Help: Which fanzine/magazine to read?

[RapidoTrains]

Hi all,

I'm a long-time Trek fan but have always considered myself a Doctor Who fan first and foremost.

As Doctor Who becomes more and more pointless, I find myself reading and watching more and more Trek.

The problem I've found is that the Trek magazines I've picked up at the book store seem to be filled with fluff. Doctor Who Magazine is a very meaty publication, each issue packed with tens of thousands of words of in-depth analysis.

Is there any equivalent for Star Trek? If not a mainstream publication, what about a fanzine? My main interest is the 24th century, with secondary interest in the unrebooted 23rd century - I have no interest in the new movies.

Which magazines or fanzines should I be reading?

Thanks in advance for your help,

Jason

 

[Finn]

I'd say none. Just watch the shows and movies

 

[F. King Daniel]

These are TOS-centric and very dated, but if you're willing to eBay or Amazon, I recommend hunting down the Best of Trek books. 17 volumes of pure Trek goodness, with an extremely diverse range of articles, reviews, speculations etc.

I also recommend fanlore.org's Interstat letterzine highlights, which are great reading on a mobile device.Click. See how little fandom has changed in 45 years! Fanlore.org had thousands of Trek pages, I'm sure they have lots of fascinating TNG stuff too. Just beware, lots and lots of (easily avoidable) articles on slash (Picard/Data? Someone went there). Oh, and they have a ton of DW stuff too.

 

[toughlittleship]

If you can find any issues, Cinefantastique regularly had a lot of coverage of DS9 and TNG.

 

[RapidoTrains]

So are there no current magazines that would fit the bill?

I'd love to be able to subscribe to a top-quality Trek magazine, but I guess with the show off the air there isn't a huge demand for it.

It's amazing that Doctor Who Magazine kept going for 16 Who-less years.

-Jason

 

[T'Girl]

As you pointed out (unfortunately) modern Trek magazines are full of fluff, lot's of pictures and meaningless articles and "interviews."

The seventies fanzines were great (for the most part), old issues of Starlog Magazine from the late '70's, '80's and '90's had more than their fair share of good Trek articles.



(Go Seahawks)

 

[RapidoTrains]

What fanzines are out there today? I'd even be interested in downloading one as there isn't much being printed in any fan medium...

-Jason

 

[Hazel]

Out of interest, what would you want from 'official' magazines that they aren't offering now? I mean, what do you count as fluff, and what do you want done differently?

Sometimes I think everything a magazines could cover has already been covered over the years...but then TrekBBS comes up with yet another new topic - it's pretty amazing*

*or do I mean scary? Scamazing?

 

[Kev72]

I always notice in my Barnes and Noble the tend to always have some sort of British Magazine that will center on Trek. They're a bit pricey but might fit my needs. They remind me a lot of the Dr Who magazines with a plethora of info.

Hope this helps

 

[USS Triumphant]

Is there any equivalent for Star Trek? If not a mainstream publication, what about a fanzine?

My answer is that you're on it. There is a horde of fans here willing to write thousands and thousands of words on even the most minute details of Trek, plus artists, fan fiction writers, and even people who are involved in the production of the novels, shows, and movies to degrees ranging from fan production participants all the way up to the likes of Rick Sternbach, Greg Cox, Christopher Bennett, and Kevin R.A. DeCandido.

Print media is dying. Welcome to the 21st century. And (back) to the board.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Read the BBS, we are just like a magazine only better and our fluff is better too!

 

[Captain Kathryn]

If you want some in-depth analysis, check out the multitude of Trek podcasts out there. If you want it to go particularly in-detail, the episode-by-episode retrospectives are great. There are also some super fun ones with great hosts! I happen to have an iPad so I subscribe to all of them on there (it's free), but even if you don't have any Apple device, you could check out http://www.trekmate.org.uk/ and click on podcasts.

There it also TrekFM http://trek.fm/podcast-directory/ http://trek.fm/ which is amazing that hosts different podcasts.

I find they give me a good in-depth fix and it's fun to have post-podcast discussions on the forums after. Some of the podcasts will read your comments on-air too. It is quite fun and has become a bit of a hobby for me.

Also, as someone who has gotten into Doctor Who recently, what is getting pointless about it? I don't quite know your reason behind that. But either way, there are many many mediums of talking and discussing Trek (and Doctor Who if you decide you want to go back to that).

 

[Captain Kathryn]

Is there any equivalent for Star Trek? If not a mainstream publication, what about a fanzine?

My answer is that you're on it. There is a horde of fans here willing to write thousands and thousands of words on even the most minute details of Trek, plus artists, fan fiction writers, and even people who are involved in the production of the novels, shows, and movies to degrees ranging from fan production participants all the way up to the likes of Rick Sternbach, Greg Cox, Christopher Bennett, and Kevin R.A. DeCandido.

Don't forget Kirsten Beyer! She is on here too!

Agreed with Teacake and USS Triumphant...TrekBBS is a great place to discuss in-depth Trek on the net.

 

[RapidoTrains]

Read the BBS, we are just like a magazine only better and our fluff is better too!

I am seeing that it is indeed a great place.

But I am extremely old fashioned. I like to read a book or magazine before bed. My laptop just keeps me up - especially as I associate it with work.

Each issue of Doctor Who Magazine lasts me almost a week. There's a lot of meaty stuff there.

Also, I'm not hugely into the ENT or TOS novels. Ever since Pocket Books switched to one novel a month, there are several-month stretches where I don't have any new Trek fiction to read. I would love to subscribe to a magazine that will fill that gap.

The Fall has been wonderful. Five months of 24th-century political intrigue! Loved it!

But after the VOY novel that is en route to me, that's it for several months.

I will have to go to the book store and revisit the Trek magazines on offer. Maybe there is something worth subscribing to...

Thanks everyone for the suggestions!

-Jason

 

[RapidoTrains]

Also, as someone who has gotten into Doctor Who recently, what is getting pointless about it? I don't quite know your reason behind that. But either way, there are many many mediums of talking and discussing Trek (and Doctor Who if you decide you want to go back to that).

I've been watching Doctor Who religiously since 1978 and I'll never stop being a fan, but the Steven Moffat era has been a huge disappointment. He's very good at writing one timey-wimey story a season.

Put him in charge of the show and the whole thing becomes a timey-wimey mess. Plot holes are large enough to drive a Dyson Sphere through, then they are filled three years later by an off-hand comment, if at all. Reset buttons are applied in far too many episodes. You don't know what parts of the last four years have been erased from the timeline and what parts haven't. Character development is pretty much non-existent. All the main characters talk in the same fast, "witty" voice. The list goes on...

I know this is seriously off topic, but you did ask....

-Jason

 

[USS Triumphant]

Just realized that I accidentally changed KRAD's first name in the above. Sorry Keith.

 

[Captain Kathryn]

To the OP...have you given any thought to the podcasts? I listen to them before bed a lot too and you don't need to have a laptop open~ They are very entertaining and insightful most of the time.

 

[BrentMc]

I subscribe to the Titan Star Trek magazine. I agree there is fluff, but I like the interviews. I wish we, as Trek fans, could help make it better. I have been buying used Star Trek magazines on eBay in lots. Many of them have some great articles. I enjoyed one two-parter in Communicator magazine about the guy who built the original 3 foot and 11 foot models of the Enterprise. I wonder if the rights to reprint the best articles could be obtained and reprinted in the current magazine for people who haven't read them.

If we were to make suggestions to improve the current magazine, what would you guys like to see?

The OP also asked about fanzines. Are there any good ones these days?

I also suggest the podcasts. I like Literary Treks, where they interview the authors of the current books. I especially like it when the authors come back after the book is out to talk about the book for people who have read it already. Just be careful not to ruin a book you haven't read.

 

[Captain Kathryn]

Yeah for the people who haven't checked out the podcasts yet but LOVE talking Trek, I highly recommend them! There's a plethora of them out there too.

Since my favorite Trek to talk up is Voyager, I regularly listen and contribute to "To The Journey" and "The Delta Quadrant" podcasts. There are many, many others though that focus on either general Trek or other series (there is literally more than one podcast out there for each series).

Most of the podcasts have forums where you can respond and debate about what was spoken about on the podcast too.