dumb cowboy hours

This fan fiction is older than the push-through tabs on soda cans.

Your grandma wrote this on her Commodore 64.

I miss my Commodore 64

Oh my dear, sweet children. The Commodore 64 came out in 1982. This was produced on a typewriter and probably mimeographed. And while it may seem funny now, it took more courage to write and distribute this than you will ever  know.

Reblogged for that last comment.

respect your elders

Children, in the olden days fanfiction was written on a typewriter, copied and sent by snail mail. Getting one one of those letters from across the world was every bit as exciting as getting a notification that your favorite writer posted a new fic.

The precedent line is especially amusing when you bear in mind that “A Fragment Out of Time” is not only the first Star Trek slashfic to be published in a widely distributed magazine: it’s believed by some to be the first slashfic of any kind to be widely published.

In 1974 it was illegal to send pornography through the USPS. So distributing fic like this via mailed newsletter was literally dangerous. And they knew it.

In context too

A starship crew made up of only lesbians...

TOS lighting is one of the things that I sincerely love about the show. It was made to sell fancy brand new color TV's, but it also had to look dramatic on existing black and white sets. They do incredible things with contrast in order to keep it looking crisp and exciting on both types of screens. But it's also clear that the lighting directors were having fun. The goal was to "make it pop" and make people feel transported. You don't see anything else like it.

TV lighting at this point was also at a sort of crossroads, the only reference they had for entertainment lighting was live theater, and they use a TON of live theater effects in the show--they're very obviously using metaphorical emotionalism in the designs in a lot of ways which you don't see shows doing now! they use gobos, (see: Lights of Zetar for the most obvious examples) intense shutter cuts (that thing where they frame kirk's eyes (see: Charlie X), dramatic color that I'm SURE they used thick gels for, ugh i just love it. It's theater lighting in TV at its FINEST. makes my lighting designer self very very happy :)