The Starlog Project: Starlog #151, February 1990: They Kill Security Officers, Don’t They?

The space-alien buddy cop story Alien Nation only lasted one year, 22 episodes, on FOX TV in 1989-90. But while it existed, it got this cover story boost from Starlog. Hey, it was this or yet another Back to the Future II cover.

This issue Starlog publishes its mandated annual postal statement of ownership and circulation. The total paid circulation for the issue closest to the statement's filing deadline is listed as 160,739 (up a bit from the previous year's 156,109 ), including the number of paid subscriptions of 8,978 (down just a smidgen from 8,993 last year).

Starlog #151
76 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $3.95

Intriguing and/or odd classified ad of the month: “PLANET OF LOVE embroidered emblems of performance art event. Send SASE ...”

Photo caption of the month: “Just before the scene with the knife, Vincent [Price] was tickling me and I was laughing, and I couldn’t stop laughing after that,” recalls Kovack of her Diary of a Madman experience.

Or wait, here’s a rather good quip from Denise Crosby in a photo caption: “If someone seriously offered me a ticket to the Moon, ... I would have to go – because there would probably be a Star Trek convention there.”

And now, the rundown: Gary Graham and Eric Pierpoint are the Alien Nation cover boys this month; meanwhile, veteran actor James Coburn takes the featured spot on the contents page. Communications letters include thoughts on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (including one reader from Singapore who writes, “...it suddenly struck me that this could well be the last time Harrison Ford will ever be featured on the cover of your magazine, since Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is the last in the series...” ah, wait until next issue, my friend), plus a number of readers comment on various aspects of Trek, including one who fears that Deanna Troi’s character might be killed off; and there’s going to be a Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, based on the syndicated TV series, according to David McDonnell’s Medialog roundup of genre news.

Marc Shapiro profiles TV’s Alien Nation star Gary Graham (he plays Matthew Sikes); in some non-Alien Nation alien news, Peter Bloch-Hansen interviews actor Denis Forest, who plays a Morthren on War of the Worlds, another short-lived SF TV series; Kyle Counts interviews Land of the Giants star Gary Conway, who says, “Our show was much more visual. Star Trek tended to be very corny. It was filmed on static sets, and the FX weren’t particularly good. And the acting – talk about wooden.”; Marc Shapiro checks in with Lt. Uhura herself, Ms. Nichelle Nichols, who talks about Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and praises director William Shatner; hey, Klaatu! Laura Long interviews Billy Gray, who portrayed 13-year-old Bobby Bensen in the 1951 The Day the Earth Stood Still; the Videolog section includes an unbylined look at the science-fiction TV pilots that didn’t make it to series, plus David Hutchison’s short report on the latest video releases, such as Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.

Abbie Bernstein makes her first appearance in Starlog’s page, though today (2010) she’s a familiar name to readers of Fangoria, and here she talks with Robin of Sherwood creator Richard Carpenter; the Fan Network pages include Lia Pelosi’s directory of fan clubs and publications, while Robert Greenberger answers readers’ questions (such as, “Are there any soundtrack albums available for any Johnny Weissmuller’s Tarzan movies?”); March Shapiro talks with Back to the Future II star Michael J. Fox; in part two of Tom Waver and Michael Bruas’ interview with Richard Matheson, the legendary writer rates his Twilight Zone episodes; David McDonnell chats with actress Denise Crosby, who has bounced up since leaving Star Trek: The Next Generation, having landed a starring role in Pet Sematary; and there’s more Tom Weaver, who also provides a Q&A with Nancy Kovack, actress in such films as Jason and the Argonauts, Tarzan and the Valley of Gold, and others; Lowell Goldman profiles actor James Coburn; in an abridged edition of Kerry O’Quinn’s Bridge column, the former publisher goes flying; in part two of Steve Swires’ talk with Ray Harryhausen’s filmmaking partner Charles H. Schneer, the producer explains how Jack Lemmon almost led The 3 Worlds of Gulliver; in a two-page Tribute section, Edward Gross remembers the late Marc Daniels and Gerd Oswald, Mike Clark provides the obituary for Lost in Space star Guy Williams, and Anthony Timpone says good-bye to Merritt Butrick, who died of AIDS at the age of 29; and editor David McDonnell’s Liner Notes features all of his reasons to buy various Starlog Group publications.

“Identified as a Communist before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1951, the South African-born [director Cy] Endfield was blacklisted in Hollywood and was forced to work anonymously or pseudonymously in England, until [Charles] Schneer became the first American producer to offer him major studio employment under his own name. ‘Other American producers wouldn’t hire Cy, ... I knew he had been blacklisted, but Columbia didn’t object and I certainly didn’t. Frankly, I’m not interested in a person’s political or private life. All I care about is whether or not he knows his job. I was oblivious to everything else. There wasn’t any social message in the movie, so Endfield wasn’t going to be able to convert anybody.”

–Steve Swires, writer, “Maestro of the Magicks”

To see more issues, click on Starlog Internet Archive Project below or visit the permanent home of The Starlog Project.

The Starlog Project: Starlog #149, December 1989: Back to the Back to the Future

We know from his interview with Starlog several years back that Harlan Ellison hated Back to the Future. To punish him for his troublesome relationship with the studios (such as making a submarine drop on a big-time producer’s head) (you had to be there), Hollywood decided to release Back to the Future II: The Wrath of Khan. Wait, no, it was just Back to the Future II.

You remember that movie? It was the one you sat through because you thought it’d be better than the first one, but it turned out to look like a collection of out-takes from the first Back to the Future. In short, Back to the Future II was the Star Trek V of this series. (BTTF III, however, I thought was quite enjoyable, my usual Ellison-support be damned.)

Nonetheless, Back to the Future II is given center stage this issue, while Star Trek V: The Final Frontier takes it on the chin from readers and from Starlog’s former co-publisher.

Starlog #149
76 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $3.95

Classified ad of the month: “THE FIRST STAR TREK COMMUNITY will form for mature Trekkers. Structured community life expressing core values of ST on realistic level. Responsible, self-supporting individuals send legal SASE and autobiog letter of interest to ...” Who says fans don’t have commitment anymore?

The rundown: Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd are the co-cover boys this issue, heralding the second in the Back to the Future trilogy; but pre-teen girls will prefer the contents page, which features a big photo of Ariel from The Little Mermaid. The Communications section is entirely devoted to reader reactions to Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (one reader notes, “The Final Frontier is a perfect caricature, a distillation of everything that spells Star Trek to the uninitiated and the unsympathetic: camp, silliness, pseudo-science, pretentious pseudo-morality.”); and David McDonnell’s Medialog column questions whether Star Trek V killed the Trek film franchise. This might be a good issue to hide from William Shatner.

Marc Shapiro goes behind the scenes of the new Alien Nation TV series, a spinoff of the recent film of the same name; Richard Feather interviews novelist Connie Willis; Michael J. Wolff, the magazine’s interplanetary correspondent, explores movies from the sea (Creature from the Black Lagoon, Splash, etc.): “The number of legends concerning ‘sirens’ would indicate that ‘sea-faring’ nations (Greece, England, etc.) contained a greater than average number of mermen among their populations. Sinbad, Odysseus, Popeye, Nemo, Cousteau and other maritime adventurers may have been mermen or descendants of mermen” – make of that what you will.

Peter Bloch-Hansen interviews actor Robert Lansing, who portrayed Gary Seven in the original Star Trek episode “Assignment Earth” and who says of co-star Teri Garr, “She hadn’t had much experience then, but she had this kooky personality that certainly worked,” which is amusing only because in her own Starlog interview, Teri Garr pretty much straight-up expressed her disdain for the science fiction world; the only time I ever recall seeing Raggedy Ann & Andy mentioned in Starlog is in this month’s Videolog column by David Hutchison; in a recent issue of Starlog, we met Catwoman, and this time we meet Yvonne Craig, the Batgirl actress who is interviewed by Kyle Counts.

In the Fan Network pages, Peter L. Huston writes about a public television station that broadcasts episodes of Space: 1999, Laurie Morris announces the winning candidate for Klingon of the Year honors (it's Worf), and an unsigned item announces J.M. Dillard’s book Star Trek: The Lost Years; Marc Shapiro goes behind the scenes of Back to the Future III to preview the sequel; in part six of David Hutchison’s lengthy examination of the special effects of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, we learn some of the challenges that faced the filmmakers; Kathryn M. Drennan talks with actor and director Jeff Corey, who discusses what it was like to testify before the House Unamerican Activities Committee at the height of the Red Scare, and Mark Phillips contributes a sidebar on Corey’s role in the Star Trek episode “The Cloud Minders”; Edward Gross checks in with Star Trek V: The Final Frontier screenwriter David Loughery (with two sidebars: “The God Thing” and “Star Trek V: The Lost Ending”); Bill Warren checks in with actor Charles Cooper, who plays Klingon General Korrd in Star Trek V; continuing the Klingon theme, Kris Gilpin interviews actor Todd Bryant, who played Klaa in Trek V; it’s a veritable mini-Klingonpalooza, as Marc Shapiro interviews actress Spice WIlliams about portraying Trek V’s Vixis; in his Bridge column, Kerry O’Quinn continues his theme from last issue, as he finally gets to see Shatner’s Trek directorial debut and gives a mixed review of it, saying it’s not as bad as people had told him, but giving it especially harsh grades for its silly religious content; and editor David McDonnell is photographed “consulting with Weasels in Toontown” and chats/jokes about time travel in his Liner Notes column.

“In this first Back to the Future, I felt more like a tool. In this one, I feel more like an accomplice. ... In the last movie, Marty [McFly] was pretty much a victim of circumstance. He starts out that way in this one but we also discover a weakness in his personality along the way that tends to stir the pot and make things interesting. Marty has gone through enough of this traveling stuff to think that manipulating it might benefit him. He thinks that, in an innocent way, playing with time just might help him out.”

–Michael J. Fox, actor, interviewed by Marc Shapiro: “Back to the Future III”

To see more issues, click on Starlog Internet Archive Project below or visit the permanent home of The Starlog Project.