Third Season Set Visit

From a mid-70's fan magazine, title unknown since my copy is missing the first few pages. However, I didn't want this to prevent me from presenting an article in what remained, concerning a set visit during the filming of the third season episode "Day Of The Dove." If any fans reading this recognize the fanzine, please comment and tell me the title.

(To view full-size, click on each image and it will open in a new window. You may have to click on it again to magnify.)

From the back cover, great art depicting a couple of the lovely guest characters, Nona and Vina.

BONUS: Below, a rare photo of Shatner with one of his daughters, from a movie magazine published during the series production. 

1967 article "Space Age Crew Enjoys Old Fashioned Barbeque"

For a small but appreciative group of fans in the 70's, those who were lucky enough to have a specialty shop in their city, the fanzine "Enterprise Incidents" was pure Trek gold.

Editor/founder James Van Hise (best known to fans as the author of numerous "unauthorized" Trek books) often included reprints of vintage articles from past publications, for which I was grateful. From issue #6, published in 1978, comes this reprint of a 1967 article originally from the magazine "TV Star Parade," as some of the cast chows down on a cookout between takes.

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There's nothing like a cookout in the summer with good friends!

Another of the fun aspects of the fanzine was the artwork within. Although I don't even know the first name of the artist, "R. Wilber" often contributed nice pen-and-ink drawings to the magazine. Below are three examples for you to enjoy. If you are in the know about the artist, please leave the info in the comments area and I'll update the article. Hey, maybe we'll hear from Mr. Wilber himself, if he is still alive and well, as we hope he is.

Below: From issue #2, we see that not all aliens greeted Starfleet officers with open tentacles/claws/feelers/arms.

Below, from #3, an illustration for the episode highlighted that issue, "The Menagerie." I watched this two-parter again on my Blu-ray set just a few nights ago.

Below: And another from #6, this time depicting "Balance of Terror."

I'll post more of Mr. Wilber's art as I find it in other issues, as well as that by different artists. One of my regrets of the time period is that I never contacted James to submit some of my own artwork. I like to think it would have been accepted (don't all artists?), and I would have been proud to see it in a forthcoming issue! Here are a couple I would have sent in: "Mirror Uhura," and "Fight On Rigel 7." Do you think I would have made it?

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."

1976 Deforest Kelley Interview

I've posted items before from the great 70's fanzine "Enterprise Incidents," and today I'm revisiting it again with material from issue #2, published in July of 1976. This time we open it up for some items on Deforest Kelley, everyone's favorite sneaky-bad-guy- turned-irascible-humanitarian (as far as roles are concerned).

First up below, a reprint from the Archives page of a TV/Movie Life article on De, probably published in 1967 or early '68.

Below, another TV/Movie magazine clipping on De, from 1968.

And below we begin the magazine's actual interview with De, conducted in 1976.

Bonus: Below is another of the Random House Star Trek greeting cards, put out in 1976. Since McCoy was the focus of this entry, I thought it was a good time to post the card that featured him. The inside text says "...you can't keep a good man down!"

All of the above items were bought by me in the late 70's at the (sadly, now defunct) store in Ft. Lauderdale called "Starship Enterprises." Below you will see the younger, and much skinnier Fred inside the store during one of my visits. I was about 19 at the time; please don't hold this picture against me. I'll be posting more pictures that I took there in future entries.

I still have my copy of the life-size Spock poster behind me, and the black and white ST:TMP promotional stills on the wall in the background. And yes, I even have the U.F.P. badge I was wearing. I would look back and laugh at myself as a geek, except for the fact I still have all that stuff and really haven't changed much except put on some weight.

Ralph's Romulans

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We feature this time the awesome artwork of Ralph Fowler, featured on the covers of "Enterprise Incidents." Artist extraordinaire Ralph Fowler was a regular contributor to the terrific fanzine "Enterprise Incidents." Issue #6, above, was published September, 1978 by the prolific James Van Hise. Full of photos, artwork, articles, fan fiction and more, this lovingly produced publication almost seemed a companion magazine to "Trek: The Magazine For Star Trek Fans," which preceded it by a year or so. Although seemingly inspired by "Trek's" example, it often surpassed it in the quality of the rare photos, artwork and articles. But for the most part it was very close, and I hold them both in high esteem, treasuring my copies of each.

Issue #7, pictured below, depicted a Romulan attack on Earth. Ralph's specialty was ships, technology and architecture, all rendered with precise accuracy and near-photographic detail. This was before CAD and Photoshop, kids... so don't feel superior to the artists that did it by hand.

As if a Romulan invasion wasn't bad enough, the eastern coast of the U.S. was threatened by a hurricane. Some days nothing goes right.

Below, an interior full-page piece of art that incorporated both his space scenes and ship interiors. Fowler never ceased to amaze me with his paintings and drawings! I'll be showcasing more in future posts, for sure.

Bonus: Below, the cover art of a coloring book. The beginning of the K/S rumor can probably be traced to this one item. There is just so much wrong here that it could almost be a "spot the mistakes" game.

The significance of the pump should not be overlooked.

1978 "TREK" Article: Shatner Acting Critique

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Cover of Issue #10, from April 1978

"Trek: The Magazine for Star Trek Fans" was a great fan-produced effort published in the mid 70's to early 80's, that most Trekkers only know from the book compilations put out later. If that's all you know of it, believe me, you missed the best part; collecting the actual magazine issue by issue as it was put out back then in the original run. I happened upon my first issue, #4, in high school in 1976, and it was a goldmine. Printed on durable card stock paper, with color covers, awesome articles, rare photos, original artwork and more, it was the best fan publication out there, and remained that until "Enterprise Incidents" came along in the same format... and then we had two great mags to enjoy of similar quality. I picked up both mags at my source for Trek material, the comic book store "Starship Enterprises" in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. These zines account for many of my good Trek memories of those times as a youth.

Below is an article on the Great One and his acting style, which though imitated for comic effect and parodied ad nauseum, it is the reason Bill was so riveting to watch and dominated the screen. Enjoy!

"...and let us forget not the warning, 'I am not mocked,' saith the Shat."

"Not the face!"

If I were a girl I suppose I'd get all mushy and tingley looking at photos of Bill in his prime, but being a manly male, I merely recognize that he's a good-looking dude and dynamic onscreen. We guys can have our heroes, you know, without being less macho... okay? Besides, I have it too much for Uhura.

Bonus: The image used for the cover without the text.