Star Trek 10

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Star Trek 10, by James Blish

It's yet another in that series we all read at the library as kids, in which Blish novelized the original Star Trek episodes.  I didn't even know it went up to 10!  This one does have a great Klingon ship on the cover.

There are six stories, and I actually couldn't remember some of them, so I wound up watching a couple too.  The most famous on this list was "The Galileo Seven," and there was also one of the worst episodes ever, "The Omega Glory" (that's the one with the Yangs and the Kohms and the pledge of allegiance).   I've never been much of a fan of "A Private Little War," either.

"The Alternative Factor," for instance, I didn't remember at all (and I still haven't watched it).  This guy named Lazarus keeps screaming about a monster who will destroy everyone, but then sometimes he's calm.  Spock figures out that they're alternate-dimension versions of each other, and one is a madman -- but which?  I picked the wrong one.  The two Lazaruses end up caught between universes, forever battling for dominance -- a trope that has since been used a few times, but I'm not sure if this is the first?  Probably not?

"The Empath" features the Dynamic Trio (can you think of a better name?) trapped underground in a sort of arena, in which they are tortured for no apparent reason.  There's a girl there who can't speak, who is an empath.  Will she subject herself to pain for the benefit of others?

I did quite like "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" in which a super-beautiful psychologist brings an alien on board.  No human can look upon this alien without going insane, so he lives in a box.  The poor psychologist is constantly hounded by various men who are dazzled by her, so it's quite understandable that she just wants to merge with the alien and be left alone.  Then a guy looks at the alien and goes insane, and...so does Spock!

This wraps it up for my Vintage Sci-Fi January.  I had fun!  Though I didn't get anything that looked like a bingo of any kind,  I had a good time filling out my bingo card.  Thanks, Little Red!






Comments

  1. MarkJanuary 29, 2020 at 10:40 AM

    I thought there were as many of 50 of these. I remember seeing a used book store back in the day with a full shelf of them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. JorieJanuary 29, 2020 at 11:44 PM

    Hallo, Hallo Jean,

    *waves! I realise its been half an age since I've been able to visit with you on your lovely blog; I credit my health afflictions & my chronic migraines these past few years to result in less visits. I've been regrouping this January to get into a rhythm of visiting the book bloggers whose content I appreciate and enjoy to read. I've also had my eye on the Vintage SciFi reading challenge for *years!* but with most of my Classical SF library *packed!* - without a way to access it, I've just been pushing it off til 'another year'. Sadly, its nearly 7 years on and I think next year I ought to just borrow some audiobooks via the library or see if any are avail via Scribd! Oyy.

    This stood out to me as recently Mum, Dad and I have become wickedly excited about Picard -- we switched from Frndly (for Hallmark Channel movies - which we dearly binged in January for Christmas!) to CBS All Access. Without even realising we were joining three days post-premeire! Who knew!? The reason I'm bringing this up is because we seriously *loved!* what they did with the show - I'm thinking of writing up a spontaneous #BookishNotBookish post about it tomorrow, er, today? (ie. Thursday) --- as they totally merged our love of ST: TNG with the classical canon of Roddenberry's vision into this whole new dynamical universe of Trek. We previously avoided ANY release by Abrams and avoided Discovery, too. This felt like Trek had come home for those who were old school Roddenberry fans and we finally get to 'continue' the story!!

    --

    Thus, Trek is on my mind, and this post tipped my curiousity!

    They fictionalised the original Trek? I only knew about the novealisations for TNG - as I have Imazadi by Peter David but I hadn't thought to look further back for the Original!

    Of the stories you've listed I think the ones I'd have gravitated towards would be the two Lazaruses - as that just seemed like an intellectual mystery to sort through and any story with Spock at the centre (or Sarek) was a favourite of mine!!

    Loved reading your takeaways and what pulled you in and out of the stories! I love anthologies for this reason myself - you get to sample different styles and voices or in this case revisit the story-lines of Classic Trek in a novelisation kind of way!

    I agree with you on Book Bingo Cards (which is my focus this New Year!) -- the goal isn't really the 'bingos' but the journey you take with the stories themselves!

    Top Cheers!

    Happy readings!

    ReplyDelete
  3. JeanJanuary 30, 2020 at 11:31 AM

    Hi Jorie! Yes, they sure did. James Blish produced at least 12 volumes of episode novelization collections for fans devastated by the cancellation of the series. Glad to see you around!

    ReplyDelete

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