Star Trek & 1960s Design, 13: Your Brain on Sputnik

1. The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 (below, top), the world's first satellite, on October 4, 1957. (Artwork of Sputnik 1, © Adrian Mann 2007, from This Is Rocket Science.)
2. Americans rushed to respond with an aggressive space program and dozens of designs for hugely popular Sputnik lamps (below, center).
3. Many people's favorite worst Star Trek episode, 1968's "Spock's Brain" (below, bottom), married the Sputnik to a 1960s beauty-salon hair dryer to get the "Teacher" helmet that imparts knowledge.
4. Lektro Set ad from 1969 (via craig mcnamara, who points out the silver material is like the aluminum-coated nylon spacesuits of the Mercury U.S. Space Program.)




"Brain and brain! What is brain?"

-- Popular line delivered by Kara (Marj Dusay, above and left), the moronic space babe who steals Spock's brain but knows not what she does. To mimic, stamp your foot, pout, and speak in a peevish tone.

This whole episode is so excruciatingly bad, it's good.
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[Thanks, as always, to Trekcore.com for the Star Trek screencaps.]