Should they have killed Maltz after all?

[alpha_leonis]

One of the classic exchanges in ST3 after the main battle is over:

Maltz: "Wait! You said you would kill me!"
Kirk: "I lied. Take him below."

I wonder, should they have killed Maltz after all? All the other crew was dead by then (including the six who had died during the self-destruct boarding party -- Kruge himself was killed by Kirk directly. Only a few were killed by randomly exploding Genesis bits, plus the one poor guy who Kruge killed for shooting up Grissom too efficiently.)

But Maltz, apparently, not only survived uninjured but was apparently able to assist in beaming up Kirk and the shell of Spock (Kirk addressed Maltz by name even if he wasn't aware he was doing so.)

Granted, killing a prisoner after the fight is over goes against Federation principles (add a tenth violation to the list of StarFleet regulations.) But on the other hand, it might be seen as a token of respect for Maltz to meet his end the way he wanted -- killed by his enemy rather than being captured. The Ambassador at the beginning of ST4:TVH might have been proportionally less pissed off. (Or maybe not. He was already complaining about the murder of a Klingon crew. Their manner of death in battle-versus-otherwise didn't seem to matter much to him.)

Not to mention, whatever happened to Maltz anyway? They left Genesis and went directly to Vulcan -- landed at Mount Selaya -- and we saw everybody *except* Maltz leaving the ship to go witness (or participate in) what turned out to be the Fal-Tor-Pan. It's not a place where a rogue Klingon prisoner would really be welcome; and they couldn't have left him alone on the ship either (being the first officer he could easily have had access to the ship's security codes and escaped from wherever it was they were holding him.)

My best guess: as they were approaching Vulcan, they commed directly: "hey Sarek, we're here and we have Spock's living body, plus his Katra in McCoy's head. Plus we have a spare Klingon prisoner, what should we do with him?" Sarek then could have arranged for Maltz to be beamed off the ship into some kind of Federation- or Vulcan-sponsored holding cell until his status could be determined.

 

[Greg Cox]

And, many years later, Maltz ended up as a Librarian in Portland, Oregon.

(Which, okay, had to have involved some time travel.)

 

[Kilana2]

Maltz appears in John Vornholt's Genesis Wave novels. This is non-canon, though.

Spoiler: Genesis Wave

Let's just say, that his fate in this novels is more that of a Klingon after being prisoner of the Federation for quite some time

Kirk couldn't kill him and he wasn't provoked to do so. Why he didn't commit ritual suicide remains his secret.

 

[Melakon]

But on the other hand, it might be seen as a token of respect for Maltz to meet his end the way he wanted -- killed by his enemy rather than being captured.

The whole Klingon honorable death business didn't really start until TNG. Maltz was probably subjected to an intensive intelligence debriefing before being released to the Klingons. Then again, maybe he decided to defect since Kirk spared him.

John Larroquette joked, "I just kept telling Bill Shatner since I was the last surviving Klingon, I smell spin-off. I could take this to a series. Maltz starts off and he has a little hot dog stand on Yakka III out there in the Doofus Galaxy."

 

[FormerLurker]

One of the classic exchanges in ST3 after the main battle is over:

Maltz: "Wait! You said you would kill me!"
Kirk: "I lied. Take him below."

I wonder, should they have killed Maltz after all? All the other crew was dead by then (including the six who had died during the self-destruct boarding party -- Kruge himself was killed by Kirk directly. Only a few were killed by randomly exploding Genesis bits, plus the one poor guy who Kruge killed for shooting up Grissom too efficiently.)

But Maltz, apparently, not only survived uninjured but was apparently able to assist in beaming up Kirk and the shell of Spock (Kirk addressed Maltz by name even if he wasn't aware he was doing so.)

Granted, killing a prisoner after the fight is over goes against Federation principles (add a tenth violation to the list of StarFleet regulations.) But on the other hand, it might be seen as a token of respect for Maltz to meet his end the way he wanted -- killed by his enemy rather than being captured. The Ambassador at the beginning of ST4:TVH might have been proportionally less pissed off. (Or maybe not. He was already complaining about the murder of a Klingon crew. Their manner of death in battle-versus-otherwise didn't seem to matter much to him.)

Not to mention, whatever happened to Maltz anyway? They left Genesis and went directly to Vulcan -- landed at Mount Selaya -- and we saw everybody *except* Maltz leaving the ship to go witness (or participate in) what turned out to be the Fal-Tor-Pan. It's not a place where a rogue Klingon prisoner would really be welcome; and they couldn't have left him alone on the ship either (being the first officer he could easily have had access to the ship's security codes and escaped from wherever it was they were holding him.)

My best guess: as they were approaching Vulcan, they commed directly: "hey Sarek, we're here and we have Spock's living body, plus his Katra in McCoy's head. Plus we have a spare Klingon prisoner, what should we do with him?" Sarek then could have arranged for Maltz to be beamed off the ship into some kind of Federation- or Vulcan-sponsored holding cell until his status could be determined.

Maltz was at best the second officer. Torg was the first officer, which was why he was given the honor of leading the boarding party. Maltz was a glorified Klingon 'science officer.'

 

[cardinal biggles]

Maltz appears in John Vornholt's Genesis Wave novels. This is non-canon, though.

Spoiler: Genesis Wave

Let's just say, that his fate in this novels is more that of a Klingon after being prisoner of the Federation for quite some time

Kirk couldn't kill him and he wasn't provoked to do so. Why he didn't commit ritual suicide remains his secret.

In Vonda McIntyre's novelization of TVH -- where she expands on a lot of stuff in order to get a 300-page novel out of a two-hour movie -- it's stated that Maltz managed to transmit the Bird-of-Prey's computer logs (this is how the Klingon ambassador is showing Kirk's Genesis briefing and the video of the Enterprise self-destructing at the beginning of the film) and then committed suicide.

But I liked what Vornholt did with Maltz's character in his Genesis Wave novels, so hey, whatever works.

 

[Captain Clark Terrell]

Kirk couldn't kill him and he wasn't provoked to do so. Why he didn't commit ritual suicide remains his secret.

IIRC, the Klingon rule about suicide when taken prisoner applies to instances in which there are no more enemies to fight, or there's no hope of escape.

--Sran

 

[Grendelsbayne]

But on the other hand, it might be seen as a token of respect for Maltz to meet his end the way he wanted -- killed by his enemy rather than being captured. The Ambassador at the beginning of ST4:TVH might have been proportionally less pissed off. (Or maybe not. He was already complaining about the murder of a Klingon crew. Their manner of death in battle-versus-otherwise didn't seem to matter much to him.)

The Ambassador was playing politics by Federation rules. He harped on the murder of a Klingon crew because murder is a terrible crime in the eyes of the Federation - attempting to use the Federation's own principles against it in order to gain a political advantage and possibly tarnish the Federation's peaceful, law-abiding reputation with third party powers.

 

[MacLeod]

Unfortunatly for him the Council didn't find his arguments convincing, perhaps it had something to do with the Klingon's unprovoked attack on the USS Grissom, and killing Kirk's son.

 

[Kilana2]

Kirk couldn't kill him and he wasn't provoked to do so. Why he didn't commit ritual suicide remains his secret.

IIRC, the Klingon rule about suicide when taken prisoner applies to instances in which there are no more enemies to fight, or there's no hope of escape.

--Sran

So according the novels we have two solutions: TVH novelization mentioned above with Maltz commiting suicide. Which doen't match your explanation.

And the Genesis Wave story. Which is just fine for me, as I liked the story.

Malth would have face trial and execution had he returned to the Klingon home world.

 

[alpha_leonis]

In retrospect, it also seems like an interesting decision for Kruge to order Maltz to beam everybody else up besides Kirk and shell-of-Spock.

As the movie played out, that left Kirk and Kruge to fight one-on-one while Genesis exploded around them -- at a time when Spock was unconscious, but Kirk was highly motivated to save him. At the same time, the order allowed Maltz to become quickly outnumbered five-to-one on board his ship, therefore letting the Federation folks take over the BoP easily. (Couldn't they have locked on and beamed up Kirk and Spock very quickly after restraining Maltz? Leaving Kruge to die on Genesis?)

Or the other option: leave the five others on the surface, setting up a six-against-one fight against Kruge (how many phasers did they have between them?) -- but Maltz would have been free and clear on board the BoP and could have easily beamed Kruge up, and torpedoed the rest of them. Or just flown away and let them all get "Genisized".

Seems that Kruge was not exactly thinking like a cold, calculating warrior at the time, but was just aiming for irrational revenge against Kirk.

The only thing I can think of is that somehow Maltz had the upper hand in some unknown way until Kirk showed up on board with his own phaser. That would have justified Kirk's "speaking Klingon" ruse, impersonating Kruge to get himself beamed up. Still seems awfully backhanded to me.

 

[FormerLurker]

Maltz did have the upper hand. When Kirk shows up, phaser in hand, Maltz turns around with his own disruptor in hand, but with his arms crossed, and gets caught flat-footed. That's when Sulu disarms Maltz and the Feds take over the BOP.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Maltz appears in John Vornholt's Genesis Wave novels.

In the ST IV novelization, he is said to have suicided in his Vulcan cell between movies but, in Marc Okrand's "The Klingon Dictionary", Maltz helps Okrand to translate the language.

 

[FormerLurker]

Sounds like a bunch of "right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing" to me.

 

[eyeresist]

I think Kirk's mercy made Maltz see the error of his Klingon ways. Then he went with the gang to Vulcan and became a space hippy.

 

[Ithekro]

Why do I recall Maltz having been at Kirk's trail in TUC novel. Or was that one of the comics from around that time?

 

[eyeresist]

Why do I recall Maltz having been at Kirk's trail in TUC novel. Or was that one of the comics from around that time?

You mean trial? If it was Kirk's trail, that may have been in the Nexus.

 

[DaddlerTheDalek]

John Larroquette joked, "I just kept telling Bill Shatner since I was the last surviving Klingon, I smell spin-off. I could take this to a series. Maltz starts off and he has a little hot dog stand on Yakka III out there in the Doofus Galaxy."

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Kirk couldn't kill him and he wasn't provoked to do so. Why he didn't commit ritual suicide remains his secret.

Kirk probably ordered that the ship's brig be emptied of anything that Maltz could possibly use to kill himself.

I mean, Maltz would be a valuable ally, or intelligence asset at the very least, so Kirk couldn't afford to let that opportunity go.

 

[dub]

Every time I hear his name, I want some of these: