It’s back to the prose novels for this article series. It’s also a sequel to a previous Chapter By Chapter book review, but you don’t need to have read that story or review to follow this one. I didn’t when I first picked up our next novel. Years later I happened upon a copy of the first book and then picked it up. This time I’m reading it in proper order. So it’s back to the U.S.S. Enterprise and to previous events on planet Vulcan leading to a new colony location.

There are a few books that explored Vulcan in one form or another. The Vulcan Academy Murders, by the same author, used a murder investigation to explore how Vulcans react to outsiders, most positively but a few negatively. There was also a medical element as it involved an experimental procedure to save a life, which of course killed a redshirt but gave us Amanda, wife of Sarek and mother of Spock, to protect. The conflict may have been personal, but it wasn’t at the expense of the murder story…for the most part. There were stretches when it seemed secondary to the emotional conflict of a young couple–one Vulcan, one human–getting married with various objections and support depending on who you ask.

We’re dealing with the same characters, including the usual crew, but now we’re going more for full-on medical drama. That sets our next book apart from the previous one. If you’ve read either the book or my review of the last book, you know what’s coming. For the rest of you it isn’t necessary, but here’s the category pages for that review if you want to go through that before we get into the twenty-seventh book in the Chapter By Chapter review series…

Star Trek: The IDIC Epidemic

by Jean Lorrah

A copy paste from the first book’s review: Jean Lorrah has written four Star Trek novels, two based on TOS and two based on TNG…and I seem to have three of them (I think I read the last one, probably borrowed from the library, but I’ll have to double check my own home library because the cover looks familiar), so we’ll be seeing her again. According to Memory Alpha she also turned in a script for season three of the original series but it was rejected. I wonder if she ever considered reworking her script into a novel? Apparently she’s still active (unless her official site is in need of serious updating, and there’s at least one link that needs to be fixed), with her latest project being a novel tied to the video game Sime-Gen, which I’ve never heard of. She’s also created a few novel series, Memory Alpha specifically calling out the “Savage Empire” series. She also is or was a Professor of English at Murray State University in Kentucky at the time she wrote this book, her first Star Trek novel.

So how does the back cover sell us on this story?

I.D.I.C–Infinite Diversity In Infinite Combination. More than just a simple credo, for those of the planet Vulcan it is the cornerstone of their philosophy.

Here’s a bit of history from the Memory Alpha article on IDIC. Memory Alpha is based on canon sources, which doesn’t include most novels, comics, and video games.

In the Vulcan language, the term for “infinite diversity in infinite combinations” was Kol-Ut-Shan. (VOY: “Gravity“)

IDIC symbols were in use at least as early as the 4th century AD, as one appeared on Surak’s katric ark. According to Syrran, the symbol represented Surak’s enlightenment atop Mount Seleya. (ENT: “The Forge“)

And lest you think this was Roddenberry trying to be all good and inclusive (or the modern misuse of “inclusive”)

The invention of the IDIC by Gene Roddenberry caused friction between him and Leonard Nimoy, who saw it as a cheap ploy to sell replica merchandise to fans. (I Am Spock, 1st ed., pp. 66-67) The symbol, first introduced in “Is There in Truth No Beauty?“, was designed by William Ware Theiss. Michael and Denise Okuda have credited Roddenberry himself with designing the symbol, though Theiss’ design sketches as published in Star Trek: The Original Series Sketchbook and The Art of Star Trek seem to contradict this. (ENT: “The Forge” text commentary; ENT Season 4 DVD special feature; Star Trek Encyclopedia, 4th ed., vol. 1, p. 357)

So how does IDIC play into the epidemic? Back to the back cover.

Now, on the Vulcan Science Colony Nisus, that credo of tolerance is being put to its sternest test. For Here, on a planet where Vulcan, Human, Klingon, and countless other races live and work side by side, a deadly plague has sprung up. A plague whose origins are somehow rooted in the concept of I.D.I.C. itself. A plague that threatens to tear down that centuries-old maxim and replace it with an even older concept.

Interstellar War.

One of the things that got critical classic Trek fans mad at Starfleet Academy, Robert Kurtzman last (as of this writing) attempt at a Star Trek series, was trying to tie IDIC to the current culture war and their version of “diversity”, which also seems to be divisive. That goes against the “infinite combination” part I would think but I’m more interested in stories than sociopolitical agendas. Seeing how the concept is used in this story becomes more interesting for the wrong reason as a result. So while this takes place on a colony, some familiar faces from The Vulcan Academy Murders will be back in this story. The NCC-1701 crew, of course, plus Sarek and Amanda. The aforementioned couple of Dr. Daniel Corrigan and his new bride T’Mir are back from the previous book as is T’Mir’s father, Sorel. Fans will also recognize former Enterprise medico Geoffrey M’Benga, who also appeared in the previous book. He won’t match the one in Strange New Worlds most likely. They gave him the now official first name Joseph. (Memory Beta holds all the non-canon stuff like this novel, written during Star Trek’s own “wilderness years” when the movies were the only official media being produced that isn’t licenced. I’ll probably go back and forth between the two linking to background information.) Everyone else will be new.

There were a few novels released between The Vulcan Academy Murders and The IDIC Epidemic, one or two of which I have and will explore in the future. This doesn’t take place directly after the events of the previous novel, but there will be tie-ins to those events and other bits of Trek lore. In total there are forty-four chapters of varying lengths so we’ll see if anything gets read together. We’ll find out next time as we begin our chapter by chapter review of The IDIC Epidemic.