1984 Mike Minor Interview

Mike Minor made some significant artistic and production design contributions to the original series third season, the aborted Phase 2 series, ST: The Motion Picture and ST II: The Wrath of Khan.  In this extensive interview from issue #14 of Enterprise Incidents, published February of 1984, we find out the extent of his involvement. (See his Star Trek wiki page here.) As you may recall, I posted another article on Mike earlier from Starlog, but this one goes much more in-depth. He worked on many other genre productions, not the least of which was Star Wars. It's tragic that he passed away so young in 1987 and we never got to see what he might have done since then.

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Bonus: from the same issue of EI, comes this fan drawing of the Mutara Nebula battle.

Bonus #2: Publicity photo of Kirk once again baffling Spock with his propensity for somehow inexplicably winning against the Vulcan.

"How does he DO that?"

Look For Spock Behind Camera

Welcome, fellow Trekkers, to the blog where you can fondly recall items and articles that you had or still have, or catch some you might have missed. I am having a great time opening the collection cabinets and going through stuff that, before doing the blog, I hardly ever took out to look at. I'm finding stuff I forgot I had, or hadn't seen in years! The newspaper clipping featured this time is from an unspecified date in the summer of 1983, when production was starting on "The Search For Spock." This movie was highly anticipated by us fans at the time. Would Spock return? We shouldn't have worried.

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Below, a one-page bio of Nimoy from the pages of the teen magazine "16," notable for being published during the show's first season, when it was on NBC Thursdays at 8:30 PM. Note the personal address given! This was before the groundswell of popularity, when he replied to mail himself and sent out autographed photos in response to requests. Imagine that! UPDATE: In a comment posted by reader "JohnG7," we find out more about that; "16 Magazine was supposed to give Nimoy's public mail drop, but they printed his actual home address on Comstock Drive. Sacks of mail showed up every day that the family had to spend hours answering, and fans came to the house looking for Leonard. The next issue of 16 ran a correction but the damage was done. The Nimoys moved out within a year. -- JohnG7" Thanks for that, John! I do remember reading that somewhere, probably in one of his books, but I forgot about it.

"Bonus;" Below, a photo highlighting the problem with the jumpsuit versions of the uniforms used in "ST:TMP." Every time a male character appears in the movie in a scene that shows below the waist, it is obvious that they are going "commando." You can practically tell their religion, as the saying goes, and it distracts from the drama going on, generating uncomfortable snickers. This publicity shot is particularly disturbing, as Nimoy is showing a wet spot! E-e-e-e-e-e-w!

"Spock, I am not looking at you until you do something about that."

Maybe it had to do with the fact that a wardrobe person had to assist the actor in and out of the uniform to go the bathroom, but really, Len... shake it next time! I can't believe the photographer and all the publicity people let that one get by them, but they did, and now it's there for all to see, and wish they hadn't. If these had been used again in a sequel, the movie might have been called "Star Trek: The Search For Underwear." Stephen Collins as Decker fared especially bad in the movie wearing these, and I'm sure he hoped that Persis' bald head called attention away from his embarrassing bulges. No such luck.

Bonus: Below, some of the buttons I collected in the mid 70's. I picked these up at the store "Starship Enterprises." Yes, I admit, I occasionally did wear them to work as a teen. Little wonder I didn't date much.

1976 article "Spock, Part 1-His Story"

From issue #7 (click to view the cover) of the lower-rung publication "Quaismodo's Monster Magazine," printed in April of 1976, comes Part One of a two-part look at the cultural phenomenon of Mr. Spock. When I say "lower rung" I mean that the magazine was of inferior quality compared to some of the others put out at the time; in comparison to "Famous Monsters," "Monsters of the Movies" or "Castle of Frankenstein," it suffers the most. The cheap pulp paper used, which reproduced the black and white photos poorly, tore easily and turned yellow rapidly. The layout seemed shoddy and the writing, generally geared to the younger crowd, varied in quality from one article to another. However, being the lover of monster movies as I was, and Star Trek to a greater degree, I still bought some of the issues, especially when they featured a Trek article. This in-depth look at our favorite Vulcan was competently done, and worth posting here for your enjoyment, whether for the first time or again after many years.

The magazine also included a Trek "spoof" in comic form, which I won't include here for the simple fact that it was the most lowbrow, idiotic and poorly-drawn parody (so-called) one could imagine, best left unseen and forgotten. Alright... if you don't believe me, look at this one panel and you'll see what I mean (I don't want to sully this blog by even posting it as a clickable smaller image). Sheesh... "lower-rung" indeed. That one scraped the bottom of the barrel.

Part two of the article on the Vulcan is coming next time, however, featuring a rare discussion about the appeal of Spock with one of fandom's well-known writers, Jacqueline Lichtenberg, who co-penned a book many of us remember fondly; "Star Trek Lives!"

Bonus: Another cover from the nostalgia-generating James Blish adaptation covers, this time volume #7. Thanks to blog reader Donald A. for contributing it, since he read in an earlier post that my copy had no cover, being bought at a used bookstore years ago.

It was right then that Sulu swore off of the weed he had been secretly growing in his hobby garden.

The artwork on this book is one of the more unusual covers, depicting as it does a version of the scene from "Who Mourns For Adonais," albeit in a rather stylized fashion. This is the first time any scene from an episode was referenced on a cover, and marks the start of less "retro" covers and a move toward more modern artwork.

1984 Article on Trek Directors

From Issue #13 of Enterprise Incidents, published in January of 1984 (two issues after making the leap from fanzine to professional magazine with national distribution), comes this article on the various directors of the original series and analyses of the episodes they directed. Only this section of the magazine was in color, as it was cost-prohibitive to publish the still-new publication on all glossy pages with color stills. Although it was handy to be able to pick up the mag in the newsstands after the switch, and see color sections, I still prefered the original format, with painted or photo covers and no text blurbs, and printed on card stock. They just felt more special!

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Bonus: As any fan that received them knows, the catalogs from the Roddenberry-run Lincoln Enterprises were like the Sears catalog for Trekkers; a wish book that held all sorts of items that we young fans drooled over. I did order some of the things in them; not much, but some, and had them mailed to my Grandma's house to avoid discovery by the "Parents Against Star Trek" organization, founded and presided over by the only member, my stepdad. The items I did manage to get are still treasured by me, but I also treasure the catalogs themselves for the memories they bring out. Here is one I got in May of 1976 just as the "Star Trektennial," the ten year anniversary of the show, was gearing up. Below, the side where the address was placed for mailing...

The next page in the newspaper-format catalog is actually the front cover:

And here is the first actual page that it opens up to. You will notice the pen checkmarks I put next to items I planned on ordering, or at least really wanted. The only thing that could have made the catalog better was including items from the "Planet of the Apes" TV series! They featured "Kung Fu," so why not?

I'll post more pages from the catalogs in future entries as bonus items, so watch for them! At any time you can find all of them by using the "Lincoln Enterprises" tag on the right sidebar. I also plan on featuring some the the items themselves, as in an earlier post here. If you have good memories of these catalogs or getting items from the company, leave a comment and share them with us! As mentioned on this blog before, here is a Flickr photo group devoted to sharing film clips bought from this company. And, Rod Jr. is now running the company, (see this StarTrek.com article on it) and some of the old items can still be bought there, at http://www.roddenberry.com/.

1969 Star Trek Critique Article

Via a trip through the Guardian of Forever, from out of the dim past of the year 1969 (near the end of the show's first run) comes this article from issue #14 of the terrific magazine "Castle of Frankenstein." (Read an earlier post of the CoF #11 Star Trek article here.)

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"Castle of Frankenstein" was a monster/genre mag written on a more mature level than any of the other such publications of the time, and the graphic layout was bold and exciting. Covering science fiction as well as horror, and TV as well as film, the magazine was a real treat.

Above is a detail of the cover photo, corrected for the picture's reversed state.

Now, before you dig into the article, expecting to read details not seen since 1969, a word of caution; it's not a pro-Trek article. In fact, it's a printing of a letter sent to the editors by someone with not just a bone to pick with the show, but a whole skeleton. Reading the diatribe, one truly wonders if they are talking about the same show we know and love. But hey, the pictures printed with it are good!

I think you'll be amazed as you read the things they write about some of the episodes, several of which are now regarded as among the best. His insults of the various facets of the show, calling DeForest Kelley 'a hack," for example, and the makeup artists efforts "abominable," are laughable to me. His example of the "failure" by the makeup artists by "having to bring in John Chambers" to get Mr. Spock's ears right is wrong as far as I can determine; Fred Philips saved the day from another makeup artist's poor efforts by working many late hours making the ears as we saw them in "the Cage." Although John Chamber's contribution of the ears is a popular bit of trivia, neither the "Making of Star Trek" nor Nimoy's books "I Am Not Spock" and "I Am Spock" mention him as being involved in the difficult process. (This is backed up here.) The book "Inside Star Trek" does mention that Fred Phillips designed them and had them made in John Chamber's makeup lab; but the results that came back were still too crude, and Phillips had them sent to someone else at MGM to do them. Be that as it may, right or wrong, it has little impact on the sweeping charges brought by the irate writer that "the makeup is beyond belief, it is so bad."

Calling the ground-breaking exterior design of the Enterprise "lacking in grace and sleek beauty," (whu-u-u-u-t?) and the interiors "disgustingly bad," on the level of the old "Flash Gordon" serials, he compares the art design unfavorably to three of Irwin Allens' shows. That particular statement boggles the mind, because most of Allen's sets consisted of blinking lights and reel-to-reel computers against a black background. His criticism of the show's legendary, memorable musical scores is the final straw. I think it must have been Irwin Allen himself writing under an assumed name.

The photo above represents the writer's attack on the show.

Mr. Spock prepares to launch a counter-attack against the illogical critic and open up a can of well-deserved Tal-shaya.

Well, it was interesting to learn in historical hindsight that some saw this outstanding effort at bringing believable science fiction to the tube as greatly lacking; but as Captain Kirk said, "there's no accounting for taste." The editor's weak "rebuttal" at the end did nothing to argue against some of the more ridiculous statements, but the show itself is the strongest argument. It has stood the test of time and then some! If I had been the editor I would have filed this letter under "crank" and wrote something worthy of the magazine.

Update: The name of the writer is Craig Reardon, and I wonder if he is the same Craig Reardon that became a movie makeup artist? If so (and it seems likely since they are both from Inglewood, CA), this might explain his extreme criticism of that facet of the show's production (which was way off-base in my opinion, in any event). It would be ironic if this were the case, since he went on to do the makeup on one of the Star Trek spinoffs, Deep Space Nine! He would have been close to 16 at the time of the letter... so it's possible. I wonder if he still feels the same way about the original series now? It would be interesting to find out.

Below is a small writeup about the looming cancellation of the show from the same issue, which makes for fascinating reading. Too bad some other network didn't pick it up, give it a bigger budget and restore Roddenberry to producer status.

Bonus: below, the next in the series of four TOS coasters referenced in the last post. I never used these four to hold my drinks; I reserved that for the four Voyager ones.

Bonus: Lastly, another of the Random House Star Trek greeting cards from 1976. The inside text says "Let's keep in touch!"

"Oh, man... dude, it's like, it's like, I can totally feel the color of this paint! Seriously, you gotta come feel it! And bring the Fritos."

Consider that card's sentiment of "let's stay in touch" to be an invitation to comment about this post! I truly do enjoy hearing from my readers.

1981 Mark Lenard article

Back in the day, Starlog wasn't the only source of Trek and genre material, but it was one of the foremost. From the depths of one of the collection cabinets comes issue #42, published December of 1980. The featured article is on my favorite Trek guest-star, Mark Lenard. My earliest recollection of seeing the show on TV was during the first run of "Balance of Terror." I only remember a little of the show, but I know it was this episode, and even at 8 years old I found it interesting. I only really got into it when I was 13, though.

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"This text is invading my personal space."

Korg found out that Earth women could be tougher than they looked, especially when food was involved.

"You want to keep this nose? Steal my Cheetos again, lobster-head, and you will lose it."

Bonus: Below, from the same issue, is an small write-up about the then-new Star Trek Maps, my copy of which I still have in my cabinet.

Bonus: Fortunately, ST:TMP was not the last time Mark Lenard was on Trek; we got the chance to enjoy his appearances as Sarek on movies 3, 4 and 6, as well as once on ST:TNG (I mean twice, as I was reminded by a kind commenter). Below, father and son pose for another of Mother's many snapshots. They got together so seldom, you know, and she just loved to take pictures.

"Really, Amanda... saying "cheese" is not logical; nor preferable."

Link: Here is a great page I just found devoted to Sarek and Amanda!