1984 Article on The Making of the Galileo Seven

From the pages of Enterprise Incidents magazine (news-stand version) issue #14, published February of 1984, comes this article on the creation of the original Galileo shuttlecraft. It was made by the model kit company AMT in exchange for the rights to make and market the model kit of the ship!

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Below is an article from issue #18 of EI, that shows the shuttle as it was in the summer of 1984, sitting outside exposed to the elements for years. Over the decades there have been a number of article in various publications that showed where the shuttle was at the time and how bad it looked  from the neglect.

The story of the Little Shuttlecraft That Could has a happy ending, though! The Galileo was in the news last year when a new and definitive restoration of it was completed, and it found a home on display in the Space Center Houston in Texas. Read all about the various homes the ship had over the years, the several re-discoveries and earlier restorations, at the official site.  There is a nice article on it here also. Since then it has even been used in the "Fairest Of Them All" episode of  the fan film series "Star Trek Continues," which you can view below.

Below is a photo of the Galileo, fully restored to her former glory and possibly even beyond!

Bonus: Below, the cover art of the AMT Galileo model. A friend had bought the model and was going to throw away the box, but I begged it, the cover of which I cut out and put in my scrapbook album.

Link: read an earlier post on the Galileo with some blueprints, right here.

Happy Birthday to George Takei!

George Takei, known to TOS fans everywhere as Hikaru Sulu, celebrated his 78th birthday on April 20th. Mr. Sulu's professionalism, likeability, and many hobbies, such as botany, fencing, guns and more made him an interesting character. And George's outgoing personality and rapid-fire laugh made him a convention favorite of many fans! Below is an autographed photo I got from him by proxy while he was at a convention in Ft. Lauderdale, FL in the mid-70's. One guess as to why I missed the con!

Click on the link below to view all my previous posts featuring George in case you missed some!
http://www.mystartrekscrapbook.blogspot.com/search/label/Takei

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Happy Birthday to Grace Lee Whitney!

Happy Birthday to Grace Lee Whitney! As Janice Rand, she got a raw deal, unceremoniously booted to make room for other women in Kirk's life, but she will always be there in the earlier episodes for us to enjoy. Below, some nice photos showing the progression of her look; first, from before the series started, one of  a large number of promotional photos, this time in a costume left over from "The Cage" and featuring her with her long blonde hair let down.  View some of the earlier posts featuring Grace here, as there are more good photos.

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And below, Grace as Rand as we saw her in the series, basket weave intact. Saucy!
 

Below, a headshot from "The Motion Picture."

Bonus #2: Below, from Starlog, a hilarious cartoon that looks at one of the most out-of-character moments for Spock in the entire series. At the end of the great episode "The Enemy Within," Spock, while signing off on a report for Janice Rand, says the line below with an uncharacteristically creepy leer. I know the episode was an early effort, when not all the characters were nailed down yet, but the line is something that would have been unsavory coming from anyone, much less Spock. Even coming from Kirk himself it would have been weird, if not completely unexpected. But Spock? It's like he was mentioning the unpleasantness in such a slimy way in order to see if he could get in on some of that action himself. Not cool.