1974 "Movie Monsters" Trek article

From the December 1974 first issue of "Movie Monsters" comes an eight-page article on Trek. (You can see the magazine cover here, since I have featured the monster articles in it on another of my blogs.) The article is memorable to me mostly from the negative reaction I had to it; I hated it! The strange treatment of the photos accompanying it (except for the first one of the ship), and the somewhat derogatory review of the show really ticked me off when I read it. How dare anyone criticize the show? Reading it now, I have mellowed somewhat and I realize it was not as bad as it seemed at the time; but it was the first time I had read an article that was written in anything other than glowing terms, (notwithstanding this one, which was only an published reader letter)and I wasn't ready for it. I know now that the show was not quite perfect, only nearly so. :) Many of the claims are unfounded or just plain in error; but the one thing that rankled me most was that the writer blamed the third season decline on Roddenberry, when he wasn't even producing the show any more; Fred Frieberger was the one to blame for dragging a beautiful show through the mud of mediocrity. But, it seemed that the author was not aware of this.

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I wasn't the only one angered by the writeup; a few issues later they printed a story that was more positive in direct response to all the irate letters from the fans! Read it here, from an earlier post. Fan power!

Bonus: Below is another from the set of Random House greeting cards put out in 1976. (See all that I have posted by clicking the "greeting card" tag on the right.) The inside text consists of one word: "COURAGE!"

Bonus #2: Below are the front and back covers to the next James Blish adaptation, Star Trek 10. This was a first printing, published in Feb. 1974. I bought this in 1975 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL when I was 16. I still recall the excitement when I saw it in the high school bookstore where I bought it with my lunch money. It has a nice (and unusual for the Blish books) painting of the Enterprise blasting a Klingon Battlecruiser. The artist gave us some great detail, even adding extremely large rivets on the metal of the ship, as if it had been put together by NY bridgeworkers in the 1920's. I mean seriously, they had to have been as large as dinner plates to be visible at that range! Otherwise it's quite accurate.

"Break out the diving suits and the jackhammers!"

Star Trek Poster magazine #1

Published September of 1976, this first issue of the legendary Star Trek Poster magazine was a ground-breaking publication that totally rocked my world. The show was at its height of popularity through the weekday reruns in syndication, and I was at the height of my love for it. Here, scanned in its entirety, is that memorable premiere issue that I enjoyed so much. I have all of them, and plan on posting them now and again until they are all on my blog for your enjoyment; either for the first time or to bring back your own fond memories. It was work scanning each of the inner pages in two parts and putting them back together, but worth it if you enjoy it. Let me know!

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Please note that the first article below was written by Doug Drexler, who went on to actually contribute much to Star Trek in the later series and films!

Below is the back cover, with a thumbnail of the inside poster and a preview of next issue. Due to the size of the poster, I'm not scanning it here; too much wear and tear on the copy. The ads for the Tech Manual and Blueprints also are neat to see again. Do you know the answer to the trivia quiz questions?

Update: Doug Drexler commented this when I posted the link on his blog: "Fred! That’s a real blast from the past! Thanks for linking that! That was during the Trading Post days. BTW, LOVE your blog!" Thanks, Doug! That means a lot coming from you.

I have a funny memory of the time I bought this issue. We had just moved from Ft. Lauderdale, FL to the little "town" of Gray, GA and it was very discouraging to me to go from such a great place to find Trek material to a Trek desert out in the country. But I traveled to nearby Macon (my hometown) for a job and I would stop at the drugstore on the way home the day of the week that the new magazines came in. I was 17 at the time, still living at home, and many of my regular readers know of my domineering stepdad, who hated Trek for my sake. I had to sneak in everything I bought and then when I went to spend the weekend at my Grandma's house, I would take my new items over there for safekeeping. To get this magazine in, I used a slick trick; earlier, I had slit the screen in my bedroom window right along the bottom where it wouldn't show. I then cracked the window some and left it that way. When I got home, I came by the window, slipped the magazine up inside it under the pane, then went in the front door. When I went to my room, I opened the curtain and pulled the magazine in through the split in the screen. Another contraband item successfully smuggled in!

ST 5: The Final Frontier review

Coming out of the scrapbook this time is this June 10th, 1989 article from a Beckley, WV newspaper. "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" is the one film in the series of original-cast movies that I was embarrassed for anyone else to see, or for reviewers to review. I apologised to my wife after we left the theater, and I pretty much gave up on seeing another good Trek movie, turning my attention to the then-new Next Generation show. Fortunately, it was not the last, and we got one more good one from the crew before they retired to Starfleet's nursing home. This would have been a poor way to end the films; a low warp factor indeed.

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Bonus: below is another from the set of Star Trek greeting cards put out in 1976 from Random House. (See all I've posted by using the "Greeting Card" tag on the right sidebar.)

Below, the inside of the card with a "button" you could punch out and hang on your shirt, if you didn't mind being punched out for it also.

Bonus: Below is another of the wackily-captioned 1967 Leaf bubblegum cards, which never saw widespread distribution.

Shatner's head never thought he'd end up as a gag on Futurama.

Another bonus: (aren't I nice?) Below is another of the fine cards in the Skybox Masterpiece series, all of which are painted scenes. Lovely and patriotic!

And below, the back of the card.

My Star Trek Scrapbook Facebook page

Well, I've had it created for awhile, but hesitated publishing it. I have a Facebook profile, but I've just opened up the Scrapbook Fan page, so either become a friend of my profile or click "like" on the fan page to follow!

My Star Trek Scrapbook Fan Page

Now, if you are on Facebook and follow the fan page, you will see any new updates as they are made! Oh, and if you do a search for it, watch out, for there is another one on there calling themselves the same thing, and they were using my graphic until I asked them not to. They post items from other sites, whereas my fan page posts only my own material collected over the years.

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."

Enquirer Star Trek 6 Preview

Warning: if you haven't seen "Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country," DON'T read this sneak preview by The Enquirer. At least, that's how the first sentence should have read in the fall 1991 article, because they don't just preview it; they give away every single plot point in the entire blamed film! By blabbing the whole story, they ruined any potential surprises for a lot of fans who read the article. Typical, but this was really one of the worst examples of spoilerage just for the sake of sensationalism. Nice photos, though. One plot point they got wrong was that Spock falls in love; Valeris was not a love interest, only a trusted protege.

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Below is a newspaper ad for the movie that I clipped from the Friday, Dec. 6th, 1991 edition of the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. This movie premiered only one day before the first Trek movie did, Dec. 7th, back in 1979 (reposted from my other blog "Held Over!").

Below is an interesting Trek-themed ad for the sound system in one of the theaters showing the new movie. Apparently Vulcans (or merely fans in rubber pointed ears) are accomodated in this theater. The shape of the ear is all wrong, however.

Bonus: Below are a couple of pages I got in a newsletter/catalog from Dage Co., (run by Tribbles author David Gerrold) during the summer of 1974. Interesting article by David about the efforts to revive the series, and already you could see the seeds of what would become "The Next Generation" being planted.

Bonus #2: a 1976 ad flyer for some high-class UV-reactive posters on black velvet, "suitable for framing." Anyone out there get any of these?

I'm alone for a few weeks, maybe more, as my wife is out of state visiting her sick mother. So, with not much to do, I've been enjoying this afternoon by taking my magazines out of the cabinets and organizing then better. Here's how it looks right now, and that's not even all of them yet, I still have the third cabinet to get them out of. Here's another pic, closer up, so you can see some of the covers better. It was taken from the same angle, only closer, but I flipped the photo so you can see them without craning your head around. It does make you dizzy to look at anyway, though.