Showing posts with label STAR TREK. Show all posts
Showing posts with label STAR TREK. Show all posts
Tuesday, 8 August 2017
1995: THERMAL LANCE ISSUE 23 REVIEWS THE STATE OF THE STAR TREK NATION
From March-April 1995: More STAR TREK.... THERMAL LANCE issue 23 casts a critical eye over the whole franchise to coincide with the release of the (frankly underwhelming) STAR TREK GENERATIONS movie.
1992: STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION UK COMIC ISSUE 1
From November 1992: More TREKness... the first issue of the second (even less successful) crack at getting a STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION comic off the ground here in the UK. This only seems to have run for a couple of issues.
MARVEL UK had the first go but misread the market by beaming out a quick-to-assemble comic full of material that fans could already find imported in their local comic shop. Buyers hoping for a TREK centric version of DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE had to wait another half-decade until Titan Magazines nailed it. The Marvel version died after only a year or so.
This incarnation, an all-reprint companion to the Classic Trek version, fared even worse. Vanishing after only a couple of issues. Clearly the casual and commited fans who were watching the series on BBC TWO and SKY ONE (and buying the CIC vids) weren't rushing to read reprints of the American comics.
MARVEL UK had the first go but misread the market by beaming out a quick-to-assemble comic full of material that fans could already find imported in their local comic shop. Buyers hoping for a TREK centric version of DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE had to wait another half-decade until Titan Magazines nailed it. The Marvel version died after only a year or so.
This incarnation, an all-reprint companion to the Classic Trek version, fared even worse. Vanishing after only a couple of issues. Clearly the casual and commited fans who were watching the series on BBC TWO and SKY ONE (and buying the CIC vids) weren't rushing to read reprints of the American comics.
Monday, 7 August 2017
1992: THE BRITISH STAR TREK COMIC
From March 1992: the first issue of the long forgotten British STAR TREK comic.
This came from Phoenix/ Trident, the outfit that briefly looked like they were going to become a MARVEL UK style reprint house (albeit without much in the way of personality) with a raft of media tie-in titles including ALIENS, THE TERMINATOR, INDIANA JONES and even FREDDY'S NIGHTMARES. They didn't last very long... possibly because their product wasn't great... and possibly because Dark Horse reclaimed their titles in order to launch Dark Horse International.
This one offered-up a bunch of movie era Trek reprints from the DC vaults. From memory, the pages looked like they may well have been copied from copies of the original US books rather than from the original art or the film created for printing.
The title ran for at least 8 regular issues. The same company also launched FINAL FRONTIER, the shady Trek magazine that didn't even bother with a license.
There was also, briefly, a STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION comic (which I'll get to) that plugged the gap between the end of the Marvel UK run and the launch of the (still running) Titan Magazine. The latter, because it had limited distribution outside the UK, was also initally able to run DC reprints.
This came from Phoenix/ Trident, the outfit that briefly looked like they were going to become a MARVEL UK style reprint house (albeit without much in the way of personality) with a raft of media tie-in titles including ALIENS, THE TERMINATOR, INDIANA JONES and even FREDDY'S NIGHTMARES. They didn't last very long... possibly because their product wasn't great... and possibly because Dark Horse reclaimed their titles in order to launch Dark Horse International.
This one offered-up a bunch of movie era Trek reprints from the DC vaults. From memory, the pages looked like they may well have been copied from copies of the original US books rather than from the original art or the film created for printing.
The title ran for at least 8 regular issues. The same company also launched FINAL FRONTIER, the shady Trek magazine that didn't even bother with a license.
There was also, briefly, a STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION comic (which I'll get to) that plugged the gap between the end of the Marvel UK run and the launch of the (still running) Titan Magazine. The latter, because it had limited distribution outside the UK, was also initally able to run DC reprints.
Tuesday, 1 August 2017
1996: COMICS INTERNATIONAL ANNOUNCES MARVEL PRESENTS PARAMOUNT COMICS... AND A NEW HOME FOR STAR TREK COMICS
From March 1996: CAOMICS INTERNATIONAL issue 66 reports the launch of the MARVEL PRESENTS PARAMOUNT COMICS imprint and the return of the STAR TREK publishing franchise to the House of Ideas.
The tie-up was quite productive (as you'll see from previous posts) over a two-year period but is best remembered for flooding the market with more STAR TREK comics than ever before (and snatching the license away from DC). In addition to the Trek books, a few other one-shots based on Paramount properties also snuck out before the deal was wound up as Marvel's financial position became ever more dicey.
The tie-up was quite productive (as you'll see from previous posts) over a two-year period but is best remembered for flooding the market with more STAR TREK comics than ever before (and snatching the license away from DC). In addition to the Trek books, a few other one-shots based on Paramount properties also snuck out before the deal was wound up as Marvel's financial position became ever more dicey.
Monday, 24 July 2017
1988: STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION FIRST YEAR SOURCEBOOK
From 1988: The STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION FIRST YEAR SOURCEBOOK, a FASA-published supplement for their STAR TREK ROLE PLAYING GAME.
Even through I had no interest in the RPG, this was an essential purchase way-back-when because it was the most comprehensive guide to the universe of TNG available at the time. Especially as the TV show itself was still 2-3 years from hitting the BBC here in the UK. I just ignored all the numbers, stats and stuff associated with the game itself.
Like the other RPG supplements I have covered in the past, this was mostly sold through games stores and only had limited pick-up by traditional comics stores and bookshops. Which probably means the bulk of Trek fans didn't even know it existed.
The truth is... the universe of TNG's first season wasn't really that interesting... but, at the time, any bit of information on the show was to be snapped-up. Thirty years later I'm still certain that I have not watched the bulk of the epsodes covered in this book. Time to crack open that HD boxset me thinks...
Even through I had no interest in the RPG, this was an essential purchase way-back-when because it was the most comprehensive guide to the universe of TNG available at the time. Especially as the TV show itself was still 2-3 years from hitting the BBC here in the UK. I just ignored all the numbers, stats and stuff associated with the game itself.
Like the other RPG supplements I have covered in the past, this was mostly sold through games stores and only had limited pick-up by traditional comics stores and bookshops. Which probably means the bulk of Trek fans didn't even know it existed.
The truth is... the universe of TNG's first season wasn't really that interesting... but, at the time, any bit of information on the show was to be snapped-up. Thirty years later I'm still certain that I have not watched the bulk of the epsodes covered in this book. Time to crack open that HD boxset me thinks...
Friday, 16 June 2017
STAR TREK THE ORIGINAL SERIES FINAL VHS
More from the VHS Years: The last of the original CIC STAR TREK TOS TAPES, featuring the final three episodes of the third and final season of the Sixties TV show.
The Three Episode format was unusual for the run. All the previous tapes had included two episodes (which roughly equate, duration-wise, to a short movie) but, because of the odd number of episodes in the original series (79), they either had to chance releasing a tape with just one episode (although surely they could have padded it out with some documentaries or other filler from the vaults) or chuck three episodes onto a longer tape. I don't recall whether they bumped up the price for this one... maybe by a couple of quid.
Prior to the coming of Amazon, Play.com and others, shops needed a lot of shelf space to carry a long-running series like this (which must have amounted to roughly 39-40 tapes). Long-runners must have also tied up a lot of capital to keep a deep inventory on the off-chance that someone would want to pick up - say - tape 23 in the run. Our Price even set up a chain of stores just selling tapes... although they didn't last for more than a few years
The Three Episode format was unusual for the run. All the previous tapes had included two episodes (which roughly equate, duration-wise, to a short movie) but, because of the odd number of episodes in the original series (79), they either had to chance releasing a tape with just one episode (although surely they could have padded it out with some documentaries or other filler from the vaults) or chuck three episodes onto a longer tape. I don't recall whether they bumped up the price for this one... maybe by a couple of quid.
Prior to the coming of Amazon, Play.com and others, shops needed a lot of shelf space to carry a long-running series like this (which must have amounted to roughly 39-40 tapes). Long-runners must have also tied up a lot of capital to keep a deep inventory on the off-chance that someone would want to pick up - say - tape 23 in the run. Our Price even set up a chain of stores just selling tapes... although they didn't last for more than a few years
Wednesday, 14 June 2017
1996: THE ADVENTURES OF SNAKE PLISSKEN AND MARVEL PRESENTS PARAMOUNT COMICS
From late 1996 (with a January 1997 cover date): THE ADVENTURES OF SNAKE PLISSKEN, another 'non-core' (IE non-STAR TREK) offering from the MARVEL PRESENTS PARAMOUNT COMICS imprint.
It was, of course, a spin-off from ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK and the belated 1996 follow-up ESCAPE FROM L.A.
This was another one-shot. The line was active from 1996-98 before ending during the Marvel bankruptcy. Management probably decided that the benefits of being allied to a major studio (they were probably hoping that paramount would eventually step in and buy the publisher) wasn't sufficient compared to soft sales and high licensing costs at a time when Marvel were scalling back their output and their bloated cost base, alongside selling (sometimes at knockdown prices) parts of the over-extended business.
The core of the MPPC line were the various STAR TREK titles, unifying a franchise that had previously been split between DC Comics (Star Trek and STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION) and (now Marvel owned) Malibu Comics (DS9 and Voyager, although it never appeared under their banner). Marvel kick-started things with an X-Men crossover (this was a time when such stunts still created a 'huh?' reaction) and then ploughed forward with a whole bunch of ongoing Trek books. Amongst the least obvious: THE EARLY VOYAGES (starring the crew from the unsold pilot 'The Cage'); UNTOLD VOYAGES (filling in that murky period after ST: TMP) and STARFLEET ACADEMY. VOYAGER and DEEP SPACE NINE had their own ongoing series but TOS and TNG were shoehorned into a bumper-length UNLIMITED book. Various one-shots helped pad out the schedule.
The line ran into trouble pretty quick, probably partly because Marvel had flooded a weak market with too much product. Trek had been a good - but not great - seller for its previous publishers and there is no reason to think that more franchise fans would have started buying the Marvel version. Marvel's cash-strapped status also made it far less willing to support 'vanity' projects that it didn't own outright and couldn't bank all the cash. Some of the more marginal titles were shuttered after fairly short runs and replacements didn't appear.
Another problem, perennial with licensed titles, was getting studio sign-off promptly enough to stick to a publishing schedule. The biggest problems lay with the shows that were still in production because they still had active creative teams working on the lot. Marvel's solution was to close the ongoing DS9 and Voyager books and replace them with a series of back-to-back mini-series which could be planned and prepared further in advance of press dates to build in a bigger contingency for West Coast delays.
Plan B didn't have time to play out before Marvel ditched the line completely. The last titles of ongoing books to appear had June (Early Voyages, Starfleet Academy) or July 1998 (Unlimited) cover dates. Starfleet Academy, at 19 issues, was the longest-lived of the line numerically.
The end of the line, and the state of the market, meant that Marvel didn't get any trade paperback collections out the door. IDW have reissued some material in book form but the bulk - at the moment - have never been reprinted. The current series of hardback reprints will - one assumes - get to this stuff eventually (they've done an Early Voyages edition thus far) but they have been much more willing to publish recent IDW series (probably because they are technically of a higher standard and require less production work to ready them for print) than dip into the DC or MPPC vaults.
Probably the line's greatest claim-to-fame? Publishing an issue of DS9 in Klingon. With an English 'translation' also available. Make sure you buy the right copy when diving into the 50p bins!
Like the previous MIGHTY HEROES post, Snake Plissken was a MPPC title that I had no idea even existed until I stumbled across a copy in a 50p box.
It was, of course, a spin-off from ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK and the belated 1996 follow-up ESCAPE FROM L.A.
This was another one-shot. The line was active from 1996-98 before ending during the Marvel bankruptcy. Management probably decided that the benefits of being allied to a major studio (they were probably hoping that paramount would eventually step in and buy the publisher) wasn't sufficient compared to soft sales and high licensing costs at a time when Marvel were scalling back their output and their bloated cost base, alongside selling (sometimes at knockdown prices) parts of the over-extended business.
The core of the MPPC line were the various STAR TREK titles, unifying a franchise that had previously been split between DC Comics (Star Trek and STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION) and (now Marvel owned) Malibu Comics (DS9 and Voyager, although it never appeared under their banner). Marvel kick-started things with an X-Men crossover (this was a time when such stunts still created a 'huh?' reaction) and then ploughed forward with a whole bunch of ongoing Trek books. Amongst the least obvious: THE EARLY VOYAGES (starring the crew from the unsold pilot 'The Cage'); UNTOLD VOYAGES (filling in that murky period after ST: TMP) and STARFLEET ACADEMY. VOYAGER and DEEP SPACE NINE had their own ongoing series but TOS and TNG were shoehorned into a bumper-length UNLIMITED book. Various one-shots helped pad out the schedule.
The line ran into trouble pretty quick, probably partly because Marvel had flooded a weak market with too much product. Trek had been a good - but not great - seller for its previous publishers and there is no reason to think that more franchise fans would have started buying the Marvel version. Marvel's cash-strapped status also made it far less willing to support 'vanity' projects that it didn't own outright and couldn't bank all the cash. Some of the more marginal titles were shuttered after fairly short runs and replacements didn't appear.
Another problem, perennial with licensed titles, was getting studio sign-off promptly enough to stick to a publishing schedule. The biggest problems lay with the shows that were still in production because they still had active creative teams working on the lot. Marvel's solution was to close the ongoing DS9 and Voyager books and replace them with a series of back-to-back mini-series which could be planned and prepared further in advance of press dates to build in a bigger contingency for West Coast delays.
Plan B didn't have time to play out before Marvel ditched the line completely. The last titles of ongoing books to appear had June (Early Voyages, Starfleet Academy) or July 1998 (Unlimited) cover dates. Starfleet Academy, at 19 issues, was the longest-lived of the line numerically.
The end of the line, and the state of the market, meant that Marvel didn't get any trade paperback collections out the door. IDW have reissued some material in book form but the bulk - at the moment - have never been reprinted. The current series of hardback reprints will - one assumes - get to this stuff eventually (they've done an Early Voyages edition thus far) but they have been much more willing to publish recent IDW series (probably because they are technically of a higher standard and require less production work to ready them for print) than dip into the DC or MPPC vaults.
Probably the line's greatest claim-to-fame? Publishing an issue of DS9 in Klingon. With an English 'translation' also available. Make sure you buy the right copy when diving into the 50p bins!
Like the previous MIGHTY HEROES post, Snake Plissken was a MPPC title that I had no idea even existed until I stumbled across a copy in a 50p box.
Tuesday, 30 May 2017
STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE VHS COVER: VOLUME 1 - EMISSARY
From the VHS years: The first STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE VHS tape, released by CIC Video here in the UK.
This one, naturally, has the feature-length opening episode. The rest of the run, spanning all seven seasons, settled down to the familiar two-episodes-per-tape formula already nailed by the TOS and TNG ranges. Which was A LOT of tapes. And worth noting that if a two-part story (either within a season or bridging two seasons) just happened to span two tapes then that's exactly how CIC would release them. So you had to buy two tapes to get the conclusion. It would be tempting to think that the producers were told to structure their seasons to increase the chances of this happening... but overseas video releases were probably low on their list of priorities.
DS9, like many Treks, suffered from an underwhelming first few seasons before ramping up to be amongst the best the small-screen franchise ever offered thanks to its complicated multi-season storylines. Influenced, whether they like to admit it or not, by a very similar space station also based in the LA area.
This one, naturally, has the feature-length opening episode. The rest of the run, spanning all seven seasons, settled down to the familiar two-episodes-per-tape formula already nailed by the TOS and TNG ranges. Which was A LOT of tapes. And worth noting that if a two-part story (either within a season or bridging two seasons) just happened to span two tapes then that's exactly how CIC would release them. So you had to buy two tapes to get the conclusion. It would be tempting to think that the producers were told to structure their seasons to increase the chances of this happening... but overseas video releases were probably low on their list of priorities.
DS9, like many Treks, suffered from an underwhelming first few seasons before ramping up to be amongst the best the small-screen franchise ever offered thanks to its complicated multi-season storylines. Influenced, whether they like to admit it or not, by a very similar space station also based in the LA area.
Thursday, 25 May 2017
1991: PERSONALITY PRESENTS: THE ORIGINAL CREW - JAMES DOOHAN
From December 1991: STAR TREK's James Doohan gets the PERSONALITY COMICS bio treatment in this issue of THE ORIGINAL CREW comic book profiles...
Friday, 19 May 2017
STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION VIDEO COVER
From VHSville: CBS released the first trailer for the new STAR TREK DISCOVERY TV show yesterday... and fandom of course went into meltdown. Rather than just be chuffed that what was essentially a dead TV franchise (and not doing that well at the movies either) is being revived with what looks like a whopping budget, they decided to fixate on having to pay a few dollars-per-month to watch the show on the CBS streaming video platform in the States (it will be on Netflix in other markets) and debating why the show - set before the Kirk/ Spock era doesn't look more like 'The Cage'.
The first gripe seems to be that they have never had to pay for Trek before (except for the tapes, discs, books, comics, action figures, magazines, movie tickets and a million other bits of merchandise) so why should they start paying now? They don't seem to understand that the TV marketplace has changed and that Trek, frankly, exhausted, the old routes to air by being squeezed out of first-run syndication (partly because previously independent stations were turning over their airtime to new webs like UPN and CW and partly because Paramount had flooded the market with reruns of the other series in the franchise) and then network TV (UPN, despite all the problems at the ownership level and the frequently changing programming priorities, did stand behind Trek for over a decade) when UPN and WB finally merged after a decade of slugging it out in an ever-shrinking fish pond.
CBS is using Trek to drive recognition and uptake to their new subscription service. Broadcasters know that linear broadcasting is going to be a game of diminishing returns from now on and they need to stake a claim in the new world order or risk a few big players controling the content and the business deals. Filling 24-hours of broadcast content is looking increasingly like hard work when you can concentrate cash and resources into fewer titles, that punch harder, which viewers can dip into whenever they want.
Fans should be celebrating that Trek is coming back to TV... and that CBS is willing to bet the farm by using it as a cornerstone for their new venture. Trek has a bold tradition in leading broadcasting innovation. Paramount pondered launching their own TV network in the late Seventies (that ultimately went nowhere when the advertising sums didn't add up) prior to STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE; again when they used TNG to open up the syndication market to first-run quality drama and yet again when Trek anchored their UPN venture with Chris-Craft in an attempt to get into the network business to avoiud being squeezed out by legislation that allowed - for the first time in decades - the network's to own the shows they aired.
So... here is a fairly random STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION VHS cover from back in the day when British fans had to pay over a fiver per episode to get the latest episodes or wait months (or years) for them to appear on Sky One (subscription alert!) or BBC TWO.
As for the second... Yup, it would make perfect sense to make the cutting edge remake look like a 50+ year old show.
The first gripe seems to be that they have never had to pay for Trek before (except for the tapes, discs, books, comics, action figures, magazines, movie tickets and a million other bits of merchandise) so why should they start paying now? They don't seem to understand that the TV marketplace has changed and that Trek, frankly, exhausted, the old routes to air by being squeezed out of first-run syndication (partly because previously independent stations were turning over their airtime to new webs like UPN and CW and partly because Paramount had flooded the market with reruns of the other series in the franchise) and then network TV (UPN, despite all the problems at the ownership level and the frequently changing programming priorities, did stand behind Trek for over a decade) when UPN and WB finally merged after a decade of slugging it out in an ever-shrinking fish pond.
CBS is using Trek to drive recognition and uptake to their new subscription service. Broadcasters know that linear broadcasting is going to be a game of diminishing returns from now on and they need to stake a claim in the new world order or risk a few big players controling the content and the business deals. Filling 24-hours of broadcast content is looking increasingly like hard work when you can concentrate cash and resources into fewer titles, that punch harder, which viewers can dip into whenever they want.
Fans should be celebrating that Trek is coming back to TV... and that CBS is willing to bet the farm by using it as a cornerstone for their new venture. Trek has a bold tradition in leading broadcasting innovation. Paramount pondered launching their own TV network in the late Seventies (that ultimately went nowhere when the advertising sums didn't add up) prior to STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE; again when they used TNG to open up the syndication market to first-run quality drama and yet again when Trek anchored their UPN venture with Chris-Craft in an attempt to get into the network business to avoiud being squeezed out by legislation that allowed - for the first time in decades - the network's to own the shows they aired.
So... here is a fairly random STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION VHS cover from back in the day when British fans had to pay over a fiver per episode to get the latest episodes or wait months (or years) for them to appear on Sky One (subscription alert!) or BBC TWO.
As for the second... Yup, it would make perfect sense to make the cutting edge remake look like a 50+ year old show.
Monday, 15 May 2017
1991: STAR TREK PERSONALITY COMICS: DEFOREST KELLY
From October 1991: DeForest Kelly gets the unauthorised STAR TREK PERSONALITY COMICS once over. Bet he was chuffed.
Thursday, 11 May 2017
1986: THE DC STAR TREK COMIC CELEBRATES 20 YEARS OF TREKKIN' IN STARLOG MAGAZINE
From 1986: More STARLOG MAGAZINE salutes to the STAR TREK spin-offs during the 20th anniversary year. This time: the first run of the DC Comics series....
Tuesday, 9 May 2017
1986: THE STAR TREK NOVELS REVIEWED
From 1986: Remember when you could fit all the STAR TREK paperbacks on one bookcase? Remember when you actually had time to read - and remember - them? Remember when they were still an event rather than fodder to feed the cash cow (no disrespect intended to any author who was part of the Trek book machine)?
I get the impression that sanity (dictated as much by the decline of the franchise as the introduction of Trek book rationing) has returned to the publishing line in recent years (although since the closure of TV ZONE and the like I feel less informed on the matter) but the 1990s were certainly a crazy time with every version of the screen Treks (and a few that were non-screen bolt-ons to he bolt-ons) flooding the market with paperbacks and hardbacks. Often in multi-book arcs just to keep the punters coming back.
But back when STAR TREK was celebrating twenty years on the screen things were a lot more simple. There were no multiple shows. Pocket Books hadn't figured out how to floof the market. Here is a STARLOG MAGAZINE look back at the novels published up until that point...
I get the impression that sanity (dictated as much by the decline of the franchise as the introduction of Trek book rationing) has returned to the publishing line in recent years (although since the closure of TV ZONE and the like I feel less informed on the matter) but the 1990s were certainly a crazy time with every version of the screen Treks (and a few that were non-screen bolt-ons to he bolt-ons) flooding the market with paperbacks and hardbacks. Often in multi-book arcs just to keep the punters coming back.
But back when STAR TREK was celebrating twenty years on the screen things were a lot more simple. There were no multiple shows. Pocket Books hadn't figured out how to floof the market. Here is a STARLOG MAGAZINE look back at the novels published up until that point...
Friday, 28 April 2017
1988: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA DIRECTOR RICHARD A. COLLA TALKS TO STARLOG MAGAZINE... BUT DOESN'T MENTION GETTING SACKED!
From 1988: TV veteran Richard A. Colla discusses his life in SF TV with STARLOG MAGAZINE... including his stint directing (most of) the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA pilot episode (and faux feature film) SAGA OF A STAR WORLD.
A quick re-read of the interview is interesting.... He doesn't seem to mention that he had an almighty bust-up with Glen Larson during the shooting of Saga and was fired from the project before principal photography was completed. According to other accounts, there was only four days left on the schedule when he was replaced.
His uncredited successor was another small-screen trooper Alan J. Levi. Larson had already booked him to deliver the next story to shoot, the two-part Hoth alike (but shot more than six months before filming started on EMPIRE) GUN ON ICE PLANET ZERO. Levi was dragged in early to pick up where Colla was forced to leave off.
The reason for the sacking? Colla claims Larson was interferring too much with the filming and a succession of minor disagreements eventually escalated into his dismissal. I'm sure Iove seen Larson claim he has let go because the shoot was too far behind schedule and costing too much. I suspect both are probably close to the truth. The sheer amount of shot-but-never-used footage for the opener (see the DVD and BR releases) is a sure sign that, behnd-the-scenes, the decision-making process was a little murkey.
Trivia of the day: Directing TV pilots can be a lucrative business. If the show sells and goes to series, the original director continues to recieve a per-episode payment for establishing the initial look-and-feel of the show (including key elements like casting, costume etc). So, even if the director is never invited back (or doesn't want to go back), they'll continue to profit from the success.
A quick re-read of the interview is interesting.... He doesn't seem to mention that he had an almighty bust-up with Glen Larson during the shooting of Saga and was fired from the project before principal photography was completed. According to other accounts, there was only four days left on the schedule when he was replaced.
His uncredited successor was another small-screen trooper Alan J. Levi. Larson had already booked him to deliver the next story to shoot, the two-part Hoth alike (but shot more than six months before filming started on EMPIRE) GUN ON ICE PLANET ZERO. Levi was dragged in early to pick up where Colla was forced to leave off.
The reason for the sacking? Colla claims Larson was interferring too much with the filming and a succession of minor disagreements eventually escalated into his dismissal. I'm sure Iove seen Larson claim he has let go because the shoot was too far behind schedule and costing too much. I suspect both are probably close to the truth. The sheer amount of shot-but-never-used footage for the opener (see the DVD and BR releases) is a sure sign that, behnd-the-scenes, the decision-making process was a little murkey.
Trivia of the day: Directing TV pilots can be a lucrative business. If the show sells and goes to series, the original director continues to recieve a per-episode payment for establishing the initial look-and-feel of the show (including key elements like casting, costume etc). So, even if the director is never invited back (or doesn't want to go back), they'll continue to profit from the success.
Thursday, 13 April 2017
1976: STARLOG MAGAZINE ISSUE 1
From August 1976: the very first issue of multi-decade Geek magazine mainstay (and regular source of posts for Starlogged) STARLOG.
The (really nice) cover art says it all: this was concieved as a less-than-official STAR TREK magazine to cash-in on the ongoing reruns in first-run syndication. But the lawyers pointed-out that Paramount would sue if it was too obviously a Trek tie-in. So packing out the pages with other SF (pre-STAR WARS) was the best way of staying legit.
And thus an empire (which - from the early 1980s onwards - did include officially licensed Trek mags) was spawned....
The (really nice) cover art says it all: this was concieved as a less-than-official STAR TREK magazine to cash-in on the ongoing reruns in first-run syndication. But the lawyers pointed-out that Paramount would sue if it was too obviously a Trek tie-in. So packing out the pages with other SF (pre-STAR WARS) was the best way of staying legit.
And thus an empire (which - from the early 1980s onwards - did include officially licensed Trek mags) was spawned....
Tuesday, 11 April 2017
1992: STAR TREK UK COMIC ISSUE 5
From July 1992: The fifth issue of the mostly-forgotten (it seems) British STAR TREK comic which slotted into the gap between MARVEL UK cancelling their NEXT GEN comic/ magazine and Titan stepping in with the launch of the their long-running mag (which did - initially - include some reprinted strip material).
This incarnation reprinted US strips from DC's first run, slotting new adventures into the gaps between the movies post-Khan.
The same publisher was also responsible for the FINAL FRONTIER magazine (which started out as a vehicle for Trek-related STARLOG reprints before collapsing into a combination of not-supplied-by-the-studio stills and mail order adverts for merchandise) and a companion NEXT GENERATION comic (also reprinting DC material) which, from memory, collapsed after only a few issues despite the show having high profile slots on both terrestrial and satellite TV at the time.
This incarnation reprinted US strips from DC's first run, slotting new adventures into the gaps between the movies post-Khan.
The same publisher was also responsible for the FINAL FRONTIER magazine (which started out as a vehicle for Trek-related STARLOG reprints before collapsing into a combination of not-supplied-by-the-studio stills and mail order adverts for merchandise) and a companion NEXT GENERATION comic (also reprinting DC material) which, from memory, collapsed after only a few issues despite the show having high profile slots on both terrestrial and satellite TV at the time.
Monday, 3 April 2017
1980: STAR TREK THE MAGAZINE ADVERT
From August 1980: a fanzine ad for STAR TREK THE MAGAZINE.
I don't know much about this one... despite the official-sounding title I suspect this was actually a fanzine. It's a UK address on the advert but they may have simply been acting as agents for a US publisher. Paramount's lawyers may have turned a blind eye to fandom (it did keep reruns of the show on the air and movies in theatres) but I think a title that grand was probably a step too far, especially if it stopped the studio signing a commercial deal with a real publisher.
i assume it is not to be confused with TREK, the seldom-seen fanzine that spawned the series of paperback books collecting articles from the 'zine throughout the 1980s. They were once certain secondhand bookstore fodder but seem to have become a lot rarer in the wild over the last decade or so.
I don't know much about this one... despite the official-sounding title I suspect this was actually a fanzine. It's a UK address on the advert but they may have simply been acting as agents for a US publisher. Paramount's lawyers may have turned a blind eye to fandom (it did keep reruns of the show on the air and movies in theatres) but I think a title that grand was probably a step too far, especially if it stopped the studio signing a commercial deal with a real publisher.
i assume it is not to be confused with TREK, the seldom-seen fanzine that spawned the series of paperback books collecting articles from the 'zine throughout the 1980s. They were once certain secondhand bookstore fodder but seem to have become a lot rarer in the wild over the last decade or so.
Tuesday, 21 March 2017
1994: STAR TREK GENERATIONS IN 2000AD PROG 928
From February 1994: The Mighty One shamelessly chases the notoriously free-spending (in those days) STAR TREK fans with this STAR TREK GENERATIONS cover and competition.
Monday, 20 March 2017
1988: TITAN BOOKS ADVERT FOR STAR TREK AND BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
From September 1988: Titan Books promote their growing STAR TREK line of paperbacks and large format titles (published under license from Pocket Books here in the UK) and their brief daliance with BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.
The latter was timed to make the most of the BBC TWO repeat run, the first time that the show had been networked (after ITV scheduled it on a station-by-station basis) in the UK. The BBC skipped, the rights reasons, the three-hour opener and the two-part The Living Legend. The following episode, Fire In Space (which also formed the second theatrical movie MISSION GALACTICA: THE CYLON ATTACK) was scheduled but had to be pulled at the last minute because it coincided with the aftermath of the King's Cross fire disaster.
Titan's publishing schedule consisted of new editions of the first three paperbacks originally published in the late Seventies (adapting Saga of a Star World, The Gun On Ice Planet Zero and Lost Planet of the Gods). All of which were frequent secondhand bookshop fodder at the time and quite easy to track down, albeit sometimes in a well read condition. Sales obviously weren't great because Titan didn't crack on with new editions of the rest of the US titles, which was a shame as the rest of the run were a darn sight harder to find on this side of the Atlantic.
The latter was timed to make the most of the BBC TWO repeat run, the first time that the show had been networked (after ITV scheduled it on a station-by-station basis) in the UK. The BBC skipped, the rights reasons, the three-hour opener and the two-part The Living Legend. The following episode, Fire In Space (which also formed the second theatrical movie MISSION GALACTICA: THE CYLON ATTACK) was scheduled but had to be pulled at the last minute because it coincided with the aftermath of the King's Cross fire disaster.
Titan's publishing schedule consisted of new editions of the first three paperbacks originally published in the late Seventies (adapting Saga of a Star World, The Gun On Ice Planet Zero and Lost Planet of the Gods). All of which were frequent secondhand bookshop fodder at the time and quite easy to track down, albeit sometimes in a well read condition. Sales obviously weren't great because Titan didn't crack on with new editions of the rest of the US titles, which was a shame as the rest of the run were a darn sight harder to find on this side of the Atlantic.
Monday, 13 March 2017
1993: THE OFFICIAL STAR TREK FAN CLUB OF THE UK MAGAZINE ISSUE 1
From the summer of '93: the first issue of THE OFFICIAL STAR TREK FAN CLUB OF THE UK magazine, dedicated almost entirely to STAR TREK DEEP SPACE NINE (as well as, borrowing from the US club, an extensive mail order section for punters to order assorted Trek tat direct from the club).
I don't know much about the history of this one although I seem to recall that the club (or a different incarnation of it) was plugged heavily a few years later in the Titan magazine (indeed I have a vague memory that Titan may have had the license to run the club at some point).
This is, for me, another exampe of the sheer abundance of different Trek magazines, albeit with slightly different distribution routes (I don't recall ever seeing this one, unlike the American version, on sale in any retail outlets and I'm not sure if the cover price is intended to create the illusion of value or whether this did sneak into stores) that were compeating for the attention - and cash - of Trek fans during the Nineties boom in both the franchise and publishing.
I don't know much about the history of this one although I seem to recall that the club (or a different incarnation of it) was plugged heavily a few years later in the Titan magazine (indeed I have a vague memory that Titan may have had the license to run the club at some point).
This is, for me, another exampe of the sheer abundance of different Trek magazines, albeit with slightly different distribution routes (I don't recall ever seeing this one, unlike the American version, on sale in any retail outlets and I'm not sure if the cover price is intended to create the illusion of value or whether this did sneak into stores) that were compeating for the attention - and cash - of Trek fans during the Nineties boom in both the franchise and publishing.
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