Making of Visual FX for ST:TMP Part 2

When the great fanzine Enterprise Incidents went national, it became a slick magazine, which meant that it got color sections, but diversified the content to include other genre films and shows. Of course, the sometimes-amateurish layout belied its fanzine origins occasionally, but the articles were well-done and I enjoyed it as much as the more professional Starlog. Making the leap to an nationally-published magazine was a big step, and James Van Hise is to be commended for his efforts, as it enabled me to find it on the news-stands, which was hardly ever the case with the earlier zine, which was only available at specialty shops. I still missed the card-stock publication of earlier days, though, when it was devoted mostly to Trek.

This time we are opening issue #13, published in January of 1984. (View the cover here from an earlier post.)   The first part of this article was apparently in one of those earlier issues that I missed, but I have parts 2 and 3 to share with you. This is Part 2, and Part 3 is coming next week or so.

(Click on images to enlarge. Once open you may have to click on it again to view full-size.)

Bonus: Below, Shatner shows off one of the wrist-communicators used in ST:TMP.

"And this speed-dials any of the names of all the women in my little black book."

1991 article: "The Undiscovered Kirk"

 More from the 25th Anniversary issue of Starlog, issue #175, this time featuring an interview with Shatner about the newest movie "The Undiscovered Country." Besides the excitement over the film, Shatner talks a little about the last one which he directed, and explains why he felt it didn't go over as he had hoped. I don't blame Bill for everything wrong with the movie... he was a fair director, and with a better script he could have had better success. But, as with his Kirk character in ST 6, the responsibility for anything that happens on the ship falls onto the Captain... so he shoulders the burden for the relative lack of success of "The Final Frontier." This time, the ship was back under the command of Nick Meyers, who brought it back on course for one final glorious voyage.

(Click on images to enlarge; once it opens, you may have to click again to view full-size.) 

Bonus: Another variation of the "Spock with test tubes" shot from a photo session taken after the second pilot but before the first regular episode filmed.This whole set of pics made him look more like a chemist than a science officer, but at the time, a table full of test tubes and bubbling beakers was the fastest shorthand to suggest that a character was a scientist, "doing science." At least they didn't hand him a clipboard and stick him in front of a bank of old IBM computers with reel-to-reel tapes like "Lost In Space"!

 I still get extra nostalgic seeing pics from this session, since one of them was the first photo of Spock I ever clipped for my scrapbook, or even recall seeing.

1991 article: "Uhura's Mission"

Last time we featured some 25th Anniversary material from 1991, and we continue with the look back to that time period with today's entry; from issue #175 of Starlog comes this article on my favorite communications officer, Uhura, as portrayed by Nichelle Nichols..(Who still owns the role, I might add.)

(Click on images to enlarge; once open, you may have to click on it again to view full-size.)

Bonus: below, a couple of photos gleaned from around the web from Nichelle's early days as a stage performer, doing what she does best; dancing! 

Bonus #2: Below, from Starlog, a hilarious cartoon that looks at one of the most out-of-character moments for Spock in the entire series. At the end of the great episode "The Enemy Within," Spock, while signing off on a report for Janice Rand, says the line below with an uncharacteristically creepy leer. I know the episode was an early effort, when not all the characters were nailed down yet, but the line is something that would have been unsavory coming from anyone, much less Spock. Even coming from Kirk himself it would have been weird, if not completely unexpected. But Spock? It's like he was mentioning the unpleasantness in such a slimy way in order to see if he could get in on some of that action himself. Not cool.

Bonus #3: below, a page from a magazine article featuring a rare color photo of Nimoy as Spock on the bridge.

25th Anniversary articles from the Official Fan Club Magazine

Wow, Star Trek's 25th anniversary doesn't seem like it was so long ago when I remember it. It was in 1991, and this issue of the Official Fan Club Magazine covers it with an article on the stars titled "Star Trek: Past, Present And Future." The inside cover has a couple of interesting behind-the-scenes images from the filming of "The Cage."  The cover, by artist Keith Birdsong, portrays the good captain, along with some unnamed (and villainous-looking) bald guy in the background.

(Click on images to enlarge; once an image loads, you may have to click on it again to view full size.)

Below: From the same issue, a first look at "The Undiscovered Country."

Bonus: below, an ad from the back of Starlog for one of my favorite plate paintings, celebrating the 25th Anniversary.

Bonus: below, an unusual (and very smug) photo of Captain Kirk, who presumably just completed successful first contact with the Deltan ambassador.

"It's true... bald IS beautiful!"

1980 Interview with Gene Roddenberry

From issue #40 of Starlog, published in November of 1980, comes this interview with the Great Bird about the Star Trek: the Motion Picture, in which he looks back on what it turned out to be. The points he makes about the differences between a movie and a TV show are still valid when applied to the recent movies by JJ Abrams. Great pic of Gene in the Captain's chair!

(Click on images to enlarge. Once open you may have to click on the image again to view full size.) 

Bonus: below, "Men In Tights,"  a b&w production shot of Kirk and Charlie Evans about to wrestle in the gym. When watching this scene, it might seem like Kirk is bullying him, but he is just trying to teach him social interaction skills and how to take competition without getting angry. Charlie fails to learn the lesson.

Bonus: Another page from one of the coloring books that were put out to tie-in with ST:TMP, but seemed to be recycled material from earlier TOS versions. Can you figure out what they are looking at?

1977 article "Spirit Of Star Trek"

From the great third issue of the short-lived "Media Spotlight" (which was a descendant of "The Monster Times" newspaper, except in magazine format and focused more on science fiction than monsters) comes more material. I have posted some from this issue in the past, and will continue until all the Trek content is available. You can view the cover here. View all the Media Spotlight magazine posts here.

This time the article is titled "The Spirit of Star Trek" and addresses the philosophy behind the series. Written by the (now) late Hal Schuster, who wrote loads of articles for magazines plus authored and published many unauthorized Trek books (those that were not officially published by the holders of the Trek copyrights).

(Click on the images to enlarge. You may have to click on the opened image again to view full size.)

"Allowing Lisa Frank to design these spacesuits was not logical." 

Bonus: Below, a couple more pics from the "Official USS Enterprise Officer's Date Book," a "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" tie-in from 1980. You can find other posts from it under the "calendar" tag. The first one highlights the embarrassingly-designed costume pants that lets everyone know what kind of mood you're in. But since these are Bone's own clothes and not a uniform, we can only assume that they don't wear underwear in the future. And they're not ashamed of it.

 

"Why yes, Jim-boy... I AM happy to see you. Why do you ask?"

"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?

(Click on images to enlarge. Once it opens, you may have to click again to view full size.)

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!)