Author: Harlan Ellison
Publisher: Idea & Design Works
Rating: WARTY!
DISCLOSURE: Unlike the majority of reviews in this blog, I've neither bought this book nor borrowed it from the library. This is a "galley" copy ebook, supplied by Net Galley. I'm not receiving (nor will I expect to receive or accept) remuneration for this review. The chance to read a new book is often reward aplenty!
I'm not a fan of Star Trek (the original series) and indeed I have issues with all of the series, but the later versions, while still problematical, were far better than the original series which was ham-fisted and amateur, and not at all deserving of the praises it got or the following it has. It won a Hugo award, which tells me that Hugo awards are as meaningless as Newbery medals.
This episode is a prime example of many of the issues I've had with Star Trek, so I was curious to read Harlan Ellison's earlier treatment for this episode (which I also watched for comparison purposes). Note though that the story told in this graphic novel, while closer to Ellison's original treatment than ever the TV show was, is not actually his original treatment - it's more like a hybrid between what he first wrote, and the final shooting script.
Let's just chill for a while, Jimbo, Baby!
According to wikipedia there were some serious issues with Ellison's treatment for the show: it was a sci-fi story all right, but it wasn't a TV episode. It was too long and the pacing was off, and it wasn't in keeping with Star Trek etiquette, so to speak: there were issues over how the captain would behave. Given that most of the time Kirk was jerk in this show, this wasn't a problem from my PoV, but even after Ellison had re-written a lot of it, the script still needed major in-house re-writing to the point where Ellison was ready to take his name off it!
In the original story, there was a drug angle - in the form of narcotic jewels to which some crew were addicted, and there was a murder. This led to a crew member being taken down to an uninhabited planet to be shot! Yep! Shot! In the TV show and in the comic, the crew member beams himself down to the planet to escape.
This was one of my biggest issues with Star trek - every single series: their security SUCKS! It's non-existent! Anyone, at any time, can pretty much do anything they want on a starship! They can beam wherever they want, whenever they want, and they can steal shuttles without any problem at all! This never improved throughout the entire set of series they produced. It was laughable and ludicrous.
We've all had days like this....
Down on the planet happens to be a magic rock that can transport anyone to any time period on any planet, and this crew member jumps through it at a point which takes him back to - of course! - the USA in the 1930's because no other country is ever of any interest. In the filmed episode, it was Doctor McCoy, not some disposable crew member, and he lost it not because of drugs, but because he was accidentally shot up with an OD of medicine! Which is another failing: these med dispensers aren't set to deliver only one dose at a time?! Seriously?
Jim Kirk never had a 'number two' to delegate to as other Star Trek captains did, and he always went on missions even when it wasn't even remotely necessary for a captain to be there, which was the most risible thing about every Star Trek episode. That's like a general, instead of directing his subordinates on the mission's objectives and then trusting them to carry it out, leading every battle charge and every scouting mission! Ridiculous!
It's complete and utter bullshit and was one major reason for my festering dislike of these series, especially since every Star Trek captain is a monumental Mary Sue - always right, always noble, always selfless, always getting the girl! It was farcical! This particular story was even worse, because not only does Kirk go, but also Spock goes with him as well as Scottie and McCoy (although not on orders). This means every single one of their senior command staff was off the ship! Even Uhura is there. For what reason are the chief engineer and the chief communications officer required here? I can see that Spock might go, but why Kirk?
You don't mind if I do!
McCoy's presence was only because he accidentally OD'd, but why did he OD? Well he came to the bridge to administer a shot, so the question there is really: why was it routine for the chief medical officer to run around the ship giving shots? It's totally nonsensical! The "original" story makes a lot more sense, but whatever the lack of logic is, the problem for the story and the show is that the guy who travels back, changes history by saving a woman's life. In their own time, the Enterprise completely disappears. In the original story this didn't happen, something else did.
So, once McCoy has leaped back to the 1930's, instead of detailing someone to go after him, Kirk and Spock go - Spock being the most likely to stand out in a crowd of humans! There is a crew of four hundred and fifty people on the Enterprise NCC-1701, and there are no other senior officers? No mission leaders? No mission specialists? No engineers? No scientists? Absurd! If we discount the eight main characters, that leaves 442 people on the Enterprise who are obviously complete freeloaders, who have no training, and who apparently have not a single thing to do save die if they're wearing a red shirt, or otherwise idly saunter around Enterprise's corridors every day.
Once they're back in the 1930's, Kirk and Spock have to wait for that random officer to show up (in the case of the original story presented here). In the TV show they're waiting for McCoy. Spock builds a device that can see the future(!) on his meager fifteen cents a day wage that he earns for working in the soup kitchen where they hid out after arriving. As it happens, the woman with whom they're boarding is the one who must die to revert time to its original pathway. How convenient!
Jackass Kirk, so obsessed with the prime directive when it's other who are risking breaching it, abandons it completely here and hits on this woman under the guise of falling in love - which he never actually is. He then doesn't want her to die of course. This is supposed to represent anguish and conflict, but she does die, and McCoy is all better and everything is just super-duper.
Honestly, this Hugo-award-winning story is pathetic and I cannot recommend it. The artwork is rather good, but I don't get these stories solely to look at the art!
