I had a book which claimed to be a collection of tentative episode plots for a fourth Star Trek season. It seems very little known, I've never seen it since. I remember it has two 'authors' who were involved in the original series, vouching for the book. I misplaced my copy and forgot teh 'authors'. Can anyone help me find the title of the book again, and then I can see about buying a replacement? The book was plausible, with new Star Trek stories.
Well, what you're describing is reminiscent of the Files Magazine publication The Star Trek That Almost Was, which described several rejected story treatments and outlines for TOS, though not specifically for a fourth season, just generally. But it was written by John Peel, not two authors associated with the show. Oh, wait -- you could be thinking of Star Trek Phase II: The Lost Series by Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens. It was about the abortive '70s revival series that ended up becoming Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and it included various plot outlines developed for the series. But the Reeves-Stevenses weren't involved with the original series, although they were story editors on the final season of Enterprise well after the book was published, and have written multiple ST novels including co-writing the William Shatner novels.
There was a second "Files" magazine called The Star Trek That Never Was. As I recall, both "books" consisted of rejected story pitches or outlines from the extant three seasons of TOS. The Reeves-Stevens's book Star Trek Phase II: The Lost Series had a lot of coverage of various scripts & treatments that were worked up in 1977-1978 before the Star Trek Phase II pilot script was reconfigured as Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Is that what you remember? Allan Asherman was, at one point, working on a book also called The Star Trek That Never Was, to be published by Pocket Books, but it never came out. I remember seeing a cover image in Starlog back in the late '80's. I was really looking forward to that book!
Nope, Never Was covered many of the same Phase II outlines that the Reeves-Stevens book did. Which is why I don't still have it -- I felt it would be redundant.
Sounds like it was one of those old Schuster and Schuster publications that Hal Schuster released in the 80's and early 90's. Or are you maybe thinking of The Joy Machine by Theodore Sturgeon and James Gunn?
The names 'The Star Trek that never was' and 'The Joy Machine' aren't it. I remember an introduction to the book explaining the authors' credentials' related to the original series as validation for the authenticity. 'Star Trek II: The Lost Series' sounds closer to the title, but I don't remember for sure, but the authors don't sound familiar and it doesn't sound Season 4 related. Also looking it up, it has more info on production and fewer scripts (2) than I remember. But some things about it do seem right - the cover looks vagely familiar. The name does sound familiar, though it clearly refers to the new series. I'm wondering if I'm misremembering some things and that's the right book. Thanks for the tips, let me if any other books sound like the one I remember. Edit: as I think about it, I think that is the correct book, and I'm misremembering some comments in the book about a fourth season with the 'new series'. I'm a bit confused about why I think I remember several episodes' stories, and not the other things the book reportedly has, but I think this is it. Thanks for the help.
http://vibrant-oxymoron.blogspot.com.au/2011/06/xon-and-star-trek-that-never-was.html IIRC, there was a problem with the two "Files" issues. I think the blurbs on the back were accidentally transposed? Ah, Steve Roby's site says: They were badly laid out, often badly printed, badly designed inside and out. The contents sometimes bore only a passing resemblance to what the title promised. For example, one Files Magazine title, 1985's The Star Trek That Almost Was by John Peel, is supposed to be about Star Trek Phase II, the unfilmed series from the late 1970s. Instead, it's a collection of summaries of unfilmed story treatments from the original series, nine in all. Thirteen pages of text is padded out to 47 pages with a lot of photographs, at least one used twice a couple pages apart. Another John Peel File from 1985, The Star Trek That Never Was, does have some information on Phase II. There's nine pages' worth of text, lots of photos (not from Phase II), then a section on the music of Star Trek, with perhaps six pages of text and more photos. At least one book, four years later, credited one author on the cover and another on the title page (Gross and Van Hise respectively, Trek: The Lost Years). http://www.well.com/~sjroby/lcars/schuster.html
While it has only 2 scripts, Star Trek: Phase II does have 4-8 page fairly detailed synopses of the first 13 episodes of Phase II's tentative first season. It's actually one of my favorite non-Fiction Trek books. I can even see it starting at me off my shelf right now! From what you're saying it seems this is the book you're looking for and just slightly misremembering it.