Return of the 52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 42

Week 42: Instrument

"Air guitar". Cartridge papers of various colours, with some brown Sharpie shading, collaged onto black card. Inspiration from a Google Image search.

Update:

Week 42: Instrument II

"Spock angel with Vulcan lyrette." Coloured cartridge papers, Metallique gold paper and photocopied fabric textures collaged onto watercolour paper, with details in black ballpoint, black Sharpie and watercolour. I almost wrecked this one about five times, then today I salvaged it from the bin and had one more go at it.

Week 42: Instrument III

"Guitar solo." Cartoon in black Sharpie, doodled on a Post-It Note and mounted. Coloured with pencils.

Famous Faces mug

I missed my chance to pick up the dog calendar for 2011 that featured the Spock caricature on its cover last year (I held out for a reduced price as the year raced towards December, but they quickly sold out). There were twelve hilarious images but only the "Star Trek" one excited me. Today, in a Berry gift store, I found several of the canine calendar images... as ceramic mugs - and cheaper than the original calendar. From Takkoda (UK).

The Inexplicable Legend of Frank Force

Over on TrekBBS, someone was wondering why fans latched onto the USS Kelvin's Captain Robau as a "badass" many months before they had any idea what he'd be like in JJ Abrams' "Star Trek" movie.

The now-defunct "Star Trek" Club of NSW, Astrex, once had a bizarre in-joke running about an enigmatic actor called "Frank Force". I was in the US, at a Creation convention in January 1984, and I won some very rare "ST III: The Search for Spock" call sheets in their auction. The call sheets declared that one of the very last new main actors introduced in the script was Frank Force, playing "Nacluv".

This seemed rather bizarre, till a friend of the production team mentioned it was an anagram - "Vulcan" spelled backwards. Yes, it was Leonard Nimoy under a secret, assumed name, to hide his participation as a regenerated adult Spock till the last minute. After all, Spock was the most "frank force" in the universe.

Australia waited many months after the US to see ST III, giving Australian fans a lot of idle time to generate wacky Frank Force jokes. One penpal of mine, from Perth, arrived at Sydney airport for the film's gala premiere night, only to be collected by three complete strangers wearing large "Frank Force Fan Club" badges.

You'll notice that Director Nimoy also voices the USS Excelsior Elevator in ST III as "Frank Force", which got a huge cheer from us on opening night when the credits rolled.

Box office gold

JJ Abrams' "Star Trek" has exited the Australian box office with ticket sales at a solid $AU16 million.

Not bad for a country with a population of 21,829,372, eh?

Today's pic:


I loved the way the street light shone through
this tree at dusk, Mulgoa Road, Penrith.

Advance beam-up

"Star Trek XI"

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Entertainment Weekly magazine and TrekMovie.com have four beautiful advance posters of main characters Nero (Eric Bana), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Kirk (Chris Pine) and Uhura (Zoe Saldana) of JJ Abrams' "Star Trek":



Captain's Log: Supplemental. Click here for the latest 2009 release dates of the movie.

Down Under Trekkers

Aussie actors Eric Bana (left) and Chris Hemsworth (right) have scored roles in JJ Abrams' "Star Trek" feature film, which commenced filming last week in Hollywood. Eric's casting was announced last month, and will be playing a villain called Nero. Rumoured to be a Romulan? (Maybe it's just as well he gave up the chance to reprise "The Hulk" in the sequel to the Marvel comic spin-off?)

Chris Hemsworth was announced as a cast member of "Star Trek" only yesterday. He's an unknown in the USA, so far, but is highly recognisable in Australia (and the UK) for his long-running role in "Home and Away". While initial rumours claimed he was the new Sarek, father of Spock (ie. opposite Winona Ryder's Amanda), he's actually cast as George Samuel Kirk Sr, the father of future captain, James T. Kirk (Chris Pine).

Onya guys!

IDW Publishing's first two "Spotlight on..." alien one-shot comics are out: a Gorn issue, set during a Terrell & Chekov Reliant landing party, and a Vulcan issue, set during Pike, Spock, Tyler and Number One's time on the Enterprise. I've read both comics and really enjoyed them. They did seem very short stories, though, especially when followed by numerous glossy pages of advertising and hype for upcoming non-ST IDW comics. ;)

While the Gorn were drawn as a nice mix of TOS- and "Enterprise"- style sentient lizard-men, the second issue featured pre-"The Cage" crew reactions to serving with Spock. It showed that early 23rd century crews did have trouble working together. We saw that several times in ENT, and in "Balance of Terror" (TOS). This IDW issue shows how one crew came to accept a Vulcan in their midst.

I thought ENT did xenophobia well. There is often no "actual reason" behind prejudices, once an individual is put on the spot. Thus Phlox was accepted quite readily by the crew, but T'Pol less so, at first. The comments about human scent didn't help her. Then we had Trip getting along extremely well with a Xyrillian ("Unexpected"), but everyone finding the Andorians difficult to understand ("The Andorian Incident").

As for subplots in the IDW mini-series so far, "TNG: The Space Between" and "Klingons: Blood Will Tell" have both been mini-series where the individual issues still tell complete stories, yet they make a more complete story when read consecutively. "TOS: Year Four" has followed a similar format. And hey, you can't get more subtle than "The Space Between" and a certain admiral's "special delivery" canapés! (When a Trek trivia hound like me has to research on Memory Alpha just to understand the ending of a mini-series, that's subtle!)

IDW's marketing research has obviously told them that casual Star Trek readers will only pick up a recent ST comic if they can be assured of getting a complete story within its covers. I also like that the trade omnibus collections are scheduled to arrive just after the single issues complete their run, which must help some fans cope with the spottier release of smaller-press comics, such as IDW, than when ST was licensed out to Marvel, DC, Malibu, Marvel/Paramount or WildStorm.

Next month comes the Andorian issue! Yay!

Sunday's magic number: 92.5 - slightly up on last week, sigh. But there was yesterday's wine tasting, of course. That did some damage...

Spock + Spock

Late-breaking news at Trek Today:



Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto (of "Heroes") are Spock of Vulcan
in JJ Abrams' "Star Trek", Christmas 2008!

"Director and executive producer JJ Abrams has announced that Zachary Quinto - one of the stars of 'Heroes' - will play Spock in his upcoming eleventh 'Star Trek' film, and confirmed that Leonard Nimoy will play the older Spock as well.

From Comic-Con in San Diego, Abrams "introduced Quinto as the new Spock and confirmed William Shatner's statements that Leonard Nimoy would appear in the film as Spock in later years. The writers still want Shatner to appear as well as the original Kirk, but have not yet worked out a way for to bring in the character as an older man."

Again, wallowing in the crucible

Late last night, I completed reading the new "Star Trek" novel, "Crucible: Spock: The Fire and the Rose". It's Part Two of a trilogy, and looking almost as chunky as its giant predecessor, ("Crucible: McCoy"). Although a "mere" 390 pages, this was another thoroughly enjoyable read.
This time, the events stretch from the second "Star Trek" pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", and spends quite a bit of time delving into new scenes to complement several crucial time travel episodes: the death of Kirk's love, Edith Keeler, in "The City on the Edge of Forever"; the story of young Spock's practice-run of his kahs-wan ordeal in the animated episode, "Yesteryear"; and the retrieval of humpback whales in ST IV. All three were highly popular adventures in their day, the events of which took their toll on poor ol' emotion-suppressing Spock.

We learn in this volume that Spock carries a deep and secret pain. While he saved his mother's and his own lives in "Yesteryear", via time travel, and saved the whole Earth in ST IV, again via time travel, Spock had previously chosen not to lend a hand to his best friend, Kirk, when they discovered that Edith had to die to enable them to rebuild the timeline. Although it's not spelled out, you do find yourself wondering if Edith could have been brought through time, as marine biologist Gillian Taylor (ST IV) had been, if only Spock's logic was not clouded by emotion. (Or vice versa.)

The book takes Spock beyond ST VI, through his new career as a diplomat, a new love affair - and the tragic "death" of Kirk in "Generations". Spock also makes a second attempt to eradicate his emotions with the Kolinahr discipline, which he first tried - and failed - to do in ST:TMP... until Vejur, a gigantic sentient machine, made mental contact with him from deep space.

Many times I found myself deliberately reading slower, as if I was trying to make the book last longer. David George also has a knack of having his characters mull over certain facts at irregular intervals, sometimes making different observations each time, and I found it a very realistic exploration of people with deep problems. Problems that have no easy resolution. I was also often quite aware of how the story had been constructed - but I don't say this as a criticism. Mr George was retreading old ground with this book - ST stories we knew so well, and also he was essentially retelling aspects of the recent "McCoy" volume - so it was fascinating - to steal a Spock term - to predict what elements of the ST tapestry were about to be woven into the mystery.

Again, the "Crucible" trilogy purposely works within its own continuity, as regarding other ST novels, but it still leaves some wriggle room - and sets up parameters - for events that won't occur until later: the novels featuring the courtship and marriage of Spock and Saavik; and Spock's attempts to reunify Vulcan and Romulus in "Unification (TNG).

And, once again, Filmation's animated ST series of the 70s (TAS) is well represented in some great references: Paul Bates is back, but this time so is Loom Aleek-Om the Aurelian, Jan Grey the historian, Thelin the Andorian, Erikson, Arex, Dawson Walking Bear, Carver, Gabler, the Terratins (and Verdanis and Cepheus), a Pandronian artist, Governor Bob Wesley (and Mantilles), I-Chaya the sehlat, the le-matya, life-support belts, Lunaport, Shi'Kahr, Vulcan's Forge and the L-Langon Mountains, young Spock's Cousin Selek and his Tasmeen visit, and even a rare mention of the kzinti Treaty of Sirius. (Late additions: Questar M17, Rigel II and Amanda's surname of Grayson.) Wow, thanks David George!
I spent most of today updating my Toon Trek pages and my Lower Decks novel pages again to include all the new "Crucible" TAS references.

Now I can't wait for the upcoming "Kirk" instalment...

Epiphany!

Today's the traditional day for taking Christmas decorations down. I was in the local supermarket yesterday - and, of course, the shops are already putting out stocks of chocolate Easter eggs!

As you've dutifully followed my virtual Christmas decorating ritual for these past twelve days, you've now earned the right to see my tree topper:



A US penfriend once sold me his collection of "Star Trek" character Christmas ornaments, originally from the "Star Trek Experience" in Las Vegas and - as I already had a Spock and a Picard from the annual Hallmark range - this new Spock, complete with Vulcan lyrette, ended up at the top of my Christmas tree as the angel. All he needed were some golden wings from Spotlight and a copper wire halo. This year I finally got around to customising the blue uniform shirt to make it reflect the uniform that Spock wore in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan", the film in which Spock did end up singin' with the angels. (At least until the next sequel.)



The next batch (below) includes some ornaments I couldn't help but purchase from the beautiful Ahwahnee Hotel, at Yosemite National Park in California. It was the morning of 27th December 1983, if I recall correctly and, after a sumptuous buffet breakfast, we discovered that the hotel was selling off its stock of Christmas ornaments. Okay, so I weakened. So much for "just one ornament per year", my original intention.



Clockwise: Stuffed fabric unicorn handmade by US penpal, Francine; Ahwahnee Hotel bargain bin cloth partridge (without the pear tree); Ahwahnee wooden unicorn/Pegasus; Ahwahnee wooden ballerina; felt Australian Christmas bells (wildflowers), a leftover souvenir/gift of Australia that somehow never found a new owner; and Super Pickle, a cool superhero clip-on I found somewhere in the States! (Every sandwich in USA comes with a pickle on the side, it seems.)




Clockwise: The "Rodney Reindeer" stuffed toy was very popular in that same San Francisco department store that sold the clowns (see previous blog entry); and some items found in my stocking at Rhonda's parents' house on Christmas morning, 1983. These all get put onto the tree each year: a Santa Claus pen; a little toy truck (Rhonda got girly stuff); a miniature picture book called, "Christmas Around the World"; and an aluminium Steadfast Tin Soldier, which was originally filled with unshelled peanuts. (Yep, five grown adults in a room, generating as much Christmas morning present-opening as possible.) The kazoo was sold by Farrell's Ice Creamery somewhere near Martinez, California, where I celebrated a birthday. The staff traditionally sing you "Happy Birthday", accompanied by kazoos.

Thanks for joining me on this virtual tour of my 2006 Christmas tree. Now I have to go pack it all away...