star trek 1970

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Star Trek: The Animated Series

The further adventures of Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise, as they explore the galaxy and defend the United Federation of Planets. The further adventures of Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise, as they explore the galaxy and defend the United Federation of Planets. The further adventures of Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise, as they explore the galaxy and defend the United Federation of Planets.

• Gene Roddenberry
• William Shatner
• Leonard Nimoy
• DeForest Kelley
• 51 User reviews
• 21 Critic reviews
• 2 wins & 3 nominations

Episodes 22

Photos 1676.

• Captain James Tiberius Kirk

• Mister Spock …

• Nurse Chapel …

• Aquan Harvester …
• Orion ensign …

• Carter Winston …

• Cyrano Jones

• Harcourt Fenton Mudd

• Young Sepek
• Young Spock
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia According to Lou Scheimer there were never any ego problems between the cast members during recording sessions, although William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy had a tendency to count their characters' lines and complain when one of them had too many more than the other.
• Goofs Nurse Chapel's chest insignia is the standard oval-within-a-circle symbol for the Sciences division. However, in the live Star Trek (1966) , her uniform was unique in that she wore a red cross in place of that symbol.
• Connections Featured in The NBC Saturday Morning Preview Revue (1974)

User reviews 51

• Feb 17, 2005
• How many seasons does Star Trek: The Animated Series have? Powered by Alexa
• What year does this series take place in?
• September 8, 1973 (United States)
• United States
• StarTrek.com - Episode Guide
• Star Trek: TAS
• Filmation Associates
• Norway Productions
• Paramount Television
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 30 minutes

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History [ ]

Originally, Star Trek was a product of Desilu Studios as created by Gene Roddenberry in a first draft series proposal " Star Trek is... ", dated 11 March 1964 .

Beginning with a single pilot episode, " The Cage ", filmed in 1964, Star Trek was not placed on the schedule of the NBC network until a second pilot episode, " Where No Man Has Gone Before ", was produced in 1965 .

Star Trek officially went into production on April 21, 1966 and ran for three seasons until it was canceled in 1969 . Four years later, the series returned to NBC as a Saturday morning animated series which ran from 1973 to 1974 .

No new production of Star Trek took place until 1979 , when Star Trek: The Motion Picture took the franchise into feature films , which have continued to be produced periodically since. Star Trek did not return to television until 1987 with the debut of Star Trek: The Next Generation .

Following three more spin-off productions, the 2005 – 2006 TV season was the first since 1987 without a new Star Trek series being broadcast, though all series remain in syndication.

As a result of a 2005 split between the former Viacom and CBS , Star Trek television productions fell under the umbrella of CBS Studios . During this period, films continued to be produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures under a licensing agreement. A thirteenth film was released in 2016 . CBS and Viacom were reunited and merged under the name ViacomCBS in late 2019 , reuniting the film and television branches of Star Trek . In 2022 ViacomCBS rebranded itself as Paramount Global , or simply Paramount.

After 12 years off the air, the franchise returned to the airwaves with its first streaming series, Star Trek: Discovery , which premiered in the fall of 2017 . This also saw the franchise expand into companion series, like the aftershow After Trek , which premiered right after the Discovery .

Currently, licensees of Star Trek products ( reference works , novels and collectibles ) include Art Asylum toys, Pocket Books , and IDW Publishing . Older licenses for previously produced material belong to numerous companies.

Conception and setting [ ]

"Star Trek was an attempt to say that humanity will reach maturity and wisdom on the day that it begins not just to tolerate, but take a special delight in differences in ideas and differences in life forms."

"We believed that the often ridiculed mass audience is sick of this world's petty nationalism and all its old ways and old hatreds... and that people are not only willing but anxious to think beyond those petty beliefs that have for so long have kept mankind divided."

– Gene Roddenberry

The stories in Star Trek mostly revolve around the experiences and adventures of the Humans and aliens who serve under Starfleet Command , the space-borne peacekeeping, exploratory, and humanitarian armada of the United Federation of Planets .

Many of the conflicts and political dimensions of Star Trek are allegories of contemporary cultural realities. Star Trek: The Original Series addressed social-political issues of the 1960s, just as later spin-offs have confronted issues of their respective decades. [1] Issues depicted in the various series include war and peace , personal loyalty, authoritarianism, imperialism, economics, racism , religion , human rights , sexism , and the role of technology . [2]

Roddenberry intended the show to have a progressive political agenda reflective of the emerging counter-culture and the civil rights movement of the 1960s, [3] though he was not fully forthcoming to the networks about this. He wanted Star Trek to show a future of what humanity might evolve to become, if it would learn from the lessons of the past, most specifically by ending violence. An extreme example is the alien race known as the Vulcans , who suffered a violent history but learned to finally achieve peace by suppressing their emotions and by adopting the guiding principles of logic . Roddenberry also placed great emphasis on an anti-war message in Star Trek , depicting the United Federation of Planets, a vast interstellar alliance founded on the enlightened principles of liberty , equality , justice, progress, and peaceful co-existence, as an idealistic version of the United Nations . [4] (X) His efforts were opposed by the network because of concerns over marketability; as they opposed Roddenberry's insistence that the USS Enterprise have a racially diverse crew.

Production history [ ]

The original series [ ], spin-off series [ ].

Star Trek films

• Paramount, 1979–1991
• Producers: Gene Roddenberry, Robert Sallin , Harve Bennett , Steven-Charles Jaffe , Ralph Winter
• Directors: Robert Wise , Nicholas Meyer , Leonard Nimoy , William Shatner
• Paramount, 1994–2002
• Producers: Rick Berman
• Directors: David Carson , Jonathan Frakes , Stuart Baird
• Paramount, 2009–2016
• Producers: J.J. Abrams , Damon Lindelof
• Directors: J.J. Abrams, Justin Lin
• CBS Television Studios/Paramount+

Aftershows [ ]

• CBS Television Studios/CBS All Access, 2017–2018

The Ready Room

• CBS Television Studios/ Facebook Live , 2019–

Podcasts [ ]

Engage: The Official Star Trek Podcast

• CBS Television Studios, 2016–2018

Star Trek: The Pod Directive

• CBS Television Studios, 2020–

Unproduced projects [ ]

• See: Undeveloped Star Trek projects

Overseas adaptations [ ]

Star Trek has been aired around the world throughout its run of television and film series. Most often, it has been dubbed into the native language of the larger population countries in question, while other, smaller population countries subtitled the productions and kept the original language tracks. During this time, the titles, characters, and so forth have been changed as they move from language to language.

Licensed media [ ]

Floor tile in the NBC gift shop at 30 Rock

• Blu-ray Discs
• Collectibles
• Reference works

Related topics [ ]

See also [ ].

• Star Trek parodies and pop culture references
• Star Trek documentaries and specials
• Star Trek corporate history
• Star Trek birthdays
• Star Trek deaths
• TOS directors
• TAS directors
• TNG directors
• DS9 directors
• VOY directors
• ENT directors
• DIS directors
• ST directors
• PIC directors
• LD directors
• PRO directors
• Film directors
• Cast members who directed
• Guest performers
• Regular cast
• Performers considered for roles
• Performers whose scenes were cut
• Recurring characters
• Star Trek auctions
• Star Trek fonts

Other topics [ ]

• Bottle show
• Design patents filed for the Star Trek franchise
• I'm a doctor, not a...
• Shakespeare and Star Trek

External links [ ]

• StarTrek.com , the official Star Trek website
• The official Star Trek YouTube channel  at YouTube
• Star Trek at Wikipedia
• Star Trek spin-off fiction at Wikipedia
• Star Trek at BBC.co.uk
• 3 ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

131 episodes

70s Trek is a fan show that explores Star Trek in the 1970s. We discuss the cast, crew, writers, the major influences and the wider culture surrounding it. Though cancelled by NBC in 1969, Star Trek was never far from the public's consciousness. It was never allowed to be! We explore how it stayed alive after cancellation and how it was resurrected to become a major motion picture in 1979.

70s Trek: Star Trek in the 1970s Bob Turner & Kelly Casto

• TV & Film
• 4.9 • 28 Ratings
• APR 11, 2022

TMP in Ultra HD - Ep 152

Welcome to the first new 70s Trek episode in 3 years! The release of the 4K, Ultra HD version of Star Trek The Motion Picture, The Director’s Edition, is such big news that co-hosts Bob Turner and Kelly Casto felt it deserved a new episode of 70s Trek. Star Trek The Motion Picture was originally released in theaters in 1979. It culminated ten years of hard work, false starts and frustrations. The movie ran 132 minutes and it brought live action Star Trek back. But because of problems during production, the film was little more that a rough-cut. The version we saw in theaters was never intended to be the final edit. But because of marketing commitments, director Robert Wise ran out of time. Flash forward to 2001. Paramount agreed to let Wise and his team re-edit the folm so it would be closer to his original vision. The result was Star Trek The Motion Picture, The Director's Edition. The team tightened the editing and inserted new, updated CGI special effects. However, this version of the film was only released in standard definition on DVD. Blu Ray had not yet been invented. So fans never got to see this verison of the film in high definition. Until now. Members of Wise's 2001 team have gotten access to the Paramount vaults and have gone back to the orignal camera negatives to restore The Director's Edition in 4K Ultra HD. Theyhave also updated the special effects, bringing them up to 4K, as well. The result is a stunning film with more color, detail and dynamic sound.

• MAR 29, 2022

Journey to Babel - Bonus Trek 10, Ep 151

The Original Series episode Journey to Babel is considered by many to be one of the best. It featured several "firsts" for the show. Among them was seeing Spock's parents and several alien species that would play a major role in the franchise in the decades to come. Co-hosts Kelly Casto and Bob Turner explore Journey to Babel and ask the question, was it the most important Star Trek episode of the 1960s? ***

• MAR 22, 2022

Vazquez Rocks - Bonus Trek 9, Ep 150

It’s a place here on Earth that feels like it's an alien landscape. That’s probably why we’ve seen it used as another world so many times in TV and film.  Including Star Trek. Vasquez Rocks, located just north of Los Angeles, has been used many, many times for “on location” shooting for the franchise. The craggy, rocky landscape has been seen in 10 Star Trek episodes from various series and 3 films. But how did this stunning landscape become what it is today? Co-hosts Bob Turner and Kelly Casto explore Vasquez Rocks and share what they discovered with you in this episode of The Unofficial Trek Podcast. *** In The Unofficial Trek Podcast, hosts Bob Turner and Kelly Casto give their "Unofficial" take on the Star Trek universe.  From 2019 through 2019, Bob and Kelly hosted the show 70s Trek. It was a look at the events that brought a cancelled, 1960s TV show back from the dead to become a blockbuster movie in 1979. It was a decade that created a multi-million dollar franchise. Now Bob and Kelly will look at the minutia, the concepts, the people and the news pertaining to the Star Trek Universe. It's a fascinating time for Star Trek, with a flood of content about it on the internet. Bob and Kelly will give their "Unofficial" take. Why unofficial? Because their views are just that, they are theirs and are, therefore, "unofficial." It's a fresh look at Star Trek from two lifelong fans who have been talking Trek for over 35 years! We hope you'll join Bob and Kelly for their next venture, The Unofficial Trek Podcast. Visit us at these sites: Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/UnofficialTrek TuneIn:  https://tunein.com/podcasts/Fantasy--Science-Fiction-Podcasts/The-Unofficial-Trek-Podcast-p1546279/ Stitcher:  https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-unofficial-trek-podcast Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6IrNzaWSzKyf1T7b4ngZX2 Website: https://theunofficialstartrekpodcast.libsyn.com/

• MAR 8, 2022

Strange New Worlds - Bonus Trek 8, Ep 149

One of the Star Trek productions coming in 2022 is Strange New Worlds. It will be the story of Captain Pike and the Enterprise crew before Captain Kirk commanded the ship. Since the show hasn’t premiered yet, we don’t know much about it. But co-hosts Kelly Casto and Bob Turner take a look at what we do know so far, and run through the cast. It’s the perfect topic for some "Unofficial" takes and a Trek Chat. *** In The Unofficial Trek Podcast, hosts Bob Turner and Kelly Casto give their "Unofficial" take on the Star Trek universe.  From 2019 through 2019, Bob and Kelly hosted the show 70s Trek. It was a look at the events that brought a cancelled, 1960s TV show back from the dead to become a blockbuster movie in 1979. It was a decade that created a multi-million dollar franchise. Now Bob and Kelly will look at the minutia, the concepts, the people and the news pertaining to the Star Trek Universe. It's a fascinating time for Star Trek, with a flood of content about it on the internet. Bob and Kelly will give their "Unofficial" take. Why unofficial? Because their views are just that, they are theirs and are, therefore, "unofficial." It's a fresh look at Star Trek from two lifelong fans who have been talking Trek for over 35 years! We hope you'll join Bob and Kelly for their next venture, The Unofficial Trek Podcast. Visit us at these sites: Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/UnofficialTrek TuneIn:  https://tunein.com/podcasts/Fantasy--Science-Fiction-Podcasts/The-Unofficial-Trek-Podcast-p1546279/ Stitcher:  https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-unofficial-trek-podcast Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6IrNzaWSzKyf1T7b4ngZX2 Website: https://theunofficialstartrekpodcast.libsyn.com/

• FEB 28, 2022

Old Trek vs New Trek - Bonus Trek 7, Ep 148

In July of 2021, the YouTube channel "The Popcast” posted a video entitled "This is how STRANGE NEW WORLDS will bring OLD TREK and NEW TREK Together!" The video discussed the divide between fans of Old Trek, Star Trek episodes and movies produced between 1966 and 2005, and fans of New Trek that began with J.J. Abrams 2009 Star Trek film. The video told us of a recent survey that took place across YouTube, Reddit and Twitter. 2000 Trek fans were asked how they identified with 3 statements.  Here they are: New Star Trek is good, I wish people would just accept the changes. I’m watching because it’s Star Trek, but I really hope it gets better. It’s a dumpster fire! I hate it and I’ll never watch new Star Trek. Here are the results: -28% said New Trek is good, and people should accept the changes. -32% said they were watching because it’s Trek, but they hoped it would get better. -40% said it’s a dumpster fire and they won’t watch. That 40% number by itself is alarming. But it’s really staggering to see that 72% don’t think it’s good or won’t watch it at all! Co-hosts Bob Turner and Kelly Casto have some opinions about why this might be happening...And of course, it’s all unofficial.

• FEB 8, 2022

James Bond - Bonus Trek 6, Ep 147

With the release of the film No Time to Die in the fall of 2021, James Bond is back in the popular culture again. It’s the 25th Bond film, and co-hosts Bob Turner and Kelly Casto of The Unofficial Trek Podcast thought it might be fun to have a chat about their favorite British spy. What does Bond have to do with Trek, you might ask? Well, the two franchises, Star Trek and James Bond, have a lot of crossover when it comes to their audiences. So for that reason, a Trek chat seems appropriate.

• © Copyright 2017 Social Flair Marketing

Customer Reviews

A truly fabulous show.

I’m a child of the 70s so Star Trek the original series is my favorite flavor of Trek ❤️Bob and Kelly have created an awesome body of work that covers the history of 70s Star Trek with genuine love and respect. They go into such great detail that you’ll learn fascinating things about Star Trek that you never before imagined. A truly fabulous show!!!

Hits a Sweet Spot

Bob and Kelly hit a sweet spot with 70s Trek—they clearly love the whole franchise, they do their homework and have interesting stories and details to share. What sets this show apart is how they put the original series into context, which makes it seem all the more remarkable. And they do it with an easy, positive spin at all times. These are a couple of guys you want to hang out for awhile.

Detailed, Informative, and Fun!

Been enjoying a bunch of these podcasts on a binge since I stumbled across them ... Star Trek in the 1970s is amazing time period, where the show was not only kept alive by things like the animated series and toys, but the conventions, and later on, the various attempts at revival that culminated in the first film. It is more than enough material to talk about - and these guys do it in a show that is equal parts informative and a good time - highly recommended!

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‘Star Trek,’ the Forgotten Frontier: 1970s Animation

• Share full article

By Thomas Vinciguerra

• Dec. 3, 2006

PART of the mythology that has grown up around "Star Trek" is that the 1970s were the show's lost decade. Canceled in 1969, the series didn't yield its first feature film, "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," until 10 years later. In between, the legend goes, Trekkies had to content themselves with conventions where they could swap trivia, splurge on merchandise and otherwise fail to get a life.

But here's the surprise: From 1973 to 1974, the inescapable science-fiction franchise spawned an all-but-forgotten Saturday morning cartoon series that more closely resembled its parent show than any of the prime-time spinoffs or theatrical releases that followed.

Known today as "Star Trek: The Animated Series" ("ST: TAS" for short) and just out on DVD, this incarnation's 22 half-hour episodes are manna for Trek purists. Here is the old U.S.S. Enterprise, still plodding along on its first five-year mission. Here are those trademark pajama-top uniforms, feyly flared trousers and black go-go boots. Most important, here is the familiar lineup of Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, et al., their voices supplied by William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and most of the show's other original actors.

Produced by Filmation, "ST: TAS" was able to go where no inexpensive live-action TV series could afford to go before. Freed from the constraints of tiny sound stages and even tinier budgets, Filmation's artists could conjure up outlandish aliens, epic space battles, exotic civilizations and other fantastic scenarios. For the most part the quality of the stories matched the visuals. A critic for The Los Angeles Times declared that the show was "as out of place in the Saturday morning kiddie ghetto as a Mercedes is in a soapbox derby."

By popular acclaim, the best episode was "Yesteryear" by D. C. Fontana, a story editor on the original series and associate producer of its cartoon version. A time-travel yarn that returned Mr. Spock to his Vulcan childhood, "Yesteryear" depicted the pointy-eared science officer enduring a traumatic coming-of-age survival ritual, capped by the death of a beloved pet. This was pretty bracing stuff for preteenagers, and one reason "ST: TAS" won an Emmy for best children's series.

One of the perverse fascinations of "ST: TAS" is its use of limited animation. To save money and time Filmation repeatedly used the same stock shots of the characters, many of them involving a minimum of motion. When new movements were called for, the results were frequently stiff or herky-jerky.

In some cases, to avoid the bother of sketching in lip movements, the characters were shown speaking while holding a hand over their mouths. In retrospect this stilted, handmade approach is suffused with a goofy charm, much like that found in the crude action of a "Peanuts" holiday special.

One small, sour footnote: In his later years the creator of "Star Trek," Gene Roddenberry, played down his animated offspring, and the studio, Paramount Pictures, did not consider it a full-fledged part of his fictional universe. Consequently "ST: TAS" has long been something of an orphan, disdained by some fans while celebrated by others.

The DVD set itself seems to be of both minds. Under the portentous headline "Animated Trek: Real or Not?" the liner notes solemnly state, "Whether the Animated Series can be accepted as canon is still an issue that is fiercely debated."

What was that about getting a life? THOMAS VINCIGUERRA

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70s Trek: Star Trek in the 1970s

70s Trek is a fan show that explores Star Trek in the 1970s. We discuss the cast, crew, writers, the major influences and the wider culture surrounding it. Though cancelled by NBC in 1969, Star Trek was never far from the public's consciousness. It was never allowed to be! We explore how it stayed alive after cancellation and how it was resurrected to become a major motion picture in 1979.

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;} TMP in Ultra HD - Ep 152

Welcome to the first new 70s Trek episode in 3 years!

The release of the 4K, Ultra HD version of Star Trek The Motion Picture, The Director’s Edition, is such big news that co-hosts Bob Turner and Kelly Casto felt it deserved a new episode of 70s Trek.

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;} Journey to Babel - Bonus Trek 10, Ep 151

Vazquez rocks - bonus trek 9, ep 150.

But how did this stunning landsc...

Strange New Worlds - Bonus Trek 8, Ep 149

It’s the perfect topic for some "Unofficial" takes and a Trek Chat.

In  The Unofficial Tr...

Old Trek vs New Trek - Bonus Trek 7, Ep 148

James bond - bonus trek 6, ep 147, dyson spheres - bonus trek 5, ep 146.

Imagine flying through the galaxy, minding your own business and suddenly you see a structure that is very large. It's so big, in fact, that it surrounds a star! It's a Dyson Sphere!

Star Trek in Vegas - Bonus Trek 4, Ep 145

Did scott bakula kill enterprise - bonus trek 3, ep 144.

Here's episode 3 from The Unofficial Trek Podcast:

A recent article from the website RedShirtsAlwaysDie.com reports that UPN Executives blamed beloved Star Trek Actor Scott Bakula for the bad ratings that the show experienced in its second, third and fourth seasons.

Hosts Bob Turner and Kelly Casto give their "unofficial" take on what led to the ...

The Klingon Battle Cruiser - Bonus Trek 2, Ep 143

Bob and Kelly will give their "Unofficial" take. Why unofficial? Because th...

CBS/Paramount Merger - Bonus Trek 1, Ep 142

We wanted to get back together and talk about the recent news of the re-merger between CBS and Paramount. A nd it officially happened on August 13. 

Now the larger company, CBS, will absorb the newer version of Viacom which owns <...

This is the End - Episode 141

We've told the story of Star Trek in the 1970s. So this is the end.

Moonraker - Episode 140

It started as a 1955 spy novel by Ian Fleming.  But it took over 24 years for the book to be made into a movie. And other than the name, the film barely resembled the book.

But the producers of the James Bond movies deliberately chose this story because of what was happening in the 1970s.

Star Trek...Today - Episode 130

Since 2009 there has been three new Star Trek movies, one new series with another four reportedly in development.

Yet enthusiasm for the franchise among die hard fans is low.  What’s going on?  We’ll explore what is going on in Star Trek today in this episode.

Throughout the run of 70s Trek we’ve been telling you about what happened in the 1970s.  But how did we get our information?  We did a lot of digging and looked at multiple sources for each episode. This week we tell you about those sources.

Anyone who has written a research paper in high school or college will remember that there are two types of sources: Prima...

Marc Cushman's New Book, Part 2 - Episode 128

In this episode of 70s Trek, it's part 2 of our conversation with author Marc Cushman as he tells us stories from his new book, These Are the Voyages: Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek in the 1970s, Volume 1.    

Cushman wrote three volumes on The Original Series entitled, These Are the Voyages. Each was an episode by episode examination of the production of each an...

Marc Cushman's New Book - Episode 127

The 1970s were a fascinating time. In fact, they brought about the Star Trek franchise. 

Without the ‘70s, Trek would not have had the success it experienced in the ‘80s, ‘90s and beyond. That’s why it’s so interesting that a new book is being released about Star Trek in the the decade of the 1970s.

To quote a most popular ...

How The Motion Picture Changed Star Trek - Ep 126

Star Trek The Motion Picture not only marked the return of Trek, but it also changed The Star Trek universe in multiple ways. In fact, it would never be the same again.

In some ways those changes were good and in some ways they caused problems. Consider the conundrum that the new Klingon foreheads represented!

But the film ...

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Conventions and Events

Watch: rare footage from 1970s star trek convention.

Since the early-70s, fans have come together at organized events to share their passion and love for the Star Trek franchise in a communal situation with other fans. In a video posted by ultimessence on Youtube, we’re given a glimpse at one of the earliest Star Trek conventions — which took place in Denver, Colorado during the fall of 1976.

Emanating from the Northglenn Mall, the video is hosted by “Chad McCoy” and includes interviews with fans at the convention, a look at some Star Trek “paraphernalia” on display, a quaint costume contest, Leonard Nimoy signing autographs and James Doohan on stage.

You can check out the video embedded below.

Video description:

Only 7 years after the series ended, Star Trek already had a very strong cult following in the US and even abroad. There were small fan clubs popping up all over the world, so after a while it had such momentum that someone began organizing these gatherings into conventions… At homes, schools, malls, they eventually had to rent large convention halls to accommodate the throngs of devoted ‘trekkies’. This one had Leonard Nimoy (Spock) and James Doohan (Scotty), so I had to bring my super 8 movie camera to the Mall to film it. I brought my old pal Terry McCoy as the on-camera reporter to interview the cults and play with the toys. The Northglenn Mall (The Mall of my adolescence) was only 8 years old at this point so it is fun to have this record of the old Mall before it got torn down 21 years later.

This year, several conventions are scheduled to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Star Trek franchise, the largest of which is Creation Entertainment’s annual Official Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas . That event, which takes place in August, has already sold several thousand tickets and will include more than 100 Star Trek guests. When contrasted with the video above, it’s fascinating to see just how much conventions have evolved and grown in the last 40 years.

According to DeadMalls.com , the Northglenn Mall ultimately met its demise and was demolished in 1998.

Do you have a favorite Star Trek convention memory? Share it with us in the comments section below.

March 15, 2016 at 10:30 am

The guy mispronounced ‘Caitian,’ but.. props. I didn’t realize Trek culture had already reached that level of geekery by ’76.

Also, those in-camera phaser and transporter effects… someone put a lot of extra effort into this. (Not the host, who apparently only got one take per bit).

Thanks- this was a ton of fun; a great time machine back to the way our modern fandom began.

March 15, 2016 at 4:11 pm

I’m not sure you could call the phaser and transporter effects “in-camera” — they were almost certainly Sharpie applied to the Super 8 film after processing. I’ve got a reel somewhere with me in a uniform holding a phaser where we tested several different “on-film” effects for the beam — Sharpie and scratching the film are the ones I remember.

March 15, 2016 at 4:56 pm

You’re right; direct-to-film? Not sure precisely what you’d call that (except that I used the wrong term); from the ol’ Flash Gordon school of sfx. I respect the heck out of those days, when effects were far more about mechanical innovation and physical manipulation than digital trickery. (Albeit, this represents the distinctly low-end of that field). 😉

March 31, 2016 at 11:25 pm

I think it had been bigger before — the first convention was — I believe — 1972 in New York. They were getting thousands of people attending by 1976. But this little show, with those appearances by Nimoy and Doohan, typifies the kind of innocent enjoyment — and love for the show — at those early conventions. The show was getting played every day in major markets to big ratings and merchandising was ramping up (MEGO). Have to say it — Star Trek hadn’t become “the franchise” yet. Thanks to whoever posted this film.

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These Are the Voyages: Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek in the 1970s (1970-75) Hardcover – February 1, 2019

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• Print length 751 pages
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Jacob Brown Media Group (February 1, 2019)
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Weird Star Trek Novels That Are Enjoyable To Read

I n February 1970, Bantam Books published the first original Star Trek novel. James Blish's Spock Must Die! received mixed reviews from critics, but it laid the foundation for many hundreds of further novels . Perhaps the golden era of Star Trek prose was under Pocket Books, who produced an ambitious continuation of TNG and DS9 long before Star Trek: Picard .

Some of the tie-in novels are good, some are bad, and some are just plain strange. From vanity projects to starship-sized plot holes, Star Trek's authors went where no one had gone before (and sometimes where they shouldn't have gone). Though they may be on the stranger side, here are a few books that fans of the franchise will doubtless enjoy.

The Enterprise War - John Jackson Miller

John Jackson Miller's 2019 novel answers a pertinent question: where was the Enterprise during Star Trek: Discovery 's Federation–Klingon War? Miller shows Pike's Enterprise caught in a different war between the Boundless and the Rengru, aliens who hope to use the starship to tip the scales in their favor.

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The Enterprise War has an exciting plot, but stumbles slightly when it comes to reconciling the Pike era with the rest of contemporary Trek. Spock's references to Michael Burnham seem out of place alongside obscure characters from Star Trek 's failed pilot, while the Enterprise 's saucer separation recalls TNG rather than TOS or Discovery . Miller's novel walks a fine line between anachronisms and tropes. The result is a weird blend of eras, but one that readers are sure to enjoy.

The Good That Men Do - Andy Mangels & Michael A. Martin

Few fans were impressed when Star Trek: Enterprise ended by killing off one of its crew. In terms of both scriptwriting and direction, the noble sacrifice of engineer Trip Tucker is an anticlimax. This shortcoming inspired authors Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin to consider an alternative: what if Tucker's death was a hoax?

RELATED: Star Trek: The Relationship Between Vulcans & Romulans, Explained

The Good That Men Do (2007) claims that Tucker never died; instead, he left the Enterprise to work for Section 31 . This coverup allowed him to investigate a new threat posed by the Romulans. The book holds a strange place in Star Trek canon: it is as much an apology as it is a novel, although the Romulans' machinations make for an entertaining read.

Disavowed - David Mack

While the Star Trek Relaunch series provided fans with some franchise highpoints, it had started to stumble by the time of David Mack's Disavowed (2014). Six years earlier, Mack had torn up the status quo with his Destiny trilogy, focusing on a massive Borg invasion . The trilogy is excellent—but its fallout left subsequent novels unsure of where to take the series.

Mack's story, centered on Julian Bashir, reinvents the Star Trek novel as a tense espionage thriller as the Starfleet doctor and Section 31 operative travels to the Mirror Universe to halt a scheme by the evil Breen. Mack's prose is propulsive, but Disavowed represents the Star Trek world at a crossroads. The book's weirdness lays not in its writing, but in its attempt to reinvigorate the series with a focus on espionage rather than exploration.

Broken Bow - Diane Carey

Star Trek 's writing has been the subject of parodies aplenty, from shows like The Orville to movies like Galaxy Quest . In 2020, the franchise itself got in on the fun, with cartoon series Lower Decks spoofing on Star Trek 's tropes. Yet Lower Decks was not the first time that Star Trek' s own writers took a swipe at the franchise. The 2001 novelization of "Broken Bow" derided the Star Trek: Enterprise episode it was meant to retell.

RELATED: Star Trek: Enterprise Actor Slams How Her Character Was Written

Author Diane Carey wrote extensively for Star Trek 's novels (the hero of her 2000 novel Challenger was written to resemble Enterprise 's Scott Bakula, though the book predated his casting). Yet when it came to novelizing Bakula's first real adventure, Carey was so unimpressed with the script that she used the characters' internal monologues to criticize the story's plot. The author was allegedly blacklisted for her mischief, but she turned an otherwise by-the-numbers novelization into a sneaky practical joke.

A Singular Destiny - Keith R.A. DeCandido

Readers might expect a sequel to TNG and DS9 to feature a hero like Captain Picard, or a fan favorite like Kira Nerys. Yet although Keith R.A. DeCandido's 2009 novel does feature DS9 's Ezri Dax, its star is diplomat Sonek Pran, a wholly original character. This stylistic deviation allows A Singular Destiny to interrogate the state of the Relaunch universe . The Borg may be gone, but a new threat is rising in the form of the Typhon Pact, an alliance of several hostile states including the Breen and the Gorn.

Despite the scope of its universe, Star Trek can become bogged down by revisiting the same characters and tropes. DeCandido's novel bucks this trend, making this immersive political thriller an essential chapter in the Relaunch saga.

Fearful Symmetry - Olivia Woods

Viewers of DS9 may recall the episode "Second Skin," in which Bajoran Kira Nerys was disguised as a Cardassian. Fearful Symmetry claims that the woman that Kira impersonated, Iliana Ghemor, was also altered to look like Kira, but fell into the clutches of Gul Dukat , who imprisoned and abused her. Driven mad, the impostor plots her revenge in Olivia Woods' 2008 novel.

While it's odd that Dukat never mentioned his prisoner, the novel's true weirdness is its two-in-one physical format. Fearful Symmetry is made up of two narratives: the front cover depicts Kira, while the rear is an alternate cover showing Ghemor. Starting the book in one direction shows Kira's investigation into her duplicate, while starting in the opposite direction provides the troubled life of Ghemor. This parallel structuring allows the novel's form to mirror its content, a clever gimmick.

Killing Time - Della Van Hise

The possibility of a deeper, potentially romantic bond between Kirk and Spock has intrigued fans for decades (the term "slash fiction" is attributed to stories about the pair), but Star Trek 's writers were unwilling to offer any confirmation. Father of the franchise Gene Roddenberry was particularly opposed to the idea. He was displeased, to say the least, when author Della Van Hise snuck suggestive material into her 1985 novel.

RELATED: Captain Kirk's Redemption Of Spock In The Mirror Universe

First editions of Killing Time (which involves the Romulans altering history to try and defeat the Federation) were recalled and destroyed, although some were purchased by fans. A revised edition removed the offending content. Rumors circulated that an even more explicit version existed, although Van Hise denied these claims. If nothing else, Killing Time demonstrates the importance of checking a book before it's sent to the printers.

The Return - Garfield Reeves-Steven & William Shatner

Actor Leonard Nimoy was so impressed by Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , in which his character died, that he asked for Spock to return from the dead . William Shatner, on the other hand, was so unimpressed by Kirk's death in Star Trek: Generations that he decided to take matters into his own hands, co-writing a series of novels in which a resurrected Kirk continues the fight against evil.

The resulting Shatnerverse (comprising ten novels by Shatner and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Steven) is generally considered non-canon even by novel fans, with some regarding it as an ego trip for Shatner. Kirk's transition into a quasi-Messianic figure certainly has all the hallmarks of a vanity project, as does his role in the total defeat of the Borg in 1996's The Return . The Shatnerverse novels may not fit into any version of canon aside from their own, but they represent an interesting diversion for those who like their books heavy on fan-service and light on common sense.

MORE: Best Starfleet Ships Of The 23rd Century

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Published Jun 20, 2011

A Collector's Trek #3: 1970's AHI Rack Toys

Picture this: You are a Trek-crazed child growing up in the 1970's. The show has become a syndication sensation, and your young mind simply cannot get enough of Kirk and Spock's adventures. Whenever the show airs, you can routinely be found just a few feet in front of the television, eyes transfixed on today's adventure. But just as you get ready to plop down and watch "The Trouble with Tribbles" for the tenth time, Mom and Dad abruptly barge into the room and turn off the set. They tell you to throw on your jacket because the family is heading out to the store. Your mind races, grasping for some excuse not to make the trip. After all, how could you possibly be expected to miss Captain Kirk's triumphant defeat of Arne Darvin and his fuzzy death trap?

The situation seems dire... until you hear the name of the store to which your family is going. It seems Granny's prescription has run out, and a quick run up to the local pharmacy is in order. Suddenly you are moving at warp speed, strapping on your shoes and combing your hair in record time. Your parents are surprised by your eagerness, not knowing that you have an ulterior motive in place. Unbeknownst to them, a trip to the drug store is not a journey into boredom for you; it's a visit to a Star Trek merchandise nirvana, thanks to Azrak-Hamway and their plethora of inexpensive licensed rack toys.

Azrak-Hamway International (or AHI as it is more commonly known) burst onto the retail scene back in 1964 with a line of novelty toys. AHI's releases commonly consisted of inexpensive items you would find on the racks of local grocery and drug stores. In 1974, AHI acquired the Remco brand, bringing with it a multitude of television licensing deals. Using these brands, AHI breathed new life into its product. The cost and quality stayed the same, but the toys were now tied around recognizable properties, adding up to big profits for AHI. The placement of the product and its relatively cheap cost made it almost irresistible to children trapped in an otherwise boring grocery store. If a kid had a few extra bucks burning a hole in their pocket while out on a family shopping trip, it's a good bet that they spent it on an AHI product. And to a child obsessed with Star Trek , the following list of inexpensive AHI Trek toys must have proved utterly futile to resist:

Water Guns: A summer playtime staple, AHI made two different Star Trek -themed water guns. The Phaser Water Gun was an obvious product to make, but Azrak's other release, the U.S.S. Enterprise Water Gun, was quite an imaginative toy. It's basically an Enterprise mounted on a handle, with a spray nozzle protruding from the deflector dish. Easily one of the neatest H2O warfare devices ever made.

Disc Shooting Phaser Gun: Much like the Rayline Star Trek Tracer Guns of the 1960's, the Disc Shooting Phaser Gun fired an assortment of small plastic discs at an incredibly rapid rate. Unlike Rayline's product though, the AHI disc shooter actually looks like a phaser, which makes it about 10 times cooler. Also available was a package of extra discs... just in case you ran out of ammo.

Phaser Ray Gun: Starting to sense a theme here? It seems like the phaser was AHI's favorite item to base toys around. The Phaser Ray Gun was the most diminutive of their releases, but may have been the most accurate when it came to action features. Labeled as a "Space Flashlight", this little guy emitted a beam of light when you squeezed the trigger. No crazy discs or stream of water here. One drawback though: The penlight battery was not included.

The Phaser Saucer Gun: Able to fire off a selection of brightly colored disks, the Phaser Saucer Gun seems like the unwanted member of Azrak's phaser family. With only three discs included, the odds of you losing all your projectiles early on were pretty good. Once that happens, how much fun could a saucer gun be without its saucers? Not much, I'd say.

Activity Games: While they don't hold a candle to 3-D chess, AHI's assortment of pinball games probably provided hours of distraction for young Trek fans. The games are pretty straightforward, with a player attempting to lodge a ball into different point recesses. What is really nice about these, though, is the artwork used in their design. Like much of the AHI product packaging, the graphics used for the game backgrounds borrowed heavily from the Gold Key Star Trek comics of the day.

The "Soaring" U.S.S Enterprise: A truly inventive product, the "Soaring" U.S.S. Enterprise doesn't really seem like it belongs with the rest of the AHI line. The packaging design is completely different from all their other releases, and the toy itself featured engineering wizardry seemingly ahead of its time. Using an included launcher, a child could launch the Enterprise into the air and send it soaring by means of a small plastic propeller. While AHI had to take liberties in the Enterprise's design to make it work, the sheer thrill of launching your own Starship into the air clearly makes up for any screen inaccuracies.

Sky Diving Parachutist Figures: It's pretty difficult to come up with something nice to say about Azrak-Hamway's "Official" Sky Diving Parachutist Kirk and Spock figures. I could say that these predicted orbital skydiving well before we actually witnessed it in Star Trek , or I could give them credit for being some of the very first action figures ever produced of Kirk and Spock. But none of that would make up for the fact that these are Kirk and Spock... wearing parachutes. I guess the transporters must have been down that day.

As goofy as it is, the AHI Star Trek product is an integral and often overlooked piece of Star Trek merchandising history. Released years after the show's cancellation, AHI proved that the license was still viable at retail while also satisfying demand for product appealing to younger fans. Although quite inexpensive at the time of their release, Azrak-Hamway Star Trek items can command high prices nowadays, sometimes fetching hundreds of dollars if still sealed in their original packaging. Pretty impressive for toys produced "on the cheap"...

But not all the Star Trek product produced by Azrak-Hamway International fit into the inexpensive, "rack" toy category. AHI also produced higher-quality items under the Remco brand, including some of the nicest toy replicas made up to that point. Next time around, we'll take a look at some of the 70's Remco products, including one of my favorite Trek toys ever produced…

------------Want to read more from James Sawyer about Star Trek products? Check out his blog  - A Piece of the Action .

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