Enterprise Crew Stands By For Lift-off Into Movie History

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Saved from "The Star" tabloid, November 13, 1979.

Bonus: Nice publicity shot of Kirk and Spock scanned in from another of my photo scrapbooks.

Bonus #2: A 1976 Random House Star Trek Greeting card!

To say Kirk looks insufferably pleased with himself would be an understatement. Mugging for the camera was a true talent of Bill's, and this shot from "I, Mudd" puts it to great use. There were about a dozen or so different cards for various occasions in this first set of Trek-themed cards ever put out. I was fortunate enough to get most of them, and I'll share them with you here every so often. This one opened up into an award, and was really my favorite card.

I bought all of these cards at my favorite comic book/memorablilia store ever, the afore-mentioned "Starship Enterprises" in Ft. Lauderdale. I took this 1979 photo of the display in the store where I got the cards. Neat, huh? Kind of funny to see Artoo and Threepio hawking merchandise for the competition.

1978 "TREK" Article: Shatner Acting Critique

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Cover of Issue #10, from April 1978

"Trek: The Magazine for Star Trek Fans" was a great fan-produced effort published in the mid 70's to early 80's, that most Trekkers only know from the book compilations put out later. If that's all you know of it, believe me, you missed the best part; collecting the actual magazine issue by issue as it was put out back then in the original run. I happened upon my first issue, #4, in high school in 1976, and it was a goldmine. Printed on durable card stock paper, with color covers, awesome articles, rare photos, original artwork and more, it was the best fan publication out there, and remained that until "Enterprise Incidents" came along in the same format... and then we had two great mags to enjoy of similar quality. I picked up both mags at my source for Trek material, the comic book store "Starship Enterprises" in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. These zines account for many of my good Trek memories of those times as a youth.

Below is an article on the Great One and his acting style, which though imitated for comic effect and parodied ad nauseum, it is the reason Bill was so riveting to watch and dominated the screen. Enjoy!

"...and let us forget not the warning, 'I am not mocked,' saith the Shat."

"Not the face!"

If I were a girl I suppose I'd get all mushy and tingley looking at photos of Bill in his prime, but being a manly male, I merely recognize that he's a good-looking dude and dynamic onscreen. We guys can have our heroes, you know, without being less macho... okay? Besides, I have it too much for Uhura.

Bonus: The image used for the cover without the text.

ST:TMP Premiere A Religious Event

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The article posted above is from the Atlanta Journal, published Dec. 12, 1979, just days after the film opened. I suspect after coming out of the film's showing, some of the faithful few were a bit let down after the buildup of anticipation. But, later films would help lessen the feeling and restore their faith.

The soundtrack review below, clipped from a magazine about the same time, was really more about the author airing their lukewarm opinion of the movie, while the actual soundtrack review is reduced to one sentence. One. People just hoped and expected for more. But with the next movie, they got it.

Bonus: Below is another of the hilariously (and head-scratchingly) mis-captioned Leaf bubblegum cards from 1967. "Teeny-bopper"? I suppose that's what Leonard was considered to be back then. Feel free to add your own caption to the comments box! Also identify the episode if you can.

"Settle down, Leonard... Bill was probably just kidding when he called you his sidekick."

TV Sci-Fi Monthly 1976 article: Trek Aliens

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When I caught sight of this terrific cover, a dollar and seventy-five cents (plus tax) and I were quickly parted.

The British publication "TV Sci-Fi Monthly," which I've featured here before (and will often again) was a real find. Say what you will about the tea-swilling Redcoats, they sure could put out a good genre mag. The only place I could get them was my favorite haunt when I lived in Ft. Lauderdale in the 70's, the comic book/movie collectables store named Starship Enterprises. In the near future I'll do a post on it with some photos, inside and out. It was such a cool place, run by cool people, with lots of cool stuff. Even the air conditioning in it was cool.

Anyway, here's another scan from it, of the first article from Issue #3, printed in 1976, which was a two panel deal that you read when you opened up the newspaper-format magazine. I loved the large pictures that this format enabled them to print, although it does make it harder to scan, as I have to put the pieces back together in Photoshop. But it's worth the time to share these with you.

As an aside, I'm amused by the fact that the shackles holding the crew in "The Gamesters Of Triskelion," pictured below, were obviously so loose they could have slipped their hands out with no problem. In fact, it would be hard to keep them in place without your hand falling out!

Uhura was grateful for her Starfleet regulation-issue uniform panties, and for the fact that she wore them that day.

Bonus: Below, a promotional shot taken during the filming of "The Galileo Seven" with Nimoy hefting a prop weapon, which if made of real stone, would have been too heavy to lift like that... even for a Vulcan.

Nimoy briefly considered using it on Shatner unless he admitted who was the real star of the show.

Talented trekker from way back John Ellis (read about him in an earlier post here) sent me the great artwork below that he did for the cover of a Florida 1976 convention booklet. I tell you, those were the good old days when Trek really belonged to the fans, and most of the good stuff coming out was by them, in unofficial publications. I'll be posting more artwork and goodies from John in the near future, but in the meantime, visit his site about his special pet project, the 1958 Steve Canyon TV series DVD set!

1978 Trek Views article

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The old collection cabinet opens this time to reveal Issue #3 of the classy Science Fantasy Film Classics magazine, published June, 1978. Most of this issue is devoted to Trek, and I'll be spotlighting more of the great articles from it in future posts. Kicking things off is the article below, interviewing all of the main cast except for Nimoy. It's interesting for me to realize just now that one of the writers was Diane Duane, who wrote several notable Trek novels and even contributed to a Next Generation script.

This has to be the least flattering depiction of Uhura I've ever seen, even considering it's a caricature.

Below, not part of the article but interesting anyway for the ads!

And a bonus page from the same magazine, by Mike McMaster (read his Wiki entry) who was famous among Trekkers for his detailed and accurate blueprints, advertised on the page above. Sadly, only a few months after writing this article, he died in an accident at only 25, in September of 1978.

It was interesting reading in the article above that Mike thought that one unwelcome use of computers in the future as portrayed on Trek was the ability to use them to research individuals and their history. Prophetic words, which have come to pass already with the internet... anyone can look up virtually anything on anybody with a few simple searches!

Bonus link: To view most, if not all, of the various blueprints published about Trek vehicles, go to the LCARS Blueprint database. But beware, you may spend hours there before you know it!

ST:TMP Comes To TV

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These pages were clipped from the February 20th, 1983 edition of TV Guide. The "Close Up" mini-review below was actually very kind considering the savaging it took from a lot of theatrical critics. But on returning to its TV roots, Star Trek found its reception somewhat warmer.

Below, from 1996, a TV Guide ad for "A Captain's Log" special about the series. I have that on VHS tape somewhere.

TV's actual first interracial kiss somehow snuck past the censors.

Spock had the distinct impression that something was going on behind his back, but he couldn't quite place his finger on it.

And yet, there seemed to be a strange scent wafting in the air around him.
Uhura, feeling all tingly, couldn't understand how the Vulcan could turn that sweet thing down.

Happily, Pike discovered that he didn't have to make a choice between the two of them after all.

1977 article: Fans Win Battle: Star Trek Returns!

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The article this time is scanned from the pages that I clipped in 1977 from a now-unknown movie/TV show fan magazine. At the time, I would clip items without much regard for the source, and if the pages themselves didn't identify that magazine, then it didn't matter much. Now, I wish I had made more of an effort to keep track of such things, but we would all do things differently in hindsight. If this was all I regretted from those days I would be in good shape.

You can see from the details of the show's return that it was in the middle of one of the failed attempts to revive it in some form on TV, for which we can probably be grateful. There were many false starts and stalled efforts that floundered until Star Wars showed that a big-budget sci-fi film could be successful. But, all the media attention to each announcement kept the show in the public eye and mind, not letting it be forgotten.

Bonus: Below, one of the in-store promotional items for the VHS video release of the series that came out for the show's 20th anniversary in 1986. This was made to stick on the shelves in the store, and the Enterprise was supported on a strip of cardboard that suspended it about a half-inch in front of the bottom of the card, in a 3D effect.

Bonus: And below, another of the Leaf cards from 1967, continuing in their tradition of nonsense captions and odd photos. This one leaves itself wi-i-i-i-ide open for risque captions of all sorts. In fact, it's so easy a target I'm not even going to do one. I'm sure some of you can come up with one that would make mine seem tame!

Update: In light of the card above, and the interpretations it leaves itself open to, here are a couple more from the same episode ("What Are Little Girls Made Of?") along the same lines to stimulate your caption-creating abilities!

Ruk knew right then that their relationship had grown stale.

"Sorry, Ruk... but have you noticed that the ceiling needs painting?"

On the other hand, they still enjoyed the occasional game of "Hide The Stalactite."

I can't help but wonder what the images above would lead someone to think, had they never saw the episode and their context.

1980 ST:TMP Desk Calendar

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There were quite a few movie tie-in products that came out based on the new movie, and I snatched up all of them as quickly as they came out. This desk calendar, titled "The Official USS Enterprise Officer's Date Book," featured one photo per week in the year, with the majority of them black and white, but with one color picture for each month.

Most of the images were frames from the film, but scattered here and there were some good publicity shots as well. I've scanned some of my favorites to post here, which have been little-seen... and I'll add some more as "bonus" elements in future entries.