T'Kuhtian Press

T'Kuhtian Press was founded by Lori Chapek-Carleton and Gordon Carleton in 1977, originally as a student organization at Michigan State University. We quickly became known in fandom as the publishers of fanzines such as Warped Space and The Weight, and subsequently as the proud sponsors of MediaWest*Con.

We have been referenced in Textual Poachers, Television Fans & Participatory Culture by Henry Jenkins (Routledge 1992), the official fan club publication Star Trek Communicator, Strange New Worlds (Pocket Books 1998), Star Trek Deep Space Nine Companion (Pocket Books 2000), Star Trek 101 (Pocket Books 2008), and Star Trek 365 (Abrams 2010).

Gordon was a major contributor to Startoons (Playboy Press 1979), has had cartoons published in various issues of Starlog magazine, and has written for Classic TV magazine.

For a list of publications available from T'Kuhtian Press, please send a SASE (Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope) to:

Of T'Kuht and T'Kuhtians

The name "T'Kuhtian Press" is derived from the name "T'Kuht" given to the sister planet of Vulcan by Gordon after it first appeared in the Star Trek animated series episode Yesteryear (Filmation 9/15/73).

Spock tells Uhura that Vulcan has no moon ("The Man Trap").

From "The Man Trap," the first aired episode of the original Star Trek (Sept. 8, 1966):

Lt. Uhura: Why don't you tell me I'm an attractive young lady, or ask me if I've ever been in love? Tell me how your planet Vulcan looks on a lazy evening when the moon is full.

Spock: Vulcan has no moon, Miss Uhura.

Lt. Uhura: I'm not surprised, Mr. Spock.

T'Kuht and its native T'Kuhtians were part of the "Landing Party 6" series of stories published in the fanzine Warped Space. A two volume collection of Landing Party 6 and related stories is available from T'Kuhtian Press.

From the Landing Party Six Writer's Guide by Gordon Carleton (Warped Space 8, 1975):

Girc'N is a native of T'Kuht, sister planet of Vulcan. (The existance of such a planet was visually documented in the animated ST episode Yesteryear. While we all know that... Spock himself said that "Vulcan has no moon," an enterprising Filmation animator saw fit to put a large planetoid on the horizon of Vulcan -- it's on the cover of Log One. D.C. Fontana, duly embarassed that something of the sort should get through, postulated that Vulcan is part of a twin system, something like the home planets of the Romulans.)

...The name T'Kuht is actually the Vulcan name for the planet...

Gordon coined the name T'Kuht using Kraith Vulcan as a reference.

Gordon also postulated pre-assigned landing parties for various sorts of standard missions in the LP6 Writer's Guide, long before Star Trek: The Next Generation "Away Teams."

T'Kuht was part of the Vulcan landscape in animated episode "Yesteryear."

"Star Trek Log One" (Ballantine 1974) cover with the Vulcan landscape from "Yesteryear"

T'Kuht was one of several objects over Vulcan in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture"

Vulcan landscape from Star Trek: The Motion Picture (the Vulcan sequence was redesigned for the "Director's Edition" DVD)

From the Star Trek Encyclopedia (Pocket Books 1994):

Vulcan... The planet has no moon. ("The Man Trap" [TOS])... We also saw Vulcan (curiously with several moons -- or at least nearby planets) in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, then again in Star Trek III and Star Trek IV.

The name "T'Kuht" was used (and properly attributed) in The Vulcan Academy Murders by Jean Lorrah (Pocket Books 1984).

"The Vulcan Academy Murders" cover -- Is that T'Kuht in the background?

Vulcan System

"Star Trek New Worlds, New Civilizations" cover with Vulcan landscape

The name was misspelled, uncredited, and the background generally ignored, in Spock's World by Diane Duane (Pocket Books 1988).

T'Kuht is pictured on the cover of New Worlds, New Civilizations by Michael Jan Friedman (Pocket Books 1999), and is described in the text (albeit -- again -- misspelled):

As the city dwindled behind us, I was drawn to the unnerving image of T'Khut, Vulcan's airless sister world, dominating half my field of vision. Most humans never entirely adjust to the sight of its huge disk, ruddy and mottled by the planet's rich mineralogical diversity. T'Khut seems to watch over Vulcan like an ominous, omniscient eye, and it always seems so perilously, impossibly close. My mind flashed on the nightmarish thought that it could drop out of the sky at any moment and roll over Vulcan, flattening everything in its path. In reality, T'Khut's orbit is implacably stable. Mated by gravity, the two worlds are locked in a perpetual dance of tidal forces that stimulate the almost ceaseless volcanic activity common to both of them.

Of T'Kuht and T'Kuhtians

Vulcan landscape from Star Trek: The Motion Picture (the Vulcan sequence was redesigned for the "Director's Edition" DVD)

T'Kuht is also referenced in Star Trek Star Charts by Geoffrey Mandel (Pocket Books 2002) as a Class G planet.