Welcome to Star Trekking, my attempt to share points of interest and random intersections in the final frontier.
Frequent instigator of excellent Trek deep dives and friend of the newsletter Neil S. Bulk recently sent me this clip of William Shatner on the Ed Sullivan Show.
It’s a full ten minute chunk of The World of Suzie Wong, the show Shatner was then starring in on Broadway. It is worth looking at for Shatner’s hair alone.
But the other star of the clip is France Nguyen, who would of course later appear in Star Trek as Elaan of Troyius.
I accidentally fell into a rabbit hole as I looked for other Shatner/Nguyen appearances, and in so doing came across this recent interview. Mostly it’s a career overview, but she does talk Shatner and Trek.
When asked about working with Shatner in Suzie Wong, she says he was professional, young, and insecure - and that “he perspired a lot.”
Star Trek, she said, was just a job, but she admired the fact that “they made do with little.”
They had a very low budget and they made that starship look real on the screen. I had incredible costumes that were glued to me with safety pins and with tape. They made the armor that I had out of plastic placemats, cut into pieces and stuck together with clips - and it looked so great. It was a feast of ingenuity.
I love that phrase - feast of ingenuity.
She describes Gene as a humanitarian and philosopher and praised the show’s diverse cast. She then tells the famous story about Nichelle Nichols and Martin Luther King, Jr.
She also talks about how much she enjoyed meeting fans, and describes them as people who were seeking the truth from a TV show - much more than those who go to a temple.
She then mentions her second career as a psychologist, treating teenage delinquents and adults who were abused as children, including working inside prisons. All in all, she’s a remarkable person and this is a fascinating look into her life and career.
After Star Trek, Nguyen once again played Shatner’s love interest - his wife - in an episode of Kung Fu. And again, I encourage you to take a gander at Shatner’s hair in this clip.
Obviously, that was his audition for Barbary Coast.
I enjoyed reading this review.
Love a good artifact.
And finally, an important reminder.
Meanwhile, in other news.
How could I not share this.
I bought a reproduction of this for a girlfriend back in the nineties. Maybe it’s time for me to buy one for my wife. (She would not wear it.)
Here’s some Trek art for you.
I kind of love this.
More jewelry.
And what would this newsletter be without some nice model shots.
Nice wall display.
Have you got a Trek wall display? Tweet me a photo, please.
DIRECTIVES
Ranking the plausibility of sci-fi faster than light travel.
Turns out Spock was kinda bad at logic.
Have you come across some random Trek this week? Let me know!
Until next time,
LOVE long…and prosper.