Starlog #1 Color Star Trek Section

When the first issue of Starlog came out in the July of 1976 (see the cover here), fans like me didn't just embrace it, we ran up to it on the magazine rack and placed wet sloppy kisses over it as we wept for joy. Here, at last, was a regular monthly magazine devoted to Star Trek and science fiction film and TV! And with an 18 page COLOR Trek section... it was almost too much to believe. This was back when color photos of the show were hard to come by in a magazine... at least until the first Giant Star Trek Poster Book came out a few months later. 1976 really was a watershed year for Trek-oriented publications. It seemed to be the year that Trek fandom really blossomed and the phenomenon became something more public.

I have posted material from this first issue before; here, here, here and here. But this time I am posting the color section that excited me so much when I saw it. It's probably hard for today's fan to grasp just how exciting this kind of thing was to us back then, but it's how it was. In fact, the magazine itself resorted to photographing the show off of a TV set for the sequence of images from "The Doomsday Machine," something I had done with my Polaroid instant camera. Back then, it was the only way we could "screen capture" images from our favorite show. Now, we can put the disc in a computer and grab all the frames we want. I'm presenting the 16-page color section in two parts, so here goes part one... enjoy!

R.I.P. Charlie Washburn

Another veteran of the original series, this time a behind-the-scenes name, has passed off the scene. Charlie Washburn, assistant director during the the second and third years of the program's run, died at age 73 on April 13th of this year. Here is an article written by Mr. Washburn himself, recalling his memories from his time on the show, scanned from the Trek 20th Anniversary issue of Starlog, #112, published in November of 1986. (See the cover to the magazine here.)

Here is a great blog post by Larry Nemecek about Charlie that does a good job of eulogizing him.

For some odd reason, the official site at http://www.startrek.com/ has refused to acknowledge Charlie's passing, as they do for anyone else that dies who was associated with any of the shows. I have posted this omission twice on their facebook page, but each time they have deleted the comment. Why? I think we should all post comments on the FB page and site and ask them that question. UPDATE: Finally, on Feb 23rd of 2013, the site did acknowledge Mr. Washburn's passing and his contributions: http://www.startrek.com/article/trekland-extra-15-oscars-remember-charlie-star-trek

Bonus: Below is another photo from the ST:TMP Date Book desk calendar that came out in 1980. (See more pages here.)