Federation Update
| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Federation Update (later issues were planned to be called simply "Update") |
| Publisher: | South Shore High School Star Trek Club ("under the instruction of Mr. Damast"), out of Brooklyn, New York |
| Editor(s): | Kenneth W. Altman (chief editor, president), William Stein (copy editor, vice president), Samuel Navon (layout editor, production committee), Stephen Rayburn (finance editor, treasurer), Eileen Sherman (production committee, secretary) |
| Type: | |
| Date(s): | 1977 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: TOS |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Federation Update is a Star Trek: TOS non-fiction zine of articles. Federation Update 1 was published in April 1977 and contains 19 pages.
The art is by Stan Holder, Rebecca Farash, and Kenneth Altman.
 front cover of issue #1, Kenneth Altman |
 back cover of issue #1, Stan Holder |
While a second issue was planned (and was to be renamed "Update"), this may have been the only issue.
Regarding the Title, and Planned Change
The zine's title was to be changed to "Update" after the first issue. While the first issue's editorial only alludes to it, the title alternation was due to avoid the initials "F.U." [1]:
The name that was unanimously voted upon was "FEDERATION UPDATE." That choice presented a prob1em in itse1f. It was a normal day in late October, 1976 until a club member approached me and asked: "What is the abbreviation for 'FEDERATION UPDATE'?" The abbreviation that first entered my mind was "F.U.", which was soon to be followed by "FED UP". Neither of those seemed possible because readers would pay more attention to the zine's abbreviation rather than its articles. "UPDATE" is the final choice for now until someone approaches me in the near future with a complaint.
From the President
In late June 1976, just about the time that I was getting over-anxious for the BICENTENNIAL-10 Star Trek convention in September to take place, an idea popped into my head....South Shore needs a Star Trek club. I figured that out of 6000 students, I could find a nucleus of 20 stalwarts to start with.
For those of you who want to start your own Star Trek Club, or are just interested in what my problems were, here they are. The first problem that came into my mind was: "What does one do at a Star Trek Club meeting?" My first vision was of everyone sitting around in a circle yelling "STAR TREK,STAR TREK" while clapping their hands. But, the more I thought about it, the more things I came up with to do. For instance: providing members with the latest information on new products, dates of conventions, and general information. Further ideas arose such as: ordering discount products, showing films, and publishing a fan magazine, which you are reading right now. All this boiled down to us having a catch with a tribble while listening to tapes of episodes.
Publishing a fan magazine is a totally different story. First you have to acquire science fiction fans, then out of those, find who are talented. The club was divided into writers, artists, and those able to suggest a title for this magazine.
"How Much is That Kirk Doll in the Window?"
The essay by Sam Navon addresses both the juvenile marketing and the excessive marketing of Star Trek. While it doesn't mention Star Trek: The Animated Series, is also likely being alluded to:[2]
How many of you think that Star Trek was intended for a viewer audience over a fourth grade level of maturity and intelligence? If you don't think so, what are you doing reading this right now? Lately, though, Star Trek is being reduced to the level of Fred Flintstone and Bugs Bunny, thanks to the money hungry toy companies.
Along with the traditional Ken and Barbie dolls, your local toy store owner is probably including items such as toy phasers communicators, and Kirk and Spock dolls on his reorder list to the toy manufacturers. And you better believe millions are being made from this idea.
There is no reason why my eight year old sister should laugh at me for liking Star Trek, because to her it is a kiddie show (she has, by the way, a Spock doll). Star Trek was in no way intended to be a kiddie show, like other space series, not mentioning any titles (Dr. Smith and Will Robinson), were. Today's toy market is giving Star Trek a bad name.
It seens to me that when a TV show is successful it is exploited in every, from tee-shirt iron-ons to Kojak suckers. Few, if any of us, haven't seen posters of "Charlie's Angels", "The Sweathogs" (together and individually), "Starsky and Hutch" and the Fonz", the latter used to endorse countless products, from pajamas to snow tires. Why, you might even be the last one on your block to have a toy "Baretta" parrot that talks when you put a knife to its neck. It just kills me to think that so many people are living off the accomplishment of popular TV shows.
This does, of course, present a potential danger to the future of Star Trek. As the years go by and the younger viewers get older, they will feel that they have outgrown this show without ever realizing that the show was not intended solely for children. After all, would you go to a Dr. Suess convention?
I am afraid, dear fans, that as long as Star Trek's success continues, the toy phaser will continue to replace the cap gun and the image that this creates will continue to supersede the one that was meant to be.
Contents
- Message from the President (2)
- An Interview with Cyrano (Stanley Adams) by David Krinsky ("This past September, I attended the BICENTENNIAL-10 Star Trek Convention held here in New York at the Statler-Hilton Hotel. I had the rare opportunity to interview Stanley Adams, who played Cyrano Jones in the episode "The Trouble With Tribbles". So here is the interview Mr. Adams was so kind to grant me.") (4)
- Future Earth by Eileen Sherman ("Much has been written about the societies of members in the United Federation af Planets. But for all of this there has been a surprising lack of information published on the United Nations of Earth. In an attempt to change this, Federation Update has obtained permission to print the following excerpts from the forthcoming book "Report on Planet Earth," by the noted director of the Memory Alpha archives, C. Edward Dorea.") (5)
- Parallel Universe - Water in Outer Space, article by Mitchell Lerman (6)
- Art Feature: Tribbles Blueprint (7)
- First Season Episode Reviews by Joel Eisner (8)
- Humor: Comments and Questions by Sam Navon and Ken Altman (11)
- Art Feature: Lily of the Valley (12)
- Puzzle Corner (13)
- Fear!, fiction by Billy Stein (original science fiction) (15)
- Editorial: How Much is that Kirk Doll in the Window?, commentary by Sam Navon (17)
- Skylab, article (courtesy of NASA) (18)
- Apollo-Soyuz, article (courtesy of NASA) (19)
Sample Interior
artist not credited
Proposed Second Issue
A second issue was described in the first issue. It is unknown if it was published.
Federation Update 2 (Winter 1978)40 pages of quality zine!
- Earth History
- Duen Review
- 2nd & 3rd Season Trek
- Science Fiction TV
- Puzzles, Art
- Conventions
References
- ^ The editor said he was trying to avoid "Fed Up." But it was much more likely "Fuck You."
- ^ Ironically, there are several ads for comics and Star Trek fan merchandise in this zine, one of them being The Federation Trading Post.