The Blish books...

[Christopher]

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.

As I said, the Bama poster was commissioned by NBC as promotional art for the premiere and first season of Star Trek in general. It wasn't created specifically for "Where No Man," but was meant to represent the series as a whole. It just happened to be based on imagery from WNM because that's what was available to James Bama at the time the artwork was commissioned.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

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?!

I do the same thing with the Mandala Fotonovels. They often had extra lines to cover something a character might have conveyed with a look.

I had The Best of Trek #1 (or, as it was simply called then, The Best of Trek). And to this day I still think of the Klingon homeworld as Kazh.

 

[HIjol]

The cover art is brilliant. The paintings were like both a continuation and reimagining of the series.

In the 1970s, I was "playing Star Trek" with my friends, or in other words making up new episodes for us to play in. The covers struck an inspirational chord relevant there, in confirming that the adventures of the crew continued beyond the series (in the minds of fans).

And I love your avatars, LMFAOschwarz.

Ditto, the Avatars, and CorporalCaptain, back when we were playing Star Trek and reading these books, my friends nasty "shower" in his basement was our Transporter, and we fashioned Communicators out of wooden blocks and little cut pieces of linoleum nailed on so it would flap open and closed...ah, jesus, what utterly simple and fine days those were...

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Except that WNMHGB wasn't adapted in the first book, it didn't get adapted until #8.

I know WNMHGB was not adapted in #1--but the Bama promotional art was based on that episode, so its only one of two Blish covers to represent actual episode content. The Bama art also appeared as pre-debut advertisements in local & national TV guide supplements that year.

 

[johnnybear]

Most of the British covers were all the same, just a picture of Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty over an Enterprise with the novel number! No.12 wasn't even as good as the US one with an Enterprise zooming across a yellowish background!
JB

 

[Ssosmcin]

Except that WNMHGB wasn't adapted in the first book, it didn't get adapted until #8.

I know WNMHGB was not adapted in #1--but the Bama promotional art was based on that episode, so its only one of two Blish covers to represent actual episode content. The Bama art also appeared as pre-debut advertisements in local & national TV guide supplements that year.

Ah gotcha, I thought you meant the cover specifically referenced the book's contents.

It's great artwork. I still wish Trek's 2 & 3 got custom artwork of the time, but they were obviously just going with promo pics until #4.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

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.

Power Records was always bizarre. One of their SPACE 1999 records had two security guards with Archie Andrews and Archie Bunker-style voices. After the villain beat them up, one of them recovered to warn John Koenig.....with a British accent.

Ah, an early fictional case of head trauma dysprosody!

 

[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.).

I was thinking about this some more, and remembered that these guys were quite bedeviling...




So we assume analogue-Spock is figuring something out. In the middle is someone who isn't quite Kirk - not even a stunt double, really...like someone who's standing in place to tweak a lighting-setup for filming. Who is this guy?

Far left isn't in any way McCoy.

Weird, how "Kirk" and "McCoy" are transparent, while "Spock" appears solid. Maybe his solidity adds to the weight of his silent musings, because he seemingly is the only one capable of helping?

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Weird, how "Kirk" and "McCoy" are transparent, while "Spock" appears solid.

I never thought the three were beaming down. It always struck me that Spock is lost in thought and doesn't realize that two guards are mysteriously fading away. Like they're being kidnapped by an alien transporter, one by one.

I also kind of like the underside of the Enterprise saucer section as an alternate style. You see the same thing on Blish Volume 8.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

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.

Power Records was always bizarre. One of their SPACE 1999 records had two security guards with Archie Andrews and Archie Bunker-style voices. After the villain beat them up, one of them recovered to warn John Koenig.....with a British accent.

That is bizarre. What did they do--switch scripts on the voice actors midway through the recording session?

If that's not strange enough, if you ever listen to Power Records' Planet of the Apes adaptations, some of the human characters speak with an American east coast accent--nothing like the actors in the film.

 

[Commishsleer]

Weird, how "Kirk" and "McCoy" are transparent, while "Spock" appears solid.

I never thought the three were beaming down. It always struck me that Spock is lost in thought and doesn't realize that two guards are mysteriously fading away. Like they're being kidnapped by an alien transporter, one by one.

I also kind of like the underside of the Enterprise saucer section as an alternate style. You see the same thing on Blish Volume 8.

That's not Spock!
It doesn't look anything like him!

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

That's not Spock!
It doesn't look anything like him!

That could be exactly what he's pondering.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

That's not Spock!
It doesn't look anything like him!

It is supposed to be Spock. Feck was not working from photos, but he knew he had to paint a pointy-eared alien with a greenish hue to his skin color.

 

[trynda1701]

I always thought that this showed an odd Spock, and it was Kirk and SCOTTY!

My original Blish adaptions had the original Corgi covers like this...

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q6NbexNzhbA/U8JMzajxLrI/AAAAAAAAm4w/KchZnjdpQiA/s1600/Corgi-xxxxx+Blish+Star+Trek+1+%28v+small%29.jpg

...for Books 1,2 and 3, plus 7 thru 11. My late Dad got me the first 6 in 1970 or so. I had the ones like above for 4,5 and 6, and finally got 12 in the late 70's

 

[ToddPence]

A couple of years ago, I did my own writeup of the first five Blish novels on this forum:

http://www.trekbbs.com/showpost.php?p=6363697&postcount=22

 

[F. King Daniel]

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 love the Best of Trek books, and have all but #17. They really showed me how little fandom has changed in four decades. "Indiana Skywalker Meets the Son of Star Trek", unkindly reviewing Wrath of Khan reads uncannily like a modern tirade against JJ Abrams' Treks.

Googling the stuff I read about in BoT, I came across the Interstat fanzine transcripts on Fanlore.org, and Joan Marie Verba's ebook, Boldly Writing: A Trekker Fan and Zine History, 1967-1987

 

[EnriqueH]

I remember picking up the Best of Trek books when I was a teenager and was confused. They usually were placed right after Star Trek books, but the covers didn't seem Star Trek related. I never ended up buying any of them...until now.

 

[Commishsleer]

I always thought that this showed an odd Spock, and it was Kirk and SCOTTY!

My original Blish adaptions had the original Corgi covers like this...

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q6NbexNzhbA/U8JMzajxLrI/AAAAAAAAm4w/KchZnjdpQiA/s1600/Corgi-xxxxx+Blish+Star+Trek+1+%28v+small%29.jpg

...for Books 1,2 and 3, plus 7 thru 11. My late Dad got me the first 6 in 1970 or so. I had the ones like above for 4,5 and 6, and finally got 12 in the late 70's

Those guys on the covers look too buff for Nimoy, Shatner and Doohan.
They remind me of the guy playing Kirk in the latest fan-series

 

[Ssosmcin]

The four Star Trek Reader volumes used large versions of the covers for their collections, but sadly,not really the very best in my opinion. It was still nice to have larger versions.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Those guys on the covers look too buff for Nimoy, Shatner and Doohan.

Shatner would disagree about his TOS shape. Anyway, its not supposed to be photo realism, no more than comic adaptations of movies/TV series do not match the performers down to every last shape or detail.