Star Trek Animated Series Novelizations

[Kamdan]

Has there ever been a detailed analysis of what was added to the novelized versions of the animated series of Star Trek? I haven't gotten the chance to read them and I would love to hear how the stories were expanded upon, since the show was only a half an hour.

[Christopher]

Oh, too much was added to make a thorough listing of. In the first six volumes, Alan Dean Foster added lots of extra business to the stories -- introductory material to set them up, bridging material between them, expanded backstory and character bits and dialogue within them. In the last four volumes, there was only one episode adapted apiece, with new stories added to flesh them out. Logs 7-9 started with the episode and then added a connected followup adventure to make it novel-length. Log 10 added three new storylines, one before, one during, and one after the episode adaptation.

[TOSalltheway]

I have not read them since the 1970s but I seem to recall they were much better than the TOS adaptations. Longer and more detailed and they flowed together....If I remember correctly.

[Timewalker]

Kamdan wrote:

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Has there ever been a detailed analysis of what was added to the novelized versions of the animated series of Star Trek? I haven't gotten the chance to read them and I would love to hear how the stories were expanded upon, since the show was only a half an hour.

They're a lot better than some of the TOS novels, many of the TNG novels, and they have something that the vast majority of other Star Trek novels lack - humor.

[JimZipCode]

I adored these when i was a kid in the 70s.
(On the strength of them, I also read his Star Wars tie-in from the same era, Splinter of the Mind's Eye. Liked that very much, too.)

I was able to pick them up a year or two ago, collected in 3 or 4 volumes. I did not read all of them – really I only read Yesteryear (still one of the best Star Trek episodes) and skimmed bits of a couple other stories. I should have also read Log 7, The Counter-Clock Incident, which is probably the one I loved most as a kid. Maybe I'll get around to it.

My impression is they do not hold up well.

It's worth noting, when you look at Foster's published work, that these are among his very first novels. So he was probably on a steep leaning curve as a novelist as he did these. The later "Log" books are probably much better than the first few. "Yesteryear" is in Log 1, which by my theory should be one of the worst of the books. So my impression may be hasty and unfair. I really, really adored these as a kid.

[BoredShipCapt'n]

JimZipCode wrote:

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I adored these when i was a kid in the 70s.
(On the strength of them, I also read his Star Wars tie-in from the same era, Splinter of the Mind's Eye. Liked that very much, too.)

I was able to pick them up a year or two ago, collected in 3 or 4 volumes. I did not read all of them – really I only read Yesteryear (still one of the best Star Trek episodes) and skimmed bits of a couple other stories. I should have also read Log 7, The Counter-Clock Incident, which is probably the one I loved most as a kid. Maybe I'll get around to it.

My impression is they do not hold up well.

It's worth noting, when you look at Foster's published work, that these are among his very first novels. So he was probably on a steep leaning curve as a novelist as he did these. The later "Log" books are probably much better than the first few. "Yesteryear" is in Log 1, which by my theory should be one of the worst of the books. So my impression may be hasty and unfair. I really, really adored these as a kid.

I read these in the Seventies as a kid also. I can still recall a couple of sentences verbatim after some 33 years:

"An infinitude of Kirks waiting for the return of a billion Spocks in a million variations of a certain awkward second or two in time..."

"Vulcans do not voluntarily pollute their bloodstreams with odd combinations of ethyl alcohol molecules."

[foxhot]

One of the last extra storylines in Foster's LOG TEN involves the Flintstones/Gilligan's Island conceit of switched bodies. Kirk, Uhura, Spock and Sulu are all accidentally sent into each other. Sulu is in Spock's body, Spock in Uhura's (fascinating), Uhura in Kirk's (revolting for her) and Kirk in Sulu (not touching that, too easy). Before they were restored to normal, Uhura-as-Kirk bested a Klingon in combat.

[BoredShipCapt'n]

foxhot wrote:

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One of the last extra storylines in Foster's LOG TEN involves the Flintstones/Gilligan's Island conceit of switched bodies. Kirk, Uhura, Spock and Sulu are all accidentally sent into each other. Sulu is in Spock's body, Spock in Uhura's (fascinating), Uhura in Kirk's (revolting for her) and Kirk in Sulu (not touching that, too easy). Before they were restored to normal, Uhura-as-Kirk bested a Klingon in combat.

I had forgotten all about that, but now it's registering a dull thud in my memory. Fascinating indeed.

[Christopher]

JimZipCode wrote:

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(On the strength of them, I also read his Star Wars tie-in from the same era, Splinter of the Mind's Eye. Liked that very much, too.)

Foster also ghost-wrote the novelization of the original Star Wars movie under George Lucas's name, which was why he was picked to do Splinter. (This is part of why some people falsely believe he ghost-wrote Roddenberry's Star Trek: The Motion Picture novelization -- they get the two confused. Foster was also mis-credited as the ST:TMP novelization's author on a French translation. But the writing style is profoundly unlike Foster's.)

[EliyahuQeoni]

I have not read all of these, but the ones I have read were fantastic! I've always loved TAS, but these novels take theoriginal TAS and expand & enhance it so much that I recommend them to people who don't like TAS.

Does anyone know if these are available in ebooks?

[Christopher]

EliyahuQeoni wrote:

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Does anyone know if these are available in ebooks?

I just checked, and apparently they aren't.

[Relayer1]

It's been a long time since I read these, but I remember them being very good ! I was rather disappointed when I saw a few episodes and they weren't as good. I still haven't seen that much of TAS.

[Redfern]

Relayer1 wrote:

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...I remember them being very good ! I was rather disappointed when I saw...episodes and they weren't as good.

Similar situation here. I saw the animated series during its original NBC Saturday morning run and I bought Foster's adaptations as they were released. The cartoon was dropped come Fall of 1975, so from that point all I had were the novelizations and the hand drawn reproductions of cels in Trimble's Concordance.

After reading them multiple times, I started to remember them with ADF's embellishments, Kirk suffering 3rd degree burns upon his hands in "Beyond the Farthest Star" and the extra corridors and chambers explored upon the pod ship. Foster turned M'Ress from a "gimmick" alien into a realized character, going so far as to having her mauled by Kzinti during a flashback when she recalls her past assignments.

Then the series was rerun upon Nickelodeon in the mid 80s and the episodes came across like Readers' Digest synopses of longer stories.

And as already stated, the original 3 episodes per volume resulted in Foster dialing back to just 1 episode per the later books supplemented with original material. Ever wonder what was happening on the Enterprise when Spock, Uhura and Sulu encounter the Kzinti with the Slaver stasis box? Foster has M'ress along with two other female Caitians go feral and try hijacking the ship! Let's just say Scotty's solution to the the crisis was "unique".

Sincerely,

Bill

[Timo]

...Then we have "Eye of the Beholder" where, after the "zoos are evil" televised plot concludes, our heroes help the misguided zookeeper slugs imprison further sentient creatures to their collection!

There's some neat Lovecraftian weirdness to the extension of "Bem", and I sort of liked the little touches in "Ambergris Element", "Albatross" and "Pirates of Orion", but overall it seems Foster was engaged in undoing the "message" of the original story the best he could. Which isn't necessarily always a bad thing.

Timo Saloniemi

[milo bloom]

I read these for the first time just in the past few years and I was greatly disappointed. There was far too much "explaining" as opposed to "expanding". Let me put it this way, we've been downsizing our "dead-tree version" books and while I've resisted selling off most of my Trek novels, these were the first to go in the box.

The episodes stand alone as stories by themselves just fine.