The Star Trek Guide (1967 official publication)
| Title: | The Star Trek Guide |
| Creator: | |
| Date(s): | third revision: April 17, 1967 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: TOS |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | online here |
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The Star Trek Guide was the official Norway Productions 31-page guide for writers for Star Trek: TOS. The booklet, "The Star Trek Guide," was sold for many, many years by Lincoln Enterprises, and it was one of their best-selling items.
It is online here. The last line: "Are you people on LSD?" "We tried, but we couldn't keep it lit."
This publication had a predecessor called Star Trek Format: The Original Star Trek Idea As Submitted To NBC by Gene Roddenberry, which was printed in ST-Phile (fanzine) as well as being sold by Lincoln Enterprises beginning in in 1967. It is unknown how much overlap there is between the two, though clearly the second publication's descriptions are much more familiar to fans. See Star Trek Format: The Original Star Trek Idea As Submitted To NBC by Gene Roddenberry for some of the early character descriptions, including Rand's description: "With a strip-queen figure even a uniform can't hide, Colt [Rand] serves as Captain's secretary, reporter, bookkeeper --- and with surprising efficiency. She undoubtedly dreams of serving Robert April [Jim Kirk] with equal efficiency in more personal departments." [1]
Contents
- STAR TREK FORMAT.................................................Page 1
- SCRIPT FORMAT....................................................Page 6
- THE U.S.S. ENTERPRISE............................................Page 7
- CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK...........................................Page 10
- MISTER SPOCK...................................................Page 11
- DR. LEONARD (BONES) McCOY.......................................Page 12
- OTHER RUNNING CHARACTERS........................................Page 13
- STANDING SETS...................................................Page 15
- IMPORTANT EQUIPMENT AND TERMINOLOGY............................ Page 19
- QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS...........................................Page 27
Excerpts
The Science Fiction
CAN YOU FIND THE MAJOR STAR TREK ERROR IN THE FOLLOWING "TEASER" FROM A STORY OUTLINE?
The scene is the Bridge of the U.S.S. (United States Spaceship) Enterprise. Captain Kirk is at his command position, his lovely but highly efficient female Yeoman at his side. Suddenly and without provocation, our Starship is attacked by an alien space vessel. We try to warn the alien vessel off, but it ignores us and begins loosening bolts of photon energy-plasma at us.
The alien vessel's attack begins to weaken our deflectors. Mister Spock reports to Captain Kirk that the next enemy bolt will probably break through and destroy the Enterprise. At this moment we look up to see that final energy-plasma bolt heading for us. There may be only four or five seconds of life left. Kirk puts his arms about his lovely Yeoman, comforting and embracing her as they wait for what seems certain death. FADE OUT. (END TEASER)
PLEASE CHECK ONE:
- ( ) Inaccurate terminology. The Enterprise is more correctly an international vessel, the United Spaceship Enterprise.
- ( ) Scientifically incorrect. Energy-plasma bolts could not be photon in nature.
- ( ) Unbelievable. The Captain would not hug pretty Yeoman on the Bridge of his vessel.
- ( ) Concept weak. This whole story opening reeks too much of "space pirate" or similar bad science fiction.
NOW, TRY AGAIN. SAME BASIC STORY SITUATION, BUT AGAINST ANOTHER BACKGROUND.
The time is today. We're in Viet Nam waters aboard the navy cruiser U.S.S. Detroit. Suddenly an enemy gunboat heads for us, our guns are unable to stop it, and we realize it's a suicide attack with an atomic warhead. Total destruction of our vessel and of all aboard appears probable. Would Captain E. L. Henderson, presently commanding the U.S.S. Detroit, turn and hug a comely female WAVE who happened to be on the ship's bridge. As simple as that. This is our standard test that has led to STAR TREK believability [sic]. (It also suggests much of what has been wrong in filmed sf of the past.) No, Captain Henderson wouldn't! Not if he's the kind of Captain we hope is commanding any naval vessel of ours. Nor would our Captain Kirk hug a female crewman in a moment of danger, not if he's to remain believable. (Some might prefer Henderson were somewhere making love rather than shelling Asiatic ports, but that's a whole different story for a whole different network. Probably BBC.)
AND SO, IN EVERY SCENE OF OUR STAR TREK STORY...
... translate it into a real life situation. Or, sometimes as useful, try it in your mind as a scene in GUNSMOKE, NAKED CITY, or some similar show. Would you believe the people and the scene if it happened there?
IF YOU'RE ONE OF THOSE WHO ANSWERS: "THE CHARACTER ACTS THAT WAY BECAUSE IT'S SCIENCE FICTION", DON'T CALL US, WE'LL CALL YOU.
Some Characters
LIEUTENANT UHURA--- Communications Officer, played by attractive young actress Nichelle Nichols. Uhura was born in the United States of Africa. Quick and intelligent, she is a highly efficient officer and expert in all ships systems relating to communications. Uhura is also a warm, highly female female off duty. She is something of a favorite in the Recreation Room during off duty hours, too, because she sings -- old ballads as well as the newer space ballads -- and she can do an impersonation at the drop of a communicator.
YEOMAN --- Played by a succession of young actresses, always lovely. One such character has been well established in the first year, "YEOMAN JANICE RAND", played by the lovely Grace Lee Whitney. Whether Yeoman Rand or a new character provided by the writer, this female Yeoman serves Kirk as his combination Executive Secretary-Valet-Military Aide. As such, she is always capable, a highly professional career girl. As with all female Crewman aboard, during duty hours she is treated co-equal with males of the same rank, and the same level of efficient performance is expected. The Yeoman often carries a small over-the-shoulder case, a TRICORDER, about the size of a small handbag, which is also an electronic recorder-camera-sensor combination, immediately available to the Captain should he be away from his Command Console.
NURSE CHRISTINE CHAPEL --- Introduced in an early episode and returning on several other occasions, Nurse Chapel is played by Majel Barrett. She is Dr. McCoy’s Head Nurse, a skilled Surgical Assistant, as near to a professional confidant as the irascible "Bones" McCoy is likely to have. That relationship never transgresses onto the personal and an unspoken bond is that fact that she, too, is in a Starfleet Service because of a tragic romance. Although she herself holds several university degrees in Research Medicine, she has found a measure of contentment in this life as a Starfleet Nurse and wanderer.
Some Sample Pages
Meta/Further Reading
- » Live long and prosper…and don’t put anything in the crew’s pockets Modern Books and Manuscripts, Archived version (2011)
- Star Trek Writers' Guide From 1967 Reveals Starfleet's Vendetta Against Pockets, Archived version (2013)
References
- ^ Because TPTB wouldn't want to waste a good strip queen reference twenty years later, they used it again! Here's the original proposal for Star Trek: TNG's Beverly Crusher: "If it were not for her intelligence, personality, and beauty, and the fact that she has the natural walk of a striptease queen, Capt Picard might not have agreed to her request that Wesley observe bridge activities, therefore letting her son's intelligence carry events further." -- from the March 1987 issue of Comlink: