The Monsters of Star Trek Read online

  But when the Kelvans assumed human shapes, they also took on some human traits. In their original form they had never felt physical sensations or emotions. In human form they feel both, just as humans do. It is their weak point. The crew of the Enterprise immediately goes to work on the aliens. Scotty gets one of the Kelvans drunk. A female Kelvan is attracted to Kirk, and this makes the Kelvan leader jealous and angry.

  As a result, the Kelvans become confused and begin fighting among themselves. They have now become human in more than appearance. Kirk quickly points this out to the Kelvans. He tells them that they have become too human to attempt to return to their native planet. A trip back to the distant Andromeda galaxy aboard the Enterprise would take several Kelvan generations. During all that time the Kelvans would have to stay in human form. By the time their descendants had arrived at Andromeda, they would be completely alien to the normal Kelvans, and would not be able to live among them.

  This argument impresses the Kelvans. They make a record of everything that has happened to them and put it aboard a robot spaceship which is sent back to Andromeda. Then they allow the Enterprise to find them a nice little Earth-like planet in this galaxy to colonize.

  A strangely powerful shape-shifting creature called Isis has a small but important role in the episode entitled “Assignment: Earth.” Isis appears as a sleek black cat wearing a diamond necklace, and very briefly as a beautiful dark-haired woman wearing the same necklace. The creature’s original form and origin is unknown.

  In “Assignment: Earth,” the Enterprise travels not through space, but through time. The ship is sent back to Earth during the twentieth century, a time just a few years beyond our own. The Earth is threatened by a war that could mean the end of the world.

  The Enterprise runs into another space traveler. It is a man who calls himself Gary Seven. He claims to be an Earthman born on a distant planet among highly advanced aliens. Who they are and where, he will not say. Gary insists he has been sent back to Earth as the representative of these aliens. His duty is to help stop Earth from destroying itself. It is all very mysterious. He is accompanied and aided by the even more mysterious cat-woman Isis, who is perhaps one of these aliens.

  Gary Seven’s plan is to explode a very large bomb high in the Earth’s atmosphere. The bomb will not be close enough to do any real damage. But it will be close enough to give everyone a bad scare. The scare, he hopes, will shock people into more peaceful activities.

  Kirk and Spock do not understand what is going on. They nearly upset the whole plan and cause a major war. Finally, Gary Seven convinces them that he is doing the right thing. In the end, the men of the Enterprise return to their own time. But they are still not sure about the origins of Gary Seven, or of the cat-woman Isis.

  Chapter 3

  The Mind Benders

  In their journey through the universe, the men and women of the Enterprise have faced many dangers. They have been threatened with everything from primitive spears to weapons which dematerialized their victims. But some of the greatest threats they have faced are not physical—they are mental. In the “Star Trek” universe there are beings that work on the mind. These beings have enormous powers to create illusions. The worlds of illusion they create can be more terrifying and dangerous to the crew of the Enterprise than any “real” world.

  Powers of illusion are the property of more than one alien race. And they are used for different purposes.

  In the episode entitled “Cat’s-paw,” there are two aliens called Sylvia and Korob. In reality they are tiny blue-gray creatures looking a bit like newly hatched vultures. They probably come from somewhere beyond our galaxy. The pair have been sent by their masters, called the Old Ones, to the planet Pyris VII. It is their mission to prepare the plant for possible future colonization.

  Sylvia and Korob

  None of this is known to the crew of the Enterprise, which is making a routine investigation of Pyris VII. Sylvia and Korob do not wish their identity or mission to be discovered. They want to scare away the Enterprise. But they are aliens, and do not know what frightens humans. So they look into the minds of the crew. They find images of witches’ and wizards’ black magic and lonely fog-shrouded castles. With the powers of illusion they create just such a world on Pyris VII.

  One member of the landing party, crewman Jackson, is killed by Sylvia. His corpse is sent back to the Enterprise to warn it away. Scott and Sulu are captured and turned into living zombies. When Kirk, Spock, and McCoy investigate, they are met by three witches who try to frighten them into leaving. When all this fails, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are captured and taken to the witches’ castle.

  And a proper witches’ castle it looks, too. It is gloomy and dark. A black cat roams the corridors and skeletons are hidden in corners. Korob appears as a wizard or warlock. He has a shaved head and black beard; he wears a robe and always carries a wand. Sylvia appears as a beautiful dark-haired woman, obviously a witch. She wears a large jewel around her neck. Sylvia also appears in the form of a black cat. The cat, too, wears the jewel.

  Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are given various demonstrations of the magical pair’s powers. In one, the Enterprise, still orbiting high above Pyris VII, is nearly burned up in a voodoo-like ceremony. In spite of all these evil-looking acts, Sylvia and Korob are not really evil. They just want to be let alone to carry out the orders of the Old Ones; they do not want anything for themselves, at first.

  Then something happens. Like females of diverse species, from one end of the universe to the other, Sylvia becomes attracted to Captain Kirk. She also begins to develop a real personal lust for power, and becomes genuinely cruel. What was first an illusion of evil becomes real evil.

  Korob sees what has happened. He tries to stop her. But she is the more powerful of the two. She takes the form of a giant black cat and crushes him. By now Kirk and Spock have correctly guessed that the real sources of the pair’s power are in the wizard’s wand and the witch’s jewel. Kirk grabs Korob’s wand and uses it to destroy Sylvia’s jewel.

  Instantly, the castle and all the other illusions of terror vanish. Sylvia and Korob are seen for the first time in their true shapes. They look tiny and helpless—without the source of their power, they are, and they quickly perish.

  Another race with great powers of illusion is the Melkots. The Melkots don’t want to colonize new planets. They just want to be left alone. The Melkots may once have been space travelers. But long ago they retreated to their own planet. Around the planet are space buoys. They carry a warning that no trespassing will be allowed.

  But the Enterprise has a job to do. It has been ordered by the Federation to make contact with the Melkots. So Kirk ignores the warning. Along with Spock, McCoy, and Chekov, he beams down to the Melkotian planet.

  The planet is not much to look at. It is a foggy place. No details of the landscape can be seen. A Melkot appears out of the fog. It is not much to look at, either. All the party from the Enterprise can see is a squarish head and glowing white eyes. There is also a hint of tiny nostrils, but no mouth or chin.

  The Melkot

  The Melkot announces that since the warning was ignored, the men of the Enterprise will be punished. The humans find that their weapons do not work. The party cannot beam back to the Enterprise, or even make contact to warn of their danger. The four men are at the mercy of the Melkots.

  The punishment is not to be a strange or alien one. It is to be a punishment right out of the Earthmen’s own heritage. The Melkots have reached into the Earthmen’s minds and plucked out a famous bit of Western history—the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. They use their powers of illusion to create the scene at Tombstone, Arizona, on October 26, 1881. It is not a complete scene. Some of the buildings seem flat. There is fog everywhere. But for the men of the Enterprise it is real enough, and deadly.

  In the real gunfight at the O.K. Corral, the Earp brothers and Doc Holiday had a shootout with the Clanton gang. Most of the Clantons were killed in the f
ight. In most versions of the story, the Earps and Holiday are the heroes. The Clantons are supposed to have gotten what they deserved. But the Melkots have trapped the men of the Enterprise in the Clanton role, and they are the ones who are supposed to die.

  The Enterprise party keep trying to break out of the role. But they don’t seem able to. The Melkots’ powers are too great. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Chekov are pushed along toward the hour of 5 P.M. That was the hour at which the gunfight took place, and the Clantons were killed. There seems to be no way to change history.

  Then the Melkots make a mistake. Chekov, who is given the character of Billy Claiborne, one of Clanton gang, is killed by Morgan Earp. This doesn’t fit in with the real fight. Billy Claiborne was supposed to have survived the gunfight.

  Ensign Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig)

  The logical Spock now knows everything that is happening is an illusion; they cannot really be hurt. The Melkots are controlling their minds. Since the script was changed once, it can be changed again. Using his superior mental powers, Spock convinces the others. Not only won’t they be killed at the O.K. Corral, they don’t even have to fight.

  A fog-shrouded model of the O.K. Corral is the final scene. The Earps and Holiday advance toward the men of the Enterprise with drawn guns. But the men of the Enterprise refuse to play the game. They do not draw their guns and fire.

  It is the best thing they could do. The Melkots suddenly realize that the men of the Enterprise are basically peaceful. They return them, including Chekov, whose death was only another illusion, to the ship. The Melkots also agree to establish contact with the Federation.

  Another being with great powers of illusion is Yarnek, the rock creature. Yarnek appears in the episode entitled “The Savage Curtain.” This episode begins, as so many do, with the Enterprise conducting a survey of an unknown planet. Instruments on the starship pick up many strange and puzzling conditions on the surface of the planet.

  Then an absolutely amazing thing happens. Abraham Lincoln appears outside the Enterprise and asks permission to enter. Of course, it isn’t really Abraham Lincoln, but an image of Lincoln. Still, Captain Kirk has him brought aboard with all the ceremony due a President. Kirk has always been a great admirer of Lincoln.

  Soon Spock is confronted with a hero from Vulcan’s past. He is Surak, the father of Vulcan logical thought. Surak is considered to be one of the great Vulcans of history. As Kirk was moved by the image of Lincoln, so Spock is moved by the image of Surak.

  Both Lincoln and Surak are illusions created by Yarnek. Spock and Kirk soon meet Yarnek. He is a rock creature. He looks like a large rock, except for his “arms,” which end in claws. Yarnek’s face glows when he speaks. He has tremendous power, particularly the power to create illusions.

  Yarnek

  Yarnek is not a bad creature, but he is a curious one. He does not really understand good and evil, and wants to know which is stronger. In order to find out, he has arranged a fight between good and evil. The good is represented by Kirk and Spock, and the images of Lincoln and Surak. To represent evil, Yarnek has created the images of Genghis Khan, Colonel Green, Kahless, and Zora—all brutal and evil leaders of the past.

  The fight is to be very real. Both Kirk and Spock could be killed by the images, and Yarnek will not let them escape from his planet. Still, Kirk and Spock refuse to fight. So Yarnek informs them if they do not fight, and win, the entire Enterprise will blow up within four hours.

  The fight begins. The images of Lincoln and Surak are both “killed.” But in the end, the good, represented by Kirk and Spock, wins. Yarnek is impressed. After discussing the problem of good and evil with them, he returns the pair unharmed to the Enterprise. The ship is then allowed to go its way. The rock creature’s curiosity has been satisfied.

  Creatures with great powers of illusion are also central to “The Menagerie,” the only two-part episode ever presented by “Star Trek.” The mind-bending creatures in “The Menagerie” are the Talosians. They are humanoid in appearance, but small and shrunken, with huge heads. The Talosians have relied on their powers of illusion for so long that their bodies have been weakened from lack of use.

  While the Talosians are not evil, they are considered extremely dangerous by the Federation. The Federation fears that humans will learn the Talosians’ mental techniques. These techniques in the wrong hands could be disastrous. The planet Talos IV was placed off limits. Anyone who violates the order could be punished by death.

  Talosians

  Therefore, Kirk is shocked when Spock tampers with the Enterprise controls and sends the starship in the direction of the forbidden Talos IV. Slowly, Spock’s reasons are revealed. Aboard the Enterprise is Captain Christopher Pike. He was the first commander of the Enterprise, and Spock had served under him. At one time in the past, Pike had been a prisoner on Talos IV, but he was released. While on Talos he met a beautiful human girl named Vina. Later Pike was horribly scarred and crippled in an accident. Nothing could be done for him. Spock was trying to return his old friend and commander to Talos IV. There, with the help of the Talosians, he would be able to live out a life of illusion. In the illusion he would be strong and handsome, as he once had been.

  The girl Vina was not really young and beautiful at all. She was the survivor of a spaceship crash. She had been badly injured. She was put back together again by doctors who didn’t know much about human anatomy. The Talosians, who were really extremely kind, allowed her to live a life of illusion in which she was healthy and beautiful.

  When all this is revealed, Star Fleet Command allows the Enterprise to return Pike to Talos IV, and to the Talosian world of illusion.

  Chapter 4

  Ancient Races

  No one knows the age of the universe. No one knows how many different life forms exist within the universe. What the viewers of “Star Trek” do know is that the human race is a fairly recent development. The Enterprise encountered races far older, and far more powerful than our own.

  Some of these races survived very well. Others died out ages ago. Their existence is known only through some of the things they left behind. Then there is a third category, survivors of ancient races that should have died out long ago. Somehow, these survivors have managed to hang on to life, or a half-life.

  All physical life on the planet Zetar was totally destroyed at some dim age in the past. Yet a hundred Zetars had such strong minds and desires that they refused to die. In some unexplained way they came together into a light form. This form can be seen as a storm of brilliantly flashing colored lights. Even Spock is puzzled. By his calculations, such a life form is impossible—yet it exists.

  The Zetars are completely alien, completely without what we call morality. They sweep through Memory Alpha, a library planetoid. Not only do the lights kill every living thing on the planetoid, but they burn out a central computer system. Thus, a great deal of valuable knowledge is lost forever. The lights of Zetar do not care. They are interested only in surviving. It is not known if all the original inhabitants of Zetar were so ruthless. Perhaps only an unusually ruthless hundred survived. Perhaps their centuries of existence without bodies have made them insane.

  It is a body that the lights are looking for, but not any body will do. It has to have a particular personality structure in order to adapt well to being taken over by the Zetars. In Lieutenant Mira Romaine, the Zetars find just the body and personality they have been searching for.

  Mira Romaine is on her first space voyage. It is her assignment to transfer some new equipment to Memory Alpha. She is aboard the Enterprise when a “storm” caused by the lights strikes. Later the lights attack the Enterprise itself and lodge themselves in the body of Romaine. There is no way to get them out without killing her. The Zetars have complete control over her body. They cause her to nearly kill Scotty, who has fallen deeply in love with her.

  Though the Zetars are enormously powerful, they do have one weakness. Over the centuries they have become adapted to the vac
uum of outer space. They are tricked when the body of Lieutenant Romaine is placed in a pressure chamber. They are unable to handle increasing atmospheric pressure and are destroyed. But the pressure never becomes so great that Lieutenant Romaine herself is harmed. The trick frees her of her unwelcome and uninvited guests.

  While a hundred may have survived the catastrophe that destroyed Zetar, there were only three survivors of the catastrophe that destroyed the planet Arret.

  The inhabitants of Arret brought disaster on themselves. They had a highly advanced civilization, so advanced that they thought they could do anything. They thought they were like gods. Then everything blew up. Half the planet’s atmosphere was ripped away. It was rendered unfit for any kind of life—forever. Before the disaster was complete, three members of the doomed civilization managed to save themselves, or at least part of themselves.

  The three had their minds stored in containers deep below the planet’s surface. There is nothing material left of them. They are seen only as glowing lights in large globes. They can really do nothing without bodies. All they can do is wait.

  The wait is half a million years. Then the Enterprise comes upon the dead planet. A landing party finds the underground chamber with its strange and alien contents.

  The three survivors of Arret want a favor. They need bodies. Unlike the Zetars, they do not seem to want anyone else’s body, not permanently. They wish to build androids, life-like machines, which will contain their intelligences. In order to build the androids, they need the temporary loan of human or near-human bodies. The plan sounds reasonable. After all, half a million years is a long time to wait for anything. So Kirk agrees.