My guess would be Walter Irwin and G.B. Love, the editors....
Who Remembers "The Best of Trek"?
- Thread starter Dayton3
- Start date
What about the publisher?
I've read that they've both died in recent years, though I don't know how solid the sources are (random websites).
I also remember seeing at least one trade paperback, The Best of the Best of Trek, and wondering just how far they were planning to take this....
Not that you're asking for a straight answer, but they were serious about recycling. They did two Best of the Best of Trek trade paperbacks, collecting material published in the mass market paperbacks. Then they reprinted the first Best of the Best of Trek in mass market in two books, Best of the Best of Trek Part One and Part Two. I don't think I've ever seen a copy of Part One, and I didn't know either existed until I stumbled across a copy of Part Two in Chicago a few years ago.
Back around 1987 I decided to follow up on the ads in the books to subscribe to the zine. Got four pamphlet-sized things and a letter saying Trek was no longer publishing in that format, only in the books, so here's a random sampling of old stuff. Almost all of the contents of those four issues were in books I already had. I doubt they had enough material to do a Worst of Trek book, because they'd already printed almost everything in Best of Trek...
Interesting you say that, because I found those sorts of articles fascinating when they first came out - and I guess in some ways the articles I've been commissioning for Star Trek Magazine (debunking myths etc) have been on the same lines as might have appeared back then. Indeed, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if some of the topics overlapped (inadvertently I hasten to add - I've not seen a copy of the books in over 20 years!)
Paul
You work for the current Star Trek Magazine?
I've looked through many issues but it has always seemed to be too much the "cheerleading for Star Trek" that we've seen for years in magazines rather than being an honest and critical appraisal of the series.
I edit it. And I think you've not seen the last year's worth then - the articles on TNG's 20th anniversary, the DS9 at 15 issue - and especially next issue's reappraisal of Enterprise - hopefully fulfil that criteria. We can't say "This is trash" (no licensed product can) but we can explain why something doesn't work...
And let's be honest - who'd buy an official magazine that said that Trek was crap?!
Paul
I might give it another try.
And I loved Sci-Fi Universe because it was willing to say "this show is crap" even when talking about science fiction icons.
I had an article once listing the 50 reasons they hated "Return of the Jedi" for example.
Of course, Sci-Fi Universe wasn't an official magazine
Do you publish letters or email from critical readers?
I remember in the early 1990s when I and numerous other writers to Starlog criticized Star Trek.
Starlog responded by cutting the size of their letters section in half.
If it's a properly argued piece, not just saying that "everyone connected with the movie must be insane or worse" then yes we do and we have. Equally the issue that's just gone to press doesn't have any because the emails we had were circulation points that were answered directly and the letters we had were for Fistful of Data (the Q and A section)!
There's been quite a bit of reaction to some of the reviews we've run (which are also not "this is the best thing since Mr and Mrs Roddenberry decided it was time to have a baby" but can be quite critical at times).
In a year's time, I expect to be putting a load of pages aside in our issue that goes to press soon after the movie comes out!
Paul
So you expect a hoarde of letters offering critiques of the movie?
I think it goes without saying that there will be plenty of letters expressing strong opinions, both positive and negative. Since when have Trek fans ever agreed on anything? Especially when a new interpretation is making its debut. It was years before the condemnations of TNG settled down.
^ You hush with all that crazy talk!
I have done that.
Reading something before spouting an opinion about it?
I dunno, sounds like more trouble than it's worth...
Before or after you asked PaulSimpson "Do you publish letters or email from critical readers?"?
I'm fascinated that you think "Starlog" halved its Letters space simply so they didn't have to print negative letters. More likely, less people were writing. I do recall "Starlog" saying, if you don't write them we can't print them, and that if they printed a negative letter they tried to balance it with a positive one on the same topic, if possible. Most comic books stopped printing lettercols altogether about the same time.
Few editors could afford to refuse to print a negative comment if it was extremely well written and had something fresh, clever and constructive to say. It would be like a gift: free well-written controversy! That's always useful.
When I was editor of a professional journal (1998-2002), our annual written surveys often came back saying, "Bring back the Letters to the Editor section!". And yet, even though we often promoted the need to receive letters so we could print them, most feedback - positive and/or negative - was coming in via telephone at the time, or in person at conferences. We weren't receiving letters-of-comment at all, let alone choosing to print only the positive ones. People said that they wanted to read other readers' letters, but no one ever wanted to write them, or at least to attribute their name to the comments and have it in print forever.
By the way: "The Best of the Best of Trek" caused some anger to its contributors, IIRC. Most had naively signed initial contracts giving away all reprint and royalty rights on those articles when they were used in the MMPB collections. They received no further royalty from being in "The Best of the Best of Trek".
Speaking for myself, I remember there being plenty of negative letters about various things in Starlog for as long as the magazine was in print. Besides, Dayton3's use of Starlog as an example is erroneous, because he was responding to Paul's point about licensed magazines, and Starlog was not under license to Paramount as a Star Trek tie-in. It was an independent magazine that covered genre film, television, comics, and prose in general, albeit with a heavy Trek focus.
Heck, they printed at least one negative letter from me back around 1987. (I think they may have published more than one of my letters, but I know at least one was negative because a fan of the show I criticized mailed me about it, and we had some interesting back and forth correspondence for a few weeks or months.)
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