Star Trek 4

First published in 1971, these short stories are Blish's adaptations of the screenplays of various episodes from the original series. The episodes aren't sorted into books according to either chronological order or identity of screenwriter. "All Our Yesterdays" (episode 78, season 3, screenplay Jean Lisette Aroeste) (Title comes from a Macbeth soliloquy, continuing 'have lighted fools the way to dusty death.') [A.C. Crispin, starting with YESTERDAY'S SON, based a set of Trek novelizations on this episode.] ENTERPRISE has been sent to evaculate the planet Sarpeidon before its star goes nova, only to find that they aren't needed; the planet's population has fled into its own past. A tidy solution - except that Kirk foolishly plunges into a past scene to rescue someone before the time-librarian can stop him, and he becomes separated from Spock and McCoy, marooned in a different time. They have all the past time they need, but once back in the present, they'll have to hurry... "The Devil in the Dark" (episode 26, season 1, screenplay Gene L. Coon) One of the best - the title character is something on the supposedly uninhabited planet Janus VI, now a mining colony since the planet has nothing to offer but minerals. The alien (a silicon-based lifeform that eats through rock as easily as humans digest food) has been catching and killing miners very brutally. The key question - why? - has a very interesting answer, since there are always two sides to everything. "Journey to Babel" (episode 44, season 2, screenplay Dorothy C. Fontana) 'Babel' is the name for an otherwise worthless planetoid used as a neutral meeting ground. ENTERPRISE is responsible for ferrying a shipload of diplomats from many cultures to a peace conference, including the Vulcan ambassador - and Kirk learns in an embarassing gaffe that the ambassador is Spock's father, who hasn't spoken with him in 18 years, since Spock entered Starfleet. That would have been interesting enough...[Kathleen Sky created a similar convoy-Federation-diplomats scenario in DEATH'S ANGEL (complete with Sarek rashly promising Kirk a peaceful trip) with far more exploration of the alien ambassadors, and without TV's budget constraints on special effects in their design.] "The Menagerie" (2-part episode 16, season 1, screenplay Gene Roddenberry) Kirk, Spock, and McCoy call on Starbase 11 in response to a message from Commodore Pike, Spock's former commanding officer who once commanded the ENTERPRISE - but Pike couldn't have sent the message, being paralyzed with only the crudest sort of yes/no communication device available to him. Spock, perceiving his old friend Pike's wishes, is willing to put his career on the line, and hijacks the ENTERPRISE, taking Pike along and setting course for Talos IV - and travel to Talos IV is one of the few crimes in Starfleet's calendar punishable by death. Spock's subsequent court-martial for mutiny involves the tale of 'The Cage', the original STAR TREK pilot set during Pike

If all of James Blish's novelizations of classic Star Trek episodes were NOT out of print (a situation someone somewhere should rectify), then this is definitely the one that I would want to use in my Science Fiction class. Of the six episodes presented in this volume, "The Menagerie," Gene Roddenberry's original pilot for Star Trek, which was later incorporated into the series in the two-part episode, "The Cage." However, what Blish did years before either episode was available on videotape, was to jettison the framing device of Spock being court-martial for mutiny when he tries to return Captain Pike to Talos IV and to present the original story WITH the original ending. Of the other five episodes, three of them are on my personal list of Top 10 Star Trek episodes: "The Devil in the Dark," where Spock mind melds with a mother Horta, "Journey to Babel," where Spock's parents show up on the Enterprise, and "The Enterprise Incident," where Kirk takes the Enterprise into Romulan territory. The other two episodes here are pretty good as well: "All Our Yesterdays," where Spock finds love in the past with Zarabeth," and "A Piece of the Action," where Kirk and Spock have to take over a planet run like Chicago under Capone. Blish, a wonderful writer who died way too young, proved with these stories that Star Trek was much more than special effects, that the best stories were about the characters and were TRUE to the characters. In the old days, these books were the best way of memorizing all the lines from your favorite Star Trek script, but now we have the wonders of videotape. Still, there is something to be said for turning a television episode into a good short story, and if they would get around to reprinting Blish's books again, a new generation of Star Trek fans would learn that as well.