Category Archives: My Star Trek Scrapbooks

The Daily Scrapbook: 7/18/13 Local Boy starts Trek Club

Here’s today’s flashback:  In the days before the internet, Trek fans would actually gather in each others homes and talk about Star Trek.  Young Dana here started his own local Trek club, and I joined it for a while.   Met many interesting characters people!   The highlight for us was actually getting to watch a (film-stock) Trek episode every month, which was borrowed from the local ABC affiliate and shown on a movie screen at Dana’s house!

As I recall, Dana wanted to go beyond just a bunch of fans talking about their passion, he wanted to make it more a philanthropic thing, sort of bringing the ideals of the Federation universe into the real world.  I remember we had a car wash once to raise money for a local charity.  Although I appreciated Dana’s noble ideals,  I think this idea didn’t go too far,  Many of us  just wanted to talk about Trek and compare notes on our memorabilia collections!    I still have a couple of ‘newsletters’ from the club, and I’ll post them here as soon as I find them!

Wonder what Dana is up to these days? Probably a C.E.O. 🙂

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The Daily Scrapbook: 7/17/13 Bill and Marcy at the ST:TMP World Premiere

Here’s today’s flashback:  From Dec. 7th 1979, Bill Shatner enjoys a taste of A-list stardom, and gets energized at the world premiere of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.  (He’s so excited!) Dig those ruffly cuffs!  Marcy’s so cute here too.V3-021

The Daily Scrapbook 5/16/13 December 8, 1979, Star Trek: The Motion Picture Premieres!

Here’s today’s flashback:  The day had finally come! After 10 years fans fervent hopes of a comeback,  of waiting for the day when Star Trek would return, it was finally here!  I remember waiting outside the Cameo Theater in Binghamton on that cold winter night for the first showing with my school pal John and we couldn’t wait to see how this ‘Human Adventure’ would unfold. (The Press photo below is of the line for the second showing that night) I recall being happy to see the ol’ crew again, and delighted that Spock was back.  I liked the beginning, I liked the end, but couldn’t recall much from the middle.   And I couldn’t help but wonder why parts of it seemed so slow and sometimes the dialogue was barely above a whisper! I admit, I said it was great to fellow patrons on the way out, but in my heart I knew it was more a matter of ‘be careful what you wish for’. Was this  dull, beige-y/grey saga the future of my beloved show?  It was Trek, but just not quite Trek enough; where was the humor and the spirit of the original? I admit, I almost gave up on Trek after this version, but the sequel in ’82 made me much happier!

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The Daily Scrapbook: 7/10/13 (Nov. 1979) Trek Comic Intro and Mr. Sulu Coming to Town!

Here’s today’s flashback:  From November of 1979, a quick blurb about the  Star Trek comic coming soon to our daily newspaper and an ad announcing a visit at my local community college by Mr. Sulu himself, George Takei!  (I was a new student at BCC at the time, and my enthusiasm for Trek hadn’t dimmed)

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The Daily Scrapbook: 7/9/13 (November 1979) NYT Interview w/Roddenberry

Here’s today’s flashback: From November 23rd, 1979, Gene Roddenberry recalls to The New York Times the long, hard trek it took to get Star Trek to the silver screen:

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The Daily Scrapbook: 7/8/13 Trek Promos begin…The Poster

Here’s today’s flashback:  From November of 1979,  Newspaper Ads for the Star Trek Daily Comic that would soon premiere in our local paper, and an ad for an ad in the Sunday paper to see the special color ad in the Sunday Parade insert! (Mind you, newspapers were mostly in black and white back then, so no color in the movie timetables)  This was the first time I saw the poster for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and I couldn’t imagine the promise of the shiny, rainbow drenched poster! V3-011 intro V3-011 complete

The Daily Scrapbook 5/14/13 Rare Comic Strip John Darling featuring Leonard Nimoy!

Here’s today’s flashback: from November 15-17th 1979, a now defunct daily comic strip featuring an inept, egotistical TV Talk show star, John Darling and his assortment of guests.  Darling was a spin-off from the comic Funky Wunderbean and ran from 1979-1990.   Nimoy appeared in two strips here, and, as in real life, he just doesn’t get the full respect from the media beyond being known as ‘ Mr. Spock’.  Oddly, he’s portrayed as a left-hander here too.

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The Daily Scrapbook 6/12/13 A tabloid preview of Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Here’s today’s flashback: From 1979, a full color (!) sneak peek at Star Trek: The Motion Picture from a supermarket tabloid (I think it’s The Star, but it could be The National Enquirer).  I recall being stunned at how different the Klingons looked, and that Spock had a pageboy haircut! (oh, the hippie!)  But it stoked my interest, as you can see, I cannibalized it so it would fit neatly into my scrapbook pages.

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The Daily Scrapbook: 6/11/12 Poster for local showing of ‘Tribbles’

Here’s today’s flashback: From October 1979, a slap-dash poster from the halls of a local community college showing ‘The Trouble with Tribbles’.   As I recall back in the day, our local  ABC-TV affiliate station showed Star Trek on Monday through Friday’s at 6:00, and occasionally they’d loan out their  copies (on film-stock) to local  showcases.   But this wasn’t a local loan, I see that the poster has “Clem Williams Films. Inc” in the lower left hand corner, which was a distributor of 16mm films (in the era before VHS took over)  and the school must have rented it from them.  I recall my sister and her beau drove me out to the college so I could watch it! (wasn’t that nice?)  Oh sure, I could see it anytime on TV, but to see it on a big screen?  Bring it on.

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The Daily Scrapbook: 5/24/13 “The Days Dwindle Down to a Precious Few”

Here’s today’s flashback:  Winding down in her last Star Trek Reports for Starlog Magazine, , Susan Sackett nears the end of the series with the article “The Days dwindle down to a precious few”.

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