I think it was more a matter of it all being very new to everyone involved. TBF, some of those Pocket titles were not much better.
The early Pocket novels were pretty amateurish as well; but they hit a stride in the mid-to-late 80s with many fondly remembered classics.
The Marshak/Culbreath books in that early batch were horrid. I owned every one of those early books pictured. Back in the glory days when one actually COULD afford to have every Trek book that was out there.
The height of the 90s when Pocket Books was publishing up to 5(!) novels a month (TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, and a hardcover of any series) was just too much and resulted in many rushed feeling novels that felt generic.
I actually owned a hard-bound copy of their rough draft for those two books. I sold it to a fellow over in England, so now it is mucking up the UK.
It wasn't just the rate but the novels had a hard set of guidelines they had to keep to. Basically, nothing in the status quo can change at all in any way. Only the real star writers likes Peter David were even really allowed to add new stuff. That also was a part of what created the generic feel to the novels.
I had an original from 1968. That story is BAD....it makes the old Gold Key comics stories look like masterpieces.
I have Spock Must Die! somewhere in my house. I first read it in eighth grade. I like how they took the time to have an extended conversation about the transporter and how it picks you apart every time you go into one.
I still have "Yesterday's Son" with a great follow up with both "All our Yesterdays" and "City on the Edge of Forever." Plus, Spock has a son!
His son comes back and asks for help with a war or something. I can visualize the cover and that's about it.
Agreed. I think Richard Arnold was cast as the villain in that at the time. But regardless, that era soured me on the novels for many years, until the Crucible trilogy appeared. Some of those early novels were great and wild, because they didn't care about continuity. It was a great period of wilderness.