Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Book Review: Star Trek: The New Voyages Ed. by S. Marshak and M. Culbreath

Star Trek: The New Voyages edited by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath with a foreward by Gene Roddenberry

Published in 1976, this book of short stories came from a lot of fan fiction that was published "off the books" by authors who loved the TV show even as the legal rights for new Star Trek stories were tangled up. After the problems were worked out, the editors had a hard time choosing from the many fanzines and other story sources. This happened nearly fifty years ago (long before internet research was available to even the nerdiest nerds). Charmingly, they request more stories, even giving a publishing house address to send manuscripts in.

The collection is a fun group with short, heartfelt introductions to each story by one of the cast members. The stories are not focused on each individual character, however. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy get the most attention, with Spock leading the way. The best of the stories is "The Enchanted Pool" where Spock has to deal with an elf-like woman on a planet where he is trapped. Two Kirk-centric tales are also worth mentioning--"The Face on the Barroom Floor" where he winds up in jail during shore leave and "The Mind Sifter" where he winds up in the twentieth century with no memory of who he is. This collection also has a fun nonsense story where the three main characters are whisked back to the 1960s on the set of the television show Star Trek.

Recommended for Trek fans--these are some golden oldies.

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