Shatner Flies Alone

The tabloids were a good source of clippings about Trek and it's various stars in the early 70's. This one is from the July 8, 1974 edition of "Midnight," another one my Grandma bought sometimes, and that I was able to scan for material when she was done.

(Click on all images to view full size.)

Below is the cardboard backing for an item that I bought in the mid 70's that really disappointed me. It was for a filmstrip viewer that seemed to promise full color images from the series... instead, they were black and white frames from the first Gold Key Star Trek comic. Boy, was I ticked! I should have guessed from the sloppy packaging... a nice still to use, but they reversed it. And, they drew rocket flames coming from the back of the ship. If you have fire spilling from the shuttle bay you are in serious trouble. Anyway, I threw away the viewer and saved the back panel, wiser for the experience. A little extreme, looking back on it, but I was mad at being ripped off! I suppose the quote marks around "movie show" should have been a clue.

Below, a picture of the type of viewer that came in the packaging:

Warning: Disappointment inside!

As an bonus gift just for visiting, enjoy the unusual photo below of our hero brandishing his phaser with questions he might ask later. You never saw a certain bald captain (who shall remain un-named) in such macho poses! On a technical note, that phaser does not look like the usual ones... with a nozzle tip where the light would shine. The whole end looks flat and brightly lit. Wonder what the deal was there? Was the nozzle removed just for the picture?

"Go ahead... make my stardate."

1980 FM article on ST:TMP

It's interesting the Ray Bradbury's comments about editing were right on the money, and although the article writer thought we'd never see such an edit, we actually did have the opportunity nearly 25 years later, in the special edition DVD. Robert Wise came back and re-edited it, sound effects were added, and the effects essentially finished. The result is a tighter, more satisfying version than we saw all those years ago on the big screen.

It's Job To Job Nowadays For 'Mr. Spock'

The headline makes it look like Leonard was having trouble making it after Trek, but the article itself shows he was working steady on different projects. Clipped from the Macon Telegraph on Aug. 17, 1973 when I was 14. Below is a small clipping gleaned from one of the TV fan magazines about the same time.

Bonus content: Below is Issue #3 of the Star Trek Poster Magazine, one of the best publications to come out in the 70's on Trek. I was fortunate enough to collect every issue, and treasure them still. I'm featuring this cover since today's post is Nimoy-centric. Why his uniform tunic is purple is a question I have no answer for.

Shatner's Star on Walk Of Fame

Bill gets his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Clipped from "The Star" tabloid in 1983.

Here's a page full of facts about everyone's favorite Captain. You might learn something you didn't know, even if you're a big fan.

A small clipping from 'The Enquirer" of unknown date, probably the early to mid 70's. I clipped and saved any reference to the show, no matter how small or trivial, and certainly anything with a photo, even a picture I had already. Below is a good example; a "Tomorrow" show listing in a newspaper TV guide that had Trek cast and crew as guests. This was probably also in the mid 70's.

Was I obsessive, or what?

The Monster TImes Star Trek book review

Back in 1972, I had just discovered Trek, and was about to find the Blish novels for the first time.

Up to this point the only Trek I had read was the Gold Key comics, and they weren't exactly true to the show. Below is the scanned in article on those books. If you were a reader of the James Blish adaptations, this will bring back some memories as well as knowing nods.

Here is the famous (or infamous) "Keep On Trekin'" poster from that issue that has now become a part of my blog header!

Below is an ad page from a later 1976 issue that will give you an idea of what we had to choose from as far as Trek items back then. This page served as a Sears Wish Book for me, in that I gazed at it and dreamed of owning so much of what was there. Thankfully, the books I could and did own as time went by. Each one was a treasure, even truncated as they were. I had never seen the episodes they were adapted from at that point, so even the scant descriptions given by Blish were like samples of my favorite dish, and only whetted my appetite to see them.

Yes, every true "trekkie" must own a pair of Mr. Spock ears. Scanned from the same issue.

And here are the scanned covers of my copies of the books that meant so much to me at the time. Getting my hands on them as a young teen helped make some of the best memories I have of those times. Looking at them now brings back a flood of sweet nostalgia!

And the reviews start coming in...

Well, the movie finally premiered, and not all of the reviews were kind. Those who were indifferent to TOS pretty much panned it, those that loved the series were a bit kinder but still saw the problems. It was a box office success, if not a critical one, and did pave the way for the sequels. Scenes like the extended Enterprise fly-by, which was listed as a problem, were to Trekkers like me just icing on the cake. Critics who didn't have the love like we did just didn't get it.

Of course, some of the problems pointed out at the time were corrected by the Director's Cut DVD released a couple of years ago, and is the version I now watch when I get the urge. I saw the movie, back then as well as now, almost like a returning loved one that had been missing for a decade... sure, they've changed, and some things about them you don't like, but you overlook the faults, just glad to have them back. And by the time 1982 and "The Wrath of Khan" rolled around, Trek was in top form again. The excitement we fans felt at the time could hardly be dampened by the problems with the movie... Star Trek was back! That was all that mattered at the time.

Below is another press kit photo from the old scrapbook.

1978 UFO Report Magazine article

This article came from the magazine UFO REPORT, in the summer of 1978, and was published before the movie had begun filming, in pre-production. The still above, from the inside cover, was a seldom-seen overhead shot of the three-foot model (not the 11-foot filming model), a welcome change from the usual publicity photos of the ship.

An extra from the scrapbook: a still from the press kit for the movie. I like this one, with the cast and crew all smiles, except for Nimoy, in character as always.

1990 article: "Leonard Nimoy: Spock's Alter Ego"

This article on Nimoy was razored from the August 1990 issue of a Magazine called New Dimensions. I don't remember what kind of mag it was, but I seem to have the impression it was something New-Age-y.

And as an extra, below is a scan of a photo from my scrapbook that I bought back in the mid-70's. It's a classic pose and one of my favorites of the two characters together.

Click for a super-sized view!

Nichelle Nichols in CLASS Magazine

The following article (a great one, by the way) was clipped from the June 1984 issue of Right On!/Class magazine. Yeah, right on, baby!

Nichelle as she appeared in The Search For Spock. Lovely.

Below is an article from People magazine about seven years earlier, while ST:TMP was still in it's on-again, off-again stages, probably about 1977.

Nichelle as she appeared in animated form on one of her several Futurama guest appearances.

Ah, Nyota, you have opened hailing frequencies straight into my heart.

ST:TMP Box Office articles and more

Article from Life magazine, in the summer of 1979.

Pre-production painting by Andy Probert to show the effect of ship's dramatic new self-illumination in the darkness of space.