NCC-1701D (Star Trek: TNG newsletter)

For articles with a similar name, see NCC-1701.

Zine
Title:	NCC-1701D
Publisher:	It Never Happened Press
Editor(s):	Natasha Mohr
Type:	newsletter
Date(s):	around 1990
Frequency:	bi-monthly
Medium:	print
Fandom:	Star Trek: TNG
Language:	English
External Links:
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NCC-1701D is a Star Trek: TNG newsletter. It has news, reviews, letters of comment, cartoons, articles, editorials, and more.

Its fiction sister zine is Hailing Frequencies.

Issue 8

NCC-1701D 8 was published in May 1990.

Issue 9

NCC-1701D 9 was published in July 1990.

Issue 10

NCC-1701D 10 was published in 1990 and contains 20 pages.

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 10

Natasha Mohr's NCC-1701D (not to be confused with the much fatter, all-fiction zine of the same name) does deserve brownie points, or at least a semi-sweet chocolate chip or two, in the Most Improved Appearance, Newsletter category, if for little else. This is the Next Gen zine whose early issues featured paste-up that would have looked normal if viewed from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, pages hand-numbered by someone with poor eye-hand coordination, and text that clung with bloodied fingertips to the extreme edge of the page while its feet dangled helplessly above the swirling waters and jagged rocks below. Since then, the editor has begged, borrowed, or pegged a brick through the front window of her local Computer Palace and made off with, a nice letter-quality printer. The MCC of today is, for the most part, washed, combed, and has its toenails cut straight across. Content-wise, though, it's another story. NCC looks like one of those "After" photos you see in the ads for Nutrisystem; this is one thin read. Host issues feature a few classified ads, maybe a convention calendar, and a partial episode- guide with a bare-bones description under each title. Regular contributor Sandy Ciccarelli adheres to the anorexic theme of the zine with her "reviews'" of the pro novels. Each is a six- to ten-sentence blurb revealing nothing the literate fan couldn't pick up from reading the ad copy on the back of the book, and culminates in an admonition along the lines of "Don't miss this one!" or "Well worth the read." And the editor musta really been strapped for copy the time she stuck the Kraft Marshmallow bag in the photocopier (no, I am not either making this up!), and printed the result. The recipe for "Trekkie Treats" and the accompanying ad for your very own Mr. Spock Marshmallow Decanter took up almost an entire page in one issue. Like the spiritual ancestor of Imelda Marcos, who couldn't get rid of the blood no matter how she washed and washed her hands, the one place where KCC's otherwise clean repro breaks down is the reprinting of articles stolen from People, TV Guide, and other professional sources, which are still coming out with the text gray and the photos nearly black. Ethical questions aside (who does it hurt if I clip an obscure article on Brent Spiner's urologist, reproduce it, and show it around to some of my friends? Like, forty or fifty of my closest?), nobody but the fan who lives in a caribou-hide tent on the lower slopes of Everest and pays for their subscription in skin bags of goat's milk hasn't seen these already. Which forces the question: Why do a zine at all? "Because l, uh, just wanna" is not the ideal answer but, not unlike the response you'd receive if you asked most people why they chose to be parents, in the majority of cases it's probably the most articulate one you're going to get. The very first reaction to this query is: "Because no one's doing the kind of zine I want to read, in the format I want to see it in," and has resulted in publications like Jim Lyon's incredibly newsy Where None Have Gone Before and M.A. Smith's groundbreaking Artforum, each of which was created to fill a void in fandom, and both of which are extensions on paper of their editors' unique personalities. The point is not to come up with a cute press name, plant your moniker beside the word "editor," and sandwich something between the front and back covers that's kinda, sorta related to Star Trek. I doubt like hell that Natasha's out to rip anybody off, but if NCC's to make as big an improvement in its content as it did in its appearance, she'll have to do some heavy thinking about what her zine can bring to her readers that they can't get anywhere else. And Natasha, this time don't look for the answer in the junk food section of the local supermarket. I don't want to know where I can get a jello mold shaped like the USS Enterprise.

The editor of "NCC-1701D" replied:

There's no denying Berkeley sure has a way with acerbic phrases and did have a good point or two (even if phrased in the most snide way possible). Wading through the barbs was an exercise in maturity on my part, but from it I believe I have gleaned the following complaint: the newsletter isn't informative enough, nor is it long enough. It's something I've been working on for a while, so this isn't a new consideration. I have made some important strides forward in that area, though, with the addition of an editorial section, fanzine" information and reviews, the occasional letter of comment, and an expansion of the section titled "Pertinent Data" to include such things as convention listings and other little tidbits of information. July's issue, #9 (with #10 being current), was about 20 pages long. I received a lot of compliments concerning that issue, and I'm particularly proud of it. You see, NCC-1701D has improved quite a bit in the past year...no thanks to Berkeley. Hopefully, it will continue to improve. When writing a review, there is a fine line between reviewing the person's work and reviewing the person. Actually, Berkeley has a lot of writing talent--my only suggestion would be a brush-up on how to write a review of a work without saying insulting things about the person behind the work. I am genuinely sorry Berkeley considers her experience with me and my newsletter to be so awfully negative. I truly wish she had come to me with her concerns rather than have me read them in this roundabout way, months after the fact. Therefore I will ask this: does Berkeley have anything helpful to say? If so, I'm sincerely interested in hearing it. Oh, yes, and I use recycled paper whenever possible--so, contrary to the lament used to grade NCC, trees did not die for this.

Another fan, the zined for Comlink, also complains about the first review: :

While I really enjoyed reading So You Wanna Buy a Fanzine?, I do have one minor quibble and it has to do with the review of NCC-1701D. If the purpose of a review is to enlighten and inform, then Berkeley did a really good job. If the purpose of a review is to also encourage the editor/publisher, then I don't think Berkeley did a good job. I liked the review up until I read the last paragraph which I felt was out of place in a review that was for the most part negative but at the same time encouraging. The last paragraph came off [more] as an example of Berkeley's witty prose than constructive criticism.

Issue 11

NCC-1701D 11 (v.3 n.1) was published in January 1991 and contains 24 pages. It contains art by Belinda Gavin, Gennie Summers, and Anne Davenport.

cover of issue #11, Anne Davenport

Comments from the editor about the letter about the Kirk statue being proposed for Riverside, Iowa:

...I'm personally pretty appalled; not necessarily at Riverside's wish to have a statue erected to Captain Kirk (although I think it's $50,000 that could be better spent feeding the hungry or housing the homeless), but at Paramount and Shatner for charging the city $20,000 for the use of Shatner's likeness. This is simply unconscionable (especially if it was Shatner's idea, which was unclear): the very idea that he would charge them for the 'privilege ' of erecting a statue that would preserve for posterity both he himself and the character he has played for almost 25 years is the epitome of greed. Count me disgusted.

From the editorial:

Another factor to consider is the future (or lack of one) of the ST and ST:TNG books. As you've read by now in 'pertinent Data,' Peter David quit the ST comic after being repeatedly told to water down his story lines. This little tidbit is very interesting, and also very distressing. It sure casts a nasty light on Richard Arnold, who apparently thinks we ST fans are 'too simplistic' to comprehend anything beyond grade-school reading material. I hope this view isn't too widespread, but I fear it is.

It was upsetting enough last year when many of fandom's greatest and most favored authors announced they would no longer be writing TREK novels thanks to Gene Roddenberry's heavy-handed new set of proscriptions concerning what could and could not be written about. Now it seems nothing is safe. I, for one, will not be purchasing any new books or comics until I've heard a verdict from someone I trust regarding their content.

Is Roddenberry within his rights in doing this? I'm not sure. It all depends on the question of when something passes into the public domain, or at least into the hands of others. Roddenberry created the original series, and for that the fans will always owe him an enormous debt of gratitude. He is undoubtedly the father of STAR TREK. But the child has grown up. Perhaps it is time for him to acknowledge what he's created and relinquish a little control. Maybe he should start listening a little to what the fans want, instead of selfishly insisting that ST is 'his' creation to do with as he pleases. Maybe ST isn't just 'his' anymore. Maybe it belongs to all of us now.

• Table of Contents (2)
• letter by Richard van Frank (comments about Denise Crosby's departure from the show, the careless way in which Tasha Yar was killed) (3)
• letter, City of Riverside, IA (from Steve Miller of the Riverside Area Community Club, topic is a proposed statue of Captain Kirk in this town, that Paramount agrees to the plan, that the town has to 1) pay Shatner $20,000 to use his likeness, (2) have the dedication on September 25, 1991, and town has to pay roughly $30,000 to construct the statue itself) (4)
• Pertinent Data, news bits (5)
• Convention Watch (8)
• review of Tantalus #1, see that page (9)
• Episode Guide, part nine (10)
• Star Trek Trivial Pursuit, cartoons by Anne Davenport (12)
• Wesley Leaves for the Academy -- and some of us will actually miss him!, essay by Natasha Mohr (15)
• Long Winded Editorial by Yours Truly (18)
• The Memory of Others, fiction by Natasha Mohr (20)
• Crew's Classified, ads (23)

• 

  from issue #11, Anne Davenport

• 

  from issue #11, Gennie Summers