Turning the political into ideology: The exorcizing of a metaphor in James Blish’s short story adaptation of a cold war Star Trek narrative | Intellect Skip to content
1981
North American Speculative Fiction and the Political
  • ISSN: 1466-0407
  • E-ISSN: 1758-9118

Abstract

The article is a case study of James Blish’s short story adaptation of the (TOS) episode ‘Balance of Terror’, originally a pacifist narrative focused on tragic choices forced upon individuals. The episode is notable not only for introducing Romulans to the franchise but also for painting them in an unexpectedly sympathetic light as the extratextual power struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union is criticized by means of cognitive estrangement. The hegemonic tenor of the submarine film subgenre the episode emulates becomes quickly subverted as both sides of the conflict are given a voice, and the eventual victory of Captain Kirk is painted almost as a moral defeat. Blish’s adaptation is a testimony to the misinterpretation of TOS. Blish did not translate an SF story into another medium but rewrote it into a war narrative while not changing any major events, taking the episode at face value and apparently not noticing the allegory on which it was founded. This case serves as an example of how easily a subversive narrative can be co-opted the moment genre is misidentified.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/ejac_00077_1
2022-09-01
2024-04-26
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Anijar, Karen. ( 2000), Teaching Toward the 24th Century: Star Trek as Social Curriculum, New York:: Falmer Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Asimov, Isaac. ( 1967;), ‘ Mr. Spock is dreamy!. ’, TV Guide, 29 April–5 May, pp. 911.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Ayers, Jeff. ( 2006), Voyages of Imagination: The Star Trek Fiction Companion, New York:: Pocket Books;.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Balance of Terror’ ( 1966), Vincent McEveety (dir.), Star Trek [The Original Series], Season 1 Episode 14 (15 December, USA:: NBC;).
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Bernardi, Daniel. ( 1997;), ‘ “Star Trek” in the 1960s: Liberal-humanism and the production of race. ’, Science Fiction Studies, 24:2, pp. 20925.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Bernardi, Daniel. ( 1998), Star Trek and History. Race-ing Toward a White Future, New Brunswick:: Rutgers University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Blish, James. ( 1967), Star Trek Adapted by James Blish, New York:: Bantam Books;.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Blish, James. ( 1969), Star Trek 3 Adapted by James Blish, New York:: Bantam Books;.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Blish, James. ( 1970), Spock Must Die!, New York:: Bantam Books;.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Blish, James. ( 1972a), Star Trek 5 Adapted by James Blish, New York:: Bantam Books;.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Blish, James. ( 1972b), Star Trek 8 Adapted by James Blish, New York:: Bantam Books;.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Blish, James. ( 1974), Star Trek 10 Adapted by James Blish, New York:: Bantam Books;.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Chasse, Robert,, Bruce, Elwell,, Jonathon, Horelick, and Tony, Verlaan. ( 1969;), ‘ Faces of recuperation. ’, Situationist International Online, originally published in Situationist International, 1, https://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/faces.html. Accessed 10 July 2020.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Foster, Alan Dean. ( 1975), Passage to Moauv, Newark, NJ:: Peter Pan Records;.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Handley, Rich. (ed.) ( 2016), Star Trek: The Classic UK Comics Volume One: 1969–1970, San Diego, CA:: IDW Publishing;.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Handley, Rich. (ed.) ( 2017a), Star Trek: The Classic UK Comics Volume Three: 1972–1979, San Diego, CA:: IDW Publishing;.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Handley, Rich. (ed.) ( 2017b), Star Trek: The Classic UK Comics Volume Two: 1970–1972, San Diego, CA:: IDW Publishing;.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Humphrey, Hal. ( 1967;), ‘ Star Trek’s upward flight. ’, Los Angeles Times, 13 August, p. A39C.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Jameson, Fredric. ( 2005), Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions, London and New York:: Verso;.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Jauss, Hans Robert. ( 1970;), ‘ Literary history as a challenge to literary theory. ’ (trans. E. Benzinger), New Literary History, 2:1, pp. 737.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Jenkins, Henry. ( 2006), Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, New York:: New York University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Ketterer, David. ( 1987), Imprisoned in a Tesseract: The Life and Work of James Blish, Kent, OH:: The Kent State University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Let That Be Your Last Battlefield’ ( 1969), Jud Taylor (dir.), Star Trek [The Original Series], Season 3 Episode 15 (10 January, USA:: NBC;).
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Merril, Judith. ( 2002), Better to Have Loved: The Life of Judith Merril, Toronto:: Between the Lines;.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Pearson, Roberta. ( 2011;), ‘ Cult television as digital television’s cutting edge. ’, in J. Benett, and N. Strange. (eds), Television as Digital Media, Durham, NC and London:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Pilkington, Ace G.. ( 1996;), ‘ “Star Trek V”: The search for God. ’, Literature/Film Quarterly, 24:2, pp. 16976.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Pounds, Michael C.. ( 1999), Race in Space. The Representation of Ethnicity in Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation, Lanham, MD:: Scarecrow Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Rabitsch, Stefan. ( 2018;), ‘ “Wagon wheels, sails, and warp cores”: Star Trek and American culture: Between allegory and worldbuilding. ’, in S. Rabitsch,, M. Gabriel,, W. Elmenreich, and J. N. A. Brown. (eds), Set Phasers to Teach! Star Trek in Research and Teaching, Berlin:: Springer;.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Shatner, Lisabeth. ( 1989), Captain’s Log: William Shatner’s Personal Account of the Making of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, New York:: Pocket Books;.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Shatner, William, and Kreski, Chris. ( 1993), Star Trek Memories, New York:: Harper Collins;.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Shaw, Tony. ( 2010;), ‘ The Russians Are Coming The Russians Are Coming (1966): Reconsidering Hollywood’s Cold War “Turn” of the 1960s. ’, Film History, 22:2, pp. 23550.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Suvin, Darko. ( 2016), Metamorphoses of Science Fiction. On the Poetics and History of a Literary Genre, Bern:: Peter Lang;.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. The Enemy Within’ ( 1966), Leo Penn (dir.), Star Trek [The Original Series], Season 1 Episode 5 (6 October, USA:: NBC;).
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Urbańczyk, Agnieszka. ( 2019;), ‘ World re-building. Eschatological thought in the science fiction genre as exemplified by Star Trek. ’, SFRA Review, 327:Winter, pp. 5154.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Urbańczyk, Agnieszka. ( 2022;), ‘ Turning the political into ideology: The exorcising of a metaphor in James Blish’s short story adaptation of a cold war Star Trek narrative. ’, European Journal of American Culture, 41:3, pp. 24154, https://doi.org/10.1386/ejac_00077_1
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1386/ejac_00077_1
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error