The Monster Times Trek Special #1: continued

The old collection cabinet doors swing open this time to present more material from "The Monster Times" Star Trek special, published in 1973. I recently posted the first article from it here: ST special #1 post and now I'm bringing you some more. Aren't I just the nicest person you know?

(Click on images to view larger.)

It's interesting to read that even as far back as 1973 that Trek was being considered as a movie, and that Gene was wanting to out-do "2001: A Space Odyssey," a goal he apparently held onto even into the late 70's when he finally made the movie... without taking into account the need for some action as demonstrated by the success of Star Wars. Heaven knows ST:TMP could have used some.

Below, from the same issue, another of the trivia question articles, "So You Think You Know Star Trek?" Well, do ya... punk? Do you feel lucky? Then see if you can answer most of them right!

Below, two more of the colorized black and white pinups from the magazine. Since the magazine only used two colors per issue, any photos that were color were done using as many mixtures of the two shades as they could come up with.

"William Shatner, beware my sword!"

Of course this one was my favorite.

When Capt. Kirk Saved Oddjob's Life!

This time, we have a short article about an incident that occured during the filming of Shatner's cheapie flick "Impulse." Our hero! Found in the June 1977 issue of the magazine TV's Dynamic Heroes.

(Click on images to enlarge.)

I've posted an article on "Impulse" before, go here to read it. To see the newspaper movie ad for this film, go here to my other blog "Held Over!"

Bonus: below, an ad that Nimoy did in the early 80's for a telescope company. Really, who better as a spokesperson for such a product? It's only logical.

And below, a beautiful piece of promotional art by artist Keith Birdsong, for the card set that he contributed to in the 90's. Excellent work!

And finally, below is another of the incredible works by Ralph Fowler, from an issue of Enterprise Incidents. Yet another example of his attention to detail and interesting alien architectural designs. Ralph often drew scenes that surpassed the TV budget of the show and took it into movie scope.

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.

1979 "Bananas" article on ST:TMP

From the collection cabinet this time we take out issue #33 of the Scholastic Books teen publication "Bananas," published in fall of 1979, which spotlighted the upcoming "Star Trek: The Motion Picture."

(Click on images to enlarge.)

Bonus: another of my photo humor pieces hopefully good for a chuckle or chortle.

Bonus #2: another of the crazily-captioned 1967 Leaf cards. It must have been fun to just make up stupid captions like they did!

Update: since the photo of the transporter accident spawned some discussion in the comments, I just had to post this cartoon dealing with the subject!

Leonard Nimoy's Life In Pictures

(Click on images to view larger.)

Same story as the last post: this article was scanned from a reprint in #4 of Enterprise Incidents, and was originally from a 1967 movie-tv fan magazine.

Bonus: Below, we see Bill tucking in his slave shirt... or is he adjusting his package for the cameras? You decide!

If he had to die in gladitorial combat on TV, at least he would make a good impression.

William Shatner's Life Story In Pictures

(Click on images to view larger.)

This two-page spread covers Bill's life story in pictures up until 1967 or so, at least. Not sure of the date and source of this article, since I scanned in the reprint of it from issue #4 of "Enterprise Incidents" magazine, itself published in 1977. But, I would venture to say the original was from a "Movie Life" magazine, circa late 1967.

Bonus: a great shot of Bill in the 60's trenchcoat from "Assignment: Earth," which was a great look for him. From his expression you get the idea that he thinks so too.

"Don't I look stunning? Get it? The phaser...? Stunning..?"

Bonus: from the same issue of "Enterprise Incidents," comes two mind-blowing drawings by our man Ralph Fowler. The detail and imagination, not to mention scope, of these two pieces of artwork is incredible! First, Ralph shows us something we never saw in the episode, as "The Doomsday Machine" carves up the planet (and 430-odd people) while Matt Decker watches helplessly from his wrecked ship. He was just never the same after that.

Next, a scene from Ralph's imagination, as Kirk and Spock find themselves under attack by a couple of antagonistic defendroids on an alien planet. The robots and architecture design of the buildings is indicative of his great talent. I hope he comments or contacts me someday so I can ask him about his work!

"Squeeeeeee!"

Beam Me Up, Gorby!

(Click on images to view larger size.)

Scanned from my copy of the USA Weekend insert magazine, published November 29th, 1991, this writeup on Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country was not an interview with Nimoy, but an article actually written by him. An interesting read and look back at the last original cast film.

Below, a clipping from a USA Snapshot feature on Spock's appearance on ST:TNG, mentioned in the article above and around the same time.

Next, a clipping from the local Ft. Lauderdale newspaper TV guide section about the episode.

Bonus content: Below, the cover of the ST Postcard book, a large-format publication that came out in 1977, and printed on glossy card stock. In it were 8 pages of detachable postcards, six per page, for a total of 48 different cards. Back in the day when photos from the series were hard to find, this was a great item!

Below: a cartoon scanned from a 1989 Starlog magazine that's good for a real chuckle. At least he finally did get to be a captain in ST 6 (and an episode of Voyager.)

More recognitions: I just discovered, way after the fact, that MovieSet has this blog at the number one spot on their list of top Trek blogs! Cool...