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Trying to find a Star Trek (TOS) book

O

OldTrekker719

Lieutenant
Red Shirt
Hi,
Long ago (1970s!), I owned several books on Star Trek, Including "Inside Star Trek", and "The World of Star Trek". I am trying to remember the title of another book along the same lines.. I definitely remember certain anecdotes which do not appear to be in either of the previously mentioned books. One was about Leonard Nimoy coming up with the "nerve pinch" (and demonstrating it on Shatner), another was about Ted Cassidy (Who played "Ruk" in "What Are Little Girls made Of") sitting at a desk (in costume?) doing an impression of Gene Roddenberry while talking on the phone. Since "Inside Star Trek The Real Story" was NOT published until 1996, I do NOT think that is the book that I am looking for. If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions, I would appreciate a response to my inquiry.
 
Pretty sure those stories appeared in "The Making of Star Trek" by Stephen Whitfield, first published in 1968 and reprinted for many years (bought my first copy when I was around 9 at a "bookmobile" sale circa 1975).

As the Cassidy story goes, the Roddenberry impression was for the benefit of a clothing salesman there to measure him for a suit and who supposedly didn't even bat an eye.
 
The story of the suit salesman is in "Star Trek Memories", 1993. I just read the book. It is at the end of the chapter titled, "Amassing the Troops". There is also a mention of the nerve pinch but I couldn't relocate just skimming through. Dennis
 
Thank you for your responses. I am probably confusing anecdotes from various books. I also remember one about a prank played on someone that had to do with a very large balloon being partly filled with cheap perfume, and then blown up in his office so that he could barely get INTO the office (The only solution was to pop the balloon, and inundate his office with the perfume) . I did have a copy of "Star Trek Memories" ( I still might have a copy. I ought to dig it out, and re-read it. Thanks again.
 
Ted Cassidy was a bit of a joker on set it appears! Especially when dressed like Injun Joe from Huck Finn and grabbing hold of The Shat and carrying him in his arms protesting while running around the prison cells of a futuristic Rome! :guffaw:
JB
 
OldTrekker719 said:
Hi,
Long ago (1970s!), I owned several books on Star Trek, Including "Inside Star Trek", and "The World of Star Trek".
Click to expand...

Inside Star Trek was published in 1996. I agree with the conclusion that you're thinking of TMOST.

Star Trek non-fiction had a very limited bibliography in the 1970s:

The Making of Star Trek (Whitfield, Roddenberry)
The Trouble with Tribbles (Gerrold)
The World of Star Trek (Gerrold)
Star Trek Lives! (Lichtenberg, Marshak, Winston)
I am Not Spock (Nimoy)
Letters to Star Trek (Sackett)
The Star Trek Concordance (Trimble)

I don't recall reading about a balloon filled with perfume during TOS (or ever), and I think it would be a very famous anecdote among us if it happened.
 
Memory Alpha quotes the Steve Carabatsos perfume incident from The World of Star Trek:

"Matt Jefferies got hold of a weather balloon and we got some helium. We poured about a pint of cheap perfume in it and then we put the balloon in his office and blew it up so it completely filled his office and pushed the door closed against it and waited for Steve to come to work. He opened the door and walked right into this thing and we knew the only way he could get into his office was to break it, and breaking all the helium and air mixed with perfume would make his office smell like a Turkish whorehouse for a month, and indeed, that's what happened."
 
mb22 said:
Memory Alpha quotes the Steve Carabatsos perfume incident from The World of Star Trek:

"Matt Jefferies got hold of a weather balloon and we got some helium. We poured about a pint of cheap perfume in it and then we put the balloon in his office and blew it up so it completely filled his office and pushed the door closed against it and waited for Steve to come to work. He opened the door and walked right into this thing and we knew the only way he could get into his office was to break it, and breaking all the helium and air mixed with perfume would make his office smell like a Turkish whorehouse for a month, and indeed, that's what happened."
Click to expand...

Okay, I'd forgotten I ever read that. But I seriously doubt that it really happened. The smell would have caused long-term annoyance to a lot of people beyond that one office, surely including the perpetrators themselves. Studio executives would have "gotten wind of it" and they'd have to be angry that time and resources were squandered on a damaging prank.

And again, if something that overwhelming and mean was done to a Star Trek writer, wouldn't the story be better known? To me it reads like a classic GR fabrication. He was a notoriously unreliable narrator of actual events. Note that the Carabatsos interview in Starlog #168 (July 1991) makes no mention of this supposed practical joke, or anything out of the ordinary.
 
alensatemybuick1 said:
D.C. Fontana's accounts of the balloon incident below make no mention of perfume, and are more plausible:

http://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/808938/a-star-trek-story-of-female-inspiration/page:2

https://reader.paperc.com/books/smart-pop-preview-2015/664580/chapter01/comp-6-ch1
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. But my B.S. detector wasn't entirely wrong: there was no perfume involved (the story got "better" in GR's telling), and Carabatsos didn't have to break the balloon.
 
Those stories were in "The World of Star Trek" by David Gerrold.

Also in a section that took up fully a quarter of the book, Gerrold outlined his idea that the Enterprise should've had a dedicated landing party that he called a "contact team" and in his novel "The Galactic Whirlpool" was featured led by Lt. Riley.

I've heard this evolved into the "Away Teams" (stupid name in my opinion) in TNG and all subsequent Star Treks.
 
Samuel said:
I've heard this evolved into the "Away Teams" (stupid name in my opinion)
Click to expand...

But contact team is too specific, while away is general. Their job isn't always to go and make contact with someone. They should have stuck with landing party and boarding party.
 
alensatemybuick1 said:
Pretty sure those stories appeared in "The Making of Star Trek" by Stephen Whitfield, first published in 1968 and reprinted for many years (bought my first copy when I was around 9 at a "bookmobile" sale circa 1975).
Click to expand...
Neat - that's where I got my copy in 1969! They had one parked in our middle school's lot.
 
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