The Ultimate Guide to Star Trek's James Blish Novel
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ต.ค. 2024
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My Star Trek Journey.
I discovered Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek The Original Series in 1972 and fell in love with it even though I was only 8 years old. In 1973, Star Trek The Animated Series premiered on NBC Saturday Morning Cartoons, and kept me entertained until it finished its run in 1974.
Like many other Star Trek fans, I waited and waited as the powers that be kept saying we would get Star Trek Planet of The Titans, then Star Trek Phase 2, until finally premiering Star Trek The Motion Picture in 1979.
As the Harve Bennett movies of the 1980’s began, I was at the theatre on opening night for Nicholas Meyer’s Star Trek II : The Wrath of Khan, Leonard Nimoy’s Star Trek III : The Search for Spock & Star Trek IV : The Voyage Home, William Shatner’s Star Trek V : The Final Frontier, and Star Trek VI : The Undiscovered Country.
Before the decade ended, we got Star Trek : The Next Generation. Which, among other things, introduced us to the three letter Star Trek designations with the introduction of TOS for The Original Series, TAS for The Animated Series, and TNG for The Next Generation. We also were introduced to Rick Berman, who went on to give us Star Trek : Deep Space Nine ( DS9 ), Star Trek : Voyager ( VOY ), and Star Trek : Enterprise ( ENT ).
Berman also finished out the second run of Star Trek movies beginning with Star Trek Generation, Jonathan Frake’s Star Trek First Contact, Star Trek Insurrection, and Star Trek Nemesis.
Shortly afterward, the star of the new millennium, JJ Abrams rebooted the movies with Star Trek using a new cast for the actors playing the TOS characters. Taken on its own, this movie; along with Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond were responsible for a completely new Alex Kurtzman Star Trek resurgence. Although many older fans didn’t like Star Trek Discovery ( DIS ), Star Trek Picard ( PIC ), or Star Trek Strange New World’s ( SNW )
Oddly enough, brand new Star Trek animated shows have enjoyed a far greater success amongst the fan base with Star Trek Lower Decks ( SLD), and Star Trek Prodigy ( PRO ).
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I was a kid when Star Trek first aired, but it wasn't a show my family regularly watched. By the time it went into syndication, we had moved to a fairly remote rural area, where we couldn't get the one channel that ran them. Then one day in 1972, I picked my older brother's copy of Blish's first collection of adaptations that had been kicking around for a while. I loved them! Not long after, I ran across Star Trek 2 and "Spock Must Die" on a paperback rack in a dept. store. I bought all of them as soon as I could find them, and for the longest time, they those stories were the only versions of many episodes I knew until I finally saw them all on TV. So my journey as a Star Trek fan started with those books.
I read every one of them in the 1970’s. What great books they were for the time!
I still have mine from back then, time for a reread!
That painting of the Enterprise from the Star Trek 4 book is another remarkable alternate version of the ship, keeping the traditional saucer, nacelles, and engineering hull, but the pointed tip on the top of the bridge dome, the dark-painted rings of the nacelle domes, and so on, but kept the proportions that we all know and love. A similar motif would be used with the later AMT model box art, including the angle (which it's probably taken from), but with the ship with a beautifully ethereal and epic background of two icy planets, nebula, and stars.
Loved these books when I was a kid in the 70s. Just loved them.
Love those old covers
Yes, especially the illustrated ones in the U.S. when they stopped using photos. They had an almost surreal feel.
I have these books... and so did my dad in 1991... Thanks, James Blish!!!❤❤❤ RIP
I have most of them too. Volumes 1 through 12 at least. Found them at a used bookstore and was like, "Okay, I gotta get these, this is cool."
I am glad to say I have all of the James Blish adaptations. And in very good condition too!
Hi Twin Toothbrush Charlie, welcome to our community! That's great! It's always nice to have a complete and well-preserved collection. Enjoy reading them!
I have such fond memories of these books! When I was growing up in the UK in the early 70's Star Trek was not much on TV but there were the James Blish adaptations; I think they were more influential in my understanding of Star Trek than the actual TV show was since I could read and re-read them anytime.
This brings back great memories of being a young teen (maybe 12/13?) and discovering these books. I was walking through a bookstore and saw the cover of Star Trek 9 peaking out from a bottom shelf. I couldn't believe they existed. Back then, there was no internet (at least available to the masses) and no easy way for the average fan to know these books were out there unless you stumbled across them as I did, or subscribed to maybe some early fanzines, which I didn't know about. I was most excited to discover James Blish had written an original book, "Spock Must Die." The first new material since I discovered the TV show a couple or so years earlier. Newer fans used to new Star Trek books, new series, new movies, new fan material, etc. probably can't understand how amazing it was to have new material during those "dry years" between the end the show and Star Trek: TMP in 1979. Then, I was crestfallen when I picked up Star Trek 12 to find out James Blish had passed. Eventually, I purchased every paperback and the hardback Star Trek Reader editions. Somewhere in my house, there is a box with all my Star Trek books. Perhaps I should take one out and reconnect with the wonder that young teen felt for Star Trek a half a century ago.
Yes, during the early 70's, there wasn't any Trek except for reruns of TOS, which were getting high ratings. But the Blish books were one of the few "areas" where a teenager could see something Star Trek.
This is a fantastic video. Many many thanks for the scholarship and enthusiasm. As a child of the 1970s, these books meant the world to me...or should I say...galaxy...
Wow! Thank you for an excellent look at the many variations of these great books! They will always be an interesting part of trek,especially the earlier books featuring the different variations of the as filmed episodes.
The thoughts expressed in the jacket cover are perhaps more relevant and meaningful than ever in today's world.And on this memorial day weekend a thank you for your service to the real world Captain Pierre Kirk and his peers. LLAP Jim!
Thank you so much. I will most definitely think of Pierre Kirk and his men this Memorial Day.
Hello there. I've got to be honest with you there are a lot of sites on TH-cam that talk about Star Trek but yours is by far my favorite along with the people who do the 3D effects. I love your articles and always learn something new that I had previously not known even having read so many books I'm always surprised to learn new things about trek from you. I loved the corgi 1980s artwork. Thank you
Thank you for the kind words. One of the things I enjoy so much on this channel is that every idea begins with "I wonder if..."
So each new discovery is like a giant easter egg hunt. I love it!
@@TREK-WORLD thank you very much. I found the Vietnam incident fascinating. It would be great to hear more about Mr. Blish's input on the books and how they differed from the episodes
In 1967, I got the first book Star Trek 1, as part of our elementary school book club, you could choose four paper backs for 99 cents from a color brochure which had tiny pictures of most of the featured books of course my first pick based on the cool art work. At the time I had no idea as a seven year old hat was coming or what the future would bring until those first books arrived and inside the front cover was a page advertising the coming soon more Star Trek books and a new television series! From that moment on I was hooked! I would order all they offered as they would be my only link to the show until the miracle of syndication, remember this is long before cable and until the third season when I was able to sneak a few brief glimpses of the show as a nine year old we didn’t get much control of what we saw on television especially a sci-fi show my parents didn’t get and thought was silly back then. If it wasn’t Gunsmoke or Lassie they didn’t watch it. My father called him Dr SPOCK, imagine the sacrilege especially when I had the nerve to point out my fathers error and the taste of that Ivory soap, YUCK!!
I have something even more troubling to share..... My father called him "Leo Nippy" because it drove me nuts every time he did. LOL.
@@TREK-WORLD As Steve King once pointed out, when people find that special button to push, they’ll most often celebrate by hammering on the f’ker. 😊
Thank you for the smile! I just love King, and I can definitely hear his voice in my head when I read your comment. 😀
Great video. White Lion also did a hardback of Star Trek 1 in 1974. As they also did, as you say in the video, Star Trek 3, it's reasonable to think that they also did 'Star Trek 2. 24.41 - That's the AMT/Aurora Enterprise model kit with it's nacelles on the wrong sides!
Another great video. Many thanks. The cover art for these books was always a great draw, but I remember seeing that first cover and wondering why the heck was there rocket exhaust from the shuttle bay!
The incident with Col. Pierre Kirk is one of those amazing stories, and while I had no way to verify it, I had nothing to disprove it, either, and if nothing else, it was amusing and provided a rare light in an otherwise turbulent time period. That being said, I would've loved to see the actual after action reports where this was archived and read the comments on it!
Also, I'm surprise that people drove him off when all they had to do to vet his story is to actually go to the Office of the Adjunct General and obtain a copy of the report!
I remember reading about that incident in the novel The Making of Star Trek I must admit I did find it quite strange especially when he said his executive officer bared a sort of resemblance to Mr Spock himself and how supposedly he got enemies that they were fighting to surrender by announcing that the Starship Enterprise was there because they were familiar with the TV show themselves interesting incident
I got started on these via the Star Trek Reader compilations that I checked out from the library for a road trip when I was a kid. Finally read every single one of them in order in just the past year, except for Mudd's Angel's/Enterprise, which I'm saving for my next round of Trek reading. As you said, it's great to have alternate version of these stories. Look forward to going through Alan Dean Foster's TAS novelizations in the same vein.
Thank you kindly for all your research and meticulous presentation. Comment made before coffee, mostly for algorithm...☺️☕️🖖❤️ will be watching all day. Subscribed and liked 👍!
I went on a bit of a Blish-binge a few years ago and bought all the original volumes off eBay. I love seeing all the variant covers.
I remember reading his adaption of Errand of Mercy. the Klingons were presented as having descended from Earth colonist who gradually grew hostile to their origin planet. I thought that was a really interesting take on them.
Most of my Blish novels, bought here in the UK late 70s/early 80s, are actually Bantam versions, apart from 12 which is Corgi.
I loved Gold Key Comics! I still have some Star Trek comics.
Great video! Lots of research as always - thank you! (BTW, your link for "Non-Fiction Books on Behind The Scenes Star Trek" is a duplicate of the "Incredible Scale Model Star Trek Kits".)
Hi Jeff! Thanks for the link info; I'll go back in and check them and redo as needed. It's been awhile and I probably pasted where I shouldn't have. -Jim 😀
It’s interesting how early Star Trek jumped onto the literary market compared to Doctor Who with the latter first putting out the first novelisation in 1964 after the series debuted in 1963 and was one of three books based on the episodes in the 1960’s.
By the time the Target Novelisations started in 1974, Star Trek was already ahead in the adaptation game and managed to finish up the adaptations of the TOS + TAS episodes while Classic Who would spend nearly over six decades completing the entire original series including the three Douglas Adams (one was a Season 17 story filmed 1979 but left unfinished until 2017) and the two Eric Seward Dalek written TV episodes in prose form.
These were great. Hard to believe that James Blish never saw an episode when he wrote them - he based everything on first scripts, but they still work well. He also attempted to make an acceptable compromise regarding Harlan Ellison's original script for City on the Edge of Forever and what ultimately aired, which he was never really satisfied with.
And Blish's one original Trek novel, Spock Must Die, is a fantastic piece of work, if a little esoteric. It had some interesting scientific questions -- which aren't exactly answered - and it made you think. Definitely more adult than the official Trek books authorized by Paramount, and all the better for it.
A couple of years back, I got a Barnes & Noble collection of all of the Blish Star Trek stories, and I devoured them all over again.
I remember reading an interview with his wife where she said the alterations that were made were mostly because he got screenplays before they themselves were altered his wife also has the distinction of riding one of those horrible Star Trek novels muds Angels which was terrible
@@JohnAnderson-jy2js Spirits, I forgot about that one. Yes, that was terrible!
Awesome video brings back so many memories I remember reading these books and also remember the alteration that was made to some of them especially in the novelization of the episode the Doomsday Machine Commodore Decker's name wasn't Matt Decker but brandecker and he did not die in the novelization just like Caroline discovering that she was pregnant by Apollo I remember being annoyed by that I also remember his wife stating that the author basically came up with the stories with some of the screenplays that he was supplied with and those screenplay stories were basically changed before the Airing of the episode so it really wasn't his fault I must say I could not stand a novel that she wrote called mud's angels I remember reading his first novel Spock must die and thought it was well written definitely though thanks for the memories I remember and have some of these books still to this day
They are great reads!
I just picked up a copy of star trek lives at the thrift shop yesterday.
Hi Kerbal Space Command, welcome to our community! That's great! Star Trek Lives is a fantastic book, filled with interviews and behind-the-scenes insights into the making of the original Star Trek series. It's a must-read for any Trek fan. Enjoy!
One might be more careful than to question the legitimate stories of a veteran. When Char Ansabel is the name of an officer in the Japanese animated sci-fi military of the fictional "Principality of Zeon". Who made his name attacking the Earth Space Defense Force.
Nice work. (FYI - almost certainly the most mispronounced titled among all TOS episodes is "Who Mourns for Adonais." You can google "Adonais" but it's a four syllable word -- from a poem by Percy Shelley.)
I still have all of my mine !!!
I have all of them....and still do.
I had many of these books.
The mokup covers look similar to star trek seekers covers.
Good catch! I remember saying that the covers got him a chance to actually do real commercial covers - they were, in fact, for the Seeker series. -Jim
His wife and mother-in-law actually wrote roughly the latter half of them, except those involving Mudd were kept to JB himself because he wanted to put the two novelisations into one book with a third short novel sequel which was his own "original" story, just like "Spock Must Die!" was made during the time period of the beginning of the latter half.
For some reason, he hated the tie-in novelisation ideas and the idea of original stories as sequel stories following the show... but he became absolutely taken with the character of Harry Mudd that he couldn't wait to write his own "fan fic" original story to get an official stamp of approval and impress everyone. He absolutely seemed to hate absolutely everything else about it but he abandoned the novelisation efforts to his wife and mother-in-law to do in his name so he could focus on his Mudd story that his wife had to finish so it could be published in his book containing the missing novelisations of the Mudd episodes plus a version of his story he'd long tinkered with until his death.
Hi Elle Müller, welcome to our community! It seems that despite his dislike for tie-in novelizations and sequel stories, the author was very enthusiastic about creating an original story featuring the character Harry Mudd. He entrusted his wife and mother-in-law with the task of completing the novelizations while he focused on his own "fan fic" story. This story, along with the novelizations, was eventually published in a book after the author's passing.
@@jimgpayne I suspect Blish would have ended up writing many more original Star Trek books if he hadn't passed in 1975, likely also being selected to novelize Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and maybe even writting an episode or three for Next Generation. He was only doing 54 when he exited.
Wikipedia indicates J.A. Lawrence (Judith Ann) is still alive at 89. Looks like she retired from writing in 2009, but she'd make for a great interview if she was willing.
Wow! I didn’t even think she was around anymore. I may do some poking around and see if I can find contact info for her. Thanks!
@@TREK-WORLD I went a lookin' for her maybe five years back and mostly hit dead ends. I simply wanted to send her a fan thank-you note, but like you I figured she likely had passed, but what snippets I picked up indicated she was still with us, but retired. I did find a very recent interview (2023) that I doubt anybody has seen. She's living in Athens, I believe she either remarried or has had a new partner, and she had written one additional Star Trek novel decades back that the publisher owns but never released as they went in a new direction. It would be great if as a community we shook the tree and encouraged the publisher to publish it! I'll forward it to you if you have an email connected to this account.
if this was facebook id post a picture of my copy of one tittled just starf trek i got it from the schoolastic book club.. like once a month you had a news print like sheet where you could order books. i must have it over 50 years. missing the front cover. cost 60 cents. 6th printing dedicated to harlasn ellison who was always right. its short stories based on episodes.
I used to love those book fairs. I got a copy of the "Star Trek Puzzle Manual"" that way.... Like many of us, it has long been lost. But doing this update on the Blish books really brought those times back to me.
TIL James Blish was American, not British
Correct. However, he moved to the UK in the late sixties and lived there until his death in 1975.