Re-watch and re-read

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Re-watch and re-read

1SF_fan_mae
Aug. 25, 2020, 2:51 pm

One of my "stay home" projects has been to finally watch my DVDs of original Trek episodes. I got the bright idea to read the Blish novelizations at the same time, also in broadcast order. I've held onto the books since the early 1970s, they were among the first that I bought myself with my own money as a young teenager, but I hadn't reread them in decades. I knew the stories weren't in any sort of order in the books, but I didn't realize how spread out they were until I started trying to find them in order, some early first season episodes don't show up until book 11. And then the Mudd episodes are a separate book unto themselves. I'm reading any preface or foreward when I first read a story in a volume, and I'll read any end matter (I'm not sure there is any except in book 12) when I finish the last story. At least book 12 does contain a list of the contents of all the books, plus an alphabetical index of the episode names, so finding what to read next is easier than I was expecting.

Pairing the two forms of each episode this way points out how very different some of the novelizations, often written from early drafts of scripts rather than final cuts of episodes, turned out to be. When I originally read them, I had probably seen episodes only one or two times, if at all. Then by the mid 70s they were rerun constantly, and I didn't often go back to the books, having dozens of tie-in novels to read instead.

2DanieXJ
Okt. 17, 2020, 11:20 am

If I ever have time (which, ironically I didn't/haven't really had time during this pandemic because I was working from home and trying to get other people the books they needed to read, etc.) my plan is to read all the books starting with the novelization (it's so skinny, yikes) of Encounter at Farpoint until the newest one.

I was born wayyyyy after the Original Series was on, so, it's not one of my favorite part of Trek, so I don't plan to read many of those books. But, everything else is on my list. Simon & Shuster have made it easier than it was before too, since they have a monthly discount to .99cents of some of their Star Trek books each month, so, I don't necessarily have to go to the ends of the earth via ILL to find these paperbacks (I also have a bunch sitting on my literal shelves that I have gotten from Used Book Sales/Shops too).

Now all I need is time. :)