Geoff Allshorn
| Fan | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Geoff Allshorn |
| Alias(es): | Stephen Stonewall, Stephanie Stonewall, Adrian Gaetano, Alec Gordensen, Gordon Boma, Glenda Barnes, Jack B Nimble, Bruce Price, KR |
| Type: | Fanwriter, Zine Editor, Essayist, Club Founder |
| Fandoms: | Star Trek, UFO, science fiction, the space program |
| Communities: | LGBT+, human rights, Austrek, Spaced Out |
| Other: | Amnesty International Australia, Space:1999 |
| URL: | https://humanist-world.net/ |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Geoff Allshorn started writing fan fiction as a child and this later progressed to newsletters and fanzines, including being founding editor/writer for Club News, The Space Age, MASC Newsletter, Trekkie Talk, The Captain's Log, Captain's Log Supplemental, Spock, Interceptor, These Are The Voyages, Diverse Universe, and Solar Spectrum.
He has been a member of various local and national SF clubs, and participant/contributor to various conventions, over the decades. He was also the founder of several clubs: these include the Melbourne Amateur Science Club in 1973; the Star Trek club, Austrek, in 1976; and the queer SF club, Spaced Out, in 1999.
His friendship with Diane Marchant helped to create Austrek and place it on a solid footing that has enabled the club to survive (along with help from about one thousand other people) for nearly fifty years. In 2023, Austrek reaffirmed his Life Membership of the club, and also established the Allshorn/Marchant award for dedicated service to the club.
He was co-recipient of a Ditmar Award in 2002 for his work with Spaced Out.[1] He has also received awards for his human rights activism, volunteer work that aligns with his utopian science fiction ideals and humanist philosophies. He has even been Tuckerized.
Geoff is past committee member, treasurer, radio presenter, and co-editor for the Space Association of Australia. His writing on the space program has been published in the Herald Sun[2], Sky & Space[3], The Skeptic[4], and his own humanist blog.
In 2017, he donated his fanzine and newsletter collection to the Special Collections section of Monash University library in Melbourne.
Interviews
Writings
These include:
- Stand By For Action! An article commemorating the 60th anniversary of Stingray (Supermarionation series).
- Beam Us Home An article for 2024 Star Trek Day, exploring ways that Star Trek (and much western science fiction) has failed to boldly go. Some proposals for new directions: feminist SF, Afrofuturism, indigenous and Asian SF.
- Fandom Is A Way of Life A lead-up to the approaching fiftieth anniversary of Austrek and an acknowledgement of the human universality of fandom.
- Mission to Planet Earth On the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, what can we learn from the space program - and how it has changed our world.
- Doctor Who - Who Indeed? An interview with John Edwards Davies (first President of the DWCV)
- The Challenging Enterprise of Discovery (memorial tribute to Star Trek and SF fan Helena Binns) - also her own autobiographical writing Helena at the Fringe of Fandom - Her Authentic Story.
- Moonbase Alpha is Go! (Commemorating the anniversary of the world premiere of Space:1999 in Melbourne, Australia, on 28 July 1975, with fan recollection/review, and creative or cultural, largely humanist links to Twilight Zone, Star Trek and Doctor Who).
- Trekking on the Edge of the Yarra (an interview with Paul Murphy, early Austrek member, creator of 'Starrag' magazine, and co-creator of fan film 'The City on the Edge of the Yarra')
- A Privileged Life (human rights activist autobiography)
- We Are All Spiderman (Finding Meaning in Modern Mythology: From Sherlock to Spider-Man; from The Rocket to Star Wars)
- Space, Science and Fiction. Beam Me Home. (review of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds)
- Life, But Not As We Know It: Star Trek, fan culture, slash fiction and the queering of Starfleet Command
- Life, but not as we know it: Star Trek, fan culture, slash fiction and the queering of Starfleet Command
- The Lark Ascended: In memory of Roger (a tribute with Geoff Roderick in memory of SF fan activist Roger Weddall)
- From Queer to Eternity
- From Queer to Eternity (reflections on LGTB+ including the founding of Spaced Out, queer issues in SF, and the shared commonalities between SF and queer communities)
- With Stars in our Eyes (interactions between SF and science; science denialism; outgrowing old myths and creating new ones)
- Why Science Fiction? (how SF can inspire us and help to create the future)
- A Kiss is not just a Kiss (debunks the myth about TV's first interracial kiss in Star Trek)
- A Letter to Parents of a Science Fiction Fan
- Breakaway (diversity, early life including first fan fic, and life philosophies including humanism and Space:1999)
- The Prime Defective (criticism of Star Trek's Prime Directive)
- Awe for the Orville
- Brave New World? (diversity and stereotypes in SF)
- Fandom of the Opera (the cultural impact of SF and why it is important)
- Looking Ahead with Optimism (memorial tribute to two Star Trek fans - Diane Marchant and Theresa de Gabriele)
- Soon May the Enterprise Come (filk memorial tribute to Star Trek fan - Carol Ashcroft)
- We Must Return to the Moon
- Happy Birthday to Us All (autobiographical exploration for 60th birthday)
- We Are All Spock (Spock as the 'everyman' template and classic heroic archetype)
- Television: Dreams or Reality? (twelve TV science fiction episodes worth watching)
- Take the Red Pill? (The Matrix, reflects upon how society is so often too entrenched in 'blue pills' that insulate us from reality)
- From Omelas to Optimists (Ursula Le Guin's The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, and how society needs to help its vulnerable instead of gaslighting them)
- Always Remember (book on HIV/AIDS in Australia)
- "War!" - a Star Trek TOS fan fiction story from 1991 that metaphorically examines the tragedy of HIV/AIDS during that era; appears to be one of the few times that Star Trek encountered AIDS in fandom or fanworks.
Gallery
Space Association of Australia folks (including Helena Roberts, SF author Wynne Whiteford, and Geoff Allshorn) meet former NASA Administrator, Thomas Paine (center), in Melbourne on 18 October 1988
Meeting Apollo 16 astronaut Charlie Duke, 1990
Geoff with UK actor Ed Bishop from 'UFO', at Huttcon, November 1990
With Bjo Trimble at Victoricon, June 1991
Special Star Trek 25th anniversary program on the Space Show, Melbourne's "Southern FM" radio station, 8 September 1991. From left: Greg Franklin, Diane Marchant, Geoff Allshorn, and Wynne Whiteford.
Geoff meets Walter Koenig at Starfest, Melbourne, 20 February 1993
With David Gerrold at Cupcon, Melbourne, 31 October 1993
Meeting Australian astronaut Dr Paul Scully Power, Melbourne, 15 July 1994
With Majel Roddenberry at Starfest in Melbourne, 25 June 1994
Fans Kate Doolan and Geoff Allshorn meet Apollo 16 astronaut Charlie Duke in Melbourne, 16 September 1995
As an Andorian, Thorax, at the Star Trek 30th anniversary banquet, Melbourne, 31 August 1996.
Geoff Allshorn & Adam Howard - two Honorary members of Austrek, 3 January 1998
Robert Jan (Kosh) and Geoff at Aussiecon 3, September 1999
Geoff with J. Michael Straczynski (creator of Babylon 5) at Aussiecon 3, Melbourne, September 1999
Geoff and friend Gaye Erwin celebrate the Space:1999 Breakaway Party with the Multiverse SF group, Melbourne, September 1999
Geoff with Adrienne Losin, Paula Ruzek and Robert Jan at Austrek's 25th Birthday Party, September 2001
Interviewing SF author Joe Haldeman at Convergence, June 2002
An afternoon with Dick 'Ditmar' Jenssen at Convergence, Melbourne, June 2002
Geoff and Miriam English receiving the 'Ditmar' Award for the Spaced Out website, 8 June 2002. Photo by Cat Sparks
Geoff and Melanie Nemer at Austrek's 40th anniversary, 27 August 2016
Attending an Austrek meeting on 11 Feb 2017 with some old friends (original club members) to support my talk on the club's history.
Attending an important event (same-sex marriage of two science fiction friends on 13 May 2018) as Dr Who (photographer unknown)
Having my life membership of Austrek reaffirmed, March 2023
With Evan Evagora in Melbourne, 27 January 2024
Melanie receives Austrek's Allshorn/Marchant Award on 4 May 2024 (presented by Geoff Allshorn) - photo by Clare McDonald
Club Co-Founders Shane Morrissey (Star Walking) and Geoff Allshorn (Austrek) at an inter-club day in Melbourne, 1 June 2024. Photo by Melanie Nemer.
References
- ^ The Australian Science Fiction Bullsheet, Issue 4, July, 2002.
- ^ Gerald McManus (compiler), "Man on the Moon: Souvenir Liftout", Sunday Herald Sun, 10 July 1994, Melbourne, Australia.
- ^ Geoff Allshorn, "First Steps to the Moon," Sky & Space, Vol. 7 No. 2, Sky & Space Publishing, Bondi Junction (NSW), April 1994, pp. 22 - 25.
- ^ Geoff Allshorn, "Message from the Moon", The Skeptic, Vol. 30 No. 2, Australian Skeptics, Beecroft (NSW), June 2019, pp. 24 - 27.