There are five episodes from the original Star Trek here, turned into short stories, and although some of the episodes are dire - there's not a lot can be done to improve something like "Shore Leave," for instance - the pacing moves along very quickly and overall this was a likeable enough read. Not altogether surprising, as I remember the episodes, but relaxing, I think I'd call it. Of them all, I think "And the Children Shall Lead" was my favourite, given the horror elements of the story, and I actually think I preferred the short story version to the episode. Mostly, though, I'm struck by an element of the first episode collected here, "Patterns of Force," in which a brilliant humanist historian of the Federation actually tries to create elements of Nazi Germany on a warring planet, in order to quell the infighting there by creating an outgroup to persecute. I just... I cannot credit it. I know that Trek likes to play with history, but the mental and moral lapse required to do such a thing... honestly, I'm just baffled by that particular narrative choice. Baffled. 

All of which is to say that Blish and Lawrence do their very best with some astonishingly stupid storylines, and under the circumstances their best is pretty good.