"Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" review

From the scrapbook pages this time we read a review of the well-received "The Voyage Home." The inset clipping is from TV Guide. Of course these came out in 1986.

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Bonus: below, a page from the scrapbook that focuses on some clippings of mini-cons in the Miami area, with two of them from different papers on the same con, presented by the Star Trek Federation Of Fans. That was held on Labor Day weekend of 1975, which was August 30-Sept 1.(You can find out more about this fan club that was very active in the 70's by visiting their Facebook group here.) The inset photo clipping is from "The Star" tabloid, which often ran Trek-oriented bits now and then.

Bonus #2: The cover of one of the souvenir convention booklets put out by the STFF, with a great cover sketch of the androids Ruk and Andrea by co-founder Joyce Huser.

ST:6 "The Undiscovered Country" review

From December 7th, 1991 comes this Miami Herald review of the sixth Trek outing, the last with all the original cast. Written by someone that is obviously not a fan, it is a lukewarm review that manages to denigrate the entire series of movies. Take it with a grain of salt, as I did when I read it. You can tell when a reviewer is prejudiced against a film's source material to the point that they can't write a fair review.

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One of the most laughably ridiculous phrases is when he writes that the movie "zips and snorts and wheezes past sets and situations that seemed new when George Lucas invented them for Star Wars in the 70's." O-o-o-kay, we know where you're coming from now, Bill.

Bonus: Below, from around 1981 comes a clipping from the kid's section of the Sunday paper (from Beckley, WV) about Leonard Nimoy...

Bonus #2: Below is another of the Random House Trek greeting cards that came out in 1976, which I picked up at the store Starship Enterprises from this display. Needless to say, I didn't give these to people for their birthdays or any other occasion; they stayed in my collection.

Below is the inside of the card.

Bonus #3: Below, another page from one of the Trek coloring books from the late 70's.

"Nyota, what say we get together after our shift tonight?"

"Your cabin or mine, sugah?"

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."

1994 article: The Death Of Captain Kirk

Before the internet became what it has in recent years, one of the main sources of info about upcoming movies for us Trekkers was the tabloids. Although couched in gossipy terms, one could get facts early that weren't available anywhere else, if one didn't mind wading through the other junk. Kind of like eating lunch in the middle of a cow pasture; you might enjoy the meal but feel a bit dirty from the surroundings (come to think of it, it's not much different from the internet in that respect). From the "Star" tabloid, published Sept. 6, 1994, comes this article on "Star Trek: Generations," as the secret of Captain Kirk's death is spilled... and without the warning that there were "spoilers" in the article, as the term came to be known. Thanks, Star!

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It's funny reading some of the errors in the article, such as the bit about them teaming up to fight a scientist "bent on destroying the universe." That seems a bit overly ambitious, not to mention impractical. If you destroy the universe, who would be left to gloat over it to?

Below is a later article, printed September 20th, 1994, reporting the fandom's furor over the spoiled secret, thanks mostly to the paper for publishing it. Unlike the last-minute script change in "The Wrath Of Khan" which responded to fan reaction by providing an "out," there never was one added to this movie to allow for a chance at Kirk's resurrection. The NG movie producers weren't interested in bringing him back, they only wanted him gone so they could move on with their versions, which is understandable. But Shatner would have reason to regret it when he was locked out of the new '09 movie by the fact. At least Kirk lives again in the enjoyable novels from Shatner "co-written" by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens.

Bonus: Below is a scan of one of the items members of the "Official Star Trek Fan Club" received when joining; I got this sometime in the mid-80's as far as I can recall.

Bonus: Below is one of the multitude of small newspaper clippings in my scrapbook regarding the many conventions that were held in south Florida during the mid-70's. This one from 1976 is significant because although I didn't get to go to it (three guesses why), a friend brought me back autographed pictures of Nichelle and Doohan, which I still treasure and have framed on my wall.

And finally, below is a short interview with Gene about the planned movie from "The Monster Times," issue #42, published in July of 1975. This took the place of the regular feature "Trek Talk" in that issue, so I'm tagging it with that anyway for easy location. It's always interesting to look back at these movie announcements and remember how long it took to see it made, and how many false starts there were. But if nothing else, it kept Star Trek alive in the public's mind, and for that reason, Gene's efforts were worth it.

It's interesting to read in the above interview that Gene was considering making the new movie a prequel, which is what the recent '09 movie was (in a way). But one has to wonder how they would have handled the fact that the stars were ten years older by that time. Would they have hired younger actors and actresses to portray the characters in the flashbacks? Also, the idea of shoehorning in the "cameos by ten international celebrities" would hang on almost up until the making of "ST:TMP," but thankfully it was forgotten. Can you imagine how cheesy it would appear now? Between that and "Magicam" it's a good thing the movie didn't get made at that time.

1984 "Star" article on "The Search For Spock"

Welcome, O Loyal Followers, and Curious Visitors. Enter in the Hallowed Halls Of Historical Trek Archives. Today we're taking some "The Search For Spock" articles out of the old dog-eared scrapbook. First, the "big one," the one I looked forward to with each new movie; the first color photos and information from "The Star," which managed to scoop most other publications by months when it came to the Trek movies. This came from the Feb. 18, 1984 edition of the tabloid, and it contained the first color photos ever seen from the new movie. This was before the instant internet publicity releases, and we fans depended on such as this to find out the latest info.

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Below is an article that came out the weekend of the movie's release. This is from a July 3oth, 1984 Beckley, WV paper.

And below is one of the earliest announcements of the next sequel that I remember clipping, from Jan. 22, 1983.

Bonus: Below is another of the "Trek Talk" features from the May 1975 issue #41 of "The Monster Times." It's interesting in that it announces the "new" Star Trek figures from Mego, which so many fans that were kids back then remember with fondness. Did you know that the Apes figures predated the Trek ones? They did!

The term" Trekkers" had not yet found wide-spread use, but the "trekeys" term above (which differed only in spelling) was an early attempt to differentiate the "serious" fans from the perceived "teeny-bopper" type the media had labeled as "trekkies." Thankfully "trekeys" didn't catch on. It wasn't viable as a verbal term since it sounded just like the word they wanted to avoid, and had to be explained every time since they were on radio.

And my final bonus for this time, the front and back covers of another in the series of the also-fondly-remembered James Blish adaptations. Pretty inaccurate painting of the ship in this one...

And seconds later they were dead from the lack of atmosphere.

As always, if any of the items posted stir up memories you'd like to share, or you just want to make a comment, I encourage you to add your voice to the discussion! A post without comments is like a tree without leaves... it's there, just not as nice to look at.

ST:TWOK local newspaper review

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Above, a local Beckley, WV newspaper review for "The Wrath of Khan" that was published in early June, 1982. Giving the second movie only three stars ("average") the cynical reviewer admits he doesn't understand the appeal of Trek. So I suppose the lukewarm review he gives the film is still a backhanded compliment considering the disdain he obviously held for the fans and the franchise. (When I clipped the article I added the extra stars to show my own regard for the movie.) Perhaps the critic's name was left off the article to avoid imagined reprisal from the fans, or simply because it was penned by someone on staff too unimportant to warrent a byline.

Below, a photo clipped from the entertainment section of a Charleston WV paper.

Next, a clipping from TV Guide the week that the movie premiered on pay TV in March of 1983.

Below, the cover of a July 1982 Jet magazine. I wasn't able to clip tha actual article, all I could get was the cover. I think someone else gave it to me who knew of my interest, but they didn't bring the whole magazine. I suppose they thought I only liked to look at pictures.

The Man Who Saved Star Trek

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This article was scanned from the pages of a 1982 issue of "StarBlazer," a lower-rung magazine that was grouped in with the near-tabloid quality of such mags as "Star Warp," "Space Wars," "Star Encounters," and many others. During the 70's and 80's, one might see a over a dozen or so mags from the same company on the stand and not know it. Publishing mogul Myron Fass and son published a wide range of pulp exploitation mags in various genres, including soft-core porn (read a page about him, but be warned, NSFW since covers are shown).

Being the collectorI was of any kind of magazine about Trek and SF, I of course bought many of them, even then knowing they were trashy. But, occasionally an article would rise above sensationalism and made-up stories, like this interview with Nicholas Meyers. Illustrated with many awesome behind-the-scenes photos, it read more like an article from Starlog. The sloppily mis-matched photo captions -a seeming trademark of these publications- still plagued the layout, though.

Below: Did you catch this photo in the article? I'm betting not many fans know about this cut plot point of Khan's baby son; did you? There had to be other scenes; since I doubt that the baby shows up only in the last seconds to crawl on the platform with the activated Genesis device.

"No, Leonard, I don't think giving Kirstie a line about Spock's "Vulcan endowment" is a good idea... sorry."

Below, one of the earliest articles announcing the new film, clipped from a Beckley, WV newspaper on March 18, 1982. This was the first look I and many others had of the new uniforms and I loved them!

Star Trek II Being Filmed

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The article above was clipped from a Beckley, WV newspaper sometime in November, 1981. It was the first news I had heard that there was even going to be a sequel, and I was thrilled. The news that Khan was returning was even more exciting, and was a great idea that energized me, as well as the fan base... everyone seemed to sense that this was going to be a better movie than the last, and began looking forward to it.

Below, as a counterpoint to the announcement the Montalban had begun filming, is a clipping from early fall of 1982 that talks about his returning to his role on Fantasy Island.

Bonus: Below, a photo of a rare Trek toy made during the show's run. Note the detailed accuracy of the toy, precisely recreating Spock's favorite weapon, the futuristic grenade-launching rocket pistol.

Just make sure you don't lose that single grenade, kid, cause you ain't getting another one.

Bonus: a publicity photo of Spock with his tri-D chess set, which Kirk got him for Christmas from the Hamilton Collection, for which he is still making monthly payments of $99.

"Just holding this makes me looks smarter, don't you agree?"

Bonus: another of the 1967 Leaf cards. If one goes according to the caption, Spock and McCoy are severely undressed.

Besides making a weird sound effect, Spock's heat lamp did little to help McCoy defrost his medical freezer.

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.