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Star Trek: The Classic Episodes #2
Star Trek: The Classic Episodes, Volume 2
The second volume of three adaptations of the "Star Trek" scripts. Published to coincide with Star Trek's 25th anniversary celebrations. In the twenty-five years since it premiered on network television, bringing in the planets of the Federation and the voyages of the Starship Enterprise into America's living rooms and the national consciousness, Star Trek has become a worldwide phenomenon, crossing generations and cultures in its enduring universal appeal. Now, in celebration of Star Trek's twenty-fifth anniversary, here are James Blish's classic adaptations of Star Trek's dazzling second season scripts. And there's more: A new introduction written especially for this omnibus by one of Star Trek's creators, D.C. Fontana. Blish's original prefaces to each volume are annotated for this edition and production credits for each episode. Production stills accompanying each story. Explore the final frontier with science fiction's most well-known and beloved captain, crew, and starship, with many exciting tales of high adventure, including Return to Tomorrow, Patterns of Force, The Ultimate Computer, and The Omega Glory.
656 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 1, 1991
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About the author
James Blish
454 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 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 7, 2018
It's the original Star Trek episodes, written in story form by a good author, hence it is awesome. Only thing worth noting out of this series of three books that may irritate some readers:
1. Neither of the Mudd episodes (I, Mudd and Mudd's Women) are included in these books, for some weird reason.
2. There are some changes from the actual TV episodes, that may irritate some diehards. For example, in the story for 'The Doomsday Machine' (one of my all time favorites) Captain Decker survives, he doesn't drive the shuttle into the Machine. Another that comes to mind was 'Space Seed,' from the first volume, it's lacking Kirk's epic fistfight with Khan at the end of the episode. You can't blame Blish for this, he wrote these in the 1960s, and he only had the original scripts to work with. He lives in Britain, and they didn't begin showing 'Star Trek' until the 1970s. Clearly, the British were way behind the curve on what good science fiction is (then again, they did have Doctor Who, so I suppose they can be forgiven, hee hee!) Either way, the stories still kick ass, and they are usually still very close to the aired episodes. It's actually kind of fun to note the occasional changes and see if you catch them.
Overall, if you like Trek, these books are great. Stories are about thirty pages max, many in the 20 page range, so they are perfect for a hit of science fiction before bed. Also, you can find all three of these books used on Amazon and only spend about 15-20 bucks tops, including shipping. That silly Barnes and Noble version looks nice, but costs around 25 bucks, and only has 45 episodes. A whole season of Star Trek was 25 episodes, for Chrissakes! That's leaving out over a full season! Why buy part from B&N when you can get the whole shebang in three books (minus Mudd) for less money?
1. Neither of the Mudd episodes (I, Mudd and Mudd's Women) are included in these books, for some weird reason.
2. There are some changes from the actual TV episodes, that may irritate some diehards. For example, in the story for 'The Doomsday Machine' (one of my all time favorites) Captain Decker survives, he doesn't drive the shuttle into the Machine. Another that comes to mind was 'Space Seed,' from the first volume, it's lacking Kirk's epic fistfight with Khan at the end of the episode. You can't blame Blish for this, he wrote these in the 1960s, and he only had the original scripts to work with. He lives in Britain, and they didn't begin showing 'Star Trek' until the 1970s. Clearly, the British were way behind the curve on what good science fiction is (then again, they did have Doctor Who, so I suppose they can be forgiven, hee hee!) Either way, the stories still kick ass, and they are usually still very close to the aired episodes. It's actually kind of fun to note the occasional changes and see if you catch them.
Overall, if you like Trek, these books are great. Stories are about thirty pages max, many in the 20 page range, so they are perfect for a hit of science fiction before bed. Also, you can find all three of these books used on Amazon and only spend about 15-20 bucks tops, including shipping. That silly Barnes and Noble version looks nice, but costs around 25 bucks, and only has 45 episodes. A whole season of Star Trek was 25 episodes, for Chrissakes! That's leaving out over a full season! Why buy part from B&N when you can get the whole shebang in three books (minus Mudd) for less money?
January 30, 2022
As with the first volume, there’s a lot of nostalgia at play here. Mr Blish is a highly capable author (I’d argue that he’s one of the most over-qualified people to ever write an adaptation of an SF property) and does his best to make a silk purse out of a couple of sow’s ears, and mostly succeeds, but there’s a lot of short cuts and expository paragraphs that encompass introductory scenes that were cut purely for length. Of course, this is also a collection of parallel-universe stories because they are written from early scripts rather than production scripts, so it also gives us a glimpse into the production process. And this is a personal grumble, but why are there so many great episodes that have a very small page count while less-beloved stories seem to drag on forever?
September 8, 2021
I'm glad I saw the in the introduction by David Gerrold that Blish was using scripts, many of which were early drafts, for his stories. When you've seen the episodes many times, you'll see the differences. What's different for most is that they're mostly from Kirk's point of view, which makes the "Amok Time" one really strange.
December 8, 2023
I really enjoyed this book it was much more better than the first volume. The versions of some of my favourite Star Trek episodes were kind of similar to them with only minor differences but overall I enjoyed reading this.
Read
January 30, 2025I'm reading through the dozens of ST:TOS that I 'inherited' from my brother. I don't plan to try to rate them, and I may not even have comments for some of them.
The first made me realize that if I want to refresh my memory before going on to the original stories inspired by the show, I need to watch the show... these adaptations are from the scripts, and are not quite in order, and are short. I guess I'll still read all three Blish omnibuses, but fortunately I can watch the shows because OKC library has the DVDs.
---
Ok done. Tiring. I think maybe I won't read book three after all.
But then again, I did bookdart some bits here:
I may well miss, watching the program, good lines like this from McCoy: 'I'll "go to Sickbay and wait for the casualties you're about to send me."'
And Spock to Garrovick: "You can learn from remorse, Ensign. It changes the human constitution. But guilt is a waste of time. Hate of the self, always undeserved, will ultimately crush you."
The first made me realize that if I want to refresh my memory before going on to the original stories inspired by the show, I need to watch the show... these adaptations are from the scripts, and are not quite in order, and are short. I guess I'll still read all three Blish omnibuses, but fortunately I can watch the shows because OKC library has the DVDs.
---
Ok done. Tiring. I think maybe I won't read book three after all.
But then again, I did bookdart some bits here:
I may well miss, watching the program, good lines like this from McCoy: 'I'll "go to Sickbay and wait for the casualties you're about to send me."'
And Spock to Garrovick: "You can learn from remorse, Ensign. It changes the human constitution. But guilt is a waste of time. Hate of the self, always undeserved, will ultimately crush you."
January 30, 2013
This is the second of a 3-volume set, which neatly re-organizes the original 12 Bantam paperbacks, one book per season. These stories, most of them written by James Blish (with a few written by his wife, after his passing) are straight-forward, stripped-down adaptations of the original episodes, although Blish gradually fleshed them out a bit as he went along. Some readers may find them too sparse, but I like them for just that reason.
Production notes and a photograph accompany each story. There is also an introduction by D.C. Fontana, one of the guiding lights behind the original series.
If you like the original Star Trek series, these 3 volumes can be a pleasant way to "relive" the stories, especially if you are currently unable to watch them.
Production notes and a photograph accompany each story. There is also an introduction by D.C. Fontana, one of the guiding lights behind the original series.
If you like the original Star Trek series, these 3 volumes can be a pleasant way to "relive" the stories, especially if you are currently unable to watch them.
July 28, 2010
This is an omnibus edition of 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.
There are 3 volumes of this omnibus edition.
There are 3 volumes of this omnibus edition.
June 29, 2017
By far the most interesting aspect of this collection is that it was written by James Blish from the screenplays prior to them being Taped or Aired. There are subtle differences which can provide an enjoyable distraction from a normal read. No doubt if you are a Star Trek fan you have seen the 2nd season episodes, read the story in this book and then watch the equivalent TV episode. I know too much fun!
September 4, 2009
The second 4 of James Blish's STar Trek episode sets, gathered into one mammoth 25th Anniversary Volume.
February 8, 2014
Anyone who loves Star Trek will love this book!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews