25th Anniversary of "The Final Frontier"

Well, it's been 25 years since "Star Trek 5: The Final Frontier" opened on June 9th, 1989, and the pain is still there; Sybok could do little to relieve it. (Who, by the way, could have made a KILLING as a psychotherapist on Earth, and done much better than chasing a non-existent Sean Connery.)

There are only a few entries on this film on my blog, evidence of the pitiful reception it had then and the general lack of love. Sure, it had its good points, but so does the drunk Uncle that is an embarrassment to the family. Read the entries on this blog, all compiled here!

George Takei: Eternal Frustrations

From Starlog, published August 1989, comes this article (paired with the previous article on Jimmy Doohan) featuring George "Oh, my!" Takei. He, moreso than some of the others it seemed, resented the small part he had compared to the three main stars. As far as I recall (not having watched it as much as the other films), he was featured as much as all the rest of the secondary cast, part of about every action scene. I understand his frustration, but really, he was included in it more than most TV episodes had him. At least he got to be a captain in the next one, which was some consolation, I'm sure.

"Next time, this chair is MINE!"

Bonus: Below, Kirk cuddles up to a belly dancer on Argelius, but strikes out as Scotty gets lucky. The girl would have done better with Kirk; more kissing and less knifing!

"I'm the star of the show, ask any of my co-workers. Want to go for a ride later?"

1989 Newspaper Article On Star Trek Fans

When you have such dedicated fans like Star Trek has inspired, sometimes the media focus goes from the show to the followers; after all, they are fun to write about. This time I'm bringing out an old article from the Friday, June 23, 1989 edition of the Charleston Gazette about the members of the local fan club in nearby Huntington, West Virginia, which I lived near at the time. This one had to be scanned in three sections then photoshopped back together. I hope you appreciate the work. :)

These fans had a lot more guts than I would have, to appear in a newspaper photo in costume. I was more of a closet Trekker, having been forced there of necessity by my step-dad while I was living at home. Even after getting married and out on my own in 1981, very few co-workers or casual acqaintances knew of my interests. But that's not to say I was any less interested than these fans; I simply kept my enjoyment to myself. I did, however, attend a couple of meetings of their club, and a convention in Charleston where Walter Koenig and Marina Sirtis were the guest stars. Star Trek: The Next Generation had premiered in 1987 and public interest was high.

There are actually two articles on the front page, and they are continued on separate pages which are posted under it; one focused on the franchise, and the other on the fans.

It would be so easy to poke fun at these un-self-conscious fans, but we're all in the same boat. If they were Star Wars fans, now, that would be different. We could laugh then.

I bet getting the lady in the wheelchair in place for the photo at the local strip mining site was difficult. If you are one of the fans in the photo, or were a part of the Huntington or Charleston fan club, and merely even lived in the area and remember the activity, leave a comment, I'd like to hear from you!

I can certainly relate to the quoted fan Jonathan Jones, who, according to the article, moved to WV from Florida, which was also my case exactly. I strongly echoed his sentiment that "West Virginia is Star Trek hell." Which meant that finding material there was a real challenge. Fans had to stick together, because collectable items were almost impossible to find.

Below, one of the movie ads that ran in the same edition of the newspaper; from them we can see that the article above was probably ran to coincide with the release of the fifth movie. Also out that week were "Batman," and "Honey, I Shrunk The Kids." The ads for those can be seen along with many others from my collection at the blog "Held Over!" at http://www.heldovermovies.blogspot.com/.

Bonus: Below, cover art by one of my favorite genre artists, Bob Larkin. This was the cover for the 1982 Marvel comics paperback collection of issues from their monthly comic series. His covers were not only faithful to the characters, costumes and settings, but were always dynamic and colorful.

An alien, having determined the human's weaknesses, used the music of historical villain Britney Spears to incapacitate the crew.

Kelly Freas Spock Portrait

Continuing the series of posts covering the set of Kelly Freas Trek cast paintings, first offered through Lincoln Enterprises in 1976. Last time, we saw Kirk's...this time we look at Kelly's Mr. Spock portrait...

(Click on images to enlarge.)

"Would you like me to... 'energize' you?"

In a pose and spacesuit from "The Tholian Web," we see Spock manning the transporter console with a rather impish (or some might even say seductive) expression. What does that glint in the eye signify... the onset of a slight case of Pon-Farr? The use of the suit illustrates Kelly's apparent desire to have the crew images look as different from one another as possible, through the dramatic use of props, poses and dress. (Although the IDIC would have been a more appropriate background, perhaps he was not versed well enough in Trek lore to be aware of it.) Most artists that do a series of crew portraits just have them all in the usual uniforms.

Below we have a closer look at the face. That face... which seems to resemble Nimoy somewhat less than last entry's did Shatner. I would probably put this at the bottom of the set as far as capturing the features accurately, but once again, the style in which it is rendered (Kelly's unique look) probably renders the complaint moot. Who am I to tell him how he should have painted it? All I can say is, when my 17 year-old self looked at it for the first time after getting the set in the mail, I thought, "man, that doesn't look that much like Spock!" That is probably akin to someone looking at a Picasso and saying "why does that man have both ears on one side of his face?" Oh, the ignorance of youth. What say you? Was I right? Or just irrelevent?

I am pretty certain I wouldn't want Spock looking at me that way while in the midst of a crisis. Or any time, come to think of it.

Update: As a bonus, I am retroactively adding to these portrait posts the salute that Starlog did for each actor in their Trek 25th Anniversary Issue, which came out in October of 1986 (just before the December release of "The Voyage Home." Below is their salute to Leonard Nimoy, most famous for creating the compelling alien character of Narab on "Zombies of The Stratosphere" in 1952, and also Mr. Spock on a TV show in the late 60's called "Star Trek."

"Hurry up, I'm about to fall over here!"

Bonus: Below, the nice Roger Stine painted cover art for the 1989 comic adaptation of "ST V: The Final Frontier." The inside artwork was nice, but considering the source, the story unremarkable. We did get to see the fire-breathing rock creature at the end, though... the one Shatner had scripted but didn't get to include due to budget limitations. It wouldn't have saved the movie, however.

At least the faces resemble the actors.

ST 5: The Final Frontier review

Coming out of the scrapbook this time is this June 10th, 1989 article from a Beckley, WV newspaper. "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" is the one film in the series of original-cast movies that I was embarrassed for anyone else to see, or for reviewers to review. I apologised to my wife after we left the theater, and I pretty much gave up on seeing another good Trek movie, turning my attention to the then-new Next Generation show. Fortunately, it was not the last, and we got one more good one from the crew before they retired to Starfleet's nursing home. This would have been a poor way to end the films; a low warp factor indeed.

(Click on images to enlarge.)

Bonus: below is another from the set of Star Trek greeting cards put out in 1976 from Random House. (See all I've posted by using the "Greeting Card" tag on the right sidebar.)

Below, the inside of the card with a "button" you could punch out and hang on your shirt, if you didn't mind being punched out for it also.

Bonus: Below is another of the wackily-captioned 1967 Leaf bubblegum cards, which never saw widespread distribution.

Shatner's head never thought he'd end up as a gag on Futurama.

Another bonus: (aren't I nice?) Below is another of the fine cards in the Skybox Masterpiece series, all of which are painted scenes. Lovely and patriotic!

And below, the back of the card.