News Introducing Fact Trek

[Harvey]

@Maurice and I have been teasing our new project on the BBS for more than a year now, and we're excited to finally have something to share with everybody!

We're calling our new project FACT TREK. To begin with, we've launched a Twitter feed (https://twitter.com/FactTreks) where we're sharing behind-the-scenes information, production documents, photographs, and other ephemera. (You don't need a Twitter account to read the tweets, but it's easier to follow us if you do. Follow us, won't you?)

Our first series of tweets covers the mystery woman seen in very early costume and makeup tests with Leonard Nimoy. First identified as actress Cindy Robbins in the terrific book Star Trek: Lost Scenes (2018), we dug up further production documents illuminating Cindy's Star Trek involvement (she nearly got the part of Yeomen Colt) and even got Cindy on the phone to discuss her memories of Star Trek and other projects. (The tweets about Cindy start here.)

But since social media is geared for immediate consumption, and bad for historical reference, after we finish a topic we'll turn the material into articles on the FACT TREK blog (link). We already have several up, including...

• To Baldly Show What No Fan Has Known Before (Our detailed mission statement.)
• Yeoman Jolt! (Why was “Cindy Robbins” in tests with Leonard Nimoy? A longtime mystery solved.)
• The Martian Within (Discussing similarities between "The Enemy Within" and two episodes of My Favorite Martian)

Our latest tweet thread went live earlier today. It concerns a Blues Brother and a reported visit to the set of Star Trek II and will be collected into a more detailed blog post to be published next week.

We're sharing this in the original series forum because most of our research will be related to that series, but we'll occasionally branch out and discuss the first six features (especially the first two), the animated series, and other aborted Star Trek projects from the 1970s.

 

[Sir Rhosis]

Well done, guys. Looking forward to more.

Sir Rhosis

 

[Grant]

By the way that list of 26 actresses up for the Yeoman role also include the well-known actress Ahna Capri and Shirley Bonne who ended up playing Ruth in Shore leave so there was another on that list who finally did show up on Star Trek

 

[Harvey]

By the way that list of 26 actresses up for the Yeoman role also include the well-known actress Ahna Capri and Shirley Bonne who ended up playing Ruth in Shore leave so there was another on that list who finally did show up on Star Trek

We may show more of that memo at a later date. It has a LOT of names on it that went on to be well-known and/or ended up appearing on the series in a guest role. (Of course, it also has plenty of names on it that worked in television for a few years and then left the business.)

 

[Michael]

Ah, I had noticed the neat logo in your avatars and wondered if you'd be working on something like this. (Was also guessing it would be a podcast, but a blog is the next best thing.)

Fascinating stuff! Thanks for putting in all the research and work. The blog looks awesome! Will give it and the Twitter account a follow!

 

[Maurice]

By the way that list of 26 actresses up for the Yeoman role also include the well-known actress Ahna Capri and Shirley Bonne who ended up playing Ruth in Shore leave so there was another on that list who finally did show up on Star Trek

Yeah, I thought about listing them but decided to stick with two other well-known genre actresses for the moment because I didn't want to detour too far away from Cindy.

Ah, I had noticed the neat logo in your avatars and wondered if you'd be working on something like this. (Was also guessing it would be a podcast, but a blog is the next best thing.)

Well, if you beg really nicely...

 

[Firebird]

We're sharing this in the original series forum because most of our research will be related to that series, but we'll occasionally branch out and discuss the first six features (especially the first two), the animated series, and other aborted Star Trek projects from the 1970s.

I'm glad to have helped provide you guys some future fodder to discuss for the features.

 

[Spock's Barber]

By the way that list of 26 actresses up for the Yeoman role also include the well-known actress Ahna Capri and Shirley Bonne who ended up playing Ruth in Shore leave so there was another on that list who finally did show up on Star Trek

Ahhhh, Ahna Capri. What a beautiful actress. She’d probably still be with us if it wasn’t for a car accident in 2010.

 

[Grant]

I looked up a lot of those actresses and the vast majority are alive which is amazing since the part they were trying out for was 56 years ago. Also some of them in fact most of them had more credits than the actress who finally got the part.

 

[Maurice]

I looked up a lot of those actresses and the vast majority are alive which is amazing since the part they were trying out for was 56 years ago. Also some of them in fact most of them had more credits than the actress who finally got the part.

Yeah, Goodwin was very new when she got cast as Colt. Cindy Robbins had ~10 years of stage and screen credits by that point, and had been a child performer on stage.

​

Here's a photo of Cindy we didn't use in the Tweets or the blog. Nice lady.

I'm really proud of the Belushi piece, because we turned that around in a matter of days, based on @Harvey's original legwork.

​

 

[Maurice]

I'm glad to have helped provide you guys some future fodder to discuss for the features.

Hoo yeah. We'll be chatting!

 

[Christopher]

Another couple of names on the yeoman candidates list jumped out at me. Susan Silo was a cute, diminutive, chipmunk-voiced actress who often did comedy roles and since the late '70s has worked extensively in animation. She was the Riddler's moll Mousey in the second Riddler storyline on Batman '66, and her animation roles include the White Queen in the Pryde of the X-Men pilot, Neptunia in Darkwing Duck, Dr. Karbunkle in Biker Mice from Mars, the main villain Wuya in Xiaolin Showdown, and Yin in The Legend of Korra.

Julie Gregg was another Batman moll, working for the Penguin in the first-season finale, and was involved in one of the most blatant sexual innuendoes in the series. She also had uncredited appearances as a nightclub singer in the '66 Batman feature film and a beauty contestant in "Green Ice." And she had two notable guest turns in Mission: Impossible -- in season 4's "Amnesiac" as one of the more appealing of the parade of one-shot female guest agents they had that year in place of a regular female lead, and in season 5's "Decoy," where she was luminous as Jim Phelps's love interest in one of the rare episodes that broke formula to explore the characters. (That one was written by former TOS story editor John D.F. Black.) She was also the main female guest in the early The Incredible Hulk episode "The Hulk Breaks Las Vegas," with John Crawford and Don Marshall.

Oh, and there's yet another Batman moll on the list, Myrna Fahey, who was impressive as Blaze in the False-Face 2-parter. So I guess people who don't make the cut as Starfleet yeomen can always find work in Gotham City's bustling henchperson community.

 

[gottacook]

I would give no credence at all to the Belushi story. Bob Woodward's first book after his collaborations with Carl Bernstein was Wired: The Short Life & Fast Times of John Belushi (which I owned for years and read more than once, and was later made into a crappy movie starring Michael Chiklis). As in The Final Days (about the Nixon resignation), there were individual detailed chapters about each of Belushi's final days. If Belushi had been at Paramount studios, I'm sure Woodward would have turned this up and the book would have included it.

I don't necessarily respect the thesis of some of Woodward's books in the 35 years since Wired, and some of its presentation (if not the facts themselves) has been disputed by a competing biographer. But I'm sure he would have found out about a Paramount visit during Belushi's last 24 hours if there'd been one, and mentioned it in the book, even if there was an effort to keep it secret.

 

[Maurice]

^^^Yep. I think we pretty conclusively shot that whole idea down. Sure, Belushi probably visited the production in some capacity but not anywhere near when he died. It's just another misremembered and embellished anecdote, of which there are enough to keep Fact Trek busy for decades if all we want to do is shoot fish in a barrel.

Normally we mightn't even have bothered, but this was a chance to nip a newish myth in the bud so we figured it was worth it.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Belushi left SNL in 79, so it seems unlikely that he would be researching for a Kirk impersonation for the show when TWOK was filming.

 

[Harvey]

Belushi left SNL in 79, so it seems unlikely that he would be researching for a Kirk impersonation for the show when TWOK was filming.

We came to this conclusion, as well. Belushi had left SNL behind and was focused on movie work when he died. While it's certainly possible he wanted to work on his Shatner impression, we don't think it's very likely.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Congrats to @Maurice and @Harvey for the launch of Fact Trek! I've been looking forward to seeing this project out in the wild.

 

[Maurice]

Congrats to @Maurice and @Harvey for the launch of Fact Trek! I've been looking forward to seeing this project out in the wild.

Thanks!

To be fair to Ryan, he's helped us a lot with this, and was part of the genesis of this thing.

 

[Maurice]

Belushi left SNL in 79, so it seems unlikely that he would be researching for a Kirk impersonation for the show when TWOK was filming.

Well, we did cover all that in the tweet thread.

 

[J.T.B.]

What's great about this is found in the mission statement. If something is worth doing, it's worth doing right, and Harvey and Maurice are taking that seriously and applying academic standards to original research. What's a shame is that approach has been so little used before, with a lot of misinformation as the result.


Re Belushi and Shatner: ISTR reading something way back when that Shatner was not available for some post-production on ST2 because he had to start working on T. J. Hooker. It would be interesting to see some production schedule info for that show. It premiered on March 13 1982 (mid-season replacement); Belushi had died on March 5.