1975 New York Trek Con article

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Gaze at this image for a moment and that music will start to play in your head.

Although I didn't attend them, reading about the early Trek conventions was exciting! Here was proof that others loved the show as much as I did, and that I wasn't the only one! (It's funny to think back on my earliest days as a kid when I first discovered the show, and thought I was the only fan.) Here is a first-hand account of the 1975 New York Star Trek convention, written by James Van Hise, who went on to publish and edit his own fanzine, "Enterprise Incidents." Many fans know him as the writer of a large number of unofficial Trek softcover books that had national distribution. The con report comes from issue #4 of "Trek: The Magazine For Star Trek Fans," printed in March of 1976. Incidentally, this was the first issue of the late, great fanzine that I ever saw or bought. Up til now, all the magazines and such I had bought only featured Trek now and then, but this was the first magazine of any kind, professional or fan-produced, that I had found that was devoted entirely to the show. For me, this was Nirvana. I have such good memories of the excitement and happiness that reading it brought to me at the tender age of 17. The fact that it had color covers and it was printed on card stock made it all the more special.

Bonus: a UFP patch that was on a hat I ordered back in the early 80's. The hat wore out but I took off the patch and saved it.

Bonus#2: Below, the cover of Blish's ninth ST adaption, featuring a painting of the Enterprise by an artist that would go on to do many more covers of various Trek novels. The depictions of the ship by this artist were more accurate than the ones on the earlier covers, and it was featured more prominantly. Boy, those were the days, whenever I found a new edition of these books. I pretty much bought them in order of publication, and eagerly awaited the next edition.

Now, I know that the Blish books are not rare, or hard to find images of the covers online; and that most fans are so familiar with them that there might not be much point in posting them here. But, these are my copies, and they meant so much to me at the time I bought them, and mean a lot to me now for the memories they hold; thus the reason for including them as bonus items. I enjoy sharing those memories and enjoy reading when commenters share their own.

Bonus: Below is one of several ad fliers Paramount distributed to sell the show abroad in the 70's. This is a from an article about foreign Trek material in the Trek Special #2 published in 1978.

"Look, Larry, it might be true that is space there is no up or down, but that excuse won't fly here. Just admit you made a mistake when you did the layout."

A Couple Of "Search For Spock" Reviews

Here's a good review of "The Search For Spock," clipped from The Washington Post, dated June 2nd, 1984. It does manage to give away a major surprise, that of the Enterprise being destroyed, as well as basically tell you that Spock is found alive and well, only not in so many words. Granted, that was pretty much a given, but the ship's destruction was supposed to be a shocking moment that was best left unspoiled by reviewers. Oh, wait, you didn't already know about that? Oops, sorry!

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And below is the Time magazine review of the film, clipped about the same time. I'm throwing in the "Ghostbusters" review as a freebie.

Bonus: the last of the four TOS coasters in the Newfield set... this time, featuring that flying butterdish named "Galileo II."

Bonus: The next of the "Trek Talk" features from "The Monster Times," dated January 1976, issue #45. (View all these I have posted by using the "Trek Talk" tag on the sidebar.) It makes note of the passing of James Blish, which was a sad bit of news to those of us that read and re-read all of his adaptations. These time capsules of Trek history are neat to read now, aren't they?

Look For Spock Behind Camera

Welcome, fellow Trekkers, to the blog where you can fondly recall items and articles that you had or still have, or catch some you might have missed. I am having a great time opening the collection cabinets and going through stuff that, before doing the blog, I hardly ever took out to look at. I'm finding stuff I forgot I had, or hadn't seen in years! The newspaper clipping featured this time is from an unspecified date in the summer of 1983, when production was starting on "The Search For Spock." This movie was highly anticipated by us fans at the time. Would Spock return? We shouldn't have worried.

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Below, a one-page bio of Nimoy from the pages of the teen magazine "16," notable for being published during the show's first season, when it was on NBC Thursdays at 8:30 PM. Note the personal address given! This was before the groundswell of popularity, when he replied to mail himself and sent out autographed photos in response to requests. Imagine that! UPDATE: In a comment posted by reader "JohnG7," we find out more about that; "16 Magazine was supposed to give Nimoy's public mail drop, but they printed his actual home address on Comstock Drive. Sacks of mail showed up every day that the family had to spend hours answering, and fans came to the house looking for Leonard. The next issue of 16 ran a correction but the damage was done. The Nimoys moved out within a year. -- JohnG7" Thanks for that, John! I do remember reading that somewhere, probably in one of his books, but I forgot about it.

"Bonus;" Below, a photo highlighting the problem with the jumpsuit versions of the uniforms used in "ST:TMP." Every time a male character appears in the movie in a scene that shows below the waist, it is obvious that they are going "commando." You can practically tell their religion, as the saying goes, and it distracts from the drama going on, generating uncomfortable snickers. This publicity shot is particularly disturbing, as Nimoy is showing a wet spot! E-e-e-e-e-e-w!

"Spock, I am not looking at you until you do something about that."

Maybe it had to do with the fact that a wardrobe person had to assist the actor in and out of the uniform to go the bathroom, but really, Len... shake it next time! I can't believe the photographer and all the publicity people let that one get by them, but they did, and now it's there for all to see, and wish they hadn't. If these had been used again in a sequel, the movie might have been called "Star Trek: The Search For Underwear." Stephen Collins as Decker fared especially bad in the movie wearing these, and I'm sure he hoped that Persis' bald head called attention away from his embarrassing bulges. No such luck.

Bonus: Below, some of the buttons I collected in the mid 70's. I picked these up at the store "Starship Enterprises." Yes, I admit, I occasionally did wear them to work as a teen. Little wonder I didn't date much.

1976 TREK article: Enterprise Miniatures

This issue of Trek ("The Magazine For Star Trek Fans") #5, printed in July of 1976, was the second issue that I ever got, and boy, was this magazine a treasure for the Trek-fevered and Trek-starved teen that I was. Unless you lived through the time, and was as devoted to the show as I was, you can't understand the excitement and happiness that finding such a publication as this could bring. A full-color cover photo of my heroes... just awesome! And unless I had been living in Ft. Lauderdale, close to the magazine's publishers, I would never have been able to get them. As it was, I picked them up at the store "Starship Enterprises," a comics and genre collectibles store that I haunted as often as I could get over to it.

From the magazine comes this article on the various miniatures of the Enterprise used on the show; hope you enjoy it!

Below is some nice artwork that adorned the back cover of the magazine...

1976 article "Spock, Part 2: An Analysis"

Last entry, we looked at Part 1 of an two-part examination of the character of Spock, from a 1976 issue of "Quasimodo's Monster Magazine." This time, part 2 is a conversation about the Vulcan's popularity with writer Jacqueline Lichtenberg, who co-penned the book many of us remember so very, very fondly; "Star Trek Lives!"

Update: I recently added Jacqueline as a friend on Facebook, and alerted her to this post. She was kind enough to comment, so click on the "comments" tab for this entry and see what she had to say! It is so neat to be able to interact with people like her who had such an impact on my young life as a Trekker.

Bonus item: the next inside page from the "Star Trektennial" edition of Lincoln Enterprise's 1976 catalog (see others posted by using the "Lincoln Enterprises" tag on the sidebar).

Below is the painted Kirk portrait that I ordered from the page above (left-hand lower part of the page); more will be posted in the near future. These were done by a young Andy Probert, who was responsible for much of the final look of the redesigned Enterprise in "ST:TMP."

And below is what the keychain viewers in the catalog looked like. This one had a film clip frame of Uhura in it. Scanned image is larger than actual size.

Look for more Lincoln Enterprises material in upcoming posts. Be sure to comment if you have memories of you own you want to share! (Update: here is a Flickr group devoted to sharing filmclips acquired from Lincoln Enterprises!)

1976 article "Spock, Part 1-His Story"

From issue #7 (click to view the cover) of the lower-rung publication "Quaismodo's Monster Magazine," printed in April of 1976, comes Part One of a two-part look at the cultural phenomenon of Mr. Spock. When I say "lower rung" I mean that the magazine was of inferior quality compared to some of the others put out at the time; in comparison to "Famous Monsters," "Monsters of the Movies" or "Castle of Frankenstein," it suffers the most. The cheap pulp paper used, which reproduced the black and white photos poorly, tore easily and turned yellow rapidly. The layout seemed shoddy and the writing, generally geared to the younger crowd, varied in quality from one article to another. However, being the lover of monster movies as I was, and Star Trek to a greater degree, I still bought some of the issues, especially when they featured a Trek article. This in-depth look at our favorite Vulcan was competently done, and worth posting here for your enjoyment, whether for the first time or again after many years.

The magazine also included a Trek "spoof" in comic form, which I won't include here for the simple fact that it was the most lowbrow, idiotic and poorly-drawn parody (so-called) one could imagine, best left unseen and forgotten. Alright... if you don't believe me, look at this one panel and you'll see what I mean (I don't want to sully this blog by even posting it as a clickable smaller image). Sheesh... "lower-rung" indeed. That one scraped the bottom of the barrel.

Part two of the article on the Vulcan is coming next time, however, featuring a rare discussion about the appeal of Spock with one of fandom's well-known writers, Jacqueline Lichtenberg, who co-penned a book many of us remember fondly; "Star Trek Lives!"

Bonus: Another cover from the nostalgia-generating James Blish adaptation covers, this time volume #7. Thanks to blog reader Donald A. for contributing it, since he read in an earlier post that my copy had no cover, being bought at a used bookstore years ago.

It was right then that Sulu swore off of the weed he had been secretly growing in his hobby garden.

The artwork on this book is one of the more unusual covers, depicting as it does a version of the scene from "Who Mourns For Adonais," albeit in a rather stylized fashion. This is the first time any scene from an episode was referenced on a cover, and marks the start of less "retro" covers and a move toward more modern artwork.

1994 article: The Death Of Captain Kirk

Before the internet became what it has in recent years, one of the main sources of info about upcoming movies for us Trekkers was the tabloids. Although couched in gossipy terms, one could get facts early that weren't available anywhere else, if one didn't mind wading through the other junk. Kind of like eating lunch in the middle of a cow pasture; you might enjoy the meal but feel a bit dirty from the surroundings (come to think of it, it's not much different from the internet in that respect). From the "Star" tabloid, published Sept. 6, 1994, comes this article on "Star Trek: Generations," as the secret of Captain Kirk's death is spilled... and without the warning that there were "spoilers" in the article, as the term came to be known. Thanks, Star!

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It's funny reading some of the errors in the article, such as the bit about them teaming up to fight a scientist "bent on destroying the universe." That seems a bit overly ambitious, not to mention impractical. If you destroy the universe, who would be left to gloat over it to?

Below is a later article, printed September 20th, 1994, reporting the fandom's furor over the spoiled secret, thanks mostly to the paper for publishing it. Unlike the last-minute script change in "The Wrath Of Khan" which responded to fan reaction by providing an "out," there never was one added to this movie to allow for a chance at Kirk's resurrection. The NG movie producers weren't interested in bringing him back, they only wanted him gone so they could move on with their versions, which is understandable. But Shatner would have reason to regret it when he was locked out of the new '09 movie by the fact. At least Kirk lives again in the enjoyable novels from Shatner "co-written" by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens.

Bonus: Below is a scan of one of the items members of the "Official Star Trek Fan Club" received when joining; I got this sometime in the mid-80's as far as I can recall.

Bonus: Below is one of the multitude of small newspaper clippings in my scrapbook regarding the many conventions that were held in south Florida during the mid-70's. This one from 1976 is significant because although I didn't get to go to it (three guesses why), a friend brought me back autographed pictures of Nichelle and Doohan, which I still treasure and have framed on my wall.

And finally, below is a short interview with Gene about the planned movie from "The Monster Times," issue #42, published in July of 1975. This took the place of the regular feature "Trek Talk" in that issue, so I'm tagging it with that anyway for easy location. It's always interesting to look back at these movie announcements and remember how long it took to see it made, and how many false starts there were. But if nothing else, it kept Star Trek alive in the public's mind, and for that reason, Gene's efforts were worth it.

It's interesting to read in the above interview that Gene was considering making the new movie a prequel, which is what the recent '09 movie was (in a way). But one has to wonder how they would have handled the fact that the stars were ten years older by that time. Would they have hired younger actors and actresses to portray the characters in the flashbacks? Also, the idea of shoehorning in the "cameos by ten international celebrities" would hang on almost up until the making of "ST:TMP," but thankfully it was forgotten. Can you imagine how cheesy it would appear now? Between that and "Magicam" it's a good thing the movie didn't get made at that time.