Real world article
(written from a production point of view)
For the fourth film in the Star Trek franchise, please see Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. For the fourth film in the rebooted series, please see Star Trek 4 (alternate reality).
Star Trek 4 is a collection of short story adaptations of six Star Trek: The Original Series episodes, written by James Blish. Published by Bantam Books, it was first released in June 1971.
Summary[]
- From the book jacket
- Six assignments in space and time In the name of the Federation Council and the Starfleet Command, Spock and the Enterprise crew grapple with:
- A Silicon-Based Monster
- An Interplanetary Spy
- An Amorous Amazon
- A Misguided Mobster "Boss"
- A Time-Jumping Technician
- And the Mind-Enslaving Elders of Talos IV, in the "Hugo" Award-Winning Episode "Menagerie."
- Excerpts of copyrighted sources are included for review purposes only, without any intention of infringement.
Contents[]
- Preface
- Blish discusses episode selection and upcoming books in the series.
- "All Our Yesterdays"
- A 22-page adaptation of "All Our Yesterdays".
- "The Devil in the Dark"
- A 21-page adaptation of "The Devil in the Dark".
- "Journey to Babel"
- A 23-page adaptation of "Journey to Babel".
- "The Menagerie"
- A 26-page adaptation of "The Cage". As he explains in a foreword and afterword, Blish found it too difficult to incorporate the framing story of Spock's court martial from the episodes "The Menagerie, Part I" and "The Menagerie, Part II", so he settled for adapting the original script for the first pilot.
- "The Enterprise Incident"
- A 21-page adaptation of "The Enterprise Incident".
- "A Piece of the Action"
- An 18-page adaptation of "A Piece of the Action".
Background information[]
- Like many of the releases in this series, some, but not all, of the stories in this volume were based on early draft scripts, which explains why there are some significant differences between the printed version and what actually appeared on screen. Due to the lead times required for publication, Blish was forced to use the scripts available from Desilu and Paramount Pictures promotions, some of which were draft scripts that had been discarded, while others were actual filming scripts. After this volume, the series had finished its run, and filming scripts were available. This is reflected in the increased accuracy of the adaptations in the remaining volumes of this book series.
External link[]
- Star Trek 4 at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
| Previous novel: | Series | Next novel: |
| Star Trek 3 | Bantam TOS Novelizations |
Star Trek 5 |