The Hive (Star Trek: TNG zine)

Zine
Title:	The Hive
Publisher:	Ankh Press
Editor:
Author(s):	Roberta Tennant aka Roberta DeBono
Cover Artist(s):	Thena MacArther
Illustrator(s):	Thena MacArther
Date(s):	November 1987
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Star Trek: TNG
Language:	English
External Links:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

cover artist is Thena MacArther

The Hive is a gen 42-page (A4) novel by Roberta Tennant.

Its sequel is Hostages to Fortune.

Summaries

From the publisher: "One of the very first ST:NG fanzines, published in November 1987, and presented to Jonathan Frakes at his first convention appearance, here in California. An almost identical episode appeared in the Spring. It had of course already been filmed when The Hive was published, so these two versions were conceived independently of each other!

In this novella, Riker, Data, and Worf are trapped on a dangerous planet ruled by beautiful women. On the Enterprise, Captain Jean-Luc Picard faces a mysterious, deadly illness that strikes down every woman on board, including Dr. Beverly Crusher."

First?

In a recent blog discussion, The Hive's status as the first Star Trek: TNG zine was challenged:

I regret to inform Ms Roberta Tennant Debono that "The Hive" was not the first Star Trek: The Next Generation fanzine. The first was called "This is It!" and was published in May of 1987, even before the complete cast was announced. In fact, it had such complete details of the characters in its stories that Paramount asked us to stop it's sale after just one issue.

Sample Interior

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Reactions and Reviews

1988

The art is by Thena MacArthur. This is the first New Generation Star Trek zine I found and I got as soon as I was able to. I should say that I wasn't really bowled over by the first few shows of the series and wondered how the series would grow and if the characters would ever develop to the point that people would write fanzine stories about them. This zine appears to have been written after only a few of the shows were shown. Events mentioned refer only to the "Naked Now" show. So, as a result, the characters are not that well developed as we now see them.

The zine is a one story zine with passable art. The front cover is very good but the inside art varies from one page to the next. The story itself could have been better. Riker is the center of the story (not my favorite character) with Worf and Data as supporting characters. The story is as follows, with both Worf and Data unhappy with their place on the ENTERPRISE and Riker trying to set up a one-night stand with Troi, the ENTERPRISE comes across a distress signal from a planet. A medical team and security team with Dr. Crusher, Yar, Riker, Worf and Data is sent down. All the female members are sent back up with a terrible plague that soon has infected every woman and girl on the ENTERPRISE. Riker, Worf, and Data are taken prisoner by a society of women who need them for breeding stock. They also come down with a disease that makes them violently macho. After all three argue about who is the most "man," Worf and Data have a sword fight over the queen. Riker, however, impresses her and after several lovemaking sessions convinces her to trust him and let Starfleet science handle their problem. She agrees and stops the plague on the ENTERPRISE (wasting a wonderful deadbed scene of Dr. Crusher's which included a declaration of love by Picard and a confrontation between him and Wesley). Dr. Crusher finds a cure for their problem and plans are made to import Federation males. This zine does not require an age statement but I was surprised by the number of bedroom scenes that take place.

This seemed to me to be an example of a "Marty Sue" story with nearly every male in the story acting like a macho [expletive deleted]head, even Data and Wesley. I was very surprised by the amount of emotion Data felt even before he went down to the planet. It also seemed very anti-women, especially after we meet the queen. She is a strong character till she meets Riker and the other men and turns into a silly nitwit who enjoys having men fight over her. I really did not like this story at all. The price was not so bad that I was sorry I bought it and I am glad to have a New Generation zine but it may be a while till I buy another.

1989

Roberta's writing in THE HIVE and MINDSET bring new depth and breadth to the expressions, sophomoric and juvenile. THE HIVE has pitiful characterizations of the crew; Riker, Worf and Data act like super-macho fools, Picard leans over a terminally comatose Dr. Crusher behaving like a love-sick schoolboy, and the villains are stereotypical Amazon women, hating and fearing males until they encounter the paragon, Riker, who convinces their Queen that they have men all wrong. AH, THE POWER OF THE MAGIC PENIS!

1991

For those of you who long for the thrilling days of pulp SF, where the girls were girls and all the men had terminal cases of machismo vulgaris, The Hive is tailor made. Roberta Debono's novella is a forty-two page puree of Edgar Rice Burroughs, the Harlequin Romances, and all those Trek Classic episodes where Kirk saved the ship by telling some alien how beautiful she was. David Gerrold's "six-foot green women in steel brassieres" are back with a vengeance. Generations before, their planet, Idris, had been visited by a plague that turned every male into a slavering brute. The men of that time have killed each other off and, since then, no male child has survived puberty. But the very same disease that put the males at one another's throats has gifted the females with psychic power of almost unimaginable magnitude. The race survives by capturing passing starships, holding them in orbit by the force of their will alone, and making do with anything in pants. Picky they're not. Although the women are humanoid in appearance and predictably beautiful, Worf, Data and Riker seem equally acceptable as breeding stock. Almost immediately after beamdown, the three officers begin to feel the effects of the. airborne virus, promptly joining the hard-hat and Budweiser set. Even Data is not above pawing the ground and snorting, and he and Worf end up dueling for the right to go to bed with the high priestess. Or queen bee. Or whatever. Actually, she's had her eye on Riker from the very beginning. Luckily for him his symptoms ebb and flow, and when the bestial rages subside, he delivers eloquent lectures of the "we-come-in-peace" variety. The second time they make it together, the gentleness of his lovemaking convinces her that men in the Federation can be trusted after all, and she lets the Enterprise go. Oops—sorry if I spoiled things for those of you who doubted. The story is not helped by the fact that Roberta has yet to learn that you cannot go up from up. From the first she attempts to keep the reader atop an emotional Everest, instead of creating tension by building to a gradual climax. From page one, the characters indulge in a frenzy of breast-beating and self pity. No one understands Horf because he's a Klingon; no one understands Data because he's an android; Troi and Riker don't understand each other for reasons even Paramount can't agree on. The result is a cast that is not merely caricatured but drawn in crayolas. Except, of course, for William Shatner's fine performance as Riker. And yet this woman can write. She has a good grip on the English language—The Hive is not one of those zines where you have to read and reread in order to figure out who's saying what and who's hitting whom. But high camp it is. And besides, the books that Harlequin puts out are a couple of dollars cheaper.

1993

Not Data-centered, but lots of good Data bits. The female ruler of a male-less planet kidnaps Data, Worf, and Riker as potential breeding stock (boy, what a mistake!). Data's accumulated resentment over numerous slights (i.e., bing nicknamed after a certain wooden puppet) boils over, resulting in some rather Lore-like behavior towards his felling captives. Sentimental and funny, highly entertaining. PG-13.