STAR TREK 2 - James Blish

Bantam Books -- pb
New York -- ©1968/11th printing 1972 -- 122p
(so old no ISBN number)


A collection of short stories based on original episodes of the classic television show, Star Trek. Episodes (and their original authors):

Arena (Gene L. Coon)
A Taste of Armageddon (Robert Hamner and Gene L. Coon)
Tomorrow Is Yesterday (D.C. Fontana)
Errand of Mercy (Gene L. Coon)
Court Martial (Don M. Mankiewicz and Steven W. Carabatsos)
Operation--Annihilate! (Steven W. Carabatsos)
City on the Edge of Forever (Harlan Ellison)
Space Seed (Carey Wilber and Gene L. Coon)

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Nostalgia.

Opening this book brings me back to the very first time I read this -- back in the very early 1970's. (This particular copy is the 11th printing and still it has no ISBN number.) Back to a time when I had to rely on the local television station to broadcast old Star Trek episodes in order to watch them. There were no DVDs or even VCR tapes. You couldn't record them (only by audio cassette). So these printed stories were little nuggets of gold to fanatical young Trekkers such as myself.

Reading these now I still get somewhat the same kick. Occassionally Blish embellished his stories with a little more insight into what motivated some of the characters. This is appreciated and enjoyable.

Though perhaps just as often, the stories raced through the plot, leaving out some of the finer details. The retelling of "Space Seed" fits this latter. There seems to be no threat from Khan, but suddenly he has his entire crew aboard the Enterprise and is holding the entire crew hostage and then just as suddenly, Kirk has regained control. The battle between men, between leaders, between centuries, never takes place as it does in the episode.

And while this was enjoyable and I'll probably reread all the books in this series, I'm still more likely to throw a DVD in the machine and watch an episode.