Double, Double by Michael Jan Friedman (Star Trek #45, April, 1989).

The U.S.S. Hood picks up a distress signal from Exo III, the last known location of famed scientist Roger Korby. Investigating, as good StarFleet ships do, the Hood is informed that Korby has died, but there are amazing discoveries down on the planet. Could a landing party come down?

Meantime, the Enterprise and Captain Kirk are aiding a civilization on the planet T'Nufo, where a meteor swarm is headed. The ship's weapons can destroy some but not all of the meteors, so the population in the affected area must be evacuated. Kirk saves the life of a young man...which bonds the fellow to him for a one-year period. So, he has to come along for the ride, or he will commit ritual suicide since he has been rejected. At least one of the crewmen can speak his language a little.

But the planet Exo III is where an ancient civilization has left behind the means to craft android duplicates of humans, complete with their memories. And the last template left on the machine was...Captain Kirk. But this is a Kirk programmed with a mission to replace humans with androids, and also with an irrational hatred of Mr. Spock. And the android Kirk decides to take over the Enterprise, and from there the Federation itself.

Taking up where the original series episode "What Are Little Girls Made Of" left off, the first ST novel by Friedman sets off at a merry pace and builds suspense along the way. Friedman has written many, many more since, but this was his first outing. It's a pretty good effort. Friedman is a competent writer rather than a lyrical one, but he does a good job of building a feeling of impending doom. We know that Kirk will triumph, of course, but we do wonder how at times.

In the original first-season episode, Nurse Chapel was introduced. She was Dr. Korby's fiance, and when the ship gets a distress call from Korby, Chapel and Kirk beam down to meet him. They find a few scientists and a strange apparatus. Korby surprises Kirk by having him captured, and strapped into the machine, which creates an android duplicate of him. Kirk, seeing what was happening, impresses into his duplicate feelings of antipathy toward First Officer Spock, stressing the phrase "I'm sick of your half-breed interference, Mr. Spock!" It is this phrase that reveals the imposter, and gives Spock the information to destroy the android and not the original. The outpost is then destroyed and all the androids (for even Korby is an android) are believed destroyed. Chapel is now freed to vicariously love Mr. Spock, a continuing theme of the original series.

But Friedman postulates that one android was away from the site at the time, and escaped destruction. This android uses the machine to make a duplicate of the last android made, which was Kirk. This new Kirk takes charge, discovers the problem that exposed him before, and sets out to fulfill Dr. Korby's vision with his own twist: a fixation on the Enterprise. Well, after all, this is Kirk.

The book is plot-heavy, and long on suspense, but short on characterization. If you are not familiar with the characters, Friedman does not take long to introduce you, he simply barrels along. This is not a good first novel to read if you are not knowledgable about Star Trek in general and the original series in particular.

It is an enjoyable book. And it would have made a decent movie, if someone had decided to some time ago. But for now, all we can do is read.