Thursday, September 26, 2013

1977 article "Spirit Of Star Trek"

From the great third issue of the short-lived "Media Spotlight" (which was a descendant of "The Monster Times" newspaper, except in magazine format and focused more on science fiction than monsters) comes more material. I have posted some from this issue in the past, and will continue until all the Trek content is available. You can view the cover here. View all the Media Spotlight magazine posts here.

This time the article is titled "The Spirit of Star Trek" and addresses the philosophy behind the series. Written by the (now) late Hal Schuster, who wrote loads of articles for magazines plus authored and published many unauthorized Trek books (those that were not officially published by the holders of the Trek copyrights).

(Click on the images to enlarge. You may have to click on the opened image again to view full size.)





"Allowing Lisa Frank to design these spacesuits was not logical." 

Bonus: Below, a couple more pics from the "Official USS Enterprise Officer's Date Book," a "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" tie-in from 1980. You can find other posts from it under the "calendar" tag. The first one highlights the embarrassingly-designed costume pants that lets everyone know what kind of mood you're in. But since these are Bone's own clothes and not a uniform, we can only assume that they don't wear underwear in the future. And they're not ashamed of it.
 
"Why yes, Jim-boy... I AM happy to see you. Why do you ask?"

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

What early conventions did Hal Schuster have a hand in?

I ask because there was an Al Schuster who was the chair of the first few "Committee" cons in NY starting in 1972, and who eventually broke off and started running his own cons starting in about 1975. He also appeared in the legendary Tomorrow Show Star Trek episode in early 1976 which had Deforest Kelly, Jimmy Doohan, Walter Koenig and Harlan Ellison. Footage of that is still kicking around the net and is I think still on YouTube.

Why is this an issue? I've been searching for info on Al Shuster since I first saw footage from that show in the mid-80's. The net seems to have very little about him. The other committee members are well represented (Joan Winston, ect.) on the net but nothing for Al. I thought perhaps Hal and Al might be the same guy but their pictures are very different.

Any ideas?

Frederick said...

Once again, my readers know Trek better than I do! :)

I am sure that I was confusing Hal and Al and thinking they were the same person. Since you have clarified this, which I appreciate, I am correcting the post.

Thanks for keeping me on my toes!

Rob Bignell said...

Fun article. Kind of preachy but would have been well-received by fans in the 1970s. Thanks for shairing, Frederick!

-Warren Zoell said...

I think they're two different people.
A Hal Schuster link
http://www.well.com/~sjroby/lcars/schuster.html

An Al Schuster link
https://www.google.ca/webhp?hl=en#hl=en&q=Al+Schuster+star+trek


Anonymous said...

Poor Bones. He always was shortchanged whether in terms of role or clothes. Even later, he wore the same mufti right from the WoK to SfS to TVH.

Patrick J said...

Al Schuster had a hand in at least the 1973 and 1974 "Trek" conventions in New York City that I attended. My best memory of him is "Trek"'s makeup artist Fred Phillips turning Schuster into a Klingon, in front of a ballroom full of fans. He even shaved off Schuster's real mustache to apply a Klingon goattee. (Schuster started growing his mustache back the next day.) He had a major falling out sometime in 1974 with Joan Winston and the rest of the Committee over (guess what?) money. The Committee's side was covered in the book "Making of the 'Trek' Conventions"; IIRC, they pretty much accused him of thievery. I don't know Schuster's side of it.

Frederick said...

Patrick,
thanks for commenting and for the insight! Fans like you sharing memories of these early events is what keeps theme alive and helps us recapture the magic. Also, blanks in the record are filled in. I appreciate it much! I do have that book, and it's a blast reading about these cons I never could go to.