The Starlog Project: Starlog #107, June 1986: Tom Cruise in Legend, Top Gun

Tom Cruise dressed as a sprite! Ray Bradbury in shorts! Don Ameche in swimming trunks!

Those are just some of the sights to see in this issue of Starlog.

Starlog #107
76 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $2.95

Okay, I never saw Ridley Scott's film Legend, so I don't know if Tom Cruise is actually a sprite or just some male forest nymph or something. But it's interesting that this issue highlights him in two roles, as Jack O' the Green from Legend and as a fighter pilot in Top Gun. It's kind of like a time-travel check-in on Cruise's career, when he was transitioning from dancing in his underwear in Risky Business to headlining tough-guy action roles.

The rundown: The cover photo is from Jim Henson's Labyrinth movie. Kerry O'Quinn's From the Bridge column shares some convention thoughts; the entire Communications section is taken up with letters responding to Harlan Ellison's comments in his two-part interview back in #100-101; Medialog includes David McDonnell's roundup of genre news (including a planned ABC TV series based on the 1976 David Bowie film The Man Who Fell to Earth – see Starlog #1), Edward Gross talks to Pierce Brosnan about playing James Bond, and Gross also chats with He-Man himself, Dolph Lundgren.

Adam Pirani quizzes producer Gale Anne Hurd about Aliens and The Terminator; the Future Life section includes Douglas Borton on meddling with genes to fight diseases, and Borton (again) on an idea by Freeman Dyson for a micro-spaceship; Randy and Jean-Marc Lofficer profile composer Alexander Courage (Star Trek); the Fan Network section includes info on Buckaroo Banzai fan activities, Max Rottersman on a phone hotline about SF industry happenings, and more; Kim Howard Johnson interviews actor Don Ameche about Cocoon and Trading Places; Adam Pirani interviews Ridley Scott, who discusses Blade Runner and Legend; Randy and Jean-Marc Lofficier interview actor Tom Cruise about Legend, with a sidebar by Anthony Timpone on Cruise's other film, Top Gun; David Hutchison lists the new genre video releases in his Videolog column; in a Comics Scene page, Daniel Dickholtz previews a new comic book, Captain Confederacy; Dennis Freeland interviews Jim Henson on Labyrinth (with a sidebar by Daniel Dickholtz talking with actress Jennifer Connelly); novelist Lawrence Watt-Evans explains his six laws of fantasy, writing this month's Other Voices guest column; Lee Goldberg talks to the screenwriters of Invaders from Mars; William Rabkin talks with writer Tom Benedek about Winter's Tale and Cocoon; Bill Feret interviews writer Jean M. Auel about Clan of the Cave Bear; Lee Goldberg interviews writer W.D. Richter (Buckaroo Banzai, Big Trouble in Little China); Randy and Jean-Marc Lofficier talk with writer/director David Engelbach about America 3000 and a never-made sequel to The Day the Earth Stood Still; William Rabkin talks with Highlander screenwriter Greg Widen; Randy and Jean-Marc Lofficier interview Doctor Who veteran Terrance Dicks; Booklog includes Thomas Arndt chatting with author Terry Brooks about his Shannara series and and Landover tales, plus obituaries for Judy-Lynn Del Rey and Frank Herbert; and editor David McDonnell wraps it all up in his Liner Notes with a few words about writers (and that photo of Bradbury in tennis shorts).

"I've never actually been asked to play James Bond. And the next question is, 'Would I like to play James Bond?' I suppose I would like to have a crack at it. It hasn't been a lifetime ambition to play James Bond, but I wish they would make up their minds one way or the other by offering it to me or giving it to someone else. Not a day goes by now without people saying, 'You're going to make a great James Bond.' But no one has ever come to me and said, 'Pierce, my dear boy, we would like you to play Jimmy Bond.' That may knock the rumor on the head, but I've been saying that now for quite a while and the rumor is still around."
–Pierce Brosnan, Medialog interview by Edward Gross: "Brosnan on Bond"

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