Ishmael (Hambly novel)

Plot

Spock is sent back in time to the setting of the television series Here Come the Brides, which is set in 1860s Seattle and loosely based on Asa Mercer's project to bring women from the East Coast. In the show, Jason Bolt wagers his logging company that he can bring one hundred marriageable women to Seattle and have them all wed or engaged within a year. Much of the conflict comes from Aaron Stemple trying to ruin the bet and seize the Bolt family's property. Spock learns that Klingons plan to kill Stemple before he can prevent an alien invasion of Earth in the 1800s, an act that would destroy the Federation. Suffering from amnesia for most of the story, Spock is taken in by Stemple, who pretends he is his nephew Ishmael and conceals his extraterrestrial nature. Spock also recognizes one of the women as a likely maternal ancestor.

Spock's family name

Kirk pulls up his first officer's personnel file near the end of the novel. It lists Amanda Grayson's middle name as Stemple and her birthplace as Seattle, Washington, hinting that Spock's mother descends from Aaron Stemple. Because Spock is with Stemple, Stemple falls for Biddy, the least attractive of the girls, and proposes marriage just before Klingons arrive to kill him. The same file gives Spock's full name as S'chn T'gai Spock and his father as S'chn T'gai Sarek. On screen, Spock's family name was never shown, only called unpronounceable by humans. Like the first names for Sulu and Uhura introduced in other Pocket Books Star Trek novels from this era, Spock's complete name became official when promotional materials for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds came out in 2022.

Cameos, References, and Meta

The novel is packed with cameos from Westerns and science fiction. In San Francisco, Spock plays chess with a black-clad gunfighter who matches the description of Paladin from Have Gun Will Travel, a series for which Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry wrote 24 episodes. Doctor Who appears at least four times: the Fourth Doctor is described on page 13, Metebelis crystals from The Green Death and Planet of the Spiders appear on page 57, the Second Doctor is mentioned on page 154, and Kirk recalls legends of a planet of stagnant time-travelers in the Kasteroborous galaxy on page 200. Page 13 includes Han Solo, described as a scruffy-looking spice smuggler, and Apollo and Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica, called a pair of brown-uniformed pilots from a down-at-the-heels migrant fleet. Pages 153-154 feature Little Joe and Hoss Cartwright from Bonanza, along with Bret or Bart Maverick from Maverick. Emperor Norton and his dogs also appear, as do Matt Dillon, Lucas McCain, the Rawhide Kid, and the Man With No Name.

Several actors from Here Come the Brides also appeared on Star Trek. Mark Lenard played Aaron Stemple, implied to be Spock’s ancestor; he also played Sarek, Spock’s father, in the original series and The Next Generation, a Romulan commander in Balance of Terror, and the Klingon Commander in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Robert Brown, who played Jason Bolt, portrayed Lazarus in the Star Trek episode The Alternative Factor. David Soul, who played Joshua Bolt, played Makora in the Star Trek episode The Apple.