1972 article "Star Trek: Food For Thought"

A few posts back I started a little project to scan in the entire issue of "The Monster Times" #2, the first to be devoted entirely to Star Trek... the first of any magazine that I'm aware of (this might not seem like a very ambitious project, but it is time consuming, as each page must be scanned in two sections and then Photoshopped back together). You can read the first article posted here; but if you are coming in late, you can catch up by using the "The Monster Times" tag over on the right to access them all. Published in 1972, this issue was a goldmine of info and pics for the young Trek-hungry (and in many cases, Trek-starved) fans out there. Below is the index page of the magazine, which will serve as a guide to what I've posted and what is yet to come.

This time, we are looking at article #2, titled "Star Trek: A Gourmet's Dream of Food For Thought." More than your average kid-aimed sci-fi show, Trek was, for the most part, well-written and intelligent. Looking back and considering the other genre shows out around the same period, it's a true miracle it was done so well.

On these pages are some good examples of the graphic layout that made the publication so interesting: if you will notice, almost every picture is trimmed in such a way to make some element (heads, quite often) extend out from the background into the paper area. This extra effort, as opposed to just sticking pictures in, made the visual experience much more fun and engaging.

Bonus: Below, another installment of the regular feature "Trek Talk," from issue 35, published July 1974.

Bonus: Below is a neat publicity photo of everyone's favorite country doctor, Leonard McCoy, taken against a projected background image from "The Cage." The only other one I've seen like it is of Uhura.

T.J. Hooker TV Guide article

(Click on images to view full-size.)

The cover of TV Guide from August 14, 1982.

(SALE ALERT! I will sell this TV Guide for $15 plus Priority shipping if you are interested in adding it to your collection! Email me through my blog profile and let me know if you are interested. Once sold, this notice will be removed.)

Snipped from the TV Guide out the week of the premiere.

Premiering on March 13, 1982, "T. J. Hooker" was Shatner's first successful starring role since Star Trek. It's no accident that T. J. is the reverse of J. T., the first two initials of Captain Kirk, as it was intended as an homage to the character and a nod to his many Trek fans.

Below is the two-page-spanning ad for the episode that co-starred Leonard Nimoy, which was aired on Feb. 5th, 1983. Nimoy not only guested in, but also directed the episode, titled "Vengeance is Mine".

I was never actually watched this show more than a time or two, I really only cared about his work as Captain Kirk. But I still collected the pictures and things about any actor on the show whether or not it was directly Trek-related, and it was good to see Bill getting a series again. On the other hand, I do own "Kingdom of the Spiders," "The Devil's Rain" and "Incubus" on DVD because he starred in them, so I suppose I didn't watch "Hooker" mainly because cops shows never did much for me.

And below, more of the self-serving part of this blog, another personal drawing. I know, these matter only to me and no-one else, but they do serve to show my interest and fan efforts, so I post them. This one was done when I was in high school, about the 11th grade, in 1975. I was 16 and living in Ft. Lauderdale, which happily gave me the opportunity to add much to my collection, as more and more Trek-oriented items were coming out. Not all was official; many of the photos and such were unauthorized, and many of the magazines were fan-produced, like the excellent "Trek" and "Enterprise Incidents." I'm telling you, it was a good and exciting time to be a fan living in Florida!

You can see that I was into the Franz Joseph Technical Manual, also!

It was in the same year that videotape came out, and the school's audio-visual department, which naturally I was involved in, acquired a reel-to-reel videotape recorder/player. (I still recall the smell of the videotape!) It was there I made my first videotape of an episode off the air, the second half of "The Menagerie."

Every day for a week, me and some fellow Trek fans would gather in a room off the library and watch that one black-and-white tape. As others saw what we were doing, they joined us, and by the end of the second week we had a packed roomful each lunch period, re-watching that one episode! The fight on Rigel 7 was a popular and exciting scene, as was the laser-cannon assault on the knoll on Talos 4; but the biggest reaction was to the dance by Vina as the Green Orion Slave Girl. Everyone was so into that, cheering, clapping and catcalling! Finally, the library staff made us quit since the crowd was getting too big and noisy. Fun memories.

Since we're talking about "The Menagerie": Above is a clipping (circa 1985 or so) from a video store trade publication, with the Great Bird being presented with the original painting of the beautiful art for "The Cage" poster. I'm fortunate to have a copy of that poster advertising the video release.