Thursday 12 May 2016

The Cassette Tape Sequel - The Search for Spock for Kids


Back in June of 2014 I posted up what was my first ever piece of Star Trek merchandise - the Book and Tape for The Wrath of Khan.

Finally just under two years later (!!!) I've managed to copy up the version they produced for The Search for Spock. I actually remember buying this in Plymouth, Devon on a shopping trip there around 1985/6.

Taking the story and photos from the original motion picture (must be true, it says it on the cover), this was another much-played cassette (small thing, plastic, reel wound, pre-CD) of my developing years.

While just as incredibly brief as The Wrath of Khan version, it does manage to cram the whole movie into just 24 pages.

So what didn't make the cut this time? What was ditched off to save space?

The Changes/Cuts

  • Straight from the off there's reference to Kirk thinking that McCoy is Spock. Avoids lots of unnecessary explanation
  • Excelsior gets the customary intro shot on the first page but that's it. No Spacedock chase, no Scotty promotion, no Styles.
  • Does refer back to the battle with Khan - something the film never actually does
  • All reference to the decommissioning of the USS Enterprise 
  • Kruge has a Klingon warship. Never mentioned as a Bird-of-Prey
  • No mention of the Genesis Planet being a mistake/why it's unstable. It just is.
  • Uhura is almost as absent in this as she was from The Wrath of Khan book and tape. This time she gets one mention...ONE.
  • Sulu, Chekov and Scotty get brief mentions a couple of times with both Chekov and Scotty getting a line each (yay!)
  • Kruge just randomly shoots the Grissom down
  • There's no mention of the Grissom crew
  • David, Saavik and Spock are looking for another hiding place when captured not as in the movie where they are found after Marcus goes out on watch.
  • The battle between the Enterprise and the Bird-of-Prey has the Federation ship easily dispatched in a single shot. Wasn't there a bit more than that?
  • Kirk declares Kruge to be a "Klingon monster" not a "Klingon ba****d". I think we can all guess why.
  • The image of Kirk on page 22 isn't from beaming up to the Bird-of-Prey but from when he arrives at the camp on Genesis. It's also the only really shoddy photo in the whole book because they had to remove the background.
So here it is. Enjoy. I'm still committed to getting the audio files up for both these books so you can read along.
















 As with The Wrath of Khan book and tape it's still a part of my collection, stored away for the day when cassette tapes are once again reverred. 

This is also the first piece of Star Trek memorabilia that I personally bought with my own pocket money so here's my question - what was the first piece of Star Trek memorabilia that you bought and why?

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