The Captain's Sextant
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| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Captain's Sextant |
| Publisher: | |
| Editor(s): | Linda Adams |
| Date(s): | August 1986 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Captain's Sextant is a Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea 178-page zine of art and articles. Two authors are Marian Weber and Linda Adams. It contains much art.
This zine was also the ninth issue of The Seaview Sextant.
From the Editorial
The editorial is extremely long; this is an excerpt:
The science-fiction (SF) phenomenon is an incredible and popular force. However , on tv -- at least in this country -- it has never been very successful. Voyage is the longest running SF adventure series to date, which means that it ran longer than the SF classic, Star Trek. Now ST is a phenomenon in itself, kept alive before and after its cancellation by a consistent and overpowering demand for more of it, but its incredible legion of fans. FANS! Now they have more than widespread syndication of ST... there are new Star Trek movies today in the theatres. The ST concept and the characters are as popular as ever and reaching new audiences ail the time. Another ST or Voyage could never be made today and certainly not as well. There is just not the creativity around any more like there used to be. All those fine or established in the field, like Irwin Allen, have gone to the movies or have passed on. But my point is, SF survives. Anything SF ever done in tv is likely to last 3 times longer in interest and popularity than anything else tv has to offer ... because of the fans- A fan-following makes all the difference; with it, a series can be immortalized, and without it, a series can be forgotten. We as fans have that responsibility if we care. Voyage never had a fan following amounting to the one ST has. But there are lots of dedicated Voyagers still around. Many of them, those who are fortunate enough to get the show syndicated in their area, videotape the episodes. Others can't, and with each passing year, Voyage grows older and more likely to disappear. The Voyage concept, being a basically SF one, cannot really become dated. But that doesn't stop it from aging. How likely is Flash Gordon to become syndicated anywhere now? For Voyage, it has already been 24 years, and a lot has changed... [The editor writes at length about the quality of scripts and the high cost of producing a show]... Ask the average person at a convention about Voyage, and they will most likely answer, "Oh, yeah, that show with all the monsters always trying to take over to take over the world. I used to watch it when I was a kid." A female might add, "I always thought Captain Crane was cute." A Voyage -fan might be tempted to enlighten them on their opinions because they care about it. But all too often, the individual's preference generally goes unrespected. Now fandom is a marvelously wonderful thing, and united fandom is even better. But there is an ugly side to it. A lot of that has to do with going overboard. Take the friction between diehard Trekkies and Voyagers. The Trekkies, who make an enormous majority, have a habit of justifying their show's greatness by degrading any viable competitor that turns up. Not only did Voyage come before ST but —-- this is doubly absurd because doesn't matter -- the shows once were neck-and-neck in the ratings war. But that was a long time ago! Yet, the Trekkies pack of a lot unnecessary fire, and Voyage plus Allen's other shows have taken the brunt of it. And it serves no purpose at all. Fandom is a plurality of opinions, a joining of ideas and inter ests. Any contestation derived out of it is wrong, and not what it was made for. Differentiated tastes and views should be respected! They create the horizons. Fandom is a binding force, and we stronger together. But the Trekkies as a group do not practice this. Therefore, the individual Voyage fan probably feels isolated and alone most of the time, and if s/he goes to a convention, they are most likely to do so discreetly, though there are exceptions. (I've heard of a certain lady who will boldly attend them decked out in a replica of Crane's uniform). But Voyagers remain a minority, as the show remains misunderstood. No one has ever thrown a Voyage con, and no one is ever likely to either. But there are a lot of Voyagers out there.... While we're at it, we might as well forgive the Trekkies. I know that some very defensive Voyagers might like to shove this book up the nose of the next biased or close-minded Trekkie they meet, but what' the use? Unless they are willing to know better, they won't. We mind our own business, and this is it.
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