Many are familiar with
The Captains' Table, an anthology featuring many of the captains of the
Star Trek universe, including but not limited to James Kirk, Jean-Luc Picard, Benjamin Sisko, Kathryn Janeway, Christopher Pike, Hikaru Sulu, Will Riker, and others. Yet, Spock is conspicuous by his absence, as the one-time captain of the
Enterprise has no story of his own, either in the introductory novel of the series, or it's sequel, which featured many less-celebrated commanding officers of
Star Trek lore.
Most people think of Spock as Kirk's right-hand, a position in which he spent a significant portion of his career. Yet, he held the rank of captain for at least eight years (2285-2293) before the
Enterprise was decommissioned, and was its commanding officer when the ship was assigned to Starfleet Academy. It's surprising that that no story revolving around his character was included, as there are still so many things about his character that we don't know.
Much as Christopher is, I'm fascinated by the period of time immediately following
The Motion Picture, as there are only a limited number of novels devoted to this era of the
Enterprise crew. Perhaps a novel could be written in which Kirk is absent from the
Enterprise- perhaps enjoying a well-deserved vacation on Risa- leaving Spock to carry on without him, a scenario that always seems to be bring out the best- and the worst- in the rest of the
Enterprise crew- McCoy, in particular. Throw in the crew's becoming accustomed to the ship's revamped systems, the abrupt change in command from Decker to Kirk, and the numerous non-human species serving aboard the vessel, and the potential for a strong story is there.