Why No "Captains' Table" Story For Spock?

[Admiral_Sisko]

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.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

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.

Strangely enough, my first pitch to Marco for Constellations was a Spock Captain's Table story. There was a reason why it was that. In other words, if it weren't for the Captain's Table, this story couldn't happen. (In the other CT stories, the CT is basically a frame device for an unrelated story.) It was something that couldn't happen anywhere but there.

 

[JD]

I never really thought about it before, but it is rather surprising that Spock didn't get a story in any of the Captains' Table stuff.

 

[Admiral_Sisko]

I never really thought about it before, but it is rather surprising that Spock didn't get a story in any of the Captains' Table stuff.

Isn't it? Especially since stories from other, lesser-known captains were included. The second book was said to be the end of the series, and no new CT books are in the works, but it would be nice to see Spock eventually have a story featuring him in a command situation, akin to his roles in The Galileo Seven, The Paradise Syndrome, and The Tholian Web. And, as it's tradition for each new captain to be guided to the CT universe by a friend or former commanding officer, it's entirely plausible that Spock could have been invited by either Kirk or Pike, as he served with both for so many years.

 

[shanejayell]

The only problem I would have with a Captain's Table from Spock would be it has to be told from HIS POV. And there are a few writers who, in my opinion, just do not GET Spock. So it could be good or awful....

 

[Turtletrekker]

IIRC, the reason for it was that there was already a Captain Spock tale in the Enterprise Logs anthology.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

The same could be said of Scotty as well. He was a Captain from 2285 until he retired in 2294.

 

[F. King Daniel]

As interesting as a first-person Spock story would be, if there's gonna be a first-person Spock story, I'd much rather it be his memoirs (as mentioned in New Frontier, along with James Kirk's) than a story told in a bar (something I really cannot see Spock doing)

 

[JoeZhang]

The same could be said of Scotty as well. He was a Captain from 2285 until he retired in 2294.

That's a rank - my understanding of the Captain's table is that you had to be the Captain of a vessel and I don't think Scotty was.

 

[F. King Daniel]

He did command the Challenger at the beginning of Indistinguishable From Magic. He could tell a pre-IFM story.

 

[Mage]

He did command the Challenger at the beginning of Indistinguishable From Magic. He could tell a pre-IFM story.

That could be an interesting setup for a short story. Scott ended up at the Table after Challenger went kaboom, orders something green, and starts talking.

 

[zarkon]

I don't really get the feeling that either spock or scotty were that enamoured with being captain though

Always seemed more like having to move from their previous positions which they loved, and more of a stop off before their future positions which they likewise had a passion for.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^Yeah, Scotty even said as much in Relics, IIRC. Something along the lines of 'All I ever wanted to be was chief engineer on a starship.'

 

[Admiral_Sisko]

As interesting as a first-person Spock story would be, if there's gonna be a first-person Spock story, I'd much rather it be his memoirs (as mentioned in New Frontier, along with James Kirk's) than a story told in a bar (something I really cannot see Spock doing)

I don't think it's too far-fetched for Spock to tell stories in a bar setting, as we've seen him do many other things (singing around a campfire) that initially seemed surprising. I could see him reluctantly accompanying Kirk to the bar, but upon seeing so many familiar faces (Pike, Picard, etc.), he might be more inclined to stick around and tell stories of his own.

 

[DS9forever]

The DS9 novel from that series is pretty bad; a Spock novel could have taken its place. The Mist doesn't even begin well, Sisko gives the patrons of the bar a background to Deep Space 9 and says that he and his crew "are the guardians of the wormhole between the Alpha and Delta Quadrants". I guess nobody told Janeway.

 

[Admiral_Sisko]

The DS9 novel from that series is pretty bad; a Spock novel could have taken its place. The Mist doesn't even begin well, Sisko gives the patrons of the bar a background to Deep Space 9 and says that he and his crew "are the guardians of the wormhole between the Alpha and Delta Quadrants". I guess nobody told Janeway.

That's bad, both for the fact that the mistake wasn't caught during the final editing of the story, and also for it's introduction into the text in the first place.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I'd much rather see a CT story involving Shran.

And also I'd like to see if this place can cross the boundaries of universes or timelines. Could there be a Mirror Universe story set there? (Can characters from both universes interact there - i.e. is there only one Captain's Table throughout all of the multiverse?) Or how about Abramsverse? Could we see nuKirk, nuSpock, nuPike, etc. in the CT?

 

[Christopher]

IIRC, the reason for it was that there was already a Captain Spock tale in the Enterprise Logs anthology.

I believe that's right. The original six novels (later collected in a single fat omnibus volume) covered the five then-extant series -- TOS, TNG, DS9, VGR, and New Frontier -- plus Pike to round it out, so no Captain Spock since he was part of TOS. And Enterprise Logs gave us stories about additional captains including April, Decker, Spock, Harriman, and Garrett (as well as Pike, Kirk, and Picard, and two captains of real Enterprises from history). So the goal of the Tales from the Captain's Table anthology was to focus on the captains who hadn't been featured in those previous works. Picard was the only exception, but it was Stargazer-era Picard (or just after), so it was still something new.

And also I'd like to see if this place can cross the boundaries of universes or timelines.

Well, Jerry Oltion's Where Sea Meets Sky posited that it could even cross over with fictional realms, because Captain Nemo was one of the patrons there (though it was an odd hybrid of Verne's and Disney's versions of Nemo).

 

[JD]

I wonder if we would have gotten enough new Captains since TftCT for a new anthology or miniseries?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I dearly hope that any future Captain's Table novel won't treat it like ST:Online does - where it's on a space station in a nebula. Make it mystical again... (although I wouldn't mind an origin tale of the CT itself)