22nd October 2017 - Star Trekking - across the Universe

Thought for the day :"Being an adult is just walking around wondering what you're forgetting."

And for the trekkies (orig: 90skids.com)

James Doohan, the actor who played engineer Scotty on the show, was sometimes seen with a missing finger on his right hand. Doohan served with the 14th Field Artillery Regiment of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division during the D-Day invasion of Normandy in 1944. While Doohan crossed between command posts in the middle of the night, a nervous Canadian sentry took him for a German soldier and opened fire. Doohan was shot four times in the leg, once in the chest and once straight through his middle finger. Luckily, Doohan survived, but his finger had to be amputated. He tried to conceal the fact he had a missing finger for most of his acting career, but it can occasionally be seen in certain episodes of Star Trek.

This story is told slightly differently here but is the same 

One of the most famous – and groundbreaking – kisses in television history occurred in 1968 Plato’s Stepchildren episode of Star Trek. The moment Uhura and Kirk kissed on screen was a landmark moment in American broadcast history as it marked the first interracial kiss to be seen on US TV. However, what is less known is that Uhura was originally supposed to kiss Spock, not Kirk. When William Shatner read the script, he said to Nichols, “No you will not! If anyone’s going to be part of the first interracial kiss in television history, it’s going to be me!” The script was hastily rewritten and the rest, as they say, is history!

When the official blueprints for the USS Enterprise were released to the public in 1975, fans noticed something rather unusual on Deck 21. Right next to areas designated ‘Refreshments Area’ and ‘Basic Foods and Beverages Preparation Facility’ was a six-lane bowling alley! Hey, even Captain Kirk needs a bit of recreation time when he’s not fighting Klingons or getting it on with a galaxy of sexy ladies!

Bowled over

The show’s pilot, The Cage, never aired on TV. Network bosses were worried that the show was too sexually suggestive for a family audience to accept. It’s not hard to see with its steamy scenes of green-painted dancing girls, though these scenes seem incredibly tame by modern standards. Producers did take notice of the network’s prudishness. they would often insert scenes into the show knowing they would be cut. However, this enabled the producers to insert controversial storylines such as 1968’s Vietnam War allegory, A Private Little War while the network execs fussed over dancing girls and displays of female flesh.

Definitely a Green One

William Shatner had a tendency to put on weight during filming of Star Trek. To combat this, costume designers came up with his unique green tunic. The folded-over design held the actor’s belly in, making him appear less portly than he actually was. In later years, one of the running jokes about Shatner was that he always wore a girdle under his costume.

Maybe I should try this ...

James Doohan was cast in the role of Scotty primarily because of his ability to mimic a wide range of accents. Show creator Gene Roddenberry didn’t have a particular accent in mind for his chief engineer, so Doohan tried a few different ones out on him. Roddenberry was particularly impressed with Doohan’s Scottish accent, and so a legend was born. The jury’s still out on what actual Scottish people think of Doohan’s accent!

When Star Trek was being filmed, it shared studios with some of the biggest TV shows of the 1960s. It wasn’t unusual for the various shows to share cast members and extras when they were not required. As a result, you can see crew members from Star Trek popping up in the backgrounds of shows such as Mission: Impossible, Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel, Batman and Get Smart.

The various beverages you see in the original Star Trek TV show were actually modified versions of real world beverages. Due to trademark restrictions, the producers of the show couldn’t use real life beverages, so instead they took the bottles these drinks came in and modified them. Therefore, George Dickel Tennessee Whiskey became ‘Saurian Brandy’, and Cuervo Gold 1800 Tequila became Scotty’s favorite tipple, ‘Aldeberan Whiskey’.

One of the strangest things about watching the original season of Star Trek is how much the character of Janice Rand appears in the first eight episodes, but then suddenly disappears. The reason behind this is Rand was supposed to be the principle female lead on the show. However, executives decided that Shatner should have a different love interest in every episode as they didn’t want the captain ‘saddled’ with just one woman. The actress, Grace Lee Whitney, was promptly fired and sunk into depression. Several years later, the actor DeForest Kelly, who played Bones on the show, saw her in the unemployment line and told her fans had been asking for her at conventions. She was brought back into the fold for Star trek: The Motion Picture, going on to play Janice Rand in three more Trek movies, as well as making an appearance in Star Trek: Voyager. She passed away in 2015 at the age of 85.

A huge name throughout the 60s, Yvonne Craig appeared in the Star Trek episode “Whom Gods Destroy”. This beautiful lady had an unstable mind and when she failed to seduce Kirk, she pulled out a knife.

and another Green One

And so ...   with other Science Fiction images in mind - I rather like this one which seems to me to sum up the Trump World ....

Cheers!