Star Trek IV Plate Ad

Over the years, my name got on the mailing list of a lot of companies offering Trek items; I rarely bought the actual items, I just saved the ads. Here is one from 1994, a four-page glossy flyer for the newest plate in the Hamilton Collection, featuring a nicely-done montage from "The Voyage Home."

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Bonus: Kirk and Shanna from "The Gamesters of Triskelion" wrestle a bit before falling into the hay.

Kirk is about to flip her over his hip and into his arms, a signature move.

And.. submitted for your speculation, without comment, this photo comparison I put together.

Update: Sometimes I look at the various places people come to the blog from, and I found out that Wil Wheaton "Wesley Crusher" himself, visited and linked to me! Cool! Here is the page where he mentioned the site: http://wilwheaton.tumblr.com/page/90

1987 Cracked Star Trek IV Spoof

From the July 1987, issue #228 of Cracked magazine, comes this spoof on "The Voyage Home," published significantly later than when the movie came out, which was in December of 1986. The cover is rendered by Severin (who passed away recently) but the inside art is by Bill Wray, whose style takes humorous caricature over into plain grotesquery. First, the cover, then the spoof.

Bonus: from the same issue, a page of Trek Hurry Ups...

Bonus: a publicity still of Bones in makeup from "The Deadly Years." He was only slightly more crotchety in this episode.

A rare costume test photo for the un-made "Star Trek 7: The Search For A Retirement Home."

"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.

Video Guide Article on Star Trek IV

From the local (to Beckley WV) "Home Video Guide" which was available to videostore patrons, comes this October 1987 article on Star Trek in general, and the new movie out on VHS, " Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" in particular. First, the inside page which reproduces the VHS ad poster, and the table of contents.

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Sheen: "Sometime in the future, I guess around 2011 or so, I'll probably have to resort to acting nuts to stay in the public eye."

Next, the article itself:

Below, the trivia contest from the same mag. Answer them if you can (and every real Trekker can) but don't send in the form. You missed the contest deadline date slightly.

Bonus: Below, a convention ad flyer from 1994 featuring none other than the actor famous for his Mission: Impossible role, and to a lesser degree, as "Dr. Spock" from an obscure TV series from back in the 60's.

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.

Star Trek 4 Starlog articles

This time we look at a couple of articles on Star Trek IV from Starlog issue #114, published January 1987, which means it was on the newstands in December of the previous year, when the movie came out. "The Voyage Home" was a great present for Trekkers that year! First, the cover...

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And next, the main article, which is an interview with director/star Leonard Nimoy.

Next we have a three-page look at the movie itself.

And finally, as a bonus, a cartoon from the same issue that re-casts the crew with some looney actors. Am I the only one that would like to see this idea realised now as a special DVD movie?

1986 Official Fan Club Magazine article on Nichelle Nichols

From issue #51 of "Star Trek: The Official Fan Club Magazine," comes this cover article on my favorite mini-skirted African-American Communications Officer; clarifying "favorite" because their was another. (Did you know that? I'll be doing a post on that subject soon.) Anyway, this interview with Nichelle Nichols was conducted a couple of months before the release of "The Voyage Home," in which she had a larger role than the previous films.

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Bonus: below, a lovely publicity shot of Uhura from a set of photos in the official newspaper press kit. I got quite a few press kits back in the day since I was friends with the lady that worked at the newspaper who dealt with them.

"Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" review

From the scrapbook pages this time we read a review of the well-received "The Voyage Home." The inset clipping is from TV Guide. Of course these came out in 1986.

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Bonus: below, a page from the scrapbook that focuses on some clippings of mini-cons in the Miami area, with two of them from different papers on the same con, presented by the Star Trek Federation Of Fans. That was held on Labor Day weekend of 1975, which was August 30-Sept 1.(You can find out more about this fan club that was very active in the 70's by visiting their Facebook group here.) The inset photo clipping is from "The Star" tabloid, which often ran Trek-oriented bits now and then.

Bonus #2: The cover of one of the souvenir convention booklets put out by the STFF, with a great cover sketch of the androids Ruk and Andrea by co-founder Joyce Huser.

Mad's "Star Blecch IV: The Voyage Bombs"

You never know what era of original-characters Trek I'm going to post from; the show, the movies, the animated series; I just skip around to keep it interesting. But sometimes one post will inspire another, as did the last article on "The Voyage Home." I've decided to follow up with the Mad spoof on it, from issue #271, published June of 1987. Artist Mort Drucker does his usual superb job on the caricatures, not content to simply repeat his earlier versions but accurately reflecting the ages of the stars in the current movie (if not always flatteringly.) However, he wrongly depicts the whales as sperm whales and not humpbacks.

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The joke involving Sulu in the bottom panel is even more humorous in retrospect.

Bonus: Here is the next edition of "Trek Talk," from issue #37 of "The Monster Times," which came out December of 1974.

Bonus #2: below is another of Ralph Fowler's terrific drawings, this time depicting a tense moment from "Amok Time." This was scanned from the historic first issue of the fanzine "Enterprise Incidents." Ralph; buddy... if you're out there checking this out, email or comment, I (and the readers) would love to hear from you!

Don't tell me you don't hear that piece of music in your head as you look at this.