Terran Times

Zine
Title:	Terran Times
Publisher:	published in Bass Hill, New South Wales, Australia by D.U.S.K.
Editor(s):	Shayne McCormack, Nomad
Date(s):	December 1969-July 1972, 1980
Series?:
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Star Trek: TOS
Language:	English
External Links:
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Terran Times is a gen Star Trek: TOS anthology published in Australia. Contributors of art work included Evelyn Turner.

An illo portraying some of the club members and zine contributors. The artist is not credited. It was printed in the third issue.

It is one of the very earliest Star Trek fiction zines published, and the very first published in Australia. For others, see List of Star Trek TOS Zines Published While the Show Was Still On the Air.

In 1973, some members of D.U.S.K., along with some other fans, went on to form the fan club, Astrex.

Focus

Terran Times featured articles, reviews, art work, poetry, and fan fiction and, aside from Star Trek, also covered some mainstream science fiction.

From the second issue:

TERRAN TIMES deals with STAR TREK, Leonard Nimoy, Science Fiction, Astronomy and other futuristic ideals. Distributed to members of DUSK, ANZAPA, anyone with 40c,it is given free to those who contribute, trade or are considered suitably famous.

DUSK now incorporates Hobbit fans amongst its members; in fact it seems that DUSK is becoming an "anything you're interested and I am too" type club. Which seems to be a good thing. If you are interested in something besides Leonard Nimoy, "Star Trek", science fiction and astronomy, and would like to contact others likewise interested, write to Star Base 2 .

In the third issue, the editors wondered:

Somehow we seem to have gathered readers with a large range of interests. This is reflected by the letters of comment. TT 3 introduces UFO and Simon and Garfunkel fandom, mainly to please Frankee Seymour, but also because other DUSK members who have shown interest in these fields.

One problem that worries Shayne and I is whether TT is becoming too diverse; are we trying to please too many people? Should we perhaps put out one zine for "STAR TREK" and Leonard Nimoy fans and another for science fiction, Tolkien, UFO, electronic music and Simon and Garfunkel fans? Or something?

Some Context

"Star Trek was finally cancelled after its third season in 1969 and Fans in America and Australia combined together to protest the cancellation. July 28, 1969 was designated Deluge Monday when everyone worldwide would phone NBC or write letters timed to arrive on that day. One of the organisers was Susan Smith (later Clarke), then a schoolgirl in Sydney's Blacktown. Plans were made to combine local fans under Shayne McCormack, a stenographer from Auburn.

Shayne was interviewed about her activities in TV Times in March of that year. As a result she received over 75 letters from people wanting to help. This led to her forming D.U.S.K. (Down Under Space Kooks). The petition she helped organise measured 8 feet and contained over 2,200 signatures. D.U.S.K. published a fanzine, Terran Times, and organised irregular meetings and social outings before folding around 1970."

Date Confusion

There are a number of date and issue complexities. Some sources say five issues between 1969 and 1972. Another source says that the 1980 offset-printed issue was the seventh, no previous publication dates mentioned.

• December 1969-July 1972 (these dates come from the Australian National Library)[1] and are confirmed by a 1973 issue of The STW Directory.

• in Beyond Antares #15 (1980), the editor wrote: "Terran Times, Australia's very first Trekzine is making a come-back for the seventh [sic, actually sixth] issue to commemorate the tenth anniversary of its first issue. An offset, quality fanzine, it will be available from it's [sic] editor for $2. Contact Shayne McCormack: c/Galaxy Bookshop..."

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 1-5

What can I say about ST Fan History? These five issues reflect the interests (especially Vulcan ones) of various fans in late 60's early 70's... they are a good mixture of fact, fiction and fannish chatter and the end of issue #3, the format has stabilized into its current form. The serial was effect for the first efforts of this author and Gullywhumper we need you again! There is a considerable lack of humour attached to fanzines these days. Please come back! Artists, please note the covers were very original and well done as stylus drawings can be difficult.

Issue 1

Terran Times 1 was published in December 1969 and contains 16 pages (including covers). It contains Star Trek poetry, fan fiction and more. This first issue was published by Shayne McCormack and Sabina Heggie.

Issue 2

Terran Times 2 has no publication date, but some photos are dated 1970. The zine is 26 pages long (not including covers).

front cover of issue #2

It is "DUSK publication no. 7."

From the editorial:

Greetings to Everyone! If you received the first issue of "Terran Times" you have no doubt noticed that this one is different in size and shape. Perhaps you've also noticed that it is more up to date and that the printing is somewhat easier to read. What's more it has more readers. (This issue was sent to the Star Trek Fan Club of Australia's members in Victoria) and ANZAPA. Whether you're a member of DUSK, a member of the STFCA, ANZAPA or just plain lucky enough to pick it up, we hope you enjoy it.

Live Long and Prosper, Shayne.

IS THERE NO HOPE FOR "STAR TREK"?

James Blish recently caused a great stir on the ST scene with his new novel, Spock Must Die. I haven't seen it as yet around Sydney but it would be wise to keep a lookout for it... it is really worth reading.

In the preface Blish expresses the opinion that, if ST is a success in England there is still hope of saving it. He says that it wouldn't be the first show to be brought back in this way Frankly, I think this is a practical impossibility and I think Blish is very unwise to stir up hope in this way. I have had a number of letters at Star Base 2 from people asking "why aren't you doing something about getting ST back in production?" - like for instance what?

I think we did all we could do under the circumstances, with the petition and other projects.

Low ratings caused by the poor quality of many third season scripts was what killed ST. Furthermore NBC takes very little notice of what Australians have to say apparently.

I think everyone would agree that the show had a very deep effect on sf fandom as it was the first really adult science fiction from USA and certainly the only good one with continuing characters. The fact that it had continuing characters limited greatly the scope of the series but then you can’t have everything.

ST is still on the air in Sydney though we are into the second season repeats. Newcastle promised to bring the show back oh Channel 3 over a year ago but has not done so. Woolongong showed the first season but there has been talk of bringing it back. In Melbourne the show is not on although there is apparently a large number of fans there. It is on in Adelaide at the moment also, but there is no organised fandom there.

There is $7.31 in the UNICEF piggy bank, six dollars of which was donated by Margaret Oliver to whom much is due in thanks, and fifty cents 'came from Gary Mason - thanks Gary. The rest is from Middle Earth map sales and other generous people.

• The Scene on Earth (3)
• Star Trek Quiz (5)
• Where Nomad Has Gone Before, serial fiction by Nomad and Margaret Oliver (6)
• Memo to the Captain by Gullywumper (12)
• Syncon 70, con report by Robert Bowden (13)
• Deathwatch, a review by Margaret Oliver (14)
• Lothlorien (Lord of the Rings) (15)
• Eastercon report (17)
• Electronic Music: The Moog Synthesiser by Phillip Williams (20)
• A Lament for the Unsung Dead, poem by Jane Peyton (reprinted from Spockanalia #3) (21)
• The Sydney Science Fiction Foundation by Gary Mason (30)
• Science Fiction Review: Fahrenheit 451 (16)

• 

  from issue #2, Michael Kelly

• 

  from issue #2, Syncon report

• 

  from issue #2, photos

• 

  from issue #2, You Are Receiving This Zine Because

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 2

Thank you so very much for the wonderful journal "TERRAN TIMES". It is superb.

I must congratulate you on that simply "real"and wonderful story "Where Nomad Has Gone Before". It is great -- so very like a "STAR TREK" episode. One of the best I have read concerning ST for a long time.

Also I must .add my comments on t he poem "A Lament for the Unsung Dead". I have never been so moved before by anything I have read. It is brilliant! Thank you for printing it.

Grok and Pastak.

TT No.2 arrived today. Congratulations. It is a very well produced fanzine which, unlike many others, has a wide range of topics of interest to this generation. I especially enjoyed Nomad's EasterCon Report, Jane Peyton's prose, and found Gullywhumper's saga of the USS Weetbix one of the highlights of the 'zine.

Once again, congratulations on a job well done.

"TERRAN TIMES” No. 2 was a lot better than I had expected (I had been prepared to give praise where it wasn’t due, all in the name of encouragement--but there was no need). Somewhere in TT you say that you think Australian fandom needs some stirring up, new faces and the like, and here you are stirring things up just beautifully.

One of the most attractive things about TT is that it is done by fermmefans, a species long extinct in Australia. After four years of strictly masculine fanzines being produced, your effort has a very nice feel to it which makes it instantly acceptable„ SF COMMENTARY arrived in the same mail delivery as ”TERRAN TIMES” and the only reason I read SFC first was out of duty to Bruce and because I like to feed my mind on intelligence from time to time. SFC is even better loged-out and better edited than ”TERRAN TIMES” but then Bruce has been doing the fanzine thing for a lot longer than you have -- but I couldn’t write a letter of comment to SFC whereas TT with its much warmer feeling makes it a pleasure to write a LoC.

Phillip William's writing about the ”Moog Synthesiser” was interesting mainly because it told me something about the machine. ”It has a keyboard but you can only play one note at a time on it” left me particularly flabbergasted, as I've just recently heard the Monteverdi track from "The Well- Tempered Synthesiser” and imagining that constructed note by note is croggeling, to say the least.

But despite the attributes of the Moog, I don't find it all that wonderful to have a machine trying to imitate the sounds of other instruments or other things; if you want to hear a piano then you would do better to go out and buy one rather than getting four black boxes and a keyboard that it will take you years to master (if ever) and try to make it sound like a piano.

Contemporary music has reached the stage where it is having to discard tone intervals (such as those on any keyboard) and is delving into areas which are completely beyond the range of anything as forward looking as the Moog.

I’ve heard a bit of music done on the "Jenny Ondioline”, and while it is vaguely interesting to listen to, I can’t believe that it will have anything more than ”fad” value in the history of serious music.

The Melbourne Conreport was good, by far the best I’ve seen about the Easter Con, though admittedly there hasn’t been much written about it.

Sorry to cut off here, but I have to get some work done, I’m doing this in DCA time and on DCA paper and using DCA envelopes, I guess that that’s enough to ask for without wanting to conduct fanac during working hours all the time.

- Regards, Leigh.

P.S. I guess that you know by now that ’’STAR TREK” is being re-run in Melbourne on Channel 9 at 4 on Sunday afternoon. Probably I missed some of the first episodes but I find myself a reasonably dedicated ST fan and so I now make it my business to be near a TV on Sunday afternoons.

After having sat huddled over my TV set for many hours soaking in ST, I can't really understand what everybody sees in Mr. Spock (he’s a Vulcan version of Illya from "The Man from UNCLE”). However, I can see all the good points in (well I can’t possibly spell her name) the woman who looks after the communications and generally looks wildly exciting. You know who I mean?

Thanks for the copy of "TERRAN TIMES". I enjoyed reading your zine, although I was rather confused by the story, which seemed to stop rather sharply. I was also confused by the attitude of the Romulans on the station -- were they trying to conceal themselves from the Vulcans or not? Some of the dialogue was good tho -- but how did the E. people get close enough to the planet to beam down without being detected by the satellite? Ah well, picky picky picky, that’s me.

I hope that you’re able to include more art work in your future issues.

Tranquility, Devra

TERRAN TIMES No 2 was somewhat better quality than anticipated - possibly aided by Gary Mason's printing efforts - although no cops could catch robbers if they had to rely on photographs reproduced as on the back page. Next time you might convey better likenesses by using an Identi-Kit.

Thanks for the copy of TT. Pretty good production, though it1s too bad the photos didn’t come out better. Liked Nomad’s story and anxiously await the next installment (you sure she’s not James Blish? in disguise, that is..,) Where did you get all those questions? I could answer only two of them, and I’ve seen nearly all ST episodes, Gullywhumper was weird, but then so am I. I look forward to "Deathwatch's" release (just love extremely heavy and distressing films, that are filled with hate and frustration).

Nomad’s article on Tolkein was helpful to one such as myself who was only aware of the name and not the content. "Farenheit 451" was a beautiful production, and easily as good, if not better, than the book (so I’ve heard). No imagination? You call those weird credits no imagination? (this last directed at Nomad). EasterCon report: loved every word of it. If only I could have made it...Moog Synthesisers are my favourite machines (next to Wyatt’s ’chopper’). Poem was OK.

(Did you see the one in the September If called ’’The Elf On the Starship Enterprise”? there was also an illo by Finlay. If you haven't got it you can have mine.

Need I say anything about Gary Mason? I think not. To sum up: a good ’zine and I enjoyed about nine tenths of it (photos being the only hindrance). You might also pass onto Nomad that without violence there would have been no ’’Easy Rider” Watch out for "The Wild Angels”! Coming soon to the land of pineapples and sun (But God it’s hot today!).

Issue 3

Terran Times 3 was published in December 1970 and contains 42 pages.

front cover of issue #3, Phillip Williams

back cover of issue #3, Mary Ann Cappa

It is "DUSK publication number twelve."

From the editorial:

Well, here it is, almost Chrisy time, so I thought, why should I let them suffer through another month without the cheerful influence... that spark of gaity [sic] amidst the drudgery of their lives. I couldn't, of course, go against the kinder instincts of my generous heart ("Nomad -- heart... what heart?) So here it is for your pleasure - TERRAN TIMES NUMBER THREE. Think of it as an early Christmas present.

NEW MEMBERS SINCE THE NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER: Adele Carlisle (New Zealand) and Diane Marchant (Victoria) This brings the present membership to 29.

The current UNICEF total:

The following people have contributed to the UNICEF fund since TT2: Janet Down, Shayne McCormack, Margaret Oliver, Frankee Seymour, Jenny Stevenson, Phillip Williams, Nomad and Chris McGrory. Thank you for your generosity. The UNICEF fund now stands at $6.50.

The report of volunteering for UNICEF:

On Monday, 7th September, five DUSKies invaded UNICEF in Sydney. Jenny Stevenson, Janet Down, Michael Vesper, Frankee Seymour and I arrived at about 10.30am and were led to a room with a table and began work.

Michael kindly drew up chairs for us all; large cardboard cartons which were really quite comfortable. We were given mounds of brochures and booklets to fold into envelopes, and were soon asking the lady in charge to find more work for us to do. Poor Michael was a very obedient slave, counting envelopes on the floor and running errands around the city. While we were working our fingers to the bone, we were able to have a fantastic seven and a half hour non4 stop rave. Topics for discussion ranged from ST episodes, pictures of the crew, dreams (especially morbid ones), ST monsters, Simon and Garfunkel, Jenny's one and a half weekender on Vulcan, the changes brought about by World War II, DUSK, the Mutiny, TT and five hundred other things. Arguments were flung across the room concerning the faults and praises of LN and Bill Shatner which the ladies in the next room endured in silence. We packed what seemed like millions of envelopes, and everyone agreed we had a terrific time. Michael suggested that we should come again next day but we couldn't.

If anyone is interested in helping UNICEF over the Christmas hols, please write to me.

• Editorial by Nomad (3)
• The Scene on Earth, news by Nomad (5)
• Sub-Space Chatter, letters of comment (6)
• Fiction: Impossible, fiction by Jenny Stevenson (Star Trek, a story challenge that uses many episode names) (11)
• Where Nomad Has Gone Before, serialized fiction, part three by Nomad (13)
• Working for UNICEF, article by Margaret Oliver (18)
• UFO?, article by William Moser JP (19)
• Lothlorien, On Middle Earth by Nomad and others (20)
• A Typical Day, fiction by Gully and Shayne (Star Trek) (25)
• More on the Moog Synthesiser, article by Phillip Williams (30)
• Where?, poem by Jenny Stevenson (32)
• Beyond the Moon, article by Barry Danes, with the assistance of Arthur C. Clarke (34)
• Simon and Garfunkel, article by Frankee Seymour (35)
• Spock, The Man, and The Character, article by Shayne (36)
• Reflections of a Romulan, poem by Margaret Oliver (38)
• Memo from the Captain, nonsense by Gullywhumper (39)
• The Star Trekkers, poem by Frankee Seymour (40)
• The Syndey SF Foundation, part 2, article by Gary Mason (41)
• Why You Have Been Cursed With This Rag (43)

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Reactions and Reviews: Issue 3

There certainly is a large range of interests in TT 3, some of which I most definitely do not share, but the important point is that most of it makes readable reading, and that's good. A fanzine basically Star Trek-orientated can comfortably spread its interests quite far, as long as its not over-done. In trying to please everybody don't forget yourselves, either...

I agree with Leigh Edmonds (although his motives are probably more ulterior than mine) that the advent of femmefans and a femzine in Australia is refreshing, though indicative of the times. Femmes have never played an important part in Aussie Fandom, and to the best of my knowledge you are the first females to publish a fanzine in Australia [Ed: I'm told we're not the first, Bob, but close enough for it to be unusual.] May it continue! (I presume Leigh means Lt. Uhrua, who is a doll...)

Jenny Stevenson’s "Mission: Impossible” was very well done, although I wonder how many would have reconised titles without the emphasisation? Is that every title in the series?

"Where Nomad Has Gone Before” has some quite sensitive moments in it, and I hope Jack Rodhams sees them. (The typos jar a bit, though.) I particularly like the characterisation of Ramona, the sequence where Spock humps into her and the description of her room, and the scene of Spock sleeping and Ramona’s music...that young lady’s taste in food was almost as disconcerting as the typos, though: "easy to eat in large serves” perhaps but I hope Teal pharmacy carried a formidable indigestion remedy! I look forward to the next episode.

William Foster’s ”UFO?” was presumably aimed at the young members of DUSK, etc., as I found his short piece somewhat too condescending for my taste. He appears to under-estimate science fiction enthusiasts, who when it comes to matters cosmological usually have an "open mind”...

Ah, back to those dear long ago days of around ten years back, when sf fandom in the US discovered Tolkien and we all wrote grumpy letters on the number of fanzines publishing incomprehensible Middle Earth material! I note in Michael O’Brien’s page of the Tolkien Society that some of that material is gonna be republished, and somewhere in there, I’m sure, there has been mention of the similarities that Epstein has apparently just discovered. The words "wasteful duplication" should perhaps be noted...I have enjoyed most Tolkien I’ve read over the years, but I would quote his quotation of some one else: "We must be satisfied with the soup that is set before us, and not desire to see the bones of the ox out of which it has been boiled." I find the seeking and searching of people like Epstein takes the flavour out of the soup...

Man's inhumanity to man may be tempered somewhat by the environmental problems facing them in space, but let's also be reminded of what man has done to others he has found over those horizons before. It is hoped that Out There are aliens who will give Man one hell of a shock.

"A Typical Day" also had its moments, and I'm beginning to suspect that thorough knowledge of the Star Trek series and its characters is giving you (already) sensitive young people a feeling for that small cosmos that possibly the more commercial-slanted media don't realise. With the stock situation of the Enterprise, her mission and crew, of course its fairly natural that some good characterisation can be tackled by its devotees, and the odd flashes that I have glimpsed in the tv series you people seem to be expanding. So the Star Trek series might have died, but I guess to you people this really isn’t a problem anymore... The little moments that imply rather than say anything in "A Typical Day” are, I’m sure, the work of a girl growing up, perhaps aware of how Captain Dorcas is changing...once again, the scene in Spock's room I liked.

Spock: Why is it that because he is an alien its almost automatically assumed that Spock has this "fatal attraction” for the females of the species? The character of Spock was never, to my mind, developed enough in the series; pointed ears and a logical attitude do not an alien make. In fact, one almost gets the impression that Spock was, invariably, played for laughs in the series. I have no doubt he could have obtained a reasonable depth of alien portrayal, but just cast in the stock tv formulae didn’t help. (Being half-human presumably gave him enough non-alienness to make comfortable tv viewing). Performances by Gary Lockwood and Robert Walker Jr. in Star Trek episodes gave me that feeling of alien characterisation, though.

[...]

Its fairly obvious that Frankee Seymour is a fanatical devotee of Simon and Garfunkel, and I'm inclined to think that it clouds his [Ed: her] judgement of what is and isn’t poetry, let alone what is and isn’t good poetry. (This nasty comment on this page is sparked mainly by that ridiculous line: "I am speaking of Paul Simon, whom I consider to be the greatest poet alive today." Now really.

You certainly are going an out with Number 3 aren't you? Forty four pages is quite a fanzine, in anyone's language. The cover illo is pro-standard; it reminds me of some of the Emsh illos for the Ex-Libris plates in "Galaxy." In fact, all the illos are of pro quality.

[...]

Terran Times looks like the only fanzine around that has a wide range of interests. All the others that I've seen appear to specia1ise - e.g. Tolkien, comics, etc. Some of the sf zines are ultra specialized : some do only reviews, others fiction. Which is ok as far as the Establishment goes, but neo-fans (ie fans just hearing or coming into contact with fandom - sf, comics, star Trek, what have you) - get somewhat of an overdose of clannishness which is often fatal. TT is, I think, the only zine in Australia at the moment which I would show to someone who wants to know what is going on in fandom.

"Mission: Impossible” by Jenny Stevenson looks as though it took a lot of work, coupled with a good imagination! And a whole lot of enthusiasm! Even though I am not all that het up on Trek, I can appreciate the wrork that went into it (the article, that is).

The serial is a good idea - it keeps interest up from one issue to another - as well as being well-written and interesting in itself. I notice severed, pointers that it is written by a woman (who worries about age, anyway?) - for instance the description of what she is wearing (Ramona) .. "yellow pantsuit type thing...." Nomad, I hope you go on writing...I think you could go places if you keep at it. You have a touch that is refreshing after all the guff that is usually published in a zine and the femme viewpoint is refreshing, too. I don't know if you have read Podkayne of Mars by Robert A. Heinlein; if you haven't you may find it interesting. Written by one of the (past?) masters of SF, it is about the adventures of a teenage Martian born human girl on her way to Earth and although originally billed as "juvenile" it was serialized in IF (in 1962/5) and it decidedly is not.

I see Bill Moxer is getting his pitch in. Good, I imagine some of your readers are interested in UFO sightings, and the publishing; of the UFO group's address may bring some to light.

"A Typical Day" was vaguely familiar in plot. Wasn't there a Trek episode something like it? I'll leave "Moogs" to 'em that 'ave the electrician's bent. All of 'm higher like mafs is above me. I can barely get through an AE van Vogt story as it is..."Beyond the Roon" points out one of the basic reasons behind the Space programme ('to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield...' to probably misquote...Tennyson...?). The inner mind, or the Outer Limits? I suppose Man could get bogged down in either.

"Spock - the Man and the Character" brings up a question Damon Knight brought up and discussed in his essays in In Search of Wonder. Is it possible to understand an alien? ET type alien; and the answer, he thought, was: No, you (a human) couldn't. Which is partly why Spock is so interesting as a character. He has a slight (just a teeny) touch of the alien and it is why, I think, that he has made an impact on the femme viewers; he is something like a puppy, up against the might of the human empire and trying to adjust to human values and ideals. (And don't think that Spock isn't - most of the stories have this conflict between Spock's 'human' part (surely impossible except in a fictional show) and his 'Vulcan' side. It has just struck me that this suits more the 'inner mind' of the ordinary homo sap and his psychological problems with the 'real world', rather than the extra terrestrial with the totally ungraspable viewpoint.

All the best in fandom...

Just got Terran Times 3. to say the least, it is quite a success amongst some of my science fiction friends - Your magazine is a successful blend of both Trekkiedom and science fiction, Now that is rather rare amongst the many zines that are out.

[...]

A Typical Day - Not wishing to hurt anyone's feelings, I thought that this story was not one of the better stories written by the authoress... one of my objections is that the title itself is too 'cute'... having another starship captain aboard the Enterprise, much less a female starship captain desiring Spock, is not my definition of typical for the Star Trek universe. However, the little glimpses of personality that you two girls showed were rather good, the characters themselves were interesting, you just put them in the wrong literary vehicle.

More on the Moog - by Phillip Williams - though I am not sure that moog could be classified as an an area of sci-fi, the article is informative... being a fan of the moog myself, I enjoyed it.

Beyond the Moon - good, but how on earth did you get your hands on assistance by Arthur C. Clarke? There are many fanzines here in the states that would give their eyeteeth to have an article by the Arthur C. Clarke [Ed: Well, Mr. Clarke didn't really know he was being of assistance...].

As for Simon and Garfunkel - it is indeed difficult to ever praise them enough, especially if you have heard their "Bridge over Troubled Waters" which incidentally won several Grammy Awards this year including best record of the year award.

Spock by Shayne - a rather good article - you have a clear writing style - and you do pose an interesting idea with your theories on Spock and loyalty.

Sydney SF Foundation part 2 by Gary Mason - as with every other sf club in existence, I believe that sf clubs in general are just a thin disguise for a social gathering... your sf blurbs read like the Wayne Third Foundation's blurbs which is the sf club that I belong to... long live SF clubs!

The poetry - the best poem in the group, in fact one of the best poems I have ever read and that doesn't mean just Trekkie poetry, is Frankee Seymour's "The Star Trekkers". . . the others are from fair to good, but then there is very little poetry that I actually do like above and beyond Shakespeare and Ogden Nash.

As for the art work, some of it, I am afraid to say, looks a wee bit familiar* I have a friend who is a commercial artist and we both agreed that the front cover aliens aren't all that unknown. And as for the cartoon that went with Gully's Captain's Log...it was good, but compare it to some of the artwork in “Mad Magazine" spoof of Star Trek. Other than that, some of the sketches were rather good, and soma were amateurish.

[...] - Margaret Basta

Issue 4

Terran Times 4 was published in July 1971 and contains 40 pages (not including covers).

cover of issue #4: "Originally it was going to be a splendid thing, in two colours and printed offset. But things didn't turn out as I had hoped, so I ended up using old dependable electro-stencil. So, for Cover and internal illustration reproduction, read Noel Kerr. Many thanks, Noel, for your prompt work (The Present cover is my own work."

"Apologies to Mr. W. Moser, whose name I misspelt [sic] twice."

From the editorial:

The fannish world is a strange one, especially to the uniniciated [sic]. Its filled with dreams and visions of wonderful worlds, great starships and strange alien things of material and mental wanderings. There is friendship and understanding and something deep called a Sense of Wonder which just doesn't exist anywhere else.

The person who reads science fiction without knowing of fandom lives in a lonely cosmos peopled by his own imagination. He doesn't know of anyone else who likes it as he does. Oh, he may know one or two, a friend at the office who read "Day of the Triffids" or a cousin who likes to talk about the Lord of the Rings, but there isn't anyone with whom he can sit and discuss the good points of Heinlein's novels or the clear, ringing style of Arthur C. Clarke or the odd, mist-like quality of Harlan Ellison. There's no one he can argue with over a scientific point; he can only mention it to his family, who will smile ignorantly, or walk away or just tell him not to keep on talking about those far-fetched things.

Then, one day, through accident or luck (good or bad, I'm not sure) he opens a door and finds himself in a world unlike that he had lived in before. There are fanzines on the floor and paperback sf on the bookshelves and people everywhere talking and living and reading science fiction.

He may just hang on the edge, not wanting to commit himself, or he may do what I did, I and many like me, and fall over the edge with a feeling of coming into something nice.

There are all kinds of fans. There are loud, expressive lively fans who talk and talk and make sense some times, there are quiet, smooth, terribly clever fans who make sense most of the time, and then there's my kind, who make a lot of noise and don't make much sense at all.

It's a world for the mad, for the mild, for the young with dreams and the old with imagination, and for those who never grow old beyond being able to pick up a science fiction book and find in it a key to somewhere better.

I don't think I'll ever be too old or too grown-up to read "The Star" by Clarke without feeling a tingle up my spine, or too mature to read "Lord of the Rings" without knowing I've had an experience. At least, I sure hope not.

It would be awful to grow that old.

• Greetings (1)
• Editorial (2)
• Determining the Shape of Tomorrow, article by Suisaidh Peigi ("A report on a seminar recently held in what was termed the Mas holidays, which turned out be be more like what one may call a May Study-in. I don't really know if this seminar would have affected or involved any of you that read this for only a mere handful (600) of the senior students from high schools from throughout the whole State and the ACT were chosen to attend. Our hosts were to be the School of Electrical Engineering and lunch was free, so I went...") (3)
• S.F. Reviews ("Rite of Passage" a book by Panshin, and "The Immortal" a television show) (6)
• S.F. Movies on Television, a list (8)
• A U.F.O. Identified, article by John J. Alderson (0)
• Where Nomad Has Gone Before, serialized fiction, conclusion by Shayne McCormack (12)
• The Planet Vulcan, article by Jenny Stenvenson (about some historical astronomy) (18)
• The Point Is... by Shayne McCormack (original science fiction) (20)
• The Laser, and How It Works, article by Phillip H. Williams (23)
• Fanzine Checklist (short descriptions of four SF zines) (25)
• Sub-Space Chatter, letters of comment (27)
• Australian Fan Activities (37)
• Australia in '75, about the Worldcon bid (38)
• The Scene on Earth, news (39)
• Why You Received Terran Times (40)

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Issue 5

Terran Times 5 was published in July 1972 and contains 21 pages (not including covers).

Issue 6

Terran Times 6 was published in 1980, celebrating the arrival of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

• The movie in review
• Welcome the Dove by Susan Clarke (prequel to TMP)
• The View from Earth commentary on the current state of SF media fandom by Shayne McCormack

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 6

Slim, offset. This issue is totally different from the others, reflecting the changes in fandom. Not necessarily for the better. The original enthusiasm has been replaced by a subtle cynicism. Susan Clarke's two features are always the best, especially the poem. I did not, however, enjoy reading this issue. Sorry, Shayne, as I am sure you put your best, as always, into it, but somehow, it fell flat.