1978 Article: The Technology Of Trek

This time, I'm bringing you more material from Issue #3 of the awesome Science Fantasy Film Classics magazine, published July 1978. You can view the cover here, and earlier content I've posted from this issue here, as well as here. And there will be more to come in future posts, you can be sure. This time the article focuses on the wonderfully thought-out technology that set the show apart from all other TV sci-fi, and was years ahead of its time. It was the technological trappings that made the setting so believable. The article looks at the technology on the show and where things were at the time, and postulates which items could be created and how long in the future it might be. With the exception of the transporter, which was more of a time-and-budget-saving device than a real possibility, many of the ideas are much closer to reality now, and some have been realized. The furthest away from being possible any time soon is warp drive, being only a theory.
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Bonus: a full-page photo of Bill Shatner from one of the TV-movie magazine articles published in September of 1967, during the show's original run.

1978 Article on Trek's Computers

The short-lived but awesome magazine Science Fantasy Film Classics met an undeserved and early end, but the several issues I have are some of my most treasured mags from the time. I've posted material from issue #3 before, but it's so jam-packed with different Trek articles that it's time to feature it again. Reading this 1978 indepth look at (and practically a dissertation on) the technology behind the computers seen on Star Trek, is interesting from today's perspective and in light of computing advances. The article is actually a reprint of a 1977 article from the computer magazine Byte, so it's written with a little more authority than one might expect from a SF/fantasy mag.

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Bonus: below, from the same issue, a nice painting of the Enterprise defending K-7 from attack by the Romulans and Klingons.

1978 Trek Views article

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The old collection cabinet opens this time to reveal Issue #3 of the classy Science Fantasy Film Classics magazine, published June, 1978. Most of this issue is devoted to Trek, and I'll be spotlighting more of the great articles from it in future posts. Kicking things off is the article below, interviewing all of the main cast except for Nimoy. It's interesting for me to realize just now that one of the writers was Diane Duane, who wrote several notable Trek novels and even contributed to a Next Generation script.

This has to be the least flattering depiction of Uhura I've ever seen, even considering it's a caricature.

Below, not part of the article but interesting anyway for the ads!

And a bonus page from the same magazine, by Mike McMaster (read his Wiki entry) who was famous among Trekkers for his detailed and accurate blueprints, advertised on the page above. Sadly, only a few months after writing this article, he died in an accident at only 25, in September of 1978.

It was interesting reading in the article above that Mike thought that one unwelcome use of computers in the future as portrayed on Trek was the ability to use them to research individuals and their history. Prophetic words, which have come to pass already with the internet... anyone can look up virtually anything on anybody with a few simple searches!

Bonus link: To view most, if not all, of the various blueprints published about Trek vehicles, go to the LCARS Blueprint database. But beware, you may spend hours there before you know it!