Star Trek: The Animated Series Coloring Book

The Animated Series (or TAS as it is known) holds a lot of nostalgia for me and many others. Although I was already a fan of Trek before I saw it, TAS was really my first extensive introduction to the series, since it was in first-run, while in the early 70's the original series re-runs had not kicked in to the extent they would a few years later, and were harder to find. Although I never had a TAS coloring book, I have found an excellent site by Kail Tescar devoted to the series that has created an entire gallery of such pages! Go here to view them, then print your choices out and let your kids have at it! You can help a little too.

Below are some samples from the site. Sharpen your crayons and  have fun!

Bonus: a sexy painting of Lt. Uhura found online for your enjoyment!

View the full size image here.

Source:  http://instagram.com/p/XXtN2PtcNj/#

Shuttlecraft from TV Sci-Fi Monthly

The British publication TV Sci-Fi Monthly, published in the mid-70's, was a rare item to find, and a great one. Here is an image and blueprint of the shuttlecraft from the inside cover of issue #3, which came out in 1976. The cover for this issue has already been posted, you may view it here, as well as more material from the same issue.  Since this is such a short entry, I have added some extra bonus items below it.

(Click on images to enlarge; once open, you may have to click again to view full-size.)

Bonus: publicity photo of Celia Lovsky as T'Pau and Shatner from "Amok Time." Notice her hand on his shoulder!

Bonus #2: Covers from the first of the adaptations of the animated series scripts by Alan Dean Foster, which to me were awesome, having the scripts actually expanded upon (unlike the truncated versions by Blish), with only THREE half-hour episodes per book! I bought this one at the Chi-Chester's Drug Store on Vineville Ave in Macon, GA one Saturday in 1974 when I was staying with my grandmother, and read it the same day. Good times! The store is still there, by the way.

Extra special bonus! Below, we see some very revealing images of Uhura's panties during a scene from "Balance Of Terror." The flap on the back of the dress has come open, and she is showing more cheek than usual, even for her! What was Kirk saying, now? Who cares?

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.

(Click on images to enlarge.)

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.

Starlog #3 Con Articles Part 3

For the past two entries I've posted pages from the Starlog issue #3 coverage of the Bicentennial 10 convention, held in September of 1976 in New York. I continue the series of articles now with pages that spotlight appearances by George Takei, Deforest Kelley, Bill Shatner and Susan Oliver (Vina), as well as a look at the animated series by a consultant to Filmation studios.

(Click on images to enlarge.)

Need to brush up on your warp factors, George... not quite accurate there, as any fan would tell you.

A cel showing the infamous six-fingered Spock. This kind of mistake would never have slipped by in the live-action series; although to be fair they did leave off one of Scotty's fingers from time to time.

I'll be finishing up the rest of the articles next time, so come back soon... or if you are visiting after the fact, click on the next entry to read!

Bonus: Below, a small 1973 newspaper clipping about the cartoon from my scrapbook, from the series first run. You can see the tape I used, before I was old enough to know better than to use scotch tape for such things. But, I was just 13, so I can be excused... can't I?

1977 Starlog article: Animating Star Trek

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I collected Starlog for many years beginning with their first issue, and for a long time it was my main source of sci-fi and Star Trek news. Below is scanned in the article from the June 1977 issue #6, about the making of the animated series. For a couple of years the cartoon was the only source of new Trek and it was exciting to have, and this article written 4 years later came out while it was still very fresh in our memories. Enjoy!

Note the ad for the functioning prop replicas even back then. Master Replicas wasn't the first to offer them!

The extended adaptations by Alan Dean Foster were awesome to read. Whereas James Blish condensed the tv show hour-long scripts to feature 8 or more stories per book, Foster added to the half-hour scripts and enhanced the stories greatly. I have fond memories of these books, and especially this first one. How excited I was to find it and soak it in!

Recently, the L.A. Times published the photo below that shows the Big Three taping their lines for the animated show. It was a rarity when any of them could actually get together to tape at the same time.

Besides being together again, they're just happy to be working!

Animated Star Trek articles

When the new animated series premiered I embraced it with open arms. Short of a new live-action show, it was the most exciting development that had come into being so far. Unless you lived through that time, when there was no new Star Trek except for the Gold Key comics (and they were silly), you can't relate to how starved we fans were for "real" new adventures.

(Click on images to enlarge.)

Even a cartoon, done as well as it was by the original show's creators and producers, was a welcome sight. I was right there in front of the TV set when it premiered on Saturday morning, Sept. 8, 1973. And I loved it! I never missed it as far as was possible, and those that I did miss I caught in re-runs.

All too soon, after only 22 episodes from one year of production, the series was cancelled (see article below). The sting was lessened somewhat by the rumblings of a new movie, perhaps followed by a new live-action series, but we would have to wait another five long years. The animated series was, with it's faults, "real" Star Trek to us fans of the time. Watching it now on the recently-released DVD set really takes me back to those days!

Here's a great site devoted to all aspects of the animated series. And here's another one!

Below is a pencil drawing I did of M'Ress in the late 70's. I thought she was kind of cute.

"All right, who's the wise guy that left a flea collar in my seat?"