1972 The Monster Times article: The Saga of Star Trek

This time, I've dug deep into the inner recesses of the Collection Cabinet #2 (pictured in the middle of the three, the TMT stack is on the fourth shelf down, on the left) for some of the earliest and best Trek articles to come out during the early 70's, when the show was only beginning to gain its reputation as the "show that will not die."

Here, from Feb. 16, 1972 is Issue #2 of "The Monster Times." More than any other, "The Monster Times" seems to encapsulate the memories and excitement of that period of my life, and each issue holds a fond place in my recollections. The first article from the issue, titled "The Saga of Star Trek," marks the beginning of my effort to scan and post (eventually) all of the articles from this particular issue. Since its oversize newspaper format makes scanning time-consuming, it might take a little while, but I will get it done. Enjoy!

(Click on images to enlarge.)

As a note, I bought the "tracer gun" toy pictured above as a kid. All I have remaining is a piece of the cardboard backing that I saved for my scrapbook, which you can see here.

Bonus: Below, from a later edition of TMT, a regular feature called "Trek Talk" that kept fans up to date on the latest tidbits of Trek news. I'll scan and post them in coming entries in the order published, at least in the issues I have. This is from Issue #34, published June, 1974. These little nuggets of Trek history are glimpses into the past of the show's revival rumors and the early conventions, as well as other appearances in TV and film by the actors. Even in dry months with no Trek articles, the Trek Talk feature was a little fix I could depend on. I'm tagging any entry that contains one of these as a bonus item, with the tag "Trek Talk," so you can locate them easily. Logical, no? Yes.

A note about my Monster Times posts; over the past few years there have been various announcements from two different sources that all the back issues of this publication were going to be scanned and posted online in their entirety. Realizing that if this were the case, my work at scanning in my own dog-eared copies would be wasted effort; so I refrained from sharing many articles from this source. I, like many others, would enjoy having large-format scans of all the issues. Not only would it mean I didn't have to scan (or even take out to read) my own copies, saving on more wear-and-tear on the paper, but I could read the issues I missed and save them to my own harddrive. However, neither announced plan has come about, and rather than wait longer, I've recently begun posting material from this great magazine on this blog, as well as my others (see side bar for links to these). I hope you get a kick out of it!

Another bonus, below: a nice photo of Nimoy as Spock, looking rather skeptical about something... since it seems to be a third season pic, he's probably skeptical about the show's chances for renewal.

"Oh, Really?

It's a lot of fun getting together with a fellow Trekker and going through each other's collections. Since we can't get together to do this, I'm taking stuff out of mine to scan and share with you. I've always felt a connection to others that love Trek, so if you like these little virtual get-togethers, leave a comment... let me know you enjoyed going through my stuff! After all, you wouldn't just walk in my house and start rummaging through the cabinets, then leave without a word, would you? Would you?