Star Trek — Season 2

Spock is becoming increasing irrational, even threatening to break McCoy's neck! He can't or won't explain this behavior to Kirk, only asking to return to Vulcan. It's a request Kirk cannot grant, given the Enterprise's other business. Until McCoy tells him if Spock continues to deteriorate, he will die in days! Kirk makes the decision to take his friend back to his home world, where he learns that Spock's problem has to do with marriage...

Enterprise nears the planet Pollux IV, when an immense humanoid hand appears and seizes the ship! It is not actually living tissue, but a complex field of energy. And it belongs to a being who claims that he and his kind visited Earth long ago, and were then revered as gods - in this particular case, the Greek god Apollo. His request is a simple one: the crew of the Enterprise will depart the ship and establish a colony of worshippers. Of course, Kirk has no intention of doing this; he must make "Apollo" understand that humans have moved past him.

A space probe of immense power and sophisticated technology has apparently annihilated the entire Malurian civilization, and now threatens Enterprise. But when Kirk hails it, the attacks cease and it allows itself to come aboard. Soon enough, the reason for its forebearance is revealed: it mistakening believes Kirk is its creator, Jackson Roykirk. This probe is Nomad, launched from Earth long ago. But its technology is far beyond what was understood then; beyond even what the modern Federation is capable of. What happened to Nomad, and why does it destroy whole civilizations?

The Halkans are a people deeply committed to peace. Kirk is trying to negotiate with them for dilithium, the rare mineral that's needed for warp power systems. But if there is even a chance their crystals will be used for violence, they cannot agree. Kirk beams back to his ship as a magnetic storm approaches - but the ship where he materializes is vastly different, run by savage opportunists, sadists, and killers. This ship, part of an Empire, will wipe the Halkans from their world and seize their crystals. Kirk must find a way to prevent that, and to return himself and his landing party home.

Gamma Trianguli VI is a peaceful planet with abundant plant life. It seems a paradise, but the landing party soon feels the thorns: poisonous plants, killer storms, and explosive rocks all claim lives. Eventually, they discover a small community of primitive people who serve the mysterious Vaal, an immense statue, chiefly by feeding it when it demands this. These people live immensely long lives, and do not age or procreate unless there is an accident. Theirs is a stagnant society, and into the bargain Vaal apparently has the means to attack the Enterprise...

Enterprise discovers the wreck of Constellation, a sister ship. The only survivor is Matt Decker, the Captain. He reports beaming his crew down to the fourth planet - except that there is no fourth planet! He investigated an odd occurrence: a planet apparently disintegrating, and discovered an immense space vessel cutting the planet apart with an antiproton beam, and digesting the pieces! This machine came from outside the galaxy, a relic of a devastating war fought long ago and far away. It will carve a path of destroyed solar systems through the most populous part of the Milky Way unless Kirk and his crew can stop it.

Sulu, Scotty and Jackson explore Pyrus VII, and then Jackson calls the ship, "one to beam up". He materializes dead, and a sepulchral voice threatens Kirk, saying his ship is cursed! Beaming down, Kirk discovers his men enslaved by strange aliens, who have created a Gothic castle and other artifacts straight from Halloween. But their power and threat are real - they are from a place so alien, that the sensations of this universe are intoxicating. If not stopped, they pose a grave threat to the Federation.

Mr. Norman is a new crewmember whom McCoy finds off-putting. He acts like a Vulcan, which is odd in a human. There's a good reason: Mr. Norman is not human. He is one of a collection of androids sent to hijack Enterprise by Kirk's old adversary, Harcourt Fenton Mudd! Mudd has plans for the starship, grand plans. And so do the androids.

Enterprise sends a shuttlecraft to retrieve Federation Commissioner Nancy Hedford, who suffers from Sakuro's Disease, so that she may be treated. The craft is pulled off course and lands on a small planetoid, where the crew discover the systems will not work. They also discover a man, apparently living alone there - or, is he? He seems to from time to time commune with an energy cloud, the alien being responsible for forcing the shuttlecraft down. It means for the crew to serve as companions for the man - forever.

A large diplomatic conference will take place on Babel, to discuss the contentious issue of whether to admit Corridan to the Federation. Delegates are divided, and some of their motives are less than pure. Among these delegates is Sarek of Vulcan - Spock's estranged father. Add a mysterious challenging spacecraft and a murderer aboard the Enterprise, and Kirk has his hands full. Then Kirk himself is stabbed, leaving him seriously injured at the very moment when Spock is due to donate blood so that McCoy can operate on Vulcan ambassador Sarek's damaged heart. The key to solving this puzzle will require deducing which of the many factions is willing to go to violent lengths to sabotage this conference.

The Federation sends Kirk to negotiate for mining rights with Aka'ar, Te'er of the Ten Tribes of Capella IV. Capella IV has deposits of the rare mineral topaline, needed for life support systems. The Klingons need this mineral, too, and their presence creates tension further complicated by conflict among the members of the tribe. Ma'ab murders Aka'ar and becomes the new Te'er, and he has a decidedly different attitude that favors the Klingonm perspective. Worse, Kirk and McCoy will not stand by while he murders Ele'en, the pregnant wife of the old Te'er, despite this being Capellan tradition. Soon enough, the Federation party is running for the hills - literally - with Capellans and a Klingon in pursuit.

Enterprise discovers the scientists on Gamma Hydra IV are all either dead or dying of old age, despite the fact that the oldest was around thirty! Matters get worse when the landing party begins to show signs of aging, all except for Chekov, who is mysteriously unaffected. Eventually, Kirk must be relieved of command, and as Spock and Scotty are both affected, Commodore Stocker assumes command. But Stocker has been a desk officer his entire career; he has no field experience, which leads him to make a desperate, wrong decision...

On an obscure planet, Kirk smells something that reminds him of the past. And then two crewman die, their ghastly pallor betraying the fact that every red blood cell in their bodies has been destroyed, the hemoglobin neatly removed. A long time ago, very far from here, Kirk was a young Lieutenant about the Farragut when that ship encountered the cause: a mysterious, gaseous cloud that feeds on blood. Now, Kirk is obsessed with destroying the monster that killed his then mentor, the Farragut's captain Garrovik. Perhaps to an unhealthy degree. Or, given what Spock discovers, perhaps not.

Kirk takes Scotty to Argelius, a planet renowed for hospitality. Scotty is still recovering from serious injuries accounted to a female member of the crew, so McCoy is concerned he might harbor subconscious resentment toward women. But apparently not; he takes a young woman for a walk through the fog. Kirk and McCoy leave later, and en route to another tavern, hear a high scream. They arrive to find Scotty, bloody knife in hand, standing over the body of the young woman, who has been stabbed dozens of times! They're certain Scotty is innocent despite the evidence, but proving that will require them to discover the actual murderer - and reveal a horrifying truth from history!

Under the terms of the Organian Peace Treaty, Sherman's Planet will become a colony of whoever can best develop it. To that end, the Federation intends to ship a large quantity of quadrotriticale to that planet, and Federation Undersecretary Nilz Baris is determined that the grain will arrive, so he orders the manager of Space Station K-9 to issue a distress call! Enterprise responds to discover no emergency; Baris just wants guards for his grain. And then a Klingon ship arrives, seeking shore leave. And Cyrano Jones, an itinerant trader, also arrives, with some odd animals he calls tribbles. Some very hungry, odd animals...

Kirk, Uhura and Chekov are set to beam down to examine and maintain a communications relay station, when they vanish from the transporter room in a way inconsistent with normal transport! They have been whisked across planetary systems by the mysterious Providers, who gather "inferior" beings from all over the galaxy and pit them against each other in blood contests. This activity is the only thing that stimulates the Providers. As the three begin their involuntary training, Enterprise begins following the scant evidence their abductors left behind, trying to locate them.

The Horizon visited the planet Iotia a hundred years ago, long before the Prime Directive forbid interference in pre-warp alien cultures. Beaming down to investigate the damage, Kirk, Spock and McCoy discover a culture run by mobsters! It seems that Horizon left behind a book, "Chicago Mobs of the Twenties", and the highly imitative people of Iotia patterned their society after the groups described in its pages. How can Enterprise undo the grievous harm Horizon did to this civilization?

Spock senses the crew of Intrepid, a starship crewed solely by Vulcans, die. Enterprise investigates, and discovers a zone of darkness which conceals the hazard: an immense yet single-celled organism which drains energy from anything it encounters, as it did the Intrepid and her crew. And unless they can discover how to destroy it, Enterprise will be next. Worse, there are signs the organism has accumulated sufficient energy to reproduce...

Kirk returns to a planet he surveyed years ago as a younger officer. There he discovers that the villagers and the hill people are now fighting, because the villagers have developed crude firearms and the idea that they should simply take anything they want from the hill people. Worse, Spock is the victim of a gunshot! Kirk and McCoy return to the surface to investigate more completely, but Enterprise must leave to avoid detection - and then a mugato bites Kirk! He must make contact with the hill people, who number among them a kind of witch doctor called a kanutu, who may be able to help. But that help comes with a price...

Enterprise responds to odd readings, which lead the crew to a planet similar to Earth, except that it is much older, and a cataclysm stripped its atmosphere away a half million years ago; it has been dead ever since. But from somewhere on that world comes a voice. Something has evidently endured 500,000 years - the last survivors of the civilization that flourished here. And all they want are the bodies of a few humans...

Historian and sociologist John Gill has stopped responding to transmissions. He is embedded in the Ekosian population to study it. Investigating, Kirk and Spock discover that Ekos has developed nuclear weapons - an achievement well ahead of where they should be scientifically, based on past probes. And they have modeled their society on Nazi Germany, right down to oppression of their sister planet, Zeon. It seems apparent Gill has contaminated this society, but why? And why Nazi Germany?

Kelvans from the Andromeda galaxy have discovered that rising radiation levels will make their galaxy uninhabitable within ten millenia. So they have dispatched generation ships of soldiers to nearby galaxies to see which of them they might conquer. Enterprise encounters such a group when her crew answers a distress call. With the Kelvans' superior technology, they may well be able to conquer the entire Milky Way galaxy!

Enterprise discovers her sister ship, Exeter in orbit around a planet, unresponsive. Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam aboard and discover only empty uniforms mixed with a handful of crystals. Then they find a log - the ship is infected with a deadly plague! Their only chance is to beam down to the planet's surface immediately. There, they discover heartbreaking evidence that Exeter's captain Ronald Tracy has violated the prime directive, up to and including mass murder. But he has what he believes is a good reason - and it depends on McCoy's research into a long ago bacteriological war.

Enterprise is chosen as the testbed for the revolutionary M-5 computer. The machine's inventor, Richard Daystrom, claims it can take control of a starship, freeing men for less dangerous and more rewarding work. It all depends on whether his breakthrough technology, multitronics, is as powerful and capable as he says. After a few exercises, Spock begins to wonder exactly how multitronics works - for the M-5 does not react as computers typically do.

The Enterprise follows the wreckage of the S.S. Beagle to a planet where they discover an Earth-like civilization, except that Rome never fell, and rules a world much like twentieth century America. Intercepted radio transmissions suggest deeper mysteries, so Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down to investigate, and then find themselves caught between the Roman government and a group of "sun worshippers". Proconsul Claudius wants Kirk to beam down his entire crew; the Proconsul is determined that no one will leave this world!

The Enterprise has used the "light speed breakaway" technique to travel to Earth in the year 1968, to study how humans survived the desperate problems of that era. Then, they intercept a man beaming back to Earth from at least a thousand light years away, a technical feat beyond even Federation science! Who is Gary Seven, how did he get access to such advanced technology, and why has he come to Earth? He has a story, but Kirk has trouble believing it. Worse, he has trouble knowing whether he should allow Seven to pursue his agenda, or try to stop him. One of those choices is certain to destroy the future... but which?