The Enterprise Becomes Reality

Clipped from the Ft. Lauderdale News and Sun-Sentinel on Sept. 18, 1976.

Star Trek Moves to Friday

The move to Friday in 1968 was the beginning of the end, but it didn't go down without a fight, with the fan letter-writing campaign saving it from cancellation at the end of season two. The bad timeslot, paired with the drop in quality (and budget) after Roddenberry withdrew in protest, was deadly. But the articles printed at the time are fun to read, as they gave hope to the fans at the time.

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And an earlier ad for the start of season 2:

It's too bad they didn't introduce the female Vulcan character in season two, as mentioned in the write-up above. We had to wait until "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" to see that. However, the might have been referring to the charcter of T'Pring, as a reader of this blog noted in the comments.

Below, the less-than-enthusiastic Nimoy and Shatner feign excitement over the death-knell of being exiled to Friday night.

"See this sign? It's a sign of the end." 

This Side Of Paradise ads

Mr. Spock falling in love was a big thing during the first run of the show. Below are some clippings from various sources highlighting the big event!

Bonus:

Artist Kerry Gammill did this piece back in the late 70's. I scanned it in from the back cover of "Trek: The Magazine For Star Trek Fans."

Trek Or Treat!

Below is a Famous Monsters article on the episode "Catspaw" from 1977. Oddly enough, unlike all of their other "telebook" articles, they featured no images from the episode, so I scanned in one from another scrapbook page (above) to accompany it.

Published in 1977, "Trek or Treat" was full of black and white photos from the series with lame captions. But I bought it for the pictures, which were frames from the episodes, which was cool.

1977 Article: Trek May Be Filmed

Clipped from the March 3, 1977 newpaper in Macon, GA.

Again one can see the difficulties they went through trying to get Star Trek revived in some form. These kind of articles came out with regularity every time the project went through some change or update. Back then the news seemed to come at a Denebian Slime Devil's pace, and I thought it would never happen.

The TV and movie star magazines quite often had articles and photos of interest to me, and I haunted the used bookstores for old issues. When I flipped through and found something like the photo above, I'd buy it, clip out the pages I wanted and throw away the rest.

Now, this... this was the way to do it! Appearing in August of 1976, the Star Trek Poster Magazine was the first monthly all-Trek magazine to be published (professionally and nationally, that is), and it was first-rate all the way. I lived for these issues and didn't miss one. I'll post covers from them from time to time as extras.

And just because I'm feeling good today (all the new released pics from the upcoming Star Trek movie by JJ Abrams are getting me excited), here's a hi-rez scan of a great photo of the good captain.

The Trek cover to the upcoming EW issue on Abram' new Trek. They do look the parts, don't they? It's too soon to tell, but I want to believe that come May 2009 we'll be able to say truly, "Star Trek Lives!!"

1976 NY Convention Article

From a 1976 teen magazine... interesting coverage of a NY con, with an awesome bridge set!

And a clipping from a 1976 newspaper about a convention coming to the Boston area.

The early and mid-70's were the glory days of the Trek conventions. I lived them vicariously through the magazine and newspaper articles I found concerning them. Although isolated from other fans, I felt a part of something just by reading about them. We all shared a love for the same thing, and there was nothing else like it!

The third issue cover of the much-loved Starlog magazine, scanned in below, captures the excitement and hero-worship of these early conventions!

1966 premiere article

A couple of articles that came out before the show ever aired. It's hard to imagine it now, and looking back to when I was just 8 years old when it came out, it doesn't seem like over 40 years.

Sherlock Spock and more

Some odds and ends this time, starting off with a short 1976 writeup from the Enquirer about Nimoy playing Sherlock; not too much of a stretch there, huh?

From the early 70's since he was doing the animated series at the time.

An ad from TV Guide around the early 90's.

From "Movieland" circa 1967. I somehow doubt they just "happened" to catch him reading their mag, don't you?

And finally, a stupid robber makes real Trek fans look bad. What kind of Trek "bomb" was he referring to? An anti-matter device like on "Obsession"? Or maybe "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier"?

Doofus.

1967 article: "Dressing Room Secrets of Star Trek"

Article from the July 1967 issue of the magazine "TV Star Parade," reprinted in an issue of the fanzine "Enterprise Incidents."

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Nimoy in and out of makeup with his wife since 1954, Sandi, whom he was married to until 1987.

Below, Leonard in the makeup room during the filming of "Amok Time." Note the other Vulcans on the background; the "executioner" and "Stonn" played by Lawrence Montaigne, who was once considered a replacement for Nimoy if he wasn't signed again. I recently saw Lawrence playing an alien in an episode of "The Invaders," and he certainly has the alien "look" that it takes to play a Vulcan.

Nimoy relaxes in between takes of filming "Amok Time" with Shatner and Montaigne.

Science-fiction fan favorite Virgil Finlay drew this pen and ink portrait of Spock, working from a pre-series publicity still. It was used for the cover of a mini-convention magazine in the mid-70's, which is how I came to have a copy of it.

Starlog Issue #1

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Published in August of 1976, this magazine was like finding an oasis of Trek in the media desert. I would say it was probably the highlight of that year as far as finding Star Trek material, devoted as it was to the show with COLOR photos (Eeeeee!) in the middle, an episode guide, interviews and more. It was like a Trek convention in my own little room. I was 18 years old at the time, going on 14.

If my discovery of the Gold Key comics had been my first kiss in trekkie-dom, and the various Blish adaptations like infrequent dates, then this magazine was like getting to third base. (Obviously, I didn't date real girls very much. There were no PCs at the time so nerds were not as popular as they are today; back then there was very little use for them.)

Walking home to my Fort Lauderdale house with that issue in my hands, I was almost trembling with excitement and happiness. After the usual sneaking-it-past-the-parents routine, I sequestered myself in my room, donned the grapefruit- sized earphones of the time, and listened to my disco music while I absorbed the magazine. I still have the issue, along with many other issues, and it still invokes the way I felt back then whenever I come across it as I go through my collection cases.

Does that seem strange to you, as you read this? Or can you relate to it? I'd love to start getting a little feedback in the comments section to let me know if any of these posts are connecting and triggering memories of your own. My counter tells me people are coming, but hardly anyone comments, and I'm feeling a bit like I did in 1971 when I thought I was the only Trek fan in the world.

Below is an ad that came in my AMT Enterprise model kit in 1975. I saved nearly everything. I never ordered them, of course; my walking into the living room wearing a T-shirt with a Trek iron-on would have been like walking into a Klan meeting wearing a MLK button.

And below is a pen and ink of the lovely but dangerous Mirror Uhura that I did back around 1978. I based the body on a pose in an art book I had. I was experimenting with using shading film to darken certain areas at the time, but I wish I hadn't, as over the years it yellowed, and shrunk awy from the edges. Now artists can shade areas with the click of a mouse.

Sept. 8, 1966 premiere article

It's always interesting to look back at early articles and photos that came out during the program's first run. For first generation fans, finding the show was like discovering a vein of dilithium crystals with nary a Klingon in sight.

1975 article: Spectacular Star Trek Shindig

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Above is the first Atlanta Trek convention I was aware of, clipped from the Macon Telegraph on July 7th, 1975. I was 16 at the time, living in my hometown of Macon, GA, and Atlanta was tantalisingly only a little over an hour away. But it might have as well have been in California for all the chance I could go; the Anti-trek Gestapo (my stepfather) would see to that. I would have liked to have encountered Sandrell DeMaris.. an intellectual stripper. Isn't that the best kind? Notice that Sondra Marshak is mentioned, who was famous in Trek circles for her fan fiction stories. She and friend Myrna Culbreath went on to be professionally published as they co-authored over a half-dozen early Star Trek books, which were some of my favorites at the time.

Below is a pen-and-ink I did back in the late 70's of the Rigel VII fortress, the location of Captain Pike's exciting fight with the barbaric Kalar. "The Menagerie" was one of my favorite episodes (both parts) and I devoted a number of drawings to it, which I'll share here as time goes by.