1977 article "Spirit Of Star Trek"

From the great third issue of the short-lived "Media Spotlight" (which was a descendant of "The Monster Times" newspaper, except in magazine format and focused more on science fiction than monsters) comes more material. I have posted some from this issue in the past, and will continue until all the Trek content is available. You can view the cover here. View all the Media Spotlight magazine posts here.

This time the article is titled "The Spirit of Star Trek" and addresses the philosophy behind the series. Written by the (now) late Hal Schuster, who wrote loads of articles for magazines plus authored and published many unauthorized Trek books (those that were not officially published by the holders of the Trek copyrights).

(Click on the images to enlarge. You may have to click on the opened image again to view full size.)

"Allowing Lisa Frank to design these spacesuits was not logical." 

Bonus: Below, a couple more pics from the "Official USS Enterprise Officer's Date Book," a "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" tie-in from 1980. You can find other posts from it under the "calendar" tag. The first one highlights the embarrassingly-designed costume pants that lets everyone know what kind of mood you're in. But since these are Bone's own clothes and not a uniform, we can only assume that they don't wear underwear in the future. And they're not ashamed of it.

 

"Why yes, Jim-boy... I AM happy to see you. Why do you ask?"

1977 Article: "James T. Kirk: Exorcist?"

Hitting the pages of another issue of Media Spotlight, a magazine that only lasted five issues, sadly... it was neat, since it was essentially a magazine-format version of "The Monster Times." In this case it even re-ran an article that had appeared in the pages of one of the issues of TMT; a write-up from the final issue of Media Spotlight (published October 1977) called "James T. Kirk: Exorcist?" It's a fun piece, and easier to scan in this format, that's for sure.

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

Below, definite proof that this was the same as TMT, running the same merchandise ads in the back. I always loved these ads, building an imaginary wish list as I gazed at the items. You know, it's funny... but when I look at these pages, I still get a residual tingle of excitement, as the old feelings surface that I felt looking at them way back when.

Note the ad for a "Spock Pop," an item that would satisfy any desire one might have to know what a Vulcan tasted like.

Bonus: from the inside cover of this same issue, a candid shot of Nichelle on stage during a convention.

Bonus: a neat photo of Kirk and Spock, the one that adorned the cover of the TV Guide during the series first run. How I would love to have that issue!

Bonus: from the "Official USS Enterprise Officer's Date Book" for 1980 is this photo from the un-used scene where two security officers are zapped by the probe from V'Ger. They should have left it in, to add a little more action... at LEAST we would have got to see a phaser fired, if only once in the movie.

Proving the the red-shirt curse had more to do with the position than the color of the uniform.

UPDATE: recent readers may have seen the post about the Phaser Rifle prop being found. I have updated that post with a video that was made promoting the prop for the auction, that includes the maker of this piece of TV history! Watch the great video below, or watch it on Youtube! http://youtu.be/oWGNDoXG9R8



Update 4-9-13: The Phaser Rifle sold for $231,000! Here's a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR7XbMXBVHI

1999 Star Trek Weekly Log Book

This time we are "only" going back about 10 years to revisit a Trek product; and I put the emphasis on "only" ten years because 1999 seems so recent to me, not going back very far to feature an item. But, when I was a kid and teen, the ten years from the end of the original series to the new movie, only a little over a decade, seemed like an eternity... a long stretch of desert marked by occasional mirages of revival rumors and attempts. Looking back now on the overall nearly-45-year history of Trek, from the series to now, that first ten years now seems like a short period of time indeed.

Anyway, we go back just ten years for the item on this post, a notebook-format calendar/journal that featured a different photo from the various Trek shows for each week. Since this blog is devoted to the characters of the original series, those are the only pictures I'm picking out to show. First, the cover:

(Click on images to "magnify viewscreen.")

Going back a bit further now for our "bonus" items, the front and back covers of a couple of the James Blish books that many Trekkers have good memories of. (I featured the earlier ones before in a post from The Monster Times reviewing some of them; look for the "book cover" tag to see all.) I know, these books are something most fans might still have in their collections, and it may be a bit redundant to feature them here since they were so ubiquitous; but each and every volume of these Blish episode adaptations meant so much to me, and figure so prominantly in my good memories of the time, that I felt that looking at them again now and then might bring up some good memories of your own. After all, it might have been years since you looked at these covers. My main impressions of the Enterprise, apart from the show itself, come from the paintings of the ship on these covers, starting with volume 4 (painted by Lou Feck, read more about him here) and going through 12. Be sure to click on the images to examine them in detail, larger than the actual book itself.

For years, these books were the main source of nourishment for my Trek hunger; oftentimes the only source during the early lean years. The brief adaptations, often little more than extended plot synopses, whetted my appetite to actually see the episodes, which in many cases would be years later. Volume #5, below, reminds me of when I bought it at the Ft. Lauderdale high school bookstore where I went in 1973 while in the 10th grade. I got many of the books that were so important to me there: "The Making of Star Trek," The World of Star Trek," "The Trouble With Tribbles," and several of the Blish novels. I would save up my lunch money by skipping lunch and buying the books I had ordered when they came in. I really desired my books more than food back then, and I remember that year as especially exciting as I absorbed the thick making-of books.

This next bonus item below goes back to 1972, from second issue of "The Monster Times." The article is looking forward to the historic New York ST convention, (the very first) happening January 21-23rd at the Statler-Hilton hotel. Were you there?

And lastly, another item from TMT, continuing my posts of the regular feature "Trek Talk," from issue #38, published January of 1975. This time, there is little actual news, in favor of basically re-printing a press release from Paramount to promote their new special effects system "Magicam" (read the Memory Alpha entry here). It was touted as the solution to a less-expensive way to revive the series, but ultimately not used by the time the movie came out (although the company did build the refit Enterprise miniature). It's a good thing, too; can you imagine how cheesy the revived show would look today had Magicam been used on a new TV version back in the mid 70's? It's use on "The Starlost" proved it to be ineffective at creating believable effects. I was skeptical about it even when reading this back in 1975. Still, it's part of Trek history and the efforts to being it back, and that's why I post these Trek Talk segments.

New link added to the links list: Veteren director Ralph Senensky is blogging now, in part about his role in Trek history, and it's all interesting reading. Visit it at Ralph's Trek and get the inside scoop on TOS production!

1980 ST:TMP Desk Calendar

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There were quite a few movie tie-in products that came out based on the new movie, and I snatched up all of them as quickly as they came out. This desk calendar, titled "The Official USS Enterprise Officer's Date Book," featured one photo per week in the year, with the majority of them black and white, but with one color picture for each month.

Most of the images were frames from the film, but scattered here and there were some good publicity shots as well. I've scanned some of my favorites to post here, which have been little-seen... and I'll add some more as "bonus" elements in future entries.

1972 "Nostalgia Special" article

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Clipped from the December 1972 issue of Movie Life, the above article's category of "Nostalgia Special" is somewhat funny to read today, over 40 years after the series premiered. They were waxing nostalgic about a show that had only been off the air for three years! But Trek was only really just starting to emerge in the public consciousness as the cultural phenomenon it was destined to become.

Each month, for about 7 issues or so in '72 and '73, the "Movie Life" magazine would publish another in the series of photos of characters from the show, which made it a priority for me to get. Fortunately, a used bookstore in downtown Macon, GA where I lived at the time made it possible for me to get most of them if I missed them on the stands. It was these monthly black and white photos that really made me begin my first scrapbook and caused it to grow. Each item added was done so with excitement and pride.

Bonus photo: Another black and white publicity shot, from a glossy in my collection. Uhura seems as if hearing Kirk speak is giving her a good feeling, doesn't she? Or maybe she just bumped into Spock behind her and realised he was enjoying looking at her! :)

"Look, Captain... I can write what you're saying with my eyes closed!"

Bonus: Below, the scanned cover of the first Trek calendar, published in the fall of 1975. This was really a big deal to me, so much so that when I learned it was coming out, I made a special trek by bus across town (Ft. Lauderdale) to a large mall where Walden Books had it in stock. I was one happy camper when I came out of that bookstore with the calendar in it's cardboard holder, which I still have it stored in today. All the way home on the bus ride, I gazed at each of the twelve months, and soaked in the montage image created for the middle poster, which I plan on scanning in and posting on a later entry. It is hard to scan large items such as these, and I have to do it in sections then use Photoshop to put them back together in one image.

That is one awesome publicity photo used on the cover there. They've never made a calendar to match that first one. The black and white pictures inside each unused date's oval for the month added to the visual interest and they've never done it like that since.

The one regret I have about it is that I used it as a journal for the episodes I was able to tape from the weekday afternoon showings on TV. In the little oval shapes for each day, I wrote IN PEN (what was I thinking?) the episode title I watched and recorded on cassette. But, what it lacks in collectable resale value, thanks to my writing in it, it makes up for in memories that it invokes as I open it up and look at it occasionally. Most of the time I saw an episode then, it was for my first time, so I have a record of when I initially viewed many of them.