Tuesday, 24 November 2015

1988: TREK VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1

From the Fall of 1988: the return of  TREK.

I've found that the fanzine TREK to be one of the most illusive of print spin-offs from the show, despite the near ubiquitous omnipresence of the paperback compilations of features that had apparently originally appeared in the floppy version. Eighteen volumes (and a couple of compilations of compilations) appeared between 1978 and 1996.

Finding anything online about the fanzine is surprisingly hard as well.

This is the only issue I have been able to find: a relaunch or revival that coincided with the return of the franchise to TV,

I saw William Shatner's new(wish) documentary CHAOS ON THE BRIDGE at the weekend. It covers the inception and early seasons of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION and the behind the scenes battles. It's candid and revealing stuff (it goes much further than the also pretty candid doc on the first season BR set) and goes a long way to revealing why those first episodes, even at the time, were so poor. Shatner's direction, especially in the edit suite, is occasionally 'odd' (too many hammy reaction shots... Possibly to hide edits) and it's hard to imagine him as an objective observer considering his own career with Roddenberry. Well worth a watch even if your not a fan of the show itself.

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5 comments:

  1. ed24 November 2015 at 18:58

    I made a similar point here recently in that fanzines or newsletters would now be much harder to come by than the regular mags.

    You can see a gallery of TREK covers here:

    http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=22090191

    and here :

    http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=trek+the+magazine&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xtrek+the+magazine+for+star+trek+fans.TRS0&_nkw=trek+the+magazine+for+star+trek+fans&_sacat=0


    Shatner's relationship with trek has been very strange down through the years. At times he seems to have had nothing but disdain for both the fans and the franchise ( does get a life ring a bell ? ) while at the same time chuRning out books and documentaries on the show . He's even bringing out a book on the late Leonard Nimoy. Captain Quirk indeed as one biography called him.


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  2. ed25 November 2015 at 19:00

    pick of this week's offerings must be the latest SFX BOOKAZINE, this one's a special on JJ ABRAMS as seen here :

    http://issuu.com/futurepublishing/docs/sfb09.issuu

    I'm certain the cover is an homage to a classic rock album but which one is it ?

    Going by the new previews catalogue , the marvel fact files seems to be extending its run once again beyond issue 150. To issue 200 perhaps ?




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    Replies
    1. SLOW ROBOT26 November 2015 at 08:08

      You are right about fanzines being far harder to find than mass market Prozines. And the same goes double for Fan Club newsletters such as the BATTLESTAR ones I posted way-back-when. I picked up a couple of Leonard Nimoy Fan Club newsletters from the 1980s recently.

      I got the new SFX SPECIAL on Tuesday. I was hoping to see a nostalgic Back-to-Back-to-the-Star-Age overview so it wasn't quite what I was expecting. I've seen some of his TV work (the pilot for ALCATRAZ was hilarious in places) and some of his movies but there's clearly a lot I'm not familiar with. I was never suckered into LOST. I will be interested to see the EMPIRE version... Maybe later today if its out. Good news that there is another CRIME SCENE coming... And hopefully another GEEKY MONKEY too.

      I'm sure the latest issue of BACK ISSUE magazine (and probably ALTER EGO too as they always seem to ship together) is now three weeks late crossing the Atlantic. I hope Diamond haven't forgotten to import them! Doh.

      I've not looked at the letters page of the latest STARBURST yet. I will be interested to see what you and others said. For me, the original reply seemed on par with using POINTS OF VIEW to launch a personal attack on one viewer who didn't like a particular BBC programme.

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    2. SLOW ROBOT26 November 2015 at 08:10

      And the MARVEL FACT FILES actually seems to have vanished. Possibly replaced by the specials. I understand new features are still being commissioned but I've not seen a new issue in the Direct Sales market for over a month. It's not unprecedented for stores to receive 2-3 issues at once... But this seems a longer than usual gap.

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  3. ed26 November 2015 at 18:31

    Ah the vagaries of the distribution market !

    Its puzzling that you haven't seen any marvel files for over a month although last week my FP did receive two together. But I haven't missed any issues and even the figurine specials can be found at street vendors when all else fails. I do hope that we continue to get BACK ISSUE as its such a great mag. Again, there was a recent example where two issues seemed to come out only a few weeks apart so maybe they were back - ordered in the Diamond system. This can happen with a lot of titles. Predictably, the new issue of EMPIRE is late to the shops with six star wars covers to choose from plus a limited edition with action figure, only available at Sainsbury's.

    Good hunting !


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