Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited

Star Trek TOS Fanfiction
Title:	Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited
Author(s):	Ruth Berman
Date(s):	1976
Length:
Genre:	gen
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
External Links:	Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited, Archived version
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Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited is a story by Ruth Berman.

It is a very early RPF and a sequel to Visit to a Weird Planet in Spockanalia #3. It originally appeared in Spockanalia 5. It was also printed in Star Trek: The New Voyages #1.

Summary

During the filming of a Star Trek episode, Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley somehow find themselves on the real Enterprise, facing the real Kor in "Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited."

The Author's Comments

In 2017, Ruth Berman commented on this story:

“Visit to a Weird Planet” by Jean Lorrah and Willard F. Hunt appeared in Devra Langsam’s and Sherna Comerford’s fanzine Spockanalia. I enjoyed it immensely, and was amusing myself with speculating about the half of the story they hadn’t written – what the actors were doing on the Enterprise while the characters were in Los Angeles – and after thinking about it awhile realized it was turning into a story I wanted to write to offer to Spockanalia (where it duly appeared an issue or two later). I didn’t think about whether I should ask Jean and Willard for permission – I assumed that Devra and Sherna would find out if it was all right with them. When Sondra Marsha and Myrna Culbreath, some years later, got the idea of doing an anthology of fan-written “Star Trek” fiction, my “Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited” was one of the ones they asked permission to reprint. (I think all of the other stories in the anthology were likewise reprints from various fanzines, not originally written for the anthology. I think the same was true of the second volume, too. Might have been an exception or two.)

Art

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  From Spockanalia #5

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  From Spockanalia #5, art by Alicia Austin

Reactions and Reviews

1976

Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited by Ruth Berman I had also read before. This story is fantasy in that Messrs. Shatner, Nimoy and Kelley are accidentally beamed aboard the Enterprise and have to act as Kirk, Spock and McCoy - rather successfully, too. It definitely appeals to me.

"Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited" by Ruth Berman appeared originally in Spockanalia #5 and is unchanged [from that version]. This is a very humorous piece about what happens when William Shatner, DeForest Kelley, and Leonard Nimoy are transported to the real Enterprise in a parallel dimension. Berman has carefully blended her knowledge of Hollywood and the Star Trek universe. I have always been of the opinion that comedy requires more than ordinary writing skill. One must first construct a serious story into which the humorous elements are injected. The interior plot in this piece is deadly serious and would itself have made a good story.

1977

Another good story is Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited in which three of the actors, Shatner, Nimoy and Kelley are somehow transported on to the real Enterprise, 200 years in the future, where they go through several embarrassing situations. It is rather reminiscent of Mirror, Mirror but it is tactfully so. The story is good but could use more development. The potentials of the situation are not fully explored and the plot is not fully developed. All in all, however, it was a good try by Ruth Bergman [sic] to present the other side of Visit To A Weird Planet and was a decent effort for an amateur writer. The introduction is by Majel Barrett Roddenberry.

1992

Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited by Ruth Berman is a delight. Introduced with a humorous page and a half by Majel Barrett-Roddenberry it asks the question, "What would William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley do if they found themselves aboard the real Enterprise?" The little side references to production crew (such as Vincent McEveety nearly blowing his top) are wonderful.

2008

A “Meta” story, breaks out of the whole fiction universe entirely. It’s a fan fiction dream: “Oh! What would happen, if, like, the actors, were, like, transported, and like, were taken, and be like, Captain Kirk, and Spock, and be on the real Enterprise?”

Nice as a fan-fiction story, not as good as an actual Star Trek story… At least it’s short.

(Yeah, this was actually the whole plot in the “Galaxy Quest” spoof movie, but that was well done…)

2009

Dude, not only does is this book officially printed fan-fiction but it's also officially-printed RPF. I was really not expecting that. Interestingly enough, this is one of the picks from the collection. Shatner, Nimoy and Kelly are all transported onto the Enterprise for real and mistaken for their characters. I have no idea whether the actors are well-characterised, but the story itself is really amusing and a pleasant read.