The Starlog Project: Starlog #137, December 1988: War of the Worlds

With War of the Worlds being syndicated each week across the nation, 1988 was a year of highlights for that venerable H.G. Wells classic. Though I'm sure Wells would be pleased to see War on the cover of Starlog #137 (if they could stuff a copy of the magazine into his coffin, that is), the most famous War production was and remains the 1938 radio production by wunderkind Orson Welles, which reportedly panicked listeners, some of them (let's be frank: probably not the intellectual cream of the crop among them) believing the radio program was announcing a real invasion.

Starlog #137 has both productions: The TV series as well as writer a report on the controversial 1938 radio play. That mix of the brand new and the classic was always one of the things Starlog did best.

Starlog #137
76 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $3.50

Classified ad of the month: "FREE A new mailing list is being formed for distribution to hundreds of companies that give away free items in the mail: Free samples/Promotional items/Sci-Fi/Horror/Fantasy/Subscriptions! Anything & Everything Free. If you would like to be on this list, send $2 processing fee to ..." It's sort of the genius ad of the year: Have someone pay to be placed on a mailing list.

The rundown: In his From the Bridge column, publisher Kerry O'Quinn begins a multi-part editorial about how to find out what really interests you in life; Communications letters include a number of letters on the situation of BBC's Doctor Who program, which at this time was undergoing a rather tumultuous period in its long life, plus readers chime in with thoughts about Beauty and the Beast, the magazine's recent articles on the bodies and voices behind Star Wars' Darth Vader, the TV airing of David Lynch's Dune, and more; in the Medialog section, there's Kim Howard Johnson on a rather bizarre rumor that John Cleese is in the running to play Doctor Who (Cleese muses, "People reading newspapers often think there's no smoke without fire – my experience is that in many cases, there is"), Ian Spelling on a young Kiefer Sutherland (at this time, he was known mainly for Stand By Me and The Lost Boys), and David McDonnell's roundup of genre headlines (such as the news that the next James Cameron film is going to be called The Abyss – not that you asked, but in my opinion, it's the best Cameron film).

Adam Pirani previews director Neil Jordan's film High Spirits (starring a much-younger Liam Neeson, along with Steve Guttenberg, Daryl Hannah, and Peter O'Toole); Diana Whitaker Jackson interviews writer Jean Lorrah, author of The Vulcan Academy Murders, Empress Unborn, and more; Edward Gross profiles director Richard Colla about his tours of duty on Battlestar Galactica, The Questar Tapes, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and other shows; Theorist-in-Chief Michael J. Wolff turns his pen (keyboard?) to tackling the meanings of The Blob (the first time I wrote that sentence, I misspelled it as "The Blog," which would be about a different beast that takes over the world); because Cocoon was a success, 20th Century Fox decided the world needed a follow up, and Ian Spelling was dispatched to report on Cocoon: The Return.

Glen E. Swanson explains the making and the resulting controversy of Orson Welles' 1938 radio version of War of the Worlds, with a sidebar by Daniel Dickholtz on a new production of the story for National Public Radio; meanwhile, Peter Bloch-Hansen gets the behind-the-scenes story on the making of the syndicated TV series; in the Fan Network pages, there are answers to reader queries (such as, "Having seen The Boy Who Could Fly on cable, I have fallen for Lucy Deakins. Is she sticking with acting or has she gone on to be a marine biologist as she stated in the interview in Starlog #111?") and some short news bits on a Twin Cities Doctor Who convention and a James Bond art competition; producer Frank Marshall is interviewed by Edward Gross and David McDonnell, who get him to discuss Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the new Indy Jones film (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), and more; Michael Mallory interviews stuntman Tom Steele; Desire Gonzales profiles the actor who played the Next Generation's Traveler character, Eric Menyuk; Peter Bloch-Hansen talks with screenwriters Brent Maddock and Steve Wilson about their creation, Short Circuit and its sequel, and they tell him "We've discovered that writers are basically powerless" in Hollywood; in an extra-lengthy Videolog column, David Hutchison gives background on Disney's The Three Caballeros and Cinderella; Carr D'Angelo interviews AlienNation director Graham Baker; and editor David McDonnell wraps it all up in his Liner Notes by listing all kinds of magazines not published by his company to which you should consider subscribing. I'm sure his bosses loved that column.

"Graham Baker is unique in Hollywood: He is the first director of a science-fiction film who is actually a visitor from space. (He's lying. While Baker is the director of AlienNation, a tale of extraterrestrial immigrants in Los Angeles, he is originally from England.) On his home planet, Baker was a prominent rocket scientist whose visionary ideas about space travel inspired a generation. (Actually, Baker spent 15 years in advertising as an award-winning commercials director before helming his first feature.) Prior to AlienNation, Baker had taken an extended vacation on Mars where he is an honorary colonial governor. (Not true. Before filming began, Baker kept busy directing the infamous Joe Isuzu ads that immediately became a pop culture staple – but you may have figured that out already.)

–Carr D'Angelo, writer, "Pride & Prejudice"

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

The Starlog Project: Starlog #136, November 1988: Lost Star Treks

This issue has some great background – which I’d never seen anywhere else – about lost or abandoned plans for continuations of the Star Trek franchise. If you read some of these earlier writeups of Starlog from the late 1970s, before Star Trek – The Motion Picture debuted, you’ll see it was a yes-no-yes-no situation where they studio kept switching between producing a feature film or a new TV series. This issues features two articles from Edward Gross on the plans for the TV series – plans that heretofore had not been revealed as having been this extensive.

Frankly, this is Star Trek geek material par excellence. At its low ebb, Starlog did little more at times than publish articles on the current films and TV programs. But it was rare that it didn’t include something that had higher value (not to devalue the need to report on the current projects). This issue is a great example of that, with two articles (one of them an episode guide to the planned series that makes for very interesting reading) on the TV series. In a strange way, it’s even more interesting to read this now than if they’d published it in 1981, before Star Trek: The Next Generation showed that they could do the series (and the movies) again. All in all, a treat.

David McDonnell heralds the release of Starlog’s newest companion publication: the Starlog Science-Fiction Video Magazine, which is a special magazine chock full of reviews of tons of SF films. It was a great idea, and it was well-executed; the company would go on to produce a second edition of this within a year or so, as well as two Fangoria horror editions, all of which are well worth collecting and reading today.

Starlog #136
76 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $3.50

The rundown: AlienNation takes the cover spot, though the biggest call-out on the cover seems to be a Batman movie contest (whoever won that?). In his From the Bridge column, publisher Kerry O’Quinn, the many who wrote multiple articles in the long-defunct sister magazine Future Life about the wonders of computers, comes out of the closet and announces that only now has he actually begun to use a computer; the Communications section includes letters from readers such as Harry Harrison on the U.S. roots of science fiction, many folks commenting on the attempted Starman TV revival, praise for the Ray Harryhausen article on his retirement from films, comments on the many Blake’s 7 articles the magazine has run, and more; David McDonnell’s Medialog includes all kinds of news from the worlds of science fiction media, such as the announcement that the Star Trek: The Next Generation replacement for Dr. Beverly Crusher will be played by Diana Muldaur (who was awesome as the antagonist rain-maker lawyer on L.A. Law around the same time, BTW).

Marc Shapiro explores the new incarnation of The Twilight Zone with a talk with J. Michael Straczynski (who took the magazine to task in a recent letter to the editor); Catherine Hicks – the Earth woman who helped the Enterprise crew rescue whales in 20th century earth’s Star Trek IV film – is interviewed by Ian Spelling and Kim Howard Johnson about her Trek and about her film Child’s Play; the Fan Network pages include Steve Swires on a fan club for John Carpenter, answers to reader queries (such as, "Whatever happened to the Spider-Man movie?" – a question we're still asking today), short items on fan clubs for Beauty and the Beast, and more; Marc Shapiro interviews television director Rob Bowman;  Eric Niderost previews Mac and Me; Carr D'Angelo profiles actor Many Patinkin about his role in AlienNation; Steve Swires checks in with director John Carpenter, who discusses his movie They Live; horror flicks take the lead in David Hutchison's Videolog column.

Edward Gross explores "Star Trek II: The Lost Generation," examining the aborted plans for a TV series before The Motion Picture; Tim Ferrante profiles actor Jock Mahoney (Tarzan, westerns); Michael J. Wolff is back with another theory-filled exploration of a film's world, this time diving into the Terminator lore; Edward Gross is back with an "episode guide" to the unfilmed first season of Star Trek II (which makes fascinating reading, because of how many of the storylines, characters, and situations would be recycled in the Trek movies and in the Next Generation series); Kim Howard Johnson previews Graham Chapman's CBS sitcom Jake's Journey; Edward Gross profiles science-fiction writer Jerry Sohl and his work on the original Star Trek series; and David McDonnell's Liner Notes column provides answers to frequently asked reader questions (such as, "How much are my back issues of Starlog worth?").

"For some time, Barry Diller, then the head of Paramount Pictures, had dreamed of starting a fourth television network to compete with the three majors (a dream Diller would eventually realize with Fox Broadcasting a decade later). To this end, they contacted independent stations throughout the United States and began offering product to fill one night a week, cornerstoned by Star Trek II."

–Edward Gross, writer, "Star Trek II: The Lost Generation"

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