TV Sci-Fi Monthly 1976 article: Trek Aliens

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When I caught sight of this terrific cover, a dollar and seventy-five cents (plus tax) and I were quickly parted.

The British publication "TV Sci-Fi Monthly," which I've featured here before (and will often again) was a real find. Say what you will about the tea-swilling Redcoats, they sure could put out a good genre mag. The only place I could get them was my favorite haunt when I lived in Ft. Lauderdale in the 70's, the comic book/movie collectables store named Starship Enterprises. In the near future I'll do a post on it with some photos, inside and out. It was such a cool place, run by cool people, with lots of cool stuff. Even the air conditioning in it was cool.

Anyway, here's another scan from it, of the first article from Issue #3, printed in 1976, which was a two panel deal that you read when you opened up the newspaper-format magazine. I loved the large pictures that this format enabled them to print, although it does make it harder to scan, as I have to put the pieces back together in Photoshop. But it's worth the time to share these with you.

As an aside, I'm amused by the fact that the shackles holding the crew in "The Gamesters Of Triskelion," pictured below, were obviously so loose they could have slipped their hands out with no problem. In fact, it would be hard to keep them in place without your hand falling out!

Uhura was grateful for her Starfleet regulation-issue uniform panties, and for the fact that she wore them that day.

Bonus: Below, a promotional shot taken during the filming of "The Galileo Seven" with Nimoy hefting a prop weapon, which if made of real stone, would have been too heavy to lift like that... even for a Vulcan.

Nimoy briefly considered using it on Shatner unless he admitted who was the real star of the show.

Talented trekker from way back John Ellis (read about him in an earlier post here) sent me the great artwork below that he did for the cover of a Florida 1976 convention booklet. I tell you, those were the good old days when Trek really belonged to the fans, and most of the good stuff coming out was by them, in unofficial publications. I'll be posting more artwork and goodies from John in the near future, but in the meantime, visit his site about his special pet project, the 1958 Steve Canyon TV series DVD set!

1978 Trek Views article

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The old collection cabinet opens this time to reveal Issue #3 of the classy Science Fantasy Film Classics magazine, published June, 1978. Most of this issue is devoted to Trek, and I'll be spotlighting more of the great articles from it in future posts. Kicking things off is the article below, interviewing all of the main cast except for Nimoy. It's interesting for me to realize just now that one of the writers was Diane Duane, who wrote several notable Trek novels and even contributed to a Next Generation script.

This has to be the least flattering depiction of Uhura I've ever seen, even considering it's a caricature.

Below, not part of the article but interesting anyway for the ads!

And a bonus page from the same magazine, by Mike McMaster (read his Wiki entry) who was famous among Trekkers for his detailed and accurate blueprints, advertised on the page above. Sadly, only a few months after writing this article, he died in an accident at only 25, in September of 1978.

It was interesting reading in the article above that Mike thought that one unwelcome use of computers in the future as portrayed on Trek was the ability to use them to research individuals and their history. Prophetic words, which have come to pass already with the internet... anyone can look up virtually anything on anybody with a few simple searches!

Bonus link: To view most, if not all, of the various blueprints published about Trek vehicles, go to the LCARS Blueprint database. But beware, you may spend hours there before you know it!

ST:TMP Comes To TV

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These pages were clipped from the February 20th, 1983 edition of TV Guide. The "Close Up" mini-review below was actually very kind considering the savaging it took from a lot of theatrical critics. But on returning to its TV roots, Star Trek found its reception somewhat warmer.

Below, from 1996, a TV Guide ad for "A Captain's Log" special about the series. I have that on VHS tape somewhere.

TV's actual first interracial kiss somehow snuck past the censors.

Spock had the distinct impression that something was going on behind his back, but he couldn't quite place his finger on it.

And yet, there seemed to be a strange scent wafting in the air around him.
Uhura, feeling all tingly, couldn't understand how the Vulcan could turn that sweet thing down.

Happily, Pike discovered that he didn't have to make a choice between the two of them after all.

1977 article: Fans Win Battle: Star Trek Returns!

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The article this time is scanned from the pages that I clipped in 1977 from a now-unknown movie/TV show fan magazine. At the time, I would clip items without much regard for the source, and if the pages themselves didn't identify that magazine, then it didn't matter much. Now, I wish I had made more of an effort to keep track of such things, but we would all do things differently in hindsight. If this was all I regretted from those days I would be in good shape.

You can see from the details of the show's return that it was in the middle of one of the failed attempts to revive it in some form on TV, for which we can probably be grateful. There were many false starts and stalled efforts that floundered until Star Wars showed that a big-budget sci-fi film could be successful. But, all the media attention to each announcement kept the show in the public eye and mind, not letting it be forgotten.

Bonus: Below, one of the in-store promotional items for the VHS video release of the series that came out for the show's 20th anniversary in 1986. This was made to stick on the shelves in the store, and the Enterprise was supported on a strip of cardboard that suspended it about a half-inch in front of the bottom of the card, in a 3D effect.

Bonus: And below, another of the Leaf cards from 1967, continuing in their tradition of nonsense captions and odd photos. This one leaves itself wi-i-i-i-ide open for risque captions of all sorts. In fact, it's so easy a target I'm not even going to do one. I'm sure some of you can come up with one that would make mine seem tame!

Update: In light of the card above, and the interpretations it leaves itself open to, here are a couple more from the same episode ("What Are Little Girls Made Of?") along the same lines to stimulate your caption-creating abilities!

Ruk knew right then that their relationship had grown stale.

"Sorry, Ruk... but have you noticed that the ceiling needs painting?"

On the other hand, they still enjoyed the occasional game of "Hide The Stalactite."

I can't help but wonder what the images above would lead someone to think, had they never saw the episode and their context.

1980 ST:TMP Desk Calendar

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There were quite a few movie tie-in products that came out based on the new movie, and I snatched up all of them as quickly as they came out. This desk calendar, titled "The Official USS Enterprise Officer's Date Book," featured one photo per week in the year, with the majority of them black and white, but with one color picture for each month.

Most of the images were frames from the film, but scattered here and there were some good publicity shots as well. I've scanned some of my favorites to post here, which have been little-seen... and I'll add some more as "bonus" elements in future entries.

1975 article: The Star Trek Phenomenon

The article posted this time comes from Movie Monsters magazine, issue 4, published in August of 1975. Issue #1 had run a very scathing (and inaccurate) appraisal of the show, infuriating many fans (including me) and they decided to make up for it with an in-depth article written by someone not as hostile toward it. But it did run most of the same photos that every other magazine at the time was using. I mean, really.. how many times have we seen that photo of Captain Kirk in the grip of the drill thrall Shana?  Add to this the fact that most of the photo captions were wrong...

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Why the lower left photo is in this article is a mystery.

1977 article: Star Trek Lives!

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Although not entirely functional, at least the suits of the time were sparkly, and colorfully faaaaab-u-louuuuus!

An article scanned from my copy of the second issue of TV's Dynamic Heroes, published in June 1977. Of note are the convention photos from the 1976 Equicon event in Oakland, CA. It was with no small amount of envy that I would read about these far-off conventions I would never get to attend.... but I was there in spirit if not in body.

And, from the same issue, a page devoted to Leonard's new enterprise... as he was "In Search Of" a career after the typecasting that inevitably came with a success like Star Trek.

Bonus: A scan of a postcard I picked up in a movie memorabilia store in a Florida mall in the 90's. There were a set of them for sale, and I'll be posting them as we go along now and then for you to enjoy.

"This is the church... and here is the steeple..."