Neutral Zone (Star Trek: TOS zine edited by Sloan Diamond)
| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Neutral Zone |
| Publisher: | out of Brooklyn, NY |
| Editor(s): | Sloan Diamond & Eddie Lubin |
| Date(s): | 1975 |
| Frequency: | |
| Medium: | print zine |
| Size: | |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: TOS |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Neutral Zone is a 10-page gen Star Trek: TOS anthology of non-fiction.
From the zine:
Welcome to the first issue of The Neutral Zone. Now that we've lured you to the inner regions of our magazine by the conservative cover we slyly displayed, we will now proceed to pollute your mind with our madness and insanity.
You could think of this as your average fanzine. You could ... but you'd be wrong! This magazine will be completely devoted to Star Trek. If you picked this up expecting a fanazine about the stars and their private lives, then put it down. We do not sell 8 x 10 glossies of Leonard Nimoy, nor do we have a direct line to William Shatner. Some fanzines "devoted" to Star Trek also include other forms of science fiction. This one will deal solely with the show (what it was and what it could have been) and views pro and con about the series. We will pack it with information, trivia, articles about your favorite episodes, games, artwork and an occasional contest. In other words, you're in for a lot of fun.
One thing we think is necessary for the success of this magazine is honesty on our part. We are going to play it straight with you — the reader. This.must hold true in our prices (subscription and single copy). We don't mind investing money and coming out in the red, because we enjoy doing this. Yet we can only take so much of a loss. It has become necessary for some of the cost of production to be passed on to the reader. We are not going to go into lengthy explanations about the cost of paper, ink and printing; or about inflation and recession. We feel we have priced our mag to suit both the needs of ourselves and our readers. We will try to keep these prices stable throughout our production.
It's said that an author writes the book he always wanted to see on the bookshelves. So is the case with us. We want to put out the magazine we have always wanted to read. What did we want to read? A top-notch mag that is both entertaining and informative. We want to make this the kind of magazine in which our subscribers are participants — not just readers.
Weren't you ever frustrated to find all sorts of bad mistakes and things you don't like in a magazine, and realize you can't do anything about it? Now you can! If there is a part of our mag that you don't enjoy or agree with, the only way we'll find out is if you tell us about it. How do you do this? Write us a letter; even a postcard will do. The key word is "write". The question is "to whom"?
From the article by Sloan:
Although it's becoming increasingly harder to tell the difference between them, there are two definite groups of human beings: male and female. Star Trek fans (Trekkies) are composed mostly (70%) of girls. This can be seen at the conventions and by the number of female authors of fanzines. On the other hand, it is very rare to find a girl interested in real hard core sci-fi (with all due respect to Women's Lib). The number of IF's, AMAZING's and ANALOG'S purchased by girls or women are surprisingly few. Most of these girls like Star Trek, not for the show's format, nor for the science fiction involved. Ninety percent of them watch it to see Bill Shatner fall in love with a beautiful young heroine (at least one of which is always present). Quite a few devoted female fans who chose to write their own scripts frequently put themselves in place of Kirk's ever existent lover (I'm not saying this was true in all cases, because there were exceptions). All this was due to the fact that Star Trek had great character appeal. If Star Trek was real science fiction, then it wouldn't have had the same appeal it did. The corollary also holds true; if Star Trek had so much appeal on the characters, it couldn't have been real sci-fi. "Real" science fictions deals more with technical and background details.
Contents
- Editorial (2)
- A Star Trek a Science Fiction Program?, article by Sloan Diamond (3)
- The Great Tribble Give-Away, contest (5)
- Word Find (6)
- Star Trek: Animation vs. Live Action, article by Robert Goldberg (7)
- Flyer for the next issue ("If your parents are Star Trek fans (some are), show them this issue. Maybe they'll give you the money, or even get their own subscription! Anyway you do it, don't miss out on our magazine. Do not delay. Respond today!") (8)