Bob Larkin Star Trek Art

Artist Bob Larkin has been responsible for many. many memorable covers of the magazines that I collected when young; Planet of the Apes, Marvel's monster magazines, Crazy, DC comics covers, Trek novel covers, and many many more. I have just created a Facebook group devoted to collecting his art in one place, so if you, like me, love his art and have good memories of it, come join us! It's at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/boblarkinappreciationgroup

A true Trek fan himself, here we see Bob in a photo from his blog commemorating the 50th anniversary of the show!  Visit his blog here: http://boblarkin.blogspot.com/

Gray Morrow Trek Poster Art

From the mighty and legendary issue number 2 (from 1972) of the incomparable and unforgettable publication "The Monster Times," comes this centerfold poster of Star Trek by artists Gray Morrow. How many had this hanging up in the room as a kid?

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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?"

"The Cage" Artwork

Not much to post this time, but I wanted to spotlight a couple of images I found around the web. First, an amazing painting of 'The Cage" found at www.SpaceboyComics.com! They do a fantastic job of combining all of the most iconic images from the pilot. One of the things I like about "The Cage" is that is gives the universe we know from the series a sense of history; that there was a crew before the one we are familiar with. Although largely an issue of practicality (to use the expensive footage and to stave off deadlines where no other scripts were ready), the way it was used in "The Menagerie" made the most of having the footage, and incorporating it into the history of the characters was done in such a way as to make it feel entirely planned (more naturally than George Lucas' retroactive decision to make Luke and Leia siblings and Darth their father). Gene's idea for doing this, in the way he did, was pure (if pragmatic) genius, and as a result we have the series only two-parter (which really felt like "an event") with a special story and feel. 

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Bonus: I have found this photo only one other place, in an article that I posted awhile back. But here is the photo itself without the cheap magazine paper degrading the image. This is a special photo made behind the scenes of "Plato's Stepchildren." Wow!

Bonus link: Speaking of Lucas, here is a well-done video mashup bringing the Enterprise and crew into conflict with the Star Wars universe!

 

James Doohan's Birthday

I've never really known how to address birthdays of the deceased. You can't really say "Happy Birthday!" as it is a wish for someone that is no longer here to do so. So I am simply saying "let's celebrate this person's life on the anniversary of their birth." James Doohan was born on March 3, 1920, and if he were still with us, he would be 95, and we would be wishing him "Happy Birthday, Jimmy!" We wish you were still with us. We celebrate your memory and contribution to Trek by a toast of a glass of something green.

Browse through some of the Doohan-oriented posts on this blog by clicking here.

Bonus link: What happens when you combine the faces of the original cast with the faces of the new cast from the reboot? Go here and see!

1984 ST:TMP Special Edition Article

In 2001, fans of Star Trek: The Motion Picture were treated to Director Robert Wise's "finished version" of the film (The Director's Edition), as he had considered the theatrical release so rushed as to not be what he wanted on screen. This is to me the definitive version, the one I take out and watch now whenever I get the desire to revisit the movie. The tighter edit, the more lush sound effects, the cleaned-up visual effects, and most of all the new visuals created for it (for those that could not be added originally due to the last-minute pressures)... all combine to make it a more pleasant viewing experience, in my opinion. (Finally, we know what V'Ger itself looked like in a long shot without the cloud! I never knew in all those years it even had a defined shape. It reminded me of the ship hidden in Halley's Comet in the film "Lifeforce.")

However, back in 1983 we were treated to a longer version of the film that added in cut scenes. Did it improve it? I feel it did in some respects; some of the cut scenes needed to be back in, others are today more rightly relegated to the "Deleted Scenes" extra on the menu on DVD or Blu-Ray. But back then we were so excited to see "more Trek" that even a longer and more drawn-out version of the movie was interesting to see.

In this article by James Van Hise from his Enterprise Incidents magazine, issue #13 (the first to go national after the promotion from fanzine), published in January of 1984, we have a scene-by-scene comparison of the theatrical cut and the extended TV cut, which turned up on home video later. The intense desire by Wise back then to have a "finished version" can be seen in the write-up, and it was something that took over 20 years for him to get to do. I'm thankful we got to see him accomplish that before his passing shortly afterward.

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Bonus: Below are two more pages from the 1976 Lincoln Enterprises "Star Trektennial" catalog that was the Trekker equivalent of Sear's Catalog. I have scanned the cover and first two pages before (page 1 here and page 2 here); and I intend on adding all of them in time. There are so many things on there that I wish I had ordered back then and had now.... 

Bonus #2: Below, the cover to my real introduction to Star Trek and the beginning of my love affair with it. I had never even seen a complete episode of the show up to that point, (only snippets here and there as the parents had me flip channels around) but was starting to become aware of it and absolutely loved what little I had seen. The animated episodes were next, and added fuel to the fire!

 

The cover blurb calls him Scotty, but tell me that doesn't look like Spock that McCoy is attacking with the SpaceVac!

Bonus link: Great poster from this Trekker Scrapbook blog! It looks like Pike and Vina are having fun and doing a great job at entertaining the inhabitants of Talos IV!

The Trekker In "Logan's Run"

 In 1976, the biggest movie to come out that year (at least according to me) was "Logan's Run." I saw it several times in the theater, bought the novel, and the soundtrack LP. I even saved up about $50 to buy a set of over-sized lobby cards from the movie at the Ft. Lauderdale specialty shop "Starship Enterprises."

One thing I noticed immediately was that a Star Trek fan extra snuck in the Vulcan salute at the end! Have you ever seen it? Watch at the end when the young people are reaching for the old man... right in the foreground, one of the raised hands briefly makes the Vulcan hand sign, and it made it in the movie! And it wasn't just off to the side in a subtle motion... but it actually blocked the view of Peter Ustinov's face for a moment! See my screen capture of the moment below... (click on the image to view full-size.)

"Live long and prosper, old dude!"

I originally wrote about this in a post about "Logan's Run" over on my sci-fi/nostalgia blog "Fantastic Flashbacks." You can read the original post here.  I ended the post with the line "My sneaky Trekker friend, whoever you are, I applaud you!"

Well, thanks to the internet, that person has stepped up and claimed this bit of filmic Trekker identification! Here is an email that I got from him:

 Fred,

Thought you might be interested to learn that I was the Vulcan Hand Salute kid in Logan's Run.  My mother was a talent agent in Dallas after we moved here from L.A. in 1970.  I had done many national commercials through an agent there and my mom decided to open an agency in the new film frontier of Dallas.  As a result, she always sent me on extra calls for films made in Dallas at the time like Logan's Run, Phantom of the Paradise, Semi-Tough and others.  I remember working weeks on end on LR culminating to the big finale of filming the destruction of "Dome City" filmed at the Ft. Worth Water Gardens.  We were directed to wait on the far side of a wall for the explosions and then came over to gather around the first old person we'd ever seen, played by the late Peter Ustinov.  I also remember a girl from our agency was selected to be the one to touch the old man's face.  Rumor has it this required a "special audition", but who really knows. Anyway, I was simply wanting to find a way to locate myself in the crowd and didn't do it long, I thought.  I feared it would get noticed and end up on the cutting room floor, but as you mentioned, made the final print.  I had forgotten about this until a friend of mine from back then called me and said the salute had made the Internet.  So, there it is and thanks for the applaud.

Adam Wyse

Thanks, Adam, for writing and sharing with me -and the readers- your story! Now we know... and you certainly did make your mark that stood out from the rest of the crowd!

Bonus: Since today's post concerns the Vulcan salute, here is a nice image I found online that is a mock-up of the old Gold Key Trek comics with nice modern artwork!

1984 Andrew Probert Interview

Andrew Probert has been responsible for the look of Star Trek since 1979 in so many ways, and the influence of his work still is evident today even in the new Trek movies. Here is an interview with this amazingly talented production designer and artist from Enterprise Incidents #17 published in May of 1984.

Most of the article is concerned with his work on ST:TMP, which expanded the look of Trek universe from the low-budget TV series to motion-picture quality detail and design. Sharp-eared fans (pun intended) may have heard his name used on-screen in TMP, during the subspace radio chatter that was audible over the Epsilon Nine outpost exterior scenes. "Commodore Probert" was the officer named by the voice that was relaying orders for various ships... ships that even more attentive fans may have noticed as having been named and numbered in the Star Fleet Technical Manual!

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My first exposure to Mr. Probert's work was when I ordered prints of his awesome paintings of the TOS cast members from Lincoln Enterprises in the early 70's. Below is a photo of the three I ordered and are now framed on my home office wall. I wish I had gotten the entire set, but my funds were limited back then. Come to think of it, they still are...

Bonus: below, from the same issue, is a short feature that looks at the environmental suits used in the third season of the show. The rare photo of Walter Koenig in the suit is the highlight.

Bonus #2: A pensive-looking Kirk is featured in a publicity still taken during the filming of the third-season clunker "Spock's Brain."

1993 Article on Star Trek Collector Cards

The Skybox Masterpiece Series: Star Trek edition is a collection of cards with painted artwork depicting scenes from all of the incarnations of Star Trek up to that point, and much of the art was amazing. I have most of the cards, I only wish someone would release a book of the paintings in larger format, like the Star Trek "Ships of the Line" books did the calendar art. I also wouldn't mind owning a print or two from the series to frame! Today's post is from the Non-Sport Update cards magazine, published in the summer of 1993. I will be scanning and posting more of the cards in the near future.

First, the cover, a reproduction of one of the Wrath of Khan paintings, and a fine one it is...

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Below is the write-up about the cards, framed as a fictional encounter between the TOS crew and a rep of the Skybox company. Someone should have told the writer how to use stardates to indicate real-time dates. I figure that out in the early 70's when labeling my cassette tapes, as "Recorded Stardate 7405.15."

Bonus: Director Nick Meyer confers with Shatner on the set of "The Wrath of Khan," from the book "Charting the Undiscovered Country: The Making of Trek VI."

"Tell me to 'dial it back' again, Nick, and I will punch you!"

Bonus: Shatner enjoys a clinch with shapely Sherry Jackson (who played the android Andrea) in a publicity still taken during the filming of "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"

"Are you... fully functional?"

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.

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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?