Changes: The Galactic Whirlpool

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"Captain's Log, Stardate 4496.1. We have broken off our search to investigate, the presence of... of a sensory anomaly."

Summary

From the back cover: On a routine mission in deep space, Captain James Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise discover a lost city, drifting in space, more than 20 years from the nearest Human colony.

Its inhabitants are human, but so isolated that they are unable to grasp the existence of other worlds besides their own. Outsiders must be demons. Earth is a place that exists only in legend, in the tales of their ancestors. But time is running out for this forgotten civilization... their world is being pulled straight towards the center of a galactic whirlpool, two orbiting black holes in space.

Can Kirk convince them to trust him, before their world is destroyed for ever?

Excerpts of copyrighted sources are included for review purposes only, without any intention of infringement.

Background Information

In his book The Trouble with Tribbles, in which author David Gerrold tells how the popular episode of that name came to be written, he mentions that his very first Star Trek story, written after watching the show's premiere in September 1966, was a sixty-page outline for an ambitious two-part episode which he called "Tomorrow Was Yesterday". In it, the Enterprise stumbles across Voyager, a generation ship launched from Earth centuries before. Voyager is being drawn into a nearby star, and the Enterprise crew have to convince her inhabitants to restart her engines and change her course. Their mission is complicated by the fact that a long-ago mutiny on board Voyager has left the inhabitants divided into two warring factions, one controlling the command center, the other controlling the engines, with both groups having forgotten that they're inside a spaceship.

Producer Gene L. Coon rejected "Tomorrow Was Yesterday", but was so impressed by it (and possibly by the fact that he received it within weeks of the show's premiere) that he invited Gerrold to meet with him, and eventually submit more story premises. Gerrold did so, and one of his premises eventually became "The Trouble with Tribbles". In the meantime, Gerrold took the outline for "Tomorrow Was Yesterday", removed all the Star Trek-specific references, and turned it into a film script called Yesterday's Children. When the script didn't sell, he began turning it into a novel, which wound up being about a battle between two starships rather than an encounter with a generation ship. Gerrold succeeded in selling the novel version of Yesterday's Children, which was published in July 1972, and which eventually served as the launching pad for his "Star Wolf" novel series.

Meanwhile, Bantam Books, which had been publishing novelizations of the Original Series episodes since 1967, began publishing original Star Trek novels in 1976. Gerrold agreed to produce an original novel for Bantam, and went back to the original sixty-page outline for "Tomorrow Was Yesterday" for the story, which became the novel The Galactic Whirlpool.

Characters

Canon characters listed below are linked to the main article about them. Non-canon characters are not linked, but those that recurred, appearing or being mentioned in more than one story, are defined further in Bantam TOS characters.
James T. Kirk
Kevin Riley
Arex and M'Ress: The two alien TAS regulars make their first cameo appearances in an original novel with this story.

George La Forge: A Starfleet admiral who relayed orders to Captain Kirk regarding the L5 structure. He was descended from a long line of Starfleet officers, dating back to the early vessel Detroit.; This character was named as a tribute to a Star Trek fan of the same name, who would later have the additional honor of having Geordi La Forge named after him.

Lana Shemry: A crewwoman aboard the starship USS Enterprise who was assigned to a landing party mission, under the command of Lieutenant Riley. She was killed, and Riley blamed himself for her death.

References

Earth, galactic whirlpool, USS Enterprise

External link

The Galactic Whirlpool at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works

Previous novel:	Series	Next novel:
Perry's Planet	Bantam TOS	Death's Angel
First novel in series	Star Trek Adventures	The Price of the Phoenix

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{realworld}}
-{| class="wiki-sidebar"
+{{Sidebar novel|
-|-
+| image             = GalacticWhirlpool1997.jpg
-| colspan="2" style="text-align: center" | [[Image:GalacticWhirlpool1997.jpg|200px|The Galactic Whirlpool, later edition]]
+| imagecap          = Spectra reprint cover
-|-
+| Author            = [[David Gerrold]]
-| class="odd" | Author:
+| Publisher         = [[Bantam Books]]<br />[[Titan Books]]<br />[[Spectra]]
-| class="even" | [[David Gerrold]]
+| Series            = [[Bantam TOS]]<br />[[Star Trek Adventures]] (Titan Books reprint)
-|-
+| Published         = {{m|October|1980}}<br />{{d|29|June|1993}}<br />(Titan Books reprint)<br />{{d|2|June|1997}}<br />(Spectra reprint)
-| class="odd" | Publisher:
+| Pages             = 223
-| class="even" | [[Bantam Books]]
+| Year              = [[2267]]
-|-
+| Stardate          = 4496.1
-| class="odd" | Series:
+| ISBN              = 0553241702<br />ISBN 1852864869<br />(Titan Books reprint)<br />ISBN 0553241702<br />(Spectra reprint)
-| class="even" | [[Bantam TOS]]
+}}
-|-
+''"Captain's Log, Stardate 4496.1.  We have broken off our search to investigate, the presence of... of a sensory anomaly."''
-| class="odd" | Published:
-| class="even" | {{m|October|1980}}
-|-
-| class="odd" | Pages:
-| class="even" | 223
-|-
-| class="odd" | Year:
-| class="even" | [[2267]]
-|-
-| class="odd" | Stardate:
-| class="even" | 4496.1
-|-
-| class="odd" | Reference #:
-| class="even" | ISBN 0553241702
-|}
-''"Captain's Log, Stardate 4496.1.  We have broken off our search to investigate, the presense of....of a sensory anomaly."''
-==Plot Summary==
+==Summary==
 ;''From the back cover'':
-:''On a routine mission in deep [[space]], [[Captain]] [[James Kirk]] and the crew of the ''[[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)|Enterprise]]'' discover a lost city, drifting in space, more than 20 years from the nearest [[human]] [[colony]].
+:''On a routine mission in deep [[space]], [[Captain]] [[James Kirk]] and the crew of the ''[[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)|Enterprise]]'' discover a lost city, drifting in space, more than 20 years from the nearest [[Human]] [[colony]].''
-:''Its inhabitants are human, but so isolated that they are unable to grasp the existence of other worlds besides their own. Outsiders must be ''demons''. [[Earth]] is a place that exists only in legend, in the tales of their ancestors.  But time is running out for this forgotten civilization... their world is being pulled straight towards the center of a galactic whirlpool, two orbiting [[black hole]]s in space.
+:''Its inhabitants are human, but so isolated that they are unable to grasp the existence of other worlds besides their own. Outsiders must be ''demons''. [[Earth]] is a place that exists only in legend, in the tales of their ancestors.  But time is running out for this forgotten civilization... their world is being pulled straight towards the center of a galactic whirlpool, two orbiting [[black hole]]s in space.''
-:''Can Kirk convince them to trust him, before their world is destroyed for ever?
+:''Can Kirk convince them to trust him, before their world is destroyed for ever?''
 {{review}}
 ==Background Information==
-In his book ''[[The Trouble with Tribbles]]'', in which author [[David Gerrold]] tells how the popular episode of that name came to be written, he mentions that his very first Star Trek story, written after watching the show's premiere in September [[1966]], was a sixty-page outline for an ambitious two-part episode which he called "Tomorrow Was Yesterday".  In it, the ''Enterprise'' stumbles across ''Voyager'', a generation ship launched from Earth centuries before.  ''Voyager'' is being drawn into a nearby star, and the ''Enterprise'' crew have to convince her inhabitants to restart her engines and change her course.  Their mission is complicated by the fact that a long-ago mutiny on board ''Voyager'' has left the inhabitants divided into two warring factions, one controlling the command center, the other controlling the engines, with both groups having forgotten that they're inside a spaceship.
+In his book ''[[The Trouble with Tribbles]]'', in which author [[David Gerrold]] tells how the popular episode of that name came to be written, he mentions that his very first Star Trek story, written after watching the show's premiere in {{m|September|1966}}, was a sixty-page outline for an ambitious two-part episode which he called "Tomorrow Was Yesterday".  In it, the ''Enterprise'' stumbles across ''Voyager'', a generation ship launched from Earth centuries before.  ''Voyager'' is being drawn into a nearby star, and the ''Enterprise'' crew have to convince her inhabitants to restart her engines and change her course.  Their mission is complicated by the fact that a long-ago mutiny on board ''Voyager'' has left the inhabitants divided into two warring factions, one controlling the command center, the other controlling the engines, with both groups having forgotten that they're inside a spaceship.
-Producer [[Gene L. Coon]] rejected "Tomorrow Was Yesterday", but was so impressed by it (and possibly by the fact that he received it within weeks of the show's premiere) that he invited Gerrold to meet with him, and eventually submit more story premises.  Gerrold did so, and one of his premises eventually became {{e|The Trouble with Tribbles}}.  In the meantime, Gerrold took the outline for "Tomorrow Was Yesterday", removed all the Star Trek-specific references, and turned it into a film script called "Yesterday's Children".  When the script didn't sell, he began turning it into a novel, which wound up being about a battle between two starships rather than an encounter with a generation ship.  Gerrold succeeded in selling the novel version of ''Yesterday's Children'', which was published in {{m|July|1972}}, and which eventually served as the launching pad for his "Star Wolf" novel series.
+Producer [[Gene L. Coon]] rejected "Tomorrow Was Yesterday", but was so impressed by it (and possibly by the fact that he received it within weeks of the show's premiere) that he invited Gerrold to meet with him, and eventually submit more story premises.  Gerrold did so, and one of his premises eventually became {{e|The Trouble with Tribbles}}.  In the meantime, Gerrold took the outline for "Tomorrow Was Yesterday", removed all the Star Trek-specific references, and turned it into a film script called ''Yesterday's Children''.  When the script didn't sell, he began turning it into a novel, which wound up being about a battle between two starships rather than an encounter with a generation ship.  Gerrold succeeded in selling the novel version of ''Yesterday's Children'', which was published in {{m|July|1972}}, and which eventually served as the launching pad for his "Star Wolf" novel series.
 Meanwhile, [[Bantam Books]], which had been publishing novelizations of the ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|Original Series]]'' episodes since {{y|1967}}, began publishing original Star Trek novels in {{y|1976}}.  Gerrold agreed to produce an original novel for Bantam, and went back to the original sixty-page outline for "Tomorrow Was Yesterday" for the story, which became the novel ''The Galactic Whirlpool''.
-==References==
+==Characters==
+{{non canon characters|Bantam TOS}}
-[[Earth]], galactic whirlpool, [[James T. Kirk]], [[Kevin Riley]], [[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)|USS ''Enterprise'']];
+;[[James T. Kirk]]
+;[[Kevin Riley]]
+; [[Arex]] and [[M'Ress]]
+:The two alien [[TAS]] regulars make their first cameo appearances in an original novel with this story.
-===George La Forge===
+; George La Forge
-'''George La Forge''' was a [[Starfleet]] [[admiral]] who relayed orders to [[Captain]] Kirk regarding the L5 structure. He was descended from a long line of Starfleet officers, dating back to the early vessel ''Detroit''.
+:A [[Starfleet]] [[admiral]] who relayed orders to [[Captain]] Kirk regarding the L5 structure. He was descended from a long line of Starfleet officers, dating back to the early vessel ''Detroit''.
 :''This character was named as a tribute to a ''Star Trek'' fan of the same name, who would later have the additional honor of having [[Geordi La Forge]] named after him.''
-===Lana Shemry===
+;Lana Shemry
-'''Lana Shemry''' was a crewwoman aboard the [[starship]] [[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)|USS ''Enterprise'']] who was assigned to a [[landing party]] mission, under the command of [[Lieutenant]] Riley. She was killed, and Riley blamed himself for her death.
+:A crewwoman aboard the [[starship]] {{USS|Enterprise|NCC-1701}} who was assigned to a [[landing party]] mission, under the command of [[Lieutenant]] [[Kevin Riley|Riley]]. She was killed, and Riley blamed himself for her death.
+==References==
+[[Earth]], galactic whirlpool, {{USS|Enterprise|NCC-1701}}
+== External link ==
+* {{mbeta-title}}
+{{Novel nav
+|series      = [[Bantam TOS]]
+|prev        = ''[[Perry's Planet]]''
+|next        = ''[[Death's Angel]]''
+|series2     = [[Star Trek Adventures]]
+|prev2       = {{first|novel}}
+|next2       = ''[[The Price of the Phoenix]]''
+}}
-{| table class="browser"
-|-
-| class="prev" | Previous novel:<br />[[Perry's Planet]]
-| class="topic" | [[Novels]]<br />[[Bantam TOS]]
-| class="next" | Next novel:<br />[[Death's Angel]]
-|}
 [[Category:Novels|Galactic Whirlpool, The]]
+[[de:Zwischen den Welten]]
+[[fr:The Galactic Whirlpool]]