1999 Star Trek Weekly Log Book

This time we are "only" going back about 10 years to revisit a Trek product; and I put the emphasis on "only" ten years because 1999 seems so recent to me, not going back very far to feature an item. But, when I was a kid and teen, the ten years from the end of the original series to the new movie, only a little over a decade, seemed like an eternity... a long stretch of desert marked by occasional mirages of revival rumors and attempts. Looking back now on the overall nearly-45-year history of Trek, from the series to now, that first ten years now seems like a short period of time indeed.

Anyway, we go back just ten years for the item on this post, a notebook-format calendar/journal that featured a different photo from the various Trek shows for each week. Since this blog is devoted to the characters of the original series, those are the only pictures I'm picking out to show. First, the cover:

(Click on images to "magnify viewscreen.")

Going back a bit further now for our "bonus" items, the front and back covers of a couple of the James Blish books that many Trekkers have good memories of. (I featured the earlier ones before in a post from The Monster Times reviewing some of them; look for the "book cover" tag to see all.) I know, these books are something most fans might still have in their collections, and it may be a bit redundant to feature them here since they were so ubiquitous; but each and every volume of these Blish episode adaptations meant so much to me, and figure so prominantly in my good memories of the time, that I felt that looking at them again now and then might bring up some good memories of your own. After all, it might have been years since you looked at these covers. My main impressions of the Enterprise, apart from the show itself, come from the paintings of the ship on these covers, starting with volume 4 (painted by Lou Feck, read more about him here) and going through 12. Be sure to click on the images to examine them in detail, larger than the actual book itself.

For years, these books were the main source of nourishment for my Trek hunger; oftentimes the only source during the early lean years. The brief adaptations, often little more than extended plot synopses, whetted my appetite to actually see the episodes, which in many cases would be years later. Volume #5, below, reminds me of when I bought it at the Ft. Lauderdale high school bookstore where I went in 1973 while in the 10th grade. I got many of the books that were so important to me there: "The Making of Star Trek," The World of Star Trek," "The Trouble With Tribbles," and several of the Blish novels. I would save up my lunch money by skipping lunch and buying the books I had ordered when they came in. I really desired my books more than food back then, and I remember that year as especially exciting as I absorbed the thick making-of books.

This next bonus item below goes back to 1972, from second issue of "The Monster Times." The article is looking forward to the historic New York ST convention, (the very first) happening January 21-23rd at the Statler-Hilton hotel. Were you there?

And lastly, another item from TMT, continuing my posts of the regular feature "Trek Talk," from issue #38, published January of 1975. This time, there is little actual news, in favor of basically re-printing a press release from Paramount to promote their new special effects system "Magicam" (read the Memory Alpha entry here). It was touted as the solution to a less-expensive way to revive the series, but ultimately not used by the time the movie came out (although the company did build the refit Enterprise miniature). It's a good thing, too; can you imagine how cheesy the revived show would look today had Magicam been used on a new TV version back in the mid 70's? It's use on "The Starlost" proved it to be ineffective at creating believable effects. I was skeptical about it even when reading this back in 1975. Still, it's part of Trek history and the efforts to being it back, and that's why I post these Trek Talk segments.

New link added to the links list: Veteren director Ralph Senensky is blogging now, in part about his role in Trek history, and it's all interesting reading. Visit it at Ralph's Trek and get the inside scoop on TOS production!