Star Trek 8

by James Blish

Book Overview

1972, Bantam paperback edition of Star Trek. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553127314
• ISBN13: 9780553081503
• Release Date: November 1972
• Publisher: Bantam Books
• Length: 170 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Adaptations of some of the best, some of the worst, some of the first, some of the last

The cultural phenomenon of Star Trek was initially slow to grow after the cancellation of the original series. The set of adaptations of the episodes of that series by James Blish was one of the initial and major events driving the growth of the phenomenon. In those books, Blish describes several of the episodes, making slight changes in the dialog and plot but keeping the basic story intact. The episodes adapted in this book are: *) Spock's Brain *) The Enemy Within *) Catspaw *) Where No Man Has Gone Before *) Wolf in the Fold *) For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky As followers of the series will know, the episodes are not sequential. "Where No Man Has Gone Before" is one of the very first episodes and "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" is one of the last. "Spock's Brain" is generally conceded to have been one of the worst episodes in the series and "Wolf in the Fold" one of the best. As is the case in the other adaptations, Blish makes some alterations in the plot in an attempt to make a better story. If you are a stickler for detail, then those changes may bother you but if you are interested in a good story, then those changes will be considered an improvement.

The First of 12 Star Trek Adaptation Books by James Blish

James Blish began adapting the stories of the original Star Trek television show in 1967. The first paperback book was titled "Star Trek," and has been retitled "Star Trek 1" in this hardback reissue. This handsome hardback book contains seven stories from the first season of the television show. The first story is "Charlie's Law," which was the second episode of the first season. Charlie was rescued from the planet Thasus after being marooned there for 14 years, the sole survivor of a crash. The crew of the rescuing ship, the Antares, remarked that Charlie was sweet and remarkably intelligent. However, Charlie is more; much more. Soon the crew of the Enterprise is fighting for their survival as Charlie reveals the true extent of his abilities. The second story is "Dagger of the Mind," which was the ninth episode of the first season. The Enterprise visits a penal planet where Dr. Simon Van Gelder sneaks aboard ship. Dr. Tristan Adams asks whether Dr. Van Gelder has gone aboard the Enterprise, and warns Captain Kirk that Van Gelder has mental problems. However, things are not as they seem and Captain Kirk soon finds that undocumented activities are taking place at the penal colony; activities that could cause Kirk's death! The third story is "The Unreal McCoy," which was the television episode titled "The Man Trap," the first televised episode of Star Trek, 8 September 1966. The Enterprise has stopped at planet Regulus VIII for a routine medical checkup of Dr. and Nancy Bierce (called Crater in the television show). Soon crewmen begin dying, and suspicions slowly arise, complicated by a relationship between Nancy Bierce and Dr. McCoy. The fourth story is "The Balance of Terror," which was the fourteenth televised episode of the first season. The Enterprise is there when a Romulan ship breaks through the neutral zone with new weapons and a cloaking device. Captain Kirk reenacts "The Enemy Below" (except for the part where Robert Mitchum rams the German submarine) as the Enterprise plays cat and mouse with the invisible Romulan ship. The Enterprise will sustain casualties! The fifth story is "The Naked Time," the fourth televised episode of the first season. When the Enterprise travels to an unnamed planet to retrieve a science team, they discover the scientists are all dead. Mr. Spock obtains a sample of a liquid that appears to be water, but very strange water in that it is liquid in sub-zero temperatures. The crew of the Enterprise soon begins acting strangely, and the mayhem begins. The sixth story is "Miri," which is one of my favorite Star Trek episodes and which was the eighth televised episode in the first season. The Enterprise visits a planet where the sole inhabitants are children, but the children may be 300 years old. Soon the crewmembers that beamed down to the planet are aging rapidly and begin acquiring homicidal tendencies. Can Dr. McCoy and Mr. Spock find an antidote to the strange disease before Kirk, Spo

Blish adapts "Star Trek" scripts by Matheson and Bloch

"Star Trek 8" was originally published in 1972 as science fiction author James Blish continued to adapt the screenplays of various episodes from the original series. You have to remember that way back when the original "Star Trek" was in syndication in your market, if you were lucky, and videotapes were way in the future. So the only way to really enjoy the episodes was to collect the paperbacks with these "novelizations" ("shortstorizations"?) by Blish. The chief attraction is that Blish manages to remain faithful to the original scripts while also taking into account the changes made in the actual filming of the episodes, while using his own talents as an author to flesh out the details and make these stories stand on their own. In terms of adapating television shows, Blish set the standard.Included in Volume 8 are the following episodes: "Spock's Brain," the rather odd little story of how a woman steals Spock's brain so it can be the new controller for her underground city's life support system. This was not one of the finest moments in the series, although Spock talking Bones through the last stages of the surgery to reconnect his brain has its moments, such as they are. "The Enemy Within" is based on a Richard Matheson script and has Kirk split in two when he beams back to the "Enterprise," his aggressive and docile halves now running around in their own bodies. Blish does a nice job of reinforcing the episode's point about how Kirk needs both halves to be a great starship captain. "Catspaw" is a "Star Trek" Halloween episode with a script by Robert "Psycho" Bloch that has Kirk and the crew running around a castle with strange creatures in what must have seemed a good idea at the time."Where No Man Has Gone Before" was the first episode of "Star Trek" aired, where Kirk's old friend Gary Mitchell and Dr. Elizabeth Dehner are injured on an away mission and end up with strange new powers, apparently a preview of human evolution. Blish works out the details of Mitchell's disturbing changes as he turns on Kirk and becomes something more, and less, than human. Robert Bloch's "Wolf in the Fold" brings one of his recurring subjects, Jack the Ripper, into the "Star Trek" universe as the "Enterprise" crew discovers a connection between various strings of serial killings stretching across the galaxy back through the centuries. "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" is the one where McCoy learns he is suffering from a rare and untreatable condition and will have less than a year to live. When the "Enterprise" encounters a generation ship that is build inside an asteroid and the high priestess Natira, Bones decides this is where he wants to live out the rest of his life on what the inhabitants think is the world Yonada. But then McCoy learns the truth about what is happening and that changes everything.I would not say there any of these half-dozen stories constitutes a classic "Star Trek" episode, although "Where No Man Has Gon

Another must have Star Trek book!

This book, consisting of adaptations of six episodes of the classic TV series including "Where No Man has Gone Before." It is really a must have.

This is a must have for Star Trek fans!

This book has adaptions from these episodes of the television show: "Charlie X," "Dagger of the Mind," "The Man Trap," "Balance of Terror," "The Naked Time," "Miri," and "The Conscience of the King." It truly is a must have for all Star Trek fans.