Are the Blish novelizations canon?

[Therin of Andor]

the fanzine version of Black Fire is just the cut or rewritten sections and an alternate ending. I recently read it in conjunction with the official version, and could kinda-sorta see where it fit together. But the fanzine would make no sense read on it’s own.

Discussed on Fanlore:
https://fanlore.org/wiki/Black_Fire#What_Was_Left_Out_of_the_Pro_Novel.3F

However there was a sort of Blish omnibus wrapped in plastic saying it was for the original series - a collection by James Blish and J A Lawrence. It was a hardcover with silver edges.
However it was in a series of collections, along with Sherlock Holmes, Alice in Wonderland, etc stuff that is out of copyright. So I was wondering if the adaptions were out of copyright.I live in Australia in the boondocks so maybe the rules are different or they had copyrighted and non-copyrighted stuff in the same omnibus series.

The new owners of Bantam material still have the contractual right to reprint their Trek stuff, but seemingly not in eBook format, probably because nobody visualised that commercial possibility when late 60s/early 70s licensing contracts were being drawn up.

Making a "Best of..." leather-bound volume to match their other hardcover classics was a great (and unexpected) 50th anniversary concept.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Classic_Episodes

 

[Commishsleer]

Discussed on Fanlore:
https://fanlore.org/wiki/Black_Fire#What_Was_Left_Out_of_the_Pro_Novel.3F



The new owners of Bantam material still have the contractual right to reprint their Trek stuff, but seemingly not in eBook format, probably because nobody visualised that commercial possibility when late 60s/early 70s licensing contracts were being drawn up.

Making a "Best of..." leather-bound volume to match their other hardcover classics was a great (and unexpected) 50th anniversary concept.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Classic_Episodes

OK so not all episodes.
Sorry everyone for saying it might be out of copyright. No need to panic there, Just thought it might have come under tje old 50 year copyright thing but I realise that Australia was forced to
Disneyfy its Copyright laws by the US so it 95 or 120 years or maybe eventually forever if Disney have their way.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Just thought it might have come under tje old 50 year copyright thing but I realise that Australia was forced to Disneyfy its Copyright laws by the US so it 95 or 120 years or maybe eventually forever if Disney have their way.

If you were immortal and owned nearly everything, wouldn't you want to own it forever?

 

[Commishsleer]

If you were immortal and owned nearly everything, wouldn't you want to own it forever?

Don't get me started! The hypocrisy or an organisation that used material like Alice in Wonderland out of copyright then were able to copyright it in a film of their own.. .
When they start to copyright DNA genomes ... I've got to stop.

Anyway I was watching Friday's Child and was remembering that Blish's versionwas quite different from the filmed. Elaan was quite the naughty girl in Blish's adaption.

 

[Tallguy]

Anyway I was watching Friday's Child and was remembering that Blish's versionwas quite different from the filmed. Elaan was quite the naughty girl in Blish's adaption.

That was DCs original ending IIRC. She was kinda ticked off that Roddenberry changed it.

"Fontana also envisioned Eleen as a strong woman, who rebels against a society which considers women only as mothers and homemakers."

 

[Maurice]

That was DCs original ending IIRC. She was kinda ticked off that Roddenberry changed it.

"Fontana also envisioned Eleen as a strong woman, who rebels against a society which considers women only as mothers and homemakers."

What are you quoting?

 

[Tallguy]

What are you quoting?

That was Memory Alpha. Sorry I don't always post well from my phone. I dimly recall seeing / hearing an interview with DC that tracked with that. It was basically saying there was no magic that made you a great nurturing mother just because you're a woman. Women can be terrible people too!

So to answer the original post, I'd say "No". Certainly not where they contradict the finished film. (Did anyone mention that Klingons were literally of Asian descent? Am I remembering that right?)

 

[Christopher]

Anyway I was watching Friday's Child and was remembering that Blish's versionwas quite different from the filmed. Elaan was quite the naughty girl in Blish's adaption.

I just reread that to refresh my memory. I'm not sure they could've gotten that past the censors in the '60s.

(Did anyone mention that Klingons were literally of Asian descent? Am I remembering that right?)

Blish did write in the "Errand of Mercy" adaptation that Klingons were "originally of Oriental stock," but he doesn't elaborate, so it's unclear whether he was suggesting they were actually a human offshoot culture or if he was assuming a parallel-evolution thing where other worlds evolve not only humanlike aliens, but ones with the same ethnic groups we do. Nine volumes later, the "Day of the Dove" adaptation refers to them as having "Mongol-like features," suggesting the latter, but there was plenty of intervening time to change his mind (if he was even the actual author at that point).

 

[Tallguy]

I don't know about other instances but in Miri he jettisoned the parallel development angle and said they were just a long lost Earth colony.

 

[Christopher]

I don't know about other instances but in Miri he jettisoned the parallel development angle and said they were just a long lost Earth colony.

Yes, which had left Earth during the "Cold Peace" era from his Cities in Flight universe, and had been around for 700 years, putting ST in something like the 28th or 29th century.

 

[johnnybear]

Don't get me started! The hypocrisy or an organisation that used material like Alice in Wonderland out of copyright then were able to copyright it in a film of their own.. .
When they start to copyright DNA genomes ... I've got to stop.

What are we going to do when Disney not only owns every copyright to everything but also the world itself??
JB

 

[Commishsleer]

What are we going to do when Disney not only owns every copyright to everything but also the world itself??
JB

Well we won't be allowed to do anything without giving Disney a cut.

 

[johnnybear]

Well they want Planet of The Apes and 20th Century Fox I've heard or do they already have them?
JB

 

[Ssosmcin]

They have Fox now yes.

 

[Dale Sams]

Just thought of something....and sorry if its covered earlier. Don't they in the "Court-Martial" novelization....go further into detail into the pod Finney was in, and why it was so dangerous to fail to jettison it?

 

[Christopher]

Just thought of something....and sorry if its covered earlier. Don't they in the "Court-Martial" novelization....go further into detail into the pod Finney was in, and why it was so dangerous to fail to jettison it?

Yes.

For the benefit of possible civilians on the board, Kirk added, "The pod is outside the ship, attached to the skin. One of our missions is to get radiation readings in abnormal conditions, including ion storms. This can only be done by direct exposure of the necessary instruments in a plastic pod. However, in a major storm the pod rapidly picks up a charge of its own that becomes a danger to the rest of the ship, and we have to get rid of it."

Why there has to be a person in the pod is not explained, though.

 

[Commishsleer]

They have Fox now yes.

Yes.

For the benefit of possible civilians on the board, Kirk added, "The pod is outside the ship, attached to the skin. One of our missions is to get radiation readings in abnormal conditions, including ion storms. This can only be done by direct exposure of the necessary instruments in a plastic pod. However, in a major storm the pod rapidly picks up a charge of its own that becomes a danger to the rest of the ship, and we have to get rid of it."

Why there has to be a person in the pod is not explained, though.

I got the gist in the episode. The Pod was dangerous and they had to eject it. OK

But I can't picture it. If the pod was outside the ship then how did they get in and out. Was there a hole in the side of the ship where it was attached? Seems a bit precarious. Then how exactly did the Pod get ejected? Was there a tunnel? So I gather there's some sort of outside hatch connected to an air-lock and the outside of the hatch is a big plastic bubble pod thingy which can be detached from an order from the bridge. Finney goes through the hatch gets in the bubble, takes some reading, then is supposed to leave when the bridge tells him. Either Finney was never in the pod or he got back into the ship and hid?

 

[Maurice]

Eleen (not Elaan) dies in the first draft script the way she does in the Blish version, but for the weapon being different. Kirk's dialog in reaction to it in the Blish version is lifted straight from the that script.

Is the concern re the "censors" is Maab's suggestion that Eleen is "known" to a man other than her husband? If so, the only NBC memos I see for the outline and scripts make no mention of her supposedly being a so-called "naughty girl". I suspect the change was motivated by a note in an April 20, 1967 memo from Justman to Coon, to wit:

 

[Commishsleer]

Eleen (not Elaan) dies in the first draft script the way she does in the Blish version, but for the weapon being different. Kirk's dialog in reaction to it in the Blish version is lifted straight from the that script.

Is the concern re the "censors" is Maab's suggestion that Eleen is "known" to a man other than her husband? If so, the only NBC memos I see for the outline and scripts make no mention of her supposedly being a so-called "naughty girl". I suspect the change was motivated by a note in April 20, 1967 memo from Justman to Coon, to wit:

View attachment 17040

I suppose in the episode they spent a lot of time on Elaan. In the end if they had her betraying them then that also makes the big 3 not as effective as a role model.
TOS had its fair share of treacherous women so was what was DCs complaint that finally broke the camel's back for her. That women are so vacuous that they can easily turn on a lifetime of training? That Elaan was suddenly mother-of-the-year?
The Elaan from Blish's adaption just isn't worthy of our consideration so trivialises the episode. Unlike Tyrees wife who was so outrageously evil and manipulative but wasn't the centrepiece of "Friday's Child"
For her also to be a cheater makes her to be even less worthy of an advocate for feminism IMO.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I got the gist in the episode. The Pod was dangerous and they had to eject it. OK

But I can't picture it. If the pod was outside the ship then how did they get in and out. Was there a hole in the side of the ship where it was attached? Seems a bit precarious. Then how exactly did the Pod get ejected? Was there a tunnel? So I gather there's some sort of outside hatch connected to an air-lock and the outside of the hatch is a big plastic bubble pod thingy which can be detached from an order from the bridge. Finney goes through the hatch gets in the bubble, takes some reading, then is supposed to leave when the bridge tells him. Either Finney was never in the pod or he got back into the ship and hid?

TOS-R took a stab at placing the pod:

http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x20hd/courtmartialhd002.jpg
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x20hd/courtmartialhd003.jpg

Today's viewers would definitely say the pod should be automated, but you could make stuff like that fly in 1966.