So you think the Krell would have been humanoid enough to create androids like Ruk who looked very similar to Earth humans?
Have you watched The Forbidden planet and noticed the slight clues to the appearance of the Krell? I guess not.
The Fanzines of Trek -- in situ
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So you think the Krell would have been humanoid enough to create androids like Ruk who looked very similar to Earth humans?
Have you watched The Forbidden planet and noticed the slight clues to the appearance of the Krell? I guess not.
Yes I have, and the doors and corridors of Exo III are remarkably similar architecture to those of Altair IV.
Who said that Ruk was designed to resemble an "Old One"?
Wiki says, "The Krell were originally frog-like in nature with two long legs and a big tail. They were never shown, but it was indicated in the original screenplay that the ramps between the steps were designed to accommodate their dragging tail."
I'd bet that it happens a lot. I know that Ming Whatne's husband had a hard time finding someone who would take her fanzine archives. I believe she had one and a half storage containers full of them.
It is true that Dr. Morbius says:
"No record of their physical nature has survived. Except perhaps in the formof this charactistic arch. I suggest you consider it in comparison... to one of our functionally designed human doorways."
https://www.scripts.com/script.php?id=forbidden_planet_8419&p=15
But there are other hints.
In the Krell laboratory he describes the Krell "pastic educator".
"As far as I can make out, they ued it to conditon and test their young....in much the same way we employed finger-painting among our children. I often play with it myself for relatxation. Although working here, I sometimes wish I had been blessed with multiple arms and legs. Now you can see that this headset was designed....for something much bulkier than my human cranium."
So those words indicate that the Krell probably had more arms and legs than humans do, and much larger heads. Thus they probably didn't look very much like Ruk.
So if the "Old Ones" were Krell colonists on Exo III, they might make their robots and androids look different from them, perhaps because it would feel wrong to order around beings who looked like Krell.
But why would they make their androids look like humans? I note that the android making machine seems designed to make androids shaped a lot more like humans than like the Krell probably looked.
Talking to Adams and Ostrow in his study, Morbius says that the Krell explored other star systems and brought back animals from Earth, an unspecified period before their final disaster. Perhaps the Krell only made one voyage to Earth, perhaps they visited Earth periodically.
And Morbius says that the final disaster of the Krell (however long it might have been after their latest expedition to Earth) was 2,000 centuries earlier than their meeting, and thus approximately in 198,000 BC, give or take a few thousnd or a few tens of thousands of years.
So possibly the Krell brought back from Earth to Altair IV specimens of one or more species in the genus Homo. The species Homo sapiens is believed to have evolved about 300,000 years ago, so was available to transport to Altair IV for about 100,000 yers before the final disaster. Since Ruk looked a lot like a Homo sapiens, the Krell may have brought specimens of Homo sapiens to Altair IV. Possibly the Krell might have brought specimens of a closely related species such as Homo Heidelbergensis or Homo rhodesiensis.
The Krell might have used genetic engineering to modify the humans on Altair IV, making them more advanced physically and mentally. And presumably they would have taught them civilization.
And presumably the Krell settlers on Exo III would have brought some humans from Altair IV along.
And if they were as noble as the Krell back on Altair IV they wouldn't have used the humans as slaves. But maybe they were revolting aginst the benevolence of Altair IV and used their humans as slaves. And maybe those humans eventually revolted and were exterminated. Then the Kellon eXo III might have made android slaves who looked like the former humans slaves, to continue with business as usual, until those android slaves also revolted.
Or maybe the Kell on Exo III were as benevolent as the ones on Altair IV and treated the humans more or less as equals. And those humans may have built andorid slaves who looked like themselves, for thier own uses and the use of the Krell, until those android slaves revolted and exterminated the humans and Krell on Exo III.
So you can agree that the Krell probably didn't look like Ruk and would not not make androids that looked like Ruk if they wanted the androids to look like Krell. So you need to come up with a theory why the Krell on Exo II would want androids who looked like humans, theories rather similar to the one I suggested above.
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Captured humanoids (rather like "The Cage" on Talos IV, which also shared those corridor and door designs), later duplicated as androids to make more humanoid workers without having to gather more actual humanoids.
When I go to Escapade, their swap table often has Trekzines they give away for free. We probably have lost some, but good people like the folks I work with seem to have gotten the majority of what was created.
And Fanac works on the SFnal mags. One of the scans up there is from my collection, something I found at a local bookstore a few years ago!
The second issue of Vulcanalia is here! Since the first page is up on Fanlore anyway, and the second page is a crossword puzzle, I figure there's no harm in distribution.
Enjoy!
Very cool! Treasurer Elyse Pines would go on to be a mainstay of Trekfandom, as an organizer of the early NY Star Trek conventions. She passed away in February, 2020. There's a brief write-up on Elyse here: https://fanlore.org/wiki/Elyse_Rosenstein
They wanted 25¢ a month. It doesn't sound like much, but adjusted for inflation it comes to about $2.10 in today's money. So it wasn't free. But can you imagine having your name printed on Page 1 because you were behind in your dues? Still, it looks like a great little club struggling to stay above water while inventing itself.
We are doing the crossword puzzle as a group over the party line. Things like Spock's homeworld have NEVER been discussed in the show. It appears to be a real star. As with last month's episode, it does seem like these folks have a direct line to God's mouth...or vivid imaginations (but somehow I doubt they're just making this stuff up, not in a magazine that Leonard Nimoy, himself, reads).
I have to disagree with you on this point. There were (and are) a lot of people back in the day who would only have passed on information that they thought was from a credible knowledgeable source. There were (and are) many, many more who would have no problem making this stuff up.
One of the driving forces behind this type of endeavor, then and now, was people wanting to feel like they're part of the process. Making up stuff and getting it printed is just as valid to that mindset as talking to Roddenberry/Nimoy/whomever and getting a snippet of data.
It is real:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/40_Eridani
James Blish and Gene Roddenberry put Vulcan at 40 Eridani:
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Ni'Var#Location_2
"According to Gene Roddenberry, James Blish and multiple other background sources, the Vulcan system was the star 40 Eridani A."
The first Blish book hit the stores in January 1967. I know he mentioned 40 Eridani as Vulcan somewhere; if it was in that initial volume, there was time for Vulcanalia to get it from there. If not, they might have gotten it from Nimoy, who got it from GR.
Edit: Nope. Per Memory Alpha:
"Prior to Gene Roddenberry's 1991 announcement that the planet Vulcan was in 40 Eridani, the suggestion was proposed in not only 1980's Star Trek Maps but also in 1968's Star Trek 2, by James Blish."
So Vulcanalia must have gotten it in fan communication from Leonard Nimoy.
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It's just interesting that it was set that early. It's never mentioned in the show. Is it in the bible or the Making of Trek?
I get what you're saying. It just doesn't make sense here. They are asking it as crossword clues, as if there was only one right answer.
The fact that all of their information ended up canon or quasi-canon at some point suggests they got this from Nimoy/Roddenberry. Unless Roddenberry cribbed these early fan speculations for later use.
By the way, does anyone know the answers in the crossword to:
15 down: electrons showing wavelength of light ("Balance of Terror")
and
74 across: Miri's race?
[Ed: Miri's race appears to be "Opiuchucean" since, in the Blish novelization, Miri took place on 70 Opiuchus. I bet the Balance of Terror answer comes from there, too.]
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That one is "DeBroglies." It's in Blish 1, top paragraph of page 64. This to me is solid proof that Vulcanalia was using that first book, which reached bookstores in January. [I remember buying them as they came out, and noting the publication dates matched the month I actually saw them in the store.] There's no way a fan club in Brooklyn, even the first one and in touch with Leonard Nimoy, was getting actual script drafts in the mail.
And anyway, if they did have the early draft James Blish was working from, they wouldn't use such an obscure reference in their puzzle. It would be too unfair. But knowing that the whole club was reading Blish would be another matter, and fair game.
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Absolutely. That answers a lot of questions. I'm not certain that the info in their first issue (about Amanda and the attributes of planet Vulcan) was in the Blish, though. And 40 Eridani isn't in Blish until Trek 2 (if Memory Alpha be correct--I do not recall reading it in Trek 1, which I just read last month). So I wonder if they're getting some info from Nimoy. Not scripts, but just info.
The crossword also calls Spock a "Lieutenant" (shortened to LT for one of the answers). Is that from the Blish? It's not until Tomorrow is Yesterday that we learn Spock is a Lt. Commander (even if he wears two stripes -- Finney has the same issue in Court Martial). Vulcanalia 2 would have gone to press probably before ToY debuted.
By the way, how cool that they started with eight members and are now at 33! Even if more than half a dozen are mooches who won't cough up their two bits...
My my.
He wasn't wrong though. :-D
This is fascinating stuff. Always happy to see it updated.
I was going to suggest the Star Trek Welcommittee's little fact book, but that organisation wasn't founded until 1972. But the beginnings of that group would have been quite informal up to that point.
What is the alleged correct answer to Spock's home star? I read the clue as saying 39 across, and 39 across seems to have 3 spaces.
How would you put Keid, 40 Eridani, or Omcron (superscript 2) Eridani in three spaces?
For that matter, I can't think of many other star names or designations which would fit in only three letter spaces.
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It helps if you do the whole puzzle, which we did as a group last Wednesday
39 Across: "Mr. Spock's home stars (ab)" -- it has to be a three-letter constellation abbreviation. Because of 24 down, it has to end in I.
51 Across "Constellation in which Vulcanis lies" -- it's Eridani (based on the other clues). Therefore, 39 across is the abbreviated form or "ERI" (Note: It really should be Eridanus, Eridani being the adjectival form)
12 Down "Number of Mr. Spock's home star -- "Forty" (fits the other words in the puzzle, and 40 Eridani is a real star).
Make sense?
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It helps if you do the whole puzzle, which we did as a group last Wednesday
39 Across: "Mr. Spock's home stars (ab)" -- it has to be a three-letter constellation abbreviation. Because of 24 down, it has to end in I.
51 Across "Constellation in which Vulcanis lies" -- it's Eridani (based on the other clues). Therefore, 39 across is the abbreviated form or "ERI" (Note: It really should be Eridanus, Eridani being the adjectival form)
12 Down "Number of Mr. Spock's home star -- "Forty" (fits the other words in the puzzle, and 40 Eridani is a real star).
Make sense?
I guess so. The puzzle is not quite legible enough for me to read and do.
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