Enterprise Without Kirk

Frustrated by the way my local station (and my satellite provider) have conspired to screw up the "new" Star Trek for me, I've turned to a couple of Star Trek novels to fill the need. I don't have many since the Great Purge, but I'll re-read one every now and again and post a review. Here's the first.

Vulcan's Glory; D.C. Fontana (Pocket Books, ISBN 0-671-65667-8).

Until recently, this was (as far as I know) the only book in the Star Trek novel genre that dealt with the earlier adventures of the good ship Enterprise, when it was commanded by Christopher Pike. We saw Pike on the screen in the episode The Cage. That episode never really flew with the network executives, so we never saw Pike and the enigmatic Number One again (at least not in that form). I was always sorry that happened.

D.C. Fontana apparently felt the same way. Instead of writing another book about the familiar trio (Kirk, Spock, McCoy), she wrote a book about an earlier group. Spock is there, but on his first mission on the Enterprise. Scotty is there, just starting out in engineering. Commanding the bridge is Christopher Pike, his executive is Number One, the "perfect woman". We get some background on Spock (which ties into episodes from the original series and the animated series; as well as some good stuff original to the book), have a couple of adventures, and tie it all up neatly.

Fontana tosses in elements as diverse as Romeo and Juliet and The Maltese Falcon. My only regret is that she never did another one. There is a new(ish) book out that deals with Pike, but it is by a Star Trek author that I never much cared for. Given the Great Purge, I'm not going to buy a book by that author.