1977 article: "I Am Still Not Spock"

From issue #5 of "All About Star Trek Fan Clubs" magazine, published in October of 1977, comes a number of articles. First, the cover; a nice painting of the Russion whiz kid, Chenko... Chirpoff... er, Chekov, Pavel Andreievich.

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"Dees is my head, da; but painted on Keptin Kirrk's body."

The first article featured this time is one about Nimoy's continuing promotion of his autobiography, "I Am Not Spock." As we all know, he would give in to inevitability about 20 years later and write a followup called "I Am Spock;" which might as well have been titled "Alright Already, 'I AM Spock!' Happy Now? Sheesh!"

Next, from the same issue, comes this writeup on one fan's close encounter with Bill Shatner who is wearing a really loud shirt. Fortunately, his charisma and force of personality dominate it into submission, but it was a real fight for supremacy. If this girl Janet Haan is on Facebook or something she is probably going to want to kill me for posting this! But, I hope not. If you're out there, Janet, comment and let us know!

Somewhere in New Jersey a family discovers that their couch cover has gone missing.

And lastly, a photo album of Walter Koenig that includes one of him naked, which I know many of you have been wishing to see. Walter is the Woody Allen of the TOS cast, and with that photo it's easy to see he's always been that way... worried and a bit insecure; am I right? When your main characteristics as an actor on the show are a bad accent and the tendency to scream often, it's no wonder one might develop a bit of a inferiority complex.

Stop that or you'll go blind, Walter.

"I'm worried that people will confuse me wth Davy Jones of the Monkees."

If you want to see more articles from other issues of this magazine, use the "ST Fan Clubs Mag" tag on the sidebar! If Starlog was steak and potatoes, this publication was a greasy cheeseburger and fries... but still good when you're hungry like we were back then!

Gene Roddenberry Article from Starlog #2

From the second issue of Starlog, published in November of 1976, comes this article on the Great Bird of the Galaxy, Gene Roddenberry. Not a Trek cover, sadly, but a nice Space:1999 painting anyway.

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"Oh, no, Fred Frieberger is in control, we're doomed!"

The whereabouts of the three-foot filming miniature on the desk has become a minor mystery in the years since that photo was taken. Maybe someday it will show up again. Update: Susan Sackett sheds a little more light on the subject in a comment on the Facebook ST Scrapbook fan page: "Last I heard, it was on someone's coffee table. It was ripped off during the late 1970s when the first movie was being made. It was last seen at a special effects house... btw, I took that photo!"

Below, the next article in the issue was about the planned movie, still in its early stages at that time. In one paragraph we see that Gene's script named "The God Thing," essentially a vehicle for expressing his low opinion of religion, was rejected by the studio honchos. To their credit, they at least realized that a script debunking God as a petty, deceiving alien computer would not make a well-received film (as we can see from the later ill-fated Star Trek V, which re-worked the idea). Happily, this did not end the chances for the first movie being made. (Read more about the rejected script here and here.)

Below is a two-page collection of quotes from the same issue from various well-known people about the show...

Personal note: Although I admired Gene as the mastermind behind Star Trek, (he was my hero for many years) I do not share his views on the Judeo-Christian understanding of the Creator, and am uncomfortable posting them without clarifying that point. Although this is a light-hearted blog sharing nostalgic material about the original series (where the subject was hardly an issue), when a subject this close to my heart is brought up in the material and presented in a negative light, I feel the need to comment. And since this is my blog, I feel it's not infringing on anyone's perceived right to not be confronted by issues such as this. My readers come here, I don't take it to them. Escape is only a click away.

Gene, a vocal secular humanist, was not bashful about sharing his views, and neither am I. Contrary to appearances online, not all Trekkers are atheists. Although Gene's earlier Star Trek IDIC philosophy obstensibly made room for all, later statements in his personal life particularly excluded those who believed in God. Apparently universal tolerance could only extend so far. Some fans, too, seem to resent believers coming to the party. But we're here, and we love Trek too... even though we don't necessarily share the worldview it sometimes promotes. "Eat the meat and toss the bone" is my way of looking at it. I shall now descend from the soapbox, thank you for your patience.

Bonus: In keeping with the theme that has surfaced this time, below is a photo of Jeffery Hunter in his biggest role, the title character in the 1961 film "King of Kings," years before he took command of the starship as Captain Christopher Pike.

"Come unto Me, all you who are weary, and I will give you rest."

I've just found this tribute page to our favorite pre-Kirk captain of the Enterprise... enjoy!

"ST VI: The Undiscovered Country" review

From the scrapbook comes this positive review of the last original-cast film, clipped from the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel newspaper, published on or near December 5th, 1991.

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It's funny how two different reviewers can have such wildly conflicting opinions on the same film, based on their perception of the source material. Here is another review, from the Miami Herald, which I posted earlier.
Bonus: Below, from the scrapbook is a popular publicity shot that many fans are familiar with!

Bonus #2: another of the wackily-captioned 1967 Leaf cards, this one particularly head-scratchingly strange.

Below is a photograph of a poster-sized pen-and-ink drawing I did in my senior year, 1976. The photo reduction is all that remains of it, the original having been wrecked during various moves. The dark shading over the text was a photo developing error by the friend in school that took it, they were not shaded in the original.

"Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" review

From the scrapbook pages this time we read a review of the well-received "The Voyage Home." The inset clipping is from TV Guide. Of course these came out in 1986.

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Bonus: below, a page from the scrapbook that focuses on some clippings of mini-cons in the Miami area, with two of them from different papers on the same con, presented by the Star Trek Federation Of Fans. That was held on Labor Day weekend of 1975, which was August 30-Sept 1.(You can find out more about this fan club that was very active in the 70's by visiting their Facebook group here.) The inset photo clipping is from "The Star" tabloid, which often ran Trek-oriented bits now and then.

Bonus #2: The cover of one of the souvenir convention booklets put out by the STFF, with a great cover sketch of the androids Ruk and Andrea by co-founder Joyce Huser.

1975 Convention Flyer

From the scrapbook comes another of the mini-con flyers that I enjoyed receiving in the mail when I lived in Ft. Lauderdale, FL during the mid-70's. That was as close as I ever got to the cons; of course I didn't get to go, even though I was the perfect age to enjoy them, 16 to 17. (Regular readers know why. For those new to the blog, here's a clue.) I saved every one of these and put them in the old scrapbook pages for perservation. The con organizer was none other than James Van Hise, editor and publisher of the awesome fanzine Enterprise Incidents.

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Star Trek's direct ancestor and one of my all-time favorite sci-fi movies! Read another of my blog entries on this influential film here.

To find more of these convention brochures now or in the future after more are posted, use the "con brochures" tag on the sidebar.

Bonus: Below, some publicity pics of Fred Phillips and Nimoy during one of the makeup sessions preparing him for a day's filming.

US magazine preview of ST:TWOK

From the pages of the June 22, 1982 edition of "US" magazine, comes this preview of the Vonda McIntyre novelization of the upcoming movie. The tease of the scene is preserved as well as the movie, since it was not revealed in the excerpt that this was only a simulator exercise. It served well to pique the interest for the movie and make many reading think that it was indeed how Spock died, effectively setting them up for the trickery of the scene in the film, which derailed one's expectations of Spock's actual death scene later.

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Remember, word had leaked out early that Spock was going to die in the movie, prompting fan outcry and letter writing protests. In early drafts, Spock did die near the beginning of the film, shockingly. But realizing that the shock factor of Spock's death had been lost, the simulator scene was written to fool the audience into thinking "oh, this is what made people think Spock was going to die, we can relax now because it was a mistaken rumor." Then when the actual big death scene came, it was still a surprise. The leak actually helped the movie script be better than it might have been. See, fans can influence the moviemakers! The effort didn't spare Spock, but made his death more meaningful and dramatic within the context of the movie.

Bonus: Below are several pages from the 1980 "Enterprise Officer's Manual" by Geoffrey Mandel (and co-illustrated by Doug Drexler) that deal with some elements of "Space Seed," the episode that introduced us to Khan. As you can see by the cover below, it was a spiral-bound notebook affair, and since it was not licensed, but a fan-produced book, it was not available on a widespread basis at the time; I bought my copy at the specialty shop "Starship Enterprises" in Ft. Lauderdale. It was, however, very influential, and the idea was used in several licensed books later on, as well as some of the information contained within.

Update: Although the link has been on my sidebar for awhile, in looking through the contents of the "Star Trek Blueprints" site, I see that they have the entire Officer's Manual posted. No need for me to scan in more pages, since all are viewable here! Enjoy.

NASA Names Space Shuttle "Enterprise"

From the collection cabinets comes this article from issue #2 of "All About Star Trek Fan Clubs," published April 1977. This was a magazine that seemed to be an amateur publication that somehow got national distribution. Not that it was a bad job; it just came off a little more like a home-made effort of love by some fans than anything put together by experienced publishers (with apologies to any of the editors that might be reading this). But, that was part of the charm of this short-lived magazine, and I bought every issue, especially since this was during the latter days of the drought of Trek material we old-timers lived through.

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This time we are looking at an article on the infamous re-naming of the shuttle prototype after the Star Trek spaceship. Too bad the Captain didn't make it, though...

Dig those cool 70's bell-bottoms and leisure suits!

No bell bottoms here, though... they look a little stuffy.

Below, another page from the same issue, covering a book-signing by Nimoy of his ill-titled book "I Am Not Spock," which was ironic since the people lining up to see him and get his autograph on it were there because of that role.

Oh, yes you are, Leonard.

Below is the back cover of this issue.