The Star Trek Franchise: 1966 to 1979

We appreciate your interest in “Star Trek” and are sorry we have to continue to disappoint you. NBC, however, has no plans for the return of the series.

As reported in recent press stories, our Program Department does have under consideration a two-hour-science fiction film. Several concepts have been proposed for this project – one of which is “Star Trek”. While no decision has been made — nor can we tell you when one will – we are aware of your own high regard for “Star Trek” 

 NBC Audience Services

Title of Star Trek: The Original Series which aired from 1967 to 1969.

This short statement is what those who wrote letters to NBC received in reply to their correspondence. It was written on a post card and was most certainly read by thousands of disappointed fans in the immediate years after the cancellation of the first Star Trek television show. Of course, what came before this is one of sci-fi fandoms best known results – a letter writing campaign that saw NBC receive almost 116,000 letters between December 1967 and March 1968 – which kept Star Trek from being cancelled after its second season. However, what you might not know is that while Star Trek was on life-support almost as soon as NBC first aired the show on television, there were also licenced and Paramount-owned products that further enriched the fan's overall experience with the franchise, almost from its very beginning. This short piece will look at early Star Trek licenced and spin-off products and hopefully give you a sense of how fans were able to consume Star Trek in the earliest days of this now venerable franchise. 

The crew of the USS Enterprise from Star Trek: The Animated Series.This show featured the voice talents of the Original Series actors but only lasted two seasons.

In 1972 NBC went to Filmation and Norway Productions which – working with Desilu Studios who produced the live-action show in the early seasons, and using the same actors who portrayed the original crew – produced two seasons, one of 16 episodes and the other of six of Star Trek: The Animated Series which expanded the in-canon universe and filled the void felt by an increasingly vocal fanbase. Since the last airing of an episode in June 1969, the 79 episode show almost immediately went into syndication. Indeed, as its popularity started to grow, fans started to organize and the very first Star Trek convention was organized in 1971 by Elyse Pins, Devra Landsam and Al Schuster and took place on the weekend of January 21-23, 1972 at the Statler-Hilton Hotel in New York City. This event was covered by Variety, the trade publication, and featured sci-fi legend Issac Asimov, along with the king and queen of Star Trek themselves, Gene Roddenberry and Majel Barrett. 

The cover of the Gold Key Comics' Star Trek #4 (June 1969) with a reprint as Star Trek #35 (November 1975). Written by Dick Wood with art by Alberto Giolitti. Unless otherwise noted, all subsequent images are from Star Trek #4.

Comic book fans will appreciate that Star Trek comics started to appear on the shelves of stores in July 1967, shortly after the first season had completed. They were published by Gold Key Comics, an imprint of Wisconsin-based Western Publishing and interestingly, these books didn't come out with the frequency of other, more established comic publishers. The first was available in July 1967 and called the The Planet of No Return; the second called The Devil's Isle in Space and not available until March 1968. From there The Invasion of the City Builders appeared in December 1968; The Peril of Planet Quick Change in June 1969; The Ghost Planet in September 1969; When Planets Collide in December 1969; The Voodoo Planet in March 1970 and The Youth Trap in September 1970, the latter five issues having been produced after the television show ceased filming in January of 1969. The early comics universally featured a still photo of the television crew (usually Kirk and Spock) on the cover, but the similarities ended there. Have a look: from June 1969's Star Trek #4 The Peril of Planet Quick Change: 

Sulu beams down the crew to "Metamorpha", a quickly changing planet. Where's the Redshirt?

When you special effects budget is limited to what the mind can imagine, Star Trek can get kinda crazy... 

... and even use heavy machinery which was rarely seen on the television show. In the comics they were common place. How did they beam this tank down?

Splash from Part II of Star Trek #4.The comics were divided into chapters.

Not beholden to budgets or technology, the comics were much more detailed in their depiction of alien life and worlds. And the Enterprise crew always seemed better equipped with tools and rucksacks too. In a similar vein, the comics also make it clear that the artists had very little contact with the television show, with the backgrounds and crew tools being very different from the set designs of the television show.   

Splash from Gold Key's Star Trek #31 (July 1975). The writer of unknown but the art is by Alberto Giolitti.

Star Trek #31 was titled The Final Truth and had a Gamesters of Triskelion feel to it  – but with robots! 

First piece of licenced original Star Trek prose fiction was titled Mission to Horatius and was written by author Mack Renolds and published by Whitman Books (which was also owned by Western Publishing). It was the first original piece, as there had been previous Star Trek "novels" but they were actually adaptations of the television series from Bantam Books starting in early 1967. Following Mission to Horatius, Spock Must Die! by James Blish – which as the title suggests, was targeted more at adult readers – was released in 1970. Interestingly, despite the growing popularity of Star Trek and hints from Gene Roddenberry himself that the show might come back (which were most pronounced in the lead up to the failed launch of Star Trek: Phase II in 1978), the next Star Trek novel was Spock, Messiah! which was released in 1976 and written by Theodore R. Cogswell and Charles A. Spano Jr.  After the second novel, the Star Trek universe took off and novels based on the franchise proliferated. 

Cover of Spock, Messiah! by Theodore R. Cogswell and Charles A. Spano Jr. Published by Bantam Books.

Both Star Trek novels and comic books would bounce from publisher to publisher, in the latter case with Marvel Comics picking up the licence for a short period beginning in 1979 with the comics adaptation of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. However, that will be discussed later in the next installment of this ongoing mission based on the Star Trek Franchise where we will look at the 1980s and 1990s, covering the bulk of the Star Trek feature films as well as Star Trek: The Next Generation. Thanks for reading and have a great day!   

WGTB Reviews TV on Strike: Why Holleywood Went to War over the Internet

Of the books I’ve read this past month, TV on Strike:  Why Hollywood Went to War over the Internet by Cynthia Littleton has been my favourite and is a must read for anyone interested in the business of Hollywood television production, labour relations and what effect the Internet is having on our daily lives.  

TV on Strike: Why Hollywood Went to War over the Internet, Cynthia Littleton, University of Syracuse Press, 2013, pp. 296, $29.95 

Littleton, the deputy editor of the industry tabloid Variety (itself a recent example of how the Internet has drastically changed media – it halted production of its newsprint edition in March) is no stranger to the business of television and has a mastery of her subject matter, the likes of which requires the reader to have a tablet close to help with the deluge of biographical, business and geographical information found within. 

The story of the 2007/2008 Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike is a long and complex one, and Littleton is careful to provide a detailed history of labour relations between the talent unions prior to the conflict, and grounds the reader in how episodes happening decades prior to the strike – including the guild’s terrible result in a late 80s strike related to VCR residuals – related directly to their 2007 situation and thinking. From there, the WGA's pathological fear of not getting caught in bad deal became clear and we learnt how the principal characters of 2007-2008: the leaders WGA and the seven media conglomerates as represented by the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) went to battle in what was often a very personal and heated conflict between two groups that were normally close partners. 

And this is what is particularly fascinating about of this book. TV on Strike really gets down to the nitty-gritty of the labour negotiations and provides some fascinating insight into the essence of the strike itself: the important role the Internet and the delivery of new entertainment has played in drastically altering the entire entertainment industry. From here it becomes clear that the strikers did not see themselves as millionaires wanting more, but as workers at the vanguard of one of the most significant changes to the American economy since the industrial revolution. If you’re a user of Netflix or Hulu or ‘PVR’ your favourite programs to watch later, you are part of the changes in television viewership that were as issue in the strike and have had, in your own way, an effect on the writers and conglomerates. TV on Strike explains this and why the habits of skipping commercials and watching full seasons on DVD have drastically altered the TV business up to the highest levels. 

The writing, at times, is dense and in places it needs to be read a couple times to fully comprehend what is happening. And as mentioned above, if you’re not an industry insider the details will be aided severely (and ironically) with the Internet close for reference. This is especially the case in the portion that outlines the negotiations themselves in the latter chapters, and this part probably having been written with insiders (read: entertainment lawyers and journalists) in mind rather than the average reader. But that said, the book is accessible to someone with even a passing interest in the entertainment industry and would also be a good book for public relations practitioners as well. With so much at stake, often having the public onside is as important as having a good negotiator at the table and there was certainly that element to this strike as well. 4.5/5 STARS

WGTB talks Iron Man 3 & Community

Like the previous two Iron Man and Avengers films, Iron Man 3 (released May 3rd) stars Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark, the billionaire industrial magnate turned superhero who's called upon to once again save the United States. This time, he squares off against the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) and his squad of biologically enhanced goons who have been augmented by the Extremis program, itself created by a scientific organization headed by Aldrich Killian (Guy Pierce). Gwyneth Paltrow reprises her role as Stark Industries chief and Tony's love interest, Pepper Potts while Jon Favreau and Don Cheadle return as Iron Man friends and allies, Happy Hogan and James Rhodes.  

Iron Man 3 stars Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Jon Favreau & Ben Kingsley. Directed by Shane Black. 130 minutes

Being a generally positive reviewer, I’ll begin with the visuals, which were in a word: stunning. There's a scene you’ve probably seen on TV where Iron Man saves people falling out of Air Force One and seeing this in 3D was simply breathtaking. As someone who has never exited a plane that wasn’t grounded, I have to say this is probably the closest I’ll ever come to skydiving. Other technological aspects of the film, including Iron Man's new armour and the climactic battle at the end were equally amazing, with a special note going to the various models of Iron Man suits which were awesome escapist fare for any comic book reader. 

 

Unfortunately, the positivity of this review ends there as the rest of the film was lacklustre and on the whole disappointing. Frankly, there were just too many plot holes and silly subplots to contain my suspension of disbelief and by mid-film I was waiting for the next battle because I had lost interest in the story. With regard to the actors, I also found their characters seemed tired and played-out to the point where they were just going through the motions to get a third film done. I know that's the Hollywood thing these days – a trilogy per character – but here it just seemed forced to the point where it was no longer necessary. I know this seems harsh, especially because Robert Downey, Jr. was so good in The Avengers and that film was fantastic. But here he just seemed fatigued and no amount of (admittedly) great action was enough to salvage a sub par performance or a stretched and pockmarked story. I hate giving bad reviews on this blog, but in this case the best I can do is 2.5/5 STARS.    

Community RENEWED! 

Somewhat tangentially but likely of note to many readers of this blog, last night we learned Community, NBC’s quirky single camera comedy was picked up for a fifth season. Being in the UK the past few years, I was a late convert to the show, but have since taken up the cause of Greendale with a relentless fervor. Suffice it to say, I was very pleased to hear this news. 

With Chevy Chase off the show and Joel McHale's character graduated, might we see an addition or two to the core cast of Community next year? Pictured here are Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi), Troy Barnes (Donald Glover), Ben Chang (Ken Jeong), Britta Perry (Gillian Jacobs), Shirley Bennett (Yvette Nicole Brown) & Annie Edison (Alison Brie). Photo from Community's Google+ site.

And while I’m certain the line-up will change as former regular Chevy Chase left the show in November 2012 and Joel McHale’s character graduated from Greendale at the end of Season 4, the core of the group is taking an Astronomy class together which means the same fun and (regularly) geek-themed antics we’ve come to love from the show. If you’re not familiar with Community, think of it as Arrested Development in a 90210 setting with a smattering of The Big Bang Theory thrown in for good measure. Except it's so much better than TBBT, that I can't for the life of me understand why it loses in the ratings battle. But that's for another blog...