One of my favorite Star Trek Original Series episodes, "The Deadly Years," was in production 59 years ago today. There are two interesting things about this picture (from a film frame): 1). Bill McGovern, the 2nd Assistant Camera operating the slate, is standing on a plywood sheet used to create...

DID YOU KNOW the iconic Klingon emblem was envisaged by Matt Jefferies as the Klingon Fleet emblem, and pointed to the side rather than up? It appears that way in "Elaan of Troyius" and on the battlecruiser miniature. #StarTrek60

The first attempts to revive Star Trek resulted in unproduced projects that became legendary … though some of their most familiar names were never their actual titles. This is the story of how Star Trek history got a little loose with its names. Read it here www.facttrek.com/blog/otherna...

By Any Other Names — FACT TREK

The first attempts to bring Star Trek back after the original series resulted in unproduced projects that became legendary … even though some of their most familiar names were never their actual…

facttrek.com

"Will the real Gene Roddenberry please stand up." It's 1975, and the panel of Garry Moore's To Tell The Truth must figure out who's the real Great Bird of the Galaxy. www.youtube.com/watch?v=vztZ...

To Tell the Truth - Gene Roddenberry

YouTube video by BillCullenNet

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Orlando Evening Star, June 17, 1967. "Well, I'd say 'Star Trek' is one show that got off the ground! Ha-ha-ha...ha...ha!"

If you see this, post your getaway vehicle… Images: kustomrama.com/wiki/Reactor

Take a memo… Top of the first page of a memo from Gene Roddenberry to Fred Freiberger, ccing Bob Justman and Arthur Singer, on the subject of the script for "The Last Gunfight" (renamed "Spectre of the Gun") by Lee Cronin (pseudonym of Gene L. Coon), dated May 15, 1968.

Tonight’s Fact Trek bedtime reading material from 1959.

Be glad it never got beyond the "springboard" phase.

From the July 18, 1968 De Forest Research report on "In Essence—Nothing" aka "The Tholian Web". "Sigh" indeed! #StarTrekExcerpt

Thanks to Bill Kobylak for sharing these. Want more Shatner as Alexander? Check out our article "AlexShatner the Great?" here: www.facttrek.com/blog/alexander

Bill Kobylak@yimyames.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Sacramento Bee, May 18, 1967. STAR TREK: "The Menagerie." Part I; repeat. Capt. Kirk's trusted aide, Dr. Spock, shocks the captain and everyone concerned with the space research program, by rerouting the path of the Enterprise to the forbidden planet of Talos IV.

Arizona Republic, May 18, 1967. Star Trek: Outside of "Dragnet," perhaps the season's best series (unfortunately, that's not as much of a backpat as we'd like it to be): tonight Kirk has to take up arms against a of troubles — primarily, an extraearthly judge who has sentenced the crew to death.

@yimyames.bsky.social Hi Bill. Did you see our Alexander piece? And could I have permission to share your Alexander images in the article?

Page 3 The Nov-Dec 1977 issues of the Star Trektennial News (aka Inside Star Trek) newsletter where the in-development series is called "Star Trek II". Check out the set photos! #StarTrek

#OTD 49 years ago, actor/writer Stanley Adams died. Here's an In Memoriam about him from the Inside Star Trek/Star Trek Trektennial News, Vol. III, No. 22- July-August, 1977. If you or someone you know is struggling, in the US call or text the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. #StarTrek

AlexShatner the Great? A big-budget pilot starring William Shatner, Adam West, devised by the creator of Combat! How could that miss? Had it sold, we might never have gotten both actors in the roles that defined their careers. Read the full piece ➡️ www.facttrek.com/blog/alexander

Hollywood accounting is… complicated.

Sherilyn Connelly@sherilyn.bsky.social · 4mo ago

While it's true that an obscene amount of cash was burned on the first Star Trek movie--$44M, yikes!--according to the February 23, 1980 New York Times, Paramount grossed over $135M on it even without factoring in ticket sales. Of course, nobody liked the movie, which was another matter entirely.

"It's a faaaake!" AI fuckery fakery is everywhere, like this image we found on an article. Such photo-real nonsense confuses the historical record — caveat emptor. #StarTrek

DC Fontana’s 1961 Scriptwriting flyer

The last episode of Star Trek had wrapped filming month before this interview; there was no letter-writing campaign of the magnitude of the previous year. The timeslot move mentioned was for the summer, which would be led off by "Turnabout Intruder". www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJVO...

Newly uncovered William Shatner TV 8 interview February 1969

YouTube video by CBS 8 San Diego

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#OTD 59 years ago, Broadcasting magazine printed this Sid Hix cartoon playing on the name Uncle Sam & former hit, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., which was fading in the ratings & would vanish in less than a year. #StarTrek was a candidate to fill its 1967–68 timeslot, but NBC put Laugh-In there instead.

Boston Globe, February 26, 1967. "You have not written about Star Trek since its opening show. What do you think about it?"—Donna (I think that it was unfortunate in its choice of an opening episode, but that it has improved immeasurably since then. It is exceptionally well produced and written).

San Francisco Chronicle, February 26, 1967. SCIENCE OFFICER Spock (Leonard Nimoy), a man incapable of emotion, falls in love for the first time with Jill Ireland on Star Trek, Thursday at 8:30 p.m. in color on Channels 4 and 3.

Hartford Courant, February 12, 1967 AIDS ENEMY: Madlyn Rhue portrays spacecraft crew member Marla who is torn between duty & love when her lover attempts to seize control of the Enterprise in his quest for world power in "Space Seed" on the NBC colorcast of "Star Trek" Thursday from 8:30 - 9:30p.m.

#OTD 1967 item.

Sherilyn Connelly@sherilyn.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Ludington Daily News, February 14, 1967. Montalban Appears in 'Star Trek' Ricardo Montalban guest-stars as the survivor of a tyrannical super race in "Space Seed," a drama in which Kirk and his crew are unwitting accomplices to an attempt to seize world power, on NBC's colorcast of "Star Trek."

One wonders from whence these "news" items originated.

Sherilyn Connelly@sherilyn.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Independent, February 14, 1967. Star Trek producers are looking for an attractive girl to play the regular role of an alien. Reason? More of the audience identify with Leonard Nimoy, who plays a male alien, than with earth-hero Shatner. Roddenberry hopes the men will identify with the alien lovely.