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 after the events of that movie. Spock is dead, left on the Genesis planet unbeknownst to Kirk and the surviving crew. But part of Spock remains inside the mind of Dr. McCoy... can Kirk save them both, and how far will he go to do so?

Often considered a victim of the supposed "odd numbered movie" curse of the Star Trek franchise, we collectively believe that TSFS gets a bad rap, while one of us considers the movie to be one of the top three in the franchise. Either way, it includes one of the single most poignant and important events in the history of the entire franchise - hey, if you know, you know.

Give us a download and a listen and see what you think of our analysis!

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 dramatic reading of short (10-20 minute) adventures in the Star Trek universe.

We here at CineMcCollough (Lord Rob and Butch) were each given a record album containing three such adventures, of which today's "Passage to Moauv" was one, by our friend Dominic. As such, we decided to listen to, review, and rank all eleven adventures in turn.

"Passage to Moauv" was written by Alan Dean Foster, famous for his novelizations of the Star Trek Animated Series as well as novels in the Star Wars Universe. Foster wrote roughly half the stories. In this one, hijinx ensue when an ambassador's pet starts causing mayhem aboard the Enterprise.

Butch and Rob will rank and evaluate all 11 Peter Pan Star Trek stories based on how well the story would have worked as a full episode of Star Trek. See if you agree with our analyses!

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' status).

The fun thing about the novelizations of the cinematic adventures (the TMP novelization was written by the Great Bird of the Galaxy himself, Gene Roddenberry) it is interesting to see what was included, left out, and expanded upon between the novel and movie versions. For this novel, expect more Saavik, MUCH more Peter Preston, and the not-so-secret secret of why Saavik cries at Spock's funeral (spoilers!)

Rob and Butch encourage you to read the book, then watch the film, then give this a listen - or just give this a listen!

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 pay for my own books.

Written by Robert E. Vardamann, one of two he wrote in the first two years of the Pocket Books series, this one was published in October of 1981... his other would come out a couple years later and he was out of the Trek novel business.

I am not an English major or anything, but I thought I had a better handle on what the word 'gambit' means. The novel DOES feature Klingons prominently, but it may also be the case that gambits are more the realm of Romulans, while Klingons are the brute force kind.

Either way, maybe you the listener can help Butch and Rob when it comes to this novel.

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 commander (no the other one) bucking the Empire and her duty to follow her conscience and work with arch-enemy James Kirk to stop some very interesting and horrifying Romulan plot to attack the Federation. Duane really has a handle on writing Romulans, which is why this is the first of FOUR Romulan-centric novels in her bibliography.

Rob always remembers this as one of his favorites from when we were in high school, but how will he and Butch score it THIS time?

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 does a 'hard science fiction' author to go for their one and only shot at a Star Trek novel? How about a group of protostars that have achieved sentience and are seeking to bring about a new Big Bang?

Come aboard and take a ride with Rob and Butch as they discuss this strange new world!

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 for all those years left us with closets and boxes and shelves FULL of them, though we've not read them for decades, in some cases.

For THIS mission, we decided to choose randomly from among the first 50 Pocket Books novels - using gaming dice to select one at random - and wouldn't you know the first one we rolled was the LAST on the list! Published in June 1990 (while we were in college) it is the last book I read before moving on to other literary pursuits. Written by Diane Duane, this is one of FOUR of her novels on the first 50 pocket books, though she is better known for her Rihannsu Romulan novels. Duane comes up with some legalistic legerdemain, as it were, to ensure that Dr. McCoy must take command during a crazy first contact scenario with numerous sentient life forms on a faraway planet.

Where will this new Pocket Books adventure take us? Sign on the dotted line, join the crew and find out!

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 as the Star Trek movie that broke out of the Star Trek fandom to a wider audience. While the first film was a remake of a TOS episode, TWOK is a sequel to a different TOS episode, "Space Seed." It interweaves a revenge story perfectly with the continuing story of our crew in general, but definitely James T. Kirk in particular, as getting older, with all the pitfalls that come with that.

The industry backstory, of course, is that while the first film was a success, it was an EXPENSIVE success. So TWOK will be a smaller, cheaper movie than was TMP, but (to its credit) it was enough of a success that it proved to the studio that Star Trek could go back to its tight-budget ways and still be a winning and profitable formula, enough so that the franchise was off and running again - this time in the theaters - with this film.

It is not a spoiler to admit that Rob and Butch ADORE this movie, so when you listen prepare to hear us extoll its virtues... though we will call out weaknesses as we see them.

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 settings, special effects, and especially non-human characters. This novel is a feast for the eyes, in a literary sense, in terms of the wide range of possible sentient beings that might be encountered in Star Trek. Only one problem - some mysterious entity is assassinating delegates one by one!

It is also fitting that this final Bantam novel shows the ship ferrying delegates to peace talks - as that has been our motif for the Bantam books - an homage to the TOS episode "Journey to Babel." With the closing of the Bantam novels list, this serves as a finale to Season 1 of Star Trek: CineMcCollough... but fear not, as more Trek novel episode reviews come right behind them with season 2: "Is That a Trek in Your Pocket?"

You've followed us this far, why not a little bit farther?

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 inextricably linked with Star Trek, as he went on to pen other episodes of TOS and the Animated Series.

"The Galactic Whirlpool" is Gerrold's first Star Trek novel, is centered around a Human colony ship that (nod if it sounds familiar) is populated by people who no longer remember life before their world-ship. Problem is, they are seemingly doomed, headed as they are toward one of nature's most destructive features, the eponymous title whirlpool.

Will Butch and Rob be dazzled by Gerrold, or come away feeling let down?