February 1974 brings another entry in Blish's series of Star Trek novelizations, Star Trek 10. This volume adapts "The Alternative Factor", "The Empath", "The Galileo Seven", "Is There in Truth No Beauty?", "A Private Little War", and "The Omega Glory".
In his introduction to this volume, Blish confirms what I suspected (and mentioned in my review of Star Trek 7): he has done as little to change the scripts he was working from as possible. In his words:
Up to that point, I'd regarded my role as nothing but that of a pipeline between the scripts and all the rest of you who can't forget the series. After all, neither the main concept of Star Trek nor a single one of its episodes came from me--instead, I was doing the equivalent of transposing some works of other composers to a different key, or at best making a piano version of works originally written for orchestra. I've written other books which were--and are--wholly mine, and where I haven't hesitated to inflict my own feelings on the readers, but in this series it was obviously my duty to the originals to keep myself out of them as much as possible.
This is a shame, since Blish isn't a bad author and the scripts could really use some tweaking for the page. Well, it's too late now.
In The Alternative Factor, the Enterprise encounters a strange disturbance in space, and finds a madman on an otherwise dead world who demands that they help him to defeat the monstrous man who destroyed his civilization. This story is just a mess. It was worse on screen, but this adaptation can't cure what ails it. A number of events transpire with some urgency, but fail to make any impression on the reader, until the story comes to its pat, supposedly-dramatic end.
In The Empath, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy have their loyalty to one another tested by some aliens who hope to teach an empathic girl certain positive emotions, as a prerequisite to saving her planet from destruction. This is far from my favorite story, but it's well worth seeing the episode for the very different style--minimalist sets, shots heavily focused on the actors. The adaptation isn't bad, but the episode was better.
In The Galileo Seven, Spock's logical style of command is put to the test when the expedition he leads is forced to crash land on an inhospitable planet. Meanwhile the Enterprise has only a limited time to search for them before they must abandon them for a greater duty. This isn't a bad story, but it feels like they were trying to force a conflict between logical and emotional choices that just didn't have to be there. Even in the end, when Spock makes the supposedly emotional decision to burn up their shuttlecraft's fuel as a flare, it doesn't seem a particularly illogical choice--either the Enterprise was nearby, and might see it, or it had already left, and conserving fuel would do no good. Whatever my disagreement with the story's interpretation, though, it's still good to see Spock in a command situation, and to see him interacting with McCoy.
In Is There in Truth No Beauty?, the Enterprise plays host to an alien ambassador so ugly that the sight of him will drive a man mad. I liked this story because it's focused on the characters. There are unique dynamics between Miranda and each of Spock, Kirk, and Marvick, and we get a good look at Kirk and Spock's friendship, too.
A Private Little War is a metaphor (explicitly stated, even) for the Vietnam War. The Klingons have given one faction on a previously idyllic planet weapons with which to subjugate another faction (coincidentally favored by Kirk). Kirk ultimately determines to arm 'his' side equally to the other, maintaining a careful balance of power, to prevent either side from being totally destroyed. Is his decision correct? I wonder. It's a great story.
The Omega Glory, frankly, is just embarrassing. It's all very rah-rah about the superiority of the United States, as depicted by a society with a truly unbelievable degree of parallel evolution with Earth, in which the communists took over the world. Don't worry, though, because the Good Guys win in the end, and Kirk recites the Pledge of Allegiance and the Preamble to the Constitution. Because America!
Star Trek 10 features several quite good stories. It's surely one of the best volumes in this series. Maybe I was just in a good mood, but even the writing seemed better in this book. Do check it out, fans of classic Trek.