Being a TOS fan back in the day...

[Warped9]

The way things can be collected today would indeed seem like fantasy back then. We just couldn't envision those things being so accessible and (relatively) inexpensive.

Things I still have from those days:
- The Making Of Star Trek
- The World Of Star Trek
- Star Trek Compendium
- Star Trek Concordance
- Booklet Of General Plans
- Star Fleet Technical Manual
- Star Trek (by James Blish, first adaptations)
- Star Trek Log series (reprints)
- Spock Must Die (by James Blish)

The TAS Star Trek Log adaptations are reprints but I did once have the original first printings. I also have the reprinted collections of the Gold Key Comics I collected back then.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I first discovered the show first run. I was only seven, so I doubt I watched every episode. Batman was the show I didn't miss. Plus I moved to Japan the last year Trek was on. I rediscovered it when we moved back to the States a couple of years later and caught the reruns. Thats when I met my best friend and he was into Star Trek as well. What I didn't have he did and was willing to share. The models never really held my interest, but I loved the books. Both the Making the Star Trek and the Blish adaptations of the episodes. Between Blish and the syndicated edits I probably had some mixed versions of the episodes running around in my head till the video tape era.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

This is very true. I remember reading about fans who would tape record (on audio) the episodes. I did that myself with Doctor Who, since it was before VCRs.

One of the networks could be picked up on an FM stereo on the low end of the spectrum. I made some really nice recordings of different programs off that back in the day.

 

[Therin of Andor]

but still it took a couple of years to see the last one ("Lights").

Same here. "The Lights of Zetar" eluded me for several years, I think. And ended up being the ultimate nerd experience. I once wrote up the anecdote for my blog:

http://therinofandor.blogspot.com.au/2008/03/finally-i-see-lights-over-on-trekbbs.html

 

[Therin of Andor]

Canadian SF writer Robert Sawyer. We got a bit chummy and exchange messages every so often. Sawyer is a HUGE TOS fan.

In 1984, Sawyer approached Pocket Books about writing a Star Trek novel. He prepared four sample chapters (the first four chapters of the book), totaling 20,000 words:
http://www.sfwriter.com/armada.htm

In Armada, are the seeds for the Waldahudin from his Hugo Award-nominated novel Starplex; some of the themes that ultimately ended up in his Hugo Award-nominated Calculating God; and an early version of Chapter 6 ("Afsan at the Hunter's Shrine") of his novel Far-Seer.

 

[Warped9]

I've enjoyed quite a few of Sawyer's books, particularly Starplex.

 

[Noname Given]

The first Star Trek episode I saw first run was "Elaan of Troyius" in 1969 (I was six); and I was hooked (I was really into NASA and the Moonshots then too). Caught up with all the rest of the episodes in syndication in the early 1970ies; and I remember getting the Franz Joseph Tech manual and Enterprise Blueprints in 1975 because I had the chicken pox; my sister knew I like Star Trek, saw it at a bookstore and thought it would cheer me up; and take my mind off scratching.

I also got into computers because of Star trek (not in the way you might think). In 1975, I found out my Jr. high school had a teletype hooked into an HP2000 mainframe via 110 baud acoustic modem; and one of the things you could do on it was play a 'Star Trek' simulation - and I was hooked (I was also sad to learn modern computers of that day had no voice interface.).

I learned my first programming language (after finding out what the SSTR1 program was written in), because I wanted to take what the original programmer had done, and update and modify it a bit more to my (and others) liking. I spent a year creating my own offshoot of that original program (with a nod to the original author), and everybody liked the updates/changes I'd done and I had incorporated a lot of feedback from those of us playing the game at my school. Little did I know it would lead into the career I have today.

 

[Mr. Hengist]

O.K., back in the day....

....For a kid growing up in the 60's, when TOS first started airing the only roughly comparable television show would have been "Lost in Space." I believe that started a year or two before TOS. That is, a tv series involving "high adventure in space." [Rodenberry claimed CBS ripped him off by using some of his ideas for Lost in Space from a pitch meeting they'd had with him.]

So, you have to remember what it was like for us kids (at the time), we're watching Lost in Space.

Then Star Trek comes on and it's night and day in terms of the sophistication level and special effects.

I can't say I remember very much at all from way back then, but one thing I do remember, distinctly, is watching the very first broadcast episode of Star Trek. That one was "The Man trap" [salt creature episode].

I remember the climactic scene where the salt creature is disguised as Bones's ex-girlfriend and is sucking Kirk's salt out of his face while he sits there helpless & screaming. I believe at that point Spock had been incapacitated by the creature.

So Bones comes in, and "Nancy" turns around and looks at Bones and you see the reveal as "Nancy" turns into the disgusting loathsome salt creature, fortunately, Bones phasers it to death. After an uncomfortably excessively long amount of hesitation.

That "reveal" was shocking and freaked me out, I would say at least to a kid it was worthy of the most gruesome twists of any Outer Limits or Twilight Zone.

Of course at the time I didn't get all the Freudian aspects of that "sucking" creature, vagina dentata, etc. but it was still really really disturbing.

So that made a huge impact on me.

Then of course every so often it would go into syndication/strip reruns so at various points over the years I would get into watching the episodes again.

The original broadcast run also pretty much coincided with the Apollo program so you could say they reinforced each other at least in terms of a 60's kid's sense of the zeitgeist.

** In reference to "Elan of Troius" the biggest impression that made on me was the camel toe. Sorry but it's true.

 

[plynch]

Never in my life had I thought of vagina dentate and the salt vampire. Its mouth looks like it, though. Is that your own thought or are there others who have said they think/see that?

Giving that one some thought. And looking for a screen cap of the other, just for curiosity.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Always made me think of a lamprey.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I also got into computers because of Star trek (not in the way you might think). In 1975, I found out my Jr. high school had a teletype hooked into an HP2000 mainframe via 110 baud acoustic modem; and one of the things you could do on it was play a 'Star Trek' simulation - and I was hooked

I remember that game. I was in junior high, but since I was a huge ST fan, my sister and her boyfriend invited me over to the high school to play it. The school had a Decwriter:

The only keyboard I had ever used before that day was my parents' manual (non-electric) typewriter, about 30 lbs of iron and a lot of work to operate:

So on the Decwriter they immediately had to tell me not to bang the keys so hard ("Don't kill it!").

The game as I recall was based on the Romulan attack scene in "The Deadly Years." You entered your name and became "Captain (name)", and then the machine would describe some Romulan action and say "What are your orders?" It was a novelty, but even at the time it wasn't that bitchin'. It got a little repetitive.

 

[Noname Given]

I also got into computers because of Star trek (not in the way you might think). In 1975, I found out my Jr. high school had a teletype hooked into an HP2000 mainframe via 110 baud acoustic modem; and one of the things you could do on it was play a 'Star Trek' simulation - and I was hooked

I remember that game. I was in junior high, but since I was a huge ST fan, my sister and her boyfriend invited me over to the high school to play it. The school had a Decwriter:

The only keyboard I had ever used before that day was my parents' manual (non-electric) typewriter, about 30 lbs of iron and a lot of work to operate:

So on the Decwriter they immediately had to tell me not to bang the keys so hard ("Don't kill it!").

The game as I recall was based on the Romulan attack scene in "The Deadly Years." You entered your name and became "Captain (name)", and then the machine would describe some Romulan action and say "What are your orders?" It was a novelty, but even at the time it wasn't that bitchin'. It got a little repetitive.

As to the game, nope - you commanded the 1701 - and searched an 8X8 grid (64 Quadrants) for Klingon battle cruisers to fight/repel.

A long range scan gave you a look at the quadrants nextr to your current quadrant and printed out like this:

===========
003|101|213
-----------
000|002|213  
-----------
000|201|100
===========

With:
The hundreds digit showing the number of Klingons
The tens digit showing the number of Starbases (Where you can dock/repair.)
The ones digit showing the number of Stars (blocked photon torpedoes)

---------------
. . . . . . . .
. . . E . . . .
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . * . .
. . . . . . K .
. . . . . . . .
. . K . . . . .
. . . . . B . .
---------------

E= 1701 USS Enterprise
*= Star
K = Klingon
B = Starbase

You entered commands like fire phasers (which auto-locked on - and then you had to decide how much energy to fire); or photons (and which point you had to enter a vector (1-360 degrees) setting the path along which the torp would travel. If it hit a K (Klingon) it destroyed him instantly. Phasers drew from your Energy total (as did moving at warp or Impulse - and if you got to zero energy you were dead in space, or if an enemy disruptor took you below zero energy, you blew up (IE game over). You had a stock of 10 photons too; and docking (maneuvering next to a Starbase - replenish both you energy and photon totals to max.

A couple of the things I added were:
-----------------------------------
- a chance for a Romulan to randomly decloak and fire in any quadrant you were in on occasion.

- I separated a shield rating out from the energy total - and any enemy hit over that rating took a main system offline (Warp Drive, Photons, Phasers, etc.) - and you replenished shields at your discretion (max of 250) - and it subtracted the rating from your overall energy each turn. Damaged systems were auto-repaired when you docked at a Starbase.

My local version of the game became pretty popular while I was attending the school. I don't know if they kept it stored/available after I graduated; and I kept a printout and paper tape reader copy of the code so it could be reloaded from scratch if needed.

 

[Mr. Hengist]

Never in my life had I thought of vagina dentate and the salt vampire. Its mouth looks like it, though. Is that your own thought or are there others who have said they think/see that?

Giving that one some thought. And looking for a screen cap of the other, just for curiosity.

I don't remember seeing it anywhere else, it's just something that occurred to me as I was mulling over some of this stuff in retrospect.

Maybe it wasn't written that way on a very conscious level, but the salt creature is actually analogous to the idea of a succubus. For obvious reasons in-episode references to anything sexual were very very indirect. But they were definitely there if you want to look for them.

For example, the salt creature is living on the planet alone with that surviving male scientist (whose wife the salt creature killed) for years before the Enterprise visits. I believe there's dialog that says the salt creature fulfills his "needs." (In exchange for the salt tablets I guess?)

The salt creature replaced the scientist's wife. The salt creature looks into people's minds and creates their "fantasy." It's always highly sexualized even when the salt creature did to to Uhura, instead of a sexy fantasy woman, it became a studly male crewman.

When Chekov sees it, it's another sexy image of a woman that Chekov knew, and I think they even play "sexy" music in the score.

So, that's what a succubus is, except succubi are supernatural, but psychologically it's the same thing. The succubus comes at nighttime, has sex with their victim, and basically sucks out the victim's life force.

Now the way it's explicitly depicted when the salt creature attacks it creates great pain but why wouldn't the salt creature be able to delude the victim into thinking they were having sex with the fantasy person? Obviously on T.V. they can't show the salt creature giving its victims orgasms while sucking the life out of them. So it can't be a perfect parallel.

If you remember the Tobe Hooper movie "Life Force" from the 1980's (which also had Patrick Stewart in his pre-TNG days playing a supporting role), based on a Colin Wilson novel, it's about "space vampires" that come to earth, in the form of very physically attractive humanoids. Their real form is like a gian bat like creature though. When they get physically close to a human they suck the "life force" out of the human which is depicted as electrical sparks.

It's pretty much the same idea.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I have a version of that text based game on my iPhone. Never played it on a teletype but played a lot of it on my Commodore 64.

 

[CaptainDave1701]

Those were indeed the days and I miss them dearly.
I remember all of the models, fanzines and conventions. Making Tribbles out of fake fur and uniform tunics out of sweatshirts. I still kick myself to this day for not shelling out $100.00 back in the 70's to buy a Phaser off of Bill Hickey.

That being said I am glad that we have the days we have. All of the old models are available along with the 1:350 Enterprise which can be totaly tricked out. Tribbles are abundant for sale on the net are they come with sound and motion. You can also buy nice Phasers, Communicators and Tricorders all with lights and sound for a reasonable price as back in the day they were very expensive. Quality uniforms, props and blue ray remastered versions of the show are available.
So....in many ways these are the days.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

When Chekov sees it, it's another sexy image of a woman that Chekov knew, and I think they even play "sexy" music in the score..

Chekov was not in "The Man Trap," as it was one of the early episodes produced in season 1.

Chekov was introduced in season 2.

 

[E-DUB]

Most of what I'd want to say on this topic has been said by others. But when I was in college, TOS was being syndicated on a local UHF station and was usually being watched in the dorm lounge by at least a few, maybe many if one of the "good ones".

Also since Robert J. Sawyer has been mentioned, I would point out that his novels almost always include Trek references, either as "throwaway" lines or occasionally as plot points.

 

[Hambone]

Let's see. My fondest memories of early 1970's Star Trek fandom are:

-The Making of Star Trek, The World of Star Trek, and "The Trouble With Tribbles". My original books are on my bookshelf, five feet away from me, as I type this.

-model kits and James Blish books

-paying for cable TV myself, out of my paper route money, so I could watch Star Trek on WTCM-TV out of Minneapolis. It cost $6.50 per month (my parents wouldn't pay it, as we got a whopping six channels)

-getting the latest Lincoln Enterprises catalog and collecting film clips

-the thrill of The Animated Series' original run. "Thrill"? You bet. These were new stories, and we were starving for them.

-publishing one of the earliest fanzines (Star Trek Nuts and Bolts) along with three friends. We solicited stories and artwork, and did all the editing and paste-up. One of the guys actually bought a used mimeograph machine so we could do the printing ourselves. We even figured out how to do bulk mailing. Not bad for 13- and 14-year-olds. It ran from 1974 to 1979, when Star Trek: The Motion Picture came out.

http://fanlore.org/wiki/Star_Trek_Nuts_%26_Bolts

 

[Warped9]

?..since Robert J. Sawyer has been mentioned, I would point out that his novels almost always include Trek references, either as "throwaway" lines or occasionally as plot points.

Very true!

 

[Redfern]

I'm not sure how my era of fandom should be classified.

I was born in November 1962 and vaguely remember a sequence or two when the series first aired (specifically the "looming" shot of the Doomsday Machine as it slowly filled the screen accompanied by Sol Kaplan's score), but I remembered a bit more of "Lost in Space" when it still aired in prime-time.

It was actually the Fall of 1972 when I started to watch the syndicated reruns with rapt attention. And I did so initially so I'd know what to do when my childhood buddy Kyle wanted to play "let's pretend". (Today I guess we'd call it informal "role play", no dice, no rules, just on the spot improv'.) Kyle needed a Spock to play opposite his Kirk. Since I stood an inch or two taller than he and I possessed black hair, I got the role. Within a couple of months, I watched simply because I liked it.

Come September 1973, the animated series debuted and the the affiliate stopped airing the live-action reruns during the two years TAS aired. It did not return until the Fall of 1975. (Obviously, different affiliates handled broadcasts differently, but this was the way Birmingham, Alabama did it.)

Maybe I shoule be listed as a "first rerun" fan? Maybe there's a better term.

Anyway, a lot of points have already been mentioned, but one I didn't see (unless I just overlooked the text) was the (in)famous "Exploration Set" model kit by AMT. Yeah, we may laugh at it today given we can purchase properly scaled prop/toys released through Asylum Arts at a reasonable price. But at the time, the "kid sized" field gear was the answer to a lot of prayers. Before its release, Kyle and I had to "make do" with smuggled TV remotes as pocket phasers, binocular cases as tricorders, and probably most awkward, his mother's expended make-up "compacts" for communicators. Kyle kept the black rectangular case for himself (not that I blame him), but I got stuck with a pink circular one. I rarely "hailed the ship" if we played outside lest the older kids in the apartment complex spotted me! Finally, we had pieces that actually looked (more or less) like the equipment "real" landing parties used!

I never figured out how to make acceptable ears. Today, there exists all sorts of ear tip appliances, but during my personal "heyday" spanning from 1972 to 75 (when Kyle and I both moved from the complex), decent ear props just didn't exist. No, I didn't do the "cardboard schtick"; even I was not that dorky. A local magic shop sold "elf" ears, but they slipped over the entire ear and looked clownishly oversized. One time my father and I patroned a local "celebrity themed" restaurant and I saw a waiter dressed as Spock. His ears, while not as refined as Nimoy's appliances certainly looked better than the rubber "ear muffs" I saw in the shop. He explained that he used a material called "nose putty", basically a clay-like material used to build up distinctive facial features. Later, I bought a tube, but I never could shape it as I wanted and it sure as h3ll didn't want to adhere to my ears. (In retrospect, I assumed he used additional materials like spirit gum to "glue" the putty into place.) Of course, by the time we moved apart (Kyle to a different town), my incentive to "role play" was gone.

Sincerely,

Bill