Wednesday, April 17, 2013

1977: "The Robots Of Star Trek"

I'm back this time with a couple of more articles from the magazine "Media Spotlight," a descendent of the newspaper "The Monster Times" which only lasted 5 issues. But they were good ones! Of course, it would have been better if the publisher could have afforded a better grade of paper and color photos like Starlog, which had premiered the year before. This time we are looking at an article from issue #4 on "The Robots Of Star Trek." You can view the cover here, which I have posted before.

(Click on images to enlarge; once open, you may have to click on it again to view full size.)
Next, an article from the same issue by noted fan author Jackie Lichtenberg, as she touches on several items of interest in the Star Trek universe in the column "Inside Science Fiction."



"No, I was NOT snorting coke! It's a printer's error, OK?"
Bonus: a smiling Nimoy in makeup with Gene from the filming of "The Cage."
Bonus: A page from the book "Where No Man Has Gone Before" focusing on the character of Xon, who almost replaced Spock as the ship's resident Vulcan in the planned series "Phase II" before it was upgraded to a movie and Leonard came on board.

"Who is this "Alfalfa" that you refer to?"

6 comments:

Rob Bignell said...

Love the review of "Inside Star Trek" record - I had it on 8-track! It was the first time I ever heard the word "philosophy"...

Frederick said...

Rob,
That record meant a lot to me, I listened to it over and over. The theme song was done wonderfully, also. I too missed Nimoy on it, however. One day I will do a post on it and tell more of my memories surrounding it.

Rob Bignell said...

In entirely agree that Nimoy not being on it was missed; I think LM was going through his "I am not Spock" phase at the time. I agree with you on the theme song; it definitely didn't go on too long as the reviewer claimed! Thiks record must be digitalized somewhere (an irony if it is isn't!); I'll have to look around and see what I can find. Thanks again for sharing, Frederick!

Frederick said...

Rob,
Right, hearing the theme done in by a somewhat larger orchestra was great, and the fact that it went longer than the TV show intro was a good thing! In fact, I don't recall hearing it done any better or by a bigger orchestra until its use in the credits of the '09 film. THAT was neat. It is out on CD, as a special disc in the two-disc CD release of ST:TMP's score a couple years back, the 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition.

Ultrawoman said...

I found the INSIDE STAR TREK record amongst my husband's LP's in the mid-Eighties. I whooped and laughed when I first heard it. I made a cassette tape for my friends. I didn't notice Leonard Nimoy was not on it till now!!!

Frederick said...

UW,
thanks for commenting! I wondered sometimes if Nimoy not being on it was intentional by Roddenberry, since he was angry at him for coming out with his own LP of singing, with a pic of Spock on the cover.