Paper Trek

In the early 1970's, I was totally enthralled with Star Trek. The world of the United Federation of Planets was as real to my pre-teen brain as my elementary school. I lived for those rerun adventures every day after school.

And still, I wanted more. In a time before VCR's how could a 12 year old Trek junkie get his fix? One word- books.  Luckily, a British author named James Blish was tasked with writing collections of short stories based on Star Trek scripts.

Interestingly enough, the books were not based on what actually made it to the small screen, since he wrote them without seeing the final product. Therefore, there are frequently subtle differences between the stories based on the original script and what we saw on the t.v. This fact only made the books that much cooler.

Here are three of my books from my youth that I just yanked off of the bookcase in my den.

Here we have "Star Trek 1," "Star Trek 7," and "Star Trek 10." I have others, but these were the easiest to get my hands on. 7 and 10 are first edition paperbacks, but 1 was a re-release (from 1975). The stories in each are:

"Star Trek 1" (1967)
1. "Charlie's Law" (Charlie X)
2. "Dagger of the Mind"
3. "The Unreal McCoy" (The Man Trap)
4. "Balance of Terror"
5. "The Naked Time"
6. "Miri"
7. "The Conscience of the King"

"Star Trek 7" (1972)
1. "Who Mourns for Adonas?"
2. "The Changeling"
3. "The Paradise Syndrome"
4. "Metamorphosis"
5. "The Deadly Years"
6. "Elaan of Troyius"

"Star Trek 10" (1974)
1. "The Alternative Factor"
2. "The Empath"
3. "ThevGalileo Seven"
4. "Is There in Truth No Beauty?"
5. "A Private Little War"
6. "The Omega Glory"

These are, for the most part, very well written and exciting retellings of original series episodes. You can still find the collection (which goes through "Star Trek 12" with an additional book of Harry Mudd stories called "Mudd's Angels") easily and cheaply online. I highly recommend them for anyone who loved the original series!

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

Three Rockets, Chosen At Random...

Ok, not exactly at random, but close. When I went to write this week's blog, I began to think about all the cool kits that, for one reason or another, I have never built. So, I went to my rocket drawers (no, those aren't what I wear when I'm flying rockets) and pulled out the first three unopened kits that caught my eye. Here they are!

From left to right we have the Semroc Orbital Transport, the Estes Black Brant II, and the Fliskits Acme Spitfire. All of these are great kits. All of these are noble kits. All of these are kits truly worthy of being built. Why haven't I? Well, let's take a look.

On the Semroc Orbital Transport, I was going to build it when the company went on hiatus. Suddenly it was "collectible." Crud. Of course now it's back in production again, so I can knock it right out, right? Not so fast. You see there is a lot of balsa in this kit. A whole lot of balsa. A stinkin' whole lot of balsa. I hate filling and sanding balsa! So, as much as I'd like to see it built, I've got to psych myself up to facing all of that dang wood....maybe next week...or the next...

Next we have the Black Brant II. It is an incredible performer, that never fails to put in spectacular flights! It also looks cool! There isn't too much balsa! Let's build it!!! Not so fast. It's also out of production and is a "minor classic" in my eyes, and therefore "collectible." Crud.

Lastly we have the Fliskits Acme Spitfire. It's a really fun kit. It has very little balsa. It is a fun and challenging build. Let's build it!!! Not so fast. It's also not mine.

WHAT?

Yep, it actually belongs to Laurie, my wife. Now, I'm fairly sure that if I asked her to let me build it she would gladly say yes, but I have dozens of other rockets that aren't hers that I need to build so....there ya go.

So there you have it. Right after I took this picture I put them all back in the drawers. Will they ever get built? Maybe. Of course there are many other projects that didn't catch my eye as fast like my Sizzorwing Transport, my P-Chuter Extreme, my Little Joe II, my Saturn V....and so on and so on....

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

A More Appropriate Phone Case

For those of you who might not know (which is probably just about everybody), I usually do my blog posts from my phone. It's easier that way because the pictures are right there, and I can blog from just about anywhere and any time! Ah, technology!

Anyway, recently my phone case broke. Actually, it was my "volumn down" button on the case that broke, which was just plain irritating. So, I started shopping around for a new case. I wanted something that could combine my interests in Rocketry, Science Fiction, and (of course) Disney.

After typing in "Disney Galaxy S7 Edge Cases" in Google I found this!

This comes from out of China, and I think they are specially printed per order, so it took about three weeks to get to me. Still, I love it! The quality seems quite high and I think the image will hold up.

So, in short, I will now be blogging from my really cool Space Mountain phone. This should increase the quality of my posts greatly! (I hope)

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!