But you gotta admit it's a funny coincidence coming in the first few lines of the film.
Fact-Checking Inside Star Trek: The Real Story
- Thread starter Harvey
- Start date
But you gotta admit it's a funny coincidence coming in the first few lines of the film.
I finally finished my entry on 'The Great Phaser Caper' for this week: http://startrekfactcheck.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-great-phaser-caper.html
Busy work week ahead, so probably just a short post next week.
Busy work week ahead, so probably just a short post next week.
Very nice article! I'd love to know more about what happened in the month prior to the Klamer deal being killed; did Klamer himself ever give his side of the story when the rifle was auctioned off?
I love how Gene felt the need to call attention to the way he was "Living up to my promise to notify you..." -- as if that was something unusual for him. Why do I have the feeling Gene just liked the deal with Jeffries and Wah Chang better (had to pay a few bucks but got to avoid the propmakers union and didn't have to give up the toy rights). And was Gene taking credit for the series Phaser design in that memo? Didn't Jeffries and Chang do that?
^Was there anything Roddenberry didn't try to take credit for? 
Unless I zoned out during the auction's video with Klamer, which I briefly quote, I don't think he got into detail about it. This listing just says "Eventually, Klamer did no further work for the series, but retained these outlines." Judging from some searching on Google, I don't think Klamer spoke to the press about the item, beyond the auction site's listing.
Quite a few years ago aridas worked up a really good idea for a TOS era phaser rifle. It was immediately recognizable yet also looked more than just rearranging familiar elements together. To me it looked like it could really have fit seamlessly into the show.
I wish I could find it again. I was sure I had a copy of it.
I wish I could find it again. I was sure I had a copy of it.
Aridas posted links to it back in March in this post, but the links show up as "temporarily unavailable."
Unfortunately, for his own reasons, aridas has recently withdrawn from pretty much all things Trek including shutting down his Federation Reference Series website. Maybe he feels burnt out or it's something else. I have no clear idea as he hasn't communicated his reasons to me or anyone else I know of.
I've always found it interesting that Matt Jefferies' annotations are all over that phaser rifle design sketch...
FWIW:
The second season publicity brochure from NBC has a photo of Shatner holding the Klamer rifle. There's also a behind-the-scenes photo in it from Catspaw, so that might help a little with the dating of the brochure.
No, it's an original.
I would assume Harvey means do you have a digital copy it (i.e. is it scanned and available for viewing somewhere)?
I think that's an urban myth. Jefferies has explained that he chose the number because it read more clearly on camera than other numbers.
Ah, sorry, I misunderstood the question(s). No, it is not, and I won't post the brochure on the intertube. After recently having a number of my web-posted photos, that I had originally purchased and restored for the TOS fans, harvested and included in a for-profit book series, I've decided that I won't be doing that sort of thing anymore. Sorry, but I guess that's the law of unintended consequences.
Please, accept my word that what I said about the second season brochure is correct.
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Wow that's really not okay, sorry to hear that. Your site even puts all the photos inside a Flash animation that floats a watermark over it. How could they get it unmolested?
This is shameful, full stop. I assume you're talking about a certain book coming out in August. Have you contacted the publisher?
Of course. I have updated my post with the following text:
Multiple screenshots, where the watermark is in different places, stitched together.
It's sucky that people do that, especially in a for-profit work like a book.
From the film Forbidden Planet (link to scene)
The line:
Navigator: "Ship on course sir. We'll reach De-'C' point at 1701..."
(Should put to rest any claims they were not influenced consciously or sub-consciously by the film when GR was creating/producing 'Star Trek'.
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