"Paint 'er greener!" The Famous Orion Makeup Test!

William McCullar's IDIC Page, sadly defunct now, made available this very rare image of Majel Barrett (M. Leigh Hudec at the time) when she was screen-testing the makeup for the Green Orion Slave Girl.

The “green girl” was the creation of Fred Phillips who also made Spock’s Vulcan look for the original Star Trek television series. Stephen E. Whitfield and Gene Roddenberry recalled in The Making of Star Trek (1968) how Phillips grew increasingly frustrated as three consecutive makeup screen tests, in which Roddenberry’s future wife Majel Barrett had been painted green, came back negative. "Now, Fred Phillips is an exceptionally fine makeup artist and recognized as a top pro in the business. He did a thorough job with the makeup and was quite satisfied with the results. Imagine everyone’s surprise, upon viewing the developed film the next day, to find the actress’ face just as normally pink skinned as ever! There was no trace of green." Gene’s orders to Fred Phillips: “Paint her greener!” The following day the test film again showed her as pink skinned as ever. Even Fred was dumbfounded. Recalling the incident, he says, “We did this three days in a row. We had her so green you couldn’t believe it and she kept coming back pink! Finally we figured out what was happening. The technician over at the film lab would receive the film every day and run it through the development solution. As the image formed on the film, he kept saying to himself, ‘My God, this woman is green!’ And so he kept correcting the film developing process in order to turn her back to normal skin color again!”

Bonus: Below, a rare photo of Shatner and Whitney, made after the second pilot, but before the first filmed episode. The uniform worn by Shatner was only ever seen in these promo photos and never in an episode. 

"See, you adjust this satellite dish and you can get hundreds of channels for only dollars a day!"

Bonus: A cartoon from the fanzine "Enterprise Incidents" that echoes the MAD Magazine depiction on a similar occurrence, referenced below it.

The Red Shirt's Dream

(Click on the image to view full-size.)

 "This is the traditional Earthman greeting, honest!"

 I was finally going through my accumulated emails from my various blogs after the Christmas holidays, and found some neat messages. One was the subject of my last post, the Trekker from Logan's Run. Another one contained a link to a very amusing and well-drawn and animated video, which I am sharing below. I particularly like the humorously exaggerated depiction of the Green Orion Animal Woman! Here's what the email said about the video:

Hey Fred! I love your blog, what an awesome collection to share with the world, I'm really enjoying it! I wanted to pass along a project I'm working on, I hope you enjoy it as I enjoy yours - it's a Star Trek parody about those members of the intrepid space crew who were unlucky enough to don red shirts. In an even unluckier twist, they keep coming back for more..

.(go here to view it full-size:) http://youtu.be/kTr9hR-hfr4

This is the first of the scripts to be animated, more to come! I appreciate the look, and hey, if you love it and want to post it on your site, I'd appreciate that even more!

Best regards, Rich Moyer Creative Director / Animator

www.richmoyer.com




Watch another of Rich's Red Shirt animations here for even more voluptuous G.O.S.G. action! http://youtu.be/JWR_MoZA-9g 

BONUS: want to see something else funny? Watch this trailer for the '09 Star Trek film re-edited using bloopers from the film ! It's priceless!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYnLO-MVRaY#t=93

1991 article: "Uhura's Mission"

Last time we featured some 25th Anniversary material from 1991, and we continue with the look back to that time period with today's entry; from issue #175 of Starlog comes this article on my favorite communications officer, Uhura, as portrayed by Nichelle Nichols..(Who still owns the role, I might add.)

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

Bonus: below, a couple of photos gleaned from around the web from Nichelle's early days as a stage performer, doing what she does best; dancing! 

Bonus #2: Below, from Starlog, a hilarious cartoon that looks at one of the most out-of-character moments for Spock in the entire series. At the end of the great episode "The Enemy Within," Spock, while signing off on a report for Janice Rand, says the line below with an uncharacteristically creepy leer. I know the episode was an early effort, when not all the characters were nailed down yet, but the line is something that would have been unsavory coming from anyone, much less Spock. Even coming from Kirk himself it would have been weird, if not completely unexpected. But Spock? It's like he was mentioning the unpleasantness in such a slimy way in order to see if he could get in on some of that action himself. Not cool.

Bonus #3: below, a page from a magazine article featuring a rare color photo of Nimoy as Spock on the bridge.

Star Trek 4 Starlog articles

This time we look at a couple of articles on Star Trek IV from Starlog issue #114, published January 1987, which means it was on the newstands in December of the previous year, when the movie came out. "The Voyage Home" was a great present for Trekkers that year! First, the cover...

(Click on images to enlarge.)

And next, the main article, which is an interview with director/star Leonard Nimoy.

Next we have a three-page look at the movie itself.

And finally, as a bonus, a cartoon from the same issue that re-casts the crew with some looney actors. Am I the only one that would like to see this idea realised now as a special DVD movie?

1983 Videogaming Illustrated article

I bring out of the collection cabinets this time, a June 1983 issue of Videogaming Illustrated with a couple of nice Trek-related articles. Enjoy!

(Click on images to enlarge.)

A nice cover painting above, reversed image notwithstanding.

Below, an introductory editorial page written by special guest Walter Koenig, aka "Screamin' Chekov."

Below we have the first article on the (then) state of the art Trek videogames.

The second page of this article is a pleasant surprise, featuring some rare behind-the-scenes photos of ST:TMP's special effect creations.

Next, another article from the same issue, this time looking at the various fictional computers found on the show and movies.

Bonus: Below, a cartoon scanned from an issue of "Enterprise Incidents." Turns out Spock wasn't that different from a human kid, after all.

"The Designing of ST:TMP" 1980 article

(Don't strain your optical orbs... click on images to enlarge!)

On December 7th, we saw the 30th anniversary of one of the most anticipated movies (at least by me) ever made ... the majestically-titled "Star Trek: The Motion Picture." Long on effects and ideas, but short on actual motion, the movie was like a slow and loving camera trip through an art museum to linger on the masterpieces. Very beautiful to gaze at and appreciate, but only good if you love art, have plenty of time and are patient when it comes to your thrills. I enjoy the better-edited and more complete Director's Edition much more now than the original release.

The article scanned in this time is from "Fantastic Films" magazine, a high-quality publication a bit below "Cinefantastique" but above "Starlog." The interview with Harold Michelson is a nice look at what went into the look of the movie, with some good behind-the-scenes images.

I've been posting these articles and clippings about the first Trek movie for awhile now, so if you want to get caught up with the history of the film's release, follow the "ST:TMP" tag and the "first movie" tag. Reading over them, I hope you recapture your own sense of excitement, or at least see what it was like for us fans back then.

Thirty years.... just doesn't seem real now. The movie seems to be holding up better than I am.

"The Black Hole," also featured on the cover, had a lot more action, even though the story and effects were on a grand scale like "TMP," so it could have been done. I've thought before how neat it would have been to combine the two; using the story of "The Black Hole" as the basis for the new movie. I think it would have been a fine Trek movie and much more exciting. Adapting the story for Trek could have eliminated some of the poorer elements of both: "TBH" could lose the shallow characterization and dialog, and "TMP" could lose the mind-numbing flights through effects for a let-down ending.

Seeing Kirk match wits with Reinhardt's massive mind and ego, and the crew having to fight their way out of the collapsing Cygnus... the new Enterprise dragged into the black hole also, but protected by Spock's application of the new shield technology...it could have been truly awesome!

Below, a fun piece of art by Don Rosa showing the use of the Guardian that most of us geeks would come up with for it. Scanned from an issue of "Enterprise Incidents."

Below, another of my photo humor pieces.

Word spread rapidly for a ship as large as the Enterprise.

1980 "Crazy" ST:TMP Spoof

(Click on images to enlarge!)

From out of the collection cabinets this time, comes issue #60 of "Crazy" magazine, which occupied about the third rung down on the humor magazine ladder, under "Mad" and "Cracked." Published in March 1980, the spoof artist Kent Gamble makes no effort to have the costumes or anything else align with the new movie, simply copying everything from the TV show in somewhat sloppy artwork. He imitates very closely the style of Mad's Mort Drucker, which redeems it somewhat; even if entire faces and poses seem copied from earlier Drucker Trek spoofs. Gamble was probably cheaper and more affordable for this low-rent magazine. The cover, however, is done by genre fan favorite Bob Larkin, who always nails the costumes and characters. At least they didn't skimp on that.

The midget-sized Sulu is a hoot, but Decker gets omitted entirely for some reason. Also, it seems that the depiction of the ship inspired the design of the new one in the '09 film; one I've often said seemed based on an 8-year-old's drawing from memory of the Enterprise.