James Blish was a science fiction writer who wrote over 27 novels, most notably the Cities in Flight series, and A Case of Conscience, for which he won a Hugo Award. He also was a highly respected critic, and his criticism in collected in the books The Issue at Hand, and More Issues at Hand, (published under the pen name of William Atheling, Jr.). Using the original scripts, which sometimes differed from the final filmed episode, Blish turned each episode of the original Star Trek into a short story, which were collected into anthologies and published as paperback originals.

The Star Trek Reader III collects three of these anthologies: Star Trek 5, Star Trek 6, and Star Trek 7. The episodes present include: Star Trek 5: Whom Gods Destroy; The Tholian Web; Let That Be Your Last Battlefield; This Side of Paradise; Turnabout Intruder; Requiem for Methuselah; The Way to Eden. Star Trek 6: The Savage Curtain; The Lights of Zetar; The Apple; By Any Other Name; The Cloud Minders; The Mark of Gideon. Star Trek 7: Who Mourns for Adonais?; The Changeling; The Paradise Syndrome; Metamorphosis; The Deadly Years; Elaan of Troyius.