Friday, December 25, 2020

Positively Trek Book Club: Spock Must Die!

Star Trek
Spock Must Die!
by James Blish

Purchase:


A transporter accident has presented Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise a surprising mystery: two Spocks! But which is the original, and which is the copy with murderous intent?

In this special festive episode of the Positively Trek Book Club, hosts Dan and Bruce discuss the early Bantam Star Trek novel Spock Must Die! by James Blish. We talk about the novel’s unique place in the history of Star Trek fiction, a philosophical debate about the transporter, Spock vs. Spock, the Klingon threat, and wrap up with our final thoughts and ratings.







Previous episode: Deep Space Nine: Too Long a Sacrifice
Next episode: Federation

2 comments:

  1. Good episode guys. I'm not a big fan of this novel, but your discussion was still very interesting. I particularly enjoyed your point comparing loss of consciousness during sleep to what happens to a person while transporting.


    FWIW, I prefer to think that a transported person is discorporated, all of their atoms are beamed to a new location, and then those original atoms are reincorporated. The alternate "clone/kill" theory is just too creepy, imo.


    P.S. The bit about people from alternate realities not being able to gain sustenance from food in a new reality is revisited in David Stern's Enterprise duology "Daedalus's Children." Those are pretty good books if you've never checked them out.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the feedback, glad you enjoyed the episode! That Enterprise duology are some of the very few Enterprise books I've never read, I'll have to check them out sometime.

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