The Star Trek Giant Poster Books were the first professionally published Trek magazines. Seventeen issues were produced between September 1976 and April 1978, plus a 1979 “Collectors Issue” devoted to The Motion Picture. Each delivered six pages of content plus the cover and back cover and folded out into a large poster.

I own the complete set and will cover each issue. The story of the magazine’s genesis is told here.

Here are highlights from issue two, published in October 1976, plus a scan of the magazine.

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A personal note: Allan Asherman died in September of 2023. Asherman was a foundational member of Star Trek fandom, a collector of renown, an author, and one of the original team on the Star Trek Giant Poster Books. I had tried for months to get in touch; he had mostly withdrawn from fandom and I hoped we could again hear his voice. I am sad I did not get to speak with him.

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How did they do that?

Issue 2 offers an in-depth and fascinating article on how the original series special effects were created. Asherman tells us how Charlie was made to fade away, how Kirk could kneel beside his duplicate, and that Spock beaming down to a planet began with a dissolve, deployed a matte, added in a sparkle of powdered aluminum, and that the effect was completed by combining these elements. 

Asherman ends the piece with “The special photographic effects of Star Trek were usually beautifully done,” and it is fun to know how they were accomplished.

The story behind The City on the Edge of Forever

This issue features the first Star Trek Critique, a series of in-depth episode essays. The series began, just as the Fotonovels would do a year later, with Harlan Ellison’s classic episode. 

Except that the screened episode was not really Ellison’s story. Author Mitch Green tells readers about the significant changes made to the script, and that “It’s Ellison’s contention that the final aired version is only a ‘watered down’ remnant of the original, the love story having lost much of its intended impact.” 

That take is familiar today to serious fans but was likely news to many in 1976. The best way to experience the original story today is in the excellent IDW graphic novel of Ellison’s teleplay. 

Exploring the triumvirate

The third article in this issue is a bit of a disappointment. Ostensibly an examination of the most important interpersonal relationship in TOS, most of the article is simply a recap of scenes in which the Kirk-Spock-McCoy friendship is explored, with little analysis of those moments. To be fair, this was written before streaming and Blu-rays, so simply revisiting pivotal scenes may have made an interesting read. 

The best bit of the article is the conclusion:

Years after Star Trek’s original airings we are still concerned enough about the relationship for me to write this article, and for you to read it. Why? Because there’s a little of Kirk, Spock and McCoy in every one of us. Which makes them as real as we are!

The poster

The trio confronts The Spectre of the Gun.

Read the other articles in this series.