User:Doncram/Gerald Gurian

To Boldly Go - Rare Photos from the TOS Soundstage is a series of books of rare behind-the-scenes photography that document the filming of the original Star Trek television series (NBC, 1966 - 1969) which starred William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. Gerald Gurian, an industrial engineer from Las Vegas, is the author.

Photos of Star Trek filming are rare and valuable to Star Trek fans; the props, costumes and sets themselves were not considered valuable at the time of filming, and actors took them home, the companies that created them kept them, and even items that were donated to UCLA by the studio were thrown away.


 * The Season One book, a 218 page volume, was released in March, 2016 and presented over 300 restored NBC publicity shots; studio "trims" and "outtakes" from the filming of the episodes; as well as candid still photos/negatives taken on The Original Series (TOS) sets
 * Season Two, a 232 page volume, released in September, 2016, presented an additional 400 rare image restorations in a similar full color format, that arranged the photographs into separate chapters dedicated to individual episodes of the series, presented in chronological production order, with numerous accompanying text descriptions on the filming of the related scenes. Published by Minkatek Press, the source of the imagery seen in these volumes was the author's own extensive rare Star Trek photograph collection that was amassed over a 40+ year period, and which includes the entire Desilu film cell reference collection of Original Series Art Director and Production Designer Matt Jefferies.

Andrew Liptak of Gizmodo, reviewing the first, says the book "gives us a good look at the behind the scenes making of the original show."

Katharine Trendacosta, also of Gizmodo, reviewing the second, says "it’s exactly what it says on the tin—and its collection of photos are just as captivating."

Author
Gurian is also the publisher of the Star Trek fansite startrekpropauthority.com, which currently features over 600+ articles documenting various filming props, screen worn costumes, starship miniatures and production artifacts from across the entire Star Trek feature film and television franchise - but with a special emphasis on The Original Series of the '60s.

In September, 2016, Gurian appeared in the Smithsonian Channel documentary Building Star Trek, which was released in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the franchise. His insights on Star Trek have been reported by international media, such as The Telegraph in the UK and USA Today, and, in his role as a Star Trek historian and archivist, Gurian is quoted extensively throughout the Season Three volume of author Marc Cushman's These Are The Voyages - TOS Saturn-award winning trilogy on the making of the first Star Trek television series.

Gerald Gurian was born in Toronto, Canada and attended the University of Toronto, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Industrial Engineering in 1985. Over the course of a 25 year career that specialized in the area of manufacturing systems design, Gurian most recently served as a Senior Simulation Engineer with General Motors Corporation in Detroit, Michigan, USA. In 2008, he established the Star Trek fan site startrekpropauthority.com; which he continues to serve as author/publisher and which documents the Art and Production history of the entire Star Trek franchise - but favors The Original Series. In 2002, Gurian wrote a section of the book Trekkers: True Stories By Fans For Fans, published by ECW Press and edited by Nikki Stafford., and in July, 2012, he assisted in the authentication of a William Shatner worn Captain Kirk velour tunic from Star Trek: The Original Series that sold in a Profiles In History Hollywood memorabilia auction held at Los Angeles, CA. Gerald Gurian also contributed rare Star Trek photos to the book Star Trek: The Original Series: 365, published by Abrams Books in 2010 and authored by Paula M. Block. Prior to authoring his own 'To Boldly Go: Rare Photos from the TOS Soundstage' series in 2016, Gurian served as an Archivist and Photo Editor with Jacobs/Brown Press, where he contributed several hundred behind-the-scenes Original Series photos in B&W format from his own collection to the Saturn Award-winning These Are The Voyages: TOS trilogy by Marc Cushman, which was released between 2013 and 2015.