Star Trek Log 4 [Mass Market Paperback]

Star Trek: Log Four (1975) contains three TV-script-to-novella adaptations by Alan Dean Foster based on episodes of Star Trek: The Animated Series: "The Terratin Incident," "Time Trap," and "More Tribbles, More Troubles." Here, the Enterprise crew shrinks to Lilliputian dimensions, gets caught in a time warp, and re-encounters Cyrano Jones and his collection of tribbles.

Adapting a 23-minute teleplay to a seventy-page story is no small challenge, and Foster generally does a fair job, giving the stories a more leisurely pace that allows him to build some cosmic atmosphere and bring some depth to the ship and crew. When it doesn't go well, however, things degenerate to a nigh-unreadable slog.

That's the case here with "The Terratin Incident," which is easily the silliest of the three stories here, but which is inexplicably dragged out over half the book. Foster really drops the ball with the logic of his explanations for the phenomenon: if the crew shrinks but retains their original weight, they must also retain their original strength - otherwise they wouldn't be able to move; they should be little super ant people. Instead, they're straining at knobs and building tiny ladders. Also terrible is Foster's embarrassing failure at shamelessly contriving some suspense at the end.

The other two stories are quite a bit better, however. They're also significantly shorter and much better paced. "More Tribbles, More Troubles" is the best, and it's the shortest. One can't help but think that given the fixed length of these volumes, four episodes would be a better number for each than three.

Foster's dialogue, a problem throughout this series, again doesn't ring true for a number of characters in many places. And there are a number of other things that Foster inserts that don't fit with the Star Trek world we know (or even the one we knew in 1975), including a wife for Scotty and Federation mind-wiping.

In short, the other two stories are pretty solid, but "The Terratin Incident" just kills Log Four.

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."

As a big Star Trek fan I love all the books. Including this one. I hope to see Alan Dean Foster write more Star Trek books. I really enjoyed this book because of the characters, the setting, and the plot. I would recommend it for all Trekkers or anybody who loves a good book. LIVE LONG AND PROSPER ALAN DEAN FOSTER.