It's true that the TV show was undergoing a revival of sorts thanks to BBC VIDEO releasing the entire 52 episode run on VHS (2 episodes at a time and £10.99 per tape!) and a BBC TWO rerun which spluttered to a halt after the first season. But, an antiquated format and a niche series never looked like a winner. And, sure enough, it wasn't.
As I've posted before, VISUAL IMAGINATION (publishers of all number of magazines, most of which were guaranteed to include THE X-FILES) were doing good business with their licensed STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION POSTER MAGAZINE around this time (a license that Marvel UK had pissed away circa 1990) and maybe M-UK saw this and its companion, the DOCTOR WHO POSTER MAGAZINE, as a viable rival.
I've never been a great fan of poster magazines. They always tended to be expensive, short on content (which, of course, was rendered unreadable anyway if you actually put them on the wall) and prone to falling apart if you ever dared to look at them more than once.
The main draw here (except for the chance to have Servelan on your wall) was the original short fiction printed on the reverse. I read somewhere (the rather excellent Telos Merchandise Guide I think) that the work had originally been commissioned for a scrapped B7 annual so maybe the whole intention of the magazine was to recoup that investment before the New York head office found out.
The run lasted an ironic seven issues before vanishing (the subscription advert appeared in all seven issues suggesting the decision came as something of a surprise, probably as M-UK sliced away at its magazine department) beginning in late 1994. The cover dates go a little wonky on the first three issues, suggesting a production or distribution hiccup somewhere along the line.
I'll post the final three issues soon.
Maximum Power!
- To Be Continued -
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