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Star Trek #6
Star Trek 6
The novelization of original Star Trek episodes by James Blish, sixth in a series. The episodes covered in this novel THE SAVAGE CURTAIN, THE LIGHTS OF ZETAR, THE APPLE, BY ANY OTHER NAME, THE CLOUD MINDERS, & THE MARK OF GIDEON. Kirk, Spock, Bones and the others of the Enterprise find a deadly Eden, discover elemental life forces and planetary death wishes, and even meet Abraham Lincoln and Genghis Khan, as they speed through space on new assignments into the unknown.
149 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 1972
8 people are currently reading
439 people want to read
About the author
James Blish
456 books327 followersJames Benjamin Blish was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. Blish also wrote literary criticism of science fiction using the pen-name William Atheling Jr.
In the late 1930's to the early 1940's, Blish was a member of the Futurians.
Blish trained as a biologist at Rutgers and Columbia University, and spent 1942–1944 as a medical technician in the U.S. Army. After the war he became the science editor for the Pfizer pharmaceutical company. His first published story appeared in 1940, and his writing career progressed until he gave up his job to become a professional writer.
He is credited with coining the term gas giant, in the story "Solar Plexus" as it appeared in the anthology Beyond Human Ken, edited by Judith Merril. (The story was originally published in 1941, but that version did not contain the term; Blish apparently added it in a rewrite done for the anthology, which was first published in 1952.)
Blish was married to the literary agent Virginia Kidd from 1947 to 1963.
From 1962 to 1968, he worked for the Tobacco Institute.
Between 1967 and his death from lung cancer in 1975, Blish became the first author to write short story collections based upon the classic TV series Star Trek. In total, Blish wrote 11 volumes of short stories adapted from episodes of the 1960s TV series, as well as an original novel, Spock Must Die! in 1970 — the first original novel for adult readers based upon the series (since then hundreds more have been published). He died midway through writing Star Trek 12; his wife, J.A. Lawrence, completed the book, and later completed the adaptations in the volume Mudd's Angels.
Blish lived in Milford, Pennsylvania at Arrowhead until the mid-1960s. In 1968, Blish emigrated to England, and lived in Oxford until his death in 1975. He is buried in Holywell Cemetery, Oxford, near the grave of Kenneth Grahame.
His name in Greek is Τζέημς Μπλις"
In the late 1930's to the early 1940's, Blish was a member of the Futurians.
Blish trained as a biologist at Rutgers and Columbia University, and spent 1942–1944 as a medical technician in the U.S. Army. After the war he became the science editor for the Pfizer pharmaceutical company. His first published story appeared in 1940, and his writing career progressed until he gave up his job to become a professional writer.
He is credited with coining the term gas giant, in the story "Solar Plexus" as it appeared in the anthology Beyond Human Ken, edited by Judith Merril. (The story was originally published in 1941, but that version did not contain the term; Blish apparently added it in a rewrite done for the anthology, which was first published in 1952.)
Blish was married to the literary agent Virginia Kidd from 1947 to 1963.
From 1962 to 1968, he worked for the Tobacco Institute.
Between 1967 and his death from lung cancer in 1975, Blish became the first author to write short story collections based upon the classic TV series Star Trek. In total, Blish wrote 11 volumes of short stories adapted from episodes of the 1960s TV series, as well as an original novel, Spock Must Die! in 1970 — the first original novel for adult readers based upon the series (since then hundreds more have been published). He died midway through writing Star Trek 12; his wife, J.A. Lawrence, completed the book, and later completed the adaptations in the volume Mudd's Angels.
Blish lived in Milford, Pennsylvania at Arrowhead until the mid-1960s. In 1968, Blish emigrated to England, and lived in Oxford until his death in 1975. He is buried in Holywell Cemetery, Oxford, near the grave of Kenneth Grahame.
His name in Greek is Τζέημς Μπλις"
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
May 18, 2011
So, if Blish is like chocolate and Star Trek is like relatively cheap but still tasy chocolate (see my review of Star Trek 4) then four volumes of Blish Star Trek adaptations in quick succession is like binge eating your favourite chocolate bars until you feel nauseated...I'm taking a break from this series for a while...
There's another issue: Blish, in one of his prefaces (Star Trek 3 I think), mentions that he is choosing which scripts to adapt based on the number of requests he receives for given episodes. Now, assuming that the general mass of Star Trek fans who were also readers willing to write to the author had some discernment, then the best episodes will appear early in the series and the quality will therefore go down in the later books. This is evident across the books 3-6 that I've read. Should one conclude that being a Star Trek fan, being a reader or being willing to write fan mail implies discerning character? Or any combination or permutation? Studies should be conducted!
There's another issue: Blish, in one of his prefaces (Star Trek 3 I think), mentions that he is choosing which scripts to adapt based on the number of requests he receives for given episodes. Now, assuming that the general mass of Star Trek fans who were also readers willing to write to the author had some discernment, then the best episodes will appear early in the series and the quality will therefore go down in the later books. This is evident across the books 3-6 that I've read. Should one conclude that being a Star Trek fan, being a reader or being willing to write fan mail implies discerning character? Or any combination or permutation? Studies should be conducted!
December 20, 2023
This is the sixth collection of Blish's adaptations of episodes from the original Star Trek series to short story format. The previous books had been so overwhelmingly successful that Blish contracted to produce four further volumes for publication in 1972 (of which this the second), and his wife and mother-in-law (both successful writers in their own right) acted as uncredited aids and/or collaborators in their preparation when his health began to weaken. He was probably quite bemused by the overnight success, as he had been writing original science fiction since the early 1930s with little notice outside of the confines of the field. I was amused to see that he defends himself in a brief introduction because he'd had Kirk call McCoy "Doc" rather than "Bones" in the novel Spock Must Die!, and he'd gotten such an avalanche of mail calling him out for it. (He claimed that his editor did it.) His style was consistently clear and concise and stayed true to the original sources. The episodes included in this one are The Savage Curtain, The Lights of Zetar, The Apple, By Any Other Name, The Cloud Minders, and The Mark of Gideon. A couple of them are from the second season and the rest from the last. Six to beam up!
August 27, 2019
This was a step up for these books. The writing was better, and I loved the story in the preface about how a real Captain Kirk used the franchise to prevent a battle. I hope the later volumes follow suit.
December 3, 2015
Close on the heels of his previous book, James Blish published another entry in his series of Trek novelizations,
Star Trek 6
. This one includes adaptations of "The Savage Curtain", "The Lights of Zetar", "The Apple", "By Any Other Name", "The Cloud Minders", and "The Mark of Gideon".
Blish's introduction to this volume is amusing; he reprints a substantial selection from a letter he received from a real Captain Kirk:
He goes on, recounting an interesting anecdote from his time in Vietnam.
As for the stories: they're the usual fare, I'm afraid. "The Savage Curtain", if you'll recall, involves simulacra of Abraham Lincoln and Surak fighting alongside Kirk and Spock for the entertainment and edification of some inscrutable alien species. Here was a great chance for Blish to elaborate on Kirk's identification with and admiration of Lincoln, or to give us more insight into Vulcan culture. Alas, he only wrote a straight adaptation of the script, and reading about Abraham Lincoln engaging in a wrestling match isn't as entertaining as seeing it happen.
"The Lights of Zetar" is simply not an interesting story. The most interesting thing about it is that it was co-written by Shari Lewis, famous puppeteer--and thus we learn that television writing is not her strong suit. It's all right; I still like Lamb Chop.
"The Apple", too, is as uninspiring as its counterpart on television. Here Blish might have considered in more detail whether Kirk really did right by essentially destroying a utopian society, but no. Best to rush back to the ship in time for the 'Spock looks like Satan' joke. A terrible pity.
"By Any Other Name" was fairly amusing on television. The short story suffers without James Doohan's very entertaining performance as Scotty trying to get an alien drunk--and succeeding, but being too drunk himself to do anything about it. This story has another example of Kirk's predisposition to solving every problem with alien women by kissing them. "Oh. You are trying to seduce me," says the woman in question. "Go on then," she does not say, but that's how it happens anyway. Kirk really only has one diplomatic skill. It's fortunate he rarely has to negotiate with men.
Both "The Cloud Minders" and "The Mark of Gideon" were stories with, I feel, a great deal of potential, but neither was explored in any real depth, so each ends up being fairly forgettable. The former addresses class issues, and the latter some tangle of overpopulation, birth control, and suicide. Plenty of room to tell interesting stories, but instead they just rush from scene to scene without wasting any time contemplating the issues at hand. It's a shame.
Star Trek 6 is another set of average adaptations of an average mix of episodes. If you particularly enjoyed "The Savage Curtain", it'd be worth a read, but that's really the only bright spot here. And to think, there are five more of these books! What horrors will the next volume unleash?
Blish's introduction to this volume is amusing; he reprints a substantial selection from a letter he received from a real Captain Kirk:
By an interesting coincidence I happen to be Captain [Pierre D.] Kirk. This being the case, the men of my last command built a rather elaborate "organization with an organization" based on the series. My jeep was slightly altered so that its registration numbers appeared as NCC-1701. Our weapons were referred to as phasers...
He goes on, recounting an interesting anecdote from his time in Vietnam.
As for the stories: they're the usual fare, I'm afraid. "The Savage Curtain", if you'll recall, involves simulacra of Abraham Lincoln and Surak fighting alongside Kirk and Spock for the entertainment and edification of some inscrutable alien species. Here was a great chance for Blish to elaborate on Kirk's identification with and admiration of Lincoln, or to give us more insight into Vulcan culture. Alas, he only wrote a straight adaptation of the script, and reading about Abraham Lincoln engaging in a wrestling match isn't as entertaining as seeing it happen.
"The Lights of Zetar" is simply not an interesting story. The most interesting thing about it is that it was co-written by Shari Lewis, famous puppeteer--and thus we learn that television writing is not her strong suit. It's all right; I still like Lamb Chop.
"The Apple", too, is as uninspiring as its counterpart on television. Here Blish might have considered in more detail whether Kirk really did right by essentially destroying a utopian society, but no. Best to rush back to the ship in time for the 'Spock looks like Satan' joke. A terrible pity.
"By Any Other Name" was fairly amusing on television. The short story suffers without James Doohan's very entertaining performance as Scotty trying to get an alien drunk--and succeeding, but being too drunk himself to do anything about it. This story has another example of Kirk's predisposition to solving every problem with alien women by kissing them. "Oh. You are trying to seduce me," says the woman in question. "Go on then," she does not say, but that's how it happens anyway. Kirk really only has one diplomatic skill. It's fortunate he rarely has to negotiate with men.
Both "The Cloud Minders" and "The Mark of Gideon" were stories with, I feel, a great deal of potential, but neither was explored in any real depth, so each ends up being fairly forgettable. The former addresses class issues, and the latter some tangle of overpopulation, birth control, and suicide. Plenty of room to tell interesting stories, but instead they just rush from scene to scene without wasting any time contemplating the issues at hand. It's a shame.
Star Trek 6 is another set of average adaptations of an average mix of episodes. If you particularly enjoyed "The Savage Curtain", it'd be worth a read, but that's really the only bright spot here. And to think, there are five more of these books! What horrors will the next volume unleash?
June 1, 2017
James Blish is the best Star Trek author as far as I'm concerned. He really stays true to the plots, characters, and moods of the episodes he adapts. We've read all but two of the 12 books of adaptations that he did.
August 20, 2011
My ongoing mission continues: gonna read every Star Trek book there is. This one is nothing special and I don't know why you'd need to read it unless you're on an insane Trek tear like yours truly.
July 19, 2024
I devoured these books as a kid in the 70's. At that time the only other Star Trek around was the animated series and a couple of books and we were at the mercy of the 3 channel universe still!
Basically all twelve books follow the t.v. episodes pretty closely, just with literary filler to make it flow better. Nowadays we would just read a Wiki entry and ignore the books.
The biggest difference is that in some of the earlier books, up to around Star Trek 5 or 6, James Blish would change a few things for narrative flow, and in particular remove the unnecessary death of a the occasional Red Shirt. (Awwwwww!) But by the end of the run he was just basically going through the motions and just writing the script as it was, dead Red Shirts and all (Yeah!).
My one complaint though is that JB would write Scotty's speaking parts in a Scottish Brogue and more often than not I couldn't make head or tales of it.
Still, would have not missed reading them for anything. I was an avid Trekkie after all. And for JB it was a nice gig for an over the hill sci-fi writer.
Best part of all was that in grade 9 and 10 high school our English class had a 6 or 12 (I forget which) book reading requirement. And it being a Technical Vocation high school, that requirement caused a furor with so many students who had never read a book in their life. Thank you James Blish and Star Trek. Within a month I already had my 12 book requirement covered. LOL
I decided to up my rating from 3 to 4 stars when I remembered just how much enjoyment these books gave me.
Live Long And Prosper.
p.s. I liked the original cover better!
Basically all twelve books follow the t.v. episodes pretty closely, just with literary filler to make it flow better. Nowadays we would just read a Wiki entry and ignore the books.
The biggest difference is that in some of the earlier books, up to around Star Trek 5 or 6, James Blish would change a few things for narrative flow, and in particular remove the unnecessary death of a the occasional Red Shirt. (Awwwwww!) But by the end of the run he was just basically going through the motions and just writing the script as it was, dead Red Shirts and all (Yeah!).
My one complaint though is that JB would write Scotty's speaking parts in a Scottish Brogue and more often than not I couldn't make head or tales of it.
Still, would have not missed reading them for anything. I was an avid Trekkie after all. And for JB it was a nice gig for an over the hill sci-fi writer.
Best part of all was that in grade 9 and 10 high school our English class had a 6 or 12 (I forget which) book reading requirement. And it being a Technical Vocation high school, that requirement caused a furor with so many students who had never read a book in their life. Thank you James Blish and Star Trek. Within a month I already had my 12 book requirement covered. LOL
I decided to up my rating from 3 to 4 stars when I remembered just how much enjoyment these books gave me.
Live Long And Prosper.
p.s. I liked the original cover better!
February 3, 2025
James Blish's 1972 Star Trek 6 contains 6 stories adapted by Blish from the screenplays of the 1960s television series.
Credits for the original screenplays are as follows:
"The Savage Curtin" by Gene Roddenberry and Arthur Heinemann,
"The Lights of Zetar" by Jeremy Tarchar and Shari Lewis,
"The Apple" by Max Ehrlich and Gene L. Coon,
"By Any Other Name" by D.C. Fontana and Jerome Bixby,
"The Cloud Minders" by Margaret Armen, David Gerrold, and Oliver Crawford, and
"The Mark of Gideon" by George F. Slavin and Stanley Adams.
As with my reviews of the previous books in the series, about these stories themselves I feel I need say nothing beyond the briefest nod to each: Another alien-forced arena-type battle brings Kirk and Spock face-to-face with the heroes of the own worlds' pasts, mysterious lights in space imperil the Enterprise and especially the wee lassie who is Scotty's girlfriend, a paradise planet of happy primitives must be disturbed when their ruling computer aims at the ship's destruction, invaders from Andromeda hijack the Enterprise on a centuries-long mission to enslave and colonize our galaxy, the complete division of a planet's elegant cloud-dwellers and its stunted miners below threaten the effort to save millions on a different world from complete ecological collapse, and yet another paradise-seeming planet holds a menace that makes Kirk seemingly disappear. After all, anyone choosing the book is already familiar with the episodes of the TV show, right?
As usual, differences pop up here and there between what we are familiar with and the adaptations Blish gives us. Some arise from the various artistic choices needed in adaptation, others from the fact that the scripts given to Blish were not always the most finalized versions. The more familiar the individual reader is with a particular broadcast episode, the more noticeable and potentially interesting such divergences will be.
The one I particularly noted was that the conclusion of "The Apple" has no cutesy hem-and-haw back-and-forth between Kirk and Spock about who should teach the birds and the bees to the innocents to whom "[t]he touching," "[t]he holding," and the resultant "replacements" for themselves had been "forbidden" (1972 Bantam paperback, page 60), moving instead straight to Kirk's noticing of one man comforting a woman with an arm around her waist and the Captain's "grinning" observation that "You just go the way you're going, and you'll find out" (page 67).
In any event, James Blish's Star Trek 6 is not deeply probing or given to evocative or artistic turns of phrase, nor probably is it intended for an audience that has never heard of the starship Enterprise and its historic 5-year mission, but its adventures are swiftly moving and entertaining, and founded upon courage and friendship and the dignity of the individual, and for fans of the television series will be a pleasantly familiar 5-star read.
Credits for the original screenplays are as follows:
"The Savage Curtin" by Gene Roddenberry and Arthur Heinemann,
"The Lights of Zetar" by Jeremy Tarchar and Shari Lewis,
"The Apple" by Max Ehrlich and Gene L. Coon,
"By Any Other Name" by D.C. Fontana and Jerome Bixby,
"The Cloud Minders" by Margaret Armen, David Gerrold, and Oliver Crawford, and
"The Mark of Gideon" by George F. Slavin and Stanley Adams.
As with my reviews of the previous books in the series, about these stories themselves I feel I need say nothing beyond the briefest nod to each: Another alien-forced arena-type battle brings Kirk and Spock face-to-face with the heroes of the own worlds' pasts, mysterious lights in space imperil the Enterprise and especially the wee lassie who is Scotty's girlfriend, a paradise planet of happy primitives must be disturbed when their ruling computer aims at the ship's destruction, invaders from Andromeda hijack the Enterprise on a centuries-long mission to enslave and colonize our galaxy, the complete division of a planet's elegant cloud-dwellers and its stunted miners below threaten the effort to save millions on a different world from complete ecological collapse, and yet another paradise-seeming planet holds a menace that makes Kirk seemingly disappear. After all, anyone choosing the book is already familiar with the episodes of the TV show, right?
As usual, differences pop up here and there between what we are familiar with and the adaptations Blish gives us. Some arise from the various artistic choices needed in adaptation, others from the fact that the scripts given to Blish were not always the most finalized versions. The more familiar the individual reader is with a particular broadcast episode, the more noticeable and potentially interesting such divergences will be.
The one I particularly noted was that the conclusion of "The Apple" has no cutesy hem-and-haw back-and-forth between Kirk and Spock about who should teach the birds and the bees to the innocents to whom "[t]he touching," "[t]he holding," and the resultant "replacements" for themselves had been "forbidden" (1972 Bantam paperback, page 60), moving instead straight to Kirk's noticing of one man comforting a woman with an arm around her waist and the Captain's "grinning" observation that "You just go the way you're going, and you'll find out" (page 67).
In any event, James Blish's Star Trek 6 is not deeply probing or given to evocative or artistic turns of phrase, nor probably is it intended for an audience that has never heard of the starship Enterprise and its historic 5-year mission, but its adventures are swiftly moving and entertaining, and founded upon courage and friendship and the dignity of the individual, and for fans of the television series will be a pleasantly familiar 5-star read.
March 18, 2018
Blish does his best as always, but the episodes of Star Trek he adapts in this volume are indifferent at best - I remember watching those episodes and being largely unmoved, so I'm disinclined to make him shoulder the blame here. "The Apple" is particularly dire, with its magic moving village (initially 17 kilometres distant, shifting to a few thousand metres away the next time they mention it). Both "The Savage Curtain" and "The Cloud Minders" had elements that I enjoyed when watching (Surak and Vanna, for instance) but one successful element does not a successful episode make, and the compelling gravitas of Surak doesn't really come across in the adaptation. I can't help but think that a sub-par episode might make an average novel, if that novel were allowed to really explore the issues at hand, but it doesn't make for particularly good short stories.
March 31, 2025
I was very much less than impressed with this sixth time out for the Star Trek Original Series novelizations.
Mostly because these stories were based on episodes that just weren't that good. And, I think I did myself a grievous disservice in that many of these were episodes I had never seen so I watched the episode first and then read the novelization.....yeah that was a terrible idea.
I think, by default, 'By any Other Name' would probably be my favorite story here, though 'The Savage Curtain' was fun it's own way. I mean, we get to meet President Lincoln in space.
However 'Mark of Gideon,' 'Cloud Minders,' and 'The Lights of Zetar' were all chores to get through.
So unless you are the most hardcore of hardcore Original Series fans, I say this could very easily be skipped.
Mostly because these stories were based on episodes that just weren't that good. And, I think I did myself a grievous disservice in that many of these were episodes I had never seen so I watched the episode first and then read the novelization.....yeah that was a terrible idea.
I think, by default, 'By any Other Name' would probably be my favorite story here, though 'The Savage Curtain' was fun it's own way. I mean, we get to meet President Lincoln in space.
However 'Mark of Gideon,' 'Cloud Minders,' and 'The Lights of Zetar' were all chores to get through.
So unless you are the most hardcore of hardcore Original Series fans, I say this could very easily be skipped.
October 22, 2017
This 6th Star Trek TOS anthology contains the stories of seven episodes: The Savage Curtain, The Lights Of Zetar, The Apple, By Any Other Name, The Cloud Minders, The Mark Of Gideon.
Very little to say really - none are particular favourites or stand outs, but its good solid Trek fiction. Enjoyable, but not the best volume in the series.
Very little to say really - none are particular favourites or stand outs, but its good solid Trek fiction. Enjoyable, but not the best volume in the series.
November 17, 2020
Terrible, terrible book. It‘s Star Trek alright, but Baby‘s First Star Trek. What bothered me the most though was how different and out of character all the persons here acted - first and foremost Kirk, who for the most part of the book sounded and acted like a rash foreman on a building lot, and not a starship captain.
June 12, 2024
Most of these stories are pretty good but once in a while you read something and say"That would not happen on the show!" For example, in "The Mark of Gideon" the author, at one point states "Spock laughed..." . Now, any Star Trek fan would know SPOCK DOESN'T LAUGH. Unless under very specific circumstances, not just out of the blue. That being said I still quite enjoy these adaptations.
May 13, 2018
Continues the retelling of the original Star Trek tales...good stuff.
June 6, 2018
More Star Trek!
October 29, 2020
Another fun read. This is a day reader for Trekkies. If nothing else it is a fun walk down memory lane.
September 8, 2024
Today is Star Trek Day 2024, and like I have been doing for the past several years, I spend part of the day finishing up another anthology of TOS stories.
June 10, 2025
Very enjoyable read
July 28, 2025
Simbolico. Etereo. Mitologico.
August 6, 2025
A lot of great ST:OS stories in this book... all told with excellent fidelity.
January 18, 2026
Volume 6 of episodes. While some deviate from the actual show, they're still entertaining and exciting.
February 19, 2019
✭
“The Savage Curtain”, James Blish, Arthur Heinemann (Teleplay Author), & Gene Roddenberry (Teleplay & Story Author). ✭
“The Lights of Zetar”, James Blish, Jeremy Tarcher (Teleplay Author), & Shari Lewis (Teleplay Author). ½
“The Apple”, James Blish, Max Ehrlich (Teleplay & Story Author), & Gene L. Coon (Teleplay Author). ✭
“By Any Other Name”, James Blish, D. C. Fontana (Teleplay Author), & Jerome Bixby (Teleplay & Story Author). ✭½
“The Cloud Minders”, James Blish, Margaret Armen (Teleplay Author), David Gerrold (Story Author), & Oliver Crawford (Story Author). ✭½
“The Mark of Gideon”, James Blish, George F. Slavin (Teleplay Author), & Stanley Adams (Teleplay Author). ½
All stories published 1972.
“The Savage Curtain”, James Blish, Arthur Heinemann (Teleplay Author), & Gene Roddenberry (Teleplay & Story Author). ✭
“The Lights of Zetar”, James Blish, Jeremy Tarcher (Teleplay Author), & Shari Lewis (Teleplay Author). ½
“The Apple”, James Blish, Max Ehrlich (Teleplay & Story Author), & Gene L. Coon (Teleplay Author). ✭
“By Any Other Name”, James Blish, D. C. Fontana (Teleplay Author), & Jerome Bixby (Teleplay & Story Author). ✭½
“The Cloud Minders”, James Blish, Margaret Armen (Teleplay Author), David Gerrold (Story Author), & Oliver Crawford (Story Author). ✭½
“The Mark of Gideon”, James Blish, George F. Slavin (Teleplay Author), & Stanley Adams (Teleplay Author). ½
All stories published 1972.
March 15, 2015
2 1/2 stars This paperback was published in 1972 and contains 6 short stories of roughly 25 pages each plus a preface by Blish. Four of the stories are from the third and final season of the original Star Trek series and 2 are from the second season. These aired originally on television between 1967-1969. I was hoping for some light entertainment and this fit the bill. The stories all list the original screenwriters. From my rather dated memory of the episodes they also feel pretty authentic. The six stories included here are:
The Savage Curtain
The Lights of Zetar
The Apple
By Any Other Name
The Cloud Minders
The Mark of Gideon
In the preface Blish includes a rather entertaining letter received from a Captain Kirk serving in Vietnam. The outfit has gone to rather great lengths to personalize themselves along Star Trek lines. They fight as "The Enterprise." Trekkers were clearly a force to be reckoned with long ago. It has been quite a long while since I have watched any episodes of the original series and the stories in this book only brought forth vague memories of them, with the exception of "The Apple." That story is the one where a supercomputer "Vaal" runs a planet that at first glance resembles the garden of Eden. There is a small group of humans who feed Vaal. I recall the episode as one of the really lame ones but it doesn't come off too badly as a story. These really seemed like some of the lesser episodes from the series. Nevertheless they were enjoyable on a basic light entertainment level and I enjoyed reading them.
It was fun and I'll have to do another soon.
The Savage Curtain
The Lights of Zetar
The Apple
By Any Other Name
The Cloud Minders
The Mark of Gideon
In the preface Blish includes a rather entertaining letter received from a Captain Kirk serving in Vietnam. The outfit has gone to rather great lengths to personalize themselves along Star Trek lines. They fight as "The Enterprise." Trekkers were clearly a force to be reckoned with long ago. It has been quite a long while since I have watched any episodes of the original series and the stories in this book only brought forth vague memories of them, with the exception of "The Apple." That story is the one where a supercomputer "Vaal" runs a planet that at first glance resembles the garden of Eden. There is a small group of humans who feed Vaal. I recall the episode as one of the really lame ones but it doesn't come off too badly as a story. These really seemed like some of the lesser episodes from the series. Nevertheless they were enjoyable on a basic light entertainment level and I enjoyed reading them.
It was fun and I'll have to do another soon.
Read
April 18, 2016We're already half-way through the Blish novelizations. This volume contains "The Savage Curtain",
"The Lights of Zetar", "The Apple", "By Any Other Name", "The Cloud Minders" and the "The Mark of Gideon".
Much like volume 5 this volume has many adaptations of some sub-par third season episodes, fortunately, however, it does manage to have some pretty good stories in it as well. My favorites here are "The Apple", "The Cloud Minders" and "The Mark of Gideon". "The Apple" has always been one of my favorite episodes, as a guy with a PhD in Religions and Theology. This is one of the most complex and surprisingly existentialist episodes in the whole series, Kirk and crew basically destroy God and the morality that that God demands of his people in order that the people might be free. Kirk makes sure that as Sartre said "Man is condemned to be free". Of course that God is a computer who controls and provides for a group of aliens, still it is one of the most overt defenses of atheism with existential angst thrown in. It is also great to see how Spock is the only one defending in rational terms the right of people to live under an oppressive god-like computer. "The Mark of Gideon" is an interesting story about overpopulation while "The Cloud Minders" is an intelligent tale about the consequences of privilege and how that privilege leads to depriving those who are seen as inferior of that privilege, resulting in a very unequal society. Very up to date. Troglyte lives matter!
More Reviews at: trekwarsproject.blogspot.com
"The Lights of Zetar", "The Apple", "By Any Other Name", "The Cloud Minders" and the "The Mark of Gideon".
Much like volume 5 this volume has many adaptations of some sub-par third season episodes, fortunately, however, it does manage to have some pretty good stories in it as well. My favorites here are "The Apple", "The Cloud Minders" and "The Mark of Gideon". "The Apple" has always been one of my favorite episodes, as a guy with a PhD in Religions and Theology. This is one of the most complex and surprisingly existentialist episodes in the whole series, Kirk and crew basically destroy God and the morality that that God demands of his people in order that the people might be free. Kirk makes sure that as Sartre said "Man is condemned to be free". Of course that God is a computer who controls and provides for a group of aliens, still it is one of the most overt defenses of atheism with existential angst thrown in. It is also great to see how Spock is the only one defending in rational terms the right of people to live under an oppressive god-like computer. "The Mark of Gideon" is an interesting story about overpopulation while "The Cloud Minders" is an intelligent tale about the consequences of privilege and how that privilege leads to depriving those who are seen as inferior of that privilege, resulting in a very unequal society. Very up to date. Troglyte lives matter!
More Reviews at: trekwarsproject.blogspot.com
August 18, 2017
When i was a kid, my older sister's friend GAVE me the entire collection. (I know!) Over the next few years, I read them all in order, starting the first one the day after I finished the last one. Loved them. I'm not sad that I didn't hang onto them and can only hope they still exist to make some other fan happy. (But I doubt it because...well, paperbacks, you know?)
The adaptations got better in the later volumes, but it was Star Trek whenever and wherever I wanted with having to put up with the spastic tripe William Shatner calls acting.
Frankly, I can't remember which story was in which volume, so my rating reflects my enjoyment of the set...which I am hoping will come out in e-book form very soon.
The adaptations got better in the later volumes, but it was Star Trek whenever and wherever I wanted with having to put up with the spastic tripe William Shatner calls acting.
Frankly, I can't remember which story was in which volume, so my rating reflects my enjoyment of the set...which I am hoping will come out in e-book form very soon.
July 28, 2010
These are Blish's novelizations/storyizations of the original Star Trek episodes. Sometimes they are slightly different from the final episode since they were written from shooting scripts as I understand. Although I enjoyed them, it's because of the tie in with the TV series episodes. The writing here is fairly workmanlike and this is really bare bones kind of work.
January 31, 2013
This is one of the lesser volumes in the series, simply because of the mid-range quality episodes it adapts. "The Cloud Minders", "The Mark of Gideon", "The Lights of Zetar", "By Any Other Name" and "The Savage Curtain" will rarely make any Trekkers' top 5 shows lists, but Blish brings them to life with his usual skill and alacrity.
October 2, 2013
When these early novels and stories to Star Trek came out I bought them all, devoured them and loved them. It's been a long time, so today I couldn't even say which of them were really good and which of them I only loved because they were Star Trek. ;)
Just thinking of them and seeing the covers gives me a happy feeling of nostalgia. That alone is worth the rating!
Just thinking of them and seeing the covers gives me a happy feeling of nostalgia. That alone is worth the rating!
May 2, 2023
There are some points where I’d love Blish to take full advantage of the form, and tell us more of what the characters were thinking about the events. That aside, this was a good set of episodes, and I didn’t feel like they lost any of the magic when being adapted into short stories.
September 4, 2009
Another half dozen episodes or so of the Original TV series rewritten as novella-length Sci-Fi stories.
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