All of Starlog available online for free

[Joel_Kirk]

I can't put my finger on it, but do any of you think that Starlog changed as the years progressed?

It seemed to focus more on big-name (or more high-profile or potentially high-profile) sci-fi rather than sci-fi as a whole in its later years. Granted, there wasn't much sci-fi - at least to my knowledge - on television in the magazine's 'twilight' years.

I've noticed episode guides, emphasis on model kits or collectors items or books covered in early magazines. Many of these episode guides from those early issues were for shows that were being re-released on television (e.g. "Twilight Zone" or "Star Trek" or "The Outer Limits").

Of course, it may be nostalgia on my part.

(I'm also reminded of other magazines like "Cinemafantastique" and "Enterprise Incidents"...."Future"...and probably others that escape me).

 

[cylkoth]

There was a shift in the filmed genre arena itself, and yes, at least in my opinion, Starlog followed that shift in their coverage/focus. Genre movies became big business, while genre television, outside of the Treks, languished. I found myself skipping an issue here and there regularly-due in part to the splintering of coverage in favor of their spin off magazines. Features that used to be included in the flagship magazine, were shunted off to sister publications like Future Life, Comics Scene and Fangoria. Episode guides also had specialty one shot mags built around them...
Things felt a little glitzier, compared with the in depth, "hard news" attitude of the early years. I can't recall when I started dropping off- not without digging thru my collection, but I too definitely noted the change.

Oh yes, I loved Cinefantasque's annual Trek season review and episode guides. Ran circles around the Starlog branded Trek zines for solid analysis and critical review, with detailed behind the scenes coverage of key episodes and effects production.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

There was a shift in the filmed genre arena itself, and yes, at least in my opinion, Starlog followed that shift in their coverage/focus. Genre movies became big business, while genre television, outside of the Treks, languished. I found myself skipping an issue here and there regularly-due in part to the splintering of coverage in favor of their spin off magazines. Features that used to be included in the flagship magazine, were shunted off to sister publications like Future Life, Comics Scene and Fangoria. Episode guides also had specialty one shot mags built around them...
Things felt a little glitzier, compared with the in depth, "hard news" attitude of the early years. I can't recall when I started dropping off- not without digging thru my collection, but I too definitely noted the change.

Oh yes, I loved Cinefantasque's annual Trek season review and episode guides. Ran circles around the Starlog branded Trek zines for solid analysis and critical review, with detailed behind the scenes coverage of key episodes and effects production.

That's good I'm not the only one who noticed the change...

I'm going to say said change probably happened around the late 80s/early 90s.

(Now, that's given me the incentive to look online to see if there are any other sci-fi mags of 'yesteryear'!)

 

[TheSubCommander]

Dear all,
Once again, I'm stumped as to which forum to post this in. No-one seems to have posted the link before, even if I'm the last to find it, so:

http://archive.org/details/starlogmagazine

is a link to the Internet Archive's scans of the first 224 issues of "Starlog" magazine. I've only had time for a quick look so far, but the general quality of the scans seems fairly good, it seems to be legal, and it's free!
This is my big chance to track down all those issues I regret throwing out years ago, and finding that they weren't that great anyway...

Best wishes

Timon

I am late to the party on this thread, but THANK YOU for posting this!

When I was in high school, I read a Starlog magazine, that had concept art of a future Enterprise concept model. I remembered it for years, but as time went by, I forgot what issue and what month and year it was posted in. It drove me crazy for years. I went as far as trying to buy some back issues, but never found the issue I was looking for.

NOW, after all these years, I have finally identified that issue, as Issue #135 from October 1988!


Check out Page 25, under The Enterprise Incident.


https://archive.org/stream/starlog_magazine-135/135#page/n23/mode/2up

Or here if easier to view
https://ia701202.us.archive.org/23/items/starlog_magazine-135/135.pdf

Note the concept mode Enterprise by Brian Pimeta (looks a bit like the USS Vengeance), and there happens to be a pre-Yesterday's Enterprise graphic depicting the Enterprise-D meeting a previous Enterprise, to boot!

I know no one else probably gives a rip, but this is so cool! This seriously has bugged me for more than 2 decades, and now finally I have an answer which issue it was I read all those years ago! This is cool!

 

[arch101]

STARLOG was our "internet" back in the late '70s and '80s. I got a subscription as a boy in the '70s after seeing a Starlog commercial featuring Robby The Robot.

In the late 70s I used to go straight to that first page each month for the latest on upcoming SF productions or Trek/Wars news. I can't believe there was a time we waited a WHOLE MONTH for a morsel of news. Truly stone knives and bearskins. I don't know how I would have made it without Starlog in those dark days.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Oh, yeah, I remember eagerly awaiting the news tidbits in Starlog (not to mention The Comic Reader). And then when David Gerrold started doing those monthly updates on the development of Next Generation, it was murder.