Episode Novelisations

[Panem et circenses]

Sorry if this belongs in Trek Literature, but I was wondering whether anyone had read the original anthology novelisations of the episodes released in the 1970s. The ones that contained a few episodes in one book.

If you have, do they differ a huge amount from the aired episodes? Or are they essentially just written up exactly as aired?

 

[KirkusOveractus]

Sorry if this belongs in Trek Literature, but I was wondering whether anyone had read the original anthology novelisations of the episodes released in the 1970s. The ones that contained a few episodes in one book.

If you have, do they differ a huge amount from the aired episodes? Or are they essentially just written up exactly as aired?

Those are the Star Trek books, adapted by James Blish. Bantam published them in the US, Corgi in the UK.

From what I recall, they were adapted from shooting scripts, which sometimes had lines or scenes that were later edited out of the final episode. You're essentially getting the episode as the shooting script had, before edits were done.

Those predate VHS, DVDs or Blu Rays, in that you could relive the episodes whenever you wanted by reading those.

I've got them in individual novels (12 were in the series, I think, along with the Mudd ones in a Mudd-only book) and also as a few hardback books called The Star Trek Reader.

 

[Ssosmcin]

The earliest books had the greatest differences. The first two in particular, but they all had a variety of alternate scenes and, of course, appreciations. They were my first stops into sci-fi literature and I love them to this day. They are an interesting take on the stories we all know so well.

Lots of names have been changed. Nancy and Robert Crater are named "Bierce" (and the live in a crater campsite - weirdly enough) in "The Man Trap" adaptation called "The Unreal McCoy." "Charlie X" is "Charlie's Law." In "The Doomsday Machine," Matt Decker is "Brand" Decker and Kirk's brother is nowhere to be found in Operation: Annihilate. Changes abound and they're fascinating. In "Balance of Terror," Blish says, regarding Spock, that neither McCoy or Scotty "liked the Vulcanite."

Love these books. These and the Gold Key Comics are amazing alternate takes on Trek.

 

[diankra]

Blish wrote the earliest ones without even having seen any episodes, as he was living in England and/or France (they moved around) before the start of UK screenings in July 1969. In any case, he didn't have a TV (ISTR), though I believe he did watch a few before doing the later books; not the episodes he was adapting, but it gave him an idea of what the actors were doing with the scripts.

 

[UnknownSample]

And yet, he was the first person to write an official Trek novel.

 

[Warped9]

Spock Must Die remains one of my favourite books.

 

[1001001]

Sorry if this belongs in Trek Literature

No problem, but yes it does. Moving now.

 

[Idran]

And yet, he was the first person to write an official Trek novel.

Second, actually; the first was by Mack Reynolds.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Instead of the episode's Andorian drill thrall (played by stunt guy, Dick Crockett), James Blish's "Gamesters of Triskelion" has a bald, purple-skinned "thing", with its nose-holes covered by flaps of loose tissue.

 

[Christopher]

It should be noted that not all the differences in the early Blish adaptations were due to working from earlier script drafts. Blish introduced a number of his own ideas and embellishments, including a number of references to concepts and events from his own Cities in Flight universe and other works -- e.g. the Vegan Tyranny, the Cold Peace, the Xixobrax Jewelworm affair mentioned in Spock Must Die!, etc. He was also the first person to propose the star 40 Eridani as Vulcan's sun, and his "Space Seed" adaptation in Star Trek 2 was the first work that explicitly placed TOS in the 23rd century (even though it kept the lines about being some 200 years after the 1990s, and even though his "Miri" adaptation in the previous volume had claimed to be 500 years after the mid-22nd century Cold Peace).

 

[Reanok]

I've read the books there's certainly different names for certain characters and things that were story elements they were in the scripts were changed the 1990s version of the books I have talk about the changes in the stories it mentions it before you read the stories from all 3 seasons of TOS tv shows.

 

[mkstewartesq]

Sorry if this belongs in Trek Literature, but I was wondering whether anyone had read the original anthology novelisations of the episodes released in the 1970s. The ones that contained a few episodes in one book.

If you have, do they differ a huge amount from the aired episodes? Or are they essentially just written up exactly as aired?

I read them all in the mid to late 1970s. They generally follow the episodes but with some differences – my understanding is that they were often times based on an earlier draft of the script, rather than the actual shooting draft.

M

Edit - sorry for what was in effect a duplicative post. For some reason, my browser showed that no one had replied to the original post – probably just a glitch because the post had been moved to another forum.

 

[Kor]

I love the cover illustrations. They really give a sense of being out on the final frontier.

Kor

 

[Ssosmcin]

I love the cover illustrations. They really give a sense of being out on the final frontier.

Kor

They were amazing. I would love to have posters of many of the paintings done for the books. James Bama's painting done for the network used in the first book especially. But also Trek's 5, 6 & 8.

 

[tomswift2002]

One other major difference is that when Blish was adapting "The Menagerie", he actually adapted the script for "The Cage", so none of the tie-in stuff with Kirk and crew that was used on screen was adapted.

But for these adaptations, I actually have all the stories in 3 volumes from 1991, where they were arranged in production order.

 

[Christopher]

But for these adaptations, I actually have all the stories in 3 volumes from 1991, where they were arranged in production order.

So do I. Unfortunately, it left out the two Mudd episodes. Perhaps it overlooked them because they were collected in Mudd's Angels (later reissued as Mudd's Enterprise) rather than the numbered volumes.

 

[rdzogschen]

So do I. Unfortunately, it left out the two Mudd episodes. Perhaps it overlooked them because they were collected in Mudd's Angels (later reissued as Mudd's Enterprise) rather than the numbered volumes.

Wasn't Blish working, or intended to work, on a original stories or books based on Harry Mudd?

 

[Christopher]

Wasn't Blish working, or intended to work, on a original stories or books based on Harry Mudd?

That's what ended up being Mudd's Angels. J.A. Lawrence took over the project after Blish died.

 

[rdzogschen]

That's what ended up being Mudd's Angels. J.A. Lawrence took over the project after Blish died.

Were there any more works created focused on Mudd?

 

[Christopher]

Were there any more works created focused on Mudd?

Not by Blish or Lawrence. There's Alan Dean Foster's adaptation of "Mudd's Passion," of course. Gold Key's ST comic featured Mudd in its final issue in 1979. There were Harry Mudd stories in both volumes of DC's TOS comic, the first by Len Wein and the second by Howard Weinstein. There's the 1997 novel Mudd in Your Eye by Jerry Oltion. And the Star Trek 25th Anniversary and Starfleet Academy computer games each featured Mudd in one of their storylines.