Thursday, April 12, 2012

INSIDE STAR TREK (1976)

Gene Roddenberry: "I think one fan comment we got quite often during the third year was; 'How come Captain Kirk gets a new girl every week?'"

William Shatner:  "Well, he uses up the old one!"  
This is another merchandising/audio oddity that demonstrates just how much of a phenomenon Star Trek reruns had become, almost ten years after it originally aired on network television. In '76, Trek creator Gene Roddenberry recorded an all-talk, long-playing album about the creation of the television series and its impact on both his life and on popular culture. It included interviews with William Shatner, DeForest Kelly and science fiction author Isaac Asimov, a discussion of the character of Spock, with input from Mark Lenard, in-character as Sarek, and was spiced-up with plenty of authentic sound effects from the show. It also featured one of the best recordings/arrangements of the Trek theme I've ever heard.
"I lost the argument. Questor did not get the girl. But I remember driving home that night, I was kind of happy. I was saying 'You know, in your whole writing career how many times will you get an opportunity to create a whole new area of intolerance?'"
Part of the album was made up of a recording of Roddenberry talking before a live audience. If I recall correctly, it may have been one of the college lectures that he was doing at the time. Aside from Star Trek, he also spoke about his then-recent efforts to launch a new sci-fi pilot, The Questor Tapes.

It's been many years since I've spun this record. I still have it buried somewhere with my other old LPs. I've read that it was released on CD in the late 90s with some additional tracks. I'll have to keep an eye out for that edition.

9 comments:

  1. I have this album! Played it and played it and played it. Kids today are too spoiled with instant replayability of their favorite shows. We had to roam far and wide for material back in the day.

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  2. It was released as the 2nd CD of the remastered Star Trek the Motion Picture soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith
    Yes, it does have additional tracks with Nichelle Nichols (Uhura)and background info about Genesis II!
    Columbia Legacy C2K66134, 7464-66134-2

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  3. It looks like it's part of the "Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Original Soundtrack--20th Anniversary Collectors' Edition) / Inside Star Trek" which you can find on Amazon.

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  4. Though you've probably been inundated with the info already from the rest of the gang, I'll repeat it anyway...

    Inside Star Trek was the bonus CD with the expanded soundtrack to Star Trek the Motion Picture, which came out for the 20th anniversary in 99.

    http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Motion-Picture-Collectors/dp/B00000FC5P/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1334269702&sr=1-1

    Tex
    (who owned the original album and wore the grooves out)

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  5. This album cover was mounted on a wooden locker door inside one of my classrooms around 1978. I spent an entire semester wondering what was on the record.

    As for Questor, at the risk of angering Roddenberry loyalists, like most of his stuff, it just wasn't very good. His best talent was finding people who could take his basic concepts and turn them into gold. Left to his own devices, we got laughable tripe like "Encounter at Farpoint." He basically had one success - Star Trek. Everything else failed - Questor, Genesis II, Planet Earth. It didn't help that Robert Foxworth looked older than he was. Should have cast somebody in his twenties to appeal to the younger generation.

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  6. An interesting artifact from the heyday of '70s Star Trek fandom. Can you believe they actually dared let Bill "Mr. Tambourine Man" Shatner into a recording studio? I lost my original vinyl copy years ago when my apartment flooded, but the expanded CD version is a fine replacement.

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  7. Great memories here. I ordered this LP through mail order near the end of my high school days. The sessions seem a little scripted, but I still enjoy it very much. I recently downloaded the tracks on iTunes, presumably it's still available there.

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  8. One odd difference between the LP and CD versions is that the "Star Trek" Theme is shortened on the CD. Instead of playing through twice, it only plays once. I don't know if the LP version was artificially extended, or the CD track was edited down, but it's not as if they didn't have room on the compact disc for the whole thing.

    I treasured the sound effects on this album. I made my own loop on reel-to-reel tape of the 'bridge' sound effects, by playing and replaying the very few seconds right after Shatner says "Ahead, warp factor one!". I think by the time I was through 'editing' the tape, my homemade sequence lasted about a minute ( but boy that was A LOT of pausing and rewinding ).

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  9. My favorite quote from Gene Roddenberry is on this album--"Whatever the meaning and purpose of this universe is--YOU ARE a legitimate part of it." That got be thru some very tough times in my life, and still does today!

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