Star Trek Magazine (Star Trek: TOS zine)

Zine
Title:	Star Trek Magazine
Publisher:	U.F.P., St. Petersburg Chapter of the Star Trek Federation of Fans, "St. Pete," later may have become "The United Fans of Pinellas"
Editor(s):	Richard Clabaugh (St. Petersburg, FL), Marlene Becker (assistant editor of #2, #3, #4)
Date(s):
Frequency:
Medium:	print zine
Size:
Fandom:	Star Trek: TOS
Language:	English
External Links:
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Star Trek Magazine is a gen Star Trek: TOS anthology of art and articles. There were at least four issues.

Reviews

Star Trek Magazine is a fanzine that is trying too hard to look like a prozine. Issue #1 was ghastly, #2 was better, and #3 has improved, but there has been an awful lot of effort that is simply not worth it. The covers are slick, but the artwork doesn't deserve that kind of super-fine treatment. At least one of the articles was a direct and unauthorized steal from a similar article in Spockanalia. The one good point about the zine is the photo layouts, which are attractive and well-reproduced. This is a zine to watch -- it may improve.

Issue 1

Star Trek Magazine 1

Issue 2

Star Trek Magazine 2 was published in April 1976.

cover of issue #2, Marlene Becker

Marlene Becker was assistant editor.

The art is by Kevin Mello, Marlene Becker, Mike Underwood, Rick Clabaugh, Bill Buckingham, and John Ellis.

• News ("Spock to Sherlock Holmes") (13)
• An Interview with George Takei by Rich Clabaugh and Mike France (conducted at Tampacon (April 9-11, 1976) at the Airport Holiday Inn in Tampa, Florida) (4)
• WATCH OUT! for crooked dealers (22)
• Starship vs. Klingon Battle Cruiser (12)
• ANITLOGY, fiction by Marlene Becker (16)
• Daphne's Dwarfs, part two, fiction by Tom Robbins (19)
• Beyond Dimensions, fiction by Kevin Mello (20)
• Subspace Chatter, editorial (2)
• Convention Calendar (23)
• SF Photo (10)

• 

  from issue #2

• 

  from issue #2

• 

  from issue #2

Issue 3

Star Trek Magazine 3 is undated but appears to have been published in Fall 1976. It contains 32 pages.

front cover of issue #3

back cover of issue #3

Marlene Becker was assistant editor.

• it features Scotty
• Space: 1999 (Year 2): The Future is Fantastic
• "Rock" by Paul Cook, vignette
• Trekon ’76 (con report by Rick Clabaugh
• news about the new Star Trek Movie, Space Shuttle
• “To Mr. Spock, With Love from the Library Computer” poem
• “Beyond Dimensions Part II” story
• "The Story of Spock's Son?"
• "A Child of Mischance" by Marlene A. Becker
• "Spock's Lover"
• lots of photos & illustrations

Issue 4

Star Trek Magazine 4 is undated, but appears to have been published in early 1977. It contains 52 pages. Marlene Becker was assistant editor.

front cover of issue #4

back cover of issue #4, B. Mize

From the editorial:

With this issue we bring a close to our publication of Star Trek Magazine as you have grown to know it. The next Star Trek Magazine will bear so little resemblance to this that it will be, for all practical purposes, a completely different magazine/fanzine all together.

The new Star Trek Magazine will be just that, a STAR TREK magazine. No feature stories, no information listings, no reviews but it will contain the finest collection of ST stories that you've ever seen.

[...]

1. The characters are consistent with those on the TV show. No lines said out of character and no character stepping out of line.

2. The situation is realistic enough to have been a regular episode (or better). By this we do not mean that we don't want incredibly imaginative stories but we do want stories that are typically Star Trek SF. (i.e. no stories of Star Trek meets "Space: 1999", Star Trek meets "Lost in Space", Star Trek meets "M*A*S*H" etc..).

3. Try to avoid situations that are simply playing out your own personal fantasies (i.e. You, a young 16 year old girl, write a story where Mr. Spock falls in love with a young, 16 year old girl.)

4. Try to get into the characters deeply. Their motivation, their background, what makes them tick.

5. Avoid rehashing ideas used before (i.e. More, More Tribbles, Mudd Returns, Spock falls in love, and so on and so fourth).

6. Try to be as original as possible. The premise is the USS ENTERPRISE is exploring space. The possibilities are endless. I read a very good story about the Enterprise transporting a hanger full of horses to another planet and the difficulties there in. ("Delta Triad" #3)

7. Above all else try to keep your stories on as professional a basis as you can. I‘ve seen many fan stories that were far better than some of the stories which Ballantine books are publishing.

I think if you bear these things in mind your story will stand a much better chance of being accepted. But please don’t be afraid to submit stories. If [Marlene Becker] turns down a story it will always be for a legitimate reason, not just because, "It's stupid" . If you're honestly interested in writing as a career then a little bit of honest commentary about your story can't hurt (well, maybe just a little but not much).

So that's that. Now that question that I'm sure someone is asking. Why are we changing STM anyway? Well, it was hoped that STM could help to finance the club to a small degree in the beginning but due to STM's high cost of operation it became a almost totally separate branch of the UFP with a totally different bank account. Despite this STM still needed money from the UFP when each issue came out. A large amount of money. Very large amounts! So money that should have been spent on more important club projects for the members ended up being spent on a magazine that was suppose to be putting money into the account, not taking it out.

It therefore became impossible for us to continue to put STM out with the high quality it had come to require and still not drain the clubs budget to near extinction. So ended STM.

STM in the new form, will cost us only about 1/2 to 1/4 of the current cost of STM and will actually contain more in the way of reading material then the current edition. The current STM spends a great deal of money on photos. Photos cost us, not only money for getting and printing them, but costs us space that might be better used for stories.

Add to this one unexpected problem with the old STM and I think you'll understand why we're leaving that form. STM was sold to dealers to help increase its distribution. The dealers came to expect it out on a regular schedule like a prozine and that was something we just couldn't manage to do.

We're fans. It's a hobby for us not a full time fob. We can't put out a non-profit zine and not work to make money somehow. So we quit. Plain and simple.

When the new STM will be out I can t say but if you would send us a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope (SASE) we will be glad to send you information on it just as soon as we have it.

I think you will enjoy the new STM and I hope you will keep in touch with us just the same anyway.

• Editorial: Subspace Chatter (2)
• Gene Roddenberry Interview by Richard Clabaugh and Frank Cole (takes place during a December 11, 1976 visit to a St. Petersburg, Florida children's hospital, many photos) (4)
• Interview by William Sheck and James Quinn with Joe Haldeman (includes photo) (14)
• Close-up on the Film - Wizards by Richard Clabaugh (15)
• Star Wars by Richard Clabaugh (19)
• Teleplay by Mike France (news of the latest happenings in TV, movies, books, comics) (28)
• Understanding Year 1 of Space: 1999, article by Gary Esposito (32)
• The Conversation, fiction by by Gary Esposito (Space: 1999) (34)
• word search (38)
• The Silent Power, to be continued, fiction by Debby Anderson and Steve Fuchs (Star Trek) (49)

• 

  from issue #4

• 

  from issue #4, Jim Passmore

• 

  from issue #4, B. Mize

• 

  from issue #4, Steve Fuchs