Alpha Log (Space:1999 zine)

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Zine
Title:	Alpha Log
Publisher:	Main Mission Alpha
Editor(s):	Mary Bloemker, Gail Paradis
Date(s):	1977-1980 (spring)
Series?:	yes
Medium:	print zine
Size:
Genre:	gen
Fandom:	Space: 1999
Language:	English
External Links:	Wayback link to zine flyer; pdf copies are hosted on Dragon's Domain.
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Alpha Log was the yearly clubzine published by Main Mission Alpha, the oldest of the Space: 1999 fan clubs. It is a gen zine. Two issues have been scanned here.

It has a sister zine, a newsletter called Main Mission Alpha, later Command Center.

Club members were sent the first four issues of this fiction/art zine once a year in the spring as part of their dues. In a cost-saving measure, the fifth issue was offered only as a separate purchase.

Its Origins

Alpha Log was the club fanzine for the Space: 1999 club, Main Mission Alpha. In the late '70s, many zines were published as part of a club's activities, and Main Mission Alpha was no different. The zines were pubished [sic] annually, and distributed to all active members as part of their club membership. Main Mission Alpha was born at one of the early Star Trek conventions in New York City. Mary Bloemker was originally the club vice president, but took over responsibility for the club from the founder when she moved west, and began publishing the club zine with issue #2, with assistance from the club VP, G. Paradis and other local friends. At the time, the club had over 200 members across the US. Each issue would contain art, stories, poems, limericks, articles, crossword puzzles, and more submitted by club members. The club zine ran for five issues, ending with the fifth issue in 1981.

Issue 1

Alpha Log 1 was published in 1977.

• Aftermath by M.D. Bloemker (pages 26–31) This story could also be in issue #5 instead
• other unknown content

Issue 2

cover of issue #2, Mary D. Bloemker

Alpha Log 2 was published in 1978 and has 26 pages.

• Psychon Encounter (6 pages)
• Into the Stars (2 pages)
• Spoof:1999 (2 pages)
• Our Alpha Love (1 page)
• Journey to Where Word Find (1 page)
• Is This the Face ...? (2 pages)
• Survivor? (1 page)
• Daughter of the Stars (1 page)
• Space: 1999 Portfolio (6 pages)
• Alphan Memory (1 page)

Issue 3

cover of issue 3, Judy Moore

Alpha Log 3 was published in March 1979 and contains 31 pages.

• From the Command Desk (1)
• "Living Death" by Tom McLaren (2)
• Theme by James Herbert (6)
• "Galactic Game of Marbles" a poem by Kathi Lynn Higley (8)
• "The DNA Crisis" by Sharon Chag (9)
• Ring a Circle Around the Moon by Rickey Jones (10)
• For the Love of Man (13)
• Alpha Limerick (13)
• "The Perfect Place....But" by Paul Bens (15)
• Moonbase Alpha by Jeff Barber (18)
• Fate (18)
• "Deadly Strategy" by Tod Ellsworth
• art by Linda Brune, Kathi Lynn Higley, Guy Verrette, Pat Munson, James Herbert, Tod Ellsworth (back cover) and Judy Moore (front cover)

Issue 4

cover of issue #4, Evelyn Baker

Alpha Log 4 was published in April 1980 and contains 33 pages.

• A Step Towards the Future by Meta Campbell (1 page)
• She Sleeps Now, poem by Terry S. Bowers (1 page, based on the episode "Journey to Nowhere")
• Looking Back: The Childhood of a Commander, poem by James Herbert (1 page)
• The Luck O' the Irish, It Was Just One of Those Daze Days by Jolinda Mattison (11 pages)
• Alien Love (1 page)
• Reflections of a Tired, Aging Scientist (1 page)
• Stress Factor by Karla Von Huben (10 pages)
• Mindbenders #1, a crossword puzzle by Patrick Zimmerman

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 4

"A Step Towards the Future" is a short-short tale about a thirteen-year-old David Kano and his earliest attempts at computer maintenance (which aren't very successful as his father's lab computer goes *kerput* after David's fiddling with it). It isn't great literature, and certainly won't make Dickens rise from his grave fearing for his reputation, but it's a smile-bringer. And if Kano's folks were as nice as Meta's made them to be, Kano surely must have missed them sorely after "Breakaway." In the poetry department: Two of my favorites were "Looking Back: The Childhood of a Commander" (which should have had the alternate title, "A Loss of Unicorns") by James Herbert, which is a brief but eloquent soliloquy by John Koenig on the loss of earth and the magic of childhood, and Terry S. Bowers' "She Sleeps Now," another short poem based on "Journey to Nowhere." "The Luck O' the Irish, or It Was Just One of Those Daze Days" is yet another "what-the-Alphans-do-at-home-when-no-alien-Avon-ladies-pop-in-on-them" story but, unlike most I've read, this one is good. A bit heavy-handed humor-wise, but the characterizations ring true, and its ending brings a lump to your throat (but mayhaps mine was due to an errant Dorito?) and tear to the eye, if you're sentimental. There's also a Space:1999 "Mindbenders #1 Journey Crossword" puzzle which not only looks like it is a mindbender, but looks like Patrick put his whole heart and soul into it. And the very best piece of prose in the zine: "Stress Factor." A VERY good story with excellent plotting, characterizations and a lot of believable "throw-away" scientific theory. An uninhabitable planet is happened upon by Alpha with lots of tiranium, that precious ore vitally needed on the Moonbase. A crew is selected to penetrate the hellish atmosphere of the planet's gravitational pull opens a stress pocket in the catacombs beneath the base. It all adds up to oodles of suspense and clammy palms for the reader. Excellent...

Issue 5

Alpha Log 5 was published in fall 1981. It is offset and has about 40 pages of fiction, art, and poetry.

cover of issue #5, Judy Moore

• It Takes All Kinds (4 pages)
• A Chance (2 pages)
• Girl Trouble (8 pages)
• HMS Hood (2 pages)
• Alien Return (5 pages)
• Dear Maya (1 page)
• Aftermath (8 pages)
• A Bad, Mercifully Short Poem (1 page)
• I Was Here (1 page)
• Biographies of David Kano and Robert Brian Mathias (1 page)
• Another Bad, Mercifully Short Poem (1 page)
• There is Nothing Wrong with the Big Screen (1/2 page)
• Still Another Bad, Mercifully Short Poem (1/2 page)
• Jackie (1 page)
• Starshine Thoughts (1/2 page)
• Even Yet Another Bad, Mercifully Short Poem (1/2 page)