The Captain's Log (Australian newsletter)/History

The Captain's Log is the newsletter for Austrek: The Star Trek Fan Club, the Australian fan club that is the second oldest continuously operating Trek club in the world.

"The Captain's Log" contains Trek and general science fiction news, reviews, letters, articles, club news, information on social activities, regular meetings and special events, and upcoming conventions. In 1999, the fanzine won 'Best fanzine' in the Australian Science Fiction Achievement Awards (Ditmars). In 1998 and 2007, it was again nominated for the award.

Some History

From the editor in the 150th issue:

In looking at the first issues of our bumble newsletter, it must be remembered that Austrek itself began as a club with a dozen - all schoolchildren who shared a common interest in STAR TREK. After opening publicly in late 1976, we were swamped by the demand of people wanting to join. Almost instantly, we found our youthful enthusiasm helpful but inadequate for the task. All of our experience, efforts and abilities were stretched to meet each new challenge.

Yet out of this chaos, there was a vibrant excitement which can still be glimpsed in reviewing the early newsletters. Pages in the early CAPTAIN'S LOGs still sparkle with the excitement of a club - and a fan phenomenon - in transition. These were the days when STAR TREK itself was struggling for its niche as a fairly obscure genre in its own right. Austrek actually began its life as a sub-section of a schoolchildren's amateur science club. However, the public demand for Austrek quickly drained the parent club, which closed soon after Austrek's public opening. Even a brief glance at the earliest newsletter shows technically crude methods of reproduction and the poor quality of art work/contributions that resulted. On the other hand, many of the contributors and artists "proved their worth"and their talents in later Austrek productions (or in professional publications). Perhaps CAPTAIN'S LOG was a testing ground? The news letter began its life with the name of TREKKIE TALK. Two issues later, due to the demands of an increasingly sophisticated audience, its name was changed to the familiar CAPTAIN'S LOG. Our budget in those days was often, literally nothing. (Postage costs alone swallowed up our paltry club finances, which usually depended on donations of pocket money from the above mentioned school students!) Often, an entire issue was typed up in one night by whoever had access to the typewriter, and printed off the following day on a school's fordigraph machine (purple spirit duplicator) by a student during lunch hour. Stencils for typing, and paper for printing, was generally begged/borrowed/stolen. (I remember all too well when a LOG editor emerged from a solitary corner at 2. a.m. during an all-night Austrek rage. She had been typing for hours, and she needed a volunteer to finish typing up the newsletter so that it could be printed the next day. Guess who was the turkey who volunteered??) From this humble background grew the newsletter we have today. Yet in those days of genesis, no-one could have conceived that the club and its publications would survive for over a decade!

The fact that the CAPTAIN'S LOG has now reached 150 issues is a testimony to its current contributors who have given untiringly. But it is also a tribute to those earlier people who gave of their youthful enthusiasm and inadvertently tapped into a fountain of potential and talent, thereby providing the basic groundwork that could be built upon by their successors.

Some More History

From the 150th issue:

Here are some highlights of events & happenings from those early days of the Log, provided by Geoff Allshorn, Gail Adams, and myself (Adam Bradshaw):

• Fizzbin was played regularly at the early club meetings, according to "Kirk's rules", ie. if there was a draw for the winner, those concerned had to "fight it out" (presumably any males also had to tear their shirts). This practice had to be abandoned after a triple-draw of Fizzbin at one meeting.
• A Tasmanian fan opened a genie's bottle when he wrote to the Log with his theories about warp-factor flight, trying to explain the inconsistencies between STAR TREK's "Warp Factor" and the realities of physics and distances between stars (the Enterprise would still take years to get from one star to the next). An avalanche of replies had theories and counter-theories filling the pages of the LOG for the months. Who said Austrekkers aren't intellectual?
• An "Australian Cold War" raged for some months between certain individual
 STAR TREK fans in Sydney and Melbourne, as they each pursued their own "space
race" and tried to be 1st to have a Con with GoH from the STAR TREK cast.

• At "Trekcon 1", Austrek's own first Convention (April 1978), a collection
 was taken and the money was used to send a telegram to STAR TREK offices, 
congratulating them on their first day of filming for STAR TREK - THE MOTION
 PICTURE. A floral bouquet was also delivered to the Studios on our behalf by a
 Californian fan, and photos of this insignia-shaped bouquet (with cast members
 standing alongside) later appeared in ST-TMP publicity material.
• Rumours flew thick and fast in the early days of the first STAR TREK MOVIE, and the CAPTAIN'S LOG often printed telegrams and the publicity material sent to the club by Gene Roddenberry and Paramount. In response, a mock telegram, dated April 1st (April Fool's Day), was printed, listing a number of drastic changes to occur to the STAR TREK movie. These included Martin Landau to play Spock and Billy Mummy (from LOST IN SPACE) to play Chekov; two of the main characters (eg a la LOST IN SPACE) was to direct the special effects. The number of club members who initially believed this joke was amazing, although the CAPTAIN'S LOG editors had to run for cover at the following club meeting!
• The channel Nine Network owned the television rights to STAR TREK in those days, and Austrek frequently organised petitions and interviews with Channel Nine executives, to ask for the return of STAR TREK TO television . Despite the cold reception given to fans by Nine management, the series was occasionally repeated in "sleeper" timeslots.
• In an attempt to drum up letters for the LOG, one fan contributed a series
 of articles called "Bless This Mess", in which he played the "devil's
 advocate" on a number of issues relating to STAR TREK. These articles were
 "tongue-in-cheek" (and what a lot of cheek!) and it was hoped that readers
 would become so angry that they would swamp the LOG with their own
contributions. One article mocked Kirk, another mocked the Kirk-Spock
 relationship, another mocked Klingons. Surprisingly, the only response was
that a number of fans wrote in agreeing with these sentiments, especially
treating the Kirk-Spock relationship to a barrage of venomous anti-homosexual 
letters. The LOG Editor in turn responded with an article questioning how fans
 could claim to treat aliens with respect when they showed such bigotry towards 
fellow humans!
• The first ever book review printed in the newsletter, included this final
 comment: "I've tried the book...it lit first time".

Even More History

From the 200th issue: "Those Were the Days: Memories of an Ex-President" by Julie Hughes:

Congratulations to the Captain's Log and subsequent editors who have nurtured you thorough 200 months of births, deaths and marriages but, more importantly, many very exciting discoveries of fact and fantasy.

I first became interested in STAR TREK in 1977 during my 12 month stay in Swan Hill. Out of sheer boredom I started borrowing books from the local library and came across James Blish's episode adaptations. Little did I know where this would lead to! Seventeen years later I have nearly every novel published. I have made some wonderful friendships, mourned dear departed fan friends but had a hell of a lot of fun on the way.

In 1978, after attending a few meetings I was shanghaied onto the committee due to lack of numbers. My friend Marion was the AUSTREK secretary and I used to drive her to the committee meetings. I have recollections of sitting in Russell Edward's freezing cold lounge room and having our General Meetings at the Women's Temperance Hall (a k.a. The Dungeon) on the site of today's Hyatt Hotel. The Log (all four pages) was typed on a stencil and duplicated on a spirit copier. We used to get about 30 people to our general meetings and we would fill our days with games, trivia questions, jelly bean fights, making the notorious movie "City On The Edge Of The Yarra", generally chatting, speculating and fantasising about STAR TREK.

The move to St Luke's came around 1982-83 when the sheer weight of numbers squeezed us out. It was about this time we started harassing the general populace by flaunting our costumes. The movie premieres of STAR TREK III & IV saw a massed crowd of 30 fans in Romulan, Starfleet (Human and Andorian) amid Klingons in the City Square before we set off to terrorise the Pancake Parlour, Hungry Jacks and Myer Melbourne Memories return of the human barrier between Robert Jan and the innocent bystanders who nearly had eyes poked out by his pointy shoulders. It was a real scream because then people looked twice, now they don't even look.

The Log was typed on anybody's typewriter and consisted of 10-15 pages (it was growing!) and was printed by the Dandenong Youth Employment Scheme. Committee meetings were very intense but enjoyable as there were so many ideas but very little time to do them in. The General Meetings were very creative, specialising in make-up effects, constituting (no-one kept secrets), charity auctions, slave and villain auctions, hobby days, mini Olympics, the original spot the brain cell with the original Craig Hooper, car rallies, court martials and the original bush wars (created by myself and Alison Wallace after watching "skirmish"). These led to hysterical and sometimes physical meetings which were filled with such camaraderie.

"Kids, Committees and Chaos -- Let's Do It Again!" by Alison Wallace:

My tour of duly as a Log editor started about 1986. Those were the halcyon days of AUSTREK when the small group of members discovered creativity in a big way. Costuming became the focus and every movie or series in production set off a frenzy of pencils, paper, library books and STARLOGS (our bible).

Meetings were very rarely boring. Court martials, auctions (if it moved we sold it), costume and make-up workshops, hobby days, post convention rages, ambassadorial luncheons all took place in the hall. New committees broke the meetings into discussion groups to play the year's activities around the members suggestions. Crazy Olympics and great xmas parties with magic acts, belly dancers and television reporters (yes, we mace the 7.00 pm timeslot!) all made for an interesting experience. At 4.00 pm there would be a mass exodus to the city to raid Minotaur books before they closed, trash the Pancake Parlour or the Spaghetti Tree and make it back to the Marathon at the National Mutual building before the screenings started. Not that we saw any of the episodes, we sewed, drew, designed, wrote filksongs, raged or found a quiet pub (didn't stay that way for long) until the intermission. Memories of Maple syrup hidden in the sugar bowl, forks used to catapult food and walking up Bourke street four abreast in a group of fifteen and singing are still quite fresh. This period was one of friendships forged, the club was one great clique, everyone was warmly welcomed and no-one competed for attention as all were equal. The Log was filled with book and movie reviews, costuming hints (this was before the conception of THREADS) and pages of critiques on social outings and conventions as these were becoming increasingly popular. Log collations were an event by themselves. Once a month at least 8 - 10 people would descend on my house and copious amounts of Mony's pizza and coke were consumed whilst watching "Hey Hey It's Saturday" before the collating commenced. Gail and I were co-editors as I had two children to cope with and couldn't dedicate as much time as I liked to the Log. Baby cartoons injected my personality into my editing (humour imitating reality) and then I fell pregnant again. Sticky fingers, nappies, toilet training and delivering the Log to the G.P.O. were not a lot of fun (one on a hip, another on a lead and the Logs were in the stroller). I sort of noticed that no-one borrows typewriters to produce the Log any more, and what was an amateur publication is now very professional in its presentation. The editors have been complacent, controversial (I enjoy those editions), dedicated and enthusiastic, but most importantly true fans, helping to shape the publication's character and reputation.

Well, the nappies and baby lotion has been replaced by stretch jeans, clearasil and CDs. I now own my typewriter, never having to borrow again.

Problems in 1989 and 1990

From Craig A. Hooper, excerpted from the 200th issue of the newsletter:

[1989]: A review of the Captain's Logs (No. 144-148) highlight some of the problems facing the club at that time. As Darren Maxwell suggests in his letter (Captain's Log, No 198), all was not well in Austrek, The Committee seemed quite aggressive against itself and the Captain's Log was becoming ever distant to the Club and its members. The Letter's column of the Log was filled with sarcastic comments from the Editor which had the occasion to damage the writer's efforts.

The controversy hinged around two topics at this time, both of which would continue into 1990. Adam Bradshaw VS The Committee and the "Jan VS Adam" saga. The latter being an ongoing personal attack that went for too long. It is interesting to note that while Adam continued to follow his own plans and schemes without Committee support (and latter with complete disregard for the Committee's directions) Jan was simply performing her duties as the (then) Secretary. Jan was crucified for putting her and the Committee's own concern that the Editor of the Captain's Log was not attending either Austrek General Meetings nor Committee meetings (a trend that was to continue) on Austrek letterhead.

The club restructure started in late 1989 but was hedged against some very stubborn people, myself included. As you will see, the celebration of the Captain's Log 150 issue was not as much of a celebration as it was the Tiger biting.

[1990]: A newish committee, a new year, a new-look Captain's Log and a heil of a hangover, both from the New Years Eve party at Kilsyth as well as from the 1989 Committee. (I still don't know what Ian and I discussed that night!)

There were two Captain's Log's No 150. One was the conventional issue that was posted to every member. The other sported the tide "Fanzine of the Captain's Log", a fanzine style review of the previous 150 issues of the Log. I still look at the conventional Captain's Log No 150 cover in awe. It is one of the best covers that Robert Jan has produced: original, amusing and excellent illustrations. The 150th was a popular disaster for various reasons. Put simply, people were told that their articles would appear in the fanzine but they appeared in the newsletter. Two articles were cut in half to appear in both publications....you get the idea. A great deal of negative feeling was being focused upon the Log Editor of the time. As this feeling rose, so did the negative feeling in the editorials. You see, the Captain's Log Editor is free to do as they wish with the Log. The Austrek Constitution places NO restrictions upon the editor and, therefore, the editor is NOT answerable to anyone. (At least until the elections come up). So, the editor can produce a newsletter that has nothing to do with Austrek, let alone Star Trek, if he/she so desires. At this point, I have to back track a bit in time to fill in some details. Soon after the first couple of committee meetings, we discovered that, due to a number of reasons, Austrek was several THOUSAND dollars in the red financially. An extra-ordinary committee meeting was called. All bar one committee member presented to this very important meeting. Some great ideas were presented at this meeting and it was a credit to all those who attended, guests as well. Membership fees would increase, Spock had to cut costs and raise its price, more fund-raising and the Captain's Log would be cut by 20% (4 pages). Needless to say that the Captain's Log editor, who wasn't present at the extraordinary meeting, didn't appreciate this cut in size. Furthermore, the publishers of the Log at that time, themselves fans, responded in kind. Thus, the proverbial hit the fan in a huge way. The Editorials became more heated toward various committee members. The publishers wrote letters that were exceptionally bias against the committee's decisions (and occasionally, the committee personally). It is interesting to note that the financial figures produced in the Log by the Editor and the Publishers never matched the outgoing monies paid by the Club, even when the debt was fully paid. In the Captain's Log No 160, the Editor placed himself on a crucifix and awaited a saviour. The saviour never arrived.

Interstate rivalry was the basis for some of these concerns as many members did not like the way Austrek was being strongly influence by interstate people, which was reflected in the Log.

Further Reading/Meta

• An Evolution Overlooked (1994)