Happy Birthday to George Takei!

George Takei, known to TOS fans everywhere as Hikaru Sulu, celebrated his 78th birthday on April 20th. Mr. Sulu's professionalism, likeability, and many hobbies, such as botany, fencing, guns and more made him an interesting character. And George's outgoing personality and rapid-fire laugh made him a convention favorite of many fans! Below is an autographed photo I got from him by proxy while he was at a convention in Ft. Lauderdale, FL in the mid-70's. One guess as to why I missed the con!

Click on the link below to view all my previous posts featuring George in case you missed some!
http://www.mystartrekscrapbook.blogspot.com/search/label/Takei

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Happy Birthday, George!

 Happy 76th birthday to George Takei, known to TOS fans everywhere as Hikaru Sulu! Mr. Sulu's professionalism, likeability, and many hobbies, such as botany, fencing, guns and more made him an interesting character. And George's outgoing personality and rapid-fire laugh made him a convention favorite of many fans! Below is an autographed photo I got from him by proxy while he was at a convention in Ft. Lauderdale, FL in the mid-70's. One guess as to why I missed the con!

Click on the link below to view all my previous posts featuring George in case you missed some!
http://www.mystartrekscrapbook.blogspot.com/search/label/Takei

(Click on images to view full size. Once open you may have to click again.)

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?"

Kelly Freas Sulu Portrait

For the last five blog entries we have been looking at the Kelly Freas paintings from the "Officers Of The Bridge," as the set was called when it was first premiered in the 1976 New York Star Trek convention booklet. Today we turn the corridor corner and encounter the shirtless sword-and-pec flexing Sulu, and I've gotta say that Kelly outdid himself on this one.

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"Shatner, beware my steel! And check out my abs, your flabby middle cannot compare!"

Looking closer at the face below, highlighting that familiar Takei smile, we see that Kelly simply nails the features on this characterization, and for that reason I have to put this portrait near the top when it comes to accurately capturing the features.

From the swashbuckling sash, which reminds one of the mirror universe (although that was a much deadlier Sulu), to the fencing rapier, Freas seems as though he had fun doing this one, showing Sulu practicing one of his hobbies that makes it more memorable than a pose at his usual station on the bridge. I confess that I would rather have seen Uhura's washboard abs than his... I'm sure, however, that Sulu's fans were thrilled.

This oiled-down and sweaty image brought to you by ""SULU Pour Homme," the cologne for men! Oh-h-h-h, m-y-y-y!

Below we see a publicity still that features Sulu in a similar pose. But for that one scene early in the series ("The Naked Time"), Sulu might never have broken out of the background to become an interesting character. Resisiting the natural impulse to have Sulu stereotypically emulate a samurai, the writer gave him depth and uniqueness by instead having fencing as a hobby, and secretly fancying himself one of the Three Musketeers.

"TWANG-G-G-G-G-G!"

Bonus: As with the other entries, I am pairing the paintings of the characters with the salute to the actor that brought them to life, from the Star Trek 20th Anniversary issue of Starlog, Issue #112, which came out in October of 1986.

And here we see a photo of George, (from the magazine salute) probably one he had taken himself near the time of the 4th movie, that seems to be directly inspired by the Freas painting.

"Give me a ship of my own or suffer the point of my sword!"

Next: From Russia with love!

Starlog #3 Con Articles Part 3

For the past two entries I've posted pages from the Starlog issue #3 coverage of the Bicentennial 10 convention, held in September of 1976 in New York. I continue the series of articles now with pages that spotlight appearances by George Takei, Deforest Kelley, Bill Shatner and Susan Oliver (Vina), as well as a look at the animated series by a consultant to Filmation studios.

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Need to brush up on your warp factors, George... not quite accurate there, as any fan would tell you.

A cel showing the infamous six-fingered Spock. This kind of mistake would never have slipped by in the live-action series; although to be fair they did leave off one of Scotty's fingers from time to time.

I'll be finishing up the rest of the articles next time, so come back soon... or if you are visiting after the fact, click on the next entry to read!

Bonus: Below, a small 1973 newspaper clipping about the cartoon from my scrapbook, from the series first run. You can see the tape I used, before I was old enough to know better than to use scotch tape for such things. But, I was just 13, so I can be excused... can't I?

1987 Article On Sulu's Solo Trek

From issue #119 of Starlog Magazine, dated June, 1987, comes this short article on an early fan film, "Yorktown: A Time to Heal," another of those that never seemed to get finished and the footage seldom seen. This one is significant in that they snagged Sulu himself, George Takei, for their home movie. (One cannot help but think of Galaxy Quest a little here.) The trailer, which can be found online, looks about like you'd expect for the time, and in light of today's more polished fan efforts, is somewhat embarrassing to watch... probably for George more than anyone else involved, in retrospect. The film was never finished and the footage tucked away by one of the main masterminds, Stan Woo.

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Another thing setting the production apart from the average fan film was the involvement of several Hollywood professionals, as the article explains. For this reason alone, the footage might be worth watching. Who knows, maybe someday the film will be finished with digital effects and made available to watch. Even raw unedited film would be good to see, for the historical value.

Many, if not most fan films that are planned or actually begun fall to the same fate, thanks in part to the large amount of money and work required, for very little (if any) payback; other than the pleasure of watching one's self on film making imaginary Trek. It's happened a lot in the past, all the way back to the 70's (see earlier post on "Paragon's Paragon") and it will continue to happen; but of the few that actually get made, only the rare effort is watchable for anyone other than those involved and their friends and families. I can think of only a couple that are really enjoyable, and they are the exception. However, fans want to make their own for their love of the show, and for that I commend their efforts and say, "God bless 'em."

Read more about the ill-fated Yorktown fan film story in this Star Trek Expanded Universe Wiki entry. Update: I just found out that today is George's 73rd birthday. What a coincidence!

UPDATE, June 24th, 2010: I recently received an email from the filmmaker Stan Woo, with some additional info about the effort, which you can read below. Thanks for the details, Stan!
Thanks for mentioning Yorktown: A Time to Heal in your blog. This little opus just got too expensive to complete and at the time, it also killed my grades, so I had to give it up. My father financed the film and when my grades took a nose dive, he cut off funding. That was the beginning of the end. Then I just got caught up with life and it got put back in the backburner. Maybe in my retirement, I'll start working on it again. Right now, I'm working with Paul McCudden to finish some missing dialog for a final ADR session.

Some of the Da Han wiki stuff is accurate, but some are just out in left field, especially this "Axiom' project which I'm not involved with except for footage used in the unauthorized trailer. The two Yorktowns were only at the most 15 minutes long. The first one is total crap made when I was in 11th grade thru community college. The first film was more of a first "pilot". The 2nd ended up being a second "pilot" than a sequel. It started out as "Yorktown II", but when Takei came aboard, the continuity of the first film had to be abandoned. Therefore: "Yorktown: A Time to Heal", not Yorktown II: A Time to Heal. The final title of the first film is "Yorktown: In Temporary Command", not Yorktown: The Quadroplastine Incident. The film was reworked in 1984 and the Quadroplastine reference was removed from the film. The film is so bad that I don't want to subject the youtube community to it. Stephen J. Cannell was not involved personally. Gary Winter, executive in charge of post-production at Stephen J. Cannell Productions granted me access to their sound effects library. That's it.

Here's a link to a fansite entry about "Yorktown: A Time to Heal"; perhaps you can do a link.http://www.fastcopyinc.com/orionpress/fanfilms/yorktown.htm

This entry lists the actual credits. Any other claims in the web is not accurate.

-Stan Woo
Bonus: Below is a small selection of the many mini-clippings that I gleaned from the newspapers back in the early-to-mid 70's; some from tabloids, others from the daily papers. I'm serious, if it had the words "Star Trek" in it, I saved it. About the only items I didn't clip were the daily listings of the episodes in the TV Guide. Was I obsessive, or what? And to still have them in my scrapbook, is that compulsive hoarding or what? I don't know... you tell me. The dime is included because it was once touched by Jimmy Doohan who loaned it to me for a phone call. Nah, just yankin' your chain, I included it to give some scale to the size of the tiny clippings. I'm not that obsessed.

Below is another page from one of the Trek coloring books that I bought in the mid-70's. The likenesses are pretty good in it. Print it out and color away!

"Captain, do you mind moving that hand from my booty? This is not the time."

Sulu and Chekov...BFF!

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I clipped the above article from the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel on August 4th, 1978, as the new movie was in pre-production and media interest was starting to increase again. Even the show's secondary stars were getting some press, and the Koenig/Takei combo mini-article echoed their positions on the bridge and the show's publicity material, when they were often featured together. The friendship was highlighted several times in the movies, most notably in "The Final Frontier" as they got lost together on a hiking trip. It would be nice to see them becoming buddies in the next Trek movie.
This post continues the tradition of pairing the pals with some photos of the characters as they were during the TV show's production. Below, a classic shot of the two on the bridge!

Next, an article about the two of them from the British magazine Sci_fi Monthly.

Below, a glossy publicity still from the press kit sent to stations to promote the show for syndication.

"Deed you know that the ladder was inwented in Russia? Da, by a leetle old man in Leningrad."

"Shatner, beware! You either leave this war bloodied, or with my blood on your sword."

 

Chekov wasn't Sulu's only friend... he was a well-liked crewman, outgoing and friendly.

New Dimension For Star Trek

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Clipped from the Miami Herald on Sunday, November 19, 1978.

Below is my very first-ever Star Trek character drawing, circa 1971. Please allow for the fact that I was 12 when I did it. You can see the tape where I had it in my scrapbook. Heretofore my interests had been more along these lines... Yes, I was starting to grow up. Slightly.

"Oh, my...!" Takei-toons!

Another look back at a recurring theme from the original series with a new insight provided by George himself... (NOTE: for those sensitive to certain topics, I won't display these on the site. I believe in freedom of speech, but I won't put it in anyone's face out of respect. For those who think these are a hoot, it's here as a link. Click only if you are able to laugh without being offended by good-natured fun poking at George's antics.) Other captioned photos, having fun with various other original series characters, (such as this one and this one)I will continue to post on the main page, since no-one seems to have a problem with those. Satisfactory?

1977 Star Trek Stamp Packages

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In 1977, these Star Trek collector stamps came out... which I completely missed. I did manage to pick up these two empty stamp packages, though, about a decade later at a local comic book/used stuff store. Yes, I was that dedicated. They looked pretty cool, though, so I scanned them in, along with the back cover they all shared. And, it's neat that the stamps that were in each set are pictured on the covers, so we get to see what they looked like. Anyone out there have these stamps and the album?

Below, another of the brochures for the gorgeous Hamilton Star Trek plates that were issued in 1991 for the show's 25th Anniversary. Uhura looks especially beautiful in this painting.