1983 Lincoln Enterprises Catalog

In 1974 I sent off for my first Lincoln Enterprises catalog (see some of the other posts about them here), and in 1983 I was still getting them in the mail. By then, they were getting bigger and fancier, with color photos of much of the material within. Whereas the original ones from the 70's were in a newspaper format (which was fun to read then, but hard to scan now), the newer ones were in magazine format, though still on newsprint paper. This issue from 1983 included material from both ST:TMP and The Wrath of Khan. However, it still contained older material from their earliest catalogs, like Kung Fu, Search, and Gene's several made-for-tv pilots. This post contains the first half of the catalog, the second half will be posted soon.

(To view full-size, click on each image. It will open in a new window. You may have to click on it once more to magnify.)

The painting prints offered below were unusual considering how they mingled characters from the films with figures like Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon and even The Great Gonzo Muppet!

Bonus: Below, the cover of the soft-cover "Make-Your-Own Costume Book" for ST:TMP. Published for kids, it surely wasn't made for accuracy. However, I think it would be a fun retro-cosplay for some fan to recreate one of these now!

1984 ST:TMP Special Edition Article

In 2001, fans of Star Trek: The Motion Picture were treated to Director Robert Wise's "finished version" of the film (The Director's Edition), as he had considered the theatrical release so rushed as to not be what he wanted on screen. This is to me the definitive version, the one I take out and watch now whenever I get the desire to revisit the movie. The tighter edit, the more lush sound effects, the cleaned-up visual effects, and most of all the new visuals created for it (for those that could not be added originally due to the last-minute pressures)... all combine to make it a more pleasant viewing experience, in my opinion. (Finally, we know what V'Ger itself looked like in a long shot without the cloud! I never knew in all those years it even had a defined shape. It reminded me of the ship hidden in Halley's Comet in the film "Lifeforce.")

However, back in 1983 we were treated to a longer version of the film that added in cut scenes. Did it improve it? I feel it did in some respects; some of the cut scenes needed to be back in, others are today more rightly relegated to the "Deleted Scenes" extra on the menu on DVD or Blu-Ray. But back then we were so excited to see "more Trek" that even a longer and more drawn-out version of the movie was interesting to see.

In this article by James Van Hise from his Enterprise Incidents magazine, issue #13 (the first to go national after the promotion from fanzine), published in January of 1984, we have a scene-by-scene comparison of the theatrical cut and the extended TV cut, which turned up on home video later. The intense desire by Wise back then to have a "finished version" can be seen in the write-up, and it was something that took over 20 years for him to get to do. I'm thankful we got to see him accomplish that before his passing shortly afterward.

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Bonus: Below are two more pages from the 1976 Lincoln Enterprises "Star Trektennial" catalog that was the Trekker equivalent of Sear's Catalog. I have scanned the cover and first two pages before (page 1 here and page 2 here); and I intend on adding all of them in time. There are so many things on there that I wish I had ordered back then and had now.... 

Bonus #2: Below, the cover to my real introduction to Star Trek and the beginning of my love affair with it. I had never even seen a complete episode of the show up to that point, (only snippets here and there as the parents had me flip channels around) but was starting to become aware of it and absolutely loved what little I had seen. The animated episodes were next, and added fuel to the fire!

 

The cover blurb calls him Scotty, but tell me that doesn't look like Spock that McCoy is attacking with the SpaceVac!

Bonus link: Great poster from this Trekker Scrapbook blog! It looks like Pike and Vina are having fun and doing a great job at entertaining the inhabitants of Talos IV!

Kelly Freas McCoy Portrait

Today we continue posting the set of paintings by Kelly Freas, which I acquired from Lincoln Enterprises in 1976. So far, we've seen the somewhat familiar Kirk and Spock, and today we see the portrait of everyone's favorite grumpy but lovable country doctor, Leonard McCoy.

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"Three guesses where this probe is going?"

Below, we take a closer look at the good doctor's face, and in this case I have no criticism; Freas perfectly captured DeForest Kelly's features. If the artist was working from recent photos of the cast rather than production pictures, as some commenters on previous posts mentioned, then DeForest had changed the least of the three main stars. Here we see only a few more creases, but the expression is pure McCoy, which shows that Freas certainly could depict accurate faces with no trouble. Using a sickbay wall panel as a background, and giving him a (fairly generic) medical instrument, adds some visual interest as well. All around, an excellent part of the set, and a beautiful painting on its own.

"I only peek in the line of duty. Now, get undressed, Nyota."

Bonus: (retroactively added on 1-14-10) Here is the DeForest Kelly salute from Starlog issue #112 (October 1986) which was the Trek 20th Anniversary edition.

By coincidence, this photo of McCoy perfectly matches the position of his head in the painting.

Bonus: Below, the cover of the "Wrath of Khan" paperback adaptation, published in July of 1982. After the "leisurely" pace of the previous movie, I (and many fans) were ready for some action, and by George, we knew from the moment we heard the title that we were likely to get it. The return of Khan! I was super excited, and picked up the novelization a few days before the movie came out. As I usually did in such cases, I read about 75 percent of it before stopping, in order to preserve any surprises that the ending of the movies brought. I was glad I did, when I saw the movie. Although the cover art is uncredited, it shows all the earmarks of a Bob Larkin painting, so that's my best guess. Anyone know for sure? Update: Two commenters think it's by Boris Vallejo, so it probably is. He did some great covers also. When I find out for sure, I'll post it!

"Spock, don't look now, but I think we're being followed."

Next: Another painting in the set; and if you say one word about what he's wearing, you could get kilt by this manly bearded swordsman.

Kelly Freas Spock Portrait

Continuing the series of posts covering the set of Kelly Freas Trek cast paintings, first offered through Lincoln Enterprises in 1976. Last time, we saw Kirk's...this time we look at Kelly's Mr. Spock portrait...

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"Would you like me to... 'energize' you?"

In a pose and spacesuit from "The Tholian Web," we see Spock manning the transporter console with a rather impish (or some might even say seductive) expression. What does that glint in the eye signify... the onset of a slight case of Pon-Farr? The use of the suit illustrates Kelly's apparent desire to have the crew images look as different from one another as possible, through the dramatic use of props, poses and dress. (Although the IDIC would have been a more appropriate background, perhaps he was not versed well enough in Trek lore to be aware of it.) Most artists that do a series of crew portraits just have them all in the usual uniforms.

Below we have a closer look at the face. That face... which seems to resemble Nimoy somewhat less than last entry's did Shatner. I would probably put this at the bottom of the set as far as capturing the features accurately, but once again, the style in which it is rendered (Kelly's unique look) probably renders the complaint moot. Who am I to tell him how he should have painted it? All I can say is, when my 17 year-old self looked at it for the first time after getting the set in the mail, I thought, "man, that doesn't look that much like Spock!" That is probably akin to someone looking at a Picasso and saying "why does that man have both ears on one side of his face?" Oh, the ignorance of youth. What say you? Was I right? Or just irrelevent?

I am pretty certain I wouldn't want Spock looking at me that way while in the midst of a crisis. Or any time, come to think of it.

Update: As a bonus, I am retroactively adding to these portrait posts the salute that Starlog did for each actor in their Trek 25th Anniversary Issue, which came out in October of 1986 (just before the December release of "The Voyage Home." Below is their salute to Leonard Nimoy, most famous for creating the compelling alien character of Narab on "Zombies of The Stratosphere" in 1952, and also Mr. Spock on a TV show in the late 60's called "Star Trek."

"Hurry up, I'm about to fall over here!"

Bonus: Below, the nice Roger Stine painted cover art for the 1989 comic adaptation of "ST V: The Final Frontier." The inside artwork was nice, but considering the source, the story unremarkable. We did get to see the fire-breathing rock creature at the end, though... the one Shatner had scripted but didn't get to include due to budget limitations. It wouldn't have saved the movie, however.

At least the faces resemble the actors.

Kelly Freas Kirk Portrait

Back in 1976 I bought the set of crew paintings by the awesome fantasy artist Kelly Freas from Roddenberry's Lincoln Enterprises. Although I have featured the Uhura portrait before (naturally), I have never posted the complete set. I decided this omission should not be continued, so I will be posting them all in succession until they are all here, starting with the good Captain, James Tiberius Kirk.

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The addition of the UFP symbol behind him is a nice touch. Looks like he left his girdle at home though.

Below is a closer look at the face, which, although a fine rendering, is just a tad off from Shatner's visage. While Freas was a fine artist, it seemed that in some cases (in this set, at least) the paintings did not quite capture the likenesses of the so-very-familiar features of our heroes. As more examples are posted, we see that there are varying degrees of success; with this being one of the better ones. I give this one an "B+" for character likeness. What do you think? Still, you can't fault the ethereal style that Kelly brought to each canvas, and not being an art critic, I won't try to. As for as likeness, it could be his artistic interpretation of the character, and not an effort at photographic reproduction.

Update: This photo below is actually pretty close to the image in the painting.

Since these are all 11 by 16 inches, they have to be scanned in two parts and then photoshopped back together. The crease in the middle comes not from the stitching process, but the fold in the paper from where I had them stored for years in one of my collection cases. I wish now I had stored them flat and unfolded in some protective folder, or even rolled up.

Sure, these posters can be seen at various places around the web, and even bought at the official Freas website. (who, sadly, is no longer with us.) But, those are not my prints, and not from my collection; and if a criteria for posting was a complete lack of availability anywhere else, I would hardly post anything at all. I decided awhile back that I would not consider other available online sources when featuring items from my collection. Why should I send readers off to another site for something I have in my own cabinets? And why limit what I put on my blog just because of what someone else has on theirs? So, come back soon for the next post on this lovely set!

Update: I have been retroactively adding in each star's salute page from the Trek 25th Anniversary issue #112 of Starlog to these Freas posts. Here is the Shat's...

Animated M'Ress Bio

In her brief appearances M'ress managed to show more tail on the bridge than Uhura did, and that's saying a lot.

Last time, we looked at one of two bios of the new alien characters from the animated series that I bought in the early 70's from Lincoln Enterprises. We've seen Arex's dossier; now let's look at the other, for the intriguing cat-like M'Ress. A quick Google-image search for her name will reveal that quite a few fans found her sexy and worthy of much fan art depicting her in various poses, uniforms, and stages of undress. Here's a forum thread with M'Ress appreciation as its topic.

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Below, a pencil drawing I made of M'ress sometime in the mid 70's, when I was about 16 or 17. I've posted this before, but thought considering the topic it would fit good here in case some had missed the earlier entry.

"Okay, who's the wise guy that put the flea collar on my chair?"

Bonus: Below we see the cover of the second Blish original Star Trek novel, started by him before his death and finished by his widow, Judith Ann Lawrence, who often co-wrote his books with him and had in fact finished the last adaptation, #12, when Blish sadly passed away before completing it. "Mudd's Angels" was published in May of 1978. The cover art is by one of my genre favorites, Bob Larkin, who invokes the feeling of the earlier adaptation covers depicting the starship in close proximity to similar alien planet surfaces.

"Ahh, th' pimpin' life is good, me lassies!"

Below is the back cover, continuing the style seen in all the other direct adaptations in the series.

Animated Arex Bio

"Sure, I'm a little depressed. Wouldn't you be, serving on a ship with such ugly aliens as these humans?"

Back in 1973 or so Roddenberry's company Lincoln Enterprises sold bios of the animated series characters. Since I knew the main characters, the only two I bought were those of the two new aliens, Arex and M'ress. I'll post M'Ress next time; first, we look at the biographical information on the odd-looking (to us) tripodal Arex, who was voiced (as almost all non-regular characters were) by James "Scotty" Doohan.

Although designed to be more alien-looking than any character could ever have been done on the live-action show (an advantage of the animated format) Arex was never used as more than window-dressing; all we ever saw of him was seated at navigation and pushing buttons. I can't remember ever having seen him even stand, much less walk and do anything. He was so underused that he made Uhura look like a top-billed co-star by comparision.

Bonus: Below is the front and back of the assembly directions that came in the "Space Ship Set" by AMT, which came out in the mid 70's. Each ship was small, only about 5 inches at the longest; this set was fragile on its base and it didn't last long over our many moves. I think all I have left, other than this sheet, is the fuselage of the Klingon ship.