4.0 out of 5 stars
A bit childish but still good, consistent Star Trek action, July 19, 2007
This book contains the novella size expansion of three episodes of the Star Trek animated series. The first is "Once Upon a Planet" and in it the crew of the Enterprise are going back to the amusement park planet featured in the original series episode "Shore Leave." However, while this time they are prepared for the actions of the planet in giving reality to their thoughts, something goes wrong. The planet is malfunctioning and the members of the Enterprise crew are in danger. The caretaker has died and for reasons unknown, there is no replacement, so the computer intelligence is running the planet and it has a limited capacity to understand all the functions. It is not malevolent, the computer intelligence simply has not been programmed to act completely on its' own.
The second is "Mudd's Passion" and once again Harcourt Fenton Mudd is engaged in more of his nefarious schemes and making life difficult for the crew of the Enterprise. This time, he has in his possession a powerful love potion, which causes two people to fall hopelessly in love. Mudd manages to put it in contact with Nurse Chapel and Spock and the potion is so powerful that even Spock is affected. Mudd manages to escape the Enterprise brig and take Chapel with him. However, in typical Mudd style, he manages to place himself in even greater danger and so must be rescued by Kirk and Spock.
The third story finds the Enterprise on a mission to what they believe to be the center of the galaxy, where new matter is being created. They are sucked into a powerful vortex that not even the full power of the Enterprise engines can counteract. When they arrive in the eye of the vortex, they discover a half-goat, half-man being called Lucien. He performs some significant feats of magic and speaks as if he has encountered humans before. It turns out that he is one of a group of beings who visited Earth and were persecuted for their ability to perform magic.
When Lucien and the Enterprise crew are put on trial, Spock speaks in their defense and secures the release of the crew. However, Lucien is condemned to eternal imprisonment and Kirk speaks up for him. The leader of the beings is so impressed with a human defending Lucifer that he grants him a release and allows the Enterprise to go back to normal space.
These three episodes are well fleshed out from their animated short stories. Foster also does a very good job in following the plot threads of the original series episodes in "Once Upon a Planet" and "Shore Leave." Both stories are logical progressions from the action in "Shore Leave" and "Mudd's Women."
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2.0 out of 5 stars
I almost gave it three. . ., March 19, 2001
This is a book that contains three adaptations from Star Trek: The Animated Series.
These adaptations are from the episodes "Once Upon a Planet", "Mudd's Passion" and "The Magics of Megas-Tu".
The first two episodes are relatively good and I give them both three stars.
"The Magics of Megas-Tu", however isn't nearly as succesfull.
It has many elements in it that are simply absurd.
Take the journey to the galaxy's core for instance. The time to get there with maximum warp would be measured in decades.
This was, if I recall correctly, the very same error that made Gene Roddenberry declare the fifth movie non-canon. The physics sound absurd after a nano-second of consideration. And it doesn't help one bit that the rest of the episode is at least as childishly groundet. Wach the series, but don't read the book.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
More adaptions from a great sf series!, July 29, 2000
By A Customer
Star Trek Log Three contains three adaptions of episodes of the animated television series, including "Once Upon a Planet," "Mudd's Passion," and "The Magicks of Megas Tu." This is another must have for fans of Star Trek.
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