Filmfax #45: Your Weekend Cool Magazine Cover

It's Buster Crabbe and the original film Flash Gordon. Enjoy.

The Starlog Project: Starlog #41, December 1980: A Flashy Flash

Milestones this issue: Robert Greenberger (future founding editor of Starlog's Comics Scene magazine), joins the staff as a production assistant; Susan Adamo graduates from an associate editor to the magazine's managing editor; David Houston, who'd dropped off the staffbox last issue, returns to join the columnist list; however, science columnist Jonathan Eberhart is no longer listed -- we've seen the last of his Interplanetary Excursions, Inc., column. No matter how much Isaac Asimov liked it. Also, the magazine prints its postal statement of ownership and circulation in a more timely manner, a couple months earlier in the year than it did it last time (February 1980). The paid circulation for the issue closest to the statement's filing deadline is listed as 146,637 (up 1,000 from the previous year), including the number of paid subscriptions of 19,000 (the same as last time).

Starlog #41
68 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $2.25

Dino DeLaurentiis' big-screen re-imagining of the science-fiction/fantasy Flash Gordon takes center stage this issue. And two running controveries -- draft registration and the David Gerrold/Dorothy Fontana vs. Fred Freiberger issue -- continue burning. Meanwhile, another controversy is resolved happily.

Publisher Kerry O'Quinn's From the Bridge column covers his love for Carl Sagan's Cosmos science TV series, plus some critical feedback from readers; if you thought O'Quinn had criticial feedback in his column, turn the page to the Communications section, where there's almost a page of reader response to his editorial against the draft, plus D.C. Fontana responds to Fred Freiberger's interview; in Log Entries, short news items include first word about Outland, an update on the Heavy Metal movie, the resolution of the Star Wars - Battlestar Galactica copyright infringement war (Galactica won), Tex Avery dies, Mark Hamill and Harlan Ellison bury the hatchet, and more.

Karen E. Willson interviews Sam J. Jones about starring in the Flash Gordon movie (and the article includes a sidebar on the lawsuits over contract claims at the movie); David Gerrold's Rumblings explains why he's still bitter about how Fred Freiberger "Cloud Mind-ed" him and his work on Star Trek; Susan Adamo covers the science-fiction parody Starstruck; Steve Swires interviews director John Carpenter about Escape from New York; Bjo Trimble talks about "Running a Con for Fun and Break-Even"; Quest prints some cartoons and illustrations by a batch of readers; "Return" is a one-page poem by Howard Zimmerman, illustrated by Mark Mutchnik; David Hirsch presents a three-page photo overview of the miniature constructions used in Alien; Gerry Anderson's Space Report runs its thirtieth and final column; William Millman visits the set of The UFO Chronicles; Karen E. Willson interviews Melody Anderson, Dale Arden in Flash Gordon; Ron Goulart begins a multi-part look at "SF in the Comics," focusing on the early years of the 20th century (Up in the Air, The Explorigator, Little Nemo in Slumberland, and others); John A. Rupkalvis looks at 3-D special effects; David Houston's Visions column looks at the 1950s, the "Golden Age of Science-Fiction Television"; and Howard Zimmerman's Lastword recommends Gregory Benford's Timescape book, says farewell to Space Report, and tries to egg on readers to demand more SF comics coverage.

"[A]t the same time Mr. [Fred] Freiberger was finding himself 'a victim' of my so-called 'non-professionalism,' I was writing two Lancer scripts, two High Chaparrals, and two Big Valley scripts for apparently satisfied producers. Further, Gene Roddenberry hired me in 1973 to be Associate Producer/Story Editor for the first season of Star Trek Animated and, to my knowledge, was satisfied with my season's work."

--D.C. Fontana, letter writer, Communications

To view previous Starlog issue descriptions, click on "Starlog Internet Archive Project" in the keywords below.

Cinefantastique: Not Crazy about New Buck Rogers Director

Event Horizon's Paul WS Anderson has managed to be named director of the big-screen reboot of the Buck Rogers franchise. Cinefantastique has a short item with some more details, though the writer of the piece is clearly unimpressed with Anderson's work.

I'm not a fan of Anderson's; Event Horizon was an overhyped snooze, for example. But the previous director on the movie, Frank Miller, would not have been my ideal, either. So maybe we'll let Anderson surprise us, though this is already shaping up to be one of those movie development hell stories that goes on so long, it's anybody's guess how it'll turn out. Kind of like the last time Buck Rogers made it to the big screen (and no, I don't think that turned out well).

On the other hand, on the other hand ... While Buck fans are waiting to see what Hollywood coughs up on the carpet when it finally completes the movie, it might be a good opportunity to hunt down a copy of Armageddon 2419 A.D. This slim book contains the first two prose novellas of Buck, and it's far different from anything Glen Larson served up in the campy late-70s/early-80s series. I was frankly stunned with how racist the book was; at the end, it essentially calls for the extermination of the Chinese. So I'm not suggesting that you should read it because it's a worthwhile book, but because it might shake you to the core and make you realize that, Hell, Larson might have actually improved Buck Rogers.

Of course, experienced SF fans will be spending the next year or two rocking back and forth in their chairs muttering, Please don't let it be like the Flash Gordon movie. Please don't let it be like Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Please don't let it be like the Flash Gordon TV series ...

Flashback to Flash Gordon -- Aaaaarrrgh of the Universe

I went time-travelling this morning, reading an old copy of Future Life (#23 from December 1980 -- part of my project to read every page of that short-lived magazine). This morning I read an article about the then-upcoming Flash Gordon movie produced by none other than Dino De Laurentiis.

Writer (and former Future Life and Fangoria editor) Ed Naha noted, "... many of the fans of the [comic] strip and the science fiction genre are somewhat apprehensive about its quality; concerned by the fact that Dino De Laurentiis is producing it." Naha then quotes the production's art director, John Graysmark, who defends the film and says how much De Laurentiis "wanted it perfect."

If you've seen the film (the trailer is above), then you know it's perfect -- a perfect piece of schlock. In the Future Life article, Graysmark first takes the readers through the beginning of the story, including the ridiculous football-like action by Flash and the cheerleading by Dale Arden, and "erupts into soft laughter, 'Delightful.'"

I'm not picking on Graysmark. I think a certain amount of respect or at least understanding is due to people who spend months or years of their professional lives writing, directing, designing, acting, etc., on films, even turkeys. And the silliness of a film's story certainly isn't the art director's fault.

But this blog article also is something of a defense of film magazines (such as Starlog and Fangoria) which are sometimes accused of being cheerleaders (like Dale Arden) for films their editors haven't even seen yet, because their articles pass along the fluff statements of the interview subjects. Unless the editors have had a preview of a movie, there's no way they can tell if the interview subjects are delusional or lying, and anyone who's covered films for years knows that a film might look like a turkey or a masterpiece while it's being assembled, but it'll be bungled by a slash editing job or a studio's imposition of last-minute changes. Plus, anyone reading Graysmark's extensive preview of the movie's opening scenes got an accurate sense of what that film would be like. Let 'em make up their own minds about the film, right?

Flash simply was bad. It has its fans, and that's fine for them. I don't criticize them; I'm sure I like some films, TV programs, or books that they'd think were awful. But when I watched the trailer above, and I remembered sitting through the entire film with ever-increasing incredulity, I had to wonder why De Laurentiis, with his many millions of dollars to put into this film, couldn't make a film that was much better than the low-budget, soft-porn Flesh Gordon from the early 1970s. The Flesh trailer is below (don't worry, it's safe for work; though the film was rated X when it was released, it really would have difficulty getting an R these days, and the trailer is PG at most).

Both Flash and Flesh are bad movies, but the folks who put together the latter weren't laboring under the illusion that they were making the Next Big Thing.