Spock Must Die!
First edition cover
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| Author | James Blish |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Star Trek |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Published | February 1970 |
| Pages | 119 |
| ISBN | |
| Followed by | Spock, Messiah! |
Spock Must Die! is a novel based on the American science fiction television series Star Trek: The Original Series. It was published in 1970 by Bantam Books, and was the first original novel for adults based on the series. The only previous works had been comic books, short-story adaptations of the television episodes and the children's book Mission to Horatius. The novel details the creation of a tachyon copy of Spock to investigate the destruction of the Organians; without the intervention of the Organians, war erupts between the Klingons and the Federation. Confusion about the two Spocks allows the new Spock to defect to the Klingons. With the war going badly for Starfleet, the Enterprise travels to Organia to investigate.
The novel was written by James Blish, who had written the adaptations of the television episodes. Blish wanted to kill off the popular Spock character to surprise readers. It was the only original novel for adults based on the franchise until 1976's Spock, Messiah!, and was reprinted numerous times with different covers. It was included in 1978's The Star Trek Reader IV. Critics reviewing the novel shortly after its release praised the book as a good example of character duplication in science fiction, but later reviews were mixed. Criticism was directed at the character viewpoints presented in the novel, and later reviewers were less enthusiastic about the work overall.
Doctor Leonard McCoy and Engineer Montgomery Scott discuss McCoy's fear of the transporter. McCoy posits that an original person is killed upon dematerialization and a duplicate is created at the destination. Scotty explains that the technology converts matter into energy, transmits it and reassembles it into the same original object, but McCoy is not convinced and he wonders what happens to the soul in a transporter beam. The conversation is interrupted by the news that the Organians appear to have been destroyed by the Klingon Empire. The Organians had been enforcing a peace treaty between the Klingons and the Federation. The Enterprise is currently a long way from Federation space.
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