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Star Trek (Bantam Books)

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Star Trek
AuthorVarious
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreScience fiction
PublisherBantam Books
Published1967–1991
Media typePrint (Paperback)
No. of books
  • 13 episode novelizations
  • 13 original novels
  • 12 photonovels
  • 2 short story collections
  • 3 reference works

In 1966, Bantam Books acquired the license to publish tie-in fiction based on the science fiction television series Star Trek.

Bantam published a series of novelizations based on episodes of the television series from 1967 to 1978. From 1970 to 1981, a range of original novels, anthologies, and reference books followed. Bantam also produced a line of photo comics which adapted popular episodes of the television series using full-color photographic stills.

Many of Bantam's Star Trek releases remained in print until 1991.

Production

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Episode novelizations

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James Blish was known to have expressed an extreme dislike for tie-in fiction; however, he accepted the commission from Bantam Books to novelize episodes of Star Trek, at $2,000 per volume.[1]: 21, 324  He later stated his financial stability stemmed from the publication of the novelizations, which likely included the commission for Spock Must Die! (1970), which earned him a $3,000 advance (equivalent to $24,926 in 2023).[1]: 358 

Prior to his relocation to the United Kingdom in 1969, Blish had not seen the NBC broadcasts of Star Trek. Nor was he involved in the production of the series in any capacity. His only sources for the adaptations were the draft teleplays sent to him by Desilu. Adaptations published after 1970 aligned more with the narrative tone and pacing from the television series, indicating Blish had seen some episodes, mostly likely via broadcasts by the BBC, which began in the summer of 1969.

Blish was credited exclusively for eleven volumes, although it was later acknowledged that volumes published after Star Trek 6 (1972) were written in collaboration with his wife J. A. Lawrence and her mother, Muriel Lawrence, who was also Blish's assistant. Blish commented favorably about the series in each of his "Author's Notes", however, Josephine Saxton said Blish was "so affected to despise" Star Trek that he did not write any of Star Trek 10 (1974).[1]: 25  Blish's personal feelings regarding the merit of Star Trek were expressed by the pun "an enterprise so well conceived" in the "Author's Note" of Spock Must Die!.[2][1]: 25 

Bantam editor Frederik Pohl was unaware of the Lawrences' contributions until sometime in 1973.[3]: 8–9  Star Trek 12 (1977), published after Blish's death in 1975, was co-credited to J. A. Lawrence.

Adaptations of episodes involving the character Harry Mudd were reserved by Blish for inclusion in an original novel, possibly a follow-up to Spock Must Die! However, it is unknown if the book was ever realized. The novelizations of "Mudd's Women" and "I, Mudd" were collected as Mudd's Angels (1978),[a] which included an original novella by Lawrence: The Business, as Usual, During Altercations. Lawrence confirmed the Mudd novelizations were written by Blish, and not by her.[4]

Photo comics

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In 1977, Bantam published the first volume in a series of full-color, photo comics adapting twelve popular episodes. Marketed as a Star Trek Fotonovel,[b] each novel utilized still frames taken from film master of each episode.[5] A format advertised as "action photographs". The images were then overlaid with speech bubbles, with typeset text for dialogue, thoughts and action. Many scenes are either condensed, removed, or altered to fit the available space. Mandala Productions, who produced the series, said their goal was to publish "accurate and faithful recreations" of the episodes.[6] The series included novelizations of "The City on the Edge of Forever" and "Amok Time", all credited to the original teleplay writers.

Original novels

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Frederik Pohl was given control of Bantam's Star Trek line in 1972, but he later admitted to not paying much attention to the television series, or the book line.[3]: 10  When Joe Haldeman asked who was responsible for new Star Trek novels, Pohl answered "You are!" According to Stephen Goldin, Pohl recruited writers who he felt were dependable enough "to do Star Trek."[3]: 17  Among the first writers Pohl reached out to was his long-time friend Theodore Cogswell, whom he tasked with getting the crew of the Enterprise "off the damned ship!"[3]: 14 

The second original novel, Spock, Messiah!, by Cogswell and Charles Spano, was published in September 1976. The Price of the Phoenix, by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath, and Planet of Judgment, by Joe Haldeman, followed in 1977.

After completing his second Star Trek novel, World Without End (1979), Haldeman was "fed up…" and left the Star Trek "enterprise" at "warp factor five".[3]: 12  Haldeman said he wrote his first novel to explore writing when all the "characters are already known to the readers," but did not expect to do a second.[3]: 12  In an interview with Fast Forward, Haldeman said that despite his desire to write for Star Trek, he did not feel he could conform to the process of writing tie-in fiction.[7]

Other writers recruited by Pohl felt differently about their experience. Gordon Eklund said that Star Trek left room "for just about anything you might want to write."[3]: 20  Kathleen Sky, who wrote Vulcan! (1978) and Death's Angel (1981), said Paramount and Pohl made very few requests, except to add "more aliens" and for the last novel to give "Kirk a romance."[3]: 26 

Short fiction and reference works

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Main articles: Star Trek Lives!, Star Trek: The New Voyages, and Star Trek Maps

Writer Jacqueline Lichtenberg had begun research on the Star Trek phenomenon and fandom in the early 1970s. Her intention was to write a newspaper feature on the subject, but her research amassed enough material for a reference work. A query package was assembled and submitted to the major publishers, but the query was rejected by all, including Bantam Books. Following a delay in the production of a new novel from James Blish, Frederik Pohl acquired the query.[8] After two years of additional research, drafting and rewrites, Star Trek Lives! was published in 1975. A sequel has been suggested by Lichtenberg, but has never been realized.[9]

Star Trek Lives! was a bestseller, and Pohl began exploring the possibility of publishing an anthology of fan-written stories based on the television series. Fan fiction was explored in the last chapter of Star Trek Lives!, and co-writer Sondra Marshak, along with her writing partner Myrna Culbreath, had collected a number of fan-written stories to potentially anthologize. Pohl eventually encouraged Marshak and Culbreath to move forward with an anthology after persuading Paramount Pictures such a book would be "impeccably professional."[3]: 12  The New Voyages was published in 1976, and collected nine short stories, all had been previously published in Star Trek fanzines, such as T-Negative and Spockanalia. A second volume, The New Voyages 2, was published in 1978, which included a short story written by Nichelle Nichols. Additional volumes were announced by Marshak and Culbreath, but none were published.[10]

Star Trek Maps, designed by Jeffrey Maynard, was published by Bantam in 1980. The box set included four four-color wall maps, and a detailed instructional booklet demonstrating the navigation system utilized by the television series. Highly praised, the charts received special mention during the 1992 Star Trek Exhibition presented by the National Air & Space Museum.[11]

Reprints and cover art

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The novelizations by Blish and Lawrence were reprinted many times, often with new cover art. The first volume, Star Trek 1, received twenty-nine printings between 1967 and 1980; the cover art was originally created by illustrator James Bama as part of an advertising campaign for NBC.[12] Star Trek 11 was reprinted as Day of the Dove in 1985, along with the entire range of original novels, with new cover art by Eric Torres-Prat.[13][14]

From 1993 to 2000, the original novels and The New Voyages anthologies were reprinted by Spectra, featuring cover art by Japanese artist Kazuhiko Sano.[15] Mudd's Angels was reprinted as Mudd's Enterprise as part of that run.[16]

The adaptations and original novels have been translated and reprinted by various other publishers in Western Europe, Japan, Turkey and Israel.

License and rights

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The license for tie-in fiction was awarded to Pocket Books sometime prior to the release of the novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). However, three original novels, and one reference book, Star Trek Maps (1980), were published by Bantam following this change. Pocket Books opened their own line of original novels with the release of The Entropy Effect (1981), by Vonda N. McIntyre. None of the lines created by Bantam were continued.

The copyrights to the episode novelizations, photo comics, and original novels are now held by CBS. As of August 2019, none of Bantam's Star Trek titles are available in electronic formats. All titles are out of print.

The copyright and publishing rights for Star Trek Lives! have since reverted to the original authors. Lichtenberg has attempted to release the book in electronic formats. However, she has been unable to gain the necessary permissions from her co-writers, or in the case of Joan Winston, her estate.[17]

Bibliography

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Episode novelizations (1967–1994)

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Collected adaptations of the Original Series episodes:

Title Author(s) Date Catalog / ISBN
Star Trek 1 [c] James Blish January 1967 F3459
Star Trek 2 February 1968 F3439
Star Trek 3 April 1969 F4371
Star Trek 4 July 1971 S7009
Star Trek 5 February 1972 S7300
Star Trek 6 April 1972 S7364
Star Trek 7 July 1972 S7480
Star Trek 8 November 1972 SP7550
Star Trek 9 August 1973 SP7808
Star Trek 10 February 1974 SP8401
Star Trek 11 [c] April 1975 Q8717
Star Trek 12 James Blish and J. A. Lawrence November 1977 0-553-11382-8
Mudd's Angels [d]
  (Star Trek Adventures, Book 7) 		J. A. Lawrence May 1978 0-553-11802-1

Original novels (1970–1981)

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Bantam never applied an official series name to the novels, instead marketing each volume as a new or original "Star Trek Adventure". The novels are not numbered; however, library catalogs and booksellers applied numbers to the novels in publication order, including Mudd's Angels and The New Voyages. In 1993, the series was reprinted by Titan Books as Star Trek Adventures using a different number scheme.[18] The name given to the reprint series has been retroactively applied to Bantam's series by book discovery websites such as Goodreads and LibraryThing.

Further information: § Star Trek Adventures reprints
No. Title Author(s) Date Catalog / ISBN
1 Spock Must Die! James Blish February 1970 H5515
2 The New Voyages (short story collection) Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath, eds. March 1976 X2719[e]
3 Spock, Messiah! Theodore Cogswell and Charles A. Spano, Jr. September 1976 0-553-10159-5
4 The Price of the Phoenix Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath July 1977 0-553-10978-2
5 Planet of Judgment Joe Haldeman August 1977 0-553-11145-0
6 The New Voyages 2 (short story collection) Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath, eds. January 1978 0-553-11392-5
7 Mudd's Angels [d] (short story collection) J. A. Lawrence May 1978 0-553-11802-1
8 Vulcan! [f] Kathleen Sky September 1978 0-553-12137-5
9 The Starless World Gordon Eklund November 1978 0-553-12371-8
10 Trek to Madworld Stephen Goldin January 1979 0-553-12618-0
11 World Without End Joe Haldeman February 1979 0-553-12583-4
12 The Fate of the Phoenix Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath May 1979 0-553-12779-9
13 Devil World Gordon Eklund November 1979 0-553-13297-0
14 Perry's Planet Jack C. Haldeman February 1980 0-553-13580-5
15 The Galactic Whirlpool David Gerrold October 1980 0-553-14242-9
16 Death's Angel Kathleen Sky April 1981 0-553-14703-X

Reference works (1975–1980)

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Title Author(s) Date Catalog / ISBN
Star Trek Lives! Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Sondra Marshak and Joan Winston July 1975 Y2151
Star Trek Puzzle Manual James Razzi, ed. October 1976 0-553-01054-9
Star Trek Maps (box set) Jeffrey Maynard, et al. August 1980 0-553-01202-9

New Voyages (1976–1977)

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Star Trek: The New Voyages collects fan fiction curated and edited by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath. Additional volumes were announced, but none were published.[10] Pocket Books's Strange New Worlds (1998–2016), edited by Dean Wesley Smith, is similar. The collections are books 2 and 6 in Bantam's original novels series.

Title Editor(s) Date Catalog / ISBN
The New Voyages
  (Star Trek Adventures, Book 2) 		Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath March 1976 X2719[e]
The New Voyages 2
  (Star Trek Adventures, Book 6) 		January 1978 0-553-11392-5

Star Trek Fotonovel (1977–78)

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Photo comics:

No. Title Author(s) Date ISBN
1 City on the Edge of Forever Harlan Ellison November 1977 0-553-11345-3
2 Where No Man Has Gone Before Samuel A. Peeples 0-553-11346-1
3 The Trouble With Tribbles David Gerrold December 1977 0-553-11347-X
4 A Taste of Armageddon Robert Hamner and Gene L. Coon January 1978 0-553-11348-8
5 Metamorphosis Gene L. Coon February 1978 0-553-11349-6
6 All Our Yesterdays Jean Lisette Aroeste March 1978 0-553-11350-X
7 The Galileo 7 Oliver Crawford and S. Bar-David May 1978 0-553-12041-7
8 A Piece of the Action David P. Harmon and Gene L. Coon June 1978 0-553-12022-0
9 The Devil in the Dark Gene L. Coon July 1978 0-553-12021-2
10 Day of the Dove Jerome Bixby August 1978 0-553-12017-4
11 The Deadly Years David P. Harmon September 1978 0-553-12028-X
12 Amok Time Theodore Sturgeon October 1978 0-553-12012-3

Classic Episodes (1991)

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Star Trek: The Classic Episodes omnibus edition collected the novelizations in three volumes. Unlike previous editions the episodes are sorted by television series season. New material by D. C. Fontana, Norman Spinrad, and others was also included. The novelizations of "Mudd's Women" and "I, Mudd" were not included, nor was Lawrence's original novella, The Business, as Usual, During Altercations.

Title Author(s) Date ISBN
The Classic Episodes 1 [g] James Blish and J. A. Lawrence August 1991 0-553-29138-6
The Classic Episodes 2 [h] 0-553-29139-4
The Classic Episodes 3 [i] 0-553-29140-8
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Star Trek Reader (1976–1978)

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The episode novelizations by Blish, including Spock Must Die! (1970), were collected in a four volume omnibus published by E. P. Dutton. Variants were also made available to the Science Fiction Book Club.

Title Author Date ISBN
The Star Trek Reader James Blish October 1976 0-8415-0467-9
The Star Trek Reader II August 1977 0-525-20960-3
The Star Trek Reader III September 1977 0-525-20961-1
The Star Trek Reader IV April 1978 0-525-20962-X

Titan Books (1992–1995)

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Reprints intended for the U.K. and Australian / New Zealand markets.

New Voyages reprints (1992)

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Reprints of Star Trek: The New Voyages short story collections edited by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath. Both volumes include significant spelling corrections and unexplained prose changes.

Title Editors(s) Date ISBN
The New Voyages Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath August 27, 1992 1-85286-448-6
The New Voyages 2 December 16, 1992 1-85286-453-2

Star Trek Adventures reprints (1993–1995)

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Bantam Book's original novels were reprinted by Titan as Star Trek Adventures. The series name has since been erroneously applied to the Bantam editions by book discovery websites. The novels include significant corrections and spelling changes. Not all printings include a number stamp.

No. Title[j] Author(s) Date ISBN
1 The Galactic Whirlpool David Gerrold June 29, 1993 1-85286-486-9
2 The Price of the Phoenix Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath November 1, 1993 1-85286-504-0
3 The Starless World Gordon Eklund January 27, 1994 1-85286-505-9
4 Perry's Planet Jack C. Haldeman, II. February 24, 1994 1-85286-509-1
5 Mudd's Angels (short story collection) J. A. Lawrence April 14, 1994 1-85286-510-5
6 Trek to Madworld Stephen Goldin June 23, 1994 1-85286-530-X
7 Planet of Judgment Joe Haldeman August 11, 1994 1-85286-531-8
8 Devil World Gordon Eklund October 20, 1994 1-85286-532-6
9 The Fate of the Phoenix Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath December 15, 1994 1-85286-535-0
10 Death's Angel Kathleen Sky February 16, 1995 1-85286-536-9
11 Vulcan! April 20, 1995 1-85286-537-7
12 World Without End Joe Haldeman June 22, 1995 1-85286-538-5

Classic Episodes (2016)

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Star Trek: The Classic Episodes is an omnibus edition of the Blish and Lawrence novelizations. Published by Barnes & Noble in 2016 as part of the Collectible Editions series.[19]

Title Author(s) Date ISBN
The Classic Episodes James Blish and J. A. Lawrence April 29, 2016 978-0-385-36524-6

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Many sources claim the title Mudd's Angels is an allusion to Charlie's Angels. This is not proven.
  2. ^ Other Simon & Schuster photo comics were also marketed as Fotonovels. It is unclear if Simon & Schuster ever held that word mark.
  3. ^ a b Star Trek 11 (1975), by James Blish, was reprinted as The Day of the Dove (1985).
  4. ^ a b Mudd's Angels (1978), by J.A. Lawrence, was reprinted as Mudd's Enterprise (1994).
  5. ^ a b ISBN 0-553-02719-0 based on catalog number X2719 was used by booksellers.
  6. ^ Similarly named works:
    • Vulcan! (1978), a novel by Kathleen Sky
    • Vulcan (2017), a Hidden Universe fictional reference by Dayton Ward.
  7. ^ Includes all Star Trek, Season 1 episodes, except "Mudd's Women".
  8. ^ Includes all Star Trek, Season 2 episodes, except "I, Mudd".
  9. ^ Includes all Star Trek, Season 3 episodes.
  10. ^ Some printings include significant spelling corrections and or unexplained prose changes.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Ketterer, David (September 1987). Imprisoned in a Tesseract : The Life and Work of James Blish. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press. ISBN 978-0-87338-334-9.
  2. ^ Blish, James (February 1970). Spock Must Die!. Vol. H5515. New York: Bantam Books. pp. ix.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Ayers, Jeff (2006-11-14). Voyages of Imagination: The Star Trek Fiction Companion. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 978-1-4165-0349-1.
  4. ^ Blish, James; Lawrence, J. A. (November 1977). Star Trek 12. New York: Bantam Books. pp. vii. ISBN 0-553-11382-8.
  5. ^ Biggers, Cliff (2013-12-11). Ryall, Chris (ed.). "Video Killed the Fotonovel Star". Star Trek Annual 2013. San Diego: IDW Publishing. pp. 44–47.
  6. ^ Ellison, Harlan (July 1977). The City on the Edge of Forever. New York: Bantam Books. Preface: "Dear Reader". ISBN 978-0-553-11345-7.
  7. ^ Haldeman, Joe (2016-05-28). "On Writing and Teaching". Fast Forward (Interview). Interviewed by Tom Schaad. Archived from the original on 2021-12-13.
  8. ^ Lichtenberg, Jacqueline (2000-04-03). "The WORLDS OF IF connection to STAR TREK and SIME~GEN". Sime~Gen. Sime~Gen Inc. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  9. ^ Pakulak, Lexie, ed. (1978). "An Interview with Jacqueline Lichtenberg". Axanar. Fanzine. Calgary. pp. 30–40.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  10. ^ a b Marshak, Sondra; Culbreath, Myrna (April 1984). "About the Authors". The Fate of the Phoenix. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 978-0-553-24638-4.
  11. ^ Barton, William A. (December 1980). Johnson, Forrest (ed.). "Capsule Reviews". Reviews. The Space Gamer. No. 34. Austin, Texas: The Space Gamer. p. 34. ISSN 0194-9977.
  12. ^ "Publication: Star Trek". ISFDB. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  13. ^ "Publication: Day of the Dove". ISFDB. Retrieved 2016-12-13.
  14. ^ "Summary Bibliography: Enric". ISFDB. Retrieved 2017-12-30.
  15. ^ "Summary Bibliography: Kazuhiko Sano". ISFDB. Retrieved 2017-12-30.
  16. ^ "Publication: Mudd's Enterprise". ISFDB. Retrieved 2016-12-13.
  17. ^ Lichtenberg, Jacqueline (2012-04-17). Donoghue, Steve (ed.). "Notes for a Star Trek Bibliography: The End of an Era!". Stevereads. Disqus comment (published 2011-02-01). Retrieved 2017-12-21.
  18. ^ "Star Trek Adventures Series (16 books)". Goodreads. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  19. ^ "Star Trek: The Classic Episodes (Barnes & Noble Collectible Editions)|Hardcover". Barnes & Noble. 2016-04-29. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
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