Keeping up the pace, in July 1972 James Blish released his seventh volume of novelizations, Star Trek 7. In this volume are adapted "Who Mourns for Adonais?", "The Changeling", "The Paradise Syndrome", "Metamorphosis", "The Deadly Years", and "Elaan of Troyius".
Who Mourns for Adonais? reminds me once again how shockingly often Kirk's first response to a problem is to kill it. Apollo, jealous god that he is, was certainly being obstinate, but except for his severe reactions to Scotty's aggression, he wasn't really doing anything too objectionable. They were all more or less held hostage, sure, but Apollo seemed pretty reasonable, and if Kirk had been willing to try something other than shooting the ship's phasers to get out of the situation, they might have all made it through.
Not much to say about The Changeling. It wasn't my favorite episode--frankly, I'd rather read Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Well, that's coming up--the novelization was published in 1979.
The Paradise Syndrome was an interesting episode, since we get a lot of passage of time, plus we see Kirk develop a relationship with Miramanee. He's in a habit of falling suddenly in love, of course, but I believe this is the very longest relationship we ever see Kirk engaged in. A nice change of pace. It is a shame that Miramanee's people are shown as not having advanced in many hundreds of years, though. Necessary, to let Kirk fit in where he did, but not exactly the most positive portrayal of Native Americans. I understand that in the original script Miramanee and the (unborn) child survive, but Blish's adaptation follows the episode as aired to its tragic (if very convenient) end.
Metamorphosis is in some ways a good story and in others a dreadful one. We meet Zefram Cochrane (am I the only one who is reminded of Trip from Enterprise?), alive, young, and immortal (for the moment), plus a (temporarily) inscrutable alien energy being, and we get to see love conquer all. Very entertaining. On the other hand, we get to hear Kirk (bizarrely) proclaim "The ideas of male and female are universal constants, Cochrane. The Companion is definitely female." No, Kirk, it's some kind of alien energy being. That doesn't stop it from loving Cochrane, though. Even for the sixties, this seems an astonishingly absolute statement. The character of Hedford exists pretty much exclusively to be shrewish and then to give Cochrane a more acceptable body for his slavishly devoted alien lover. Not the best of Trek. What I said regarding "Who Mourns for Adonais?" about Kirk first trying to kill any problem he encounters goes for this story, too.
The Deadly Years was in some ways better in this adaptation than on television. It felt to me that in the episode, the actors were making something of a mockery of age. Without the overdone 'senile old man' performances from the main cast, it's easier to sympathize with Kirk's loss of control over his ship and, by extension, his life. It's still not great, but it has its high points.
Elaan of Troyius... as progressive as Trek wanted to be, it took most every opportunity to get it wrong. As anti-slavery as Kirk has shown himself to be in, for example, "Who Mourns for Adonais?", he is here perfectly happy to serve as the enforcer to a woman's being property (never mind the political justification). He even says it himself: "My orders--and yours--say you belong to that other man." And Kirk's only problem with the situation is that he would prefer if she belonged to him, instead. And I need do no more than mention the awful 'taming the savage woman' plot to show just what is wrong with that part of the story. Elaan goes from fiercely independent (and just generally fierce) to utterly submissive in the space of a page or two, for no justifiable reason.
As usual, this volume has its good and its bad parts. I can't fault Blish--much--for the quality of the stories. I presume he wasn't entirely free to simply rewrite them as he saw fit, and at any rate that wasn't in his job description. Star Trek 7 contains enough good to be worth reading, even if it doesn't deliver on the full potential of the stories.