Merry Christmas Eve Everyone! Sending you ALL the rest of my silly Trek-Style Dad-Joke Elf on a Shelves for your Holidays, as well as all the ones posted already! (I can’t believe I’ve made 20 of these!) Love you All and Wishing you a very happy, blessed and safe Christmas and New Years! Please let me know which are your favorites! See you in January! Hugs, Stay safe! – Therese xo
Today is a special anniversary! It was 50 years ago today, November 17, 1966, that Star Trek aired the first part of it’s only 2-part episode, The Menagerie, on NBC.
The episode conveniently helped keep production costs down by recycling Star Trek’s original pilot The Cage into a new story about Spock’s loyalty to his first captain, Christopher Pike. Pretty clever, actually, and aren’t we grateful for it! Gene didn’t want the pilot to be forgotten, and by making it the center of a new episode, it built up the canon of the original series.
But even more importantly, it offered first insights into Mr. Spock’s past, and revealed his devotion to his first captain, now seriously paralyzed, and willingness to risk court martial and even death to give his captain a better life. It also gave us our first inklings into just how human this logical, stoic Vulcan could be. I’ll discuss more about it in a future post. But for now, I really loved this episode. A shame there were not more two-parters made.
Do you have a favorite moment? Here’s some images from the classic episodes – with my silly captions, of course! (Hmm, maybe I should turn this into a full fledged comic…) But if you haven’t seen it, get thee to thy nearest streaming site! (Netflix, Amazon, etc)
Fun fact: Did you know that ‘The Menagerie’ and ‘Court Martial’ were filmed back-to-back? Maybe they had narrow window for dress uniform rentals! 😉
Lovely Miss Piper looks out for the Avon representative.
Kirk forgot her order, but immediately goes into flirt mode…
Pike says you can’t trust rival Mary Kay products. Look what it did to me!
Jim, I can’t get the online Avon to order properly!
Meanwhile, Spock is on his own mission…
Finding a new home for his Shopkins collection…
Uhura can’t believe what a bad commander Hansen is; she takes over the bridge.
Nobody touches my Shopkins!
They still use paper in the future?
Spock practices his sexy serious look
Kirk shows Mendez his new goldfish
What do you mean I can’t take over?
Spock has secret shame over his Shopkins collection
Spock denies he has Shopkins.
We’ll see about that…
Is it true you and Pike shared Shopkins?
Oh great, movie night…
Yes, that was before my Avon make-over!
You won’t let me take over the ship either? Damn glass ceiling!
She’ll never get command, Chris; it’s a man’s world!
No sense being excited about rescue, I’m just gonna die again in 2 episodes…
Nothin’ but old guys here…
Oh, wait. Except for this remarkably clean Barbie Avon rep.
This story’s too big for one week!
Are you dramatic enough? Yes.
Oh sure, the cute young Vulcan gets to be in every single episode while I vanish after this!
Barbie’s dream castle.
I found my Ken doll!
Avon Barbie said these remove eye bags
I had an allergic reaction to the foundation.
I’m gonna eat all your Shopkins!
NO!
I warned her about the foundation
Avon has jewelry too!
And great nailpolish!
Avon Barbie accidentally used Mary Kay moisturizer.
Spock is content with his Purple Pop eyeshadow
I told Jose not to use the vanishing cream!
Spock is freed, and runs off with Pike; his Shopkins safely stashed in Pike’s scooter…
Over the years, The Simpsons has occasionally referenced Trek TOS, and here’s a compilation of closing credits with Simpson Characters in full Trek drag! I’m pretty sure all of you know the references! I love Marge as Vina!
Most recently, an opening ‘couch gag’ featured Homer and the crew of the Enterprise (or should that be Donutprize?) fighting off the fierce couch –guess who won?
There were many other instances of Simpson/Trek crossovers and of course many references in Matt Goering’s brilliant Futurama, which I’ll get to next time! Have a nice weekend! Until next week…
Bet you didn’t know that once Captain Pike and Vina were living in paradise for a few years they started a virtual theater group to stave off boredom! (Broadcasting directly from Talos IV!)*
I loved making this. It started when I came across this image of Vina talking and she looked like she was singing. Her pink gingham shirt reminded me of the purple gingham dress Laurie wears in Oklahoma! I was gladly able to change the pink to lavender using the hue/saturation key on Photoshop. Immediately I had to find a good ‘singing’ picture of Pike in the same scene, and fortunately there it was with Pike staring off in the distance. 🙂 I borrowed Gordon Macrae’s cowboy hat and scarf from this image, and it all gelled together perfectly!
*If you’ve never seen Oklahoma!, you can read all about it here, and read this very funny review here.
For this weeks fan art, I found some more wonderful work by Gary Anderson (a.k.a. darkwing75) on DeviantArt. Gary has created dozens of these stylish images of sci-fi and fantasy characters in his signature fashion plate style. (I’m guessing there’s a template he uses). Here’s his take on some of the best Star Trek ladies from Earth and Elsewhere. I especially like Isis from Assignment: Earth. As I costume-fanatic, all I can say is Mr. Anderson, more please!
For this week’s Fan Art, and amazing commission by artist MJBivouac! Vina’s ready to take a bite out of Pike! Of course, we know that Vina’s actual costume didn’t reveal that much voluptuousness, (if any) but I suspect that the customer who ordered this is always right! Note Pike’s blazing blues and the the background detail. Hard to believe that The Cage was filmed 50 years ago!
It’s been a long week (with concerns about Sandy and such) So here’s some pretty for today! A while back, I discovered a site called Doll Divine which features multiple interfaces where one can create all types of pretty model ‘dolls’. The one game on the site is Erte Elegance where you create dolls in the style of the great Art Deco artist Erte (with lots of swags and fru-fru’s) I started playing with the interface, and before long, I was recreating Star Trek’s most lovely women (Terran and Otherwise) in this most elegant style! Here the first several of my efforts –Vina from “The Cage” in her rags, damsel-in-distress gown, Talosian dress, picnic outfit, and of course, as a Green Orion Slave Girl! Note: Obviously these are variations on the original theme, for you are limited to the templates of the game and profile position of the model, but these are fanciful versions of the Trek Costumes as Erte may have interpreted them. I’m proudest of the ‘damsel’ gown, as I managed to recreate a facsimile of the fancy frock that Vina wore, complete with dark gold underskirt. (There are many options for patterned fabric and skirt layering) I’ll post some more of my other Trek ladies in the future. Enjoy, and have a restful weekend! And check out this site, it’s fun! – Therese
I’m a great fan of old movies, I watch TCM whenever I can, and I am especially a fan of old movie poster art. After doing my StarTreKomics for several months now, (and yes, there will be more) all the collage work I had been doing suddenly lit a compact fluorescent bulb over my head. Hey! Trek has always been a great adventure/romance/drama in the most cinematic way, and wouldn’t it be fun to re-imagine episodes as if they were weekly serials at the movies? Of course, they’d need a thrilling poster to attract attention. hope to do all 79 episodes, but for now, here is the first in my series of Trek Episode Movie posters; Ladies and Gentleman of all species, here is “The Cage” -Be sure to click on the image to see in in it’s full size glory!
