Timeline of Star Trek Fandom

Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
Dates:	1967 - present
See also:	Star Trek, Star Trek: The Original Series, Kirk/Spock (TOS), Kirk-Spock, List of Star Trek: The Original Series Fanzines, History of Slash Fandom, List of Star Trek TOS Zines Published While the Show Was Still On the Air
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Below is a timeline of Star Trek: The Original Series fandom from 1967 to 2012.

For a similar timeline, see Timeline of K/S Fandom.

1967

• First Star Trek fanzine, Spockanalia, published by Sherna Comerford and Devra Langsam.

1968

• A Fan Campaign succeeds in getting Star Trek renewed for a third season. And though it is cancelled after the third, it then had enough eps for syndication, helping it gain popularity through the 1970s.
• ST-Phile issues 1 and 2 published.

• 

  cover of 1968 con program

• 

  fandom-call-to-action by John and Bjo Trimble (1968)

1970

• Jacqueline Lichtenberg publishes the story 'Spock's Affirmation' in T-Negative #8 and starts the influential Kraith shared universe.

1972

• First fan run Star Trek con, with actor guests, Star Trek Lives! (convention) is held in NYC in Febuary at the Statler Hilton Hotel.
• Star Trek Welcommittee is founded.
• Carrie Peak publishes the first issue of the first "adult" Star Trek fanzine, Grup, in September.

1973

• The Star Trek Welcommittee starts publishing its newsletter 'A Piece of the Action (APOTA)' under the editorial guide of Mark Schulman

1974

• The first K/S story (in a zine), "A Fragment Out of Time" by Diane Marchant is published in Grup #3 (the first 'adult' Star Trek zine)

1975

cover of April 1975 issue of the Welcommitte flyer

• First fan-only (No actor guests) ST con: August Party, chaired by Rich Kolker. The con runs annually until 1979, once more in 1981 and a final edition is held in 1985.
• Star Trek Lives! is published; its chapter on fanfiction introduces the idea of fan fiction to huge numbers of fans who'd never heard of it before, piquing interest and spreading the activity.

1976

• February, TrekCon in Kansas City, attended by William Shatner, DeForest Kelley, and Nichelle Nichols.
• April 10-11 First midwest fan-only (No actor guests) ST con is held: SekWesterCon.

1977

• The height of the pornography and indecency feud in Star Trek fanfic. (Note: K/S had little or nothing to do with this.)
• In May, Star Wars is released in the United States.
• Warped Space #28 and other previously Star Trek-only zine series start including Star Wars material.
• The Rack is published in Contact #4 as a response to K/S.

1978

• The lettercols of some of the leading zines were filled with dire predictions. "Fandom is dying, everybody is gafiating; Star Wars fandom is taking over."
• The K&S vs K/S debate was prominent. Fans began complaining about the debate itself.

1979

• The Sensuous Vulcan (adult) by D. T. Steiner, The Displaced (adult) by Lois Welling and Thrust (K/S by Carole Frisbie published.
• Editors of the fanzine Contact published a complaint that someone had written an unauthorized sequel to their story, The Rack.
• Complaints about fan artists making money while fan writers are strongly discouraged from doing the same.
• Jean Lorrah's NTM Collected published; sold over 1000 copies the first year.
• In December, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is released, rejuvenating ST and K/S fandom. From Boldly Writing: The movie "captured the imagination (or disdain) of many fans, revived the waning interest of some old-timers, brought new fans into the fold, and gave everyone something new and different to discuss and write stories about. It was the beginning of a new era of Star Trek fandom and fanzines -- the movie era."

1980

• Mos'EastlyCon held in New York, May 23-26. First Fan Q given to a Star Wars story.
• Increasing numbers of fandoms start showing up in zines, leading to increasing numbers of crossover stories.
• Forum (later Datazine)and Universal Translator adzines start publishing.
• "Mary Sue: A Short Compendium," a discussion of the Mary Sue story, published in Archive #5. (a reprint from Menagerie)
• Zines increasingly xeroxed, rather than offset printed.
• One Way Mirror by Barbara Wenk, the best Mary Sue ST novel ever, published.
• Roberta Rogow brought out the Trexindex Second Supplement.
• Forum #12 started the tradition of identifying fanzines by a code telling what the contents were. "ST" meant a (non-K/S) Star Trek fanzine, "K/S" for K/S, "SW" meant a Star Wars fanzine, etc.

1981

• MediaWestCon I held in Lansing, MI, Memorial Day weekend. As of 2009, the con is still ongoing.
• A rumor that Spock would be killed in the 2nd ST movie led to an ad being placed in the Hollywood Reporter highlighting the tremendous financial losses to Paramount should Spock be killed in the new Star Trek movie. The ad resulted in a front page story in the Wall Street Journal on October 9, 1981."
• Mindy Glazer publishes Tales of Feldman, which goes into an almost immediate 2nd printing.
• Ruth Berman, editor of T-Negative, published zine of all of her fiction collected, called And Starry Skies.

1982

• The Star Trek Welcommittee puts out the final issue (# 94) of their zine, A Piece of the Action.
• The entire set of stories of The Weight by Leslie Fish is first advertised for sale. The zine finally sees daylight in 1989.
• The Star Trek Welcommittee 1982 directory lists 240 Star Trek fan clubs, 331 Star Trek fanzines, and 115 professional Star Trek books.
• net.startrek newsgroup is formed as one of the first 20 or so newsgroups, and soon after, the first online fanfic is posted.
• Syn Ferguson's Courts of Honor is advertised for sale; actual copies are still years away.
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is released.
• Paula Smith publishes A to Zine: The "How to" of Fan Publishing.

1983

• The Star Trek Welcommittee received 817 letters in '83.
• MediaWestCon III was fully a MM con: There were some Trek panels, but those were few in number. Most panels were generic or devoted to other "media" fandoms. This year the Fan Qs were divided into the interest categories Star Trek, Star Wars, Starsky and Hutch, Doctor Who, and Other.
• The continual rumors and Hollywood gossip about Star Trek III drove some fans to ask for spoiler warnings, for the first time known in fandom.
• DeForest Kelley was asked at a con if he read fanzines and replied, "Some of them I do. It's impossible to read them all.... There's some very good writing, you know. Some of the stories are better than the stories we did in the series."

1984

• Jean Lorrah put The Star Trek Welcommittee's mailing address in her Star Trek tie-in novel, The Vulcan Academy Murders. STW received 1155 letters from fans in 1984.
• Roberta Rogow put out Trexindex Third Supplement, listing 126 new zines. In her introduction, she said, "Three years ago, after contemplating the Second Supplement of this Trexindex, I decided not to do another one. The Star Trek Phenomenon was wearing thin, I thought. The Old Guard was moving to other things. The people who had started writing for Star Trek fanzines were now doing Star Wars, or 'going pro,' or just GAFIATING—leaving fandom forever. But...STAR TREK LIVES!"
• The Star Trek Welcommittee meeting at Worldcon drew 200+ people.
• In June, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock is released in the United States.
• Harlan Ellison reviews The Search for Spock in Asimov's Science Fiction, a prozine which appears on newsstands nationwide. He mentions the fact that Star Trek has a fandom which has developed a culture of its own, with amateur publications, conventions, and "Kirk-shtups-Spock soft-core porn stories."

1985

• Bill and Ann Hupe release their first zine, Abode of Strife.
• Pro Trek novel Killing Time by Della Van Hise released by Pocket Book, and almost immediately recalled in favor of a differently edited 2nd edition.
• Leonard Nimoy got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

1986

• A Camille Bacon-Smith article titled "Spock Among the Women" comes out in The New York Times Book Review on November 16, 1986. Article explains what Star Trek fanzines are, but doesn't give contact information.
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home comes out.
• ST:TNG is announced. Gene Roddenberry states, "Eventually Picard and Riker will have a closer relationship than Kirk and Spock."
• As part of the Great Usenet Renaming, net.startrek becomes rec.arts.startrek.

1989

• In June, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is released in North America. Star Trek V is generally considered the worst original series Star Trek film.

1990

• alt.startrek.creative appeared. Soon after, alt.tv.star-trek.tos started.

1991

• Trekiverse, the main archive for fanfiction posted to Alt.startrek.creative, Alt.startrek.creative.all-ages, and Alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated (ASCEM) is established and has been continuously maintained since then.
• In December, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is released in North America. It is the last original series film.

1994

• Star Trek: Generations is released in November. It is the first Star Trek: The Next Generation film, but features three original series characters -- Kirk, Scotty, and Chekov. Kirk dies.

1995

• New edition (first in 15 years) of Bjo Trimble's Star Trek Concordance published.

2009

• Star Trek (2009) is released on May 8, 2009. The film reboots the Star Trek: The Original Series by introducing an alternative reality caused by a time-space anomaly from the actions of Ambassador Spock (TOS). This brings in many new fans to the fandom. However, due to the change in dynamics of all the relationships in the rebooted film due to the change in canon (as compared to TOS), there is some kerfuffle/fanwank. (need to elaborate)
• Star Trek Big Bang is founded by daybreak25 and molokomolotov.

2010

• Star Trek Reverse Bang is founded by Ileliberte with signups posted in January.