"Leonard Nimoy Dropped From Star Trek!"

From the magazine "TV Picture Life" comes this 1970's article about one of the close calls wherein we almost saw Leonard replaced by another actor in the Spock role. This one was over a script; the other time, according to the book "Inside Star Trek" was over him wanting a raise. Fortunately, the conflicts were resolved. Can you imagine someone else in the role? Actor Lawrence Montaigne (Decius in "Balance of Terror" and Stonn in "Amok Time") was their backup plan if negotiations failed, and even Mark Lenard was considered. How weird would that have been?

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Bonus: Below, a behind-the-scenes shot from the first episode filmed when the series began production, "The Corbomite Maneuver." Note Uhura's command-gold uniform, the only time she wore that color. I liked her in red better. (Update: an asute reader pointed out in the comments that she still wore gold in "Mudd's Women," which was the next episode filmed after "Corbomite." Thanks!)

1977 article "The Return of Star Trek"

From the low-rent magazine "Space Wars" comes this October 1977 article on the return of Trek. Just goes to show that I bought anything related to Trek back in those days, eager as i was for the slightest morsel of new info. Not that this article contained any; but I bought it anyway. The article is only titled on the index page.

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Bonus: Below, a page from the book "Charting The Undiscovered Country: The Making of Trek VI."

1986 Article: The Writers of Star Trek

From the 20th Anniversary Celebration issue of Starlog, published in November of 1986 (see the cover here), comes this article on a couple of writers of the original show. The pages feature two rare publicity photos of the guest stars from a couple of the episodes.

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Bonus: a full-page ad from June 1992 issue of The Official Fan Club magazine with James Doohan in costume as Scotty advertising the QVC show that he was a guest host on. Did you order anything from this program?

Bonus: A publicity photo of Nimoy taken during the filming of the episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before." Nimoy's high collar was different from the other costumes, made with snaps on each side so that it could be put on and taken off without messing up his makeup.

 

Bonus: more of the promised TOS original novel covers, this time from "The Abode Of Life," published in May of 1982. The cover art by "Rowena" was from the TMP era, but with brown cowboy boots rather then the built-in footy-pajama type. Also, that pulp-inspired raygun is about as far away from a phaser as one can get. I know some of my readers get a kick out of this non-regulation art, because it came from a time before the Trek merchandise became more tightly controlled. But at the time it just made me scratch my head and wonder why they couldn't get things like this right.

Happy Birthday, George!

 Happy 76th birthday to George Takei, known to TOS fans everywhere as Hikaru Sulu! Mr. Sulu's professionalism, likeability, and many hobbies, such as botany, fencing, guns and more made him an interesting character. And George's outgoing personality and rapid-fire laugh made him a convention favorite of many fans! Below is an autographed photo I got from him by proxy while he was at a convention in Ft. Lauderdale, FL in the mid-70's. One guess as to why I missed the con!

Click on the link below to view all my previous posts featuring George in case you missed some!
http://www.mystartrekscrapbook.blogspot.com/search/label/Takei

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1977: "The Robots Of Star Trek"

I'm back this time with a couple of more articles from the magazine "Media Spotlight," a descendent of the newspaper "The Monster Times" which only lasted 5 issues. But they were good ones! Of course, it would have been better if the publisher could have afforded a better grade of paper and color photos like Starlog, which had premiered the year before. This time we are looking at an article from issue #4 on "The Robots Of Star Trek." You can view the cover here, which I have posted before.

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Next, an article from the same issue by noted fan author Jackie Lichtenberg, as she touches on several items of interest in the Star Trek universe in the column "Inside Science Fiction."

"No, I was NOT snorting coke! It's a printer's error, OK?"

Bonus: a smiling Nimoy in makeup with Gene from the filming of "The Cage."

Bonus: A page from the book "Where No Man Has Gone Before" focusing on the character of Xon, who almost replaced Spock as the ship's resident Vulcan in the planned series "Phase II" before it was upgraded to a movie and Leonard came on board.

"Who is this "Alfalfa" that you refer to?"

1977 Article: "James T. Kirk: Exorcist?"

Hitting the pages of another issue of Media Spotlight, a magazine that only lasted five issues, sadly... it was neat, since it was essentially a magazine-format version of "The Monster Times." In this case it even re-ran an article that had appeared in the pages of one of the issues of TMT; a write-up from the final issue of Media Spotlight (published October 1977) called "James T. Kirk: Exorcist?" It's a fun piece, and easier to scan in this format, that's for sure.

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Below, definite proof that this was the same as TMT, running the same merchandise ads in the back. I always loved these ads, building an imaginary wish list as I gazed at the items. You know, it's funny... but when I look at these pages, I still get a residual tingle of excitement, as the old feelings surface that I felt looking at them way back when.

Note the ad for a "Spock Pop," an item that would satisfy any desire one might have to know what a Vulcan tasted like.

Bonus: from the inside cover of this same issue, a candid shot of Nichelle on stage during a convention.

Bonus: a neat photo of Kirk and Spock, the one that adorned the cover of the TV Guide during the series first run. How I would love to have that issue!

Bonus: from the "Official USS Enterprise Officer's Date Book" for 1980 is this photo from the un-used scene where two security officers are zapped by the probe from V'Ger. They should have left it in, to add a little more action... at LEAST we would have got to see a phaser fired, if only once in the movie.

Proving the the red-shirt curse had more to do with the position than the color of the uniform.

UPDATE: recent readers may have seen the post about the Phaser Rifle prop being found. I have updated that post with a video that was made promoting the prop for the auction, that includes the maker of this piece of TV history! Watch the great video below, or watch it on Youtube! http://youtu.be/oWGNDoXG9R8



Update 4-9-13: The Phaser Rifle sold for $231,000! Here's a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR7XbMXBVHI

1993 Article on Star Trek Collector Cards

The Skybox Masterpiece Series: Star Trek edition is a collection of cards with painted artwork depicting scenes from all of the incarnations of Star Trek up to that point, and much of the art was amazing. I have most of the cards, I only wish someone would release a book of the paintings in larger format, like the Star Trek "Ships of the Line" books did the calendar art. I also wouldn't mind owning a print or two from the series to frame! Today's post is from the Non-Sport Update cards magazine, published in the summer of 1993. I will be scanning and posting more of the cards in the near future.

First, the cover, a reproduction of one of the Wrath of Khan paintings, and a fine one it is...

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Below is the write-up about the cards, framed as a fictional encounter between the TOS crew and a rep of the Skybox company. Someone should have told the writer how to use stardates to indicate real-time dates. I figure that out in the early 70's when labeling my cassette tapes, as "Recorded Stardate 7405.15."

Bonus: Director Nick Meyer confers with Shatner on the set of "The Wrath of Khan," from the book "Charting the Undiscovered Country: The Making of Trek VI."

"Tell me to 'dial it back' again, Nick, and I will punch you!"

Bonus: Shatner enjoys a clinch with shapely Sherry Jackson (who played the android Andrea) in a publicity still taken during the filming of "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"

"Are you... fully functional?"