Over the years the Star Trek Universe has shown one part of it’s original cast to be thee glue that holds it all together. From tempering Kirks emotions in the original series, to becoming a key asset in Starfleet’s mission for peace decades later, Spock has been intertwined into several key points in galactic history.
His appearance in The Next Generation led to a cultural shift over time that saw Romans and Vulcan’s living as one nation. His disappearance during the Romulan Supernova led to the creation of the Kelvin Timeline. Even his strained relationships with his half brother and foster sister would have huge ramifications that would have an undeniable butterfly effect throughout time.
But in essence, Spock’s existence throughout most of his achievements shouldn’t have happened. During Kirk’s final showdown with Khan, Spock sacrificed himself to save the ship and his crew. It was only down to his casket being shot into space and accidentally landing on the Genesis planet that saw his remains remade to give a whole new second life to the shell left behind. If that pod never landed, or if Kirk had simply googled Vulcan death rituals and realised it was generally a bad idea, how would the universe be effected by the loss of that one constant?
Following Spocks death, Kirk was put back behind the desk and the Enterprise was being set aside for a new era of Excelsior Class replacements. Having properly done some research, Kirk would return to Earth with Spock’s remains and handed them kindly over to Sarek who – at some point, surely – would have figured out the bits he really needed were in McCoys head. Hijinks would surely ensue.
Meanwhile, the Grissom is still having a poke around this newly formed planet. It’s still a galactic controversy and the Grissom is still checking it all with nothing to back it up, making it a prime target for Kruge to sneak past the diplomatic shouting going on back on Earth.
As Kirk grumbles away to himself, trying to fight through a batch of paperwork as he settles back into the mundane life of an Admiral in a fleet accelerating past his prime, leaving Scotty to grumble about the Excelsior class ships and lecture young engineers on how to do things properly, Kruge finds there’s nothing stopping him taking the Grissom, claiming Genesis as his own and seeing how destructive it truly is, getting everything he needs to begin to reverse engineer the technology for The Empire.
Kruge’s plans wouldn’t be an overnight success, of course. Thats a lot of work to recreate. But while the Federation and the Empire waste time with investigations and accusations, Kurge would be able to use the distraction to pull off a successful weapons test and gain support to unite more than a few houses to get behind his cause to make the Empire great again!
It wouldn’t be a hard campaign. Especially as the opportunity to strike would present itself quickly as by the time Kruge had gained support, the Federation would already have been dealing with a major catastrophe; the devastation of Earth by an unknown alien probe who ripped the planet apart and left nothing but chaos, destruction and death behind. Widespread devastation on one of the capitol worlds of the Federation, and home to Starfleet, would have left the planet in ruins and allies scrambling to provide aid and refuge.
Kirk, still alive because of course he is, would step up to take control after the destruction of Federation headquarters, using what was left of the fleet to try and reassemble some form of defences. Especially as, while still dealing from the fallout, the Klingons prepare to finish what the probe started.
In an era where Klingon factions are looking for war, including high profile leader General Chang, there’s no need for a cooperative conspiracy that would have came in 2393. By that point the war would have engaged itself; Praxis a small blip compared to the power the Empire received from Kruge’s new weapon and incomparable to the remnants of Earth.
The war Spock and Chancellor Gorkon had managed to avert through peace would be inevitable. Kirk’s prejudice following the capture of the Grissom, and his son’s demise through treatment Kirk could only have nightmares about, would be easy to manipulate without his conscience to guide him forward of give logical words of wisdom.
Peace may come, eventually. But the mid 23rd century had shown the Klingons they could win the war against the Federation, and with revived bloodlust the unifying influence of L’Rell would fall too the wayside, putting Starfleet in full defensive mode against a powerful and unstoppable enemy.
The peaceful era of the Next Generation may still arrive, a hopeful future somewhere on the horizon. But with a crippled Earth and an Empire fighting for dominance, that peace would be a long way off and with a dramatic shift in the political landscape.
Of course, theres always the chance Kruge was never going to get the secret of Genesis and die with the planet as a complete failure. Someone else could figure out the Whale Dilema. And if that kept things calm, it could have been Sarek leading the way with Gorkon following the Praxis incident. But with no Spock, the chance of the universe collapsing into war in just a few short years becomes a possible reality and shows that when it comes to ‘What If?’ in the Star Trek Universe, Spock’s influence being removed would be the one thread that could pull the tapestry apart…
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