Bill & Ted's Bogus Sequel: The Starlog Project – Starlog #170, September 1991

Bill and Ted return to the big screen with Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, the sequel to the 1989 quirky surprise hit Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. The sequel was originally called Bill & Ted Go to Hell, but that title was apparently too much for the timid souls who run the film studio, so it was changed to the new bogus Bogus title.

As for the film itself ... well, when was the last time you popped it into the DVD player and watched it all the way through? Within the last 15 years? Ever?

That tells you all you need to know.

Starlog #170
84 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $4.95

Odd classified ad of the month: "THE ZOMBIE ARMY – The world's first Zombie Combat Rock Music Video Contest! 'Two thumbs OFF!' BIG SHOUT MAGAZINE. The U.S. ARMY battles Zombies head to dead! YOU could win a real Zombie Army surplus Jeep used in the movie! $28. check or MO to ..." Wonder if they got any entries.

The rundown: Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves pose with Bill Sadler (as Death) on the cover; meanwhile, because you can never get enough Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger is featured on the contents page; Communications letters include a reader complaining about science-fiction conventions and the state of genre films, another pleading to resurrect Battlestar Galactica, and more, plus Mike Fischer's creature profile is the cyborg you can't get enough of, the Terminator; and David McDonnell's Medialog column notes that not only is there a Bill & Ted animated series, but Fox is launching a live-action Bill & Ted series, proving that you can, in fact, get enough of Bill & Ted.

Michael Wolff and illustrator George Kochell examine time travel in science fiction; Bruce Gordon returns with another popular examination of the implications of the Back to the Future movies with "The Other Marty McFly Rides West"; the Fan Network pages include David Hutchison's announcement of New York's Fifth Annual Summer Festival of Fantasy, Horror & Science Fiction (which was programmed in part by Starlog contributor Tom Weaver), Lia Pelosi's fan club and publications directory, plus the convention calendar; David Hutchison's Videolog column announces a string of new releases of old Outer Limits, Amazing Stories, and Twilight Zone episodes; Kerry O'Quinn's From the Bridge column explains why heaven is in space; Bill Warren pens the cover story, talking with Bill & Ted stars Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves; and Marc Shapiro manages to interview a multi-tasking Terminator 2 director James Cameron.

Will Murray visits the set of Free-Jack, the movie that dares to bring together Mick Jagger and Emilio Estevez; Bill Wilson previews the Back to the Future ride at Universal Studios Florida; Edward Gross looks at the Quantum Leap comics; Marc Shapiro profiles actor Robert Patrick, who portrays the T-1000, the Terminator so advanced it can speak English without an accent; Edward Gross examines the original plans for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, which involved traveling back in time ... to meet Eddie Murphy (oh, and Spock had a baby with Saavik); Larry S. Barbee contributes his first article to the magazine, a look at "Shada," the only Doctor Who production to have been begun but left unfinished (due to a strike by the BBC's technical workers); in part one of a multi-part article, Mark Phillips provides "A Brief History of The Time Tunnel"; and in his Liner Notes column, editor David McDonnell goes time-tripping.

"One of the things we had in our earlier drafts [for Star Trek IV] that they took out was what happened when they first went through time. Instead of that horrible time sequence that looks like Russian science fiction, we had them using the slingshot effect around Jupiter and Mars. Also, when they first appeared in the 20th century, they were in a fog, and as they lowered, the monitors picked up all of this cheering and applause. As they come out of the fog, they find themselves over a Super Bowl game and everyone thinks it's a halftime show. Then, they cloak and disappear."

–Peter Krikes, writer, interviewed by Edward Gross: "The First Voyage Home"

For more issues, click on Starlog Internet Archive Project below or visit The Starlog Project's permanent site.