...William Shatner's 80th Birthday Celebration...
It's Been A Long, Long Time
It's William Shantner's 80th Birthday today!!!! Hard to believe the old boy is 80, and that he was born in 1931. As a Tribute, to his 80th birthday, I am sharing this post. William Shatner is in a class, all by himself!!!
Another STAR TREK Rolex
Memories Are Made Of This
"Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations–to boldly go where no man has ever gone before!!!"
In November of 2008 I wrote the original Star Trek Rolex story which appears below this new introduction. The original Star Trek TV series was a seminal science-fiction institution and it was amazing. To this day, generations of people around the world still enjoy watching the original series which was ahead of its time in many ways.
Captain James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock are as iconic today as the Rolex Submariner and Rolex GMT Master. Somehow their personalities played perfectly off of each other, and how cool were these guys?!!!!!!! So cool...just Super cool...
The photo below of William Shatner posing in front of a spaced-out car is really cool for some reason.
In this story we are going to explore and episode of Star Trek which was shot at NASA and discover how one of the cast members was wearing a Rolex GMT Pepsi, but I also wanted to share this photo from 1974 or Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), Deforest Kelly (Bones), and William Shatner (Captain Kirk).
In this photo from the L.A. Times Archives, the three are recording their voices for a Star Trek Cartoon. Notice that William Shatner is wearing a Rolex Submariner.
This next photo is of the original cast that starred together in a Star Trek movie. In many ways, since so many of us are so familiar with the cast, they almost seem like family members.
The STAR TREK Rolex
GMT Master at NASA
This is a most fascinating Rolex history story. It all began during a podcast interview which I conducted with one of the most highly decorated NASA astronauts in history, Dr. Leroy Chiao.
Dr. Leroy Chiao served on three Space Shuttle Missions for NASA as a scientific officer and later was the Commander of The International Space Station on Expidition 10. Dr. Chiao lived on the International Space Station for 26 weeks. You can read all about Dr. Chiao and listen to my podcast interview I conducted with him by clicking here.
NASA International Space Station Mission Commander, Dr. Leroy Chiao is pictured above
During my podcast interview with Leroy Chaio, he mentioned he recalled seeing a Rolex on an episode of Star Trek, with a character named Cary Seven, and he also mentioned there were many great NASA shots taken at Cape Canaveral.
Yesterday, I put up the story about the new Star Trek movie coming at Christmas time which takes place when Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock were younger than in the original Star Trek TV show. It looks from the movie trailer like it might just be a superb movie. This got me thinking about he how Dr. Chiao mentioned the Star Trek episode with the Rolex, so I did the research and found it.
The Star Trek episode named Assignment Earth is number 55, and it was the last show from the second season in 1968 which originally aired March 29, 1968 (Season 2, Episode 26). It was also a television pilot for a Star Trek spin-off show Gene Roddenberry hoped to launch based around this really cool new character named Gary Seven. I watched the entire episode and really enjoyed it.
I will do my best to walk you through the Star Trek episode and show you the Rolex GMT that NASA astronaut, Dr. Leroy Chiao discovered.
Assignment Earth [Star Trek. Episode #55, 1968]
Episode #55 begins with the Starship Enterprise traveling through the time-space continuum back to 1968 to conduct a mission as part of an earth history research program. All of a sudden, a man who is trying to beam to earth gets beamed onto the Enterprise transport station by mistake. His introduces himself to Captian Kirk as Gary Seven (played by actor Robert Lansing, who looked a lot like Steve McQueen).
Gary Seven's human ancestors were abducted from Earth around 4000BC and taken to an invisible cloaked planet named System Zeta Gamma 357. Gary comes back to Earth in 1968 on a mission to try and save Earth from nuclear destruction.
Gary Seven travels with his companion pussy cat named Isis and as you can see in the photo below when Captain Kirk first encounters Gary Seven in the transport room, Gary Seven is wearing a Rolex GMT Master Pepsi.
Gary 7 tells Kirk he is from an invisible planet and he has come to Earth to save it from a nuclear holocaust. Kirk does not know what to do so he puts Gary Seven in a holding cell.
Gary Seven, is upset because he is on a time critical mission to save Earth and he does not want to waste time in confinement so he pulls out a pen weapon and uses it to escape, and this in when we get the best close-up shots of his Rolex GMT Master with the Pepsi bezel.
I think Leroy thought Gary Seven was wearing a Rolex Submariner, but it turns out he was wearing a Rolex GMT Master. I was able to discern this from the screen capture as seen below. Ironically this is the same Rolex model that NASA astronaut, Leroy Chiao wears, with the same Pepsi bezel.
After successfully escaping his confinement, Gary Seven goes back to the transporter room and beams down to earth. Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock decide they must follow him down to earth so the put on time specific costumes and try to find Gary Seven.
They chase Gary Seven around New York city, and then they all end up at NASA's Cape Canaveral, in Florida, where an Apollo rocket is being launched with a test nuclear warhead on it. Gary Seven sneaks onto the launch-pad and manipulates the Saturn rocket.
I won't ruin the ending for you in case you wish to watch it yourself, but like all Star Trek episodes, everything works out in the end. Gary Seven's secretary, Ms. Roberta Lincoln was played by the young Teri Garr. The Gary Seven pilot was never picked up, which is a shame, but my best guess is that Gary Seven would have been like a James Bond agent, but from a different planet.
I had to put share this picture of the beautiful Ohura with her Bluetooth headset. It is fascinating how much technology from Star Trek has actually come to reality.
The screen shot below from episode 55 of Star Trek is of Doctor McCoy, a.k.a., Bones. My grandfather Jake Ehrlich Sr., had an amazing connection to Deforest Kelley who played Bones as well as Gene Roddenberry who wrote and produced Star Trek.
Several years before Star Trek, Gene Roedenburry created another made for TV pilot that was based upon my grandfather, Jake Ehrlich Sr.'s legal career, in which Deforest Kelly plays the role of my grandfather Jake. You can learn more about Gene Roddenberry, Deforest Kelly and my grandfather's relationship with them as well as watch the pilot by clicking here.
