Trek 25th Anniversary Roddenberry Interview

The December 1991 issue of Cinefantastique featured a number of articles centered around the 25th anniversary of the original series, and sports a great painted cover of the Great Bird of the Galaxy being buzzed by various Enterprises.

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We're looking at a couple of the articles from this issue this time, starting off with an interview with Roddenberry musing about the future of Trek.

Next, an article about one of the recent Trek cruises as various Trek celebrities are interviewed.

1984 Cinefantastique Article on "The Search For Spock

From the May 1984 edition of Cinefantastique comes this 6-page article on "The Search For Spock." Lots of good behind-the-scenes photos, and interview with director Nimoy in this preview of the movie, and it's interesting reading about the making of one of the most anticipated of the sequels. The first page is from the back cover of the magazine, which is an unusual blurb about the inside contents; one seldom saw the back cover of a magazine used for this purpose.

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How well I remember my excitement connected with the release of this film! Although it would have been better if there were multiple versions of Spock appearing... a partial-cyborg Spock, a hip young Spock with a black leather jacket, a more severe and emotionless Spock that wore sunglasses, and a black Vulcan in cybernetic armor that calls himself Spock. Kirk and crew all wonder which, if any, are the real Spock, and then they all fight amongst themselves, and we find the real Spock at the end who has been regenerated, and he has long hair. He comes out with phasers blazing to help defeat an intergalactic threat, and we learn where the other Spocks came from. Wouldn't that have been way cool? They could have stretched that story out for several more movies. A "super" idea! Moving right along...

Bonus: Below, the filming of Spock's V'Ger spacewalk from "ST:TMP."

1990 "Starfleet Academy" article

Here's an article from the May 1990 edition of the awesome magazine "Cinefantastique," where Walter Koenig spills the beans about the then-planned "Starfleet Academy" movie which could have been ST 6. Thankfully, it was never made, and we got to see our heroes one more time in a grand send-off, "The Undiscovered Country." If Walter's efforts to alert the fans (and the resulting backlash) factored at all into the studio's decision to scrap the idea, then we should be grateful to him.

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Of course, Star Trek '09 was in essence the same idea; recasting the characters with younger actors, showing the Academy days, and even using Nimoy as an anchor; but enough years had passed that by then, we were ready to revisit the original show and were willing to accept new actors if it meant seeing the TOS crew in action again.

Bonus: Below, a silly article from the National Enquirer tabloid, published in September of 1983, that tries to use Star Trek to lend "credibility" to it.

"Uh, you should be gettin' back under the beam, Cap'n, unless ye want to lose the left side o' yer body, sir."