'I have had enough of your insubordination,' he said. 'I have decided to terminate it.'
Spock regarded him, but that was all. He made no effort to escape.
Have you got a fear or a dislike that makes you uneasy when you read it in a story? Something that can turn you off even from a well written book? For some people it might be violence, or for others it might be gratuitous sex. For me it's mistaken identity, specifically the idea of a double fooling those around him and doing things to tarnish the 'original's' reputation. Perhaps I'm paranoid, perhaps I'm scared that someone might impersonate me someday and nobody notice. Needless to say, this novel, Double Double (1989) (#45 Pocket, #22 Titan) by Michael Jan Friedman hits me right in the phobia.
Spock regarded him, but that was all. He made no effort to escape.
Have you got a fear or a dislike that makes you uneasy when you read it in a story? Something that can turn you off even from a well written book? For some people it might be violence, or for others it might be gratuitous sex. For me it's mistaken identity, specifically the idea of a double fooling those around him and doing things to tarnish the 'original's' reputation. Perhaps I'm paranoid, perhaps I'm scared that someone might impersonate me someday and nobody notice. Needless to say, this novel, Double Double (1989) (#45 Pocket, #22 Titan) by Michael Jan Friedman hits me right in the phobia.
Double Double took me a while to get through, because once I put it down I was afraid to carry on reading. Afraid because I knew the situation Kirk finds himself in had to get worse before it got better. Afraid because I had to read about Kirk being powerless and isolated. I felt so panicked because, nobody of importance did notice the switch. Nobody made the leap, nobody realised and this frightens me.
I'm jumping ahead I know, but I wanted to make it clear that this isn't a bad book, I think it's a good book, but I just can't divest myself from the unhappy feeling it gives me. I'm giving it a middling 3/5, I just can't say I enjoyed it... since it gave me such unpleasant feelings.
Double Double is a continuation of the story of 'What Are Little Girls Made Of?'. It suggests that perhaps, not all the androids were destroyed and one 'Brown' android survived. The surviving Brown android uses the machine and creates another android from the template remaining in the machine; another android Kirk is created. Android Kirk then takes control and with the knowledge and characteristics of the real Kirk, formulates plans to achieve 'Korby's' goal of replacing the inhabitants of the entire galaxy with Androids.
Android Kirk's plan is convoluted but clever in a very 'Kirk' way. First he takes control of the Hood/Dunkirk and replaces a section of the crew with androids, then he implements an elaborate plan to have Kirk kidnapped through a case of mistaken identity, in order for android Kirk to swap places with him. Once on the Enterprise he starts replicating the crew, but in this case, he doesn't want to kill the 'templates' immediately after using them - something inexplicable - which of course means the Enterprise crew manage to survive for their next outing. Android Kirk in his arrogance does not factor in the Brown android's disobedience however. The Brown android seems to have compassionate feelings, and comes to the conclusion that rather than follow Kirk he should lead the other androids to more peaceful ways.
There is also a side story in Double Double which involves Kirk saving the life of a P'othparan who then becomes indebted to Kirk and joins him on the Enterprise. The catch is that the universal translator has apparently become redundant and unable to adapt to the P'othparan language, despite having an analogue to work from. Instead, a crew member who has picked up a smattering of the language is the only one who can communicate with the P'othparan boy. I'm fairly sure that a) Uhura should have been involved in this and b) the universal translator wouldn't take weeks to work out the language. Why is this side story important? The P'othparans are empaths, so he is able to identify the androids... shame the universal translator is on the blink so he can't tell people about it! As it is, he essentially gives members of the Enterprise crew a reason to believe that something is amiss, through some garbled translation. The P'othparan boy is freed from his bond to Kirk by the end of the book because he has obscurely influenced saving Kirk and the Enterprise.
The rumbling background tension which culminates in a battle which almost sees the Enterprise destroyed (while android Kirk is commanding it and real Kirk is commanding the Hood) is the possibility of hostilities with the Romulans in the sector, so close to the neutral zone. I actually really liked how the fight played out, it highlighted the faults in the androids, they have difficulty reacting to situations they haven't been in before, despite having all the knowledge their template has. The fight also had Kirk and Kirk work together to defeat the common enemy, both of them predicting what the other will do.
Android Kirk can't seem to handle the strength of emotion of his template. While the real Kirk would be able suppress his emotions in order to make the right choices, android Kirk seems to follow his passions without any 'barrier' to his emotions. Android Kirk has a distinct hatred for Spock as he still retains Kirk's adhoc programming for alerting Spock of the switch in 'What Are Little Girls Made of'. This intolerance for Spock even carries over to Spock's duplicate, who seems to be reasonable and considerably less emotional than even Spock himself. Thinking about it, it's quite funny that the Kirk duplicate is as unreasonable as his evil twin from 'Mirror Mirror' and Spock's android pretty much reflects the moderate character of mirror universe Spock. It's seems sad though to think that the right conditions for a good 'Captain Kirk' are so marginal and he's so easily skewed in other circumstances - he's a terrifying villain. I'd also like to have seen more from the android Spock's perspective as I think that would have been really interesting, I mean, he would have had all the memories of Spock including knowing about the programming Kirk did when the android was created AND (dare I say it) feelings of friendship still.
Naturally there is a fight between Kirk and Kirk which is altogether too satisfying and which you will have to read for yourself. Needless to say RIP Kirk's shirt.
I think there is an editing error in the novel which could cause some confusion. The blurb on the back of the novel will refer to the U.S.S Dunkirk (yes, very funny 'dark Kirk') but the starship actually involved from the beginning of the novel is the Hook, this ship then changes names to Dunkirk further in and then back to the Hook again. The blurb at the back also names the ship 'Dunkirk', I think there was some editing confusion somewhere...
Double Double illustrates a few points rather well. Firstly, that Kirk would be a terrifying villain, secondly, that there are far too few people in Starfleet who can think outside the box (including Kirk's own crew) and lastly that Kirk shouldn't go on shore leave, ever, especially when there could well be alcohol involved. I was completely dismayed that none of his crew noticed the swap - including Spock, who notices inconsistencies but then just ignores them on the basis that it was more of a 'feeling' than a logical conclusion. I'm fairly sure that Kirk would have felt dismayed and hurt too that his crew just accepted his crazy orders and not made anything of it. Urgh, I can feel the anxiety rising up again! I had to laugh though about Kirk's shore leave going wrong again, bless him, he takes his crew to a favourite dive and it all goes wrong. I hope he does actually manage to have a thoroughly uneventful and relaxing shore leave at some point!
All in all, I recommend reading Double Double as long as you don't get too anxious like I do! I think it's a relatively good tie in story, although it does have some nonsensical elements to it, which I think could be avoided with just a little bit of thought and guidance from an editor - on the other hand a starship keeps changing names, so perhaps I am expecting too much?
3/5 - I'd know it wasn't you, Kirk!
Double Double is a continuation of the story of 'What Are Little Girls Made Of?'. It suggests that perhaps, not all the androids were destroyed and one 'Brown' android survived. The surviving Brown android uses the machine and creates another android from the template remaining in the machine; another android Kirk is created. Android Kirk then takes control and with the knowledge and characteristics of the real Kirk, formulates plans to achieve 'Korby's' goal of replacing the inhabitants of the entire galaxy with Androids.
Android Kirk's plan is convoluted but clever in a very 'Kirk' way. First he takes control of the Hood/Dunkirk and replaces a section of the crew with androids, then he implements an elaborate plan to have Kirk kidnapped through a case of mistaken identity, in order for android Kirk to swap places with him. Once on the Enterprise he starts replicating the crew, but in this case, he doesn't want to kill the 'templates' immediately after using them - something inexplicable - which of course means the Enterprise crew manage to survive for their next outing. Android Kirk in his arrogance does not factor in the Brown android's disobedience however. The Brown android seems to have compassionate feelings, and comes to the conclusion that rather than follow Kirk he should lead the other androids to more peaceful ways.
There is also a side story in Double Double which involves Kirk saving the life of a P'othparan who then becomes indebted to Kirk and joins him on the Enterprise. The catch is that the universal translator has apparently become redundant and unable to adapt to the P'othparan language, despite having an analogue to work from. Instead, a crew member who has picked up a smattering of the language is the only one who can communicate with the P'othparan boy. I'm fairly sure that a) Uhura should have been involved in this and b) the universal translator wouldn't take weeks to work out the language. Why is this side story important? The P'othparans are empaths, so he is able to identify the androids... shame the universal translator is on the blink so he can't tell people about it! As it is, he essentially gives members of the Enterprise crew a reason to believe that something is amiss, through some garbled translation. The P'othparan boy is freed from his bond to Kirk by the end of the book because he has obscurely influenced saving Kirk and the Enterprise.
The rumbling background tension which culminates in a battle which almost sees the Enterprise destroyed (while android Kirk is commanding it and real Kirk is commanding the Hood) is the possibility of hostilities with the Romulans in the sector, so close to the neutral zone. I actually really liked how the fight played out, it highlighted the faults in the androids, they have difficulty reacting to situations they haven't been in before, despite having all the knowledge their template has. The fight also had Kirk and Kirk work together to defeat the common enemy, both of them predicting what the other will do.
Android Kirk can't seem to handle the strength of emotion of his template. While the real Kirk would be able suppress his emotions in order to make the right choices, android Kirk seems to follow his passions without any 'barrier' to his emotions. Android Kirk has a distinct hatred for Spock as he still retains Kirk's adhoc programming for alerting Spock of the switch in 'What Are Little Girls Made of'. This intolerance for Spock even carries over to Spock's duplicate, who seems to be reasonable and considerably less emotional than even Spock himself. Thinking about it, it's quite funny that the Kirk duplicate is as unreasonable as his evil twin from 'Mirror Mirror' and Spock's android pretty much reflects the moderate character of mirror universe Spock. It's seems sad though to think that the right conditions for a good 'Captain Kirk' are so marginal and he's so easily skewed in other circumstances - he's a terrifying villain. I'd also like to have seen more from the android Spock's perspective as I think that would have been really interesting, I mean, he would have had all the memories of Spock including knowing about the programming Kirk did when the android was created AND (dare I say it) feelings of friendship still.
Naturally there is a fight between Kirk and Kirk which is altogether too satisfying and which you will have to read for yourself. Needless to say RIP Kirk's shirt.
I think there is an editing error in the novel which could cause some confusion. The blurb on the back of the novel will refer to the U.S.S Dunkirk (yes, very funny 'dark Kirk') but the starship actually involved from the beginning of the novel is the Hook, this ship then changes names to Dunkirk further in and then back to the Hook again. The blurb at the back also names the ship 'Dunkirk', I think there was some editing confusion somewhere...
Double Double illustrates a few points rather well. Firstly, that Kirk would be a terrifying villain, secondly, that there are far too few people in Starfleet who can think outside the box (including Kirk's own crew) and lastly that Kirk shouldn't go on shore leave, ever, especially when there could well be alcohol involved. I was completely dismayed that none of his crew noticed the swap - including Spock, who notices inconsistencies but then just ignores them on the basis that it was more of a 'feeling' than a logical conclusion. I'm fairly sure that Kirk would have felt dismayed and hurt too that his crew just accepted his crazy orders and not made anything of it. Urgh, I can feel the anxiety rising up again! I had to laugh though about Kirk's shore leave going wrong again, bless him, he takes his crew to a favourite dive and it all goes wrong. I hope he does actually manage to have a thoroughly uneventful and relaxing shore leave at some point!
All in all, I recommend reading Double Double as long as you don't get too anxious like I do! I think it's a relatively good tie in story, although it does have some nonsensical elements to it, which I think could be avoided with just a little bit of thought and guidance from an editor - on the other hand a starship keeps changing names, so perhaps I am expecting too much?
3/5 - I'd know it wasn't you, Kirk!
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