The Man Who Saved Star Trek

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This article was scanned from the pages of a 1982 issue of "StarBlazer," a lower-rung magazine that was grouped in with the near-tabloid quality of such mags as "Star Warp," "Space Wars," "Star Encounters," and many others. During the 70's and 80's, one might see a over a dozen or so mags from the same company on the stand and not know it. Publishing mogul Myron Fass and son published a wide range of pulp exploitation mags in various genres, including soft-core porn (read a page about him, but be warned, NSFW since covers are shown).

Being the collectorI was of any kind of magazine about Trek and SF, I of course bought many of them, even then knowing they were trashy. But, occasionally an article would rise above sensationalism and made-up stories, like this interview with Nicholas Meyers. Illustrated with many awesome behind-the-scenes photos, it read more like an article from Starlog. The sloppily mis-matched photo captions -a seeming trademark of these publications- still plagued the layout, though.

Below: Did you catch this photo in the article? I'm betting not many fans know about this cut plot point of Khan's baby son; did you? There had to be other scenes; since I doubt that the baby shows up only in the last seconds to crawl on the platform with the activated Genesis device.

"No, Leonard, I don't think giving Kirstie a line about Spock's "Vulcan endowment" is a good idea... sorry."

Below, one of the earliest articles announcing the new film, clipped from a Beckley, WV newspaper on March 18, 1982. This was the first look I and many others had of the new uniforms and I loved them!

Star Trek II Being Filmed

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The article above was clipped from a Beckley, WV newspaper sometime in November, 1981. It was the first news I had heard that there was even going to be a sequel, and I was thrilled. The news that Khan was returning was even more exciting, and was a great idea that energized me, as well as the fan base... everyone seemed to sense that this was going to be a better movie than the last, and began looking forward to it.

Below, as a counterpoint to the announcement the Montalban had begun filming, is a clipping from early fall of 1982 that talks about his returning to his role on Fantasy Island.

Bonus: Below, a photo of a rare Trek toy made during the show's run. Note the detailed accuracy of the toy, precisely recreating Spock's favorite weapon, the futuristic grenade-launching rocket pistol.

Just make sure you don't lose that single grenade, kid, cause you ain't getting another one.

Bonus: a publicity photo of Spock with his tri-D chess set, which Kirk got him for Christmas from the Hamilton Collection, for which he is still making monthly payments of $99.

"Just holding this makes me looks smarter, don't you agree?"

Bonus: another of the 1967 Leaf cards. If one goes according to the caption, Spock and McCoy are severely undressed.

Besides making a weird sound effect, Spock's heat lamp did little to help McCoy defrost his medical freezer.