''Ishmael'' is a novel by

Barbara Hambly Barbara Hambly (born August 28, 1951) is an American novelist and screenwriter within the genres of fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and historical fiction. She is the author of the bestselling Benjamin January mystery series featuring a fre ...

, set in the '' Star Trek'' fictional universe.

Plot

Spock travels back to the time and place of ''

Here Come the Brides ''Here Come the Brides'' is an American comedy Western series from Screen Gems that aired on the ABC television network from September 25, 1968 to April 3, 1970. It was loosely based on Asa Mercer's efforts in the 1860s to import marriageable wo ...

'', a 1968-70 ABC television series loosely based upon

Asa Mercer Asa Shinn Mercer (June 6, 1839 – August 10, 1917) was the first president of the Territorial University of Washington and a member of the Washington State Senate. He is remembered primarily for his role in three milestones of the old America ...

's efforts to bring civilization to 1860s

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

by importing the marriageable

Mercer Girls The Mercer Girls or Mercer Maids were women who chose to move from the east coast of the United States to the Seattle area in the 1860s at the invitation of Asa Mercer. Mercer, an American who lived in Seattle, wanted to "import" women to the Paci ...

from the war-ravaged East Coast of the United States. The show's premise was that eldest brother Jason Bolt bet his entire logging operation that he could persuade one hundred marriageable ladies to come to Seattle, and that all of them would be married or engaged within one year. Much of the dramatic and comic tension revolved around the efforts of their benefactor Aaron Stemple to thwart the deal and take control of the Bolts' holdings. Spock discovers a

Klingon The Klingons ( ; Klingon: ''tlhIngan'' ) are a fictional species in the science fiction franchise ''Star Trek''. Developed by screenwriter Gene L. Coon in 1967 for the original ''Star Trek'' (''TOS'') series, Klingons were swarthy humanoids c ...

plot to destroy the Federation by killing Aaron Stemple before Stemple could thwart an attempted 19th-century alien invasion of Earth. During most of the story, Spock has lost his memory and is cared for by Stemple, who passes him off as his nephew "Ishmael" and helps him hide his alien origins. Spock identifies one of the women in the story as likely to be one of his ancestors (on his mother's side).

Spock's family name

The book ends with Kirk accessing the personnel record of his first officer, which reveals that Amanda Grayson's middle name is Stemple and that she was born in Seattle, Washington, thereby suggesting that Spock's mother is a descendant of Aaron Stemple; as a result of Spock being with Aaron Stemple, Stemple falls in love with Biddy the plainest of the girls. He asks her to marry him just before the Klingons arrive to try and kill Stemple. The same personnel record gives Spock's full name as S'chn T'gai Spock and his father as S'chn T'gai

Sarek Sarek is a fictional character in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise. He is a Vulcan astrophysicist, the Vulcan ambassador to the United Federation of Planets, and father of Spock. The character was originally played by Mark Lenard in the e ...

. Spock's family name has never been revealed on screen and only referred to as "unpronounceable" to humans (in the episodes "

This Side of Paradise ''This Side of Paradise'' is the debut novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, published in 1920. It examines the lives and morality of carefree American youth at the dawn of the Jazz Age. Its protagonist, Amory Blaine, is an attractive ...

" and "

Journey to Babel "Journey to Babel" is the tenth episode of the second season of the American science fiction television series ''Star Trek''. Written by D. C. Fontana and directed by Joseph Pevney, it was first broadcast on November 17, 1967. In the episode, '' ...

"). As with the forenames for Sulu and

Uhura Nyota Uhura () is a fictional character in the ''Star Trek'' franchise. In the original television series, the character was portrayed by Nichelle Nichols, who reprised the role for the first six ''Star Trek'' feature films. A younger Uhura is ...

, first proposed in other Pocket Books ''Star Trek'' novels of this period (Hikaru and Nyota respectively) which were accepted as canon by Paramount in the 2009 feature film, Spock's full name became canon with the release of promotional materials for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds in 2022.

Cameos, References, and Meta

Numerous other

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

and science fiction characters make

cameo appearance A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly ei ...

s throughout the book. In

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, Spock plays chess with a gunfighter dressed in black, which matches the description of

Richard Boone Richard Allen Boone (June 18, 1917 – January 10, 1981) was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns, including his starring role in the television series '' Have Gun – Will Travel''. Early li ...

's character Paladin in the TV series '' Have Gun Will Travel'' (pages 180-182). Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry is credited for writing 24 episodes of this series. The British TV series '' Doctor Who'' is referenced at least four times: the

Fourth Doctor The Fourth Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He is portrayed by Tom Baker. Within the series' narrative, the Doctor is a centuries-old alien Time Lord from the ...

is described on page 13, Metebelis crystals from the serials ''

The Green Death ''The Green Death'' is the fifth and final serial of the tenth season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in six weekly parts on BBC1 from 19 May to 23 June 1973. It was the last regular appe ...

'' and ''

Planet of the Spiders ''Planet of the Spiders'' is the fifth and final serial of the 11th season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in six weekly parts on BBC1 from 4 May to 8 June 1974. It was Jon Pertwee's fina ...

'' are mentioned on page 57, the

Second Doctor The Second Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He was portrayed by actor Patrick Troughton. While the Troughton era of ''Doctor Who'' is well-remembered by fans an ...

is described on page 154, and Kirk recalls legends of a planet of stagnant time-travellers in the Kasteroborous galaxy on page 200. Page 13 features

Han Solo Han Solo is a fictional character in the '' Star Wars'' franchise created by George Lucas. The character first appeared in the 1977 film '' Star Wars'' portrayed by Harrison Ford, who reprised his role in ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980) an ...

("a scruffy-looking spice smuggler") from '' Star Wars, ''as well as

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...

and Starbuck from '' Battlestar Galactica'' ("a pair of brown-uniformed pilots from some down-at-the-heels migrant fleet"). Pages 153-154 feature Little Joe Cartwright and his brother Hoss Cartwright from '' Bonanza'' ("a good-looking boy in the dusty clothes of a trailhand just in from Virginia City, and his oxlike older brother") and Bret or Bart Maverick from ''

Maverick Maverick, Maveric or Maverik may refer to: History * Maverick (animal), an unbranded range animal, derived from U.S. cattleman Samuel Maverick Aviation * AEA Maverick, an Australian single-seat sportsplane design * General Aviation Design Burea ...

''. Emperor Norton and his dogs also appear. Matt Dillon ('' Gunsmoke''), Lucas McCain (''

The Rifleman ''The Rifleman'' is an American Western television program starring Chuck Connors as rancher Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the fictional town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show ...

''), The Rawhide Kid ('' Rawhide''), and the

Man With No Name The Man with No Name ( it, Uomo senza nome) is the antihero character portrayed by Clint Eastwood in Sergio Leone's "''Dollars Trilogy''" of Italian Spaghetti Western films: ''A Fistful of Dollars'' (1964), ''For a Few Dollars More'' (1965), ...

also make appearances. Several actors from ''Here Come the Brides'' had also appeared on ''Star Trek''. Mark Lenard played Aaron Stemple, whom the novel implies was Spock's ancestor. Lenard also played the role of

, Spock's father, in the original ''Star Trek'' TV series and in Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as a Romulan commander in the episode "Balance of Terror" (the first time the Romulans are seen in the series) and the Klingon Commander in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the first "new" Klingon to be seen, and the first Klingon to be heard speaking their language. The actor playing Jason Bolt (the eldest brother) was Robert Brown who played "Lazarus" in the ''Star Trek'' episode "The Alternative Factor." The actor playing Joshua Bolt (a younger brother) was David Soul who played "Makora" in the ''Star Trek'' episode "The Apple." Another reference is Florinda's Place, referenced on page 181. Florinda Grove, a character in Gwen Bristow's novel ''Jubilee Trail'' was an adventuress in Los Angeles who, when she first heard that gold had been discovered, headed to San Francisco to open a gambling palace. When asked by her friends how they could find her, she said "Ask anyone for the best place in town." When asked, "Why will it be the best?" she calmly replied, "Because I'll be running it."

References

*
The Official Barbara Hambly Page: Books
*

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080221100304/http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/herecomebridesseason1.php DVD Verdict review: Here Come The Brides: The Complete First Season
Review of "Star Trek: Adventures in Time and Space" & interview with Mary P. Taylor

External links

{{Memory Alpha, Ishmael (novel) Novels based on Star Trek: The Original Series American science fiction novels 1985 American novels Novels by Barbara Hambly Novels about time travel