1976 TV Movie Scene: ST Comes Back!

Love this rare behind-the-scenes shot of the crew having a laugh while rehearsing. (See bottom of this post for a color photo taken at the same time.)

Note the Don Post "Capt. Kirk" mask that Gene is posing with; that's one of the kind used for Michael Meyers in Halloween, just altered by being spray painted white with different hair added. I attribute Michael's ability to overcome knitting needles, coat hangers, butcher knives and six bullets to the Power of the Shat imparted by the mask.

The photo of Nichelle in her miniskirt and white go-go boots was exciting, because I have had a crush on her from the beginning. I loved that sassy pose!

Back in 1976, I was always on the hunt for ST-related items in any type of magazine. In Macon, GA where I lived (my hometown) there was a used bookstore downtown that I went to when I could. They had stacks of pre-read magazines of the tv/movie-fan sort, and they very often had ST articles and photos in them. A good part of my Star Trek scrapbook was from these sources, and one had a regular monthly ST photo as a feature, and that was always great to find. When it was a big article like this one, it was particularly exciting, especially when it talked about the possibility of Trek returning.

Not from the magazine, but found online, this awesome behind-the-scenes picture was taken during the same rehearsal as the one on the first page of the article. Nichelle is vamping it up here in a way I've never seen and I adore it. She seemed to be the life of the party that day! Here's a larger version, although darker.

Star Trek Gadgets article

The article on the right I clipped from the National Enquirer circa 1975. This was the first of many articles over the years that talked about the tech in Trek working it's way into the real world, often by inspiring young technology developers.

Shatner has even done a book and a TV special about the topic, as have other writers. I many ways what we have has surpassed the filmed Treknology of the 60s', which predicted a lot quite well. The big ones, like warp drive and transporters, we are still a long way off from having, if ever.

Next is a short bit about Shatner clipped from a movie/tv fan magazine, which went into the trash as soon as the article was cut out by me. Who cared about all the other things in it? I was on a hunt for Trek stuff only. Note that the Shat's propensity for shirt removal was not limited to the show only. If only there had been more equality for the women on the show in that regard.

And as an extra bonus, below is the cover of a magazine from May 1977. During it's short run it did a lot of Trek related items.

The Enterprise Becomes Reality

Clipped from the Ft. Lauderdale News and Sun-Sentinel on Sept. 18, 1976.

Star Trek Moves to Friday

The move to Friday in 1968 was the beginning of the end, but it didn't go down without a fight, with the fan letter-writing campaign saving it from cancellation at the end of season two. The bad timeslot, paired with the drop in quality (and budget) after Roddenberry withdrew in protest, was deadly. But the articles printed at the time are fun to read, as they gave hope to the fans at the time.

(Click on images to enlarge.)

And an earlier ad for the start of season 2:

It's too bad they didn't introduce the female Vulcan character in season two, as mentioned in the write-up above. We had to wait until "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" to see that. However, the might have been referring to the charcter of T'Pring, as a reader of this blog noted in the comments.

Below, the less-than-enthusiastic Nimoy and Shatner feign excitement over the death-knell of being exiled to Friday night.

"See this sign? It's a sign of the end." 

This Side Of Paradise ads

Mr. Spock falling in love was a big thing during the first run of the show. Below are some clippings from various sources highlighting the big event!

Bonus:

Artist Kerry Gammill did this piece back in the late 70's. I scanned it in from the back cover of "Trek: The Magazine For Star Trek Fans."

Trek Or Treat!

Below is a Famous Monsters article on the episode "Catspaw" from 1977. Oddly enough, unlike all of their other "telebook" articles, they featured no images from the episode, so I scanned in one from another scrapbook page (above) to accompany it.

Published in 1977, "Trek or Treat" was full of black and white photos from the series with lame captions. But I bought it for the pictures, which were frames from the episodes, which was cool.

1977 Article: Trek May Be Filmed

Clipped from the March 3, 1977 newpaper in Macon, GA.

Again one can see the difficulties they went through trying to get Star Trek revived in some form. These kind of articles came out with regularity every time the project went through some change or update. Back then the news seemed to come at a Denebian Slime Devil's pace, and I thought it would never happen.

The TV and movie star magazines quite often had articles and photos of interest to me, and I haunted the used bookstores for old issues. When I flipped through and found something like the photo above, I'd buy it, clip out the pages I wanted and throw away the rest.

Now, this... this was the way to do it! Appearing in August of 1976, the Star Trek Poster Magazine was the first monthly all-Trek magazine to be published (professionally and nationally, that is), and it was first-rate all the way. I lived for these issues and didn't miss one. I'll post covers from them from time to time as extras.

And just because I'm feeling good today (all the new released pics from the upcoming Star Trek movie by JJ Abrams are getting me excited), here's a hi-rez scan of a great photo of the good captain.

The Trek cover to the upcoming EW issue on Abram' new Trek. They do look the parts, don't they? It's too soon to tell, but I want to believe that come May 2009 we'll be able to say truly, "Star Trek Lives!!"