Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email

2021 November 12 • Friday

Who would have thought there was anything left to say about Star Trek's first incarnation, the original TV series? Well, it turns out that there's a whole, large, mind-blowing book about it and it's become an absolute favorite around here, particularly since I'm the sort of person who likes looking for this and that little thing in the backgrounds of scenes in movies and television shows.

Authors Dan Chavkin and Brian McGuire are officially the tops in the field when it comes to that sort of thing and the result of their efforts and observations is this beautiful book, Star Trek: Designing the Final Frontier; How Midcentury Modernism Shaped Our View of the Future.

As Spock used to say, it's fascinating. Who knew that the surgical scalpels used in the Enterprise sick bay were actually salt and pepper shakers? Or that Kirk's command chair was a modified lounge chair designed by Arthur Umanoff while the other chairs on the bridge were only slightly tweaked (and sometimes completely unmodified) chairs by Maurice Burke that anybody could just go out and buy?

Chavkin and McGuire are the best detectives of whatever the hell this activity is and every page of their book is a delight.

And they are thorough. Check out these examples.

Starting with some easy ones, sure, those are definitely normal-looking chairs. But who ever paid them any attention? And this next thing is hiding in plain sight:

It wouldn't have occurred to me that that was a lamp a person could just go out and get in the late 1960s. But there it is.

And here's a great one: the Saurian brandy decanter. It's a Dickel!

And then there was the episode where Captain Kirk brought out one of his most prized possessions: Mick Jagger's microphone, a priceless antique from 20th century Earth.

The geniuses who wrote this book don't miss a trick. They cover locations as well.

And they aren't going to overlook paintings that might be by midcentury artists I've never heard of.

I really can't say enough about this wonderful volume. I wish there more books like it but it's hard to imagine a book that could be better.