Star Trek: The Motion Picture turned 40 years old this year. Perhaps one of the least-loved, yet utterly successful films that spawned multiple sequels in the last few decades, The Motion Picture is a bit of conundrum. While it is rooted in the same universe as shows and movies that came before and after it, it has a markedly different look and feel than much of the rest of the Star Trek canon. This makes it something of an odd man out. At the same time, it’s a movie that tried to express a number of character and plot ideas that were used again with much more success in other adventures in the Star Trek universe.

Star Trek: Gold Key Archives, Volume 1
Hardcover | Kindle
Story by Dick Wood
Art by Nevio Zaccara and Alberto Giolitti
IDW Publishing
Release Date: April 15, 2014
Cover Price: $29.99

The first Star Trek comics began publication under the Poughkeepsie, NY-based Gold Key Comics (which at one point or another in time held the comic license to nearly every popular show on television, from The Avengers to Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea) in July 1967, three months after the television show’s debut season ended. Since it was never a ratings bonanza, Star Trek had to rely on support from fans and critics in order to stay on the air and the exploitation of the property in multi-media aided the cause immeasurably.

The Gold Key comic proved to be a hit with readers, ultimately running for 61 issues – a 62nd issue was planned but went unpublished – and helping to establish Star Trek as a viable property outside of the cathode ray box. Subsequent titles in the franchise would be released by Marvel, DC, and currently IDW Publishing. In Star Trek: Gold Key Archives Volume 1, IDW, which has owned the Trek comics license since November 2006, reprints the first six issues of the Gold Key run that were released from July 1967 to December 1969 and presents them in a single full-color hardcover volume, complete with the original photo covers.

Every day here at Doom HQ we receive tons of tips from our readers about really cool stuff from the world of geek, as well as promotional materials for new films, comic books, collectibles, and much more. While we do our best to bring you as much of it as possible, we don’t always have enough geek manpower available to cover it all on a daily basis. But we hate the idea of all of this really cool stuff wasting away in our inbox. How could we NOT cover it? Hence why we’ve resurrected our long-defunct column Bits Of Doom, now rebranded and revamped as Doom Digest, a collection of easily digestible bits of news, videos, photos, and other goodies.

Today: Dean Pelton’s outfits on Community, a trailer mash-up for Total Recall, William Shatner sings, a Star Trek Voyager cake, a scene from Men In Black 3, plus Bits Of Doom.

Earlier this week, Geeks of Doom reported that about the first full look at the USS Enterprise from JJ Abrams‘ upcoming movie Star Trek.

Few images are so immediately identified with the heart and soul of the Star Trek franchise. Few images have also changed so little over the intervening years; there was one major design for Star Trek: TOS (which changed slightly over the course of the series) and another design introduced in Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1978 that lasted almost unchanged until Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country in 1991.

Mr. Abrams is delivering the first major change in Enterprise design in 30 years, and the first not approved by Trek creator Gene Roddenberry himself. He had to know that anything he and his creative team changed in the profile of the USS Enterprise would be controversial. This is why we are seeing it now, not when the movie comes out — so the Star Trek fan base can talk all this through and figure out if we really like it.

So do we really like it?