Year 3 of the 52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 19

Week 19: Adventure.

"Abseiling meerkat adventurer." Slightly 3D assemblage art, decorated with watercolours and sash cord on freecut corrugated cardboard. Collaged with natural shadows.

Update:

Week 19: Adventure II.

Sponged paper, newsprint and card collage, with a cartoon sketch of an alien adventurer. Stars in Kindy Glitz, moon is a prismatic sticker.

Year 3 of the 52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 1

Week 1: Fancy Dress

"Before and after." Watercolour clown sketch over black finepoint Sharpie and masking fluid on watercolour paper, with a collaged silhouette.

Update:

Week 1: Fancy Dress II

"Betelgeusian Chief Ambassador." This is the most expensive Hollywood costume ever worn in a movie by a screen extra - valued at $US10,000 in 1979 - but is barely glimpsed in the movie, Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The bolt of fabric used in the garment dates back to Cecil B. DeMille and contains real gold and silver thread. Very fancy dress! Oil pastels and Kindy Glitter Glitz on Quill "marbletone" cream paper, and based on a publicity still.

ALF gains a chair, meets a dog

This silvery spaceship chair is a repaint of a dolls' wooden high chair I found on the kerb a few days ago. Note the new green and red buttons on the throttles and gears. A perfect chair for...



... my Mum's ALF doll, which used to sit an a rather substandard stool in her spare room.


ALF (Alien Life Form) meets Jack.

That was the week that was

Stunning flowers fill the gardens around the base of old palm trees in the war memorial park halfway along the shopping centre on High Street, in Penrith. 16 November 2009.



Jack takes "Tiger" to bed. Yes, the current "tiger" is actually a sheepskin platypus. Poor confused dog. 17 November 2009.



These hardy flowers are in numerous commercial stores' flower beds in Penrith. 18 November 2009.



Christmas decorations at the Queen Victoria Building (QVB) in the Sydney CBD. 19 November 2009.



Home customised "Bear and Chook" Christmas ornament. 20 November 2009.



Alien invasion of my bedroom. These little guys are from the "Toy Story" series of Pixar animated films, of course. The one on the mauve base is a very annoying talking night light. The other foreground alien is a bootleg battery operated toy from a bargain importer. The alien teddy is one of those collectible Japanese bears. 21 November 2009.



Jack finally meets Wishbone at Mash cafe in Glenbrook. They were surprisingly well behaved while we ate breakfast. 22 November 2009.

Forgotten Visitors

I'd quite forgotten to check this out!

After numerous false starts, including the canning of creator Kenneth Johnson's sequel/reunion script (which he then turned into a novel in 2007), ABC in the USA will soon be airing a new version of the science fiction series, "V", later this year!



These Youtubeclips feature Elizabeth Mitchell ("Lost") as Erica Evans, a sultry Morena Baccarin ("Firefly", "Stargate SG-1") as the alien Visitors' leader, Anna, with a human reporter played by Scott Wolf ("Party of Five", "Everwood").

Looks great, although it will have to work hard to maintain all the shock value scenes of the original 1983 telemovie, which kinda snuck up on everything, even the now defunct SF media magazine "Starlog"! I means, we already know about the eating of guinea pigs, the harvesting of humans, the stealing of our water, etc...

The US premiere date is set for November 3rd, 2009.

WotWot?

SpottyWot, the male blue WotWot (although he didn't photograph very blue because he's in front of this stunning new image from the recently-repaired Hubble Telescope). His female partner, DottyWot, is bright pink. The faces are kind of reminiscent of Bart Simpson. Based on a new CGI animated television series, "The WotsWots" are new toys, some with detachable body parts to help them impersonate zoo animals after their spaceship's landing in the zoo's grounds.

Fenced in

I pass this tree almost every day but today it reminded me of an alien, especially as it appears placed behind the barbed wire fence. Is it to keep us out, or the alien tree inside?


Day of the Triffids?

My Mego "Star Trek" movie bridge playset

Some email pals asked me about this, so I figured it was easier to put it in a blog entry:



My cool vacu-formed white plastic Mego bridge set, from "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", was bought on eBay about 1999 or 2000. They were quite rare, and I'd always coveted them.

I plan to paint it eventually. It's populated with my Mego TMP action figures and customised alien ambassadors. Several of these were also eBay purchases. I love the way it looks like the ambassadors have just walked out of the framed lobbycard.

To think I once wrote to Heroes World and had the chance to buy the aliens at these prices, but didn't complete the order:



Sigh...

Faces in the crowd

I've wanted to do this for quite a while, as it's a frequently asked question: who in Star Trek fandom played the crew of the USS Enterprise in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (1979)?

To thank the fans who'd supported the ongoing call, throughout the 70s, to put pressure on Paramount Pictures to make a Star Trek reunion movie, Gene Roddenberry - knowing that Hollywood couldn't possibly supply the number of Screen Extras Guild card-carrying bodies the scene in the Rec Deck needed - asked that a now legendary "cattle call" be organised by fan extraordinaire, Bjo Trimble. There were strict height and costume size restrictions, and the males had to forfeit any elaborate sideburns or moustaches, unless they were to be hidden inside a latex alien head.

Special white outfits were made for four guest extras who were too tiny to make the height restriction: including Susan Sackett (on the upper deck); Bjo Trimble herself; a Star Trek office secretary named Michelle; and Leonard Nimoy's then-fan club president, Louise Stange. Everyone else had to be aged between 20 and 40, men from 5'8" to 6'2", sizes 40-42, and women from 5'6" to 5'8', sizes 8-10.

Over the years, several books, including Bjo's own "On the Good Ship Enterprise" (Donning, 1982) and Walter Koenig's "Chekov's Enterprise" (Pocket, 1980) have mentioned partial lists of the fans who made up the successful group of about 170 (of over 350 hopefuls). An early article by Dennis Fischer (a regular "Cinefantastique" reviewer) was called "Part of the magic: the experience of being a Star Trek extra", which appeared in issue # 7 of "Enterprise Incidents" (Nov 1979, pp 4-8), the slick pro zine of the day. Dennis's article was written only days after the filming of the scene, and before any official publicity material about the TMP aliens had been released. It has the best list of participants, with a lot of information on who's who, and where to find some of them. Susan Sackett's "Starlog" column on the making of ST: TMP also featured the casting call (in issue #20, p 22).

Other fan extras have made themselves known in recent years via Internet sources. I've added a scale along the bottom of the photo to make it easier to point out certain humans and aliens. If you know anyone I missed, or can identify someone in the cast pic, please do let me know!


Extras and Star Trek fans play the crew of the USS Enterprise in ST:TMP.


James Doohan's twin sons, Christopher Doohan and Montgomery Doohan, appeared as extras, as did Richard Arnold and Bill Hickey (I think located in third row at 6). Koenig's and Trimble's memoirs name "The Trouble With Tribbles" writer David Gerrold, Roddenberry's assistant, Susan Sackett, Millicent Wise (director Robert Wise's wife, front row at 7), TMP movie hairdresser Barbara Minster, TMP makeup artist Ve Neill, and fans JoAnn Christy, Cedric Taporco (a handsome guy who ended up in a purple Saurian head), John Watts, Rosanna Attias, Paula Crist, Denise Tathwell (now Denise Okuda!), Leigh Strother-Vien, Dennis Fischer, Kathleen Sky-Goldin, Verne Dietsche, Will Guest and Eileen Salamas. Susan mentioned Leah Livingston, daughter of TMP screenwriter Harold, as a participant in her 1980 book "The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (p. 38).

A summary of fan extras from Dennis Fischer's article:

Dennis Fischer himself - brown uniform, green epaulets, no rank, therefore considered himself an orderly or medical cadet. Placed at back of group because he was 6'4" (two inches taller than specified in the height restrictions!), and taller than the principal actors. He then describes several fans who were placed around him:

Leigh Strother-Vien, tall red-headed female of the Los Angeles Science Fiction Society (LASFS), placed next to Fischer.

Don Fanning - "big headed alien" with "methane mask with light-up eyes" covering his face and the "back of head looked like someone's posterior" (we now know to be a Zaranite), to the right of Strother-Vien.

Katherine Kurtz, tall blonde author of the "Deryni" series, placed on other side of Fischer to Strother-Vien, and to the left of Don Fanning's Zaranite.

Bjo Trimble - white uniform, placed to Fisher's left behind two tall people. Many people expect to recognize Bjo on the Rec Deck but, as she explains in her book, she is quite short and was placed behind a hulking male Zaranite. Most assume that the petite woman in beige, in the front row at 7 near David Gerrold (at 8.5), is Bjo - but no, that's Mrs Robert Wise!

Kathleen Sky - red-haired Bantam ST novelist, behind Fischer. Ms Sky wrote "Vulcan!" and "Death's Angel", and was married to fellow Trek novelist Steven Goldin at the time.

Jay Smith - red-haired male, next to Kathleen Sky.

Walt Doty - described as "handsome, young" African American student, a co-president of ASTRA SF club, who had to shave off his moustache to be a TMP extra; placed near other African American.

John Watts - Andorian (third row at 15) - as mentioned in Trimble's book, "for three straight years" John played "one sort of blue-skinned character or other" at Equicon conventions. Coincidentally cast as an Andorian by Robert Wise, he walked bluely past Bjo saying, "How did they know?"

JoAnn Christy (now Nolan) - Vulcan female, in front row at 6. The shy JoAnn is also mentioned in a cute anecdote in the Trimble book, and is named as T'Hesh in Christopher L. Bennett's novel, "Ex Machina". (See more details below.) The article mistakenly calls her "Joanna" (sic).

FANS ON BALCONY:

Vincent (no surname given) - in purple, Gorn-like "lizard outfit" (we now know as a Saurian). (Fischer tells the same tongue-poking anecdote as Bjo did, so this may be Cedric Taporco.)

James T Kirk, the 70s ST fan who had infamously changed his name by deed poll.

Marlene Willauer - almost chosen over JoAnn Christy to be the front row Vulcan, but ended up (balcony at 7.5) "hobnobbing with Susan Sackett", to quote Fischer. (Bjo's book misidentifies Marlene as Denise Tathwell - the future Mrs Michael Okuda - in the closeup group photograph. Denise can be seen in the rec deck scene at 17.5, four rows back, in front of a Rhaandarite.)

Susan Sackett - white uniform (balcony at 8).

Louise Stange - white uniform (balcony at 5.5). Appeared in TMP by special request of Leonard Nimoy. As often happened, Louise's surname appears as "Strange" (sic) in the article. Later known as Louise Stange-Wahl.

Michelle - white uniform, a secretary from Roddenberry's office at Paramount. According to Fischer's article, Michelle supposedly "threatened to refile everything" in the Star Trek production office unless she got put into the film. (I'm wondering if this is Michele Ameen Billy, who was secretary to Harold Livingston, the film's screenwriter? Ms Billy was cast as a speaking character on the Epsilon IX space station, filmed after the rest of principal photography - but this would mean that one Michele watched the other, identical, Michele die on the viewscreen! Today, Michele Ameen Billy is better known as Mrs Jon Povill.)

Unclear if they "made it", but mentioned in the article:

Mike Hodel, radio announcer of "Hour 25" SF radio series (or was he just interviewing at the gate?)

Alan Frisbie - "an alternate" extra - Dennis Fischer reported that Frisbie only "has to kill 15 people" to get into the scene.

Other Starfleet alien descriptions, mentioned by Fischer's article, were "another purple alien that resembled the mutant from 'This Island Earth', but with a smaller cranium" (ie. Betelgeusian) and "bump-heads who resembled Frankenstein's monster with long, blond hair, and they looked like they were ready to do the 'Time Warp'" (we now know as being Rhaandarites, but they were Vegans on that day and "high-domed Vegans" in the shooting script. Memory Alpha discloses that one "Vegan" was played by fan Steven Lance, also known as Steven L Hersh, who did a lot of screen extra work at the time and was a science fiction convention organiser.

"On the Good Ship Enterprise" devotes a chapter to the cattle call and the big day of filming. A black and white casual, group photo in the book shows some fans in uniform surrounding Grace Lee Whitney. ("Enterprise Incidents" has a differently-cropped version of the same photo accompanying its Fischer article, which unfortunately leaves off the alien, Worene, on Bjo's right).

There's a whole chapter, in "On the Good Ship Enterprise", about Worene, the wolfish alien created for TMP by actress/stuntwoman Paula Crist (who later played Baby the brontosaurus in Disney's "Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend"). Ms Crist met Gene Roddenberry at several conventions in Los Angeles. Once she was dressed as Thorwor, a feral-looking male alien. Roddenberry invited her to test for Bridge Alien, doing her own makeup, which she modified as female, but the role was won by fellow pro actor Billy Van Zandt (front row at 2, who scored Fred Phillip's Rhaandarite makeup, and one line of dialogue that wasn't restored until the ABC TV premiere). Because Paula Crist (now know as Paula Crist-Pickett) was a Screen Actors Guild member, she did score herself a screen credit for playing Worene on the Rec Deck.

Paula Crist told Dennis Fischer on the day of filming that she called Worene's makeup a Czintii. He assumes she did not intend any connection to Larry Niven's felinoid kzinti (of "Star Trek: The Animated Series" and Niven's "Known Space" science fiction universe). Fischer thought that Worene resembled a female Tellarite (TOS).

By the way, Worene's species is given as Aulacri in the more recent Star Trek novel, "Ex Machina" (2005), a sequel to TMP. (P-aula cri-st, get it?) The novel's author, Christopher L Bennett, has some great closeups of the Rec Deck characters, to whom he's given identities and personalities, in that novel. David Gerrold's character is named Gerry Auberson. Billy Van Zandt's is Vaylin Zaand. And one of the Rec Deck's Andorians is actually named for me in "Ex Machina": Shantherin th'Clane! Incredibly, this was the same Andorian played by fan John Watts; when I visited Bjo Trimble in January 1984, she thought John and I had lots in common, even beyond the blue skin and antennae. (John and I finally did get in touch via Facebook!)

The tall male Vulcan, whom Christopher Bennett calls Spanla, is easily recognisable in TMP: Scott Dweck, or perhaps spelt "Dwek", (three rows back at 9, in the above colour photo) is the son of Grace Lee Whitney. Scott and his brother had appeared uncredited in the episode "Miri" (TOS) as young children. Ms Whitney used to sell pics of her Vulcan son at conventions. If I recall correctly, Scott is the one who became the commercial pilot. His most exciting duty used to be to take actor Christopher Reeve for his annual pilot renewal test. In the 80s, Grace Lee Whitney used to boast that her son gave Superman his license to fly!


This pic joins together the two b/w photos mentioned above.

Front row, from left: Marlene Willauer, Scott Dweck (as a Vulcan), Paula Crist (as Worene), Bjo Trimble, Grace Lee Whitney (as Janice Rand), Susan Sackett and Louise Stange.
Next row, from left: Kathleen Sky, Leigh Strother-Vien and the very tall Dennis Fischer. David Gerrold is behind Grace Lee Whitney.


Captain's Log: Supplemental. The 2009 DVD release of TMP features a reunion between fan extras Fred Bronson (writer of "The Counter-clock Incident", TAS), Bjo Trimble, Christopher Doohan, David Gerrold and Jo Ann Nolan, chatting on the same soundstage used for the rec deck scene.

In August 2010, I was contacted by fan extra Don J Long, who explained that he could be seen "in the center at 8.5". His friend, Gordon Cardoza, "is on my right" (ie. to the left in the photo). Don's head is clearly visible in front of a African American man in a white costume (who is standing by the column in the center of the picture). Another fan extra known to Don was Randall Larson, from the Federation Outpost Star Trek store. Thanks Don!

More updates welcomed any time!

Aliens amongst us

During a clean up yesterday (yes, I was so deeply into it, I missed my posting deadline for the day), I found these pics from 2002, taken by my parents as they travelled through the Northern Territory, in central Australia.



Wycliffe Well, near the Devil's Marbles is known as "the UFO capital of the Territory, with many reported sightings of strange flying objects in the skies above".

My mother jotted on the back of one photo, "Roadhouse, Wycliffe. We were not sure about stopping here for fuel."

Runepp of Rasiinia: going, going, gone!

John Paul Lona's Rasiinian costume, from "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine", was up for sale on eBay last week. The guys at "It's a Wrap!" weren't able to identify the costume, so it was just listed as a DS9 Promenade alien costume.



John was the winner of Playmates' "Design-an-Alien" contest, back in the day when that company held the action figures licence. For his prize, John got to be an extra on DS9 ("The Muse") wearing the alien mask and - thanks to the costume guys - the rest of the outfit, which they got him to complete as new sketches. And Ambassador Runepp of Rasiinia was born.

I did send John an email to the only old address I had, but I don't know if he actually put in a bid. The rubber pieces on the costume are perishing badly, and it wasn't being sold with the Rasiinian mask, which is the original part of the design with which he won the contest. The costume sold for $US 177.50. I was going to place a bid of $200, so I probably would have won, but I was worried I'd get stuck by Aussie Customs problems, knowingly importing perishing rubber.

The whole "Design-an-Alien" story is here on my Oocities site.

Thanks for the heads-up on the auction, Jörg.

And hey! I just found out that the Borg had once encountered and assimilated some Rasiinians. An image of one such Borg drone appeared during one of Seven of Nine's guilt-induced hallucinations in "Infinite Regress", an episode of "Star Trek: Voyager"!

The cosmic consciousness II

A few weeks ago, I discussed the concept of an inexplicable Star Trek cosmic consciousness. Today, on TrekBBS, someone asked about why he couldn't contribute his own ideas for Star Trek novels, which the pro authors could then pick up on, then write novels on his dream ST topics.

Pro authors are never short of a new idea. Ideas are the easy bit. It's the grunt work of writing (and rewriting) them up in novel form that's so hard. You should see my ideas file!

Eventually, all the really great ideas turn up without any need for me - or anyone - to promote them, because great ideas occur to lots of other ST fans, too. And most of the ST writers are also fans. For example: when I first saw "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" in 1979, I visualised the next big ST adventure, featuring TMP's main cast and with all the wonderful new alien UFP races in supporting roles. As a naive, newbie ST fan I even wrote my first fanfic from that angle. Weirdly for me, just weeks after that fanfic ("Hoodwinked") had won a short story competition and was published in a fanzine, along came the pro novel "Black Fire" by Sonni Cooper, set in that TOS-turning-to-TMP era, and which shared no less than thirteen coincidental plot points with my story. But I also knew it was impossible for Sonni to have been inspired by my story: it was all just wacky coincidence.

And, eventually, along came Christopher L Bennett's "Ex Machina". Reading it, even though I hadn't thought of doing a sequel to "For the World is Hollow...", the novel felt so much like the style of post-TMP story I'd always wanted to tell. Christopher even ensured that all the wonderful new alien UFP races of TMP were in supporting roles, and it still feels as if he'd written "Ex Machina" just for me. (Well, apart from what he did with one character, LOL.)

My second fanfic was a prequel (and sequel) to "Space Seed", in which I tried to anticipate events which might occur in the as-yet-unreleased ST II - and my story, "A Model Officer", actually ended years later, with Kyle on the Reliant. Imagine my shock and delight when actor John Winston - as Kyle - turned up on ST II. On Reliant!

Similarly, I once did an interview with Robert Greenberger, the then-Star Trek comics editor at DC Comics, and mentioned how cool a ST novel set on Andor would be: a book that managed to discuss Andorian sexuality, politics, family life, etc, and we laughed about how such a novel would never get approved by the then-Star Trek Office. Years later, along came Heather Jarman's "Andor: Paradigm" in "Worlds of Star trek: Deep Space Nine, Book 1". Again, it was as if she'd written the whole story for me .

But I guess my Andorian enthusiasm paid off anyway, since my Andorian persona gets a cameo mention in both of those recent pro novels, even though I had no idea I'd be acknowledged (until just before each book got published), and I'd never discussed my ideas with either author, nor posted them online. It was mostly just wonderful coincidence - a tapping into the cosmic consciousness, perhaps - and proof, to me, that good ideas will rise to the surface, no matter what.

Inside, looking out; outside, looking in

Above: The view of the elephants. This is the view from the old 1917 elephant enclosure at Taronga Park Zoo, looking out at human passersby.



Above: The new view of the elephants. This is the view into the new elephant enclosure at Taronga, 2007. I swear you could make out these elephants grinning, from ear to ear, from the cabin of our chairlift as we swooped over the zoo yesterday. So much for the animal liberationists who claimed that the new elephants would be cramped, bored and poorly-treated.

As the US-release poster for "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" used to say, "There is no comparison."

What the market will bear

A colleague from the Playtrek action figure collectors' mail group recently announced he would be visiting the Star Trek Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton, and was there anything anyone wanted?

While browsing on Flickr a few months ago, I'd found this picture but the product item has never turned up on the STE web shopping page. As an Andorian from way back, I simply must have one - and I heard today that my friend's mission has been successful!

It will be my third Star Trek beanie character from the Star Trek Experience. When the idea factory released a batch of "alien bean" toys (what some places were calling "Meanie Beanies"), I collected the whole set of the idea factory's Vulcan, Andorian, Mugato, Gorn, Ferengi and the Klingon targ beanies locally - plus the separately-available idea factory(trilling) tribble, which contains a microchip that causes the tribble to scream as if it has been exposed to a Klingon (as in "The Trouble with Tribbles"). But... my favourite beanie would have to be their tie-in to the movie "Star Trek: Insurrection": the cute little Ba'ku rhyl, exclusively available from the STE. The rhyl, or palm pet as it was referred to in the film, resembles a cross between a fuzzy brown caterpillar and a baby seal - and fits, as you might expect, in the palm of one's hand. As before, a colleague from the Playtrek action figure collectors' mail group helped me out, and the toys turned out to be very hard to find elsewhere.

About a year ago, the Experience's online store was having a sale and I noticed a new ST beanie had become available: a facsimile Beanie Bear in white fabric, embossed with tiny sparkly stars, and a large blue United Federation of Planets insignia embroidered on his back. He was marked down to only a few dollars - quite a bargain! I did order several other large items with the bear but when a huge box arrived from the US by airmail, I literally dove into a sea of foam peanuts, searching for my beanie in every corner, to no avail. A quick email to STE saw a replacement bear winging its way but, instead of that box arriving, I received a card from Australian Customs. If I was prepared to pay many, many dollars (about $AU 60, IIRC), I could have my little white bear.

Why had my UFP bear earned the ire of Australian Customs? Because the Customs Declaration Sticker stated that the package contained: "One beanie bear". Someone assumed he contained food - as in real beans - and new changes to Customs law meant that the demand for payment was applied to the importer: moi! Thankfully, another email and a few phone calls resolved the situation, but the amount of money that the STE spent delivering me that replacement bear turned out to be quite significant!

But UFP Bear is lonely; he's separated from all the other Trek beans - and sits forlornly on one of two miniature metal chairs (actual set miniatures from the hit Australian film, "Moulin Rouge!"), but he will soon be joined by a blue, antennaed Andorian beanie bear dressed like Shran (from "Star Trek: Enterprise") in kinky leathers! I hope my Playmates colleague is careful filling out the declaration for Customs.


UFP Bear lets the Ba'ku rhyl mind a seat for a currently-immigrating Andorian bear.

The thrill of the hunt! Part 2

I wasn't game to mention my latest eBay purchase until it had arrived in the mail from the UK, in case I jinxed the deal, but the package arrived today, so I hereby scream,

"Yippeeeee!"

Two tiny, white-metal Saurians from "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" officially join my extensive collection of Citadel USS Enterprise crewmembers, and United Federation of Planets' alien ambassador figures, from that movie. The miniscule character figures are intended to be used as playing pieces for roleplaying games, or in battle-scenario dioramas.

The majority of the set I bought in little twin-packs from a shop (originally hidden in the corridors above Dymocks' city store) called "The Tin Soldier". That store had a few TMP aliens missing from stock, but they sent me off to a sister store on the north shore one day, where I picked up a few more pieces - and even more, later that year, when new stock arrived from England.

Frustratingly, neither store had a packet of K'normians (described by the publicity materials for TMP as having an additional brain case) - and none of those aliens are visible onscreen in TMP, although a photo of one surfaced in Star Trek: The Magazine a few years ago. Luckily for me, one of my packs of other aliens bought from "The Tin Soldier" had a mispackaged K'normian lurking inside. (At least, I assumed he was supposed to be a K'normian, since I never saw a photo of one until a few years ago.)

Neither store ever had TMP Saurians or Klingons in stock, either. (I figured some Aussie Star Trek fan had bought them all up to make a Gorn versus Klingons miniature chess set.) I did get a whole boxed set of tiny, white-metal movie Klingons, made for FASA's post-"Star Trek II" RPGs (and the Citadel Klingons, in catalogue pics I'd seen, were fairly ugly, squat little trolls).

When I was visiting the USA in 1984, my penpal took me to a cool hobby store in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I suspected that Citadel TMP figures would be unknown in the US, although American fans were able to buy TOS miniatures and ST II, ST III and even TNG RPG miniatures. What a thrill! This shop had a lone TOS Tellarite in a drawer. He thought it had been there since 1978. Very exciting, especially since there had been no Tellarites in TMP.

Alas, still no Saurians. So - although I enthusiastically spray-painted all my tiny aliens with white-metal undercoat in about 1983 - I never did get inspired to locate my three-haired (and one-haired) brushes, plus my trusty magifying glass, to paint up all the figures in authentic colours.

I tell a fib: I did paint one figure, only to give it away. I must mention: these figures are, in real life, only 25 millimetres (1 inch) tall! When I interviewed TMP actor Billy Van Zandt in 1984, and mentioned that his likeness had been licensed as an itsy bitsy figurine in the UK, he was amazed. (I'd bought a spare set of Rhaandarites, since that twin pack contained only one ambassador, plus Billy's Starfleet ensign character, and I was planning to bend the limbs of the second ambassador enough to create a different pose. Meaning that I had a spare of Billy's character. So I painstakingly painted it up, as a thank you for doing the interview, and posted the little Rhaandarite off to big Billy's agent in New York.

I must add that I had once bought a book on painting 25 mm figures... and nearly passed out when they described how to paint the coloured iris - and black pupil! - in the centre of each white eye! No matter: Billy's character was given authentic yellow irises, even if Billy himself needed a magifying glass to check up on how well I did!

About five years ago, trawling around on eBay netted me some very nice TOS and TAS aliens in the old US range, including the rest of the Michigan Tellarite's buddies, lots of TOS-style Andorians, and a whole bagful of felinoid Kzinti (from the animated episode, The Slaver Weapon). At least a Kzin has bigger eyes than a hominid! (Hey, I could use a five-hair brush on those!)

Last week, on a whim, I returned to eBay for the first time in ages, and entered "Saurians Citadel" in the search facility - and there they were, in an auction that had only about a day to run: oop ultra rare citadel star trek st23 saurians. Wonderful! And, you know, finding them online was just as exciting as the day I found the first batch in a bricks-and-mortar store?

Pure therindipity, eh? Ah well, I need to buy myself some new paints and very-few-haired brushes. And hopefully finish painting them before I need my first glasses with bifocal lenses!