Star Trek: CineMcCollough

Having already delved quite deeply into Romulan stories so far in the Pocket Books mission (recall that all our selections are randomly chosen from the first 50 Pocket Books novels), we once again draw a Romulan mission, and once again one written by Diane Duane, our THIRD novel so far by that author. Today's mission is "The Romulan Way," (published August 1987) co-authored by both Diane Duane and...

From the frying pan into the ocean for this mission, as Enterprise is deployed to a diplomatic mission to Akkala - a world nearly entirely covered by oceans. Sent to help a struggling government protect itself from dissidents, our heroes uncover evidence that something might be rotten in Denmark, as it were. Written by Howard Weinstein, who, years earlier, had become the youngest writer ever to se...

Things are heating up in the galaxy in today's Pocket Books Star Trek novel, Barbara Paul's "The Three-Minute Universe" == her only Star Trek writing credit. It seems that there are inexplicable incursions of 'early universe' type space into regular space - you know, the kind just minutes after the Big Bang? Our good ship and crew are going to need to figure out what is going on and how to stop it...

Looks like this is going to be an extended shore leave from the Pocket Books missions, as Rob and Butch take CineMcCollough to the middle of the franchise's movie trilogy - Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Released in 1984, the third cinematic adventure in the Star Trek universe was a direct sequel to the wildly popular Wrath of Khan two years earlier... in fact, we pick up literally days afte...

For our first bonus episode of Season 2, we take some shore leave from our Pocket Treks to make a quick side trip to an almost-forgotten corner of 1970s Star Trek... the Peter Pan Records book-and-record adventures. There were eleven such adventures produced between 1975 and 1979 that were targeted toward young readers, featuring unknown voice actors filling in for the regular cast and producing a...

Having just posted the movie review for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan just a few days ago, today we roll and read and review the novelization of that movie, as written by Vonda N. McIntyre, who would go on to write the novelizations of Star Trek III (which will be on this list) and Star Trek IV (which will not, as it was inexplicably not assigned a number but given a separate 'bonus novel' statu...

This is the first Star Trek novel I ever remember seeing in a bookstore, way back in 1981 in a new and used bookstore in Traverse City, Michigan. I was totally hooked by the Klingon battlecruiser on the cover, but, alas, I didn't have any money of my own and my parents would not buy it for me then... I eventually collected it a couple years later after moving to Idaho Falls and getting a job to pa...

Happenstance has us reading the second of Diane Duane's four novels in the Pocket Books series in our first three dice-selected random choice - this time we are going full Romulan with her July 1984 novel "My Enemy, My Ally" -- a novel that finally, after almost zero signs of Romulans in the Bantam novels, our first view of the OTHER primary enemy of the Federation. This novel finds a Romulan comm...

Stop two of fifty on our quest to determine Is That a Trek in Your Pocket? (as selected by the dice of destiny) was "Corona" by Greg Bear. A 'hard science' fiction writer, this is Bear's only Star Trek novel, though he published fairly prolifically through his career, even writing a novel within Isaac Asimov's Foundation universe. Corona was first published in April 1984. So, what kind of story do...

Now that we have completed the Journey through Bantam's 13 novels (and one non-Bantam novel) it is time to move on to our wheelhouse... the Pocket Books Star Trek novels! Rob and Butch used to ride their 10-speeds to the local mall to buy the new novel that came out every few months (there was always a little display, as Star Trek novels were big sellers with regard to paperbacks). Collecting them...

Our second bonus episode fits perfectly with the ending of the Bantam Books and the beginning of the Pocket Books novels, as we completed our episode recordings for Bantam Books in 2022, then recorded our 40th Anniversary review of the second cinematic Star Trek adventure. It goes without saying that "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" is a beloved movie by Star Trek fans, and is often referred to a...

One last mission on our Journey to Bantam before we bring the podcast into drydock for a refit to the Pocket Books novels - and it is our second and final book by Kathleen Sky, the April 1981 release entitled "Death's Angel." The obvious benefit of writing Star Trek stories as novels, rather than TV shows or movies, is that the author can really let their imagination run wild when it comes to sett...

As we set sail for the penultimate mission on our Journey to Bantam, we come across a novel written by perhaps one of the best-known authors of early Star Trek. "The Galactic Whirlpool" was published in October of 1980, and was penned by David Gerrold, a relative unknown until he wrote the TOS episode "The Trouble With Tribbles" - which instantly catapulted him into a select group of writers inext...

Closing in on the end of our 14-novel Bantam Books mission, tonight's journey takes us to "Perry's Planet" - a novel written by the OTHER Haldeman, Joe's older brother Jack Haldemann II. Primarily a published author of short stories, this is the elder Haldemann's only published novel. Published in February 1980, "Perry's Planet" uses several different story beats that will seem familiar to fans of...

Next Bantam mission is to "Devil World," our second selection authored by Gordon Eklund, though not a sequel to his earlier work The Starless World. This volume was released in November 1979, just one month before the eagerly awaited release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Rob and Butch were unable to find any information as to whether this novel was as eagerly awaited. The book takes our crew t...

Our next Bantam Books Star Trek novel is our first sequel novel, as the writing team of Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreth literally bring Omne back from the dead to once again challenge Kirk and Spock in their follow-up novel, "The Fate of the Phoenix," published in May of 1979. When last we checked in with our heroes in the earlier novel (The Price of the Phoenix, Bantam Book #3, for those playin...

The ninth Bantam novel excursion will take us to yet another "world" in the title, and brings us the second of two novels by Joe Haldeman (the first having been Planet of Judgment) -- but don't fear, because while this is Joe's last Bantam novel, his older brother Jack Haldeman II will bringing us another one not too long from now! "World Without End" was published in January 1979 and takes us to...

For our eighth Bantam mission, we get even more evidence about just how small and insulated the Star Trek novelist community was in the early years. "Trek to Madworld" was published January 1979, and is author Stephen Goldin's only Trek adventure for Bantam books, though years later he would write the TNG novel A Final Unity. However, Goldin is ALSO connected to Bantam through his wife, Kathleen S...

Just to spice things up a bit, for our first bonus episode we bring you our movie review and retrospective of what we collectively consider the most underappreciated of the Star Trek movies, the original - Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Released on December 7, 1979 (a release date it shared with another unfairly dismissed sci-fi movie, "The Black Hole", a coincidence of some scale as they are the...

For our seventh Bantam adventure, we join the Enterprise as it explores one of science fiction's most interesting concepts - one that on-screen Star Trek would eventually bring out during the run of Star Trek: The Next Generation, ironically in an episode featuring a TOS character. It also introduces another author who will pen a pair of the Bantam novels. "The Starless World" was penned by Gordon...

If we here at CineMcCollough have learned one thing about the Bantam Books Star Trek novels so far, they really, really like their exclamation points in book titles. Published in September 1978, Kathleen Sky's first Trek novel continues the OTHER strong theme of Bantam Books Trek novels by focusing on our favorite Vulcan... but this time is going to take us TO Vulcan. Give the people what they wan...

OK - truth in advertising time. Today's Star Trek novel is NOT a "Bantam Books" novel per se - nor is it the fifth novel in the line of Star Trek novels in history... in that, today's book "Mission to Horatius" is, by most reckonings, the FIRST Star Trek novel, except that it is ostensibly a children's novel. Published while the original Star Trek series was still on the air in 1968 (!!!), Mission...

Published just a month after its predecessor novel, "Planet of Judgment" is the first of two novels within the Bantam series by established sci-fi writer Joe Haldeman, best known for his Forever War series for which he won both a Nebula and a Hugo award. As such, the Bantam publishers approached him for a two-novel deal, with the second coming two years later. In this book our good ship and crew e...

Our third mission among the Bantam Books Star Trek novels is brought to us by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreth, their first of two efforts for Bantam, AND they will be back for Three Pocket Books novels. It is a book that is far more complex, dense, and finely written than the two we have done so far, and also is the one that has a direct sequel within the Bantam Books line - "The Price of the Ph...

The second Star Trek novel for an adult audience was, not surprisingly, also a Spock-centric story entitled "Spock, Messiah!" Co-authored by Theodore R. Cogswell and Charles A. Spano, Jr, the book was once again capitalizing off of Star Trek's iconic alien first officer. It was published over SIX YEARS after the first Bantam novel, so the fandom had only continued to grow and was eagerly awaiting...