STAR TREK 5 (urspr publ 1972; utgåvan 1972)

I finished it - re-watched and re-read all of ST:TOS, in order, to close out 2020. Star Trek 5 has the misfortune to contain the final aired episode, the awful "Turnabout Intruder", so is the last book to finish. Both 5 and 6 contained mostly 3rd season episodes. Still counts as an early volume, with the problem of dropping any scenes not in Kirk's POV, most obvious in "Whom God's Destroy" where the Scotty/Enterprise side of the password exchange was omitted. A lot of this episode's violence was scaled down, dropping the torture of Kirk and the killing of Marta (who was strangely described as part Vulcan because she was green, when she was clearly Orion in the episode). Not yet scaled up to 30 pages per story, these are only 20-25 pages each. "The Way to Eden" is especially short, missing important scenes like the takeover of Auxiliary Control, that contain no central characters. The songs were tacky even in 1969, but at least there was music. Presented as just lyrics doesn't help them.

And a particularly 2020 note on "Requiem for Methuselah" - Oh joy, another story about a plague, I'd forgotten that detail. ( )

After reading three volumes of this series I can say that certain themes recur; illusion, transporter problems, Kirk fancying a native... ( )

These adaptations were quite good then, and now. ( )

Once again, written stories are put to the printed page from the original Star Trek series. These books are the original fan fiction: it is obvious that James Blish and the fans of this series kept buying and reading these stories. It is copywritten in 1972: three years after the original series was cancelled, four years before Star Wars came and filled a visual science fiction abyss, and during the years when we told and retold the same stories or created ones of our own. And while the stories are a bit stilted and some details are left out from the transition of TV to page, they still bring back the iconic characters and motivation of the original five-year mission. ( )

With 1972 came another entry in Blish's series of Star Trek adaptations, Star Trek 5. This volume includes adaptations of seven episodes: "Whom Gods Destroy", "The Tholian Web", "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield", "This Side of Paradise", "Turnabout Intruder", "Requiem for Methuselah", an "The Way to Eden".

The stories adapted in this volume are, I think, fairly average Trek fare. The adaptation of "Whom Gods Destroy" is the most interesting, but even it was better for being on screen. Meanwhile, most of the others are dull, and "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" is positively tedious.

Several adaptations throughout this series suffer from a common flaw: certain episodes are really only interesting on account of being acted out. "Turnabout Intruder" has a rather weak plot (to say nothing of its unfortunately anti-feminist dimensions), but to the extent that it was entertaining, it was all down to Shatner's overacting as Dr. Lester. Blish's condensed prose captures none of that, while retaining the cringe-worthy story ("And most of all she wanted to murder the man who might have loved her--had her intense hatred of her own womanhood not made life with her impossible."--lovely.)

The above goes equally for "The Way to Eden", another very weak episode propped up (poorly) by songs, on which small support the book cannot rely.

Star Trek 5 was saddled with several very unfortunate episodes, and it didn't make any more of them than the TV series did. If you've got this one, read "Whom Gods Destroy" and ignore the rest. If not, I wouldn't go out of my way to get it. Your time will be better spent elsewhere. ( )