Vulcan! (tie-in book)

Title:	Vulcan!
Creator:	Kathleen Sky
Date(s):	1978
Medium:	print
Fandom:	Star Trek: TOS
Language:	English
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Vulcan! is a 1978 Star Trek: TOS pro novel by Kathleen Sky.

Reactions and Reviews

1978

Upon completing the newest "Star Trek" novel, Vulcan! by Kathleen Sky, I have come to one conclusion. It is apparent that the author possesses a vast knowledge of her subject but, to the detriment of the book, she appears to have lost much of this knowledge somewhere between the typewriter and the paper.

Dr. Katalya Tremain, a noted scientist, arrives aboard the Enterprise for the purpose of heading a mission to the planet Arachne which is slowly being drawn into Romulan space. The doctor and Spock's mission is to determine if the Arachnians are an intelligent race and, if so, to save them from Romulan domination. However there is one drawback. Dr. Tremain utterly detests Vulcans and refuses to allow Spock in her presence, much less to assist her. Once on the planet, their camp is decimated by the Arachnians, leaving only Spock and Katalya alive and unable to run the risk of contacting the ship for fear of letting their presence be known to the Romulans.

Now this has the makings of a very good story. Unfortunately, besides losing sight of what she started out with, Ms. Sky also loses sight of her understanding of the charac ters. No one who has ever seen even a single "Star Trek" episode can picture Mr. Spock asking a naked woman if she wants her back scrubbed and as for Dr. McCoy; his exploits with Dr. Tremain aboard the Enterprise almost puts Captain Kirk to shame.

Personally, I found Vulcan! to be a mildly entertaining book for the most part. However, if you want a truly good "Star Trek" story, you had better look elsewhere.

1979

If this story is not as bad as SPOCK: MESSIAH, it's only because nothing could be. VULCAN!, however, comes close. I went into the reading of this pro Trek novel with high hopes. After all, it was introduced by David Gerrold, who confided that the author is a personal friend of his, was also a "Trekkie". (That should have told me something right there...)

Characterization in VULCAN! is extremely poor. Both Kirk (as usual) and McCoy seem to be ruled alternately by libido and spleen — both qualities activated by the "heroine", Katalya Tremaine. Spock at least does not get the hots when introduced to Katalya, but he seems terribly prone to fits of temper and worse, attempted whimsey, while Chapel is portrayed as little more than a glob of hormones with legs -- given to frequent and embarrassing hysterical tirades in defense of Mr. Spock. In fact, the only people who are pictured by Ms. Sky with anything approaching dignity and intelligence are the Romulans.

The main premise of this ineptly written story is that Katalya Tremaine hates Vulcans passionately — so guess who she has to work with, folks! Right. She and Spock are assigned to find out if there is sapient life on Planet Arachne before it slides into Romulan space. Better they should try to determine if there is sapient life in the upper echelons of Star Fleet. The brass in this, story act just as nutty as Katalya does — which is very nutty indeed.

Katalya, who has reached the rank of Commander, God only knows how, makes no effort even to appear rational, engaging in screeching tantrums which rightfully ought to get her tossed out of the service on a Section-8. She defies Captain Kirk to his face, and does other cute things like repeatedly offering to shoot a nice big hole through Mr. Spock. (The big question would seem to be; what embecile issued this loony a phaser to begin with?) Tremaine obviously belongs in a rubber room; not on a Starship. For some reason, however, McCoy seems to find her irresistible, if irritating. Meanwhile, Kirk privately decides he'd like to "lay" her, but failing that, he'd be relieved if she managed to get her trouble-making self killed during the mission. Unfortunately, she does not.

I will not divulge the ending, but it is not quite as silly as the rest of the book so perhaps you might want to read the last four chapters and skip the rest. It won't make much sense that way, but then neither do the first sixteen chapters of this disappointing book, Frankly, I've seen lots better in fanzines.

1983

It is an intelligent, well-written novel that keeps all of the characters in character; that is a rare feat for a ST novel. By bringing aboard a scientist who hates Vulcans, the novel tries to deal with the sensitive issue of bigotry. Therein lies the one fault of "Vuclan!" Dr. Tremain's bigotry we learn is not real bigotry, but a psychological response to a a traumatic event. It would have been much more profitable to write a book about real bigotry and see how THE ENTERPRISE would have reacted.