Republic

Star Trek: My Brother's Keeper #1

by Michael Jan Friedman

Revealed at last, the full story of Jim Kirk's lost friend, the man who helped him become the captain we know....

Stardate 1312.4. -- A young Captain Kirk, early in his legendary career, faces the crisis of his life when he must kill his best friend in order to save the Enterprise. Later, alone in his quarters, be cannot help recalling how he first met Gary Mitchell:

At Starfleet Academy, Gary is reckless and fun-loving while Kirk is driven, ambitious, but awkward around other people -- especially women. Their friendship begins with a fistfight. Then their routine training mission on the U.S.S. Republic is diverted to a planet where centuries of bloody interplanetary conflict are about to end in a ceremony of reconciliation. Assigned to help with security on the planet's surface, Kirk and Gary quickly find themselves in the middle of a life-and-death struggle against terrorists determined to disrupt the ceremony.

With the future of two planets at stake, Kirk and Gary must find a way to work together before a mission of life and peace becomes one of death and despair.

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Fiction, Star Trek Original Series, Ebooks, Media Tie In, Adventure

267 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Michael Jan Friedman is an author of more than seventy books of fiction and nonfiction, half of which are in the Star Trek universe. Eleven of his titles have appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list. Friedman has also written for network and cable television and radio, and scripted nearly 200 comic books, including his original DC superhero series, the Darkstars.

Reviews

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at Kirk in his younger years. Could have done without the profanity and sex, though...

[Will Nelson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was attracted to My Brother's Keeper because Gary Mitchell was a somewhat interesting character, but god, I could not stand him in this book! He was selfish and conceited through the entire thing and kept acting like he was the victim. I get that he was seventeen and used to getting everything he wanted by relying on his intuition, and that he was set up to have some character development by the end, but that didn't make him any less unpleasant.

It was very interesting to have it as a frame story of Kirk mourning his friend and dealing with the guilt of killing him, and I liked watching Spock struggle with emotions he doesn't have in an effort to help his captain, though I felt that even at the beginning of the series their working relationship was closer than portrayed here. There was an interesting parallel between Spock not being able to relate to other people's emotions and Mitchell perhaps tapping into that too much, and I wish it had been explored more thoroughly.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

This books follows on the first episode shown on television of Star Trek, by showing the climatic battle in the episode, and then following the events there with a flashback to how Kirk and Mitchell met and became friends. I found it enjoyable enough, and even smiled at the explaining away of a retcon during the series airing. Having said that, it did fail to grab me, and the plot was rather thin in places making portions of the story rather predictable.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The events of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" forced Jim Kirk to make the brutal decision to kill his best friend Gary Mitchell, after Mitchell had been altered and corrupted by an unknown energy field. Sensing his captain and friend's enormous grief, Commander Spock approaches Kirk and asks him to tell him more about Mitchell and the bond that he and Kirk shared. Thus begins the My Brothers Keeper trilogy, as here Kirk recounts his meeting with Mitchell and the start of their friendship. Kirk and Mitchell began acrimoniously, but realized both had something to learn from the other. On a training cruise, their respective skills are put to the test when violent ne'er do wells attempt to disrupt a peace conference. Although nineties-era Trek storytelling wasn't as deep as books from the Relaunch era, Friedman succeeds in showing us a Kirk who is very familiar to the reader, yet not the confident captain we met in the original series, and providing a richer look at his and Mitchell's growing friendship.

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gary Mitchell only appeared in one Star Trek episode yet still managed to become something of a legend—Kirk’s best friend whom he was forced to kill. Friedman has taken on the huge task of showing Star Trek fans why the friendship was so good and he starts by going back into the two men’s academy days. The result is an enjoyable Star Trek tale but not a great one. The plot is a little bit slow moving and the action at times on the unbelievable side. For example, at a critical moment late in the book when the two men are on a training mission, they get drafted into a planetary security detail and have no communicators when they identify the feared threat. Of course, if they had had communicators and been able to tell their superiors that they had just witnessed a VIP being kidnapped, we would not have needed the next several chapters of the book, but still—no communicators. It just didn’t make any sense.

If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.

[Ken Gulick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Continuing my journey to read every Star Trek novel. Not MJFs best work. First 30 pages pretty much a recap of the pilot episode and nothing really happens until the last 100 pages which turned out to be the old two warring races trek plot. Even Kirk’s young cadet self doesn’t seem to be particularly written well. Hard to believe he was a tight wad nerd before meeting Gary Mitchell. Plus stuff on the romulan war Kirk is teaching (apparently in his 20s?) has been overwritten by the Enterprise series and books.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stardate 1312.4 Captain Kirk reflects on his first meeting with Gary Mitchell, and the progression to become his best friend.
An entertaining re-read

[Paul Lunger · Rating 4 out of 5]

From 1999, the opening book of Michael Jan Friedman's "My Brother's Keeper" series, "Republic" tells the back story of James Kirk & Gary Mitchell. Set as a frame around the aftermath of the events in "Where No Man Has Gone Before", Friedman explains just how Kirk & Mitchell met up at the Academy & the initial mission aboard the U.S.S. Republic involving the pair protecting an empath. The story itself is actually well written & the raw emotion after the loss of a his best friend is well expressed & the events around Kirk & Mitchell's opening mission is also well presented in a way that shows just how these 2 became so close. The nice thing about this too is that the 2 stories stay separate from each other as to not cause any interference nor detract from each other. Overall a nice introduction to this mini-series within the Original Series fiction.

[Frank Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was great. I enjoyed the way their relationship evolved through the story. I enjoy all of trek but I much prefer this style of Kirk backstory to the image painted in the Kelvin timeline.

I'd recently read Vonda's "First Adventure" and I'm glad to follow it up with this series. Keen to get into the next one!

[Steven Shinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Where No Man Has Gone Before” is one of my favorite Star Trek episodes, and I’ve always been curious about the Kirk and Gary Mitchell friendship, which I’ve seen touched on in other things here and there. This book begins by essentially novelizing the later portions of the episode for a couple chapters or so. (Even saying the James R. Kirk thing was an old joke between these friends, which unfortunately doesn’t get explained in this book as far as I recall, but hopefully does later in the trilogy.) But then we get the aftermath, and see how tough it is for Kirk to try letting Gary’s parents know what went down.

He recalls to Spock some memories of him and Gary, and it’s kind of odd that we don’t see a date once we go to the past. But once we’re there, we stay there through the penultimate chapter. The Kelvin comics gave me the impression that Kirk was the type of person who’d need help in school from a classmate like Gary.

But Republic really turns my preconceived notions on their head: Kirk is an instructor, and Gary is a cadet (annoyingly referred to as a pleb). He tries getting Kirk out of his shell when it comes to women. I do appreciate how professional Kirk is at first at not wanting to start trouble by hanging around the women cadets during racquetball. But there are still parts that make this feel like such a guy book. The overall point, however, is this book posits that Gary was actually the one who influenced Kirk to be more of the risk-taking person with whom we’re familiar. And I thought that was a bold choice. Also funny how Gary has trouble studying but can absorb all the knowledge in his TV episode.

When Kirk finishes recounting his memories to Spock, it was a little confusing that they threw in the line about Kirk leaving certain things out, never specifying what and whether they were omitted from the account we read. However, seeing how appreciative Kirk is that Spock took the time to listen…it really felt special. And it made me think about how, even though Kirk couldn’t save his best friend Gary from death, he’d have a chance to bring his newer best friend back to life in the movies.

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

Once upon a time, Michael Jan Friedman did some of the best Star Trek novels and comics out there. Somehow by the late 90s... around the time books started to be allowed to reference each other and otherwise open up what was and was not allowed... he sorta... well... he farted.

Gone are the days of the TNG novel Reunion. While not as bad Star Trek: The Next Generation/X-Men Planet X... it was bad.

First... the first three chapters... or roughly 60 pages... was just a recap of an existing TOS episode. Not only that one that was adapted better by James Blish.

Then you get a another two or three chapters of Spock acting out of character. Or portraying him in a way most fans no is wrong. Spock isn't without emotions. it is not that he doesn't understand them. No, Vulcans have emotions and repress them. He understands them more than anyone. Which he doesn't here.

Then you have a story which as flash back has limited to no tension. Bleh. Plus, if you cut all the times Friedman tries to remind us Gary Mitchell is a year behind Kirk or Kirk was a year ahead of Mitchell... you'd lose two or three pages per chapter.

In a lot of ways, this reads like Friedman took an outline he wrote from the abandoned Star Trek junior novels series.... added some big words and a sex scene or two... and called it a day.

[Christian Petrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has been a long time since I read a Star Trek book. I thought I would give this triolgy a try to see how it expands upon Kirk's and Gary Mitchell's relationship. This first story does a good job of showing the early stages of the relationship.

If you are not a Star Trek fan and have not seen the episode Where No Man Has Gone Before, you are shown how it ended to frame the story of when Kirk and Mitchell first met. For Star Trek fan's it adds some additional details to the episode.

From here the story goes back to the Starfleet Academy days of Kirk. The base of the story of two cadets whose strength help guide each other in the course of their lives. Of course there is a Federation mission that is tossed in that plays a role in this relation.

It is not a bad story. It gets the job done to expand the friendship and gives a more emotional punch to the ending of Where No Man Has Gone Before. At the same time, I feel it seems to put too much of Kirk's evolution on Mitchell and might contradict some other backstory created in other Star Trek books. This is just a minor quibble, and also lack of my memory.

Overall I think it is good book and curious to see how Michael Jan Friedman continue this trilogy.

[Patrick Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent installment that's the first in a trilogy of books that focus on Kirk and Gary Mitchell's relationship. The first quarter of the book recounts the ending from "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and is followed by what happens just afterward. Spock goes to Kirk to ask him to share his past with Mitchell and that where the book really takes off. The pair's meeting at Starfleet Academy does not go as one would expect, nor does their posting on a ship, or what happens on an alien world.

Author Friedman does an outstanding job with all the characters, especially with showing Kirk in an unexpected light as well as reinforcing Mitchell's "gut feelings". How the two develop as friends was great, with each having the other rub off on the other.

I am looking forward to reading the other two books in this series.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's good for MJF to highlight a part of Kirk's life that has been overlooked and bringing his friendship with Gary Mitchell to the forefront of it. I liked the story and I thought it was kind of interesting the juxtaposition of what this Kirk is here at Starfleet Academy to the Kirk we see of the J.J. Abrams films and how they are completely different.

I think my biggest complaint would be that Mitchell is aware of his latent psychic abilities here but it has been a while since I have seen the episode but I didn't think he would know but that's just a gripe by me.

Anyway, looking forward to the rest of the trilogy! Good start!

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve always wondered how Kirk and Mitchell became friends many years ago. This starts out as the episode Where No Man Has Gone Before ends with Mitchell getting killed by Kirk in the end. Then it goes into the main story as Kirk recollects the story to Spock. We see Mitchell realize he has a knack to reading people’s minds. It tends to be helpful at several key points in the story. A story that kept the pages turning at a decent rate. Definitely recommended.

[Bill Winzenburg · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only complaint is the framing story. The first 2.5 chapters is just a recap of the episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before" the last half of Chapter 3 sets up Kirk telling Spock the main story. My issue comes that if this is KIRK telling the story, how do we have portions from Gary's perspective without Kirk's presence? Doesn't make sense. The main story would've been perfect as is with the framing.

[John Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick and fun story from Kirk's youth about when he met Gary and a training mission they go on together. Not a very deep story and not very many characters involved, mostly just about their developing friendship. I got tired of Gary calling Kirk a walking freezer unit probably the 4th or 5th time it happens. Ends with a little bit of a cliffhanger teasing something that happened years later but you could probably stop here and still be satisfied because its not that big of a story detail.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! This book gave a fun and informative look into the backstory of Gary Mitchell and James T Kirk's relationship. The story brought back the amazing feeling of watching a Star Trek TOS episode for the first time. I recommend this book to any TOS fan. This particular series is a trilogy, and I look forward to reading the remaining two novels.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting start to this Mitchell/Kirk trilogy. I'd probably push it to 3.5 stars -- the plot of this first flashback isn't anything to write home about, but the character work is first rate. I am certainly intrigued enough to move on to book #2.

[Alexander Branson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Diving into a relationship too briefly seen

How Jim Kirk and Gary Mitchell met and formed their friendship. A fun read which kept the pace going nicely whilst adding depth to the characters and world of Star Trek. Now on to book two, I can't wait!

[Tony · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have to say most Star Trek books I’ve read have been a lot better than this one. It certainly lacked depth, but it is fun to read about Kirk and his Academy days. It was a quick read, I’m still probably gonna read the next two books in this three part series.

[Everett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good typical Star Trek story that gives some decent background to the Kirk legend.

[Ricardo Arrechea · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring.

[Chris Fieldhouse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh comfort food, the literary equivalent of a box of Mac and cheese.

[Marie]

Not horrible, just kind of blah. Not looking forward to three books of blah (or wading through the blah to get to the good parts), so it's a nope for me.

[Todd R · Rating 1 out of 5]

Friedman is usually a competent Trek writer. This is probably the worst Trek book I've read...

[Kosar7480 · Rating 3 out of 5]

The set up on the Kirk-Mitchell friendship seems a little unbelievable... a slacker plebe befriends an upperclassman / instructor and won't take no for an answer.

[cauldronofevil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another ‘early’ Star Trek book. Actually it begins smack dab in the middle of the second Star Trek pilot - Where No Man Has Gone Before - with Kirk hunting down Gary Mitchel and Elizabeth Dehner down with a phaser rifle.

LOL! The author even explains the ‘James R. Kirk’ bit!

The re-telling of the end of Gary’s story is especially poignant because of ‘The Captain’s Oath’ which painted a great picture of their friendship.

Surprisingly it takes until Chapter Five (p.54) before we go back in time to see how Gary and Jim met. Those previous chapters are good however, adding detail and depth to what surely was significant event for both Spock and Kirk.

The story of how Gary and Jim became friends at the academy is interesting though not particularly insightful. Nothing you don’t already know if you’re a Star Trek fan but just spelled out.

An unexpected touch is that they all but give Gary psychic powers (high esper quotient, remember?). His ‘instinct’ keeps him from having to study as much as say, Jim. A little overdone IMHO, but dealable.

Hard to say how I feel after 10 chapters. Gary’s a street guy, smart but coasting on his ‘instinct’. Kirk is a stick-in-the-mud, studious and with loads of potential and closely watched by authority and clumsy around women. Gary’s helping him out as a friend, but authority feels like he is a bad influence on Kirk. Which is true.

Nothing terribly wrong here, but not terribly interesting either. I’d call it ‘rote’ if there a precedent for it. It’s just maybe more obvious than interesting.

A slight squint here. Kirk proceeds to trick a group of aliens by pretending to be one of them and yelling ”They went thattaway!”. But he (and Gary) are the ONLY humans there - the rest of the aliens are all one species and there is no sign of a universal translator. Why wouldn’t they speak in their own language?

Now I understand that in Star Trek these kinds of details are often hand-waved away (the karate chop knockout comes to mind), but the fact that it was noticeable right away and pretty significant means I should point it out.

The rest of the adventure proceeds as if per-ordained. There is nothing really wrong with this book, but the adventure isn’t very interesting.

The relationship between Gary and Jim isn’t very interesting either. Gary teaches Jim to improvise more.

I thought the first five chapters were really well done though. But it went downhill from there.

Maybe it’s because I just read Captain’s Oath which made the Gary/Jim relationship much stronger.

So while this is probably an average Star Trek book, it falls below average for me. So I’m giving it two stars. I’m not sure if I will keep it yet.

PS: One question went unanswered in the book (or at least I missed the answers if they were there).

In their first shenanigans together Gary and Kirk break into a Federation computer to see why there was an order for everyone to stay in their quarters (p.140). When they get the computer records they have all been deleted. The book never tells you why this happened.

Later in the book (p.266) it is implied that Kirk does find out, but the book never says what it is. Maybe it should be obvious, but I didn’t figure it out.

[David King · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Republic” by Michael Jan Friedman is an interesting Star Trek novel that forms the first part in the “My Brother’s Keeper” trilogy. This trilogy explores the relationship between Kirk and Gary Mitchell, a character that died during the second pilot episode of Star Trek entitled "Where No Man Has Gone Before".

The plot of this first book in the series starts with a framing story which details the final events of "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Then upon Mitchell’s death the reader get to explore some of the psychological impact of the tragedy upon Kirk who opens up to Spock and relates the story of how he and Mitchell first met back in the Academy. The novel then follows Kirk and Mitchell through the birth of their friendship and the first real adventure together aboard the USS Republic when it is diverted to a planet so Starfleet may provide support in securing a peace deal between two long warring factions.

The core story was entertaining and interesting as the reader gets to witness the development of Kirk & Mitchell’s friendship and how they rub off on each other in various ways. However, the USS Republic planeside portion of the story felt a little bit stale at times as it was neither very original nor that interesting in my opinion. It just felt like Friedman had inserted this section of the story into the book so there would be some sort of action etc. rather than it all just being about the character interactions.

As an additional note, I found the treatment of “Where No Man Has Gone Before” to be excellent. I have not yet read James Blish’s originally novelizations of the TV series episodes but it would have to be something really special to better what Freidman has done with the framing story in this novel. It captures elements of the TV show well but also adds to and enhances the aftermath in a well thought out manner that ensures people who have seen the show will actually read something a little bit more in-depth.

However, whilst I did enjoy learning some more about Kirk and Mitchell’s history, the characters just felt a little bit off to me at times. I found it hard to believe that Kirk was such a failure with the ladies as we witness here, nor could I believe that Mitchell would suddenly decide randomly to take on a mission to “loosen” up Kirk. In addition, Mitchell’s psychic abilities seemed a little bit too developed and the way in which he used them to solve every problem without an issue seemed a bit too far-fetched for me. Luckily, none of this was a major issue as their core personalities were pretty much as I would have imagined them at that time.

Overall this was an interesting and enjoyable look at the relationship between Kirk and Mitchell and how it was formed. The overall storyline isn’t anything special, but the real plus points in the novel are in relation to the characters themselves and how they develop through knowing each other. After reading the book, I am more than curious to know how different the TV series could have been had Mitchell not been killed off as he is a rather interesting character. Either way, I am now looking forward to the next book in the series so Kirk and Mitchell’s enjoyable relationship can be explored even further.

[Fynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here's what I liked:
- Cadet Kirk in all his nerdiness with absolutely zero game
- Cadet Kirk has PTSD and decks Mitchell in the face about it
- Mitchell is such an asshole. He's so goddamn irritating and I love him for it
- fantastic banter between K & M
- Spock <3 and his quest to befriend his captain. Very sweet to see the beginning of their friendship too
- all in all the characterisations are excellent!! and the character interactions are what motivated me to finish this relatively quickly

Things I didn't like:
- the epithets. Oh my fucking god, I never want to read about "the plebe" and "the upperclassman" ever again in my life. The boys have perfectly good names that could've been used
- long exposition that's just the TOS episode
- the second half of this focuses on an action plot that's very thin at times
- surprisingly unsexy for something named after the story of Cain and Abel. I kind of expected this to go deeper into the chosen brothers+fratricide thing, but they're just buddies and Kirk is a normal amount of sad, not a brother-murderer amount of sad