Book Review: Spock Must Die! by James Blish
Author: James Blish (with J.A. Lawrence)
Title: Spock Must Die!
Publication Info: Bantam Books, 1970
Summary/Review:
The first spin-off novel for Star Trek is an interesting artifact of its time. Writing in 1969, author James Blish correctly predicts that Star Trek will return. Created before the movies and even the animated series, Blish creates a possible Star Trek future that was never followed-up upon. The crew of the Enterprise speak in an elevated language of science and philosophy which they never used on TV but feels appropriate to the crew of a science vessel. However, there are also elements of characterization that feel wrong, like Kirk calling McCoy “Doc” instead of “Bones.”
Spock Must Die! is a sequel to Errand of Mercy, the story which introduced the Klingons. In that story, the Organians – incorporeal entities – used their powers to prevent war between the Klingons and the Federation. Now the Klingons have contained the Organians and re-opened hostilities against that Federation. Caught behind enemy lines at the time the war begins, the Enterprise tries to use a transporter modification to reach the Organians. This results in accidentally creating a duplicate Spock. While using tropes of “The Enemy Within” and “Mirror, Mirror,” the duplicate Spock is unique in that everything down to the molecular level of the duplicate operates in reverse of the original. This means that the duplicate can’t even get nutrients from eating, and of course, is evil.
Thus Spock must die, but should it be Spock One or Spock Two? This book is written on the model of a TV episode and probably would’ve made an entertaining but not great episode.
Rating: ***
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