Trivia » Treknicalities

The Deadly Years, then and now

Jun 172010

Ever wonder just how good (or bad) the make-up people were back in the sixties?

In 1968, the people who did make-up on the original Star Trek series were given the somewhat daunting task of making William Shatner (37 years old at the time) appear to be “between 60 and 72 years of age”.

Finally, enough time has passed and, now that William Shatner is actually in his 70′s, it’s possible to compare what make-up did in the mid-20th century to what time has done in the early 21st century.

In this particular case, it seems they got a pretty close approximation of what Shatner was going to look like in 40+ years, forgetting only the “middle age spread” that so many of us encounter.

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Leonard Nimoy’s first alien role

Star Trek TOS, Trivia No Responses »

Jun 012010

Mention the name Leonard Nimoy to just about anyone and, whether they’re a Star Trek fan or not, the first thing they’re going to think of is Mr. Spock. As famous as he is for that alien role, Spock was not Leonard Nimoy’s first alien role.

In 1952, at the age of 21, Lenard Nimoy played a Martian named Narab in Zombies of the Stratosphere. The plot involves Martians conspiring with traitorous human scientists to use H-Bombs to switch the orbits of earth and mars because the red planet is too far from the sun. The Martians feel that if Mars was in earth’s place their planet wold be saved and earth would be the dying planet that’s too far from the sun.

While it sounds incredibly silly by today’s standards, this type of plot is pretty typical of that era.

But, nobody ever really said that

Star Trek TAS, Star Trek TOS, Trivia, Trivia No Responses »

May 222010

The one quote you hear associated with Star Trek‘s original series more than any other is, “Beam Me Up, Scotty”. The problem is that nobody in the original series, the animated series, or the movies ever said that.

In the Original Series episodes “The Gamesters of Triskelion” and “The Savage Curtain“, Kirk said, “Scotty, beam us up”.

In the animated episodes “The Lorelei Signal” and “The Infinite Vulcan“, he said, “Beam us up, Scotty”.

In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Captain Kirk says, “Beam me up, Mr. Scott” and, “Scotty, beam me up.”

In Star Trek Generations the captain says, “Scotty, beam them out of there.”

Long after the phrase was permanently embedded in pop culture, it did eventually get some actual Star Trek related use, however.

William Shatner eventually used those exact words in the audio adaptation of his novel Star Trek: The Ashes of Eden.

James Doohan later chose to title his autobiography, “Beam Me Up, Scotty.”