Did you know...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
...Nichelle Nichols was planning to leave Star Trek at the end of the first
season, but was persuaded to stay by Martin Luther King, Jr.?
...The Enterprise model is 11 feet in length, and weighs 200 pounds. The
model is composed of plastic, wood, and rolled steel. The cost of materials,
in 1964 dollars, was $600. The original designer of the ship is Walter "Matt"
Jeffries, who based the ship's registry number, NCC-1701, on his 1935 Waco
airplane (and whom the term "Jeffries Tubes" was invented for). After the
series, the model was donated to the Smithsonian in 1974, and was restored due
to the appearance of cracking paint, stress cracks, and failures in the
lighting system. A "streaking effect" has been added to make a "weathered"
look, but the paint has changed the model color from gray to green. The
restoration process took six weeks.
...That "Assignment: Earth" was originally a pilot for another series that
Gene Roddenberry proposed but never got off the ground?
...That Majel Barrett's real name is Majel Leigh Hudec. The name change was in
order to hire her as Christine Chapel.
...That "Plato's Stepchildren" was the first episode in television history to
feature an interracial kiss?
...In "Assignment: Earth", Spock, upon reviewing 1968 Earth history, says that
"There will be an important assassination today." A few days after this
episode originally aired, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed.
...How the transporter effect was filmed:
* Sprinkle glitter against a black background and shine a light through it.
Film it.
* Film the scene, first with the actor, then without (or vice versa)
* Matte the glitter over the actor, and double-expose the film
...the title of "Bread and Cirsuses" comes from Juvenal, a Roman satirist of
the first century AD, who wrote, "The people that once bestowed commands,
consulships, legions, and all else, now concerns itself no more, and longs
eagerly for just two things -- bread and circuses!" [ref The Best of Trek
#13, p. 134]
