Tribbles and Bits

Need something to watch while you hibernate for winter? Here are the top ten fan-recommended episodes of Star Trek, according to StarTrek.com. I personally agree with most of them, but believe they are out of order (and Balance of Terror is missing), but of course with well over 700 episodes to choose from, we can't hope to agree completely!! Check it out HERE 

Did you catch the Cameo message from John De Lancie last week? According to dbr.com, he wasn't specific as to the series, but he did say that he's coming back! "Oh and by the way, here is a little stocking stuffer… You are going to be seeing more of me. Cheers. Merry Christmas," he said.

Can we just stop for a second to recognize that there will be FOUR Star Trek series in production in 2021? Speaking of things we couldn't imagine in 1984 when the USS Nokomis was founded!!! Yes, Trekkies, they are moving forward with Star Trek Discovery, Star Trek Picard, Star Trek Lower Decks, and (drum roll, please) Star Trek Strange New Worlds. If that's not enough to make you need a shot of Saurian Brandy, I don't know what is! Cheers!

 

 

Captain’s Yule Log, 2020

Greetings, Crew!

I hope everyone is safe and warm with the big storm brewing today! I will be at the big blood drive in Oakdale and hope to enjoy a Winter Wonderland on trip home. Yesterday's 12 Hours of Giving yielded almost 500 units of blood and we hope to bring that to 600 today - wish us luck in the stormy weather. Of course, as all USS Nokomisites know, nothing is better than the gift of life!

We wish all of you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, and best wishes for all of your holiday celebrations this week. We have one more newsletter this year, so see you next week. Take care, all!

See you around the Galaxy!

Mary

Toys for Tots Donations

Thank you all for supporting Toys for Tots during the 2020 Nokomis Holiday Party.

Toys for Tots makes a difference in the lives of the less fortunate children in our community. The volunteers work very hard to make Toys For Tots a success, but they couldn't do it without the support of dozens of community groups and donors.

Thanks to the help and support YOU have provided, we are able to donate $300.00 to Toys for Tots this year. All of that came in just under 3 days and from nearly a dozen members.

The Marine Corps Reserve believes that "Every child deserves a little Christmas," and together we are sending a message of hope to these families. We hope to give a little joy to some kids this season.  Thanks for sharing in their effort with a bit of treasure.

Time for Another Baby!

Thanks to everyone that guessed last week's baby. Not one of you got it correct! That little sweetie was Dawn Hurd, our very own newsletter editor!

Here's another one to test your guessing skills. Who do you think this little one is? Come on, it's more fun when we get a lot of guesses!

Captain’s Log, December 2020

Greetings, Crew!

It's December!! Almost time for a Brand New Year! The weather is pretty nice and it looks like we'll get through this odd year after all. At my house we're having some unexpected construction (booooo!), but it's almost over and we'll be ship-shape again.

We have planned a fun get-together for Saturday night and hope you'll be able to join us. Check out the details in this newsletter. If you aren't able to join, drop us a line to say hi. We miss your faces!

My plan is to continue these weekly communications into the new year. It would be great if others would submit content too (shout out to Scott L, who submitted a book review last week). Keep those baby pictures coming and send me other additions if you have them.

Take care, and see you around the Galaxy!

Mary

The Ultimate Model?

Did you build starship models as a kid, like some of us did? Do you build starship models now? Well, here's the ultimate build for you! Offered by eaglemoss, the new Build the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701-D is here and available for pre-order now. The first 500 subscribers receive free goodies, and you can get the first two kits for only $4.95. Starting in March, four kits arrive every month at $12.90 per kit, plus shipping. After 30ish months you will have an incredibly accurate model with lights and a special display base. Check it out HERE

USS Nokomis 2020 Holiday Gathering

Here's everything you need to know for Saturday's Zoom event at 6pm. First, this is the link to join the meeting. If you haven't been on a Zoom meeting recently, note that they have significantly increased security and both a Meeting ID and Passcode are required for entry:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3141085993?pwd=S21TampnV01XUjNrc2QyK2kvSzMyQT09

Meeting ID: 314 108 5993
Passcode: 12345

Dial by your location: 312 626 6799
Meeting ID: 314 108 5993
Passcode: 12345

Now, on to the planned festivities:

  • We'll start with time for greetings. Feel free to share your choice of holiday attire (Star Trek or other costume, ugly sweater, black tie formalwear, or anything else you'd like), plus your chosen food/beverage (since we're not supplying a virtual buffet!)
  • There will be games! Don't worry, you don't have to sing or dance like Pavel Chekhov, but we've got a few fun ideas like Guess the Gift
  • Remember those facts I've been collecting about everyone? We'll do our first Kahoot Quiz during this hour to try it out. You will simply log on to www.kahoot.it from your phone or device to answer the questions along with the group. We'll walk you through it since it's new, and it's super simple!
  • Prizes? Yes, there will be some of those as well. Good ones, not worthless Spican Flame Gems
  • One of our most important functions as a group is to support the community, so we'll be collecting for Toys For Tots during the party and all day Saturday (see more details below)
  • After the planned part, we'll hang out and visit

The Governing Board has worked to plan a fun and laid-back event. Please join us!!

 

 

Book Review: “Star Trek The Official Guide to the Animated Series” by Aaron Harvey and Rich Schepis

“Star Trek: The Animated Series(TAS) has 22 episodes and aired originally from September 8, 1972 to October 4, 1973.  The series has long been neglected in terms of it’s production history.  Two guys born after the run, have finally taken care of that.

Aaron Harvey is a graphic artist and a podcaster, he has done work on IDW’s Star Trek titles.  Rich Schepis is an associate director for of Athletic Communications at the University of Pennsylvania.  Both are life long Star Trek fans. Harvey did a podcast for “Trek.fm” website on TAS for a time period. Schepis has written for a number of Star Trek related websites including Trekcore.com.

Both author’s have a strong interest in Star Trek in the 1970’s.  They became acquainted with Fred Bronson. Bronson was a publicist at Paramount and did the press releases and other related communications for TAS when it was being produced.  Bronson wrote “The Counter-Clock Incident”, under pen name “John Culver” for TAS. He also wrote “Menage-A-Troi” and “The Game” for TNG.  Bronson gave the two authors copies of the publicity materials for TAS and that got the two started. They interviewed a wide variety of people for the book including Dorothy Fontana, Lou Scheimer and David Gerrold. Plus they were given access to the Filmation archives for TAS.

The book has wonderful images from the series. It includes concept/pre-production art and drawings. Pictures of production cels, script story boards and script pages.  There are pictures of Howard Weinstein’s script pages for “The Pirates of Orion” that were typed on college ruled loose leaf notepaper.

Filmation had originally proposed “Star Trek Academy” as a series idea.  Roddenberry vetoed that, saying that the series should be an animated version of the original series. Dorothy Fontana was the series producer and story editor, in addition to contributing the script for “Yesteryear”.  Fontana was able to recruit a number of writers for the original series including: David Gerrold, Sam Peoples, and Margaret Armen. She also adapted a story from Larry Niven, “The Slaver Weapon” for the series. Gerrold and Armen both contributed two scripts for TAS.

They were able to get almost all of the original cast, except for Walter Koenig. However Koenig contributed a script, “The Infinite Vulcan”.  Leonard Nimoy can be thanked for making sure that George Takei and Nichelle Nichols were included. Nichols, Takei, Doohan and Barrett were also used for many of the other character voices through out the series. The cast only recorded 3 episodes together, the rest were done with the actors coming in on their own schedule to record. Guest voices included: Ted Night (“The Surviver), Ed Bishop (“The Magicks of Megas-Tu”), Mark Leonard (Sarek), Roger C. Carmel (Harry Mudd) and Stanley Adams (Cyrano Jones).

TAS was produced during the “limited animation” years in Hollywood.  As much as 30% of an episode could be stock footage from the series. The shots of the “Enterprise” were rotoscoped from the TOS.  Filmation had a number of in house artists who worked on a variety of things. One of the producers tastes ran towards purple and green. Irv Kaplan’s tastes ran towards using pink. He was responsible for the Kizinti character costumes and ship being pink.

The book devotes a number of pages to each episode including art, concept drawings, production art and a section on bloopers for each episode.

TAS was long ignored for it’s contributions to Star Trek, however a number of things have been made a part of Trek, including: Kirk’s middle name, Uhura in command, the Vulcan Forge and sehlats, and an Emmy award.

This is a loving and well done book giving TAS the tribute it needs.  This is a well produced volume, done in the style of many “Art of” books. It is worthy addition to any Star Trek library.

Captain’s Log: Thanksgiving Edition 2020

Greetings, Crew!

I hope you're all going to enjoy your Thanksgiving and do something that makes you smile. If you're really stuck for something to do, watch the Thanksgiving episode of the Original Series. You know, the one with the Thanksgiving turkeys? Click HERE if you don't know what I'm talking about.

Here's some Thanksgiving trivia for you (answers below - don't peek):

  1. What major Star Trek character added too much taragon to the stuffing?
  2. What Enterprise crew member removed all of the screws from the dining table as a child, causing the Thanksgiving turkey to crash to the floor?
  3. What holiday do the Talaxians celebrate to give thanks for family?
  4. Which Star Trek captain cooked Thanksgiving dinner for all of the senior staff?
  5. On Bajor, what holiday is analogous to Thanksgiving?

In my house, our Thanksgiving will start as they all start - with a trip down to St James (south of Mankato) to volunteer at the big Thanksgiving blood drive. I'm not sure, but I believe it's still the biggest Thanksgiving Day blood drive in the country. Talk about Minnesota Nice! Then we will drive home and have our dinner. Less people this year, but we'll still have the whole meal and will Zoom with family to say hello and share our thanks. If anyone would like to share a greeting, just let me know and we'll make it happen!

I am thankful for all of you, on Thanksgiving and every day. Although we formally pause only once a year to celebrate our many accomplishments, there are many and they are really cool! The many social activities, science fiction events and charitable endeavors we've done over the years are really out of the ordinary and special. Thanks to all of you for your special talents and uniqueness!!

See you around the Galaxy!

Mary