Diplomacy (Star Trek: TOS zine)

Zine
Title:	Diplomacy
Publisher:	"United Friends of William Shatner Fan Club," the William Shatner fan club of which Broadwater was president, on the zine "UCC 1977 Member Club of the Performing Arts Triptych"
Editor(s):	Maxine Lee Broadwater
Date(s):	June 1977
Series?:
Medium:	print
Genre:	gen
Fandom:	Star Trek: TOS
Language:	English
External Links:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

front cover by Gee Moaven, reprinted in All About Star Trek Fan Clubs #6

back cover by P.S. Nim

Diplomacy is a gen Star Trek: TOS 68-page zine of fiction and articles dedicated to William Shatner.

It was edited by Maxine Lee Broadwater. The front cover is by Gee Moaven.

It was meant to be a club annual, but this was the only issue.

The dedication: "Dedicated to William Shatner, the Man and the Artist who is gentle on the brain, a joy to behold with the eyes, Diplomatically Loving to the heart, and a True lifting of spirit to the soul."

Also from the title page: "This journal is not intended as any infringement on Norway Productions, Star Trek, or Paramount. It is intended solely for the purpose of enjoyment of the members of United Friends of William Shatner and any other fans who may wish to purchase a copy."

This publisher also registered her zine with WSA as #1103.

Contents

• Though I Admire Lord Larry, I'm Just Wild About Bill by Nancy Noyes Polio (article about Lawrence Olivier, William Shatner) (5)

• a copy of a thank you letter from a charity thanking the club for their donation of children's toys
• Report on the 1976 Children's Project by Ruth Wain, article about a club's charity which is a residential facility in Canada for children with severe disabilities (8)

• a copy of a letter from the White House, saying the president of the United States saying that it was uncertain if he would attend the unveiling of the first space shuttle, but that the president "appreciated your suggestion of a name" (this was the shuttle Enterprise) (11)
• a copy of a letter from Susan Sackett giving a short update on the movie: script is nearly complete (February), hopefully begin shooting by August, with a possible release date of July 4, 1978 (12)
• a copy of the ubiquitous letter regarding Stardate 1977 (13)

• The Sun Plays Tricks by Jerry Cocchiola (This is an RPF "written" in the first person as though the author was William Shatner, recounts the strange time he had when he passes out from the heat of the desert and finds himself, yes... aboard the Enterprise with the Star Trek characters: " Marcie and I had been vacationing in Nevada for about a week. We wanted to spend some time alone for once. That particular morning I decided to take my motorcycle out and rid along the sand dunes for a few hours before Marcie woke up.") (14)
• Transcriptions from "Tattletales" for the Week of June 1974 (William and Marcy Shatner are guests.) (17)
• a full-page publicity photo of Captain Kirk (21)
• some sort of word game/puzzle (22)
• crossword puzzles, an ad for Diamonds and Rust (24)

• The Paradise Syndrome: A Review by Pam Ditto (27)
• a review of "Barbary Coast" by Pam Ditto (28)
• Meeting William Shatner, a fan testimonial by Ruby Azzue (30)
• a transcript of Shatner's appearance on the Merv Griffin Show in November 1975, transcribed by Lorraine Tuttihasi (33)
• a full-page publicity photo of Spock and Kirk (37)
• Star Trek, article by Eliane A. Hopson (about how fabulous William Shatner is, and how Star Trek has "spiritual power, has a focus of the Baha'i scriptures and faith) (39)
• In Rhyme and Time with Bill, a poetry section: "Shakespearian [sic] Sonnet, Primal Man" by Jolieta Constantine Smith, "Unnamed Poem: To Capt. Kirk, may his life be as full as he has made mine" by Karen Kennedy, "A Salute to James T. Kirk" by Deborah Anderson, "The Captain's Wife" by Deborah Anderson, "Emergence" by Dawn B. McGhiey, "The Star Spangled Shatner" (filk) by Conn M. Quinn I, "Extension" by Dawn B. McGhiey, "There Is No Darkness Here" by Dawn B. McGhiey, "Kaleidoscope" by Dawn B. McGhiey, "Fear" by Amy Weingart, "Nova, Rethought" by Dawn B. McGhiey, "Facets of the Mind" by Dawn B. McGhiey, "Spectrum" by Dawn B. McGhiey, "Soverign [sic] Splendor" by Jolieta Constantine Smith (41)
• full-page publicity photo of Captain Kirk (52)
• "Trekking Toward the Future," newspaper clipping from the Chicago Daily News, February 7, 1976 (53)
• various fan illos of William Shatner and the Enterprise (54)
• an ad for Saurian Brandy Digest ( (61)
• various newspaper clippings, including a reprinted review of "A Whale of a Tale" (63)
• various ads for miniatures, masks, and other Trek goods (64)
• In Closing, by Jerry Cocchiloa (imagined quotes from Star Trek characters regarding this zine) (67)
• full page publicity still of Spock, Kirk and McCoy (68)

From "Trekking Toward the Future

At first blush, there's something frightening about the intensity of the Star phenomenon. Boys and girls, young men and women, and even some not-so-young men and women seem to lose touch with reality whenever the topic of the former television series is brought up. They dress in Star Trek costumes, tell dates using Star Trek calendars, spend their money on all kinds of Star Trek paraphernalia, and they band together by the thousands in clubs and conventions in the Star Trek name. Ballantine Books has sold more than 3000,000 copies of detailed blueprints of the interstellar spaceship Enterprise and the Trekkies have made a best seller --- 450,000 copies sold --- of Ballantine's Star Fleet Technical Manual, featuring such exotica as how to identify alien spaceships and a schematic drawing of the main propulsion unit for a deep-space starship. All this is in celebration of a a television that ran the last of its 79 original episodes in 1969. In those stories, the crew of the Starship Enterprise... rallied the allegiance of devotees who have made "Star Trek" reruns one of the most popular shows on television. Some critics, including no small number of parents, regard the Star Trek phenomenon as further evidence of the retreat into mindless fantasy among the young. But perhaps there is nothing so sinister in the movement. On the contrary, it could be part of a renaissance o fundamental verities. "Star Trek" is above all a television show of ideas. The action-filled plots are important, to be sure, but it's the underlying abstract ideas that impart depth to the characters and make them real. The Enterprise crew was grappling with problems like overpopulation, the place of the individual in society, racism, drug abuse, and alienation long before they became a staple of the current brand of "relevant" television programming. Underlying these stories is the subtle postulate that life, in whatever form, is ultimately valuable and that demagoguery and ignorance will be anathema in the future among men of good will as it is today. The very fact that "Star Trek" takes place in the 23rd century also sets if far apart from other television shows. Each episode states unequivocally that mankind as a future and, by implication, the shaping of that future began yesterday. The Star Trek productions themselves are far from deathless drama. They are often unsophisticated and puerile, especially in the waning episodes , when money ran short and the creative integrity of the scripts was compromised. But even so, the message from the Enterprise is that the future is a good place to be and that getting there will be fun. Not a bad message at that, particularly when it is stacked up against the prophecies of gloom and doom that have their own share of breathless devotees.

Interior Sample

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  inside page, some Star Trek RPF

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  inside page, a pledge of allegiance to the Star Trek Welcommittee

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  inside page

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  inside page

Reactions and Reviews

DIPLOMACY shows the club's dedication and sincere effort to achieve their goals. There is even a curious objectivity in the annual which is uniquely refreshing among club literature. For example, one page of DIPLOMACY is dedicated to a review of the rather poorly received film A WHALE OF A TALE, even though the only sentence that deals with Mr. Shatner's performance in the film was an opinion that a better performance should have been expected of such a fine actor.