Happy Trek-o-ween!

Here's the front of a Hallmark Card from 1993 from my collection that I thought you might enjoy. May all your hauntings be happy ones!

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"Spock Must Die!" Novel

As I was mulling over what to post next on this blog, I began to realize that I had focused very little, comparatively, on the classic Trek novel covers, of which there are many. I decided to rectify that situation, by immediately starting to scan them in and post them, starting with one I had somehow missed up to this point, the first original novel that so many of us remember fondly: "Spock Must Die!"

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As a youth just entering my teens back in the early 70's, when I began to find the Star Trek novelizations by James Blish (and what an exciting time that was) I was always on the lookout for the newest one. I came into it a bit late, as by that time (1973) there were quite a few out already, (up to #8) so my discoveries weren't so much waiting on the next one to be printed, but the next one I was lucky enough to find on a bookstand somewhere. (Oddly enough, however, I did pretty much find and buy them in the order they were printed for some reason, over the next few years.) I was up to #3 in the series when I found "Spock Must Die" in the book spinner of the local drugstore where I lived at the time, and boy, what a day!

I mean, the mini-adaptations packed into the novelizations by Blish were exciting enough (they were my first introductions to the episodes, as in most cases I read them well before seeing them a few years later on the TV re-runs), but here... here was a NOVEL, a whole book on the show! Boggle!!! I remember thinking that it was an adaptation of an episode or two, before it sank in later that it was wholly original and not from a filmed show. I was still new to it all and in the exciting "wide-eyed discovery" phase of fandom at this point. When I say that finding Trek material such as this was the most exciting thing that could happen in my life at that point, I am not exaggerating. At all. Nothing could compare to the thrill of finding a new book, or magazine with an article about the show, and I could ride on a high for days after doing so. Who needed drugs, or wild physical thrills, when such happiness could be experienced over something so simple?

Even now, taking out these same books that I held in my eager fingers so many years ago, I am transported back to that time, and I vividly remember how each one made me feel. The flood of nostalgic feelings they trigger, and the memories they invoke, are almost as exciting to re-live now, as the books themselves were to me back then. They made my life more special, and the difficulties I went through were more bearable. I remember listening as I read to the Carpenter's song "Yesterday Once More" which was current at the time, and it is still one of my favorite oldies. I bought my first copy of "The Monster Times" about the same time.

I hope that as I go through the process of scanning in the covers of the various classic Trek novels that came out from the 70's through the 90's (which is where I stopped collecting them after just so long), that the posts will stimulate your own memories... and that you will share them with me in the comments.

Future posts on the various books will mostly feature the covers and not much in the way of reviews; most of them I haven't read in years, since reading them once when I bought them for the most part; and I would have to read them all again and invest too much time to do a proper review. But I hope you enjoy seeing the covers!

I've already scanned the rest of the Blish novelizations, which you can find using the "Blish novels" search tag. But I found that I had not finished, having omitted #12, and the above book. So, with this post, I finish all the Blish books. By this the time all the episodes were adapted, and I was wondering where I would get my Trek book fix afterwards. However, I should not have feared, for I had then begun to discover the big three "making of" books that were out (to be covered soon), and after that there started to be more original novels.

Below, the back cover with the blurbs about the episodes covered... it makes it seem as if each episode they visited a new universe where one condition ruled, rather than different planets in the same universe. I wonder who wrote these?  

Bonus: the last of the Random House greeting cards from 1976, which I purchased from "Starship Enterprises" in Ft. Lauderdale, FL when I lived down there. See the rest under the "greeting cards" label.

1974 "Movie Monsters" Trek article

From the December 1974 first issue of "Movie Monsters" comes an eight-page article on Trek. (You can see the magazine cover here, since I have featured the monster articles in it on another of my blogs.) The article is memorable to me mostly from the negative reaction I had to it; I hated it! The strange treatment of the photos accompanying it (except for the first one of the ship), and the somewhat derogatory review of the show really ticked me off when I read it. How dare anyone criticize the show? Reading it now, I have mellowed somewhat and I realize it was not as bad as it seemed at the time; but it was the first time I had read an article that was written in anything other than glowing terms, (notwithstanding this one, which was only an published reader letter)and I wasn't ready for it. I know now that the show was not quite perfect, only nearly so. :) Many of the claims are unfounded or just plain in error; but the one thing that rankled me most was that the writer blamed the third season decline on Roddenberry, when he wasn't even producing the show any more; Fred Frieberger was the one to blame for dragging a beautiful show through the mud of mediocrity. But, it seemed that the author was not aware of this.

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I wasn't the only one angered by the writeup; a few issues later they printed a story that was more positive in direct response to all the irate letters from the fans! Read it here, from an earlier post. Fan power!

Bonus: Below is another from the set of Random House greeting cards put out in 1976. (See all that I have posted by clicking the "greeting card" tag on the right.) The inside text consists of one word: "COURAGE!"

Bonus #2: Below are the front and back covers to the next James Blish adaptation, Star Trek 10. This was a first printing, published in Feb. 1974. I bought this in 1975 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL when I was 16. I still recall the excitement when I saw it in the high school bookstore where I bought it with my lunch money. It has a nice (and unusual for the Blish books) painting of the Enterprise blasting a Klingon Battlecruiser. The artist gave us some great detail, even adding extremely large rivets on the metal of the ship, as if it had been put together by NY bridgeworkers in the 1920's. I mean seriously, they had to have been as large as dinner plates to be visible at that range! Otherwise it's quite accurate.

"Break out the diving suits and the jackhammers!"

ST 5: The Final Frontier review

Coming out of the scrapbook this time is this June 10th, 1989 article from a Beckley, WV newspaper. "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" is the one film in the series of original-cast movies that I was embarrassed for anyone else to see, or for reviewers to review. I apologised to my wife after we left the theater, and I pretty much gave up on seeing another good Trek movie, turning my attention to the then-new Next Generation show. Fortunately, it was not the last, and we got one more good one from the crew before they retired to Starfleet's nursing home. This would have been a poor way to end the films; a low warp factor indeed.

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Bonus: below is another from the set of Star Trek greeting cards put out in 1976 from Random House. (See all I've posted by using the "Greeting Card" tag on the right sidebar.)

Below, the inside of the card with a "button" you could punch out and hang on your shirt, if you didn't mind being punched out for it also.

Bonus: Below is another of the wackily-captioned 1967 Leaf bubblegum cards, which never saw widespread distribution.

Shatner's head never thought he'd end up as a gag on Futurama.

Another bonus: (aren't I nice?) Below is another of the fine cards in the Skybox Masterpiece series, all of which are painted scenes. Lovely and patriotic!

And below, the back of the card.

ST:6 "The Undiscovered Country" review

From December 7th, 1991 comes this Miami Herald review of the sixth Trek outing, the last with all the original cast. Written by someone that is obviously not a fan, it is a lukewarm review that manages to denigrate the entire series of movies. Take it with a grain of salt, as I did when I read it. You can tell when a reviewer is prejudiced against a film's source material to the point that they can't write a fair review.

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One of the most laughably ridiculous phrases is when he writes that the movie "zips and snorts and wheezes past sets and situations that seemed new when George Lucas invented them for Star Wars in the 70's." O-o-o-kay, we know where you're coming from now, Bill.

Bonus: Below, from around 1981 comes a clipping from the kid's section of the Sunday paper (from Beckley, WV) about Leonard Nimoy...

Bonus #2: Below is another of the Random House Trek greeting cards that came out in 1976, which I picked up at the store Starship Enterprises from this display. Needless to say, I didn't give these to people for their birthdays or any other occasion; they stayed in my collection.

Below is the inside of the card.

Bonus #3: Below, another page from one of the Trek coloring books from the late 70's.

"Nyota, what say we get together after our shift tonight?"

"Your cabin or mine, sugah?"

Spock Stamp Collecting Ad

Hey, welcome back, friends! Glad you joined us, we were just about to open up one of the legendary collection cabinets and see what we could find to look at today. Grab a soda from the fridge, dig into some of the snacks on the table, and let's see what's in the stack of stuff I grabbed at random...

Well, let's see... first, here's a cardboard tabletop standee advertising the Space Exploration stamps that the Post Office put out in 1991. They tied it in with the upcoming "ST VI: The Undiscovered Country" which was coming out that December, around the same time of the stamps' release. The standee is about 18 inches tall, and was given to me by the lady behind the counter after the campaign was over. (I always cultivated relationships with people in various places that I could sweet-talk into giving me publicity items; shallow, I know.) Sadly, I didn't get the set of Trek stickers.

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"When it comes to hobbies, stamp collecting cannot be licked. Did that constitute a joke?"

Not a lot to post today in terms of articles and such, so I thought I'd add some bonus items to make up for it. Below, a scan of a pair of 3-D glasses that came with a ST:TMP poster that had a 3-D version on the flip side. They gave a slight illusion of depth as well as a slight headache, not to mention making the wearer look like a complete loser.

According to this design, big ol' metal rivets were key in starship construction technology.

Below, another cover from the extreme nostalgia-inducing James Blish Star Trek novels, this time #8. I bought this in 1974, from the high school bookstore where the kind lady ordered my Star Trek books for me. I read it through during a couple of classes, lunch and a study hall before I got home. Blish was doing a much better job of adapting the scripts by this time, to the point they were more than a synopsis as they were in the earlier ones. Every time I bought one of these novelizations, it was like manna from the heavens and I would re-read them til I knew them by heart. This red-saturated cover art brings back a lot of good memories that my love of Star Trek generated in the midst of a tense home situation.

Cool, how this alien planet had stalagmites coming up from the ground with no cave ceiling above to create them! And dig the dude with the space helmet, which I suppose he brought along in case there was construction going on overhead. It certainly was no good if there had been no breathable atmosphere; which seems to be the case since the ship is only a few hundred feet high.

"I am so-o-o-o screwed."

I suppose he can always call them on his "futuristic" walkie-talkie he carried with him. But considering he's a "redshirt," I don't suppose his chances of returning alive are very high anyway. The extra liability of red pants practically dooms him immediately. I know my reader Jay probably really likes this one!

Next, another of the 1976 Random House Star Trek greeting cards. The inside text reads "You're different!" Which could be a kinder way of calling the person you gave it to "a freak."

Next bonus: below, another in the set of 1967 Leaf bubblegum cards with the kooky kaptions. This time they must have been fairly sober when writing the caption; otherwise it might have read "Mustard and Relish" or "Looking for A Leprechan!"

And the final bonus item, below: a publicity photo of Shatner as Captain Kirk, looking particularly flirty at the yeoman taking the log entry. Note the conspicuous direction of the finger on his armrest. A subtle, perhaps even subliminal hint?

"Check it out."

1969 Star Trek Critique Article

Via a trip through the Guardian of Forever, from out of the dim past of the year 1969 (near the end of the show's first run) comes this article from issue #14 of the terrific magazine "Castle of Frankenstein." (Read an earlier post of the CoF #11 Star Trek article here.)

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"Castle of Frankenstein" was a monster/genre mag written on a more mature level than any of the other such publications of the time, and the graphic layout was bold and exciting. Covering science fiction as well as horror, and TV as well as film, the magazine was a real treat.

Above is a detail of the cover photo, corrected for the picture's reversed state.

Now, before you dig into the article, expecting to read details not seen since 1969, a word of caution; it's not a pro-Trek article. In fact, it's a printing of a letter sent to the editors by someone with not just a bone to pick with the show, but a whole skeleton. Reading the diatribe, one truly wonders if they are talking about the same show we know and love. But hey, the pictures printed with it are good!

I think you'll be amazed as you read the things they write about some of the episodes, several of which are now regarded as among the best. His insults of the various facets of the show, calling DeForest Kelley 'a hack," for example, and the makeup artists efforts "abominable," are laughable to me. His example of the "failure" by the makeup artists by "having to bring in John Chambers" to get Mr. Spock's ears right is wrong as far as I can determine; Fred Philips saved the day from another makeup artist's poor efforts by working many late hours making the ears as we saw them in "the Cage." Although John Chamber's contribution of the ears is a popular bit of trivia, neither the "Making of Star Trek" nor Nimoy's books "I Am Not Spock" and "I Am Spock" mention him as being involved in the difficult process. (This is backed up here.) The book "Inside Star Trek" does mention that Fred Phillips designed them and had them made in John Chamber's makeup lab; but the results that came back were still too crude, and Phillips had them sent to someone else at MGM to do them. Be that as it may, right or wrong, it has little impact on the sweeping charges brought by the irate writer that "the makeup is beyond belief, it is so bad."

Calling the ground-breaking exterior design of the Enterprise "lacking in grace and sleek beauty," (whu-u-u-u-t?) and the interiors "disgustingly bad," on the level of the old "Flash Gordon" serials, he compares the art design unfavorably to three of Irwin Allens' shows. That particular statement boggles the mind, because most of Allen's sets consisted of blinking lights and reel-to-reel computers against a black background. His criticism of the show's legendary, memorable musical scores is the final straw. I think it must have been Irwin Allen himself writing under an assumed name.

The photo above represents the writer's attack on the show.

Mr. Spock prepares to launch a counter-attack against the illogical critic and open up a can of well-deserved Tal-shaya.

Well, it was interesting to learn in historical hindsight that some saw this outstanding effort at bringing believable science fiction to the tube as greatly lacking; but as Captain Kirk said, "there's no accounting for taste." The editor's weak "rebuttal" at the end did nothing to argue against some of the more ridiculous statements, but the show itself is the strongest argument. It has stood the test of time and then some! If I had been the editor I would have filed this letter under "crank" and wrote something worthy of the magazine.

Update: The name of the writer is Craig Reardon, and I wonder if he is the same Craig Reardon that became a movie makeup artist? If so (and it seems likely since they are both from Inglewood, CA), this might explain his extreme criticism of that facet of the show's production (which was way off-base in my opinion, in any event). It would be ironic if this were the case, since he went on to do the makeup on one of the Star Trek spinoffs, Deep Space Nine! He would have been close to 16 at the time of the letter... so it's possible. I wonder if he still feels the same way about the original series now? It would be interesting to find out.

Below is a small writeup about the looming cancellation of the show from the same issue, which makes for fascinating reading. Too bad some other network didn't pick it up, give it a bigger budget and restore Roddenberry to producer status.

Bonus: below, the next in the series of four TOS coasters referenced in the last post. I never used these four to hold my drinks; I reserved that for the four Voyager ones.

Bonus: Lastly, another of the Random House Star Trek greeting cards from 1976. The inside text says "Let's keep in touch!"

"Oh, man... dude, it's like, it's like, I can totally feel the color of this paint! Seriously, you gotta come feel it! And bring the Fritos."

Consider that card's sentiment of "let's stay in touch" to be an invitation to comment about this post! I truly do enjoy hearing from my readers.

3-2-1 Contact article on ST:TMP

The collection cabinets yield up another article on "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," this time from the January 1980 edition of the youth educational magazine "3-2-1 Contact," available for students to order much like the Scholastic publications. There are two parts to the material from this issue; first, a write-up on the movie, (which does manage to get a few facts wrong) and a more educational article featuring the film's science advisor, Jesco von Puttkamer of NASA.

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Bonus: Below is an ad from the second issue of "The Monster Times," published in 1972, for a color Spock poster. I'm sure this poster hung in a lot of young people's bedrooms. Did you have it?

Bonus #2: Below is another in the set of greeting cards put out in 1976 by Random House. Inside, the text says "With any luck at all your gift should arrive in 7 light years! Happy Birthday!" Of course, making the common error of confusing a measure of distance with time.