Recently, I bought a 70s printing of the very first STAR TTEK book - the first of the Bantam mass-market novelizations by James Blish of all 79 of ST's episodes in short-story form

  This was an 18th printing, from the 70s - Obviously, it sold A LOT. I recall that Bantam eventually covered all 79 - but in 8-10?? volumes, shorter old-style MMPBs. I recall a thicker 90s 3-volume issue of all the episode novelizations (1 suppose " short story-locations would come off as a triflr bastardized), divided by season. I suppose these might have represented less reworking than the old Target FOCTOR WHO novelizations. even taking into account the difference between novelizing 48 minutes and 92-115 minutes. I've just read the first two stories as yet...

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  • The Wikipedia article on James Blish includes the following info on the Star Trek adaptations:

    "Blish was commissioned by Bantam Books to adapt episodes of Star Trek. The adapted short stories were generally based on draft scripts, and contained differing plot elements, and situations present in the aired television episodes.

    The stories were collected into twelve volumes, and published as a title series of the same name from 1967 to 1977. The adaptations were largely written by Blish, however, his declining health during this period proved problematic. His wife, J. A. Lawrence, wrote a number of installments, however, her work remained uncredited until the final volume, Star Trek 12 released in 1977, two years after Blish's death.

    The original novel based on the television series, Spock Must Die! (1970), was also written by Blish, and he planned to release more. According to Lawrence, two episodes featuring popular character Harry Mudd, I, Mudd and Mudd's Women, were held back by Blish for adaptation to be included in the follow-up to Spock Must Die!. However, Blish died before a novel could be completed. Lawrence did eventually adapt the two episodes, as Mudd's Angels (1978), which included an original novella Business, as Usual, During Altercations by Lawrence.

    Blish credited his financial stability later in life to the Star Trek commission, and the advance he received for Spock Must Die!."

  • I had previously heard that Blish worked from scripts, which in many cases were changed in some way when taping the episodes.

  • I still have my copies of all of these from when I was a kid.
  • ...Thsnk you. Richard. I remembered that " Spock Must Die! " as the only original Trek novel for a long time. The bac'vover copy for this first book plays up Janice Rand. not considered one of the major characters, only mentioning Kirk, Spock, and her.
  • I have and thoroughly enjoyed the Blish adaptations, as well as the entire Alan Dean Foster collection of the animated series.

    Both should (hopefully) be re-released at some point, although a golden (no pun intended) opportunity was missed not doing so for the 50th anniversary in 2016.

    But while a few episodes here and there of the other series have been novelized throughout the years, no one has taken on an entire show the way Blish, Lawrence, and Foster did.

    Is Paramount afraid of hurting DVD sales, or is there another reason for this?

  • I read some of the James Blish novelizations back when I used to care about Star Trek. I found them pretty enjoyable. 

    Lee Houston, Junior said:

    I have and thoroughly enjoyed the Blish adaptations, as well as the entire Alan Dean Foster collection of the animated series.

    Both should (hopefully) be re-released at some point, although a golden (no pun intended) opportunity was missed not doing so for the 50th anniversary in 2016.

    But while a few episodes here and there of the other series have been novelized throughout the years, no one has taken on an entire show the way Blish, Lawrence, and Foster did.

    Is Paramount afraid of hurting DVD sales, or is there another reason for this?

    I doubt that. I would surmise that Paramount doesn't even think about novelizations, and if it did, it might question why novelizations are even needed any more.

    After all, novelizations existed before we had DVDs and streaming services, allowing anybody to watch any given episode pretty much any time they please. Consequently, I would expect the demand for them would be pretty small. 

  • ...Yes, exactly, Clark. Novelizations got technolovk ally outmoded - maybe people are in the habit of reading fiction less. now, in the 10s. also.
    Doctor Who, of course, had an rven more elaboratete novelization scheme! Even if a touch commercially on the side n America. I wonder the success of the Blish Trek led Target to test having their own with the first few Who paperbacks of their Seventies 'll e (which reished Dalekmania-era Sixties books)?
  • Number me among the Legionnaires who read the James Blish books when they came out. I really enjoyed them, especially as the reruns in my area were spotty. (I must have seen Arena about 30 times, but there were some that never seemed to get rerun.) So the books reminded me of episodes I hadn't seen since the original run, and gave them deeper resonance.

    I don't have the books any more -- victims of some move or other -- but I remember them fondly. That was back in the day when Star Trek merch was virtually non-existent. Aside from the Blish books, there was Gerrold's The Trouble with Tribbles (about the making of), The Making of Star Trek and The World of Star Trek. That was pretty much all there was, for years and years.

  • Captain Comics said:

    Number me among the Legionnaires who read the James Blish books when they came out. I really enjoyed them, especially as the reruns in my area were spotty. (I must have seen Arena about 30 times, but there were some that never seemed to get rerun.) So the books reminded me of episodes I hadn't seen since the original run, and gave them deeper resonance.

    I don't have the books any more -- victims of some move or other -- but I remember them fondly. That was back in the day when Star Trek merch was virtually non-existent. Aside from the Blish books, there was Gerrold's The Trouble with Tribbles (about the making of), The Making of Star Trek and The World of Star Trek. That was pretty much all there was, for years and years.

    Oh, man, I've got those books too!. I've read The Trouble with Tribbles so much, I practically have it committed to memory.

  • I don't think there's a Trekker (personally, I've always detested the term Trekkie) from the late 60s-early 70s who doesn't have those books too.

    Via Wikipedia... a list of ALL the Bantam books!

    Star Trek 1-12, adapting the original TV episodes

    Mudd's Angels (Blish and J. A. Lawrence) has "Mudd's Women", "I, Mudd" and the original novella "Business As Usual, During Altercations".

    Star Trek Logs 1-10 (Alan Dean Foster's adaptations of the animated series)

    Then the ORIGINAL novels...

    Spock Must Die! by James Blish

    Spock, Messiah! by Theodore Cogswell and Charles A. Spano, Jr

    The Price of the Phoenix by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath

    Planet of Judgment by Joe Haldeman

    Vulcan! by Kathleen Sky

    The Starless World by Gordon Eklund

    Trek to Madworld by Stephen Goldin

    World Without End by Haldeman

    The Fate of the Phoenix by Marshak & Culbreath

    Devil World by Eklund

    Perry's Planet by Jack C. Haldeman, II.

    The Galactic Whirlpool by David Gerrold

    and Death's Angel by Sky.

    There is also the aforementioned behind the scenes books, two anthologies of fan fiction ("The New Voyages") edited by Marshak & Culbreath, The Official Star Trek/Star Fleet Manual; and 12 photo novels adapting specific episodes (City on the Edge of Forever, Where No Man Has Gone Before, The Trouble With Tribbles, A Taste of Armageddon, Metamorphosis, All Our Yesterdays, The Galileo 7, A Piece of the Action,The Devil in the Dark, Day of the Dove, The Deadly Years, and Amok Time) with images taken directly from their episodes!

    UNFORTUNATELY... the only Kindle listings I could find were for Gerrold's The World of Star Trek & The Trouble With Tribbles.

    Everything else is available on Amazon but only in the used books listings, and the better the condition, the higher the price.

    So unless you luck out among a collection of used books somewhere...

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