Leonard Nimoy was born, unsurprisingly enough, at a very early age and decided soon after that event that he wanted a career in acting. In his first role, at the age of 8, he played Hansel in Boston’s Elizabeth Peabody Playhouse production of Hansel & Gretel and continued working with the Playhouse off and on over the next twelve years. He later attended Boston College and studied drama before splitting, inevitably, to Hollywood in 1949, where he immediately enrolled in the Pasadena Playhouse.
In 1954, Nimoy married a young actress, Sandra Zober, just prior to being drafted and was sent to Fort McPherson, Georgia where he and his wife spent the next 8 months. While the service interrupted his professional career, he managed to use this lull to good advantage, writing, narrating, and emceeing G.I. shows for the Special Services Department, while working during his off hours with the Atlanta Theater Guild. After his release from the Army, Nimoy and his family hustled back to L.A.
no Hollywood slick, but a wee Dead End
Since Nimoy in no way resembled the kind of Hollywood slick who still dominated American films, his screen career was extremely uneven. In 1952 he landed a title role in Kid Monk Baroni, an obscure B film featuring a group of overaged adolescents called the Billy Goat Gang, an obvious and unsuccessful imitation of the old Dead End Kids. Jack Larson (of Jimmy Olsen fame) appeared as a member of the gang and the film itself emerged as an eccentric attempt to revive the old Dead End schtick at a time when this type of film could no longer go over and when the B film production was already in a severe state of decline. In it, Nimoy played an egocentric boxer who tries to battle his way out of an exaggerated inferiority complex arising from his physical ugliness. And while Nimoy wore extensive make-up for this part, he seemed to have been chosen because he very well might have looked ugly or at least ‘unusual’ to the eye of a hack studio producer. At any rate, Kid Monk Baroni was his only film break during that period and he was forced to earn a living in the traditional starving-actor style-doing counter work, delivering newspapers, selling vacuum cleaners, servicing vending machines, working in a pet shop, and driving a cab. But he continued to study and eventually teach acting before finding a more profitable outlet in television where he appeared on shows like Rawhide, The Virginian, Dr. Kildare, Outer Limits, and Profiles In Courage.
et tu, STAR TREK?
Even after STAR TREK came, conquered, and left, Nimoy’s film career remained spotty. Before Star Trek he appeared chiefly in offbeat films like The Balcony, the screen version of Jean Genet’s play, released in 1963. Created by Joseph Strick and Ben Maddow, The Balcony starred Shelley Winters and Peter Falk as a brothel madam and a police chief, respectively, with Nimoy cast in the small but crucial role of Roger, the revolutionary. Three years later, Nimoy and actor Vic Morrow produced another Genet-based film called Deathwatch, which Morrow also directed.
In it Nimoy and actors Michael Forest and Paul Mazursky (later half of the team of Mazursky-Tucker who created Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and Alex In Wonderland) as three convicts awaiting execution. A small role in Seven Days In May preceded Deathwatch.
underneath the Vulcanizing
Nimoy admitted to genuinely enjoying his role as Mr. Spock. “Spock is fun to portray,” he told an interviewer, “because, underneath, he really does have emotions. If Spock didn’t have any emotions, he wouldn’t be interesting … When I first started as an actor, my work was overemotional. I considered acting an opportunity to express emotions and I took advantage of every opportunity I got. It took me a long time to discover that restraint could be admirable.”
Not that Leonard can’t cast off that restraint when he wants to. Recently, he toured with the roadshow production of Fiddler on the Roof where in which he played, of all people, Tevye, the all-singing, all-dancing, all-life-lusting. Jewish peddler. You can’t get much further away from Spock than that.
William Shatner is no stranger to serious drama. Having graduated from Canada’s McGill University in 1952 with a B.A., the already theatrically active Shatner joined the famous Stratford, Ontario Shakespeare Festival as an understudy, and eventually graduated to starring roles in “The Merchant of Venice,” “Henry V,” and others of similar prominence. Once in New York, Shatner became one of live television’s busiest actors. His film debut was in an adaptation of “The Brothers Karamazov” with Yul Brynner. He starred on Broadway in “The World of Suzie Wong,” “A Shot in the Dark” with Julie Harris and “L’Idiote.” His film credits include “Judgment at Nuremberg,” “The Explosive Generation,” and “The Intruder.” “STAR TREK” was not his first association with the unusual. Horror and Fantasy buffs remember him as the victim of seemingly endless tortures when he made repeated journeys to the sound stages of “THRILLER” (hosted by Boris Karloff), and “THE TWILIGHT ZONE.” He became so adept at screaming, in fact, that he still retains the dubious title, in some circles of the male Fay Wray!
IT WAS A WARM SUMMER NIGHT in late July when we talked with Bill Shatner. This was to be his fourth night’s performance in the role of Bob Danvers. Wealthy-romantic Chef about town, in the road company of Terence Frisby’s comedy “There’s a Girl in My Soup.” A double treat, Shatner both starred in and directed himself and fellow cast members in the play’s tale of a well-known television cook and his romantic misadventures with a young, rebellious bed hopper, played by Jill Hayworth
After several, helpful misdirections we found the actor some twenty minutes later than the interview was slated to begin. He was attired in blue coveralls, dark sunglasses and a pet Doberman-Pinscher named Morgen who was, via the use of a leash, attached to Shatner’s hand, as much a part of the actor as his socks. Before we adjourned to his dressing room he parked Morgen and once the outer door had been closed we sat down in the small, air-conditioned room facing one another and settled into a fairly sober question and answer period.
BEGINNING THIS AUTUMN, STAR TREK debuts on British television. How do you feel the new English audience will respond to the ‘5-year mission of the U.S.S. Enterprise’?
I suspect that the elements that made STAR TREK interesting to the American public will be equally interesting to the British public. Maybe even more so, because the fascination of STAR TREK is that its premise is science fiction, and science fiction is gripping the imagination and the curiosity of the people of the world. I think the Moon shot was great public relations for STAR TREK.
We were just about to ask if you thought NASA has planned it that way!
Well, it could be useful as introductory publicity in England for STAR TREK. If it wasn’t planned that way, it certainly accidentally helped, as it is provoking for the people of the world. These Moon shots and these quests raise all kinds of questions that we in fiction have attempted to answer, or at least dramatize, so I think they’ll find it interesting.
When you first saw the storyline of STAR TREK what did you think? Did the subject matter of the series interest you immediately, or did you have to think about accepting the role?
I was offered the part in a rather peculiar fashion. They had made a pilot of STAR TREK with an actor who is now deceased, Jeffrey Hunter, and NBC did not like the pilot but they liked the idea. They said change the cast, change the story but give us another pilot for STAR TREK and we’ll pay a certain amount of money. So they showed me the first pilot and said would you like to play the part and here are some of the storylines that we plan to go with; you can see the kind of production we have in mind. Would you care to play it? And I thought it was an interesting gamble for myself as an actor to take, because I’ve always been fascinated by science fiction. I liked the production; I liked the people involved with the production, and so I decided to do it. But it was under these peculiar circumstances of having a first pilot made that I did it.
Do you have any favorite episodes among those of the series? Any you particularly like or dislike?
Well, my favorites were the ones most challenging to me as an actor. Whether they were the favorites of the public or whether they came off the best is immaterial to me. Those that were most challenging to me as an actor were my favorites.
‘STAR TREK’ altered its characterizations from time to time.
Especially the character of Spock. Any reactions on these alterations?
No. It served the purpose of telling a story to do anything with the characters. We tried to keep them as constant as possible, but the first thing was an hour’s entertainment in six days.
Did you notice any differences between the way Gene Roddenberry and Fred Freiberger each produced ‘STAR TREK. episodes?
Yes, of course there’s a difference. Each man is an individual. Gene Roddenberry’s ability as a producer is excellent, but his true ability is that of a writer. He is primarily a writer and so his concepts in the first year, his ideas for stories and his rewrites gave the show the kick-off that it needed. I feel that we did not keep the same level as the years went by, but then no series really ever does.
In the course of a 3-year production run there must have been certain amusing and unforgettable mishaps … especially since it’s been said that most of the cast and crew indulged in practical jokes at times. Do any instances stand out in your mind?
There were always these inside jokes that to tell you now would not be funny,
…”2001 – is a milestone of a film – it ranks with BIRTH OF A NATION”
but for example the cinematographer had been asked by the management to go every day to the rushes, the film shot the day before. Well, we sent him a telegram the following day, supposedly from the union, saying you will not attend the dailies unless specified in the contract, therefore, do not attend-signed the Union. Well, he was torn up. He didn’t know which way to go, and he was rather an interesting, that is the most neutral word I can think of, individual anyway, so he didn’t know whether to follow management or to follow his union. He practically had a nervous breakdown.
We hid Leonard Minoy’s bike over a period of some weeks and finally one day he found it way up in the rafters. He had a chain wrapped around it one time. We cut the chain.
Are you telling us that he didn’t trust his fellow actors?
Well, after five or six times of finding his bike in his dressing room rather than out front of the stage, it gave him pause to think. Finally, we created it and sent it to him back East someplace.
There has been talk of a feature-length ‘STAR TREK’.
No, nothing … forget it-.
Do you think science fiction has progressed from ‘BUCK ROGERS’ & ‘FLASH GORDON’ up to the days of ‘STAR TREK’?
Oh, certainly it has, and perhaps the biggest step forward is that science fiction has come to terms with the human beings involved, and not just the science paraphernalia.
Did you enter a science fiction series as a challenge, or did you have some fears about it perhaps being personally degrading to an actor, as the primary audience may have turned out to be children?
I had talked at great length with Gene Roddenberry about the objectives we hoped to achieve, and one of those objectives was serious drama as well as science fiction. His reputation and ability, which I knew first-hand, was such that I did not think he would do, what was the name of that other series, “LOST IN SPACE.” And I was too expensive an actor, with what special or particular abilities I have, to warrant being put in something that somebody else could walkthrough. So I felt confident that STAR TREK would keep those serious objectives for the most part, and it did.
You’ve expressed an interest in the space program. Now that man has reached the Moon, what do you anticipate for future explorations?
I’m no oracle, believe me.
Everyone is commenting on the streets. You might as well take a stab at it.
…”I believe that we (STAR TREK) did not keep the same level as the years went by – but then no series really ever does.”
And we’re in my dressing room. The obvious things; Mars, of course, which they’re doing right now and further probes. They’ll continue with the Moon because it’s already been budgeted. They seem to be finding a lot of material which will make it economic to ship material to Earth. I think they’ll even probe the Sun when it’s possible.
William Shatner Interview
Have you experienced any embarrassing moments in your private life as a direct result of your role as Captain Kirk?
I find it somewhat embarrassing to be constantly recognized so that there is a continual sense of wanting to duck. On the other hand there have been occasions when I capitalized on being popular, like getting into movie houses without having to wait in line. And there have been occasions when they haven’t recognized me.
Most people have favorites within their own fields. Have you any favorites in yours who you look up to, or wish to work with?
..”We hid Leonard Nimoy’s bike-he found it way up in some rafters …”
Do you think reaching the Moon will have any effect on science fiction?
No, because the flight to the Moon has already been dramatized by Jules Verne, for example. No, the flight to the moon will not have any effect.
Science FACT is catching up with science fiction, or it’s coming to the trailing edge of the science fiction comet, but the comet is far outstripping science fact.
Do you have any comments on ‘2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY’?
I think it’s milestone in filmmaking. I think it’s one of the greatest movies that’s ever been made. It ranks with “BIRTH OF A NATION.”
Would you have liked ‘STAR TREK’ to go on longer?
Yes, I enjoyed doing it. I liked the people. I liked my work.
Would you do another science-fiction production or series?
I’d think three times before I would do it, but if it were good enough, I might.
You are idolized by millions of children throughout the world. How do your own children react to the fact that their father is Captain Kirk of ‘STAR TREK’?
Well, it’s not a big deal for them. The only way they see any difference between me and any other father is going out in public. Sometimes we’re bothered, but on the whole it’s average Joe.
Most of the name actors who are known by their reputations as good actors are more or less the people who deserve that reputation and I’d like to work with them. Some of them I have, and some of them I hope to in the future.
The favorites that I would name would be mostly those that are popular favorites like Burton, and Olivier-of that ilk. These would be the kind of people I’d like to work with.
Many theologians have stated their view that Man is not meant to leave his home planet. An article once written about you mentioned your interesting religious views. Therefore, we’d be very interested in hearing what you think about the subject of traveling in outer space.
Well, I think if Man were meant to fly, he’d have wings.
BUT… (laughter) we’re flying, so maybe whatever powers gave us two legs and two arms also gave us the ability to think, to create.
Then you are in favor of the space program continuing.
I’m in favor of the space program but I’m also in favor of a more logical approach. You know, the American people are great hundred-yard dash artists. We’re great in field and track. We’re not long-distance runners. We’ve never really bred, until this last while, any great long-distance runners. We excel in the short dashes and so America has always excelled in the short dashes. We don’t prepare for war until war is upon us and then within the space of a very short time we leap ahead of everybody, and so it has been with the challenge of the space program because of Russia. But just as we’re developing long-distance runners who can go five thousand meters or win the marathon, so we should develop the ability to plan long range, and budget it that way, and not cut back every four years or every two years sometimes on a budgetary expense. We should plan a long-distance space program which will be of benefit to the people, because the Fall Out programs that result from a space program far and away provide taxation dollars that would pay for the original investment in the space program. So I’m in favor of the space program but a better Fall Out one.
Did your concept of Captain Kirk ever differ from that of Gene Roddenberry or Fred Freiberger?
No, because again as producers change, and directors change, and the writers change the only thing that remained constant with the complete knowledge of what had gone before was myself. So I was the greatest living authority on Captain Kirk.
You’ll write a book about him.
(Laughter) I don’t think there would be many chapters involved.
Did you have free reign over the Captain’s Id?
…”The first thing was an hour’s entertainment in six days …”
The Captain’s Id was formed very much by the writers involved. Every time they could come up with a story, the story might change the character a little bit in some of the background or some of the ways he had of reacting. I had certain basic thoughts that a Captain of a vessel should be the Captain, and he should be ultimately the leader and the guy who decides what course of action to take. That was really important to me that the character’s leadership ability not be jeopardized when he was in command of his senses, Which Was Not Too Often (laughter). Something was always idling his brain, you know, but that was important and so I stressed that, and there were many times when I felt I made a contribution in terms of script. While the script was in progress I’d get a written version that was going to be re-written, and what did I think? And right from the beginning I made it my business to follow the scripts and follow the storylines, and suggest interesting turns of events, or how to approach things. And I was listened to.
Which of James T. Kirk’s characteristics were inserted or elaborated upon by you?
…”Science Fact is coming to the trailing edge of the science fiction comet – but the comet far outstrips science fact…”
It was a communal effort by the writers, producers, directors and actors. If you have delved into any characteristics that you like then we were doing something instinctively that you perceived as a viewer. But, again, the first and foremost purpose of a series is to provide an hour’s entertainment in six days. Very difficult to do, almost verging on the impossible.
Rarely do series achieve it. We’re happy to say that yours is one of the few that did.
To what extent did you identify personally with the character of James T. Kirk?
I never lost sight of the fact that I was acting in fiction, if that’s what you mean. Just because you gentlemen had to stand to attention when you came into the dressing room is no reason to feel that 1… (laughter).
O.K., well put. Relating to the characters of Mckoy & Spock, do you think Kirk was actually a friend of theirs, or merely developed ties with them for reasons of practicality?
The questions sounds like it has a great deal of import (laughter) but … it really doesn’t.
I feel that perhaps a closer examination of the direct relationship between Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy is a rhetorical one because, first of all, the relationship was serving the purpose of creating a fiction. If, in that hour of entertainment that we dramatized, it served the purposes of the fiction to create an animosity then animosity would be created as long is at resulted in friendship at the end of the show. So if you’re looking for a novelistic or literary approach, a constant, it’s not so in series television.
If one of your daughters got to know Captain Kirk, speaking of the Captain as a man physically separate from yourself, but with the characteristics depicted by you on ‘STAR TREK’, how would you react?
I’d say stay away from that lecherous old man. (laughter)
Mr. Shatner, thank you very much.
After thirty minutes had elapsed we gathered our equipment together and prepared our exit. As we walked outside again, Shatner’s delicious co-star Jill Hayworth appeared on the scene.
She explained to her director that she hadn’t eaten all day and was now en route to the cafeteria to remedy that situation. “You look great to me,” said Bill Shatner, with a mischievous grin!
Many of us were too young to have seen the televised star-saunterers of this nostalgic page, luckily enough. As a general rule of thumb, TV science fiction before STAR TREK (in continuing series, at least), was half-past-rancid and a little south of East Forgettable. Hampered by rotten scripts, stale plots, decaying acting talents, and special effects and sets and props which (if there were any at all) made productions like a kindergarten children’s pageant look top-notch boffo in comparison. Still, these early TV spacemen courageously hobbled with bravado across TV screens in the early and mid-1950’s.
These unwitting clowns of the cosmos mostly drifted from public sight as the seasons wore on, replaced by more thrilling science fiction elements on the tube-like Jackie Gleason, The Army-McCarthy Hearings, Jack Paar and Sputnik. Their passing added scant more vacuum to the vacuum tube, and very few sci-fi fans lamented. They were missed, though, by battalions of youngsters who watched and enjoyed these shows, for they were too young to know any better.
For them, and the rest of us, and for Old Times’ Sake, we set our time-scanners on the view-screens of the average American home of the early 1950’s…
JUD HOLDREN as Commando Cody wore a costume that was, well, you might say picturesque. We might say laughable, but that wouldn’t be nice. Old Commando flew about with rocket packs on his back, which he adjusted with the dials on his chest. Close scrutiny of them there dials shows 1 to 10 power gauging on “UP-DOWN” and same scale for “ON-OFF” One can be 70% on? Or 45% off? How an egg timer possibly could measure SLOW-FAST is a technological development we primitives have yet to fathom… Holdren had to open the visor to air out every five minutes. His heroine was Mae Clark, from the Universa!’s 1931 FRANKENSTEIN. She was the girl who also had a grapefruit pushed in her face by Jimmy Cagney. This is interesting, isn’t it?
Tom Corbett-Space Cadet
FRANKIE THOMAS as TOM CORBETT, SPACE CADET is pictured here (he’s the one who’s grinning), resembling unto an astral version of Howdy Doody. If you think Captain Video was low-budget, Hoo Boy! Mr. Thomas stands beside the actual mock-up of The Space Ship in which Corbett allegedly cadeted around space. There was only one – set in the show: “Commissioner’s Office” – all other scenes were shot against a black background and attemptedly superimposed over painted miniature backgrounds. This wasn’t always successful. The show would have often been better called “Tom Corbett, Space-Ghost!”
Superman
George Reeves as Superman found himself horribly typecast, to the detriment of his career. His only job offers were Superman re-options. He ably played Superman in both TV and feature film from 1951 to 1959, bending rubber jail bars, lounging on glass tables in pretense of flying, and fainting periodically in the presence of rocks and cheeses painted green. He was impervious to bullets, cannon shots, and even most of the rotten scripts. Crooks, communist spies, and casting directors shied away from him as the years went by. He committed suicide in 1959.
DON HAYES as VIDEO RANGER made waves with the Bosco set as the (deliberately) comical sidekick to ol’ Cap Video. Rumor has it that to this day Hayes still signs autographs, “Video Ranger” – though he went on to bigger and better roles, like the (deliberately) comical sidekick to Ernest Borgnine in McHALE’S NAVY. Just shows when you’re in space, anywhere you go is up.
AL HODGE as CAPTAIN VIDEO in 1951, 52 & 53 reached a star status which has e never been equaled by any – especially himself. He’s been doing announcing and commercial work ever since. Millions of youngsters watched his exploits amidst cardboard computers, paper mache’ space gear, and flashlight rayguns. A MAD mag spoof on the show is about all that keeps memory of the show alive.
…Writing Star Trek for Fun and Profit; or YOU try thinking like a know-it-all alien with green blood and pointed ears and see what it does to YOUR head.
by Len Wein
LEN WEIN is one of the most prolific young writers in comic books, and there are comix fans who say the skim comic books looking for stories with his byline, as they are certain to be worth the time spent reading.
Buying, that’s another thing, but reading there at the stand with the newsie glowering at them, they’ll risk it.
Among the many comics Len writes is STAR TREK, which makes him a natural to write about them. Len Wein swears the book “The Making of STAR TREK” by Stephen Whitfield and Gene Roddenberry was and is an invaluable source for anyone who wants to write STAR TREK comics (tho there aren’t too many folk doing that besides Len, these days). But just in case one of you lucky readers out there should someday get the chance to do so, Len has submitted the following “How-to” article in the form of a very personalized book review, which he entitles …
What do you say about a television series that ran for three seasons and died?
If you’re one of the great American Middle Class, you don’t say much of anything. You simply flip to MY THREE SONS and open another beer.
But if you’re part of a select group of fanatics that sat glued to the screen for sixty minutes every week just to watch a certain emotionless alien discuss the “logic” of star flight, you write letter, make threatening phone calls, organize boycotts and, finally, give up. The vision has fled. Only the memories remain.
But if you’re me, Brother – if you happen to be ME – the dream is just a’borning.
Hey Gang! Meet ME! –
I’m a writer, a weaver of words, and the telephone is no stranger to me. It’s more like my lifeline, my link to the outside world. When it rang that cold March morning, I expected no more than usual; another used clothing drive or another irate editor wondering whether I’d died. What I got when I picked up the receiver was a Hell of a lot more.
The voice on the other end of the line was Wallace I. Green, a friend and editor of the GOLD KEY comics line. We exchanged pleasantries and then he got to the point of his call. “How’d you like to write STAR TREK,” he said.
pardon me while I come to …
For a minute, I paused and put my head together.
I’d been one of those fanatics who camped in front of the boob tube every week and I’d been as dejected as the rest when the show went off the air. I also knew that Wally’s company published a comic book version of the series. It was a book I perused now and then, marveling at the flaws in both visuals and writing.
Now I’d been offered a chance to get things straight, a chance to be the only person around relating the adventures of the Enterprise crew to an expectant world. I brought my eyes into focus and mumbled my acceptance into the receiver.
“Great,” said Wally, “I’ll see you tomorrow. Have a few plot ideas ready.”
I hung up the receiver and fell back into the nearest chair. “Hot damn,” I thought smugly to myself, “I’m writing STAR TREK.”
how to write STAR TREK
My mind was a tangle of plot threads and character bits as I sauntered into Wally’s office the next afternoon. My self-satisfied smile was almost unbearable. I was going to show them how STAR TREK should really be written. Yeah. Sure I was.
There were obstacles to be overcome almost before I could start. First off, I would be working with a talented artist named Alberto Giolitti, whose greatest problem in illustrating the book was the fact he lived in Rome, Italy and had never even seen the series. His only reference came from a collection of publicity stills that had been sent to him at the book’s inception and it was a meager collection indeed.
how NOT to draw STAR TREK
There wasn’t a single photo of Mr. Scott in the pile and Alberto, going purely on instinct, persisted in drawing a completely different Scotty in each succeeding issue of the book, without a single version looking the least like James Doohan.
On top of this, Alberto had been drawing the Enterprisers with knapsacks on their backs and canteen belts around their waists, a natural enough assumption for someone who knew nothing of the miraculous transporter beam.
Finally, Alberto had drawn innumerable scenes of the great starship streakship streaking over the surface of various worlds, just barely skimming the rooftops. A truly remarkable feat for a vessel incapable of entering any planet’s atmosphere.
A long detailed letter to Alberto explained most of these discrepancies to him and he took immediate steps to correct them, thanking me for taking the time to set him straight. Thus, one problem solved, I set about the hardest task of all – actually writing the script.
how to watch STAR TREK
It isn’t very easy working with a cast of characters whose every impulse and character trait were duly noted and recorded by countless devotees of the series. One improper action, one incorrect turn of phrase, and a multitude of angry letters would come pouring down on my head.
I spent the next week watching the syndicated STAR TREK reruns diligently, noting everything I could about the way the characters acted and reacted to various situations. Then, and only then, did I feel courageous enough to put paper into my typewriter and start the actual script.
nervy Vulcans VERBOTEN!
The comic book media being what it is, there were certain judgments that had to be made before I got into the story. Little touches, like Spock’s Vulcan nerve pinch, which came across so well on the screen just wouldn’t be visual enough for comics. Changes had to occur.
I replaced the Vulcan nerve pinch with advance Karate techniques, a more action-orientated method of combat. I broadened Scotty’s brogue so it would come across on the printed page. And I accented each of the other character’s personal characteristics.
My desk was piled high with reference material for the series. The world of STAR TREK was a complex place. Certain precepts had been set down and to be true to the series, I had to follow them.
an invaluable book – reviewed
The Making of STAR TREK by Stephen E. Whitfield has been more of a help than I can say. Mr. Whitfield’s conscientious accounting of the origins and development of the series helped me structure my own attitudes towards the series. The pages upon pages of photos and set/equipment/costume design have answered most of my questions almost as soon as they were asked. In fact, it was a copy of this very book that I sent Alberto Giolitti to work from to be as accurate as possible in his visual depictation of my scripts.
Right. My scripts. It’s about time I got around to discussing them.
how “Making of S.T.” affected my work; made me rich
At the beginning, Wally and I decided that we would change the basic thrust of the stories from issue to issue, doing straight science-fiction in one issue and switching to pure fantasy in the next. To date, I’ve written eight issues of the STAR TREK comic with my ninth coming up in just a few weeks. For you completists out there, I’ll give a brief run-down of what has transpired since I first took over the strip.
the complete Len Wein STAR TREK comix checklist
“THE LEGACY OF LAZARUS” deals with a planet seemingly populated by every famous personage out of Earth’s ancient past, all of them actually androids controlled by Alexander Lazarus, a mad earth historian, who finally meets his end with accidental destruction of the planet, the culmination of a battle for Spock’s brain-patterns.
In “THE SCEPTRE OF THE SUN” Captain Kirk and his companions are captured by the dark wizard, Chang, a refugee from earth’s dread Eugenics Wars who holds the Enterprise captive while he sends the STAR TREK crew on a bizarre quest for a weapon that will make him master of the universe.
The bottled emotion of Vulcan elders that are freed by an alien attack aboard the Enterprise are “THE BRAIN-SHOCKERS”. It is these escaped emotions that turn Spock into a coward and become the unknown factor in the Enterprisers’ battle against the immortal Malox, a being who thrives on excitement.
23rd Century pirates who steal the Federation of Planets’ lithium crystal supply are the catalytic characters of “THE FLIGHT OF THE BUCCANEER” which sees Kirk and his companions going undercover to regain the desperately important treasure.
A bizarre, black-robed figure who calls himself the “DARK TRAVELER” is the next mystery to confront the STAR TREK crew.
This strange being commandeers the Enterprise to take him to his far-distant homeworld, a planet that has fallen under the ruthless domination of the traveler’s own brother.
A savage blow to the head is responsible for changing Captain James T. Kirk into a raging tyrant, thus setting off “THE ENTERPRISE MUTINY”, which puts a reluctant Mr. Spock into the role of rebellion leader. It’s all part of the Vulcan Science Officer’s plan to expose a Klingon scheme that threatens to erupt into Intergalactic war.
There is confrontation between the Enterprise and the Klingons once again when they all find themselves prisoners in “THE MUSEUM AT THE END OF TIME”, a sanctuary of lost ships and starmen that hurtles headlong through the infinite depths of Limbo towards ultimate destruction. It is a doom that can only be averted by concentrated teamwork from the two opposing factions.
In “THE DAY OF THE INQUISITORS”, a shuttlecraft crashlanding strands Kirk and his cronies on a planet whose social structure is based on Europe during the time of the Great Inquisition. When Mr. Spock and several others are captured in an attempt to regain lost radio equipment, the Vulcan must endure terrible torture rather than destroy his companions’ only hope of rescue.
the Faking of STAR TREK characters
That’s pretty much the way things have gone so far. There have been other stories I’ve wanted to do but I’ve discovered that, as broad as my spectrum of stories may be, there are still certain items that are verboten to me. I cannot, for example, utilize any character who was not a regular member of the STAR TREK cast. This in itself has necessitated some changes.
unforgettable characters I’ve never met:
“THE SCEPTRE OF THE SUN”, when originally conceived, had been intended to continue the story of Khan (who some of you out there might remember from the television episode, “Space Seed”) but, under this edict, I was forced to make some basic plot changes, turning Khan into the evil Chang and altering the character’s primary motivation.
Another non-regular I was forced to abandon was Harry Mudd (“Mudd’s Women”, “I, Mudd”), the calculating conman I really enjoyed in his two appearances on the TV series. The story I had planned involving him had to be scrapped in favor of “THE FLIGHT OF THE BUCCANEER”, a yarn I liked but felt was slightly inferior to the product I might have produced around treacherous old Harry.
the RE-making of STAR TREK
I also had to correct a few misconceptions of the comic that were fostered by my predecessor on the book, the Late Dick Wood.
Dick, obviously not a devotee of the television series, continued to make technical mistakes by the score. Constant references were made to the starship’s rocket engines, to the teleportation chambers that transported them to the surface of planets and to the laser pistols they used for self-defense.
I, of course, reinstated the impulse and matter/anti-matter units, the transporter room and the phaser weapons even and I rid our heroes of those damnable knapsacks and canteens. It may only seem like a minor victory to some but if you knew the trouble I had to go through to instigate those changes, you’d agree that I’d practically won a war.
SHA-BOOM!!
Now my war is over. Everything about the book is as close as possible, thanks to the excellent source material in the book “The Making of Star Trek,” to my personal idea of what a STAR TREK comic should be. Only one question worries me now…
Where do I go from here?
Surely somewhere out in the infinite cosmos, there is a NEW world to be studied, a new menace to be fought. But what that world might be right now, I haven’t the faintest idea.
I’m not really worried, though. At least, that’s what I keep telling myself. Something always comes up. Somewhere in the back of my head, there are new realms to be conquered and tamed and when I sit down at that typewriter, one of them will come raging to the fore as they have so many times in the past.
Credible Credo:
Space: the final frontier. Our five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.
That’s what the man said. And believe me, brother, wherever the Enterprise may go in this star-dappled universe of ours, I’ll be there first, to report.
After all, I wouldn’t want you (or me) to miss any of the details.
MT’s associate editor Steve Vertlieb is one of the country’s more prolific and dedicated critics, supporters and authorities on STAR TREK. He has had articles of his opinion about the show printed in various journals. Some of them have stirred heated reaction, as well as retort in print.
Just to get a little controversy going (and to entertain our readers) we’ve decided to let Steve have another go of it in our own pages.
Here Steve tells about the greatness of the show (and manages to give a few good ‘n’ nasty kicks to the rear of some temporarily prominent science fiction “authority”). Steve doesn’t have far to search for people who agree with him that STAR TREK was Great. Issac (Ike) Asimov, veteran SF-bard concurs. Ike likes STAR TREK’ And MT likes Ike! So with no further ado, we all let Steve begin…
In a recent filmed lecture on science fiction’s role in films, Dr. Isaac Asimov expressed the view that STAR TREK was, in his mind at least, the purest representation of true Sci-Fi in the history of television. Quite an endorsement, that, coming from the lips of one of the giants of science fiction literature, and a scientist of no small renown.
Asimov’s sincere enthusiasm is widely shared, to say the least. When there seemed grave doubt that the series would re-emerge from its summer hiatus in the fall of 1967, normally apathetic network executives were literally forced to sit up and take notice of the giant public mail protest; an exercise somewhat alien to their corporate muscle structure. The series did go on for a second and even a third season while countless competitors fell by the wayside.
STAR TREK: Love it or Grieve it!
As in politics, however, opinion was fiercely divided between fans on the subject of STAR TREK and no one was minus an opinion. One either loved the series or hated it. There was no middle ground. Typical of current anti STAR TREK propaganda is a new paperback release by Sam Lundwall from Ace titled “Science Fiction-What It’s All About.” Lundwall, a Swedish television producer, writes of having had the “dubious pleasure” of seeing a fair number of episodes from the series. Then he proceeds to quote this writer from a piece I did on William Shatner last year. The quote follows: STAR TREK was a gourmet’s dream to a land full of starving science fiction fans. Originally a virgin thought in the mind of its creator, Gene Roddenberry, this personification of class took root in the unlikeliest of fields – network television. Indeed, if Shakespeare had been alive today he might very well have written for Star Trek – the thinking man’s Buck Rogers.
Lundwall remarks that “This description is perhaps more significant of the enthusiasm shown by Star Trek’s superfans than for the actual qualities of the series.”
space is no place for cows!
True, sacred cows have no place in a realistic society but it is nonetheless disturbing to find a fine effort like “Star Trek” maligned by responsible fans merely because it achieved more popularity than its detractors thought was merited. It would be far more advisable to look at “Star Trek’s innumerable qualities than to play upon and enlarge its failings. Serious screen translations of science fiction concepts are all too infrequent to permit careless ridiculing of a series that genuinely tried and often succeeded in bringing mature science fiction to millions of faithful televiewers week after week for three years.
“the man trap’ caught imaginations
“Star Trek” began its original run over NBC Thursday night, September 8th, 1966 with “The Man Trap” by George C. Johnson and starring Jeane Bal and Alfred Ryder. The American Public were casually shown the efforts of an alien being to remain alive among humans, concealed by its ability to continually alter its natural appearance. Its survival depended wholly upon the intake of salt or salt products. When it’s supply of salt tablets dwindles it is forced to act as a parasite, feeding upon the biological salts of the human body.
The offering presented us with an animal, desperately trying to preserve its own existence. This, the most basic of instincts in living beings, could also be found, it seemed, in the psyche of a creature bent on our destruction. The traditional unthinking brute of old was sympathetically transformed into a being that wanted nothing more than to survive. Of course, it was killed, but only in self-defense Thus the seed was planted and a new promise was hinted at; that televised science fiction could be something more than a simple stereotype.
“The Enemy Within” is man’s best friend – himself!
Poe Scenarist, Richard Matheson lent his talents to the new series with “The Enemy Within,” a variation of Stevenson’s “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde,” that brought out the unimagined evil side of the captain’s personality in a startlingly vivid performance by William Shatner.
A fallible captain? A vulnerable hero? Whoever heard of such relevances in series television? Heros were supposed to be never wrong, and occasionally wise. How this?
A transporter malfunction separates Jim Kirk into two separate entities as he beams aboard the Enterprise, one benign and the other malignant. The benign Kirk is a compassionate captain, but lacking in the strength of leadership. The violence and willful determination of his supposedly evil half houses the root of the captain’s sum power. Obviously, without the use of his double’s strength, the captain cannot hope to continue as a leader. He is filled with indecision, and his ability to make crucial command decisions is quickly crumbling.
who needs YOU? – YOU do!
Bewildered and frightened, Dr. Jekyll confesses to Mr Hyde that he needs him. They are merely useless nuts and bolts, impotent apart, but together they contribute to the complex machinery that makes a complete human being.
McCoy comments, in a moment of reflection, that there is a dark, hidden side of all of us. It may not be something to be proud of but without it we would not be what we are.
The two personalities reunite for the betterment of both.
STAR TREK’S philosophies often differed from pre-conceived values and popular American concepts of justice. Nothing was purely black and white, the writers told us. For every effect, there had to be a cause as in “The Conscience Of The King.” Why does an ordinary man become a hated murderer of millions? Is he a mindless primitive or was his crime merely an accident of fate, a terrible coincidence that could just as easily have created a hero as it did a villain? Just as no one is born brave, no one is born a killer. Circumstances breed their own outcome.
a king with a conscience?
Arnold Moss, author of “Conscience of the King,” gives life and depth to a brilliant torment, a haunting guilt that has agonized and hounded all men accused of the most heinous crimes. The name of Kodos has been loathed and whispered about for an eternity. A latter-day Hitler, he decided who would physically survive a sweeping famine that spread throughout his colony. No supplies could be spared for his people. A whole population was starving but the remaining food supply could feed only a fraction. Kodos believed that the survival of the fittest, the elite, was infinitely preferable to allowing all of the people to suffer. He therefore announced the forced extermination of those who remained, to save them their misery.
He believed he could avoid certain chaos and bloodshed by employing this strong safeguard. However, a supply ship suddenly arrives with the needed provisions and proves an otherwise humanitarian gesture the deed of a monster. The thin line between hero and villain is brought strikingly home, and one need look only to My Lai for an effective modern analogy.
a nifty new fad – WAR!
“A Taste Of Armageddon” examined the ultimate obscenity; a “clean,” sterile war fought with computers for the sake of expediency. Like a child’s game, whenever the opposing computer registers a mock hit on the map the citizens of the designated area are led away to absorption centers as “casualties.” Thanks to the wonders of modern science, Man can be killed in a pleasant, painless, uncomplicated manner as never before. After hundreds of years of fighting, by way of mutual agreement between the two planets, the senseless destruction of property has now been made totally unnecessary.
War, no longer a costly waste, has been made more tolerable. Actual bombing has ceased, and “all it took was a little bit of cooperation on the part of the citizenry.” Merely a willingness to commit idealistic suicide! Sickened by the spectacle, Kirk initiates a real attack on the other planet, forcing the inhabitants to regain a frightening appreciation for the value of their own lives by signaling the resumption of a real war.
the right that failed
As stated earlier, Star Trek was not above stressing the human failings of the Enterprise crew. They were refreshingly human and never meant to appear omnipotent. Although their five-year mission was in all respects a peaceful one, there came the inevitable confrontations between hero and villain, and we always knew that the Enterprise stood on the side of right. But did it?
The great starship embarks on an “Errand Of Mercy” when it learns that the Klingon empire is planning an attack on Organia, a peaceful planet of farmers that has done nothing more to merit an invasion than stand in the middle of a natural invasion route to Earth.
Upon beaming down to the planet, Kirk and Spock receive a transmission to the effect that the Enterprise is under an attack from the Klingons, and that they are stranded on the planet. The Organians do their best to hide the visitors when the enemy occupation forces arrive, but Organian attire cannot camouflage the explosive difference between human and Organian temperament. The abnormally meek people seem reluctant to voice even the mildest disapproval of their captors.
the cowards! They won’t let us defend them!
Kirk is furious since it is clear that the meek may inherit the earth but not, it seems, Organia. Rising to the glory of the occasion, he takes the role of a single, but mighty champion and does his best to win the impending battle with the Klingons.
As tempers grow heated and the respective Captains prepare for mortal combat they find their phasers too hot to handle. Even the touch of each other in hand to hand combat is too painful to endure. Stunned in disbelief, the combatants face their hosts.
“What’s going on?” they demand.
The Organians explain that they have simply raised the temperature on all of their weapons to three hundred and fifty degrees, and rendered them inoperative.
“You will have to leave,” they say. “The mere presence of beings like yourselves is acutely painful to us.”
“But you’ve got no right to interfere,” protests Kirk. “They’ve invaded our territory.”
“This is our home, not yours,” they answer. “Neither of you belongs here, so what is it you’re defending? The right to make war and kill millions of innocent people?”
“But you are like us,” cries Kirk.
The Organians answer is to tap their unguessed at power and disappear in a blinding glow of energy. Spock remarks that they have as much in common with us as we would have with an amoeba.
More than slightly humiliated, Kirk recognizes the animal instinct still inherent in his species and learns a valuable lesson; that arrogance has no place in the universe.
Trek’s entry into its second season was a disappointing one. A cheapening effect seemed to have been added, and a general lack of direction appeared suddenly prevalent. The marveled at sensitivity of the first season had been regrettably replaced by physical images rather than mental ones. The accent of the series slanted more and more towards action, brutality and little else. However, as saddening as the decline was, there were yet enough intelligent scripts on the drawing board to make the young series the most imaginative on the air.
On September 22nd, 1967 Star Trek presented its second program of the second season, and what was to be its most fascinating offering that year. The show was “Who Mourns For Adonais” by Gilbert Ralston and Gene L. Coon.
how do ya like THEM Apollos?
The very roots of mythology stretch outward in time to hold the Enterprise tight in their grasp as the Greek god, Apollo, magically appears on a distant planet deep in the galaxy, and demands adoration from the earthlings.
If the stories of the ancient gods were born in thy imagination of superstitious peasants, then such beings never really existed. But what if they did exist, not as gods, but as a race of super-beings who visited the earth long, long ago? To a simple culture, visitors in spaceships were so far beyond their understanding that they would have had to have appeared godlike. They couldn’t have been taken for anything else, in fact. If this race had evolved to a point where their existence was virtually unlimited, then this could well be the Apollo of ancient lore.
bein’ a god is a rough job!
Intriguing, yes, but of more direct importance was the fact that in Apollo’s mind, his lost children had gained the stars only to fall at his feet once again in worship. For all his strength, Apollo was a child with a starving ego, desperately craving affection. And if he didn’t get it, like a rejected child, he could strike out savagely at those who had offended him. In the case of a “god,” such childish “revenge” was a frightening thought. And makes one wonder…
Kirk’s only chance is to shake Apollo’s confidence in himself, wound his vanity. In short, destroy him. When it becomes clear that Apollo finds a young lieutenant, Carolyn Bassett, unnervingly attractive and wants to make her his bride throughout eternity, Kirk realizes that Apollo has chosen the tool of his own destruction. What he hadn’t counted on was the fact that the girl was obligingly falling in love with Apollo. It was doubly painful, then, to order the girl to spurn him.
Forced to obey the will of her superior officer, Carolyn tells her god that her interest in him is purely clinical, as a scientist peering through a microscope at a new specimen. Apollo is at first enraged and then, hurt beyond dreams, his world above the heavens shattered, the heartbroken giant of a simpler age gives up life, and cries out longingly for relief to his departed comrades.
“Zeus, Mercury, Hera, Venus …. You were right. The time is past. There is no room for gods. My old friends, forgive me, take me. Let the book be closed. The final word is written.”
The image fades from view, yet never from memory. The young lieutenant is sobbing. The rest of the landing party stands in awed silence.
“I wish we hadn’t had to do that,” McCoy comments quietly.
“So do I, Bones,” Kirk adds. “I feel like I’ve lost something. Would it hurt us, I wonder … just to gather a few laurel leaves?”
starships run on steam?
The final season was even more disappointing than the second had been and although the valiant series was rapidly running out of steam, most of us still prayed for a last-minute network reprieve and a fourth year of missions on the U.S.S. Enterprise. In January of 1969, NBC announced cancellation of STAR TREK. In summer of that year the network belatedly aired its final offering, “Turnabout Intruder,” one of the finest offerings of the last segments. With the coming of the 1969/1970 season, STAR TREK left the air for the last time, and the Star Ship Enterprise flew off on its course to new and distant galaxies … leaving us far behind and forever gone from sight.
STAR TREK has left a strange legacy … and an awesome wake on the imaginations on both audiences and creators of the entertainment industry, and it is doubtful we shall again see its like soon.
Yet it is so popular that every weekday evening in New York City, a STAR TREK installment is aired. No one seems to get tired, and it has one of the city’s highest re-run show ratings. In England, it is phenomenally popular. And merchandising such as comic books in both Great Britain and America is still going strong, even though the series ceased production over three years ago.
The tide of public interest in this television masterwork is becoming so immense, and not promising to receed or subside, that at the Statler Hilton Hotel in New York, a gigantic STAR TREK CONVENTION is held (details on page 23).
Figuring this all newsworthy, this special ALL-STAR-TREK issue of THE MONSTER TIMES has been prepared in honor of the event. All continuing articles from last issue have been stripped to next issue (out in two weeks). Instead, we zero in now on the humble origins of STAR TREK, and some interesting stories of the show’s tempestuous career.
Back in 1965, Gene Roddenberry, who had the mildly successful OUTER LIMITS horror-science fiction TV anthology under his belt, began work on his private dream, a continuing science fiction TV series-STAR TREK-and produced a sample “pilot” film of the show.
This first pilot of STAR TREK was rejected by NBC, Roddenberry was consolingly informed by those who make such decisions that it was a beautiful effort, but that the script was too adult or brainy or “cerebral.”
Roddenberry, working with stock science fiction settings tried to compensate by writing a script which was sensitive and mature. This somehow confused and bewildered the various Network’s Executives who appear to have considered Sci-Fi to be something where Mad Robots steal girls from U.S. Government Girdle Factories, only to be thwarted in their expansive world-conquering attempts by Handsome Young Scientists with apple pie on their side and iron in their fists. Figuring that if they themselves couldn’t understand STAR TREK, then no one could; the Network executives turned it down.
pull a dream out of a nose-dive
However, there was one man with foresight at NBC, a fellow by the name of Mort Werner, a program director, who saw a lot of merit in the show. He gave Roddenberry the go-ahead to produce the second STAR TREK pilot film (“Where No Man Has Gone Before”)-after much talking to his superiors. We salute Mort Werner!
Jeffrey Hunter originally played Kirk in the first pilot film, but bowed out of the second pilot and the series, due to other commitments. After some casting about, William Shatner was found to play the captain, and so rode to international acclaim upon the strength of this one role.
clear flying ahead
The second pilot OK’d, Roddenberry’s troubles had just begun. Now to produce a weekly series, requiring special effects and props and optical darkroom magic, and mature plots which would attract both adults as well as youngsters and with competent acting, excellent scripts, and to do one whole show each 6 days! Oh, boy!
NBC, once convinced that they had a good property, invested more money into STAR TREK than into any other series … over $300,000 per show-a million dollars every three weeks! Such funds are inconceivable to we mere mortals who don’t run TV networks. Every time someone “beamed” aboard ship or down to a planet, it cost $10,000 for the special optical matte work effects (which involved shooting the scene through several cameras, “masking outlines of the persons transported onto several negatives, and other complicated processes). Imagine what it would’ve cost if they’d tried to land the Enterprise on a planet!
music to vacuum in
NBC, now giving their full support to the fresh show, naturally wanted a hand in it to make it “commercial”-so “commercial” tamperings with the physical universe like “whooshing” and “whizzing” rockets in the soundless vacuum of space were added (Gee-don’t rockets whoosh?), and the presence of theme music was added. However, not to quibble, we’re sure that if there really could be orchestras playing theme music for astronauts in outer space, the tunes would sound remarkably like the stuff composed capably by Alexander Courage, George Dunning and Fred Steiner. Courage penned the STAR TREK Theme, and music of most of the first season. Dunning composed the music of the 2nd and third seasons, and Fred Steiner composed and orchestrated the music of “The Corbomite Maneuver.” Without these gifted gentlemen’s efforts, we admit the vacuum of space would have been awfully dull.
Roddenberry persuaded some of the finest science fiction writers available to him in California to write scripts for him. One acclaimed author, the inimitable Harlan Ellison, wrote an installment entitled “The City on the Edge of Forever”–which earned him a Screenplay of the Year Award from the Television Screenwirters’ Guild.
STAR TREK’S convention debut
Critics acclaimed the show from the start. In fact, less than a month before the first episode ran on Network TV, Gene Roddenberry gave science fiction fans a special treat at the World Science Fiction Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, Labor Day Weekend, 1966. Roddenberry there showed both the original pilot of Star Trek and the “Where No Man Has Gone Before” episode. Science fiction fans who only scant hours before had had a garbage network show of that same season inflicted upon them in premier – a monumental horror called Time Tunnel-(the absent-minded man’s Land of the Giants), were overjoyed at Roddenberry’s astounding, refreshing package of adult, intelligent, worthwhile science fiction.
In fact, both authors of this article were present and the convention’s main hall, when overjoyed science fiction fans lifted Gene Roddenberry upon their shoulders, and jubilantly carried him about like a conquering football hero–the long-awaited champion of the poor, downtrodded misunderstood long-suffering seekers of good TV science fiction! A savior had arrived, and they knew it! Now … if the show would only last ….
a touchdown – but not the game
It sadly seemed as if their joy was premature.
Only a few weeks into the first season, NBC officials stunned science fiction enthusiasts (and therefore loyal STAR TREK fans) with chilling news-Ratings were low… and although increasing, were not growing fast enough. STAR TREK would not go into a second season.
STAR TREK was declared dead before the season was halfway over. Some considered it stillborn. Some considered it Assassination-by-Ratings-and-NBC.
S.T.SAGA
a story to wring handkerchiefs by:
But STAR TREK fans would not take this lying down! Across the vast continental United States, Canada, Hawaii and Alaska, sci-fi fans sat and talked, telephoned, printed leaflets mailed to each other. What can we do? they asked. In California, a science fiction STAR TREK supporter and professional writer and illustrator, a concerned woman named Bjo Tremble, organized fans to SAVE STAR TREK campaign. Word passed about via grapevine from one fan to another: WRITE TO NBC! WRITE! WRITE! WRITE!
First a trickle, then a monumental flood of over 100,000 letters poured in NBC!… pleading, begging, demanding, threatening, politely requesting-Don’t cancel our favorite show! We support it! We’ll support you! We’ll even buy the sponsor’s products-believe us! WE WANT STAR TREK NEXT YEAR! Don’t kill it, please!
And NBC was impressed, persuaded to change its mind. The first decision was now “too hasty” … STAR TREK was not canceled! The option was picked up for another season. And ratings continued to climb.
But not high enough.
In the middle of the second season the same disheartening news was again uttered by mighty NBC-Ratings are not sufficient to continue airing the program. There will be no third season.
But Bjo Trimble and her legions would not take no for an answer and a second SAVE STAR TREK! letter-writing campaign was instituted. And again NBC changed its mind, and continued the series-BUT-this time, NBC decided they had better let their “creative geniuses.” “handle” the show. And make it a “commercial” proposition.
Oh boy!
Roddenberry was busied with other commitments, and the third season’s shows were presided over by a certain rapscallion named Fred Freiberger, who, so legend has it, knew absolutely nothing about science fiction and even less about the continuity of STAR TREK and the purpose of the series.
ham handles STAR TREK = Dreck!
Freiberger without so much as flinching, went straight ahead and violated just about every ground-rule which Roddenberry and his loyal crew had initially set down. Fearless Fred forthrightly experimented with flabbergasting stories, inept directing, and barbaric acting to produce something at which even the most loyal STAR TREK fans shook their heads in disbelief, perplexity, and dismay.
Was this dreck STAR TREK?! Really? Honest? Anyone taking bets?
No longer did aliens have superior mental attributes, or try to establish cultural contacts with us, to establish awesome interstellar trade, or discuss ethics, or test our species for its peaceful attributes or even care to talk space shop.
Instead they beat everybody up. If Kirk wasn’t fighting some foolish intergalactic war one week, he was certain to encounter a planet full of brainless Amazons who craved madly to kiss him to death, the next.
It wasn’t exciting, or imaginative, or adult of even sexy-it was a dumb show-all of a sudden. Spock, who wasn’t supposed to register emotions or act irrationally, was grimacing or grinning like a possum or showing so much emotion as to make him a prime subject for an Earth lunatic ward, let alone a Vulcan one.
the saga treks into retirement
At the end of the third season, STAR TREK faded away, and hardly anyone sent a postcard of complaint-or even condolence. For two years, fans had had a great show-and now they had fond memories.
But soon, they had more than memories. STAR TREK was straight away put into syndication… available to local TV stations… and all across the nation, local stations have been picking it up like wildfire… and it runs usually every weeknight over and over again… and no one complains.
Insanity or Genius? At least both!
Still, there were so many good shows of STAR TREK that the weak ones fade from consequence. Roddenberry, whose guiding genius made the great shows GREAT, when he was at the helm with his loyal crew managed to find time to insanely enjoy the toil. Occasionally, as the cameras were rolling, someone would goof up a line or enter a set the wrong way at the wrong time with mildly funny but devastating results.
If the cameras caught this accident (“blooper”) it generally was saved and spliced onto a monumental blooper reel. One particularly outstanding blooper to be round on that reel involves the seven-and-a-half-foot-tall actor, Ted Cassidy, who played a couple of roles on STAR TREK, but one day happened to be dressed up as an Indian for a show being shot on an adjoining lot.
Stepping onto the TREK set, Ted, feeling merry-pranksterish showed up unexpectedly during a shooting as William Shatner was about to charge into an alien hideout and rescue Spock and Scotty. Before he could, out rushed 7-2 foot Cassidy dressed as an Indian on the alien planet and carted the unprepared Shatner away. Shatner gave a puzzled Jack Benny gaze into the cameras and mumbled “But this wasn’t in my script!”
7 1/2 foot Cassidy also figured largely in another joke dreamed up by Roddenberry to get rid of a pesky tailor who was after Roddenberry to buy a suit. Cassidy impersonated Roddenberry for the tailor and dryly commented appreciative remarks about how hard it is to keep suits from falling apart, these days. Why every time. I flex my muscles…
Roddenberry, Shatner, Nimoy and the rest of the nutty crew obviously had a lot of lighter moments, but the STAR TREK team were determined to produce quality in the final print. Stories are told of shooting sequences time after time until, say, the green skin of a bikini-clad alien dancing girl processed in the labs just the right hue. Now that took dedication and hard work!
But eventually it all paid off. STAR TREK won an Emmy for special effects at the end of the third season and both Shatner and Nimoy received best actor award nominations.
the TREK Tragedy
But as the whole fun series drew to a close, a sort of tragedy set in. The acting crew of regulars, who were soaring during the series, quite at home in the vasty cosmos, suddenly saw their careers crash and become lodged on reefs of poor casting when they tried to traverse this simple planet Earth again.
A Sword of Damocles now hung over their heads typecasting. Their careers have floundered ever since the demise of the series. Sadly, Hollywood casting offices are giving the old crew roles which echo their roles on the show. STAR TREK hangs constantly above their heads on a thin thread… and rather closely and ominously.
DeForest Kelley (Doc McCoy) and George Takei (Enseign Sulu) are turning up in depressingly minuscule roles… producers aren’t willing to assume they can handle the larger roles of which they are quite capable because there’s supposed “mass identification” with their TREK roles. Why do producers not assume the American public to be bright enough to know that actors act?
James Doohan (Scotty) who is not Scottish but Canadian, and without accent at all, has primarily been doing “dialect” roles, because all the Hollywood mentalities can see this talented actor doing is a dialect role. Walter Koeneg likewise was not from Russia (as his Mr. Chekov role would indicate), but from Brooklyn; but typecasting is also laying waste to his career. They only give him roles which have Middle-Eastern or Slavic accents … the most insidious sort of typecasting … pigeonholing a man’s career because of what is assumed (wrongly) to be his voice. Astrology, another senseless sort of typecasting, would be about as appropriate and just a little less cruel.
the stars shine more brightly
Doohan and Shatner are doing voice-over dubbing announcing for commercials now and then. Shatner’s career seems to stand the most possibility. He’s doing several TV series pilot films, and without doubt, one will catch on. As a hero, he stands far better chances.
Leonard Nimoy after Mission Impossible looks like a big question mark. He put so much of himself into the character of the half-human half-Vulcan Spock, that his characterization of Paris on Mission Impossible seems pale and wooden by comparison.
And so the Saga of STAR TREK, like many other great sagas, ends on a note of tragedy. STAR TREK as well as the actors in it, suffers from misunderstanding. The series grows more popular with time… but as for those who played in it, the stigma of type-casting will probably smother their careers and their talents for some time to come.
OH BOY! STAR TREK! A whole issue dedicated to every aspect of the show! Just one question – Why?
That’s a pretty good question…
Well, this special ish of THE MONSTER TIMES serves a 2-fold purpose – to celebrate the first annual STAR TREK CONVENTION, January 21, 22, 23 at New York’s Statler-Hilton, and secondly, to commemorate the convention’s memory.
HUH?
You see, we figured the STAR TREK CON was such a nifty idea, that we put out this special issue in honor of it. However, as our distribution schedules go, some of you readers will be reading this in your (few) spare moments at the hectic bustling TREK-CON, as this ish is made specially available to you there, whereas the rest of you have purchased your copy after the convention, at your local newsstand.
So this issue is both a special supplement and a memento of the gala occasion, and we have made our coverage so thorough, that those who didn’t attend the con can get the spirit and crazy exuberance of the luna-module-tic affair. So it’ll seem to you you were there (poor souls!).
ANCIENT SECRETS REVEALED:
Doubtless there are many questions about the show you have long wanted answering. Just to be pesky, we’ll ask them again:
Q: Who was STAR TREK’s salt-thriving vampire? page 5.
Q: Who kept hiding Leonard Nimoy‘s bicycle in the studio rafters? page 14
Q: Did you know the first STAR TREK model kit was a real lemon? page 22
Q: What did chopped chicken liver get for one wise Trekkie? page 28
Q: What lunacies will we be presenting two weeks from now? See back cover.
So, for those of you who’ve bought this modestly superb effort at the STAR TREK CON, enjoy the festivities – and maybe drop over by THE MONSTER TIMES’ special table in Spaceway Hucksters’ room, and maybe perhaps subscribe (mercenary, ain’t we!). For those who (sadly) missed the convention (details of it are on page 23), we hope this issue makes up for it, and we hope to see you there next year.
Next issue (2 weeks from now), we return to our regular newspaper programming, with Giant Bugs on the Munch. See you and your napkins then!
1 THE STAR TREK SAGA: The show’s origins, exploits and fateful (shudder!) destiny.
4 STAR TREK… A GOURMET’S DREAM OF FOOD FOR THOUGHT Some of the greatest missions.
7 BOOK REVIEW: THE MAKING OF STAR TREK: A handy reference, if you write S.T. comics.
12 TV SPACEMEN: A playful portfolio of early rabbit-eared star-raiders.
13 INTERVIEW WITH WILLIAM SHATNER: Capt. Kirk lets it all hang in outer space, Star-flight-on!
15 LEONARD NIMOY: An informal, ear-perking portrait of one Vulcanized actor.
16 STAR TREK COLOR POSTER: Worth the price of the whole dang Trekkified issue!
18 MONSTER TIMES TELETYPE: Facts, flashes and fore-tollings of monster film news.
20 M.T. PRODUCT TEST: Star Trek Model kits… and a couple of interesting facsimiles.
23 STAR TREK CONVENTION NOTES: What’s happening at Ye olde whole sha-bang!
25 THE COP WHO LAUNCHED THE ENTERPRISE: An Encyclopedia Film-Fannica portrait of Genius Gene Roddenberry.
26 STAR YECCH! – A PIX-PARODY: A special photo-comix takeoff, so’s we don’t take this adulation business to seriously.
28 THE LAST DAYS OF THE ENTERPRISE: The last laughs and last heartbreak of the last day of shooting.
THIS ISSUE’S COVER is excerpted from this issue’s super color centerfold poster which we especially commissioned Gray Morrow to concoct for this special all-STAR TREK issue. We trust you’ll find Gray’s fantastically designed poster even more exciting than our cover. We sincerely believe our poster and your wall will be very happy together.
THE MONSTER TIMES, No. 2, Feb. 16th, 1972 published every two weeks by The Monster Times Publishing Company. P.O. Box 595, Old Chelsea Station, New York, N.Y. 10011. Subscriptions in U.S.A.: $ 6.00 for 13 issues, outside U.S.A.: $10.00 for 26 issues. Second-class mail privileges authorized at New York, N.Y. and at additional mailing offices. Contributions are invited provided return postage is enclosed; however, no responsibility can be accepted for unsolicited material. Entire contents copyrighted (c) 1972, by The Monster Times Publishing company. Nothing may be reprinted in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. Subscriber change of address; give 8 weeks notice. Send an address imprint from recent issue or state exactly how label is addressed.
Do you realize that in the dark ages we would have been burned at the stake as wizards for this?
If you’re lucky enough to have a subscription to The Monster Times you will be treated to amazing upcoming attractions like: a two-part story on the old EC Comics (the ones that were so horrifying that they inspired the invention of the dreaded Comics Code!), a super-special feature on Bradbury in the comics, plus articles on the monsters of Prince Valiant, on Flash Gordon (not to mention an interview with Buster Crabbe), and an interview with George Pal.
PLUS: the further adventures of Mushroom Monsters; an in-depth look at Roger Corman and his Poe adaptations; original comic strips and fiction by the likes of Frank Frazetta, Gray Morrow, Denny O’Neil, and Kirk (Superman) Alyn; calendars of special sci-fi, horror, and comics conventions across the country; movie, record, and book reviews; product tests; original color centerfolds in each and every issue; rare poster art from films; and much, much more! And next time out we have a whole STAR TREK issue – about every aspect of TV’s greatest sci-fi show, including an original STAR TREK poster by Gray Morrow and an interview with none other than William “Capt. Kirk” Shatner himself!
Sound good?
We think so and we think you’ll think so too. No one who digs films or comix can afford to miss a single issue! ****EXTRA MONSTER BONUS! – Also with every subscription of one year or longer, you get a FREE 25-word classified ad to be run in our Fan-Fair classified page. You can advertise comics or stills or pulps, etc. for trade, or for anything else – provided it’s in good taste!
How does one get one’s claws on each and every issue of MT?
Read on and see!
I think THE MONSTER TIMES is just what I’ve been looking for! Enclosed is $ …..
Make check or money order payable to:
THE MONSTER TIMES, P.O. Box 595, Old Chelsea Station, New York City, N.Y. 10011
As a new subscriber (for a sub of one year or more), here is my 25-word ad, to appear FREE of charge in Fan-Fair as soon as possible.
PS: I pledge by the light of the next full moon to bother my local newsdealer until he (a) shakes in his boots at the sight of me, and (b) regularly and prominently displays THE MONSTER TIMES.
Please allow a few weeks for your subscription to be processed.
THE OLD ABANDONED WAREHOUSE is here! Now you can order rare and hard-to-get books about monsters, comics, pulps, fantasy and assorted betwitching black sundries. Some of the items are for older fan enthusiasts, and some ask you to state age when purchasing. Don’t be put off by the formality, the pulsating Post Office isn’t.
For mood and tone and anatomy and stark portraits of wonder, Frazetta is the master! Each poster awakens your sense of awe and fascination. The colors and details are reproduced magnificently. Breathtaking to see and own!
Silhouetted against an orange moon is the ravening beast of our nightmares, about to pounce on the victim who has unfortunately discovered him! ….. $2.50
There is the treasure chest, spilling its riches into the ocean depth in which the awed skin-diver has discovered it. But what is that fearful, monstrous thing rearing up behind it? ….. $2.50
C. BREAK THE BARBARIAN VS. THE SORCERESS (cover painting for Paperback Library paperback).
Brak, with sword and on horseback, looks up into murky skies to see is it a vision of a woman? Is that evil she seems to convey? Or menace $2.50
Toe to toe, Conan fights with brute savagery, death in every axe stroke, against two frost giants. The scene is a blazingly white mountain top under an ice-blue sky! Thorough drama! ….. $2.50
Bursting like a firestorm into the midst of a hellish battle, Conan comes, astride his maddened charger, cleaving his bloody way! The background is fire and death and savagery ….. $2.50
Where did the Black Hood appear before comic books? When did the long and incredibly successful Shadow series begin? How long did Doc Savage run? The pulp magazines with continued adventure hero features are listed in this compact and efficient reference book. Note: This book is mainly a listing of old pulp mag. characters and titles, of interest to completists and zealous fans, but not of much value to a person looking for samples of the actual surprises. We say this, hoping to avoid confusion or ill feelings.
The world’s favorite Dracula is seen in a bookful of photos of Bela Lugosi in his weirdest roles. Softcover twin volume to the Karloff book. Excellent stills from the great Lugosi horror films, and plenty of them. 52-pages.
Beautiful hardcover book, limited memorial edition, including a magnificent sampling of the art of this great science-fiction illustrator. Mostly black-and-white and some outstanding color plates. Also contains a full listing of Finlay’s work and where to find it, and his bio.
A frank and nostalgic backward look at a childhood of comic book reading. And then adventure after (original) comic book adventure showing us the complete origin of stories of Batman, Superman, and Green Lantern, and episodes in the careers of the Spirit, Flash, Hawkman, and more! All in beautiful color! Dynamite!
Boris Karloff was the magnificent master of disguise and menace. You can see dozens and dozens of photographs of his various roles in this 52page all-photograph softcover book. Each photo is full-page size (81/2 x 11) and is clear and vivid. A horror-film fan’s prize.
This deadly magazine comic book was the cooperative effort of Jeff Jones, Mike Kaluta, Bruce Jones, and Bernie Wrightson. They experiment with stories of the odd and the macabre, in spidery, Gothic style! Moody and dramatic and high quality.
The first actor ever to play the part of Superman has written this memoir. It is filled with film-making stories (how he caught fire while flying), good humor, and many, many photographs. Fun reading, even for non-film fans.
This softcover, thin book is an amazing look at the art nouveau “psychedelic” comic strip artwork of Winsor McCay. Nemo appeared in the early 1900s, and is still the best visual fantasy ever to appear on a comic page:
A sketchbook of a comic art master featuring fantasy, science-fiction illustrations and visual delights such as girls, monsters, swordsmen, and girls! This volume is recommended for serious students of art, illustration, science fiction, fantasy, swordsmen monsters and of girls–but over age 18.
Here is one of the greatest adventure strips ever drawn, by the finest artist the comic art world has ever produced! Even before beginning his 33. year Prince Valiant career, Hal Foster did the Sunday pages of Tarzan, and this book (softcover, Life Magazine-sized) reprints 55 pages of Tarzan’s story. Where else can this “lost” work be seen?
There is a series involved here, and this is volume one. You can find few better descriptions of how comic books evolved (from newspaper strips and pulp adventure magazines), and there are hundreds of photos and illustrations. Nifty reading, great art – poster-sized full-color cover by the author.
A slim sketchbook which covers some of the finest black and white linework by this super-artist, Frank Frazetta. Each figure shows detail, mass, strength, and drama. For collectors of the best. … You must be 18 to buy this volume. State age when placing order.
The first Tarzan ever to appear in comics form was a daily strip drawn by Hal Foster with the text of the book printed beneath each panel. Designed to run for a few weeks, Tarzan has now been going for forty years. But this book contains the first strips ever drawn, reprinted in clear lines in a wrap-around softcover book. Good value.
THE OLD ABANDONED WAREHOUSE
P.O. Box 595, Old Chelsea Station, New York, N.Y. 10011
The proverbial Old Abandoned Warehouse which you’ve heard about in so many comics, movies and pulp adventure and detective novels is open for business. Abandoned Warehouse Enterprises presents the most AWEful, AWE-inspiring AWEsome AWEtifacts AWEvailable at AWE-striking AWE-right prices! Indicate which items you want
NOTE: Add 20¢ postage and handling per item for orders totaling less than $20.00. Make checks and money orders payable to: ABANDONED WAREHOUSE
DENNY O’NEIL – our film reviewer knows his stuff. Professional screen playwright, sci-fi novelist, short story writer, historian, and the country’s most progressive comic book writer (Superman, Batman, Green Lantern-Green Arrow, to name a few) clucks a review of Clockwork Orange –
For months, we’ve been waiting. A display ad in the New York Times last May told us Stanley Kubrick had completed his first film since the monumental 2001: A Space Odyssey, and that it would be released in December.
Finally, we received an invitation to see it and went and –
The story is really to complex to be summarized. It concerns a slightly-future Britain far gone into decadence and the doings of a hyped-up version of a juvenile delinquent, Alec, whose main interests are “rape, ultra-violence and Beethoven.” The Beethoven is nice, if you have an ear for the heavy classics, and the rape and violence are sickeningly convincing; nothing else is.
The biggest problem is, I think, Kubrick’s faithfulness to his source material, a novel by the English author Anthony Burgess. A Clockwork Orange – the book – is, like most of Burgess’s work, solidly in the tradition of British letters, full of daffy eccentrics and improbably coincidences and broad satire, and a fine tradition it is – for the printed word. But movies need to show, to be either staunchly realistic or imaginatively surrealistic, and A Clockwork Orange is neither: it is a grotesque hybrid of both. Apparently Kubrick couldn’t decide exactly what kind of movie he wanted to make and so pretty much reproduced the novel instead of recreating it in his own medium. And often he fails even the reproduction chores.
To cite two instances:
Kubrick’s portrayal of decadence consists of frequently filling the screen with bizarrely erotic sculptures and paintings, and in placing many of the movies in a sleazy housing project. Well… I’ve seen more decadent objets d’art in Greenwich Village shop windows, and the housing project is a virtual palace compared to some real-life ones (Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis, for example.) is Kubrick saying that civilization is already well into decline? Okay, but why set his story in the future? No, I think rather he simply failed to create a convincing future-tense nastiness.
Finally, there is the matter of Kubrick’s/Burgess’s attempt to Say Something. They seem to be telling us that savagery is an essential part of human nature – essential especially to creativity. I am not persuaded. The only conclusion I can draw from Alec’s eventual triumph is that sometimes insanely rotten bastards get lucky; surely this psychopath can not represent the human race as a whole.
A director as skilled and dedicated as Stanley Kubrick isn’t likely to do a totally bad picture, and he didn’t. Bits and pieces of A Clockwork Orange are electrifying. Great stretches of the soundtrack are particularly fine, with Malcolm MacDowell‘s hypnotic, droning voice speaking Burgess’s prose, counterpointed by the clashing music of Beethoven and Mahler. And the cast is generally excellent, especially young MacDowell. But the nice bits and acting are largely wasted.
By the way, the movie is rated X by Big Brother MPAA. Younger readers be advised. Also be consoled: you aren’t missing much, and your movie money would be better spent on a rerelease of 2001 anyway.
