Shuttlecraft from TV Sci-Fi Monthly

The British publication TV Sci-Fi Monthly, published in the mid-70's, was a rare item to find, and a great one. Here is an image and blueprint of the shuttlecraft from the inside cover of issue #3, which came out in 1976. The cover for this issue has already been posted, you may view it here, as well as more material from the same issue.  Since this is such a short entry, I have added some extra bonus items below it.

(Click on images to enlarge; once open, you may have to click again to view full-size.)

Bonus: publicity photo of Celia Lovsky as T'Pau and Shatner from "Amok Time." Notice her hand on his shoulder!

Bonus #2: Covers from the first of the adaptations of the animated series scripts by Alan Dean Foster, which to me were awesome, having the scripts actually expanded upon (unlike the truncated versions by Blish), with only THREE half-hour episodes per book! I bought this one at the Chi-Chester's Drug Store on Vineville Ave in Macon, GA one Saturday in 1974 when I was staying with my grandmother, and read it the same day. Good times! The store is still there, by the way.

Extra special bonus! Below, we see some very revealing images of Uhura's panties during a scene from "Balance Of Terror." The flap on the back of the dress has come open, and she is showing more cheek than usual, even for her! What was Kirk saying, now? Who cares?

Spock Speaks! 1976 Nimoy Interview

Wow, what a year 1976 was in my Trekker memories! I was living in Ft. Lauderdale, FL at the time, and the comic book/collectable store "Starship Enterprises" was my main source for genre material not found anywhere else. One of the items that they carried was the British publication "TV Sci-Fi Monthly," an excellent newspaper-format magazine printed on glossy paper, similar to the Trek poster magazines (which I'll be covering in the future also). This time we're looking at a Leonard Nimoy interview from Issue #7.

(Click on images to view full-size.)

"Once I smiled a smile so rare..."

Below, one of the neat graphic features that the magazine often included; they would use the new "Starfleet Technical Manual" as a reference and create color images of the weapons, ships, equipment and other items; this time they illustrate the flags of the various Federation civilizations. Update: to view an article from this same issue on the series "UFO," go to my other blog "Fantastic Flashbacks!"

Bonus: Below, another item purchased at the Starship Enterprises store in Ft. Lauderdale; one of the cards put out at the time by Random House. This time it features a punch-out phaser. I suppose (if you are very bored) you could print out the images from here on card stock and then cut out the images to make your own! Once completed, the phaser features exciting wiggling action as the nozzle moves when you press the trigger. Wow!

Bonus #2: Below you will find a particularly fetching pose of Janice Rand, in a large-format image; perfect for printout and hanging on the wall to admire! This lovely Yeoman is well-known for her value as bridge eye-candy, and resourcefulness in creative ways to serve hot coffee, even in power-conservation situations. Interests include walking on beaches, weaving her own wigs, and having her legs looked at (ideally, all at the same time).

"Can you see my legs in the shot? Cause I totally want the picture to show them off."

Note to my regular readers: when commenting you may notice that I now have to approve them before they are posted. This is only because I have had to deal with a spate of spambots recently, and had to go behind them and clean up their crap mess from about a 15 posts or so. I don't know how they do it when there is a test that commenters have to go through to post; but they are doing it somehow and I don't like it. So, sorry for the extra step, but it's easier for me to approve or deny a comment than have to go in and delete it from the post later.

TV Sci-Fi Monthly #2 article

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From 1976, Issue #2 of the British publication, "TV Sci-Fi Monthly." The first article inside is an interview with Gene Roddenberry about his hopes and plans for the new movie, which would eventually get made a few years later. I picked this up when I lived in Ft. Lauderdale, FL as a teen. I had graduated that spring, and now was working, had my own car, and was able to go to the store (called Starship Enterprises) more often and buy what I wanted. it was a good time!

Extra: Below, the cover of "The Monsters of Star Trek," published in 1980. A nice bit of artwork featuring the Gorn!

TV Sci-Fi Monthly 1976 article: Trek Aliens

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When I caught sight of this terrific cover, a dollar and seventy-five cents (plus tax) and I were quickly parted.

The British publication "TV Sci-Fi Monthly," which I've featured here before (and will often again) was a real find. Say what you will about the tea-swilling Redcoats, they sure could put out a good genre mag. The only place I could get them was my favorite haunt when I lived in Ft. Lauderdale in the 70's, the comic book/movie collectables store named Starship Enterprises. In the near future I'll do a post on it with some photos, inside and out. It was such a cool place, run by cool people, with lots of cool stuff. Even the air conditioning in it was cool.

Anyway, here's another scan from it, of the first article from Issue #3, printed in 1976, which was a two panel deal that you read when you opened up the newspaper-format magazine. I loved the large pictures that this format enabled them to print, although it does make it harder to scan, as I have to put the pieces back together in Photoshop. But it's worth the time to share these with you.

As an aside, I'm amused by the fact that the shackles holding the crew in "The Gamesters Of Triskelion," pictured below, were obviously so loose they could have slipped their hands out with no problem. In fact, it would be hard to keep them in place without your hand falling out!

Uhura was grateful for her Starfleet regulation-issue uniform panties, and for the fact that she wore them that day.

Bonus: Below, a promotional shot taken during the filming of "The Galileo Seven" with Nimoy hefting a prop weapon, which if made of real stone, would have been too heavy to lift like that... even for a Vulcan.

Nimoy briefly considered using it on Shatner unless he admitted who was the real star of the show.

Talented trekker from way back John Ellis (read about him in an earlier post here) sent me the great artwork below that he did for the cover of a Florida 1976 convention booklet. I tell you, those were the good old days when Trek really belonged to the fans, and most of the good stuff coming out was by them, in unofficial publications. I'll be posting more artwork and goodies from John in the near future, but in the meantime, visit his site about his special pet project, the 1958 Steve Canyon TV series DVD set!

1976 TV Sci-Fi Monthly article: Kirk's Story

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The British publication "TV Sci-Fi Monthly" was a newspaper-format magazine printed on glossy, heavy-weight paper that added a real element of class, as well as durability. This article was scanned from my copy of issue #7, from 1976. (Of course, these are the life and times of the original Kirk, not the alternate universe one in the new movie. And notice I didn't say "alternate timeline." I loved the movie, but I don't believe for a second they came out in their own past.)

Page two is below, and it consists of a picture I'd never seen before, nor since, and that's been over 30 years. This magazine very often used photos not seen in American publications.

"I think this is my best side, don't you?"

Bonus: Below, another of the rare 1967 Leaf trading cards, this time featuring one of the most unusual poses and also the most baffling caption. Whoever made up the captions just wasn't trying very hard, and randomly made up stuff with no connection to the actual circumstances depicted. But "raspberries"? Someone had hit the weed too heavily on lunch break... this was the 60's, after all. However, in their defense, I'd have been as confused over what was happening in the picture also.

"Oh, Janice... this came out of my nose. Would you be a good yeoman and get rid of it for me?"

I chose this post to add the card above as a bonus mostly because of the similarity of Shatner's atypical "lifted-chin" poses. There are many more funny captions I could come up with for this picture, but that would take away your fun! So go for it, in the comments section!