly destroyed. Spock decides that Decker has become mentally unstable, and he relieves him of command.
Decker then steals a small shuttlecraft and flies directly into the robot ship. He is destroyed, but this gives Kirk an idea. He programs the crippled Constellation to explode inside the berserker. Kirk and Scott are then transported back to the Enterprise just as the Constellation does explode. The plan works, and the doomsday machine is turned off forever.
The crew of the Enterprise from the Star Trek movie.
Two “Star Trek” monsters you have never seen:
A creature that was cut out of the two-port episode "The Menagerie”
One of a group of giant humanoids that attack members of the Enterprise crew in the episode “The Galileo Seven.” On the air they were shown only from the rear.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DANIEL COHEN is the author of many books for both young readers and adults, and he is a former managing editor of Science Digest magazine. His titles include Supermonsters, The Greatest Monsters in the World, The Magic Art of Foreseeing the Future, Real Ghosts, Creatures from UFO’s and The World’s Most Famous Ghosts, all of which are available’ in Archway Paperback editions.
Mr. Cohen was born in Chicago and has a degree in journalism from the University of Illinois. He appears f
requently on radio and television and has lectured at colleges and universities throughout the country. He lives with his wife, young daughter, two dogs and three cats in Port Jervis, New York.