The Starlog Project: Starlog #75, October 1983: Excuse Me While I Change into Something a Little More Comfortable

This is a real year of transformation for Starlog. Multiple changes in paper quality, page count, amount of color, etc. And this is the last issue of the current, 74-page iteration. Next issue, of course, is another special 100-page movie review issue. But after that, things change again (don't worry, it's for better).

Starlog #75
74 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $2.95

The 11th "Starlog Science Fiction Classic" is another current film, Twilight Zone the Movie, so it's by definition not a classic (at least not as of September-October 1983). In fact, this issue even has an article on the movie's premiere, so how can it be a classic? Or am I just tilting at windmills ...

The rundown: Kerry O'Quinn's From the Bridge column responds to a reader's letter concerning getting a job at Starlog (short answer: do something else first); reader letters in Communications include lots of fallout from Ed Naha's column in issue #69 regarding the anti-nuke film The Day After (correspondents include former Starlog editor David Houston, who defends nuclear weapons as a necessary deterrent against communism), reader praise for David Gerrold's A Matter for Men, lots of conflicting views of the V mini-series, and more; Log Entries short news includes the cessation of sister magazine Comics Scene's short life, a sneak peek at Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, short obituaries for James F. Butterfield and Art Cruickshank, a nice one-page report on the progress of the unmanned space probe Pioneer 10, and more.

Richard Schenkman interviews Barbara Carrera, who plays Fatima Blush in the Bond film Never Say Never Again; Paul Mandell contributes the first part of his retrospective of 1950s Superman George Reeves' work; Lenny Kaye's Space Age Games column continues his look at arcade games; Lee Goldberg profiles "The Forgotten James Bond," George Lazenby, and includes a sidebar on Barry Nelson, "The First James Bond"; Sal Manna interviews the great Ralph McQuarrie and showcases his color concept illustrations from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi; David McDonnell interviews John Lithgow about his work in the Twilight Zone movie, The World According to Garp, Blow Out, and more; Steve Swires wraps up his two-part interview with outspoken screenwriter Lorenzo Semple, Jr. (who includes a mea culpa for the Flash Gordon film); Starlog reports on the world premiere of Twilight Zone the Movie in Rod Serling's hometown, with reporting by Robert Greenberger and photos by Deborah Upton; Don McGregor concludes his two-part interview with Bond titles creator Maurice Binder; it's definitely an issue for conclusions: David Gerrold concludes his four-part excerpt of his groundbreaking novel A Matter for Men, and he pens an introduction while Alex Nino provides the illustrations (including the final, full-page, full-color one); Ed Naha interviews actress Nancy Allen; and Howard Zimmerman uses his Lastword column to report on some of the controversy over Return of the Jedi, and he complains that the Hugo awards have no category in which Starlog can be recognized.

"What [George] Lucas said was that he personally will not be producing or directing [further Star Wars films]. He has already written the outlines to the two remaining trilogies. No matter how far removed he may be from the daily, on-line production, rest assured that Star Wars chapters one, two, three, seven, eight and nine will still be true to Lucas' vision."

--Howard Zimmerman, editor, Lastword

To view previous Starlog issue descriptions, click on "Starlog Internet Archive Project" in the keywords below or visit the Starlog Project's permanent home.