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).

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"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?"

1977 article "The Return of Star Trek"

From the low-rent magazine "Space Wars" comes this October 1977 article on the return of Trek. Just goes to show that I bought anything related to Trek back in those days, eager as i was for the slightest morsel of new info. Not that this article contained any; but I bought it anyway. The article is only titled on the index page.

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Bonus: Below, a page from the book "Charting The Undiscovered Country: The Making of Trek VI."

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.

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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?"

1977 Article: "James T. Kirk: Exorcist?"

Hitting the pages of another issue of Media Spotlight, a magazine that only lasted five issues, sadly... it was neat, since it was essentially a magazine-format version of "The Monster Times." In this case it even re-ran an article that had appeared in the pages of one of the issues of TMT; a write-up from the final issue of Media Spotlight (published October 1977) called "James T. Kirk: Exorcist?" It's a fun piece, and easier to scan in this format, that's for sure.

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Below, definite proof that this was the same as TMT, running the same merchandise ads in the back. I always loved these ads, building an imaginary wish list as I gazed at the items. You know, it's funny... but when I look at these pages, I still get a residual tingle of excitement, as the old feelings surface that I felt looking at them way back when.

Note the ad for a "Spock Pop," an item that would satisfy any desire one might have to know what a Vulcan tasted like.

Bonus: from the inside cover of this same issue, a candid shot of Nichelle on stage during a convention.

Bonus: a neat photo of Kirk and Spock, the one that adorned the cover of the TV Guide during the series first run. How I would love to have that issue!

Bonus: from the "Official USS Enterprise Officer's Date Book" for 1980 is this photo from the un-used scene where two security officers are zapped by the probe from V'Ger. They should have left it in, to add a little more action... at LEAST we would have got to see a phaser fired, if only once in the movie.

Proving the the red-shirt curse had more to do with the position than the color of the uniform.

UPDATE: recent readers may have seen the post about the Phaser Rifle prop being found. I have updated that post with a video that was made promoting the prop for the auction, that includes the maker of this piece of TV history! Watch the great video below, or watch it on Youtube! http://youtu.be/oWGNDoXG9R8



Update 4-9-13: The Phaser Rifle sold for $231,000! Here's a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR7XbMXBVHI

1977 Article: The Roddenberry Tapes

I don't know why I have neglected to post from this issue heretofore, but when I took it out of the bookcase I decided to change that immediately! Media Spotlight was a fine, if short-lived magazine, making it to only 5 issues as far as I can tell. This time, from issue #3, published March of 1977, comes an interview with the Great Bird of the Galaxy, Gene Roddenberry himself. It's interesting to see what the state of the first film was at this point from his comments.

First, a great cover that composites three separate images taken by noted celebrity photographer Gene Trindl; although the effect makes it look like they are either ghosts or trapped in interphase.

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"Well, Spock... DO SOMETHING!"

Next, the article which transcribes the questions from the press and Gene's answers:

Lastly, a nice black and white image of Spock that took up the entire back cover. There is much more Trek content in this issue, and I plan on covering it all in posts to come soon.

 

Bonus: A moody photo of Kirk that seems to utilize the same "gobo" shadows that Jerry Finnerman was so fond of using for his filming on the bridge. This was missed in later episodes, as was his use of gels to create the colorful background washes, particularly the third season where it looked like they used office lights to film everything and everybody.

 
"Strangers in the night... exchanging glances..."

"Shatner: Then And Now" 1977 Article

From issue #3 of the "All About Star Trek Fan Clubs" magazine, published in June 1977, comes this loose filmography that features some photos of Bill from his various appearances. The feature runs out of steam quickly, as the last two pages switch to a nonsensical "biorhythms" article that takes up space (we'd learn more from a chart on his bathroom habits), but has some good photos from his "Barbary Coast" stint.

The cover art (scanned, as is everything on this site, from my own copy) is about the best the magazine ever featured, in my opinion.

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To Spock Or Not To Spock

From a newspaper clipping dated August 4th, 1977, comes this interview with Nimoy as he contemplated the pros and cons of playing the Spock character again. We're glad he was persuaded to when the plans were finally nailed down for the movie; I don't think we would have been so lucky had the been a new Trek series in the 70's.

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Bonus: Below, a Shatner family picture from a movie/TV magazine sometime in the late 60's.

Starlog #3 Con Articles Part 4

For the past three entries, as you may know, (if not, use the Archives links to catch up) I have been posting the pages from issue #3 of Starlog, as they covered the 1976 Bi-Centennial 10 con, held in NY in September of 1976. This post wraps up that series, with the appearance page on Walter Koenig, and an inside look at the joys and trials of organizing conventions by none other than superfan Joan Winston.

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Below, from the same issue, is a writeup on the rollout celebration for the shuttle prototype which was named Enterprise. (I've covered this in other posts, but with articles from other sources.)