David McDonnell's Starlogging Once Again

It's appropriate — both where Mr. McDonnell has reappeared and that I would note it on this blog.

David McDonnell, the longtime workaholic editor of Starlog magazine from the early 1980s to its demise in 2009, has reappeared with a column on StarTrek.com called "Starlogging with David McDonnell." As McDonnell had noted in past editorial columns of Starlog, it was he who kept up and even increased the amount of Trek coverage in the pages of the magazine, so his regular appearance on a Trek website is fitting.

And, of course, this blog has more than its share of Starlog news, issue-by-issue chronicling, and just general permeation with Starlogginess. Copyright that term.

Anyway, it's nice to see David McDonnell again.

Sci-Fi TV Arises: The Starlog Project, Starlog #201, April 1994

Starlog called this a special "Robots Issue," but it's really a special TV issue, and a good reminder from a point in history when SF TV was really establishing itself in a very big way. In early 1994, science fiction series are beginning to flourish on the small screen, especially in the syndicated market but also in the network world, where Chris Carter's The X-Files is starting its groundbreaking run.

A few months before The X-Files premiered, I was able to see the first episode thanks to a friend of mine who worked at a large advertising agency. She got a preview cassette of a different new TV show, which was what we really wanted to see; The X-Files was also included as an afterthought. I don't even remember what the other show was or if it lasted long before cancellation. But after we watched The X-Files premiere episode, we both looked at each other with surprise and said, "That was really good." And we were correct. It was.

We should note that on the upper left-hand corner of the cover, right above the "SPECIAL ROBOTS ISSUE" headline, is a photo of Star Wars' C3PO, who isn't featured in the issue. Oopski.

Starlog #201
84 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $4.95

The last two pages of this issue reprise a humorous if odd thing from issue #191: Fake trading cards of Starlog correspondents. This issue features Tom Weaver, Ian Spelling, George Kochell, Lynne Stephens, and Michael Wolff, who, when asked about "what he wants to be when he grows up," replies, "The dim face spotted at the end of a dream. Why? Because the shadows are blessed and there's treasure in a secret." Okay.

The rundown: Richard Eden, the newest actor to be RoboCop, graces the cover, while the contents page features Robert Llewelyn as Red Dwarf's Kryten. David McDonnell's Medialog rounds up the news bits, including the tidbit that RoboCop's Paul Verhoeven "may end up directing Starship Troopers," which of course happens and results in a film that in my humble opinion is far better than RoboCop. In his Gamelog column, Michael McAvennie reviews Absolute Entertainment's Star Trek: The Next Generation and others, including GURPS War Against the Chtorr, based on author (and former Starlog columnist) David Gerrold's well-received series of novels. And the Communications section ranges from a letter that almost single-handedly previews the entire SF TV landscape, to a complaint about the Sci-Fi Channel's hacking-up of genre series, as well as the final installment of cartoonist Mike Fisher's Creature Profile, this one featuring Dr. Cyclops. (In his end-of-the-book editorial column, editor McDonnell reveals that genre expert Tom Weaver provided some assistance during the 40-issue run of this comic feature.)

CBS/Fox Video unleashes some more Doctor Who episodes, according to David Hutchison's Videolog. A brand new column debuts from an old Starlog hand: former editorial staffer David Hirsch returns to the fold with Audiolog, reporting on records and CDs from SF media. Among Hirsch's many accomplishments during his years at the magazine was editing the Space Report column, which was written by producer Gerry Anderson (Space: 1999, Thunderbirds), so it's either very fitting or a case of astonishing coincidence that right next to Hirsch's inaugural column is an ad for a science fiction convention featuring Gerry Anderson. The Booklog department includes reviews of The Voyage, The Positronic Man, Under the Eye of God, The Fabulist, Nevernever, The Stalk, Brother to Shadows, Orion and the Conqueror, The Disinherited, The Woods Out Back, Firedance, The Broken God, The Outcast, Martin the Warrior, The Armageddon Inheritance, Eternal Light, The Legend of Nightfall, and Nimbus. The Fan Network pages include Marc Bernardin's listing of fan organizations, some comics, and the usual convention calendar. And former publisher Kerry O'Quinn uses his From the Bridge column to talk about NASA's attempts to regain its lost luster by creating a space station.

In another of his speculative genre overview articles (that's a category, right?), Michael Wolff sticks to the "Robots Issue" theme by looking at robotic characters in SF film and TV; illustrations are by George Kochell. One of the most famous television robots, the aptly named Robot from Lost in Space, was brought to life by actor Bob May, who tells interviewer Tom Weaver, "There was one requirement I had to meet in order to play the Robot: The outfit was almost completely built, so therefore I had to fit into it—there was no way around that!" And one of the most famous cyborgs (well, they're part robot) from television was the young Borg Hugh from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Pat Jankiewicz chats with Jonathan Del Arco, the actor who brought Hugh to life on the show as a guest star, having been unsuccessful in his screen test to portray Wesley Crusher.

Cover boy Richard Eden tells Peter Bloch-Hansen about his new gig bringing RoboCop to TV life every week. The British TV series Red Dwarf is updated in a report by Joe Nazzaro. Ian Spelling does the same for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine by talking with Siddig El Fadil. The magazine goes further back in time with a profile by Joe Nazzaro of Colin Baker, one of the 3 million British actors who portrayed Doctor Who. Tom Weaver's second article this issue is a Q&A with Kathleen Crowley, who starred in Target Earth, Curse of the Undead, Flame Barrier, and other films. Kyle Counts checks in with producer Chris Carter, who unveils his new Fox TV series The X-Files. And in his Liner Notes column, editor David McDonnell says goodbye to exiting managing editor Maureen McTigue, who's heading over to DC Comics and who was featured in the previous set of Starlog contributor trading cards. Circle of life.

"I have not read a tremendous amount of science fiction. … I wouldn't call myself a science fiction fan; when I go to the library, I don't gravitate toward the SF section. I was never a huge Star Trek fan. But I'm interested in certain types of science fiction, what people oftentimes call science fact. I prefer books that don't talk about a world in the future but rather that take human situations and play with them in a fictionalized, scientific way."
–Chris Carter, X-Files producer, interviewed by Kyle Counts, "Scientific American" 

For more, click on Starlog Project below or visit the Starlog Project's permanent site.

Another Century: The Starlog Project, Starlog 200, March 1994

Even though publishing 200 editions of a magazine is a huge achievement, it just doesn’t have the same celebratory sense of accomplishment as publishing the first 100. It’s not rational, really; magazine publishing has always been a risky business, so the longer you can keep going, the bigger the achievement.

Nonetheless, Starlog probably didn’t help itself with this special 100-page issue by basically repeating the formula of issue 100: The core of the magazine is made up of short profiles of the “200 most important people” in science fiction and fantasy. Not a bad idea, but after issue 100, not an original one, either. (It's a formula the magazine would repeat in issue #300.) The 200 referenced in that name actually refers to brief recaps of those first 100 people, then longer (though still short) profiles of VIPs 101-200.

Starlog #200
100 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $6.95

So what happened in the years since the company published Starlog 100? Quite a lot, really. The United States went from having basically three commercial broadcast networks plus public television and a smattering of cable to having four commercial networks plus public, lots of cable (including a science-fiction channel all to itself), burgeoning numbers of independent stations, and an expanding international market. All of that means there was greater demand for content, or, in the words of Hollywood money people, “product.” As a result, Starlog and other SF mags had a lot more genre programs (and movies) to write about.

Starlog itself had changed quite a bit over those 100 issues, though not as much as it had from issue 1 through 100. By March 1994, Starlog was still the core of a multi-title magazine publishing company, but many of those sister titles had changed. The page count of Starlog was higher, the cover price higher, the paper quality better, and many of the names on the masthead different – most significantly, arguably, was the departure from the company of co-founder Kerry O’Quinn, who had sold his share of the business and taken on a consultant's role.

The mid-1980s, when Starlog 100 was published, was a time when people weren’t sure where the economy was going. Things were still on an upswing from the brutal early 1980s recession, and that decade saw constant changes and uncertainty. But by the mid-1990s, when #200 was published, Starlog was in the middle of a solid decade of very low inflation (so no constant cover price increases every year or two) and apparently strong circulation and readership.

The rundown: The cover is a shiny standout that probably caught eyes on the newsstand, so in that sense, it might be a success. But as a well-designed cover, it just doesn’t make it; the Starlog logo is hard to see, the photos at the bottom of the cover aren’t the people listed right above the photos who are interviewed inside; and the background really serves no purpose other than to catch the eye – it’s not as if it’s a science-fictiony design. It’s just shiny. As for the contents page, it’s actually kind of cool: a large Frank Frazetta Barsoom painting sprawls over one full page and edges onto the next.

David McDonnell kicks off the celebratory section with an introduction to the 200 most etc., etc., etc. First we get the brief overviews of the first 100 folks; then begins the many, many pages devoted to the second 100 people, which fills up much of the remainder of the magazine, interspersed with a few normal articles (about which more in a moment).

There are some obvious choices on the 100 new additions to this list, of course, but the real pleasure of going through the profiles is finding people about whom you know nothing; never heard of them. For example, before you read the following name, August W. Derleth, had you ever heard of him? Before re-examining this issue, neither had I. But I was pleased to find that he came from my former home state of Wisconsin and was something of a pioneering editor, publisher, and writer. So I immediately began looking for his work and for information about him online. Philip Wylie, Arch Oboler, and John P. Fulton are other names on the list that might have sparked an interest among other readers. Taken together, this list can help enrich your appreciation of the history and breadth of science fiction and fantasy.

There can be an endless but sometimes fun game played with the list of the genre’s most important people. Who deserved to be on the list but was left off? I would add Starlog’s own former columnist David Gerrold, for one. Or you can go negative and ask who was on the list but shouldn’t be.

Such lists are inherently subjective, of course, but if they’re done well, they can burnish the publication’s authority. One of Starlog’s assets through much of its life was its assumed role as a standard-bearer of establishment SF; it helped define important topics, trends, and people. So, even with my basic skepticism about featuring a big list for a second time in Starlog’s every-100-issues tradition, the editors and writers have acquitted themselves well.

In other content this issue, Kerry O’Quinn uses his From the Bridge column to recount a speech he gave to a Mexican university, where he found a lot of Starlog readers. Stan Nicholls interviews longtime Starlog favorite Arthur C. Clarke, who discusses his latest novel, The Hammer of God, and some of his other works, including the Rama books. Bill Warren profiles filmmaker Joe Dante, who talks at length about the craze for remakes (and big-screen reinventions of old TV shows). And Kim Howard Johnson talks with director Terry Gilliam about films – live action and animated.

Marc Shapiro checks in with producer Gale Anne Hurd about Penal Colony, though she also discusses her work on Aliens and the Terminator series. James Mitchell contributes his first Starlog article, an interview with filmmaker Tim Burton; they discuss Batman, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Cabin Boy, and his upcoming Ed Wood, among other projects. Stan Nicholls talks with writer/editor/science-evangelist Ben Bova. And another first-time contributor, J. Stephen Bolhafner, interviews author William Gibson, who talks all things cyberpunk (including his experiences with and about Billy Idol).

“[L]ife was almost wiped out on our planet many times in the past, most recently 65 million years ago, give or take a week. The current thinking is that a large meteor or comet hit the Earth, causing an ecological catastrophe–the dinosaurs and three-quarters of all other species on land, sea and air were destroyed. Now, there are lots of craters on Mars, including one so big it’s not called a crater, it’s the Plain of helos. It’s 1,000 kilometers across. If something that large hit Mars, it might very well have destroyed any life there by blowing away the atmosphere. Whatever it was sent out a shock wave so powerful that it liquified the rock as it went through. Imagine sitting down to tea when THAT happened!”
–Ben Bova, interviewed by Stan Nicholls: “The Promise of Space”

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

The Shatner Revival: The Starlog Project, Starlog 199, February 1994

William Shatner never really went away, of course. Before Star Trek, he had a long and varied career that included Shakespeare and more; after Trek, he acted in other movies (Trek and non-) and even starred in another prime time television show in the 1980s called T.J. Hooker. But in the mid-1990s, Shatner came back in a way that established himself as an immortal, or at least someone who clearly was going to be around a long time.

When he launched his Tekwar books, they were always likely multimedia candidates, and this issue Starlog highlights the Greg Evigan-starring television movies (it had already been translated into comics). Before the Tek wave had gone, it would also spawn a short-lived TV series and a video game.

There are lots of actors and other creative folks who have late-career resurgences; their rediscovery by the general public generally lasts a cycle and then recedes. But Shatner’s is still going strong in 2012, having conquered TV, social media (he’s got more than 1.4 million followers on Google+), dot-com success (Priceline), and yet more books, TV series (winning two Emmys for his Denny Crane portrayal), and videos.

But, as I noted, Shatner never really left. Even during that time that I tend to think of as his wandering through the desert phase – the 1970s – he was busy with stage shows, films, animated television, game shows, and commercials. Yet for all of that, it is fair to consider his Tek success as the birth of Shatner as multimedia entrepreneur, a role that he continues to play with much success today.

Starlog #199
84 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $4.95

This month, Starlog publishes its official statement of ownership, management and circulation. The total paid circulation for the issue closest to the statement's filing deadline is listed as 265,192 (a giant increase over the previous year's 164,886), including the number of paid subscriptions of 9,350 (little changed from 9,675 in the last year). Why did Starlog’s circulation take off like that? Part of it might have been a distribution strategy by the publisher; the total copies printed was a whopping 610,000 (more than twice what it was in previous years), which means there were way more than 330,000 returns unsold from the newsstand. As wasteful as that seems, it was possibly driven by the new newsstand competition Starlog was preparing to face from upstarts Cinescape, Sci Fi Universe, and Sci Fi Channel magazine (later renamed Sci Fi Entertainment), all of which would debut later in 1994. Control of the newsstands was something Starlog Group was experienced in.

Random classified ad under the “Miscellaneous” banner: “HOLLYWOOD WILL BE KILLING OFF STAR TREK – BUT! Hollywood has read our ‘strong support’ petition letter and – Hollywood says yes! This particular letter would definitely ‘force’ them to reconsider – if they are flooded with them! Please sign this letter and mail it back now! Or Star Trek is dead. To receive yours, enclose a S.A.S.E. within an envelope to …” It does make you think Starlog should have raised its classified ad pricing for each additional exclamation point used.

The rundown: This month, the magazine breaks with its usual photographic cover treatments and runs the illustrated image from the Shatner epic Tekwar; meanwhile Nana Visitor in Bajoran garb takes over the contents page. In his Medialog column, David McDonnell reports that “There will be another Star Trek TV spinoff, also following the adventures of a spaceship, one with a smaller crew complement than the Enterprise (and including a Vulcan, a Klingon, and possibly some Next Generation characters.” Which reminds me of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode featuring Laserblast, in which Mike saves the SOL by taking on Captain Janeway’s persona (and clothing) and saying at one point, “I’m responsible for the lives of 148 crewmembers aboard this ship, 144 of which we never see.”

Michael McAvennie reviews MechWarrior, Traveller, Magic: The Gathering, and more in his Gamelog column. The Communications letters from readers include a super-long letter defending Star Trek: The Next Generation, among other letters, plus Mike Fisher’s Creature Profile featuring the Mummy. Books reviewed in Booklog include Star Wars: The Truce at Bakura, The Far Kingdoms, Majyk by Accident, Growing Up Weightless, Turning Point, The Longing Ring, The Callahan Touch, ViraVax, When True Night Falls, Harm’s Way, The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall, Down Among the Dead Men, Out of Time, Crashcourse, Shroud of Shadow, The Cygnet and the Firebird, Catfantastic III (yes, a collection of short stories featuring “tales … of magical, mutant and mundane cats" – it’s what people did before LOL cats websites), Into the Green, and The Well-Favored Man: The Tale of the Sorcerer’s Nephew. In Videolog, David Hutchison reports the latest video releases, including Highlander, Robinson Crusoe on Mars, and a Twilight Zone boxed set. And in Fan Network, there’s the usual listing of conventions and directory of Trek fan clubs and publications (including Star Fetch: The Fun Fan Magazine, published in my home state of Wisconsin).

Ian Spelling, Starlog’s go-to guy for Star Trek reporting, interviews Nana Visitor, one of the stars of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Her role of a Bajoran officer aboard the space station was originally going to go to Michelle Forbes, who portrayed Ensign Ro on Next Generation, but Forbes reportedly wanted a movie career rather than being tied to a series. So Visitor stepped in. Craig W. Chrissinger talks with Ashley McConnell, a novelizer of Quantum Leap stories. She gives some interesting insight into the how-tos of writing licensed novels, such as negotiating her contract almost by accident, or how much freedom the writer has to write the stories (a lot, in her case). And Bill Warren profiles actor John D’Aquino, who portrays Lt. Ben Krieg on seaQuest DSV. (My favorite pullquote from the issue is in the D’Aquino article: “I was such a boring kid that I would memorize TV Guide.”)

Veteran film scorer John Barry tells writer Tom Soter about his work on James Bond films, The Black Hole, Howard the Duck, and more. Soter writes:

[Barry] remembers 1986’s Howard the Duck with a shudder and a chuckle. “I had just finished Out of Africa with the same company, which wound up a hugely successful movie; it won all the Academy Awards. I got this mad phone call [from the film company, Universal Pictures] and they said, ‘It’s George Lucas’ movie,’ and I thought, ‘Well, a cartoon death wizard, a ridiculous thing, it just might be fantastic.’ So I said, ‘OK,’” Barry scored sequences without seeing the special FX, recalling that “I went blindly, with confidence, and I thought that [Lucas] was going to be taking care of all that. That never worked out. I still don’t know what happened. It was such an unbelievable disaster. And I never met George Lucas.” 

Peter Bloch-Hansen previews the TekWar telefilm. John Vester interviews the seemingly tireless Star Wars novelist Kevin J. Anderson. Joe Nazzaro takes a look at Sylvester McCoy, who recalls his work as Doctor Who. Pat Jankiewicz continues Starlog’s eternal quest to interview every person ever involved with the Trek franchise, this time talking to actor Jan Shutan, who guest starred as Scotty’s girlfriend in “The Lights of Zetar.” Tom Weaver profiles Billy Benedict, co-star of the Adventures of Captain Marvel serials in 1941. In his From the Bridge column, Kerry O’Quinn highlights Mario, a friend who explains his inspirations for pursuing a film career. Mark Phillips interviews Robert Hamner, who discusses his writing credits in Star Trek (original), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and others. And in his Liner Notes, editor David McDonnell lays down the law about what Starlog’s staff can and can not do for you (hint: Don’t send them your fiction stories and don’t ask them to forward a letter to your favorite actor).

“I think, for sure, all the women who came before us made a difference in how our roles were destined. I’ve been in relaionships where you’ve tried to get a man to marry you, but he’s resisting the relationship. You figure he is just not the marrying kind and you leave him. Two months later, you find out he got married to the next woman he met. That seems to be a common pattern. He needed to be comfortable with [marriage], so he could finally do it in a fresh environment. I think, maybe, in a sense, that’s what happened with Star Trek. Marina [Sirtis] and all the other women had an effect on what Terry [Farrell] and I get to do on Deep Space Nine. And I’m very grateful to them.”
–Nana Visitor, actor, interviewed by Ian Spelling, “Major Player” 

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

Buy Me on eBay ... Apparently

I actually rather enjoy finding eBay sellers who use my Starlog Project (aka the Starlog Internet Archive Project) as their descriptive text for issues of Starlog they're listing for sale. I'm pleased that the Starlog Project basically has become the go-to source for information on back issues of the late Starlog magazine.

The only annoying thing is that some of the sellers don't give credit to me or link to the Project. So I was pleased to stumble across this seller, who links prominently to my blog series. Thank you. (Then again, s/he accidentally listed the item for sale as being "Starlog Internet Archive Project: Starlog #9, October 1977: Logan's Run Spotli" which is being a little too literal and not literal enough. Thanks for the link; but people, of course, won't be buying the Starlog Internet Archive; they'll just be buying that issue of the magazine s/he has for sale.  But whatever.)

And buy it you should (said Yoda). Hey, $1.99 and free shipping? It's a deal.

Chock Full of the Nineties: The Starlog Project, Starlog #198, January 1994

If there is one consistent complaint that is lodged against Starlog in the 1990s, it is that the magazine focused too much on chasing every detail of every science fiction TV show and movie (and occasionally books), while ignoring the fan experience and other aspects of the science fiction universe. The magazine had been strongest in that regard in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when multiple columnists and the magazine’s then-co-publisher made sure the magazine spoke to the heart of science fiction fans.

Times change, of course, and one of the biggest changes from the early 1980s to the early 1990s is the tremendous growth of SF TV programs. With new television networks needing popular products – er, programs – to push, and with Star Trek: The Next Generation having established the viability of syndication for genre TV, the 1990s would see a never-ending succession of programs. We got everything from Trek spinoffs to non-Trek Roddenberry creations to entirely new efforts. That meant that Starlog had to cover this ongoing onslaught of SF TV, whether it was good, bad, or in between. 

But something else changed between the early 1980s and the early 1990s. What was once a 68-page magazine was now a 92-pager, and that meant that the magazine could have easily found space to slot in the occasional space science story or scientist interview, or run competitions that called for reader creativity, or any number of other things. The Fan Network pages, which by the mid-1990s had for years been just compilations of fan clubs and convention listings, was originally created to feature articles about creative fans, their experiences, their lives. As former managing editor Carr D’Angelo told me, the editors were under pressure from the publisher to find these interesting fan-based stories, but that task was easier said than done; it even resulted at least once in a story being published about something that had been reported years earlier in the magazine.

Even in the mid-1990s, however, Starlog still produced the occasional article outside of its usual SF TV coverage. This issue, that article is F. Colin Kingston’s guide to auctions, where fans can buy science fiction memorabilia (such as a $1,500 Cylon fighter model from the original Battlestar Galactica). Get out the credit card.

Starlog #198
92 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $4.95

Odd classified ad of the month: “GIANT WOMEN GROW HUGE in adult books, fantasies! Must state you’re over 21, & sign. $1, long SASE …”

The rundown: The cover is a mishmash of items, apparently none of them strong enough to command the cover by themselves; meanwhile, the work of artist James Bama makes one of many appearances in Starlog publications and is the sole featured illustration on the contents page. In David McDonnell’s Medialog column, the big tease begins, with rumors that a fourth Indiana Jones film is already being written (something that wouldn’t come to fruition for a decade, of course); furthermore, “George Lucas reports that the next three Star Wars films … will probably be shot simultaneously sometime before 1997.” Or maybe not. And in Gamelog, Michael McAvennie reviews Legend Entertainment’s Gateway II: Homeworld, Steve Jackson Games’ Hacker II: The Dark Side, and more.

The Communications section includes Mike Fisher’s Creature Profile of Gamera (misspelled Gammera), plus letters about the need to read, and the requisite debates over the finer points of Star Trek. Booklog reviews Christmas Forever, Tears of Time, Dealing in Futures, Alien Secrets, Heart Readers, The Hidden Realms, Fossil, The Wolf of Winter, Satellite Night Special, Godspeed, and Moving Mars. In his Videolog column, David Hutchison reveals that there’s a new home video release of the Star Wars films called Star Wars Trilogy: The Definitive Collection, which of course stayed definitive until the next collection. The Fan Network includes Marc Bernadin’s list of fan clubs, publications, and conventions. And in his From the Bridge column, the ever-social Kerry O’Quinn travels the country alone.

In a Startling Starlog Stories faux-pulp layout, Michael J. Wollf (and illustrator George Kochell) examine shows that deal with, um, brains, including a certain infamous Star Trek episode. Tom Weaver interviews Lost in Space actress June Lockhart, revealing – among other things – that she once worked at religious magazine Guideposts to gain experience in the publishing business. Today she’d just blog. Bill Warren profiles genre stalwart Ted Raimi, who was starring in seaQuest DSV at the time. And Will Murray interviews artist James Bama, who painted years of Doc Savage paperback covers, as well as some SF-themed works.

Actress Lindsay Frost (Monolith, Dead Heat, etc.) is interviewed by Pat Jankiewicz, revealing that the first money she earned on stage was “about a madam who ran a whorehouse.” So, no Star Wars, then. Craig W. Chrissinger checks in with Mike W. Barr about the new Star Trek: Deep Space Nine comic book. Rod Taylor and Alan Young reminisce about working with the great George Pal, in an article by Bill Warren. Much is made of the iconic time machine from the same-titled Pal film, and much also is made of Bob Burns, the man who ended up buying and restoring the machine. And Steve Eramo contributes his first article to Starlog, an interview with Doctor Who actor Jackie Lane, who discusses portraying Dodo Chaplet to William Hartnell’s Doctor.

F. Colin Kingston explores the hot commodities on sale on the SF memorabilia auction circuit, and he includes a how-to-bid sidebar (in those admittedly pre-eBay days). Tom Weaver interviews Michael Fox, who discusses acting in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Conquest of Space, Young Frankenstein, Twilight Zone episodes, and more. And in one of the odder or more creative (take your pick) ways for editor David McDonnell to get out of writing his editorial column, the final four pages of the magazine are taken up with imitation trading cards, featuring photos and facts about various Starlog correspondents. It is, at least, an interesting way to put faces to names we’ve been seeing in print for years. It’s also where we learn that Mike McAvennie once “caught 38 quarters after placing them on my elbow.” Talented group, this.

“I used to be made fun of a lot. There was one kid, who will remain nameless, that I’ll never forget. He used to come up to me and say, ‘Raimi, you’re a geek! Hyuk, hyuk!’ Every day he would pop my books and they would go sliding down the hallway. I thought, I have to do something at school. I’m not a jock, so I chose acting; it was natural, it was the only thing I could really do.”
–Ted Raimi, actor, interviewed by Bill Warren: “The Young Ted Raimi” 

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

Tim Burton’s Nightmare: The Starlog Project, Starlog #197, December 1993

According to Wikipedia, director Tim Burton’s mother ran a “cat-themed gift shop.” We can all resist the temptation to declare that the feline connection explains Burton’s weirdness; for that matter, I write many of these Starlog Project reports with my cat Charlie camped out next to my computer. So you will have to look elsewhere to explain Burton’s unique style and outlook.

And whether you like his work or not, I think it is difficult to argue that he didn't make a number of standout films in his career, starting with Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, his breakout Beetlejuice, his Batman reboot, and many others. When one heard that Burton was preparing another film, one almost started playing guessing games: What would be the angle? What would be weird about it (I mean, it’s Batman, right? Cape, tights, crazy villains – how could you possibly do that differently than past productions? Oh...)? Again, whether or not you liked his final film, it did have his vision stamped on it, and he managed to break out of a lot of the writing and styling straightjackets of so much big-budgeted Hollywood output of the 1980s and early 1990s.

Well, he did it again with The Nightmare Before Christmas, which Starlog gives the cover feature treatment this issue. Actually, Burton created and produced this film, which was directed by Henry Selick. This stop-motion holiday film not only revived a dormant puppetry art form but twisted the usual holiday expectations around and around until you didn’t know what to expect and you just reveled in being shown something new and innovative.

Oh, and we should note that the mayor’s car in Nightmare has a cat-shaped ornament that wails when its tale is pulled. Or so says Wikipedia.

Starlog #197
92 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $4.95

This issue, Starlog announces its newest spinoff publication, the odd-duck Starlog Platinum Edition. It was a neat basic idea: Devote each entire issue to one topic; the first issue is devoted to writers, including a tales-from-the-front article by Starlog’s new assistant editor, Marc Bernadin (who would eventually become the magazine’s managing editor, and is today a comics writer). Anyway, the Platinum concept either wasn’t a success or the editors grew bored with it; after all, the first issue is devoted to writers, the second to actors, and third to “makers of science fiction,” and there aren’t that many more single-issue topics you can use when your topics are that broad. So the single-topic idea was soon dropped, and with issue #6, Starlog Platinum Edition was relaunched and renamed Starlog Science Fiction Explorer. This new incarnation was nicely done, in my opinion, with some very nice designs and interesting articles. But as editor David McDonnell wrote a decade later, Explorer was really just “more Starlog” and wasn’t different enough from its mother magazine to make it on its own. It died with issue #11.

But enough of Platinums and Explorers. What about Starlog #197?

The rundown: On the cover is Jack Skellington as the Santa who’d really frighten the kids at the mall; a different fantasy image – a painting by Michael Whelan – is featured on the contents page. In his Medialog column, David McDonnell tells us that The Invaders is returning to the TV screen with a new series, allegedly as a Fox show. Michael McAvennie’s Gamelog column reviews Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Dragon Strike, and other games. The Communications section includes Mike Fisher’s Wolf Man Creature Profile, plus some interesting letters about sex roles in Star Trek: The Next Generation. David Hutchison’s Videolog column notes the release of a bunch of additional Next Generation cassettes, plus a nonfiction turn by Patrick Stewart as narrator of The Planets. And Booklog reviews A Night in the Lonesome October, Chanur’s Legacy, Berserker Kill, Crossover, Empire Builders, Empire of the Eagle, The Sharp End, The Dream Machines, Winds of Fury, White Queen, Healer, The Hammer and the Cross, and Sam Gunn, Unlimited.

Over the years, Creature from the Black Lagoon got a lot of love from Starlog, often in the form of interviews by Tom Weaver of its stars. This issue the mag goes back to the well once again, only this time writer Pat Jankiewicz steps up and provides an interview with Harry Essex, Creature’s screenwriter. Essex also talks about some of his other projects, including It Came From Outer Space and even I Dream of Jeannie. Marc Shapiro examines a less-exhalted piece of science-fiction cinema in an interview with actor Wesley Snipes, who talkes about his role in Demolition Man. Veteran fantasy artist Michael Whelan is profiled by managing editor Maureen McTigue. And actor Robert Burke chats with Kim Howard Johnson about Burke’s role as “This Year’s RoboCop.”

Dan Yakir writes the cover story, “‘Twas the Night Before Halloween,” about the Nightmare Before Christmas. Director Henry Selick notes that “I’m personally very influenced by both Dr. Seuss and a lot of Eastern European animation. When I was a kid, I used to see the films of German animator Lotte Reininger, who actually did the world’s first animated feature, The Adventures of Prince Ahmed: It was all black cutout figures, silhouettes. This is the same kind of background Tim Burton came from.” That, and cats.







Meanwhile, Joe Nazzaro talks to actor Peter Davison about his place in Doctor Who history. Bill Warren interviews teen actor Jonathan Brandis, who probably didn’t make Wil Wheaton happy when he said, “Wesley Crusher?! Oh, no, no, no, no. I rarely ever save the seaQuest.” Of course, he later notes that “I’m a big fan of Wil Wheaton’s stuff – he’s a good actor.” Peter Bloch-Hansen chats with actor Famke Janssen about her role in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Perfect Mate.” Marc Shapiro talks to actor Bruce Campbell about his move from films to his new Fox TV series The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. and notes, “I’m used to getting away with murder. It’s interesting now to be in a world where I have to abide by certain restrictions.”

The Fan Network pages include the usual SF clubs and publications directory, the convention calendar, and a gaggle of comics. Kerry O’Quinn’s From the Bridge column looks at efforts to find planets outside our solar system – something that would become much more common a decade and a half later. Pat Jankiewicz visits the set of Monolith. And editor David McDonnell uses his Liner Notes column to present one of his look-at-all-the-new-mags-we’re-selling-today previews. The amazing thing is that most of them were edited by McDonnell, who was simultaneously running Starlog, Starlog Platinum Edition/Explorer, Star Trek: The Next Generation licensed magazine, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine licensed magazine, and Comics Scene. And I’m probably leaving some off that list. It’s pretty impressive when you consider just how much of the magazine rack in the TV/movie section of the time were products of that overworked editor.

“Of course, everybody [pities the Creature.] I do many of my movies that way. In another movie I did, He Walked By Night, Dick Basehart is roaming the streets, gets stopped by a policeman, so he kills the cop. I made everybody love the cop killer by doing strange things. It was kind of a game, ‘I can make you love this man!’ ‘No, you can’t, he’s a killer!’ I made him a loner, he has an animal – a cat – and he’s stealing milk for this cat. Then, he does a surgical thing where he tries to take a bullet out of himself. He spends five minutes trying to dig out that bullet. The audience beings to feel that pain and wants him to get away!”–Harry Essex, screenwriter, interviewed by Pat Jankiewicz: “Bard of the Black Lagoon”

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

The Next Generation’s Best: The Starlog Project, Starlog #195, October 1993

This issue, Starlog presents the results of a reader poll of the best episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. This, despite the fact that the show wouldn’t end for another six months or so (and with a highly regarded finale, at that). Nonetheless, I am surprised to see that I agree with many of the choices, including the top two episodes: “Yesterday’s Enterprise” and “The Best of Both Worlds, Part I.”

“Yesterday’s Enterprise” was the episode that made me a viewer of Next Generation. I had been turned off by the suffocating political correctness of the first season, not to mention Captain Picard’s penchant for abandoning ship at the drop of a hat.

But then one day I was with some friends at one of their apartments. She was a big Next Generation fan (and a Starlog reader, for what it’s worth), and she never missed an episode. So she made us watch the episode, which turned out to be “Yesterday’s Enterprise.” I quickly saw that the show had matured brilliantly, that it was willing and able to tackle complex issues of morality and duty, that it allowed its storylines to follow the logic of their plots to their conclusions, without trying to tidy up everything by the end of the episode, and that Captain Picard had become a wise and powerful leader.

After that, I rarely missed an episode of the series.

So, Starlog’s readers were smart with their selections. You’ll have to dig out a copy of the October 1993 issue to see the other 23 selections – and whether you agree.

Starlog #195
92 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $4.95

In the realm of Starlog merchandising, this issue includes an ad on page 73 heralding the newest product: Starlog trading cards. You can buy them in packets, like baseball cards, at stores, or you can buy a complete commemorative set of 100 cards in a binder covered in “Corinthian leather.” It even comes autographed by the company's publisher and editors. Or you could buy a set of the cards on uncut press sheets, or uncut hologram sheets. You can still find packages and boxes of these Starlog trading cards on eBay, which is how I finally got a hold of a complete set.

The rundown: The multi-photo cover highlights the Star Trek reader’s poll, while the contents page features the Trek art of David Mattingly. In his Medialog column, David McDonnell notes that Land of the Giants and Lost in Space are both headed for the big screen, and he writes that that leaves only two major Irwin Allen science fiction series awaiting revivals, The Time Tunnel and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, “an area soon to be visited by Steven Spielberg’s new TV series seaQuest D.S.V.” That’s an interesting comment, considering that one of the best (well, snarkiest) cracks made by a critic after seeing the eventual pilot for seaQuest was that it should be called Voyage to the Bottom of the Ratings. And in Gamelog, Michael McAvennie reviews Batman Returns (a Super Nintendo game, not the eventual motion picture), King of the Monsters, Traveler: The New Era, and others.

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is featured in Mike Fisher’s Creature Profile, and Communications’ letters to the editor include comments on race and Star Trek, Jurassic Park, Lost in Space, and more. David Hutchison’s Videolog announces the release of Animation Legend Winsor McCay, among other videos. A four-page Booklog section reviews Harvest of Stars, The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Tenth Annual Collection, Core, Ring of Swords, Dream of Glass, The City Who Fought, Golden Trillium, Rainbow Man, Forests of the Night, High Steel, Testing, The Honor of the Queen, The Galaxy Game, Days of Blood and Fire, If I Pay Thee Not in Gold, Alien Bootlegger and Other Stories, Future Earths: Under South American Skies, First Action, and Burning Bright. And Scott Briggs’ directory of fan clubs and publications, plus the usual convention listings and some cartoons, fill up the Fan Network pages.

Joe Nazzaro interviews painter David Mattingly. Marc Shapiro visits the soundstage of Demolition Man to preview the Sylvester Stallone/Wesley Snipes science fiction action flick. Jean Airey talks with actor Michael Praed, who discusses his work in Robin of Sherwood, Riders, and other projects. Over six pages, Starlog reveals its readers’ choices for the 25 best Next Generation episodes. Ian Spelling inteviews Trek’s executive producer, Michael Piller, who says that at this point he and co-producer Rick Berman leave most of the day-to-day running of The Next Generation to producer Jeri Taylor (and there’s a sidebar by Spelling focusing on Piller’s work on Deep Space Nine).

Bill Warren profiles actor Roy Brocksmith, who discusses his work in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Total Recall, and “The Switch” episode of Tales from the Crypt, which was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s directorial debut.

Before Chris Evans made the role his, actor Jay Underwood suited up as the Human Torch in a 1994 Roger Corman produced The Fantastic Four film, which you’ve in all likelihood never seen. That’s probably all to the best, because Evans was great. But Underwood has quite a career under his belt, too, and he tells Marc Shapiro about his Fantastic Four duties, as well as his work in Not Quite Human, The Boy Who Could Fly, and other films. Tom Weaver talks with Ann Robinson about acting in George Pal’s classic The War of the Worlds, as well as in Space Ranger. In his From the Bridge column, Kerry O’Quinn discusses Sharyn McCrumb’s book Zombies of the Gene Pool. And editor David McDonnell wraps it all up in his Liner Notes column by chatting about the Trek top 25, and revealing what numbers 26 through 50 were.

"... I ran off to Mexico in 1957 and blew my career out of the water – I married a famous Mexican matador and had two children. When I got back home, Hollywood had passed me by. I blew it. I should have stayed around and paid more attention. Now I realize why they call it ‘the business’ – because it is a business. I thought it was all fun and games and glamour, and I didn’t take care of it as a business. … After my second son was born in 1963, I did a Gilligan’s Island and that was about it. Motherhood suddenly took over.”
–Ann Robinson, actor, interviewed by Tom Weaver: “In Martian Combat”

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

The Coneheads – This Is Why People Hate France: The Starlog Project, Starlog #194, September 1993

Back in issue #164, Dan Aykroyd was on the cover of Starlog outfitted in a completely body-covering costume of a disgusting giant mutant baby. The photo was from his movie Nothing But Trouble, which performed poorly at the box office.

But Aykroyd is back with another strange movie character, and Starlog’s once again game, putting a photo of him and costar Jane Curtin on the cover to promote their new movie Coneheads. This movie, too, underwhelmed, according to imdb.com. But the message to the science fiction world was clear: Dress up Dan Aykroyd in a bizarre costume, and it pretty much guarantees him a Starlog cover.

Starlog #194
92 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $4.95

This issue, Starlog adds eight pages to its basic package to end up with 92 pages in an issue. No cover price boost, which is nice. If only a columnist or some new regular cool feature or department could have been invented to take up one or two of those eight new pages. Instead, toward the back of the magazine, there are six consecutive pages of nothing but ads; no editorial content in between. Why? They could have spread those ads throughout the magazine. It’s not as if the advertiser came in at the last minute with an ad that had to be crammed somewhere – anywhere – in the issue. All of the ads are for products sold through Starlog Press, such as Star Trek pins and Jurassic Park models and whatnot. Perhaps the publishers and editors liked the old Warren practice of having a chunk of ads at the back of their magazines, which were kind of fun to page through as you dreamed about having the various products pitched there. But it just seems like wasted pages here at the back of Starlog. I’m not against advertising; I’m just not impressed when it’s executed poorly.

Two other overly-technical notes about this issue: First, Starlog advertises the first edition of its Star Wars Technical Journal. The three-issue project would become a landmark in geektastic publishing. It was a huge success for the publisher, and it remains something that every single Star Wars fan should own or face excommunication. Second, while scanning the staffbox, I noticed that among the gaggle of “assistants” listed, there is a certain Marc Bernadin, Starlog’s future managing editor and later a successful professional comics creator.

The rundown: Saturday Night Live alumni Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin mug for the cover, against a (presumably) computer-generated background attributed to Rudel Simon III, who even gets a copyright line on the cover. Odd, that. The contents page is given over to Jurassic Park photos. It’s remakes-time in David McDonnell’s Medialog column, where we learn of upcoming remakes of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Island of Dr. Moreau. And in his Gamelog column, Michael McAvennie reviews Star Fox, Sega’s X-Men, GURPS Atomic Horror, and other games.

The letters to Starlog’s Communications section are for the most part the usual mix of reader commentary on Star Trek (of course), Night Gallery, SF costuming, and more, but one letter particularly caught my attention. A reader writes in to argue that, despite Kerry O’Quinn’s statement that Star Trek’s philosophy is about “full rights for all individuals,” Trek has never featured a gay character in its nearly 30 years of live action TV series, animated series, and films. I echoed that statement more than a decade later in my own letter to Starlog, though I was unaware I was echoing anyone. But that’s a sign of how little Trek evolved; after nearly 40 years, it still hadn’t shown us a gay character. And that always struck me as odd; in a future where humans have supposedly shed their primitive prejudices, we are shown starships and planets that appear to have been perfectly cleansed of homosexuals. There was the notable effort by Trek veteran David Gerrold to break that barrier in a script he wrote for the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but the script was never filmed, and it eventually became a novel in a different setting by the author, until Gerrold directed it as a two-part episode of the fan-made Star Trek: New Voyages series.

Mike Fisher's Creature Profile info-comic features the classic robot from the silent German film Metropolis. In his Videolog column, David Hutchison announces the Criterion edition of another classic, Akira. Booklog reviews Dinosaur Fantastic, Timelike Infinity, Split Heirs, Simulations: 15 Tales of Virtual Reality, The Oathbound Wizard, Vanishing Point, Glory Season, Taminy, Dr. Dimension, Blood and Honor, Cold Allies, Challenges, and The Wolf and the Raven. The Fan Network pages include Scott Briggs' directory of fan clubs and publications, as well as the convention listings. And is it a coincidence that Kerry O'Quinn uses his From the Bridge column to talk about the bravery shown by author Toby Johnson, whose book Secret Matter tells a science fiction story about gay identity? Except O'Quinn doesn't mention homosexuality (or any of its synonyms) anywhere in the column.

Interplanetary Correspondent Michael J. Wolff marks the 25th anniversary of the cinematic release of Arthur C. Clarke & Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. With illustrations by George Kochell, Wolff delves into the crafting of the movie and speculation about its meanings. Kyle Counts interviews Ralph Winter, producer of the witch comedy Hocus Pocus. Bill Warren talks to actor Wayne Knight, who portrays Dennis Nedry in Jurassic Park (and who explains that he likes science fiction movies, but not movies about "secretions" – i.e., Alien and The Thing. Too gooey.) Mark Shapiro previews Coneheads. And Bill Florence profiles Trek fan Timothy de Haas, who penned the Next Generation episode "Identity Crisis" and explains why Marina Sirtis was mad at him.

Marc Shapiro interviews director John McTiernan, who discusses Predator, Last Action Hero, The Hunt for Red October, and more. Brian Bonsall, who portrays Worf's son Alexander on The Next Generation, tells Pat Jankiewicz about his experience on that show and as the youngest character on Family Ties. And Bill Florence talks to writer John T. Dugan about his "Return to Tomorrow" script for the original Star Trek series.

Roy Kinnard gets the scoop from classic "scream queen" Fay Wray, who tells him about acting in King Kong, Mystery of the Wax Museum, and other films. Tom Weaver follows up with more Kong, providing a Q&A with Gil Perkins, who was a stunt performer in the giant ape film. And in his Liner Notes, editor David McDonnell notes the new books written by various Starlog contributors, as well as highlighting the non-book extracurricular activity of writer Ian Spelling, who began writing a column called "Inside Trek" for the New York Times Syndicate. (I recall seeing it run in the Chicago papers under the title "High Trek," so maybe it later changed its name .)

"The first time I saw King Kong I was distressed by how much screaming there was in it. It seemed too much to me, and I realized only later that a lot of screaming was necessary in order to give life to the little animated figure of me in Kong's hand, and without the screaming, it wouldn't have seemed alive. These essentially had to be long shots, but still all of that screaming seemed overdone to me at the time."
–Fay Wray, actor, interviewed by Roy Kinnard: "Queen of Screams"

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

Unidentified Schwarzenegger Object: The Starlog Project, Starlog #192, July 1993

Over the nearly two decades of its existence, Starlog has occasionally reported on the UFO phenomenon. Except for its film-related reporting (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, for example), the magazine was blessedly free of the gullible reportage of much of the popular press. Unlike Omni magazine, for example, Starlog never drank the Kool-aid. Instead, it published articles such as James Oberg's intelligent examination of flying saucer claims. That was back in issue #12 in March 1978. The late 1970s were a cyclical high point of alien visitation claims, but things calmed down for a while after that time.

In the July 1993 issue, though, former publisher Kerry O’Quinn takes the bull by the horns (he’s from Texas, see) and lambasts claims that aliens are landing in Alabama and mutilating cows. About midway through the column, O’Quinn writes, “Whenever I meet someone new, and they learn that I am involved in science fiction, their first question is usually, ‘Do you believe in UFOs?’ To me, this is insulting. Let me make myself absolutely clear – NO, I do not believe in flying saucers, alien abductions or little green people from beyond our solar system who have the incredible technology to travel light years to our planet, sustain themselves somehow with endless fuel and food while they play cat-and-mouse games in our cloud layers….”

Sometimes a bit of controversy can be a positive spark for a magazine. When it comes with a dose of rationality, it is like a welcome cup of water to a desert wanderer.

Starlog #192
84 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $4.95

This is Starlog’s 17th anniversary issue, which is celebrated with all of the pomp and circumstance of the royal wedding, except for the pomp and circumstance part. In fact, there are no extra pages or special features or any indication at all that it’s an anniversary issue aside from a badge on the front cover and the editor’s column at the end of the magazine. What, are they ashamed of being a 17-year-old magazine? Or is it because Starlog would suffer a premature death at the age of 33 in 2009, so the mag's editors and publishers somehow realized they had reached publishing middle-age?

The rundown: The cover features Arnold Schwarzenegger and his Last Action Hero co-star Austin O’Brien; a slightly different take on that same pose is on the contents page (the change is so slight, it might require many readers to look closely to see how the two images are different). A neat touch, that. Meanwhile, in his Medialog column, David McDonnell notes that early discussions have taken place about a feature film version of the old Lost in Space TV series. Michael McAvennie’s Gamelog reviews a number of Star Wars games, including Super Nintendo’s Super Star Wars, Game Boy’s The Empire Strikes Back, and others. And reader letters in the Communications pages include an official response from the Sci-Fi Channel regarding hopes and fears Starlog readers have expressed about the new channel, plus there’s an unbelievably long letter about Beauty & the Beast, and Mike Fisher’s Creature Profile features Gorgo.

In the early 1990s, VHS video cassettes were the relatively cheapest and easiest way to experience your favorite movies and old TV shows in the comfort of your own home. As David Hutchison notes in his Videolog column, various episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation as well as the Trek movies are available for just $14.95 each, but that was in the days before commentary tracks and hours and oodles of hours of extras packed onto DVDs and Blu-rays. Booklog reviews Isaac Asimov’s Forward the Foundation (reviewer Jean-Marc Lofficier loved it), as well as Caliban, Dreams Underfoot, Path of the Hero, The Wall at the Edge of the World, A Sword for a Dragon, Redline the Stars, Retro Lives, The Element of Fire, A Wizard in Absentia, Warlords of Jupiter, Athyra, and Sandman, Sleep. The fan network includes Scott Briggs’ directory of clubs and publications, plus the convention calendar. And, as noted, Kerry O’Quinn shoots down UFOs, in his From the Bridge column.

Speaking of questionable claims, on page 21 of this issue, there is an advertisement for L. Ron Hubbard’s Battlefield Earth. Among the blurbs promoting the book is this from novelist Frederik Pohl: “I read [Battlefield Earth] straight through in one sitting although it’s immense … I was fascinated by it.” Really? According to Amazon.com, the book’s 1,004 pages long. I’m not calling Mr. Pohl a liar, but surely he was mistaken when he said he read it entirely in one sitting. Was he on some strange drugs that kept him awake long enough to reach the last page? Even if he could read a quite-fast 60 pages an hour, it would still take more than 16 hours. Any slower than that, and it soon takes a full day and night to complete this sucker. I’ve never read Battlefield Earth – nor any other book attributed to Hubbard – though I did sacrifice $9 that never did anything wrong to me so I could see the film made from it. The movie felt like it was 16 hours. But I have a good friend who is in no way a devotee of Hubbard’s religion who nonetheless says this book was a hell of an enjoyable novel, so I will grant the possibility that Pohl, too, found the book fascinating in some non-ironic way. But to spend anywhere from 16 to 24 hours “in one sitting” reading it? I guess I am calling him a liar.

Anyway, back to the issue. Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Data, actor Brent Spiner, is interviewed by Joe Nazzaro. Author (and climate change skeptic) Michael Crichton is interviewed by Bill Warren, discussing the Steven Spielberg adaptation of his book Jurassic Park as well as other adaptations of his work, such as Runaway and Rising Sun. Marc Shapiro visits the set of Last Action Hero. He talks to the director, John McTiernan, and others involved in the movie, including star Schwarzenegger, who admits that it is “not necessarily the most challenging role I’ve ever had,” and that “I’m the first one to laugh at the silliness of the films I’ve done.” Kim Howard Johnson profiles producer Robert Solo and his Body Snatchers film. And Dan Yakir previews Super Mario Brothers, the $42 million film starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo.

Stan Nicholls and Michael McCarty separately interviewed legendary writer (and reader!) Frederick Pohl, and Starlog combines their two interviews into one quite interesting six-page article. Pat Jankiewicz talks with screenwriter Jon Povill, who discusses his many projects (with a resume that is quite Trek-heavy), but the article starts off with a fascinating story about how he and Gene Roddenberry got involved with a group of people who claimed to be in telepathic contact with aliens. And editor David McDonnell wraps it all up with an anniversary Liner Notes column, citing numerous people responsible for the magazine reaching the magic age of 17.

“I was in Paris in August 1945, and I was getting a haircut in a barber shop. ... I was looking over the shoulder of the man next to me, and he had a newspaper with a big headline, ‘Le Bomb et Amique.’ And the first thing I thought was that these crazy French will print anything in their papers. And then when I looked a little closer and realized it actually had happened, I felt – well, I knew it all along and I had. Everybody who read science fiction knew that this was a good possibility. There are several kinds of science fiction that you can’t write anymore. You can’t write about the first intelligent robot, the first trip to the Moon or the first nuclear war, because they’ve happened, but the consequences of all these things are just getting clearer every day.”
–Frederick Pohl, novelist, interviewed by Stan Nicholls and Michael McCarty: “The View from a Distant Star”

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

When Dinosaurs Attack: The Starlog Project, Starlog #191, June 1993

The dinosaur onslaught that was hinted at a while back with Starlog’s interview with its former editor (and later dino-book author) Howard Zimmerman is now in full bloom. This month, Starlog highlights the blockbuster Steven Spielberg film Jurassic Park, adapted from the similarly blockbuster book by the late Michael Crichton.

The film would gross more than $350 million over the course of the next year, and it would spawn two sequels and a zillion imitators, which would fill up an entire year of SyFy Channel programming if played one after the other. It’s why Jim Wynorski can afford to pay his mortgage. (Wynorski even has a film called Piranhaconda, I kid you not.) It would spur an even more important development in the science-fiction film world, for it was the incredibly lifelike dinosaur computer-generated imagery (CGI) that would confirm in George Lucas’ mind the contention that the technology was now mature enough to let him make the Star Wars prequels the way he wanted.

Jurassic’s imitators steadily devolved into Crocosaurus types of things. Death Shark vs. Megasaurus sorts of SyFy schedule-fillers. Sharktopus vs. Squidgod, maybe even. Need I go on? But that should not cloud our minds to the fact that Jurassic Park was an amazing film, not just when it came out but still today. The story is fairly straightforward; the action is exciting; the characters are endearing; but most of all, it was the closest any of us got to seeing a real dinosaur, thanks to the amazing effects. I’m a book-lover first, but there is a visual treat that only films can deliver, and when they do so like Spielberg’s film here, they really earn Hollywood its reputation as a wonder factory.

Starlog #191
84 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $4.95

A curious premium came with this issue. Buyers of Starlog #191 at retail stores purchased a polybagged magazine with a free Star Wars trading card included. Pretty cool. But those of us who were loyal enough to subscribe to the magazine did not receive a free trading card. We just got the magazine itself in the mail. Generally, publishers (to use a horrid word from the world of marketing) incentivize subscriptions, but for whatever reason, Starlog incentivized newsstand buyers, which after all have always made up the overwhelming percentage of its paid circulation.

The rundown: Jurassic Park is featured on the cover, in case you haven’t figured that out so far. And a large photo of Sean Patrick Flanery’s Young Indiana Jones is on the contents page. David McDonnell’s Medialog reports that a seventh season of Star Trek: The Next Generation will be produced, but word is still out on the (soon to be very short-lived) Space Rangers. Michael McAvennie’s Gamelog reviews Superman from Sega Genesis, LIN’s Spider-Man/X-Men in Arcade’s Revenge (which has one of the most complicated titles in game history), and other superhero-themed games. Letters to the Communications pages include comments about (I know this’ll surprise you) Star Trek, a plea for a stay of execution for Space Rangers, and more, including Mike Fisher’s Creature Profile of the Fly.

In his Videolog column, David Hutchison notes the release of Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, which has apparently “lost in the translation” much of creator Winsor McCay’s “dreamlike graphic fantasies,” which sounds like a real shame, because the Little Nemo Sunday comics from the early decades of the 20th century are absolute must-see works of comic art. Nemo is up there with Krazy Kat, Calvin and Hobbes, and very few others in the pantheon of staggeringly perfect comics. Booklog reviews Snow White, Blood Red, Card Sharks, Warstrider, The Gripping Hand, The Hand of Chaos, Rediscovery, Salamandastron, If at Faust You Don’t Succeed, An Earthly Crown, Throy, and Ecstasia. The Fan Network pages includes the convention calendar and the directory of fan clubs and publications, now assembled by Scott Briggs. And in his From the Bridge column, Kerry O’Quinn pays tribute to futurist Buckminster Fuller.

Ian Spelling interviews actor Rene Auberjonois, who portrays the shapeshifting alien Odo on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Craig Chrissinger talks with actress Elizabeth Alexander, who portrays “holographic feminist” Selma on Time Trax. Clearly attempting to rub in the fact that I didn’t get a free trading card with my issue of #191, Bob Maschi provides an overview and select price guide for science fiction trading cards. To inflict further insult, Kyle Counts then examines the Star Wars Galaxy trading cards, assembled by Gary Gerani, who wrote for Starlog in its early years.

Ian Spelling gets the big interview this month: Producer George Lucas talks about his TV series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Jurassic Park producer Kathleen Kennedy tells writer Bill Warren about the film’s long road to production, including getting all of the much-ballyhooed special effects right. Bill Florence chats with James Schmerer, who wrote the “Survivor” episode of the animated Star Trek in 1973 even though he most definitely doesn’t write animation. Stan Nicholls interviews author Kim Stanley Robinson, who discusses his Red Mars/Green Mars/Blue Mars books, including hearing from an envious Arthur C. Clarke.

Pat Jankiewicz profiles actor Claude Earl Jones, who discusses his roles in T.J. Hooker, M*A*S*H, Quantum Leap, and his interaction with fellow star William Shatner in the miniseries Centennial: “Fight scenes are very carefully choreographed, but even if they are, sometimes people get hurt. ... I would never hurt anybody deliberately, but I laid one on him, right on the nose. He was supposed to be moving out, but I’m a big man and when I hit you, you stay hit.” Jankiewicz also talks to Robert Lewin about his role as a writer/producer on Star Trek: The Next Generation (but he never slugged Shatner). And instead of his usual Liner Notes column, editor David McDonnell turns over two pages to “trading cards” featuring Starlog staffers Scott Briggs, Jim McLernon, David Hutchison, Maureen McTigue, and McDonnell himself. At least I got those trading cards.

“I do have a time line and it all fits together. Ultimately, the entire series [of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles], which is now about 32 hours, although I have 70 hours worth of scripts, all fits together. You could actually go from end to end and it all connects. The shows aren’t being aired that way. They’re being shown randomly, and they’re being shot randomly, too. There’s a whole story there that starts with Indy as a five-year-old, and it carries him from before his trip with his father to after he comes back. Then it takes him to high school. … It goes through all the spy things, then college, and then what happens to him after college. As a whole piece, it’s a lot of fun because you can follow his life, and that’s very interesting.”
–George Lucas, producer, interviewed by Ian Spelling: “Life with Indy”

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

Sincerely Flattered

I was wondering how long it would take for this to happen. My chronicling of each issue of Starlog magazine in my Starlog Project has become the standard resource for people describing issues of that late great science-fiction film/tv/books magazine or looking for which issue included what article. That was my intention.

The latest proof of this status is the listing I stumbled across this morning on eBay's Austrian site, in which someone named "spaceranger2000" listed a copy of Starlog #10 from 1977, and to describe the issue's contents, Herr/Frau/Fraulein (your guess is as good as mine) Spaceranger2000 uses my Starlog Project writeup.

Frankly, I'm rather pleased. I would have preferred attribution, natürlich, but my road to worldwide fame and fortune isn't necessarily a fast highway.

Well, it's not quite imitation; it's really just re-use. But nonetheless I'm flattered.

Read more: The Starlog Project's permanent site, the Starlog Project on my blog, and my similar project with Starlog's short-lived sister magazine Future Life.

So, You're a Ferengi, eh? The Starlog Project, Starlog #190, May 1993

It’s Star Trek on the cover of Starlog for the second issue in a row, and the fourth time in the last five issues. If I were a better, more faithful chronicler of these Starlog issues, I would spend the time to look over all 374 issues that the magazine published in its 33-year life and report back to you on how many of those covers featured Star Trek of any sort. Then we could throw in the foreign editions of Starlog, the special one-shots featuring Trek, the licensed TV series magazines, the licensed movie magazines, the assorted Yearbooks and Spectaculars and Scrapbooks and Best of issues of Starlog, and even the paperback books. (Let us not forget the forehead-slapping-loopy cover of the fourth issue of sister magazine Fangoria, which featured Spock from Star Trek: The Motion Picture.)

Add up all of them, whateverthehell the final tally is, and I think it would be a safe bet that Starlog’s publishers produced more publications with Star Trek on the covers than anyone else in the universe.

Starlog #190
84 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $4.95

Would you date a fellow science-fiction geek? In the Miscellaneous section of this issue's classified advertising is an ad for "SCIENCE FICTION CONNECTION. Nationwide network for unattached SF fans forming. ..." Wonder how that worked out for them.

The rundown: The cover, in case you weren't paying attention, features Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Armin Shimerman, who plays Quark in that show; the contents page is given up to an illustration for a story by Anne McCaffrey, who is interviewed in this issue. In his Medialog column, David McDonnell reports that ideas are brewing to do some new things with William Shatner’s TekWar stories, which have already appeared as novels and comics. One idea: A series of TV movies. Could it happen? Wait and see. Michael McAvennie’s Gamelog column reviews T2: The Arcade Game, Dragon’s Lair, Dark Force Rising, and other games. And the Communications section includes Mike Fisher’s Creature Profile of The Phantom of the Opera, plus letters on Trek, Red Dwarf, Star Wars, and more.

Booklog’s reviews this month include The Door into Sunset, Arthur C. Clarke: The Authorized Biography, Maze of Moonlight, Stainless Steel Visions, The Architecture of Desire, Purgatory: A Chronicle of a Distant World, Skybowl, The Singularity Project, and Red Orc’s Rage, which might not be a bad name for a band. David Hutchison notes releases of new Dr. Who programs in his Videolog column. The Fan Network is comprised of the convention calendar and Maureen McTigue’s directory of fan clubs and publications. Kerry O’Quinn tells us how his friend Arthur C. Clarke “lives the large life.” And Lynne Stevens previews Raver, the new comic from actor and writer Walter Koenig.

Stephens also talks with actor Daniel Davis, who discusses his guest-starring role as Professor Moriarty in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Tom Weaver interviews Mark Goddard, the former star of Lost in Space who at the time of Weaver’s article was back in school earning his Masters degree in special education, which he would go on to teach for years. Sharon Snyder and Marc Shapiro separately interviewed actor Armin Shimerman, and Starlog knits together their interviews into one article, in which Shimerman talks about playing Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Ferengi bartender, Quark (and which includes this quote: “This is not the kinky Star Trek, but there are darker, more multi-faceted sides than on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Geen Roddenberry’s vision is still here, but it’s being shifted around and re-examined through other people’s eyes.”).

Award-winning fantasy novelist Anne McCaffrey (The Ship Who Sang, the Pern series, etc.) is interviewed by Drew Bittner. Bill Warren checks in with actor Peter Donat to talk about his role as the villainous Mordicai Sahmbi in Time Trax. Marc Shapiro profiles actor Jeff Kaake, one of the stars of the ill-fated TV series Space Rangers. When the original Star Trek was being put together, actor Malachi Throne was offered and rejected the role of the Enterprise’s doctor, though he later went on to make guest appearances on the series. He discusses those roles in an interview by Joel Eisner.

Michael Wolff and illustrator George Kochell examine the history of body-snatcher pod-people movies. Speaking of which, Kim Howard Johnson interviews Abel Ferrara, director of the latest Body Snatchers film, starring Billy Wirth. Jean Airey talks with actor Deborah Watling, former companion of Dr. Who. Joe Nazzaro continues his look at the British science-fiction comedy series Red Dwarf with a profile of actor Danny John-Jules, who plays Cat on that show. And editor David McDonnell urges people to keep reading in his Liner Notes column, which is interrupted by a Kevin Brockschmidt “Terminator Bunny” cartoon. You kind of have to see it.

“That was the three years on Lost in Space for me: ‘Is the show good enough?’ ‘Is it getting the ratings?’ And the cast was worried: ‘Is this laughable?’ Especially after Star Trek came on – ‘Can we compete with this kind of a show?’ Then, we went up against Batman and that hit us – they got good ratings and we didn’t, although we did come back later. ‘Batman’s a real camp show, we're not a camp show. Are we a real show? We’re not a real show like Star Trek and we’re not a camp show like Batman.’ Tension! We didn’t know where we fit, we hadn’t found an identity. An identity came near the end, when finally it was Smith and the Robot doing silly things, and that’s what the show became. But that’s not what it set out to be. I always wanted to do a comedy, but I never knew [while on Lost in Space] that I was in a comedy. One day I said, ‘Hey, I’ve been doin’ all this Method stuff – I didn’t know we were doin’ a comedy here!’”
–Mark Goddard, actor, interviewed by Tom Weaver: “Space Duty”

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

Treks Ahoy! The Starlog Project, Starlog #189, April 1993

After writer Harlan Ellison was finished with putting out his An Edge in My Voice columns, which began in Future Life magazine and then migrated to other publications after FL folded, he put out a book with the collected columns and new introductions. The book, also called An Edge in My Voice (1985), was one of my favorites of that decade, and I gave it as a gift to several of my friends.

I always expected Ellison’s friend and fellow writer David Gerrold to one day collect his long-running Starlog columns in book form. Gerrold began writing for the magazine with its fourth issue in March 1977 and continued every month (later switching to bimonthly frequency) until issue #101, rejoining its pages a couple years later to chronicle the birth of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which he helped birth with Gene Roddenberry. Over the years, his columns ranged from controversial reviews of the first Star Trek movie and The Empire Strikes Back to computer insights to thoughts on life and encouragement for readers. I figured that was a no-brainer candidate to become a book, but none ever appeared. Gerrold seemed more intent on producing new novels and some television work, which is his right, of course. But still, a missed chance, no?

Then there’s been some talk in 2011 about a possible book collecting Kerry O’Quinn’s From the Bridge columns, literally hundreds of which were written over decades by the magazine’s co-founder and former publisher. In Starlog #189, O’Quinn begins his column noting that he had recently received a letter from a friend, who wrote, “I’ve seen a few of your most recent Bridge columns, and they’re fun to read because you wrote them – but I haven’t seen a ‘reach for the stars’-type column lately. I hope you still feel that they’re important.”

O’Quinn then goes on to offer up just such a column, about Jok Church, creator of the Beakman’s World TV series and the syndicated comic strip You Can with Beakman. Reading the story about how the young man struggled to get his ideas off the ground and then found success in print and on television, I found myself agreeing with O’Quinn’s friend about how much I enjoy the “reach for the stars” columns. It’s one of the ingredients that is missing from all current science-fiction media magazines, not to mention any other magazine I can think of with a young audience. It’s easy to throw together a magazine with all the ingredients that your focus groups tell you are important and that the MBA in the corner office insists are critical; it is much more difficult to engage readers on the level of their dreams, their souls. Seeing them as consumers is one thing; seeing them as humans is another.

Let’s hope O’Quinn publishes that book.

Starlog #189
84 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $4.95

There is some personnel-shifting at Starlog this month. Managing editor Michael McAvennie is heading off to greener pastures (actually, DC Comics; DC and Marvel seemed to hire away a lot of Starlog junior staffers over the years). He will continue to write the magazine's video-game review column, Gamelog. Taking his place as managing editor is Maureen McTigue, who would herself end up working at DC Comics and Harris. In a long interview with Sequential Tart in 2002, McTigue was asked about her Starlog tenure:

ST: What was the main difference between being an intern at Starlog and being an assistant editor there?
MMT: [grins] I got paid better.
ST: Between being an assistant editor and being a managing editor there?
MMT: [smiles] More responsibility.

For more on the joys and tribulations of working at Starlog, see my interview with former staffer Carr D’Angelo in my digital magazine-about-magazines, Magma.

The rundown: It’s Trek, Trek, and more Trek on the cover of this issue, where Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and even animated Trek get featured placement, with a note that inside there’s info on the oft-maligned Star Trek V movie; on the contents page, we get a Trek-breather and instead some comic-book aliens get the spotlight. David McDonnell’s Medialog column tells us that the little-talked-about CBS science-fiction series Space Ranger, noted briefly last issue, debuted months earlier than planned, in January rather than in spring, which seems to have wrong-footed Starlog’s coverage of the series. That coverage starts this issue. The series, though, only lasted six episodes, so the magazine was left dribbling out coverage of the show after it had died. Michael McAvennie’s Gamelog reviews a Star Trek: The Next Generation game called How to Host a Mystery, which McAvennie warns “can take as long as four hours to play.” And the Communications section is filled up with mostly kvetching about Alien3, though the magazine’s recent 20th-anniversary Blade Runner coverage gets some reader love, too; also, It (just It) is featured in Mike Fisher’s Creature Profile.

Booklog reviews Kingdoms of the Wall, Damia’s Children, Kalifornia, Dirty Work, The Red Magician, Demons Don’t Dream, and Assemblers of Infinity. Starship Invasions is out on home video, warns David Hutchison in his Videolog column. Maureen McTigue’s directory of fan clubs and publications and the convention listings fill up the Fan Network pages. In a two-page Tribute section, T.L. Johns remembers the late writer Fritz Leiber, while Tom Weaver does the honors for actor Robert Shayne. And, as noted at the top of this post, Kerry O’Quinn highlights Jok Church’s efforts to make science fun and understandable to young audiences.

Marc Shapiro kicks off Starlog’s feature coverage of Space Rangers with an interview of actor Jack McGee, who portrays the, um, zaftig cyborg in the series, and who comments on similarities with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator cyborg: “I guess you would say we’re quite the same. I know he would love to have a body like mine.” Animated Star Trek episode writer Larry Brody (“The Magicks of Megas-Tu”) is interviewed by Bill Florence; he also discusses his never-filmed script for Star Trek: The Next Generation, how Harlan Ellison got fired from a TV series over one of Brody’s scripts, and other interesting tidbits from his career. Craig W. Chrissinger profiles actor Dale Midkiff, star of Time Trax. And Marc Shapiro checks in with Time Trax’s creator, Harve Bennett, to discuss his views of William Shatner’s Star Trek V.

Kim Howard Johnson previews ALIENS: Colonial Marines, a new series from Dark Horse Comics. Ian Spelling visits the set of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Joe Nazzaro interviews Red Dwarf’s Hattie Hayridge, who plays the ship’s computer. Ian Spelling also talked to actor Robert Patrick this month, and Patrick discusses his roles in Terminator 2 and Fire in the Sky; meanwhile, Kim Howard Johnson provides a sidebar chat with that latter film’s director, Robert Lieberman, who claims it’s “much more science fact than science fiction.”

Craig W. Chrissinger checks in with Star Trek: The Next Generation story editor Rene Echevarria. Mark Phillips profiles actor Arthur Batanides, who discusses his roles in Star Trek (“That Which Survives”), Rod Brown of the Rocket Rangers, Land of the Giants, and others. Kim Howard Johnson talks with screenwriter Nicholas St. John about his new Body Snatchers interpretation. Bill Warren chats with writer George R.R. Martin about Doorways. And editor David McDonnell wraps it all up in his Liner Notes column by saying hello/good-bye to his managing editors, plugging the next issue of Comics Scene magazine, and announcing a giveaway of new Alien Nation novel The Day of Descent. Did you get one?

“I told Bill [Shatner] that he was doomed to disappointment at the film’s [Star Trek V] end. It’s not that the film couldn’t be great, but that he was going to be stuck with a philosophical unsolvable. In the end, he would end up saying, ‘Well, it isn’t really God, folks,’ and the audience would know that you were going to have to say that. I explained my feelings to Bill until I was blue in the face. But he was very persuasive in defending his idea. It was the way he wanted it and everybody over at Paramount was telling me to do what Bill wanted to do. And ultimately I did because I love Bill. … Ultimately, my fears about that storyline came to pass. But the funny thing is that, not too long after [Trek V] came out, Bill came up to me and said that the next one we do should be about the Fountain of Youth.”
–Harve Bennett, producer, interviewed by Marc Shapiro: “School’s Out”

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