#1 (1975)     #2 (1975)     #3 (1976)     #4 (1976)     #5 (1977)    
#6 (?)     #7 (1978)     #8 (1978)     #9 (1979)     #10 (1979)    
Best of Berengaria (?)

"Apostasy" / Richard Heim, Jr.

Space battles, aliens on board murdering everyone, and generally wretched writing.

"Challenges" / Carle Johnson

A Pike-era Scotty-focused Mary Sue -- she gets them out of dungeon with microelectronics in her compact.

 

"Rennox 4" / Ken Gooch

More threatening aliens and silly technobabble.

"Spock's Decision" / Jacqueline Lichtenberg (1971)

[Kraith V (1971) with additional scenes on Vulcan by Sondra Marshak (1972). Also reprinted in Kraith Collected #4]

Typically convoluted Kraith thing. Kirk is esper-shocked, as is most of the crew to a lesser extent, due to some space phenomenon. He and Tanya are somehow linked, Tanya dies of the shock. Spock takes over just about all ship functions, telling McCoy how to treat everyone (with Theragin derivative) and Scotty how to make the engines go and so forth. Spock keeps Kirk alive, barely, by invoking the Liege-Ward programming that had been installed in him when Sarek adopted him (huh? - anyway, he appears to have been on Vulcan for some kind of training, and one thing must have led to another...). This puts Kirk in a slave relationship to Spock - who seems to really get off on it. When they get away from the danger zone, Kirk has to be taken to Schillia for emergency psionic treatment by the local aquatic folk. Later he will have to go to Vulcan for more Vulcan discipline. (Hmmm) A Schillian about to become a starship captain asks Spock (with his amazing telepathic prowess) to help him consult the Oracle. For some reason, this is going to require Spock's retirement. But he agrees. They do. And the Enterprise goes on to Vulcan... more tripe no doubt to follow. Don't get me wrong; Jacqueline Lichtenberg can write a good story, and if you enjoy gaudily ritualistic, patronizing Vulcans, you'll like hers.

 

"Maya" / Carmen Dexter

Non-Trek vignette: two strangers meet in a bar, one insisting that they are dreaming, and wanting to exchange addresses to prove that contact occurs during dreams.

 

 

"The Decision" / Claire Gabriel

Sarek, over Amanda's objections, insists that Spock be delivered prematurely to save her. Oddly bigoted healer here, valuing the fetus more than the mother. But an interesting story.

"Equicon '74" / Richard Heim, Jr.

Con Report.

"Galactic Crisis" / Ken Gooch

Dull space war claptrap; didn't read it all.

Lecture / Gene Roddenberry

text of his Saul O. Sidore Lecture, New Hampshire (institution not stated).

"Child of Earth" / Vicki Kirlin

Pretty interesting little story about a Vulcan woman stranded and captured by apish people intent on torturing her to exorcise ghosts from their village, and her rescue by a dragon-riding fellow from another group of people. He heals her, they fight off the villagers, she heals him, and they finally communicate by mind-meld and fall in love. But she has to go home and see if she is allowed to return because of prime directive considerations.

* "The Brew" / Barbara-Katherine

Screenplay-format romp; McCoy, attempting to provide Kirk with an adequate substitute for coffee, instead comes up with a brew that makes Spock drunk and gives him amnesia to boot - and finds out only after Kirk makes him throw it all out that it was the long-sought cure to the common cold. Best of show for this zine.

"Christine's Decision" / Sharon Emily

[Kraith 5-A]
While Spock takes Kirk off somewhere on Vulcan to cure his esper-shock, Christine stays with Sarek and Amanda, overhearing a conversation of theirs that convinces her she would never be a suitable mate for Spock. She determines to attempt to be a worthy friend instead. Amanda wants Sarek to make a Flame for Chris but he declares it impossible, that her mind is not suitable; Kirk and Spock need Flames to keep their creative minds from becoming unstable, but it would destroy Chris. Typical Kraith hoo-hah.

"A Greater Love" / Trish McDaniel

Unappealing ½ p. vignette of The Three each attempting to sacrifice himself for the others, Spock succeeding

"Strange Time, Familiar Place" / Richard Heim, Jr.

Odd little piece done as a history project. The Enterprise crew assist a historical team to blast through an archaeological barrier; Sulu is transported to 12th century Japan with a laser cannon and becomes power-mad.

"Fear Itself" / Wayne Allan Dick

Crew is trapped in Kirk's nightmare.

Berengaria #5 Ed.: Vicki Kirlin (Rogers), Omaha NE, August 1975, 60p. Berengaria #5/6 Ed.: Vicki Kirlin (Rogers), Omaha NE, [undated; reissue?], 108p.

Berengaria #5/6:

 

[Berengaria #5]
"A Separate Search for Peace" (p. 1-31) / Carmen Dexter

Sarek/Amanda romance bringing in the premise that T-negative blood is a "throwback" trait and therefore despised on Vulcan and, more interestingly and plausibly, that it would result in the death of a Vulcan bondmate and child because of the blood reactions. Includes the Spock/Sarek estrangement scene.

"Captive Audience" (p.34-45) / Carle Johnson

A very peripherally ST story, but not bad. A young woman escapes overcrowded Earth to become a personal maid to the very nasty rich-bitch owner of a starliner, who strands her on a non-Federation world with no papers or belongings. She becomes the prisoner/assistant of the system's Emperor, who keeps suspending her mandatory sentence of death for being stateless. She warns him of the evil intentions of the woman who had been her employer with regard to a mining contract, and assists in forming a more advantageous treaty with the Fed. Said contract is negotiated by our boys who offer to take her home, but she prefers to stay with the Emperor, who promptly adopts her.

"Carmilla" (p. 46-61) / Rebecca Ross

A vampire story - this one signs on as a security crew-woman, and is a good vampire, a member of the Brotherhood, who find ways of coping with their disease without being too damaging to human partners, and track down the occasional wayward violent ones. With a several-hundred-year lifespan, she is also quite a story-teller, catching Spock's attention with information she has about old legends, which cannot be found in the computer. Such a one attacks another crewwoman, and Carmilla has to track him down and, when he attacks again after she explains things to him, kills him.

 

[Berengaria #6]

"The Day the Dragons Went to War" (p. 62-66) / Vicki Kirlin

A sweet little tale of an elder dragon telepathically recounting to dragon-children the story of their first encounter with humans - the Enterprise landing party. The dragons, believing the humans responsible for injuries to one of their children, are about to wage bloody, fiery war, but thanks to Spock's telepathy all is sorted out.

*"Trek to the Planet of the Apes" (p. 67-78) / Paul Gadzikowski

A charming romp in which Gil Paul pops onto the Enterprise from "another fiction-plane." Nice touches are McCoy's insistence that every time Kirk complains of boredom they get in trouble - subsequently proved out despite Spock's disdain - and Gil's conviction that he is immune to landing-party dangers because he is an ongoing series character in yet another fiction-plane. (Which also explains the survival of the Enterprise week after week.) Assigned to study the newly-discovered fiction-plane, the Enterprise boys end up in the Planet of the Apes fiction plane, from which they rescue two humans. They try to drop Gil off in Australia, where there are still some humans, but that society has deliberately repressed its creativity and therefore has insufficient technology to return Gil home - oh, yes, the gizmo that sent him to our fiction-plane blew up after delivering him - and Gil will just have to stay on board until the ship's explorations of the fiction-plane vortex stumble across his own plane and he can get off.

"The Lost Child" (p.79-102) / Vicki Kirlin

Mary Sue with kings and dungeons. On planet Kletonia, the King orders his newborn princess daughter destroyed because his beloved queen died giving birth; the nurse rescues the baby, who ends up a crewwoman on Enterprise, now headed for Kletonia. The woman, Charleen, has dreams revealing her heritage; she and Spock are also both having visions of the Captain in danger. She arrives to the acclamation of the people just in time to reconcile with her father before he dies, leaving her the new queen. Oh, and by the way, Kirk is also in love with her. Ends with Kirk kidnapped by her rebellious cousin (who accuses her of treachery for agreeing to a Federation treaty). His rescue awaits in part II. Dull to my taste, which doesn't run to royalty.

"I Cry" (p.103) / Vicki Kirlin

Post-apocalyptic vignette in which gnomes have stolen and hidden away children under the earth to eventually repopulate when the surface becomes habitable again.

Berengaria #7 Ed.: Vicki Kirlin (Rogers), Omaha NE, April, 1976, 60p.

[*** NOT ADDED TO AUTHOR LISTS YET 9/7/03 *** ]

"The Lost Child" Part 2 (p. 3-19) / Vicki Kirlin

A castles & dungeons story. Kirk is captured and tortured by one of the parties in clan warfare/castle intrigue until he is rescued by the telepathic princess.

"The Day Rickles Was Phased Out" (p. 20-23) / Teri Meyer

Report (?) of a Trek con in which Don Rickles roasts the crew.

* "Nessie" (p. 24-28) / Gerry Downes

[reprinted in Stardate:Unknown #2, Nov. 1976]
Scott has a little heart-to-heart with the Loch Ness dragon, over a few bottles of Scotch. A lovely romp.

"Interlude" (p. 29-35) / Gerry Downes

Chris Pike takes Spock on a hedonistic shore leave, including intoxicating substances and serving girls. Many years later, Spock escorts Kirk to the same establishment.

Empires Downfallen: first installment (p. 37-61) / Gerry Downes

The first 4 chapters of a novel: "Disappearance of the Doves" in which the Organians decide they will no longer enforce the Klingon/Federation treaty; "Scotty's Decision" in which Scott decides not to take a promotion after having designed a fancy new warship for Starfleet; "New Ken" in which the commander of the new ship, now partnering with Enterprise, explains that the Federation intends to provoke the Klingons into open warfare while they feel they still have the upper hand; and "Reilly's Return" in which Kevin Reilly is assigned as helmsman to the new Courageous and saves everybody's bacon by taking command from a reluctant officer when Klingons attack. Good action adventure writing; characterization is neither offensive nor sterling.

 

Berengaria #8 Ed.: Vicki Kirlin (Rogers), Omaha NE, [July?] 1976, 52p.

[*** NOT ADDED TO AUTHOR LISTS YET 9/7/03 *** ]

"Carmilla's Capture" (3-16)/ Rebecca Ross

In the ongoing adventures of this Mary Sue vampiress, Carmilla is injured and imprisoned in a cave (along with Spock and others of the landing party) by primitive tribespeople planning to sacrifice them to a volcano god. Said volcano is rumbling along, getting ready to explode (Carmilla is a geoscience specialist). Having lost blood, Carmilla is also having difficulty controlling her own appetite whenever she looks around at the crew. They manage to escape through a volcano vent just in time, and without even bending the Prime Directive as regards phaser use. Spock, however, picks up telepathic indications of Carmilla's secret nature... to be continued, no doubt. These are pretty well-written and more entertaining than many ST vampire tales.

"Flame Time" (p. 18-21) / Amy Falkowitz

Spock Get-'em. Alternate "Amok Time." Spock defeats Stonn and claims T'Pring, only to fall into the dread Linger Death when his anger at her severs their bond. T'Pau releases Spock into death.

"Meld (p. 23-25) / Ann Bagley

H/C. McCoy is unconscious and slowly dying of paralysis from the bite of a Tholian green spider. Spock administers CPR while sending out telepathic signals to Kirk and Ker, a ciliated, tripodal, telepathic Bercan. Well-written.

"USS Sesame" (p. 27-36) / Paul Gadzikowski

Romp; second in the "alternate fiction-plane series. When Enterprise officers (in order of billing) start being replaced by muppets as they explore the fiction-plane vortex, Gil goes to New York, stumbles onto Darrin and Samantha of Bewitched, and solves the situation when Tabitha (now 13) turns out to be doodling in her math book with a magic pencil - and she likes to draw her favorite tv characters as muppets. Amusing & well-written.

"Gold Towards the Golden" (p. 38-49) / Cheryl Rice

Kirk is sent on a Guardian mission to ancient Greece, and he and Spock have quarrelled over this use of his talents. He winds up spending an evening with Alexander the Great. Okay, it sounds sillier than it is - it is actually quite nicely written and thought-provoking as Kirk muses on Alexander's combination of kindness and cruelty, civilizing intentions and megalomania. Most interesting is perhaps the vision of time as a river, where all of us are in fact, living forever.

 

Berengaria #9
Ed.: Vicki Kirlin (Rogers), Omaha NE, June 1977, 196p.

Berengaria #10
Ed.: Vicki Kirlin (Rogers) & Teri Meyer, Omaha NE, June 1978, 112p.
Special edition: trio of Michele Arvizu's stories

 

* "Turnabout Survival" (p. 2-34) / Michele Arvizu

Janice Lester gets revenge by abducting the Big Three and switching Kirk and Spock into one another's bodies. The consequences and reactions are very well drawn - Spock is mortified, Kirk is enjoying the adventure; both bodies are in physical danger because Spock is burning up Kirk's and Kirk can't keep Spock's autonomic system going. Lester presents herself to her victims as a monster. Kirk and Spock finally trick her into switching them back by pretending the transfer is spontaneously degenerating as it did in "Turnabout Intruder." They have to play each other well enough to fool both Lester and McCoy.

 

* "The Gathering" (p. 36-57) / Michele Arvizu

McCoy visits at the deathbed of his mother-in-law, runs into his ex, Ariana, and they end up in bed. Back aboard Enterprise, he suffers from debilitating depression exacerbated by drink. Things come to a head when Spock arrives with an abdominal obstruction and McCoy is too impaired by drink and exhaustion to do the surgery - but persuades a cautious M'Benga of his diagnosis. The McCoy/Spock and McCoy/Kirk heart-to-hearts make a number of good points about the friendships and have some good lines, but are over-done and over-emotional - far too much talking for these guys.

"The Mirage" / Michele Arvizu

Spock visits an aging, arthritic Kirk. When he learns that Kirk is dying, he persuades him to have an android body built for himself at an experimental facility. Kirk is excited at the prospect but rejects it at the last minute, demanding to die in his own body. Spock seems very out of character here.
[Reprint of novella published by editors of Contact, November 1976.]