The Blish books...

[EnriqueH]

The covers of those early Blish books mirrors how I feel about the 1980s Bantam covers.

They evoke a sense of wonder for me.

I loved the Galactic Whirlpool cover with Kirk on the captain's chair and the blonde girl behind him.

I remember looking at the Mudd's Angels cover and thinking that was movie era Scotty scoring with the babes. I remember feeling that the cover was weird. As if Scotty was not quite himself. But of course, that was Harry Mudd on the cover, not Scotty.

 

[Christopher]

The earlier volumes were based on some of the earlier versions of the scripts and not the final shooting scripts.

Yes, but that's not the only reason they differ. Blish added a lot that came from himself rather than from the scripts. A lot of people seem to think that he just slavishly copied the early drafts, and that's wrong. As I said, novelizers back then were much freer to change the works they were adapting. After all, there wasn't home video back then, so the people who read a novelization might never see the original work it was based on, or might only have a vague memory of it. So there was a lot more freedom to reinvent, and that's as important a factor in the early Blish volumes as the use of early script drafts was.

I also read the DC Fontana story and her complaint to GR regarding the adaptations.

Where did you read it? How reliable was the source? That really seems unlikely to me, not only because the adaptations didn't start to become more faithful until 1971-2, but because writers taking liberties with their adaptations was the norm back then. Blish wasn't some kind of renegade defying the expectations of a novelizer. He was doing exactly what every other novelizer in the 1960s did. Heck, when D.C. Fontana adapted Roddenberry's pilot The Questor Tapes, she took significant liberties herself, adding new subplots to pad the story to novel length and significantly altering the structure of the third act.

I loved the Galactic Whirlpool cover with Kirk on the captain's chair and the blonde girl behind him.

And I hated that cover, because the "blonde girl" was dark-skinned in the book. It's just one example of a shameful, long-running trend of whitewashing characters of color on book covers.

 

[EnriqueH]

I loved the Galactic Whirlpool cover with Kirk on the captain's chair and the blonde girl behind him.

And I hated that cover, because the "blonde girl" was dark-skinned in the book. It's just one example of a shameful, long-running trend of whitewashing characters of color on book covers.

I still haven't read the book so I don't know, but ever since I was a kid, I thought the artwork was super cool.

All those Bantam books had awesome covers.

 

[feek61]

The earlier volumes were based on some of the earlier versions of the scripts and not the final shooting scripts.

Yes, but that's not the only reason they differ. Blish added a lot that came from himself rather than from the scripts. A lot of people seem to think that he just slavishly copied the early drafts, and that's wrong. As I said, novelizers back then were much freer to change the works they were adapting. After all, there wasn't home video back then, so the people who read a novelization might never see the original work it was based on, or might only have a vague memory of it. So there was a lot more freedom to reinvent, and that's as important a factor in the early Blish volumes as the use of early script drafts was.

I also read the DC Fontana story and her complaint to GR regarding the adaptations.

Where did you read it? How reliable was the source? That really seems unlikely to me, not only because the adaptations didn't start to become more faithful until 1971-2, but because writers taking liberties with their adaptations was the norm back then. Blish wasn't some kind of renegade defying the expectations of a novelizer. He was doing exactly what every other novelizer in the 1960s did. Heck, when D.C. Fontana adapted Roddenberry's pilot The Questor Tapes, she took significant liberties herself, adding new subplots to pad the story to novel length and significantly altering the structure of the third act.

I loved the Galactic Whirlpool cover with Kirk on the captain's chair and the blonde girl behind him.

And I hated that cover, because the "blonde girl" was dark-skinned in the book. It's just one example of a shameful, long-running trend of whitewashing characters of color on book covers.

I realize that he didn't completely follow the early scripts in his adaptations and I didn't say or imply that he did but there is a lot of those early drafts in his stories. I know in some stores he made more artistic choices than in others; in fact his medical background provided him a lot of freedom in the adaptation of "Miri" for example.

The DC Fontana information came directly from a memo she wrote during the production of the series.

 

[Harvey]

I also read the DC Fontana story and her complaint to GR regarding the adaptations.

Where did you read it? How reliable was the source?

I can cut out the middle man here. Check your PMs.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

As I said, novelizers back then were much freer to change the works they were adapting. After all, there wasn't home video back then, so the people who read a novelization might never see the original work it was based on, or might only have a vague memory of it. So there was a lot more freedom to reinvent, and that's as important a factor in the early Blish volumes as the use of early script drafts was.

That is true; if anyone ever read Murray Leinster's novel based on the pilot of Land of the Giants found out--quickly--that few things in the novel matched the shooting script, or aired pilot. I understand that the script (which i've read) had to be expanded / fleshed out to fit novel length, but there's more in the book than anything even suggested by the episode (ex. the Spindrift is capable of flight after its initial crash--unlike the TV series).

I loved the Galactic Whirlpool cover with Kirk on the captain's chair and the blonde girl behind him.

And I hated that cover, because the "blonde girl" was dark-skinned in the book. It's just one example of a shameful, long-running trend of whitewashing characters of color on book covers.

If you think that was bad, one of the 1970s ST Book and Record comics turned Uhura into a blonde-haired white woman. in another adaptation oddity, Sulu was turned into a a black man. How in the world did that happen, since some of the art was clearly based on publicity photos of the cast.

@ LMFAOschwarz: favorite Blish cover...is a tie between the lovely Lou Feck art for ST4 (that seems like a lonely point in space), and ST6. The sixth novel, with the three characters beaming down, the key light from above, and the structure behind was an eye-catching layout, especially as the characters are already engaged with actions in the middle of a beam down ("Spock" contemplating, another almost surprised by his surroundings, etc.).

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

I notice the OP omitted Volume 12 and Mudd's Angels:

I was not aware of Star Trek 12 . I'd never seen it in the store, or maybe it was out during one the time I'd stopped watching trek for a while. Or, I knew that the series would end eventually, though. Maybe I'd assumed that all of the episodes were done by then. (Weird to think back to a time when you weren't aware that there were 79 episodes!)

Interesting in that cover seems the weakest of the bunch, in a way. The shot of the ship looks like it's the start of a pattern in the covers, this being the third in a row of ship shits. That, with the addition to the fact that the previous cover artists were attentive to spatial relationships, so even though "wrong" they were "right" - The ship itself is a merciless taskmaster when being drawn - perspective problems have a way of having nowhere to hide with this craft. Yet for the first time, it looks as if it's a model that's just a sitting a little too close to a fireplace.

I addition to the other writer, kinda looks retroactively that times they were a-changing somehow.

Thank you for the excellent thread topic and these excellent memories! I still have all of the books, ragtagged and lovingly worn.

It was too good to not start.

The late 60s/early 70s was a period where the influence of the Mid Century explosion of dramatic, abstract and suggestive cover art remained in vogue. Ordinarily, tie-in novels from live action TV series lead to common photos slapped on the covers, with no representation of the contents.

That feeling of mystery, distance and the fantastic (particularly captured in season 1) was felt in the artwork. Additionally, the work, along with cover descriptions such as:

"A chilling journey through worlds beyond imagination"

"The Enterprise blazes new star trails to danger.."

 

[Warped9]

I gotta say that even back in the day I thought the cover art of ST12 was...less than inspired.

 

[Christopher]

I also read the DC Fontana story and her complaint to GR regarding the adaptations.

Where did you read it? How reliable was the source?

I can cut out the middle man here. Check your PMs.

Thanks for that, Harvey. Some fascinating stuff there that I'm tempted to comment on, but I don't want to steal your thunder if you have plans to post about them.

Okay, so there a couple of memos from Fontana and Roddenberry complaining about specific shortfalls in the first couple of volumes, but Fontana's memo isn't addressing future volumes, it's more about trying to correct problems in ST2 before it goes to press. Her main points that could be applicable to future volumes are: 1) "Make sure we send the right script drafts so the 'Operation -- Annihilate' mixup doesn't happen again"; 2) "Why can't we do one book per episode like they do for The Man from UNCLE and Rat Patrol?"; and 3) "Get a different writer next time, I don't like Blish." And clearly those latter two suggestions weren't taken.

The only other thing that's mentioned in the relevant memos is that Roddenberry had Desilu's attorney Ed Perlstein send Blish a copy of the 1967 (second-season) revision of the series bible. I don't find anything from Roddenberry himself complaining about the inaccuracies in the adaptations, just a cover letter saying that he's enclosing the comments from his staff. Also there's a fan letter enclosed as a typical example of fan response (fairly negative) to the first Blish book.

So I suppose these memos could've had some influence on Star Trek 3 being more screen-accurate, but the stories in that volume still took a few liberties. And the volumes after that would've been published after Roddenberry, Fontana, et al. had moved on to other things, so they would've probably had no further influence. I think the growing slavishness in later volumes was indeed due to fan pressure. I've also heard that J. A. Lawrence ghostwrote a lot of the adaptations, far more than she was officially credited for, so that could've been a factor too. Although I'm not sure about that one.

If you think that was bad, one of the 1970s ST Book and Record comics turned Uhura into a blonde-haired white woman. in another adaptation oddity, Sulu was turned into a a black man. How in the world did that happen, since some of the art was clearly based on publicity photos of the cast.

I think I heard that was due to likeness-rights issues. Although the comic clearly shows George Takei's and Nichelle Nichols's facial features, just recolored.

 

[FormerLurker]

If J. A. Lawrence is/was James Blish's wife/widow, all of book 12 and most of book 11(I don't know which adaptations) were done by her alone, as James Blish had died before they were finished. She probably had a hand in earlier volumes as well, due to his failing health.

 

[Timewalker]

Those book covers take me back to when the Star Trek universe was opening up for me. Watching the episodes on television, collecting the James Blish books (including Spock Must Die), reading The Making Of Star Trek and building my first AMT Enterprise model kit along with the Klingon Battle Cruiser.

And this was before TAS along with Alan Dean Foster's Star Trek Log books (adapting the TAS episodes) and the release of Franz Joseph's Star Trek Blueprints and Star Fleet Technical Manual.

Man, what an awesome time to be a Star Trek fan.

Indeed. ST fans basically have everything handed to them these days, and those who joined fandom during/after TNG have no idea what it's like to not have any new Trek on TV/movies. I never got into model-building, but I agree with everything else.

In a week it will be what I consider my "official" anniversary of becoming a Star Trek fan. I started watching in November 1975, but it wasn't until December 6, 1975 that I forked over hard-earned babysitting money at Woolco for two paperbacks: Star Trek 4 and Star Trek 6. Considering that I was making a whopping 50 cents/hour babysitting, these books cost me a few hours of dealing with the neighbor's kids (and were well worth it). I still have them - nearly 39 years later.

Little did I know that they would be the first two books in my science fiction/fantasy library that now numbers in the thousands...

It took years to get the whole set of Blish books, and almost as long to finally see all of the 79 episodes. Back then, one channel aired Star Trek at 4:30 and the other at 5:00. I saw the last half of "Conscience of the King" twice before I ever got to see the first half. And after I'd finally seen the entire episode, that meant I could finally say I'd seen the entire Star Trek series. In the meantime, however, I'd read a lot of the episode adaptations long before getting to see them on TV, and yes, it was jarring when the story didn't match the episode. I do recall a few times, though, when I thought Blish's version was more interesting.

The covers of those early Blish books mirrors how I feel about the 1980s Bantam covers.

They evoke a sense of wonder for me.

I loved the Galactic Whirlpool cover with Kirk on the captain's chair and the blonde girl behind him.

I remember looking at the Mudd's Angels cover and thinking that was movie era Scotty scoring with the babes. I remember feeling that the cover was weird. As if Scotty was not quite himself. But of course, that was Harry Mudd on the cover, not Scotty.

My edition of The Galactic Whirlpool shows the L-5 colony/ship, not any characters.

 

[Warped9]

One thing I liked about the Blish and Foster adaptations was the idea of a book with more than one story in each volume. This wasn't an anthology collection in the conventional sense where each story is separate and totally disconnected from any of the others. I've rarely seen that since with the exception of some of the Med Ship stories by Murray Leinster.

 

[Nebusj]

If J. A. Lawrence is/was James Blish's wife/widow, all of book 12 and most of book 11(I don't know which adaptations) were done by her alone, as James Blish had died before they were finished. She probably had a hand in earlier volumes as well, due to his failing health.

Lawrence was Blish's widow, yes (still is, apparently; isfdb.org at least has no date of death for her, and she'd be only 74 years old). According to David Ketterer's biography of Blish, Imprisoned In A Tesseract, Lawrence and her mother wrote basically all the adaptations from Star Trek 5 onward, as Blish was suffering a severe case of writer's block.

 

[Warped9]

Those books also gave me my first taste of short fiction. An hour long episode really is rather equivalent to a short story in written form and seeing those episodes presented in essentially short story form was an early introduction to the idea that a complete story could be told within the framework of a few pages.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

to this day, I still think of the Blish books when I run across scenes that had an extra line in the written version. The Kirk/Losira "It is my existence", "It is my death" thing, or the Kirk to Vanderberg "Your order of priorities is the same as mine" stuff. Even after all these years! What is wrong with me?!

and TREK_GOD_1, you're right about book 6 and the composition, and the Spock-like figure visibly contemplating really makes the picture. Somehow this detail cuts through the clutter and really becomes the focus of attention.

 

[Warped9]

Anyone remember the Best Of Trek books that were collections of fanzine articles (I believe)? I think I had the complete collection at one point. They came later in the decade and into the '80s. The covers of those varied and little of it really seemed Trek related.

But some of the articles were interesting and many of them were something of a foreshadowing of discussions I would find here on the TrekBBS and other sites.

I think the books stopped shortly after TNG premiered.

 

[Christopher]

My edition of The Galactic Whirlpool shows the L-5 colony/ship, not any characters.

That's the original cover, and it's the edition I have. I still remember the day I bought it, brand new off the bookstore shelf. I remember saying to my father (paraphrasing), "Look! It's by the guy who wrote the tribbles episode of Star Trek!" And he said, "Just because it's by the same writer, that doesn't mean it's Star Trek." So I showed him the line up top where it said "MORE SPECTACULAR STAR TREK ADVENTURES" in small print. "Yes, it is, see?" "Oh."

One thing I liked about the Blish and Foster adaptations was the idea of a book with more than one story in each volume. This wasn't an anthology collection in the conventional sense where each story is separate and totally disconnected from any of the others. I've rarely seen that since with the exception of some of the Med Ship stories by Murray Leinster.

If you mean themed collections, there are plenty of those out there. For instance, Poul Anderson's various Dominic Flandry and Nicholas van Rijn collections, Asimov's I, Robot, Clarke's Tales from the White Hart, Blish's Earthman, Come Home, and various other "fix-up" novels that combine a series of stories into one volume.

According to David Ketterer's biography of Blish, Imprisoned In A Tesseract, Lawrence and her mother wrote basically all the adaptations from Star Trek 5 onward, as Blish was suffering a severe case of writer's block.

That would explain the difference in style in the later volumes. One wonders how things would've gone differently if Fontana had gotten her wish for a new author.

Those books also gave me my first taste of short fiction. An hour long episode really is rather equivalent to a short story in written form and seeing those episodes presented in essentially short story form was an early introduction to the idea that a complete story could be told within the framework of a few pages.

Well, more of a novelette or novella, depending on the level of detail in the telling. Blish (and Lawrence) tended to streamline a lot to get the stories to fit. There are a number of Trek novels that adapt 2-part episodes, and a few adaptations of 1-parters (Relics, Far Beyond the Stars, and Flashback) that consist roughly half (or a bit less) of adaptation and half (or a bit more) of new material added to flesh it out. The novelization of "Trials and Tribble-ations" combines it with selected portions of "The Trouble With Tribbles" and comes out to about 2/3 the length of one of those. Conversely, Diane Carey's adaptation of the 6-episode arc that opened DS9's sixth season fits into two volumes even though it adds new material, although it trims out some of the subplots too.

I always found it interesting to compare Blish's approach of stripping 50-minute stories down to the bare bones in order to fit 7-8 in a slim volume to Foster's approach of fleshing out 25-minute stories in order to make three of them fill out a thicker volume. I'm sure Fontana was happier with the latter approach.

 

[Ssosmcin]

These covers were amazing. I would love to have posters of many of them. I obviously prefer the paintings over the two photo covers.

With the Blish novels, few of the painted covers had much to do with the episode content, save for James Bama's beautiful NBC promotional art for WNMHGB used for novel #1, or ST 7--.

Except that WNMHGB wasn't adapted in the first book, it didn't get adapted until #8. So much later that Blish (or his wife - I'm not 100% sure I believe that) had to note that McCoy was subbed by Piper because Bones was on "special study leave" or some such BS.

 

[Greg Cox]

I believe some of the early BUFFY novelizations took more of "Blish" approach. Combining three or four Xander-centric episodes, for example, to fill a single volume.

 

[Timewalker]

Anyone remember the Best Of Trek books that were collections of fanzine articles (I believe)? I think I had the complete collection at one point. They came later in the decade and into the '80s. The covers of those varied and little of it really seemed Trek related.

But some of the articles were interesting and many of them were something of a foreshadowing of discussions I would find here on the TrekBBS and other sites.

I think the books stopped shortly after TNG premiered.

I have all the Best of Trek books and some of the original Trek fanzines. I've made reference to some of them occasionally in my posts on this forum, especially Mark Andrew Golding's essays and "The Disappearing Bum" which is an attempt to explain why, when Kirk & crew (and Janeway & crew) visit Earth in the '80s and '90s, they aren't immediately mobbed by hordes of Star Trek fans.

My edition of The Galactic Whirlpool shows the L-5 colony/ship, not any characters.

That's the original cover, and it's the edition I have. I still remember the day I bought it, brand new off the bookstore shelf. I remember saying to my father (paraphrasing), "Look! It's by the guy who wrote the tribbles episode of Star Trek!" And he said, "Just because it's by the same writer, that doesn't mean it's Star Trek." So I showed him the line up top where it said "MORE SPECTACULAR STAR TREK ADVENTURES" in small print. "Yes, it is, see?" "Oh."

It was either in "The Trouble With Tribbles" or The World of Star Trek that David Gerrold mentioned that he'd pitched this story as an episode. When it wasn't accepted, he later turned it into a novel.

One thing I liked about the Blish and Foster adaptations was the idea of a book with more than one story in each volume. This wasn't an anthology collection in the conventional sense where each story is separate and totally disconnected from any of the others. I've rarely seen that since with the exception of some of the Med Ship stories by Murray Leinster.

If you mean themed collections, there are plenty of those out there. For instance, Poul Anderson's various Dominic Flandry and Nicholas van Rijn collections, Asimov's I, Robot, Clarke's Tales from the White Hart, Blish's Earthman, Come Home, and various other "fix-up" novels that combine a series of stories into one volume.

Something to remember about some novels is that they weren't originally published as novels. Some were originally published over months, or even years, as short stories in various SF magazines. The better series were able to be collected as "novels" and not seem disconnected or contradictory, if the author made an effort to be consistent. My favorite example is Poul Anderson's Time Patrol stories, which can either be read as separate short stories or in their collected form in Time Patrol and The Shield of Time. There are a few others, if I recall correctly, that didn't make it into either of these.

Another well-known example is The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. I read "There Will Come Soft Rains" in my Grade 7 literature class long before I started collecting and reading science fiction and knew about the rest of his stories.

Those books also gave me my first taste of short fiction. An hour long episode really is rather equivalent to a short story in written form and seeing those episodes presented in essentially short story form was an early introduction to the idea that a complete story could be told within the framework of a few pages.

Well, more of a novelette or novella, depending on the level of detail in the telling. Blish (and Lawrence) tended to streamline a lot to get the stories to fit. There are a number of Trek novels that adapt 2-part episodes, and a few adaptations of 1-parters (Relics, Far Beyond the Stars, and Flashback) that consist roughly half (or a bit less) of adaptation and half (or a bit more) of new material added to flesh it out. The novelization of "Trials and Tribble-ations" combines it with selected portions of "The Trouble With Tribbles" and comes out to about 2/3 the length of one of those. Conversely, Diane Carey's adaptation of the 6-episode arc that opened DS9's sixth season fits into two volumes even though it adds new material, although it trims out some of the subplots too.

I always found it interesting to compare Blish's approach of stripping 50-minute stories down to the bare bones in order to fit 7-8 in a slim volume to Foster's approach of fleshing out 25-minute stories in order to make three of them fill out a thicker volume. I'm sure Fontana was happier with the latter approach.

I know I was. It was like getting two-in-one... the original story adapted to prose, plus enough original material to make a whole new story besides.