The Star Trek Concordance is a reference book published in 1976 by Ballantine Books. It was written by Bjo Trimble who had already made a name for herself in fandom circles. She was instrumental in the letter writing campaign that brought Star Trek back for its third season. The Concordance started its life as a collection of note cards made by Dorothy Heydt and Bjo. The two grew it into an early fanzine with multiple editions for each season. But with the growing popularity of the Original and Animated Series, Ballantine became interested in releasingThe Concordance as a full edition. This book is…
70s TREK - Star Trek in the 1970s
Gold Key Comics was an imprint of Western Publishing. It was also known as Whitman Comics. The company began operating in 1962 and published a wide variety of comic book adaptions through 1984. Gold Key obtained the rights to print Star Trek in 1967 and continued the run until it was awarded to marvel in 1978. These books are often overlooked or forgotten. But they were part of the Star Trek story in the 1970s. While they carried the show’s name and included its characters, these comic adventures had very little to do with the episodes we watched in syndication in the…
This week on 70s Trek, co-hosts Bob Turner and Kelly Casto talk about actor George Takei. Of course, Star Trek fans know George as Mr. Sulu. He had quite an extensive career before he joined Star Trek and continued to act steadily as a guest star in TV. George also dabbled in politics in the 70s. He ran for, but did not win a seat on, the Los Angeles City Council. George was later appointed to the committee that helped design the LA Subway System.
Space 1999 was from the producers of the British TV show UFO, Gerry and Sylvia Andersen. In fact, the show grew out of UFO’s unmade second season. It was memorable for its high quality special effects, great music, energetic opening sequence and cast. It featured two familiar American actors, Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, in the starring roles. Both had worked for three years on Star Trek’s sister-show at Desilu, Mission: Impossible. Co-hosts Bob Turner and Kelly Casto look back on this short-lived series and share their insights.
If you know anything about Star Trek in the 1990s, then you’ll recognize the name Doug Drexler. Doug worked on every Star Trek production from 1990 to 2005. But before he started working in Hollywood on The Next Generation, Doug was a Star Trek fan in Manhattan in the 1970s. In fact, he worked for the first Star Trek merchandise store, the Federation Trading Post. That led him to contributing to his first book, the Star Fleet Medical Reference Manual in 1977 and later to Gold Key’s Star Trek comic books line. His stories from this period are fun and…