Our Video Of the Day! Is sponsored in part by Nostalgia; Nostalgia, helping people remember the good ol’ days for over 50 years!

And today we warp around the sun to head back to 1974, where we get to take a look at a film reel from the Equicon Sci-Fi convention (remember the days of actual film?) featuring the cast, writers and production crew of the original Star Trek, and with some other well known people who you may just recognize!

For the younger Trekkies out there, Equicon was the original Star Trek convention, which was founded by legendary Trek Fan Bjo Trimble. Mrs. Trimble and her husband John, are the main reason why the original Star Trek was able to stay afloat for its third year on television. She also lead the charge to have America’s first Space Shuttle named “Enterprise”, in honor of the famous fictional ship.  John and Bjo are still active in science fiction fandom today.

Also at the convention was a replica of the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, back for a second appearance from its 1973 debut at the first Equicon  made primarily from cardboard but lit and painted so well that it looked like the real thing.  It was built by a very young Doug Drexler, who eventually became a designer and illustrator, famed for his work on later incarnations of Star Trek.  Unfortunately the fire marshall did not approve of the construction and wiring, and sprayed the back of the bridge set with a fire retardent foam which, according to Drexler at the time, had shorted out much of the practical lighting he had built into the consoles.

A Call to Action

If anyone has photos of this remarkable bridge set, please scan them and email copies to info@scifi.radio.  We’ll post them here!

Links:

• Bjo Trimble
• Equicon
• Doug Drexler