1986 Article: The Writers of Star Trek

From the 20th Anniversary Celebration issue of Starlog, published in November of 1986 (see the cover here), comes this article on a couple of writers of the original show. The pages feature two rare publicity photos of the guest stars from a couple of the episodes.

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Bonus: a full-page ad from June 1992 issue of The Official Fan Club magazine with James Doohan in costume as Scotty advertising the QVC show that he was a guest host on. Did you order anything from this program?

Bonus: A publicity photo of Nimoy taken during the filming of the episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before." Nimoy's high collar was different from the other costumes, made with snaps on each side so that it could be put on and taken off without messing up his makeup.

 

Bonus: more of the promised TOS original novel covers, this time from "The Abode Of Life," published in May of 1982. The cover art by "Rowena" was from the TMP era, but with brown cowboy boots rather then the built-in footy-pajama type. Also, that pulp-inspired raygun is about as far away from a phaser as one can get. I know some of my readers get a kick out of this non-regulation art, because it came from a time before the Trek merchandise became more tightly controlled. But at the time it just made me scratch my head and wonder why they couldn't get things like this right.

R.I.P. Charlie Washburn

Another veteran of the original series, this time a behind-the-scenes name, has passed off the scene. Charlie Washburn, assistant director during the the second and third years of the program's run, died at age 73 on April 13th of this year. Here is an article written by Mr. Washburn himself, recalling his memories from his time on the show, scanned from the Trek 20th Anniversary issue of Starlog, #112, published in November of 1986. (See the cover to the magazine here.)

Here is a great blog post by Larry Nemecek about Charlie that does a good job of eulogizing him.

For some odd reason, the official site at http://www.startrek.com/ has refused to acknowledge Charlie's passing, as they do for anyone else that dies who was associated with any of the shows. I have posted this omission twice on their facebook page, but each time they have deleted the comment. Why? I think we should all post comments on the FB page and site and ask them that question. UPDATE: Finally, on Feb 23rd of 2013, the site did acknowledge Mr. Washburn's passing and his contributions: http://www.startrek.com/article/trekland-extra-15-oscars-remember-charlie-star-trek

Bonus: Below is another photo from the ST:TMP Date Book desk calendar that came out in 1980. (See more pages here.)

"Submerged in Star Trek:" 1986 ST 4 Article

This time we look at an article from issue #111 of Starlog, published October 1986, that spotlights the production of "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home."

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image again once it has opened to view full size.)

Below, from the same issue, a short writeup about the rumors surrounding a TV revival of Star Trek, which we now know was the beginning of "The Next Generation."

And lastly, from the back cover of the same issue, this ad for classic Mego Trek action figures...

As an aside, I probably would have collected these action figures had I been living in normal circumstances; but regular readers know of my repressive step-dad, for whom my Star Trek love was a continual irritant. He held it up as an example of my supposed immaturity (although he knew nothing about it), supposing anything not realistic like his westerns to be childish. So I hid the books and such that I bought, and avoided buying anything aimed at younger fans, for fear of giving him more ammunition to use in his war against me.

Nimoy Looks Back at Star Trek 3

From issue #106 of Starlog, published May, 1986, we find this look back at "The Search For Spock" with a critique of the film in retrospect by director Leonard Nimoy.

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have to click on it again to view full-size.)

Below: from the same issue, a photo of Nimoy from page 74, the last page of the magazine with a regular feature called "Liner Notes."

Bonus: from the same issue, an ad for the upcoming 20th Anniversary convention. Hard to believe we have passed the 45th anniversary already. And sad to see how many of the stars are no longer with us.

Alexander Courage: The Music of Trek

From the pages of Starlog #107, published June 1986, comes this article on Star Trek's first composer, Alexander Courage. Courage set the tone for the series as other great composers contributed their talent, and left his indelible mark on it from beginning to end.

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click the opened image again to view full-size.)

Over the years Courage's memory (or other people)may have substituted the phrase "Venus Dance" for what was originally "Vina's Dance," but the title still fits as she could have been a green goddess of love. The article mentions Neil Norman's efforts at getting some of the original series music released on LP, for which I, and many other fans, were eternally grateful. This music deserves to be heard on its own, unedited for timing and such. It's truly some of the best music written for television, and remains memorable today!

Gene's Walk Of Fame Star

From issue #104 of the venerable Starlog magazine, published in March of 1986, comes this page on the ceremony to present Gene with his star on the Hollywood "Walk Of Fame."

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Bonus: Below, an absolutely stunning photo of Nichelle, testing makeup and hairstyle. A classic beauty, and a rare photo that I was thrilled to find online at http://www.trekcore.com/.

1986 "USA Today" article on "The Voyage Home"

The success of the fourth Trek movie, "The Voyage Home" is covered in this article from "USA Today," dated Friday, Nov 28th 1986. The fact that director Nimoy is primarily interviewed made for good publicity, unlike it would have been had they talked exclusively to Shatner, who said in practically every interview that he had no clue why the show and movies were successful. Here the focus is rightfully on the movie, not an actor's attempts to establish a separate success. Nimoy always comported himself intelligently (his "Bilbo Baggins" video notwithstanding) representing the franchise well. Shatner does chime in though, expressing his disapproval of the plans to bring "The Next Generation" to TV without the original cast (although neither he or Nimoy would probably have returned if asked). His effort to direct the next movie is brought up, and the fans could already hear the rumble of distant trouble brewing on the horizon as he considers covering ground that Nicholas Meyer had already done in "The Wrath of Khan."

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Bonus: Below, found for sale on the web, is this unusual photo of bridge semi-regular Sean Kenny in his stand-in role of the crippled Captain Pike. His passing resemblance to Jeffery Hunter solved the problem of Hunter not wanting to reprise the role, and the heavy makeup --along with the character's lack of ability to speak-- sold the "illusion" if you'll pardon the pun. This is probably a make-up test/documentation photo, rather than a publicity photo.

1986 Article on Star Trek Novels

More this time from the great 20th Anniversary Issue of Starlog, #112, published in October of 1986; I've been posting material from it recently, and will do more until it's all here.

Back when new Trek was still years away (and only a hopeful dream), and later during the lulls in between the movies, the Trek fiction novels were all we fans had (apart from fan fiction, which was hard to find for most, and the comics, which were basically short stories). I used to buy every single novel that came out, from the first, all the way up until about the mid-90's, when I only bought one now and then when a book looked particularly interesting. This article, titled "The Novel Adventures of Star Trek," briefly reviews the novels that were put out up till then, late in 1986.

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Bonus: below, from the same issue, is a one-page tribute to the series from author Allen Asherman, a name familiar to me from his days as editor of "The Monster Times."

And below is a panel of art commemorating the anniversary from the same issue depicting a meeting across time.

Star Trek Aliens Coloring Book

On a lighter note this time, I'm featuring some select pages from a coloring book that features (mostly) the Star Trek aliens. This was published in 1986, and, although the interior artwork by Paul Abrams is passable, with decent facial features, the artist clearly was not familiar with Trek lore or designs, and was only working from a few isolated photos; much like the artist on the Gold Key comics in the early days. But if they were working from reference photos, how do you account for the strange looking alien on the cover that is "supposed" to be a spying Klingon (who looks like Lorne Greene), but is sporting rounded bumps on either side of his head? Oh, well, it's just for kids, who's gonna notice? (Says the artist.) T'Lar seems a bit taken aback by it, though... either that, or she's totally checking out his butt.

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"Oh, Bill, I've found your hairpiece, do you mind not leaving it lying around?"

I know that if you have any vintage Star Trek coloring books you are not going to let your kids color in them. So, print out these pages and hand them out to the kids with your blessing!

Below, a nice group shot, based on the familiar publicity photo we all know and love. So far, so good...

But below the lack of familiarity with the show manifests itself as a purely imaginary picture of Spock's father and mother. But you have to admit, his mother really is a hottie! And with a dad that looks like a cocky and confident Vulcan Sean Connery, a Spock from this background would have probably been portrayed by a super-cool and swinging James Coburn (click here for my interpretation of how this would have played out; I've always thought Coburn would have made an excellent Vulcan). Coburn's super agent Flint had a similar nerve pinch, too. By the way, did you know that Spock's half-brother Sybok was originally supposed to be played by Sean Connery? Tru dat! Man, I got off on a tangent there...

"He always liked Sybok better than me. I think it's because of the beard."

He's blue, and worried, because he's missing an antenna. Since he's subtly pointing to his thigh, it's possible that he wants you to search his pants for it.

Mr. Chekov brandishing... something. A squirt gun? A futuristic stapler? One thing's for certain, it sure ain't no phaser. Pavel was getting into his new position in Security, so color his shirt red, for much blood, pain and screaming.

"Hey, Uhura! I think I've found a cure for PMS!"

"Please deposit 50 cents for one more minute, Doctor."

Rubber gloves donned, the crew braces for the mess they have to clean up from the captain's sick targ.

"Who took my burlap sack? I'm naked and it's freezing on this blasted ship! And would it kill ya to leave a little salt scattered around?"

"Yo inna heap o' trouble, bo-ah!"

Below, the cat may be giant, but why is the table leg also giant? It seems the artist thought that Kirk had been shrunk. Again, nitpicking on a kid's coloring book. I almost feel like a bully doing it.

"And hurry the **** up about it, you sotted Scot!"

Below, a couple more pages that feature Uhura, but the facial resemblance is not that great, neither is the body type accurate. She looks more like agent Lana Kane from the cartoon series "Archer." But that's okay, because she is made of total hotness also.

"I just love stroking Bill's hairpiece. Listen , it's purring!"

"I just know this planet is going to have some great stores for shopping!"