Holidays (ST:TNG anthology zine)
| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Holidays |
| Publisher: | It is unclear whether Bill Hupe or Peg Kennedy agented/distributed this zine for other publishers or whether they edited and published the zines themselves. Check the copyright on the printed fanzine for confirmation. |
| Editor(s): | |
| Date(s): | 1990 (possibly 1989) |
| Series?: | |
| Medium: | |
| Genre: | gen |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: TNG |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Holidays is a gen Star Trek: TNG fiction 52-page (printed on one side) anthology by Lisa Beckingham.
Reactions and Reviews
It says on the title page that the stories were written "for an educator of young adults for classroom use." This could be one reason for the stories all being very short. The zine consists of five stories, all by the same writer. The first involves a trip through the Guardian of Forever - when Picard's party returns, things have been altered (not by them; indeed, not even in the period they visited.) They go back to pur things right. Then there is a poem. The Night Before Christmas, which is a parody on the well-known poem of the same name; Wesley plays Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, but the after-the-show party doesn't work our quite ao he expected; Data gets a lesson in practical Joking; and Data picks up an unusual pet when the ship visits a planet with an insectoid population.I wish that writers who use the Guardian of Forever would re-watch City before they do so, to remind themselves of how it operated, instead of having the Guardian react as they want it to. In addition, that story reads more like a story outline than a fully developed story. It needed a bit more thought to improve it from competent to good, although I can appreciate that if it was written for 'young adults' (teenagers?) the writer would not want to lengthen it too much. The poem, at one verse per page, wastes space terribly. As a parody, though, it's quite good. The Wesley story is an interesting little piece of adolescent reaction to growing up - not one I would necessarily want to re-read, but a pleasant read the first time round. The practical joke one I didn't like; well enough developed, it was cruel, but the perpetrators did learn their lesson. If its purpose was to persuade people not to indulge in practical joking, I take its point.
The last story was good. The twist did not surprise me - a throwaway line early on wasn't thrown away quite casually enough for me, though perhaps it was for the age group it was written for - but despite that, I definitely enjoyed it.
My biggest objection to the zine is that it is printed on one side of the page only. This makes it seem longer than its 52 pages, but increases the cost. If Lisa felt that a 26-sheet zine was too short to put out, I think she should have waited until she wrote a few more stories to lengthen it before going into print. [1]