Spaceship Stories

This is one standard format for a science fiction (sf) story:

a spaceship from Earth has crossed an interstellar distance, sometimes by unspecified means but usually faster than light (FTL);

the ship approaches an inhabited planet;

characters on the bridge or in a spaceship cabin discuss what, if anything, is known about the planet;

there is a landing or some other kind of interaction with the planet's inhabitants;

the story might present speculation about planetary environments, alien biologies, alternative societies etc;

lessons about humanity may be learned by comparison or contrast.

It makes sense for such stories to be written as series and Star Trek is an obvious example. Several of James Blish's works follow this "spaceship story" formula. They can be compared with Star Trek and we can sometimes imagine them being adapted as Star Trek episodes. Cities In Flight is such a series in which the "ships" are flying cities.

In "A Dusk Of Idols," an Earth ship stops at the planet Chandala where the ruling class uses epidemics to control the population. The ship's surgeon and a passenger who is a famous society doctor discuss the situation on Chandala and I could not help thinking that Dr McCoy, from the Enterprise, would have belonged here but the author, of "A Dusk Of Idols," pointed out that McCoy did not even exist in his creator's mind yet when the story was written.

The ship's surgeon, narrating, tells us that he knows how his famous colleague was "lost" so we expect the latter to die on Chandala and it is a relief when he merely learns a lesson - that the idols are falling.

Other Blish "spaceship stories" are:

"Tiger Ride" (with Damon Knight);
the three that I call the Galactic Cluster trilogy ("Common Time," "Nor Iron Bars" and "This Earth Of Hours");
"And Some Were Savages";
the last pantropy story, "Watershed";
the second Jack Loftus novel, Mission To The Heart Stars.

Sequel, Serial, Series

(i) The first form of fiction has to have been the single story, spoken not written.

(ii) Next, there were sequels by the same author or by a successor. Homer's Iliad was followed by his Odyssey, then by Virgil's Aeneid.

(iii) Greek dramatists created trilogies, whether thematic or linear.

(iv) Nineteenth century periodicals serialised novels before their book publication. Here again was a single story but now read in installments.

(v) For periodical publication, Arthur Conan Doyle (I think) created the series: a serial in which each episode is a complete story so that a one-time reader gets to read an entire narrative while regular readers appreciate continuity. Series synthesises single story, sequel and serial.

Even those who do not follow prose fiction series are all too familiar with the series format from TV. In fact, everyone knows of Star Trek even if they have never seen an episode. Thus, the basic story, Kirk and Spock on the Enterprise, is known even when particular stories are either not known or forgotten.

It is impossible to read some works by James Blish, in particular Cities In Flight, without remembering Star Trek. In Star Trek/Cities In Flight:

a starship/city flies to various planetary systems where, however, it must not upset social systems;
we see a handful of individuals in controlling positions but not the entire crew/population;
we are shown the next generation (Star Trek: changed political alliances; two starships; a space station. Cities: a new interstellar empire; the astronomer's daughter and the city manager's grandson; a planet flying between metagalaxies; the end of the universe.)

Wherever they differ, Cities is superior - more imaginative with better characterisation and a sounder basis in knowledge of the relevant sciences. Where Star Trek does excel as a series, of course, is in sheer number of episodes:

three seasons of the original series;
a prequel series;
three sequel series;
the animated series;
the feature film series;
in other media, novels, comics, even fanfic (amateur fiction written by fans).

Quantity is the antithesis of quality. In fiction:

talent creates quality;
individual prolificity or team script writing generates quantity.

Thus, I suggest that:

James Blish created several works of considerable quality;
Poul Anderson, both talented and prolific, created many works of comparable quality;
Star Trek comprises many more works of mediocre or at best variable quality.

The ideal quality-quantity synthesis would be an sf series as long as Star Trek but as good as Cities In Flight or the History of Technic Civilization but when will that exist in reality?