James E. Gunn takes the original story treatment for The Joy Machine by Theodore Sturgeon, who gave us the TOS episodes Shore Leave and Amok Time, and turns it into a novel that feels very much like an Original Series episode.

When a couple of Federation investigators disappear on a planet, one that Captain James T. Kirk has been to before, he and the Enterprise are sent to investigate to discover what has happened to the missing personnel.

Beaming down, Kirk is troubled to discover that the planet that was moving towards a Platonic ideal has fallen into a horrible cycle that will lead to the collapse of the entire society. Someone has created a machine, christened the Joy Machine, that will deliver a payday to the citizens of the city for the completion of industrious work. That payday is ultimate bliss, it’s pure joy, unfiltered followed by a fantastic night’s sleep which lets it fade to an idealized dream.

It’s incredibly addictive.

It’s keeping all of society out of trouble, everyone is intent on manual labour to earn their next payday. There’s no crime, there’s no violence.

There’s also no creativity, no drive, and no desire to be more than what you are.

But Kirk, and the current paymaster (and his old friend) Marouk, aren’t sure that the Joy Machine should be able to stunt an entire species’ growth, especially when the stalwart captain learns that the Machine plans to spread across the universe, set in the rightness of its programming that it must bring joy to all species, even if it cripples all of them.

The Machine is able to trap Kirk into putting on the bracelet which controls payday, and can deliver as much pain as it does joy, and he has twenty-four hours to decide whether he will give himself over to the program, with the lives of McCoy, Spock and Uhura in the balance. Each has been outfitted with a bracelet and Kirk’s decision will make their fate.

In orbit, Scotty is unable to effect a rescue because the ship’s computer is interacting with the Joy Machine, and that too could pose a threat.

In the end, Kirk and Spock will have to confront the Machine and make an argument for humanity and more, to realize that the drive for knowledge will outweigh the pursuit of happiness as we reach to learn ever more about the universe around us.

This one feels like an actual episode of the Original Series, I like how Gunn has taken Sturgeon’s story, and expanded it into novel form, but very much tying it into the reality of the time in which the original tale was written.

It’s familiar territory for Kirk, crew and fans at this point, but it is, nonetheless, an interesting exploration of the human condition, with Captain Kirk right at its center, boldly going.