‘Star Trek: a Book to Color’ (1967)

A Trek paratext, not quite a comic, but more than a simple colouring-book: Star Trek A Book to Color (1967), the first (of many) such books, combines black-line drawings that kids can colour-in with three original stories. ‘Star Trek Book Club’ summarises:

1 – The Enterprise encounters the descendants of circus entertainers stranded on an unknown planet. The crew dresses in costume to visit the planet. Spock is a pirate.
2 – The Enterprise responds to an emergency on Onyx where the seeds of a strange sunflower-like plant have burst and put everyone to sleep. Kirk and Spock spray the plants with chemicals and save the day.
3 – The Enterprise restocks a zoological colony with animals after an epidemic. A monkey escapes and must be lured back with a banana.

‘Space Ship Enterprise’ is jarring. The art is by Robert Doremus (1913-2010), a prolific commercial illustrator. It’s not clear if Doremus also wrote the stories, rudimentary as they are: it’s possible he concocted the improbable circus-performers world to enable him to draw pirates and clowns rather than the more boring Star Fleet uniforms. A planet of flowers also provides the eager colourist with lots of opportunity, and who doesn’t like a monkey?

Doremus’s ability with likeness was variable. His Kirk looks pretty Shatneresque, though it’s not clear why he’s given him a stare of such disconcerting intensity.

Spock and Sulu are well-captured:

Contrarily, Uhuru not only has her name misspelled (‘Uhara’), she is race-swapped for a white woman. Had Doremus not actually watched the show?

To investigate the circus-world Spock dresses as a pirate (?) and McCoy as a tramp, holding a small dog (??) although here Doremus seems to have confused the ship’s doctor with Pavel Chekov.

Spock looks pretty mournful there: as he might well be, in that undignified outfit. ‘Crew beams down to planet’ we are told, and there appear to be doughnuts.

Is this story canon?