Star Trek 3 by James Blish

Star Trek 3 Reviews

• 
  Robert

  James Blish is not as widely known as, say, Heinlein, Asimov and Clarke but he ought to be. He isn't scary like Heinlein, isn't completely hopeless about character like Asimov and isn't as long winded as Clarke. His "After Such Knowledge" books belong in the front row of every SF library, as do the Cities in Flight series. One 50,000 word novel by Blish can contain more ideas than some writers' entire output. Blish was the master of the surprise ending, indeed the gob-smacking final sentence; only Ray Bradbury could ever compete with him on this front, with Aldiss coming in third place - but only in the short fiction category. Nobody else I've read came close to the Blish standard in more than one novel. Perhaps Matheson's I Am Legend is as close as anyone ever got to competing with the final sentence of Blish's Black Easter.
  
  So, what the Religious/Mythical Place of Eternal Punishment is he doing writing Star Trek books? Back then he was in print all over the place with novels, short story collections, even the first proper book of SF criticism; this would be slumming it, right?
  
  Maybe, but Blish was forever short of money and wrote prolifically to deal with the problem. Not only was he pulling the typical stunts of his era such as serialising stories in magazines then publishing slightly expanded novel versions and taking disconnected shorts with common settings and adapting them as novels, too, but he was writing reviews for a fanzine under a pseudonym, working on novels that rehashed from shorter material and in desperate times writing fiction for sports and detective story magazines. Hence getting the contract for a TV tie-in series was a blessing in disguise, because he enjoyed SF a lot more than the other stuff. (He down-right hated writing sport stories.)
  
  At the time, also, TV and film tie-in fiction was not generally regarded as hack-work for failed "proper" authors - because there had been very little of it produced. In the SF realm, TV series were a new thing, really. It was in fact prestigious to be chosen to do the Star Trek books and Gene Roddenberry and co. deliberately chose a well-respected writer for the job.
  
  So, is Star Trek 3 any good? Yeah, sort of. Blish is faced with a very constrained job: take the existing shooting scripts for already broadcast Star Trek episodes and turn them into individual short stories. The characters were defined for him; so were the plots. The dialogue is very similar or identical to the episodes. All Blish gets to contribute is verbal description - even the scenery is pre-defined, though. So in a way all of these stories are collaboations with the original TV writers. Some of those writers, however, were big names of the era, too and used the opportunity to put down some interesting SF situations. So what you have here is Star Trek with better acting! I can't say I wasn't entertained. This series is a must for true Blish fans and probably for hard-core Trek fans, too.
• 
  W

  After three seasons,Star Trek The Original Series,disappeared from the TV screen.Much later,there was a revival,with several spin off series and movies.
  
  However,in the intervening period,these books by James Blish were the only Star Trek related stuff I had.There were twelve volumes,based on the TV episodes.
  
  Star Trek 3 had some entertaining episodes,particularly The Trouble with Tribbles and the Doomsday Machine.It was one of the better volumes in the series.
  
  I was pretty fond of these books,but somehow they all got misplaced.Well,at least I have a lot of Star Trek on DVD.
• 
  Jerry

  Though fun for what it is, the episodes are better...and that's coming from a lifelong reader. Still, it's great to see some of the most iconic stories from the original series here.
• 
  ⚧️ Nadienne Greysorrow ⚧️

  As with my review of Star Trek 1, this is just more TOS episodes told in novella and/or short story form.
• 
  Dustin

  This volume in Trek Charm-ectomy includes The Trouble With Tribbles, The Last Gunfight, The Doomsday Machine, Assignment: Earth, Mirror, Mirror, Friday's Child, and Amok Time
  The Trouble with Tribbles has a few differences from the episode, like the joke at end is different. This is the first comedy episode Blish has adapted and he doesn’t do a good job conveying the humor of the episode at all.
  The Last Gunfight (aka the Cowboy Planet episode) was dunb on the show and is a waste of pages here.
  The Doomsday Machine lacks the tension of the episode and reads like a log entry of the events.
  Mirror, Mirror is the first adaptation in this collection I’d say was worth reading, but only just. It maintains Kirk’s fight to save the Mirror Halkans, the difficulty the crew have with maintaining the deception, and the impassioned speech to mirror Spock at the end, but to do so it cuts all but a mention of the agony booth and completely removes Marlena Moreau and the Tantalus field.
  Friday's Child is so forgettable an episode when I finished reading its novelization I still couldn’t tell you what it was about.
  Amok Time has a slightly different sequence and kills the Death of Kirk suspense by giving you his point of view while he passes out but is otherwise unremarkable.
  Star Trek 3 isn’t so awful that I want to give it one star, but I can’t really bring myself to give it anything else than that. At this point in history only the most enthusiastic Trek fan will want to read these, and three books in I already want to skip to the next series of books
  One Star out of Five.
  
• 
  Heather Domin

  This one's a little truer to the finished episodes than its predecessor, but there are still some big differences, particularly in Operation: Annihilate! and Friday's Child. (Damn, Friday's Child was cold.) Also, big chunks of Space Seed and Amok Time are missing, and Spock's characterization is still evolving (instead of the famous "Jim!", we get uncontrollable sobs, which, you know, is fine with me, but still).
• 
  Charles

  These are Blish's novelizations/storyizations of the original Star Trek episodes. Sometimes they are slightly different from the final episode since they were written from shooting scripts as I understand. Although I enjoyed them, it's because of the tie in with the TV series episodes. The writing here is fairly workmanlike and this is really bare bones kind of work.
• 
  Ed Wyrd

  James Blish's third volume of stories based off the original screenplays. This one has some good ones, including three screenplays that were nominated for Hugo Awards in 1968: The Trouble with Tribbles by David Gerrold, The Doomsday Machine by Norman Spinrad, and Amok Time by the immortal Theodore Sturgeon. Good, short reads that often show how the original deviated from the final product.
• 
  John Yelverton

  An extremely short and condensed collection of episodes from the original series, but I think they were written from the original drafts of the scripts, because they differ from the episodes rather severely in places.
• 
  Jay Daze

  Read these in the library at lunch time in grade eight hiding from my tormentors. (A lifetime and five minutes ago.)
• 
  Eric

  The writing on these books leaves something to be desired but the stories are pulled from the show and fun to read.
• 
  Octavia Cade

  It's still a quick and zippy read, but it's just not as good as the first two. This is basically down to the episodes covered here which, with a couple of exceptions, are as a whole not particularly strong. There's "The Trouble with Tribbles" and "Mirror, Mirror" which are the stand-outs, but they can't really make up for "Assignment: Earth" or "Friday's Child", which were painful even in the original form. With the best will in the world Blish can't make them seem any less stupid, though in fairness he does try.
• 
  Daniel Taylor

  When Star Trek was new, there was no such thing as home video. Later, even when beta and vhs existed, Trek was not available for years. Thus, if you wanted to enjoy episodes on demand, Blish's adaptations were the only game in town. This volume includes, among others, "The Trouble With Tribbles," "Mirror, Mirror" and "Amok Time," the secrets of Vulcan biology.
• 
  Nancy

  interesting take on what I
  recognized as Star Trek episodes.
  The differences were interesting.
  
  I have to admit,I thought the television
  episodes were better. That might be
  nostalgia talking.
  
• 
  reherrma

  Hier enthalten ist die Story von David Gerrold; Die Sache mit den Tribbles; großartgig !
• 
  Ross Vincent

  Today is the anniversary of the first broadcast of Star Trek.
  So, to celebrate, I finished the last two stories in this book - Friday's Child & Amok Time - this evening.
  
  
• 
  Patrick McWilliams

  The Trouble with Tribbles: Glad the episode included the brawl with Scotty and the Klingons, and his improved "no tribble at all" pun at the end. Missed seeing them here, although it's probably not Blish's fault, as these are based on scripts (and often not the final versions).
  
  The Last Gunfight (Spectre of the Gun): There's a really interesting detail in here that didn't make it into the episode (or perhaps was an invention of Blish's). At the end, Kirk notes that Spock, when conducting the mind-meld with Kirk, Bones, and Scotty in the final act, gave each man a personalized pep talk, with each individual's specific characteristics in mind. (In the episode, Spock basically says the same thing to each man.) In Blish's novelization, when speaking to Scotty, Spock quotes a somewhat obscure passage from the New Testament, implying that Scott has a Christian background. My mind jumped to Scott's performance of "Amazing Grace" at the funeral in The Wrath of Khan.
  
  The Doomsday Machine: Missed the added drama of Decker's sacrifice at the end that showed up in the episode.
  
  Mirror, Mirror: I chuckled at the line about how the mirror universe apparently didn't learn that men pay more attention to a feminine (computer) voice than a masculine. Then I looked it up and apparently that's actually a thing! This story features the best line of the book, and one I wish would have been in the episode as well:
  
  "'A civilized man,' [Spock] said at last, 'can easily play the part of a barbarian, as you all did in the other universe. He has only to look into his own soul for the remnants of the savage ancestors from which he sprang, and then---revert. But your counterparts, when we beamed them aboard, were savages to begin with---and had no core of civilization or humanity to which they could revert. The contrast was rather striking.'
  
  "McCoy said, 'Spock, could *you* have played the savage, if you'd been switched along with the rest of us?'
  
  "Very seriously, Spock said, 'Dr. McCoy, I *am* a savage. Both here, and there. But some day, I hope to outgrow it.'"
  
  Friday's Child: A few weird things in this story. The planet's natives are pre-warp, which makes one wonder why Starfleet is talking to them. Then it's revealed that apparently they're descended from human colonists. But I guess enough time has passed that General Order #1 applies at least in some fashion, because Kirk basically just grits his teeth and accepts cold-blooded murder in front of him as part of the planet's own political affairs. I was very interested to see that McCoy is quite firmly anti-abortion in this story. If a mother today said she wanted to kill the unborn child in her womb, many doctors would approve and even assist with the procedure. Yet McCoy unabashedly calls it a child and implies that he would physically restrain the mother if she tried to bring any harm to the unborn boy.
  
  Amok Time: McCoy's solution is spoiled by giving the reader Kirk's point of view. Joe Haldeman's novelization of the scene in "Planet of Judgment" is far more detailed and better told, although I suppose Blish was working with what he had.
• 
  Francisco

  And yet another set of TOS episode novelizations, this one has some innovations, there's an introduction by Blish congratulating the series for all its Hugo nominations and mentioning that three of the episodes on this book got nominations, although the one who won the Hugo was "City on the Edge of Forever" which was in volume 2. Still again we have a very competent, very readable set of episodes, many of them classics, and this includes "The Trouble with Tribbles"; "The Last Gunfight" (which would be the episode "Spectre of the Gun"); "The Doomsday Machine"; "Assignment: Earth"; "Mirror, Mirror"; "Friday's Child" and "Amok Time".
  
  It clearly seems that Blish has now seen the episodes as the stories generally conform more closely to the finished episodes than they did in previous volumes, and as such they are at the same time more comfortable as reminders of the series, but less interesting as they aren't showing early versions of the script and are slightly less imaginative. So, the stories are only as good as their respective episodes and the stand-outs here are clearly the "Trouble with Tribbles" which maintains the humorous touch of the episode while going a bit more in-depth into the physiology of Tribbles and "Mirror, Mirror" a classic episode which here focuses solely on Kirk and crew's adventures in the mirror universe.
  
  Again Blish makes justice to the original episodes, and if we report back to the time when these were published we have to remember that there were only a handful of TV stations, no cable re-runs, no home recording systems, no VHS or DVDs or Tivo's or anything, this would be the closest a fan could get to reliving the series that they had gotten to see only once on TV, never to be seen again. In this historical context Blish's novelizations make sense, and are surprisingly successful at capturing the spirit of the episodes novelized. Good Stuff... 9 more of these to go!
  
  More reviews at: trekwarsproject.blogspot.com
• 
  David King

  “Star Trek 3” by James Blish is the third collection of short stories which includes seven adaptations of Star Trek Original Series scripts.
  
  "The Trouble with Tribbles"
  "The Last Gunfight" (an adaptation of "Spectre of the Gun")
  "The Doomsday Machine"
  "Assignment: Earth"
  "Mirror, Mirror"
  "Friday's Child”
  "Amok Time"
  
  I have to admit that it is getting quite hard for me to review these collections without sounding like I am just repeating what I have said before but in the end what is true for one appears to be true for others. Basically, the level to which they entertain a reader is proportionate to how enjoyable the original episodes were. Luckily this collection contains a few decent episodes which meant that reading it was an enjoyable enough diversion for an afternoon.
  
  As always there are a few changes to the stories as Blish tended to work with earlier scripts that were different to the final product and trying to spot these differences can be quite an entertaining experience. They don’t tend to overly affect the impact of the episode but it was quite nice to see the stories being told in a different way.
  
  A slight negative is that the dramatic impact and tension was lost in several of the stories. For example, “The Doomsday Machine” was put across in a rather stale manner and the dramatic impact Kirk’s death in “Amok Time” was lost a little as the story was told from his viewpoint. It wasn’t a major issue but as these were some of the more enjoyable episodes used in the collection it was a shame to see them put across in a manner which wasn’t as strong as it could be.
  
  Overall, Blish continues to do a competent job at adapting the various episodes but outside of nostalgic Star Trek fans I doubt they are going to appeal to many people.
  
• 
  Canavan

  ✭½
  
  “The Trouble with Tribbles”,
  James Blish &
  David Gerrold (Teleplay Author). ✭✭
  “The Last Gunfight” (alternate title: “Spectre of the Gun”), James Blish &
  Lee Cronin (Teleplay Author). ✭
  “The Doomsday Machine”, James Blish &
  Norman Spinrad (Teleplay Author). ✭✭
  “Assignment: Earth”, James Blish, Art Wallace (Teleplay & Story Author), &
  Gene Roddenberry (Story Author). ½
  “Mirror, Mirror”, James Blish &
  Jerome Bixby (Teleplay Author). ✭½
  “Friday’s Child”, James Blish &
  D. C. Fontana (Teleplay Author). ✭
  “Amok Time”, James Blish &
  Theodore Sturgeon (Teleplay Author). ✭✭
  
  All stories published 1969.
• 
  Joanne G.

  Yes, I gave five stars, and I didn't even have to argue much with myself about it. Is the book a solid five stars for every reader? Not hardly. But to my pre-teen self, Gene Roddenberry's world of intellectual curiosity, bravery, and harmony among all people was an exciting one.
  
  I was a reading geek long, long before science-fiction/fantasy became popular. The world has been about three decades behind! There were a few guy geeks back in the day, but I was the only girl I knew who liked science-fiction. When I look back on my childhood, my reading buddies were all male from the neighbors who loaned me their comics to my locker-mate in high school who shared his Dark Shadows books to my roommate's fiance with whom I delightedly discussed Lord of the Rings' to my roomie's bewilderment (what normal people said things like Hobbits, Bilbo, and Gollum?).
  
  So, when I was unpacking from our move and I relocated this slim volume, my sentimental heart went all gooey and I awarded all the stars I could. It was only logical. After all, I'd been given a "galactic ticket to infinite adventure." Definitely worth five stars.
• 
  Yaaresse

  When i was a kid, my older sister's friend GAVE me the entire collection. (I know!) Over the next few years, I read them all in order, starting the first one the day after I finished the last one. Loved them. I'm not sad that I didn't hang onto them and can only hope they still exist to make some other fan happy. (But I doubt it because...well, paperbacks, you know?)
  
  The adaptations got better in the later volumes, but it was Star Trek whenever and wherever I wanted with having to put up with the spastic tripe William Shatner calls acting.
  
  Frankly, I can't remember which story was in which volume, so my rating reflects my enjoyment of the set...which I am hoping will come out in e-book form very soon.
• 
  Mike McDevitt

  Useful before the VCR, nostalgic oddities today, I'm just not a huge fan.
  Brand Decker survives 'the Doomsday Machine' where Matt Decker vitally did not. I prefer the self-sacrificing version that TV gave me.
  Also, why would Bones and Kirk be 'insufferably pleased' to have a "highly inbred" baby from the planet here called Ceres named in their honour?
  At least baby Leonard James Akaar isn't an Oriental like those darn Klingons. But maybe he DOES he have a tail, like the Blish version of Gorn. I admit, I prefer to imagine Gorn with tails.
• 
  Rich Meyer

  This volume of episode adaptations from the original Star Trek/I> series feature some of the best ("the Trouble with Tribbles", "the Doomsday Machine", "Amok Time", and "Mirror, Mirror") and some of the worst ("Spectre of the Gun", "Friday's Child") that the show had to offer. "The Last Gunfight", the version of "Spectre of the Gun" is a little better than the show itself was, and all of the episodes novelized have interesting quirks that make them more interpretations of the original shows than straight-out adaptation. In any event, it's an interesting read.
• 
  Tom

  This is a great collection of short stories adapted from the TV show. Three of the tales were nominees for Best Dramatic Presentation. One of stories is The Trouble with Tribbles, which makes the book worth reading just on that one story alone. It is an easy read for whenever you want a quick escape.