From December 1984: an extensive article on "V" from the pages of the oft-overlooked (and, in my experience, largely forgotten) UK magazine SPACE VOYAGER issue 12.
The Jane Badler (who I had the pleasure of briefly meeting a couple of years ago... she was really lovely and, I can honestly say, it was a dream come true) picture was the double-page spread. Rewatching the first mini-series, it's amazing to see how little she appears, and how understated her performance is, compared to the camporama of the later weekly series. It's a testament to her performance that she does both so well.
She spoke enthusiastically about her time on the ABC remake although I think she was utterly squandered on the show. She seemed to be confined to one murky CGI set throughout the second season. And, even after two seasons, I was far from clear as to what the Visitors motives and plans were... the writers seemed to be making it up as they went along... and desperately trying to avoid too many parallels with the original series. The episode where the alien masterplan seemed to consist of kidnapping people and bundling them into the back of an old van seemed to sum things up perfectly....
The SFX shot of the Visitor shuttle appeared on the magazine's back cover.
SPACE VOYAGER, as the issue's cover suggests, was one of those hybrid entertainment/ science mags (like Starlog's late-seventies FUTURE/ FUTURE LIFE) that tried to mix the serious brain-expanding stuff with TV and film coverage. That was never a good mix for me... I'm too superficial... but I'm sure there was a contingent of model-making, TV-watching scientists out there to keep the mag afloat.
I have quite a few issues of this mag but not this one so thanks for the scans. SPACE VOYAGER was later re-titled NEW VOYAGER although its a fair bet it didn't last beyond 1985.
ReplyDeleteAfter doing some online research, I can indeed confirm it ended in 1985 after 17 issues, as you can see from this blog:
ReplyDeletehttps://magazinesgeek.wordpress.com/2014/01/16/space-voyager/
The pilot or ' trial ' issue was titled SPACE VOYAGER and then from issue 1, it was re-titled NEW VOYAGER and then again from number 5, it reverted to SPACE VOYAGER. Phew !
Early issues carried the masthead of ' a MAP ( model and allied ) publication but later issues changed it to ' an Argus specialist publication '.
It also had a high turnover in editors which is never a good sign. Indeed one of the editorials admitted that the title was ' an odd creature in the magazine business ' and difficult to label. It certainly occupies a unique place in the history of uk SF mags.
Issue 12 ( seen above ) had promised a column written by Les Dawson no less ! Slow, I don't suppose you spotted him in that issue ?