70s Trek: Star Trek In The 1970s

This week, 70s Trek co-hosts Bob Turner and Kelly Casto are talking about Star Trek Games from the 1970s.  The show’s popularity made it a natural for games to be developed around it. The other aspect that made it perfect for a board game was its uniqueness.  Star Trek was different and memorable and in the 1970s, as the show grew in popularity, merchandisers wanted to capitalize on the brand anyway possible.  That included creating board games. Board Games The first board game showed up in 1967 when the show was still on NBC.  The Star Trek Game was re-issued again in 1974 and 1975 under the same name. In 1977, a version of 3-Dimensional Chess was released.  The author of the Star Fleet Technical Manual, Franz Joesph, actually helped to create the rules of play.     With the release of Star Trek The Motion Picture right around the corner, Milton Bradley released the Star Trek Game in 1979.  Of all the board games based on Trek in the decade, this was probably the best. Role Playing Games Of course, board gam

On this episode of 70s Trek, co-hosts Bob Turner and Kelly Casto are celebrating the show's 75th episode.  It’s the perfect time to look back and see what we’ve covered so far and take a look at what’s around the corner. Star Trek's Specialness Throughout 70s Trek, we've discovered a very common theme.  There are many little stories and events that surround the show and its fandom that make it special.  These are things that have not happened to other other TV shows.  Just Trek! Apart from its on-screen presentations, Star Trek has a special past, a certain pedigree that sets it apart from other creations.  It's what makes the franchise unique. It's been the goal of 70s Trek to touch on some of these stories and events from the 1970s that helped shape Star Trek's rise and dramatic popular explosion. Past Moments Bob talk about the moments in the early 70s that brought attention to the show.  When the Neilsen Ratings company moved to demographics to report TV ratings rather than just the mass numbers right aft

In February 1976, The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder aired an episode that looked at the popularity of Star Trek.  On the set were DeForest Kelley, Jimmy Doohan, Walter Koenig, Harlan Ellison and Star Trek fan and convention holder Al Schuster. Co-hosts Bob Turner and Kelly Casto discuss this program. The Tomorrow Show had its origins in the 1971 Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act.  that law banned cigarette advertising on television.  The lost ad revenue for each of three networks was significant.  NBC execs come up with the idea of extending the broadcast day by an hour to try to recoup some of the lost revenue.  

Bantam began publishing Star Trek books in 1967 with the first James Blish episode adaptation, today known as Star Trek 1.  Of course, the Blish books were a huge success in the 1970s. After Star Trek the Animated Series left the air, Bantam began publishing the Star Trek Log series written by Alan Dean Foster.  These were episode adaptations of the Saturday morning show. But writing and publishing original stories on a regular basis hadn’t begun yet. Prior to 1976, there had only been one original Star Trek novel.  That was Spock Must Die! by James Blish released in 1970. Bantam Takes a Chance It’s hard to imagine today, but there was a time when book publishers were not sure that Star Trek fiction would sell.  It had been six years since the release of Spock Must Die! but the editors at Bantam saw the growing Trek phenomenon in the 1970s and editor Fred Pohl decided to take a chance at original Star Trek fiction. Strange New Worlds Their first attempt could be compared to just sticking a toe in the water to

1976 was the year America celebrated its Bicentennial.  It was also the year that a small movie called Rocky captured our hearts, and a computer company, Apple, was born in a California garage. This was also the year that Star Trek reached it apex in terms of popularity.  Its audience had grown considerably since entering syndication and now it was a firm part of American culture. This fact was further illustrated when President Ford renamed the first NASA space shuttle Enterprise after the iconic starship from Trek. But Star Trek got a further nod that it was reaching new heights when the late night comedy show, Saturday Night Live, did a sketch that parodied the show. It featured John Belushi as Captain Kirk, Chevy Chase as Spock and Dan Aykroyd as Dr. McCoy and details The Last Voyage of the Starship Enterprise." Guest host Elliot Gould plays a NBC executive boards the Enterprise and tells the crew that the show has been cancelled.  It's all done for laughs, with a little message thrown in, as well.  SNL w

After a year of hearing Star Trek movie pitches and ideas from creator Gene Roddenberry and science fiction writers, Paramount executives decided to take matters into their own hands.  In July 1976, they named Jerry Isenberg as the Executive Producer of the Star Trek movie project. Isenberg quickly hired two writers to work on a treatment, Chris Bryant and Alan Scott.  In September 1976, they get to work and turn in a treatment at the end of the month called The Planet of the Titans.  Finally, Paramount had an idea it wanted to produce and execs ordered the writers to begin working on a script. In the meantime, Isenberg began looking for a director.  He talked with some of the big names of the day: Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Robert Wise.  Each turned him down because of commitments to other projects.  But finally Phillip Kaufman agreed to direct. During this activity, artist Ralph McQuarrie was hired to develop concept art for the project.  He had just finished a job working for

Gene Roddenberry already had an actor in mind when he created the character Spock for his upcoming show, Star Trek.  It was Leonard Nimoy.  The actor had guest starred in the first series Roddenberry created, The Lieutenant. He seemed to fit the physical type that Gene had in mind for the character. Nimoy was hired and became the only actor who was there from the first pilot, The Cage, to the second pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before, to the last episode of the series, Turnabout Intruder. Nimoy was a method actor, getting inside the skin of this alien character.  It took its toll on him.  After staying in character for 12-14 hours per day, it took him all of Saturday and half of Sunday to shed the character and become himself again.  Of course, Monday morning was then just around the corner. The stress of the difficult shooting schedule, and perhaps even the way he approached the Spock character, took its toll on Nimoy.  He became an alcoholic.  He eventually sought help and went into rehab after the show wa

Just two years after the publication of the Star Fleet Technical Manual by Franz Joseph, some friends in Manhattan got the idea to do their own reference book.  The result was the Star Fleet Medical Reference Manual (MRM). The books was created by a group of young people who were in their teens and twenties.  They knew each other through the Federation Trading Post, a store and museum in Manhattan in the mid 1970s. Ron Barlow ran the Trading Post with Doug Drexler, who would later go on to work professionally for Trek shows in the 1990s and early 2000s.  Ron's girlfriend, Eileen Palestine, a nurse, was the driving force behind the MRM.  It was her idea to create the book, after seeing the success of Franz Joseph's Star Fleet Technical Manual. The MRM was created using the primitive publishing tools of the day.  The pages were created on a typewriter and the diagrams were hand-drawn.  Yet this group of young people were able to compile each medical fact from Star Trek, provide diagrams and even project out det

After rejecting The God Thing movie treatment and two additional treatments that were referred to as Star Trek II, all from Gene Roddenberry, Paramount execs began looking elsewhere for Star Trek film ideas in January 1976. They began to interview writers independently of Gene Roddenberry, hoping to find that one story idea that could become the first Star Trek movie and launch a franchise. Many writers came in to pitch ideas.  We focus on the three who had the best stories on this episode of 70s Trek.  They include stories from John D. F. Black, Harlan Ellison, and Robert Silverberg. John D. F. Black served as the story editor for the 1st season of Star Trek and wrote the episode The Naked Time. Silverberg is a multi-award winning author in the sci-fi genre and a "Grand Master of Science Fiction." Harlan Ellison is a science fiction author who has written over 1700 short stories, novellas, books and articles. He has also won numerous awards for his work and is known as "Sci-Fi's Most Controversial Figure." L

Star Trek was burning up syndication in 1976, making Paramount millions!  The anticipation for some type of Star Trek return was palpable and the release of the album Inside Star Trek seemed like more evidence to that fact. The record is a collection of interviews with members of the cast and audio clips from Gene Roddenberry's college tour.  Those actors who appear are William Shatner, DeForest Kelley, Nichelle Nichols and Mark Lenard.  Leonard Nimoy was invited to participate but he declined because of his declining relationship with Roddenberry. Also on the album is an interview with Science Fiction author Isaac Asimov.   The album was re-released in 1999 with an extended version of the soundtrack for Star Trek: The Motion Picture.  In the re-release, five extra tracks were included. Photos, film clips or audio from Roddenberry's college tours are very rare.  So having them appear on this album makes it all the more valuable.  But it also stands as a remarkable document of Gene’s, Shatner’s, Kelley’s and N

The Enemy Below is the story of a battle between an American Destroyer captain and a German U-Boat commander during World War II. It stars Robert Mitchum as Captain Murell and Curt Jurgens as the German commander. As you watch The Enemy Below, similarities to the Star Trek episode Balance of Terror jump out.  Trek writer Paul Schneider had never written a science fiction story before.  So when Gene Roddenberry asked him to submit ideas to the show, Schneider looked to The Enemy Below for inspiration.  When Roddenberry sees what Schneider did, he gets behind the effort. The result is one of the best episodes of Star Trek and a fan favorite.  Co-host Bob Turner and Kelly Casto dive deep into The Enemy Below and discuss the production, the story and the similarities to Balance of Terror.  

In 1976, Gene Roddenberry's first attempt to bring Star Trek back was rejected by Paramount.  That story, known as The God Thing (see 70s Trek Episode 45), explored the nature of God.  It explained that the all powerful was actually a broken robot spaceship that visited Earth multiple times.  This was not a story that Paramount wanted to make, never mind sink millions of dollars into. So while the studio looked elsewhere for Star Trek movie ideas, Gene decided to ask his assistant, Jon Povil, to give it a try.  Tat treatment was known as Star Trek II.  This was not Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, but rather referred to the second iteration of Star Trek. Roddenberry rejected it. But asked Povil to help him with another idea.  The two came up with a second treatment in January 1976, also referred to as Star Trek II. Co-hosts Bob Turner and Kelly Casto dive into both of these treatments and tell you the stories that Jon Povil and Gene Roddenberry developed, as well as the history surrounding them.

While many believe he played the first Star Trek doctor, DeForest Kelley actually played the third.  He followed John Hoyt's Dr. Phillip Boyse from the first Star Trek pilot, The Cage and Paul Fix's Dr. Mark Piper from Where No Man Has Gone Before, the second pilot. But it was DeForest Kelley’s portray of Dr. Leonard McCoy that has become iconic in popular culture.  "Bones" was cantankerous, irritable, irascible, and even at times belligerent!  But what would Captain Kirk or Mr. Spock be without Dr. McCoy? The character regularly questioned Kirk’s or Spock’s stance on a topic and made them think about the moral and ethical implications of their decisions.  His was the most human voice on the show. The character is perhaps best remembered for the way he constantly needled Mr. Spock, making the point that logic was not always the correct answer for humans and that compassion deserved to be considered in any decision.  McCoy is also remembered for his "doctorisms."  These took the form of a long-running gag that

Star Trek Discovery debuted on September 24.  The highly anticipated first episode aired on the CBS network.  Subsequent episodes will appear on the streaming service, CBS All Access. CBS had a bumpy road getting Discovery produced.  The new series was announced in early 2016.  Former Voyager writer Bryan Fuller was chosen to create the show and act as its show runner.  But Fuller left after a few months over "creative differences" with CBS.  He was replaced by Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts who saw the show through to production. The  new series is unlike anything seen in the Star Trek franchise before.  It is highly stylized with motion picture CGI effects.  The show is also serialized, rather than episodic.  So we will se a single story arc through the first season. It is also the first Trek property that features a non-captain as the lead.  Sonequa Martin-Green plays Michael Burnham, a Starfleet officer charged with mutiny.  Jason Isaacs plays Gabriel Lorca, captain of the U.S.S. Discovery, a ship we d

Starlog Magazine began as a one-shot to honor Star Trek. But it quickly became a mainstay in the science fiction and horror genre and published through 2008. On this episdoe, Bob Turner and Kelly Casto discuss this publication that started in the 1970s. Starlog was in the right place at the right time.  Just as important decisions about the franchise were being made behind the scenes, Starlog was there to report them  In the pre-internet days of the 1970s, it served as an important vehicle to let fans know that work was being done to bring Trek back. To further cement the close relationship between Star Trek and the magazine, Gene Roddenberry's assistant, Susan Sackett, was given the job of writing a column in each issue called The Star Trek Report.  In it, she gave updates on the ever changing production. When Star Trek returned as a major motion picture in 1979, Starlog was there, bringing fans inside and getting them ready for its debut. The magazine was published continuously until 2008.

To get into the unemotional character of Mr. Spock, Leonard Nimoy immersed himself completely into the character for Star Trek's shooting week, which was six days.   While it was difficult to come back to a place of emotional normalcy for him, it was that immersion into the character that allowed Nimoy to give us some really great moments.   Co-hosts Bob Turner and Kelly Casto each share their Top 5. Whether it was the Doomsday Machine, This Side of Paradise or The Naked Time, Nimoy's Spock provide the show with some major acting power.

The concept of The Six Million Dollar Man originated in a 1972 book entitled Cyborg by Martin Caidin.  The story is very similar to what the TV show's open tells us: Astronaut Steve Austin has suffered a terrible accident and has lost both legs, an arm and an eye.  Through the miracle of science, Austin is rebuilt using bionics. This week co-hosts Bob Turner and Kelly Casto discuss this iconic show from the 70s that helped keep sci-fi alive. In Cyborg and the three other novels in the series, Austin is a government assassin.  Of course, in the TV series, he was a good-guy agent who helped people. The Six Million Dollar Man was a major ratings winner for ABC and spawned an incredible merchandising empire in the 70s!  Just saying it was "huge" doesn't do justice to the show's cultural impact.   In the days before cable TV and the internet, viewers only had three choices from which to choose their programming (four if you include PBS).  So a popular show likeThe Six Million Dollar Man could reach a vastly greate

Grace Lee Whitney was an experienced actress before she came to Star Trek.  She had roles in several movies including Some Like It Hot with Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe.  She also guest starred on many TV shows in the lat 1950s and early 60s. She was hired to do Star Trek in 1966 as a lead character, not a featured character. In fact, she was one of the first actors signed after Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner.  Early publicity photos feature Whitney Shatner and Nimoy together. She was signed to act in 13 episodes and had considered roles in several.  Then, after the episode Conscience of the King, her character Yeoman Rand disappeared and wasn't seen again until Star Trek: The Motion Picture. However, it was on a Friday evening in August 1966 that Whitney says she was sexually assaulted by a NBC executive.  Then four days later, she was informed that her character was being written out of Star Trek.  Her time on the Enterprise was over. The experience started a downward spiral for Grace that

Star Trek had a large regular cast for its time with seven regular roles.  It also had a group of characters that made more than one appearance and in some cases, then just disappeared.   Some of the faces you see again and again, but we never get to know who they really are.  These include characters like Lt. Kevin Riley, Mr. Kyle and Mr. Leslie.  One character we did get to know pretty well was Yeoman Janice Rand.  But she disappeared suddenly in the first half of the first season. On this episode of 70s Trek, co-hosts Bob Turner and Kelly Casto take a look at actors Bruce Hyde, Booker Bradshaw, John Winston, Bilie Blackburn and Eddie Paskey in Part 1. Next week, we take a look at actor Grace Lee Whitney and her character, Janice Rand.

For many, Fred Frieberger is known as "The Serial Killer." He worked on the last seasons of several beloved TV shows right before they were cancelled.  As a result, fans blame him for their ultimate demise.  Star Trek is included in that list of cancelled series. But to lay the blame for Star Trek's fall at Frieberger's feet is unfair. Prior to the start of production for Season 3, there was a big mess behind the scenes at Star Trek.  William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy were feuding over screen time, the production budget was cut by $9,000 per episode which was a large sum in 1968 and Desilu had been purchased by Paramount and they didn't really want the show! To make matters worse, Desilu's executive in charge of production Herb Solow, who had brought the show to Desilu and also convinced NBC to buy it, was no longer around in season 3.  Frieberger was also dealing with a network that hated Star Trek because of the actions of its creator, and had put the show in the worst time slot imaginable for its audience!