William S. McCullars

William S. McCullars has been a freelance writer of articles for several licensed magazine publications. The focus of his articles was on the studio models of the Star Trek franchise, in particular the models of The Original Series and its creators. Publications wherein he has been published were: His 2001 articles for Communicator consisted of in depth interviews with Star Trek's first model maker Richard C. Datin, Jr., firmly establishing the latter as a signature contributor to the franchise, "I managed to track Richard down during the late '90s to discuss his Star Trek modelmaking. I have a lifelong interest in the studio spaceship models used in Star Trek. Richard agreed to interviews, which went on for about two years off and on. He was incredibly patient with me and kept such good records of his work, as well as having a good memory. I finally completed the article around late 2000 or early 2001, and it was published in Star Trek: Communicator magazine in a two-part article. (There is actually a third part to the article, which the Communicator'' asked me to write for their planned website that never materialized!) After that, the Smithsonian contacted me and asked for my help. I wrote the dedication plaque text and supplied the photo of Richard and the other Enterprise modelmakers for the eleven-foot Enterprise studio model display at the NASM. Richard visited the NASM five or six years ago and had great pride in the dedication plaque.''", McCullars stated upon the passing of Richard Datin.
 * Starlog, issue 147, October 1989 (pp. 24-25): "Raiders of the Lost Starcruiser" (about the "lost" TOS D7-class studio model at the Smithsonian Institution)
 * , 1998: "Starship '72, The forgotten detour of the NCC-1701" (pp. 16-17,77)
 * , 2001: "Enterprise '64, The real Builders of the Storied Starship", (pp. 48-55)
 * , 2001: "Enterprise '64, Part 2, Building a better Starship", (pp. 44-51)
 * , 2005: "Behind the scenes: Visual Effects" (A favorite article of then Chief Editor John Freeman, who recalled, "My favourite feature this issue is probably our revamped Flashback feature, which covers the making of the ST: TOS episode and features some great behind the scenes visual effects images. Some of these have appeared online but a guy called Curt McAloney has digitally restored them and they look terrific." )

A large part of his writings stemmed from the work he had done on his now defunct website "The IDIC Page", which he put on-line in 1997 and on which he stated: "Over the course of almost 25 years, I have been on a journey, photographing Star Trek's USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) and other studio models used in the filming of the television and movie series. The trek began in 1979 on my first trip to Washington DC and to the . Since then, I have visited the NASM at least once a year, and, during the extraordinary 1992-93 NASM Star Trek exhibit, I went back at least a dozen times. After that, my travels took me to New York City's Hayden Planetarium for their 1993-94 Star Trek exhibition, the Museum of Television and Radio's 1993 Star Trek exhibit, numerous s, the now-defunct, and many other locations. Additionally, many of the rare photos you will see here have been given to me by the original model-makers themselves, as well as others involved in the production of Star Trek."

While his website was operational, he had at a time when, especially for Star Trek model kits modelers, behind-the-scenes material was all but inaccessible, input from actual production staffers like Richard Datin, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, Craig Thompson, Ed Miarecki, and Gary Kerr amongst others. His website went off line when its provider terminated hosting services in 2005 and hasn't been up since, McCullars having said to be "weighing his options" in 2009. 

McCullars was not a stranger to the Star Trek franchise, as he was the chief editor of the fanzine Imzadi, which ran for nineteen issues from 1990 through 1992. 

External link

 * - partially functional archived website