Collecting Trek

A TOS collection 40 years in the making

CollectingTrek at two years old: the posts readers read the most

I launched this site in the early days of 2019 to share my love of Star Trek collectibles, give some background on the items themselves, and tell stories of how I acquired them. I am pleased with the outcome thus far; a lot of people visit this site, a good number follow me on Facebook and Twitter, and I have engaged in lively — and sometimes contentious — discussions with other fans. I am disappointed that the site contains only 49 posts, but work and life keep interfering in my collection obsession and I don’t see that changing in the near future. 

Presented herein is a countdown of the five posts that generated the most reads, comments and, in one case, outrage. 

A screencap from The Way to Eden, showing Adam dead on the ground.

Number five: A defence of The Way to Eden

This is probably my best piece. The episode is dismissed, as I wrote, by “Viewers dazzled by the way-out costumes, the ‘we reach’ lingo and the quasi flower-power mysticism” but it is actually a warning about messianic figures and the cults they create. Far from being about hippies, “The Way to Eden is closer to Charles Manson than to the summer of love.”

The Heineken Spock beer ad, signed by Leonard Nimoy.

Number four: Leonard Nimoy sued Paramount, and won

I did not know if Nimoy would sign my Heineken poster. The sexual innuendo offended him and it kicked off a long legal battle with Paramount that ended only because he refused to consider appearing in The Motion Picture until the matter was settled. This post has proven to have the most “legs” of any of my content; searches for this topic regularly send people to my site. 

The Enterprise with flames shooting from the nacelles and shuttle bay, in one of Gold Key's Star Trek comics.

Number three: Thank you, Doug Drexler, for trying to save the Gold Key comics

Drexler is Star Trek production royalty and his connection to the show stretches back to its premiere and to the Federation Trading Post in 1970s New York City. He consulted on — and greatly improved — a few issues of Gold Key’s fantastically inaccurate comics. This post kicked off a lengthy correspondence with Doug, who is a great guy and absolutely fascinating. 

A image of Beckwith, the drug dealer in the graphic novel of Harlan Ellison's The City on the Edge of Forever.

Number two: Harlan Ellison put a drug dealer on the Enterprise

Ellison stands in the pantheon of science-fiction writers, but he was and is almost as well known for his outsized personality. He was never reluctant to rain scorn on the televised version of The City on the Edge of Forever, and the gorgeous graphic novel from IDW that exactly follows his script allows you to judge the merits of his vision. I found his take on Star Trek wanting, and readers were happy to agree and disagree with me.

A line drawing from the Star Fleet Technical Manual, clearly labeling the Enterprise as a Constitution-class ship. Except the Technical Manual was made up.

Number one: The Enterprise is not a Constitution-class ship

Want to really annoy a bunch of TOS fans? Write that headline. This piece and its follow-on (Starship class, part two: Gene Roddenberry and Matt Jefferies) pissed off a lot of people because, well, everyone knows the Enterprise is a Constitution-class ship. It is said on screen and all those books and blueprints say it is. Yes, except it is never actually stated on screen and those reference works produced in the ’70s (like the Star Fleet Technical Manual pictured here) were just made up. That first article took the traffic top spot days after its appearance and it is still at number one. As I said repeatedly to irate TOS fans on Twitter and Facebook, if you believe Kirk’s Enterprise is a Constitution-class ship, that’s great. Be happy. But you’re incorrect.  

A rubber Gorn mask, signed by actor Bobby Clark in silver marker.

Bonus shout-out: Bobby Clark signed a Gorn mask

This was my first post. The Gorn mask is still among my favourite collectibles. 


Thanks for reading. I am always open to feedback.

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6 responses to “CollectingTrek at two years old: the posts readers read the most”

  1. It’s a great blog, and I enjoy each post I’ve seen. As for the Constitution-class thing, you do seem to be in the right on that point. ‘Tis a shame, though – not because you shouldn’t be right (you’ve obviously done your homework), but because there are nice, sentimental reasons to think the Enterprise was a ship of that class, named after humanity’s flawed but noble attempts to enshrine principles of freedom and rights in written constitutions. Diane Carey’s novel “Final Frontier,” one of the old “Giant” Star Trek novels back in the halycon days of Pocket Books’ Trek novels, made much of the Enterprise being the first starship (and Constitution-class — I guess they tried to have it both ways).

    Happy 2nd anniversary – looking forward to reading and seeing more about your collection!

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  2. Thank you for the comment and for reading, bibliomike2020. Your use of “sentimental” in relation to the Constitution class is spot on. As I said in that piece, I was once pleased with myself for knowing the Enterprise’s class back when I was young and such knowledge was tougher to come by. I would honestly prefer if it was true, as it’s a better name than Starship class.
    I hope you keep reading.

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