Thanks to beyondspock over at YouTube, here is a 6:40 film of the International STAR TREK Convention from February 16-19 1973, which was held at the Commodore Hotel, New York City. Attendees included in the film: Isaac Asimov, Oscar Katz, D.C. Fontana (on a TOS bridge mock up set) and Leonard Nimoy.
I don't know what the context is here. This was shot on film, edited together in a professional way, and is generally respectful to this odd little show that would not die. It's funny to recall this time, when if you said you liked STAR TREK it meant that NBC show from the 1960s. It was not this multi-limbed media machine, spewing out copies and reimaginations.
Perhaps this was a testament to early ongoing interest in the show - and the potential to make money from the franchise.
1973 would see David Gerrold's great books about STAR TREK, THE TROUBLE WITH TRIBBLES (all about writing that episode) and THE WORLD OF STAR TREK. James Blish continued with STAR TREK 9, another book in the series of STAR TREK episode serializations.
The first of the new permutations TOS (The Old Show) would appear that fall, with the all new STAR TREK: THE ANIMATED SERIES. Within 5 years, the new STAR TREK 2 TV series was announced -- with all of the cast returning except Leonard Nimoy -- and then suddenly transformed into a theatrical movie (with Nimoy, natch!) a year later.
The girl at the end of the clip, who moves herself to tears, reminded me that the whole STAR TREK mythology came from people like her: sincere, true believers. A little crazy, maybe. But a good kinda crazy.
That's great - optimistic, fun and hopeful, back when ST was a genuine cultural phenomenon and not reduced to a Hollywood franchise. It was always that but somehow more. The problem is, we take the things we love and learn how to squeeze more money from them thus rendering them inert, lacking magic.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to look back at certain things -- Star Trek, Grateful Dead concerts, Mardi Gras, dare-I-say Comicon -- when they were undiscovered gems of crazy that only a small eccentric group followed. Here are the people who wanted to be there not to be there but, like the girl who formed a club the first day the show ran, because it genuinely touched them. And made them attach lobsters to their foreheads.
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