James Blish, Spock Must Die!
1970 / Ebook / 119 pages / USA***
Blish knows his Trek, having novelised multiple episodes. His only original story is structurally spot-on, as well as directly reminiscent of all those episodes with evil doubles (at least four come to mind). As for the actual plot though, it's nuts – both in the exhaustively-justified technobabble and Kirk's reactions to it all, which jump to murder distressingly promptly. Uhura comes off well, but then, she isn't one of the white women plagued by ancestral guilt who are lusting after Spock as a gateway to black guys.
1995 / Audiobook / 256 pages / UK
****
Adapted as one of the best TV stories of the 2000s, the original novel is much the same, with the more expansive scope the format allows. Doctor Who is supposed to be on telly though, so the diluted telly one's better.
Stefan Petrucha and Charlie Adlard, The X-Files: Firebird
1995 / Ecomics / 160 pages / USA/UK
****
Stefan Petrucha's X-Files balances fan-appeasing authenticity and creative licence more successfully than your average tie-in comic. As a time capsule of the show's early years (produced during season two), there's some interesting incongruence, strange synchronicity and arguable foreshadowing, mainly because the writer knows his paranormal onions and these themes were bound to crop up sooner or later. The one-off stories are too short to really get going, but the three-parter's a fun alt-mythology romp, warped for the budget-free comics realm. Shame they don't look all that much like Mulder and Scully, but you can't have everything.
Dennis Bjorklund, Seinfeld Reference: The Complete Encyclopedia with Biographies, Character Profiles & Episode Summaries
**
I was hoping for an insightful companion to fill me in on unnecessary trivia for every episode. I should have read the subtitle more carefully, I guess. It spends most of the page count assembling the characters' fictional biographies and most of the episode guide is taken up by credits. Despite the ebook's 2010 vintage, the behind-the-scenes sections haven't been updated since around the time the series ended, with no mention of racist rants in sight.
2015 / Ecomics / 120 pages / USA/Ireland
***
The X-Files' brooding sibling show went out on a whimper when it was cancelled by Fox right before the actual millennium. There's not much of a legacy to spoil there, and this brief reprise is as authentically on brand as it is unnecessary, leaving things as vague and unresolved as ever and concentrating on mood over substance. Frank Black's back, but I doubt we'll be hearing any more from him.
Clare Nina Norelli, Angelo Badalamenti's Soundtrack from Twin Peaks
2017 / Ebook / 144 pages / Australia
***
Stretching its remit to cover non-album material, alternate versions and other projects, this would have made more sense as a stand-alone book on the music of Twin Peaks or Lynch/Badalamenti collaborations generally rather than as part of this album-focused series, but sticking rigidly to the limited commercial release of pilot cues would have been limited too. The music theory and notation went over my head, but it was nice to learn what instruments the synthesisers are pretending to be and the cultural associations everyone supposedly has except for me.
Charlie Brooker, Annabel Jones and Jason Arnopp, Inside Black Mirror: The Illustrated Oral History
****
Dispensing with old-school episode synopses, cast lists and other details you can get on IMDb, this gets straight to the meat of interviewing the writers, cast and crew about the 19 Black Mirror 'films' released to that point. The fairly even coverage means they won't get as deep into your favourites as you'd like, while giving that rubbish one more credit than it deserves. Brooker's always good value and candid about unused concepts and episode ideas if you fancy stealing them.
