Fact Files

[retroenzo]

(Not sure if this is the right forum to post this in. Feel free to move it somewhere more appropriate.)

I've recently been revisiting my Star Trek Fact Files collection that I painstakingly built up over 304 issues between 1997 and 2002. I know they came in for a fair bit of criticism at the time, but I loved it and couldn't wait for the next issue. In fact, it's the last magazine I bought that I was excited to buy every week.

I'm sure some gave away their collections, or even binned them completely but I've just finished moving my collection over from my Dad's house to my girlfriend's, and I can't see me getting rid of them any time soon.

I'm sure there was a website that gave a complete index to every card but can't find it now. I also know that a lot of the deckplans and ship plans are now used on Ex Astris Scientia. But it was nice to flick through the pages again and read them.

As a result, I decided to write up a contents page for the Fact Files. However, when typing it up I've noticed a few discrepancies. Duplicate pages, missing pages, etc. I know they corrected some with correction stickers but wondered if anyone still has gaps in their collection. One I remember off the top of my head is in the 'Nebulae' file, there's no card B. There's an A ('Mutara') and a C ('Paulson') but no B.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I still have mine, but they're packed away and have been for many years. I too used to look forward to the next issue with great anticipation. Ultimately though, I was disappointed in what we got versus the total financial investment. We never got a key-location cutaway for the 1701refit or 1701-A, something that I'd been anticipating for years. It never seemed right that there were floor plans of the original series ship since 1975 but they weren't included (updated or otherwise), and the 1701-D plans were incomplete and printed at a 30-degree angle. Fan published deck plans of the classic movie ship were out there, so why couldn't we get anything official for that ship?

In short, it could have been so much more.


Oh and yeah, I recall some card numbers were missing or wrong when my collection was complete (even with the stickers) although I can't remember which ones.

 

[retroenzo]

Yeah I know it came in for some criticism and some of the sections are laughable. The 'Maquis Fleet' section is just three cards all about the Raider.

I must admit that I loved the floor plans and the ship plans, but yeah they could have been better. I really listened to a recent interview with Larry Nemecek. He said that Viacom at the time were really protective over things that weren't established onscreen so couldn't get away with speculation or information from unofficial sources.

However, so far it's been the only plan that I've seen that shows there is a toilet next to the bridge.

 

[Tosk]

I really wanted to keep mine, and hung onto them until last year...but when I reminded myself just how much room they took up (the weight of them all combined, cripes!) versus clicking a link to memory alpha, I just couldn't justify them any more.

 

[retroenzo]

I really wanted to keep mine, and hung onto them until last year...but when I reminded myself just how much room they took up (the weight of them all combined, cripes!) versus clicking a link to memory alpha, I just couldn't justify them any more.

I love dipping into Memory Alpha to be fair. Same with Ex Astris Scientia. But I think I'd only ever get rid of mine if I could get hold of a .PDF version of them.

 

[Ethros]

If you like the Fact Files (I had all 304 issues too) and haven't listened to this, then you should enjoy! Really interesting stuff

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It ended in late 2002 and I think at the end it was like 19 folders wasn't it? I remember I had to move in 2004 so started going through it and throwing away some of the files I didn't care about back then, I probably got rid of about 3 folders worth. Then gradually over the next decade or so I kept going, so now I've only got maybe 5 folders worth left, mainly a lot of the nice ship fold outs and plans.
(and to be fair I think one folder is just all the front covers, and another is just the timeline and indexes )

 

[fireproof78]

Perhaps they could be scanned in to a computer and shared for posterity? I know I have a few, but I never made the collection a priority, so its very limited.

 

[publiusr]

Perhaps they could be scanned in to a computer and shared for posterity?

I'd like to see that done.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Perhaps they could be scanned in to a computer and shared for posterity? I know I have a few, but I never made the collection a priority, so its very limited.

They were still recycling Fact Files content when I got the first issue of the Eaglemoss Starships Collection magazine (and before that, the TNG and TOS DVD/magazine collections, and the short-lived figurine/magazine collection), so I doubt CBS would appreciate it.

 

[retroenzo]

Yeah and I think the Star Trek Collectors Edition also used some of the material too. However, if it's ship plans you're after, Ex Astris Scientia has reproduced a few of them, and updated them with some extra information too.

If you like the Fact Files (I had all 304 issues too) and haven't listened to this, then you should enjoy! Really interesting stuff

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I do listen to the Trek Mate podcast (I've even recorded one with Wayne and Jude and expecting that episode to be broadcast soon) and it was this Fact Files episode that made me dive back into them. Plus I could listen to Larry Nemecek for hours. He's so enthusiastic about Trek and it's nice to hear someone who was so involved in the show to still be so passionate about it.

 

[137th Gebirg]

I used to have all of them, but I wound up having to sell them along with some other rare things (a DeBoer Hulls refit Enterprise model kit amongst them) that brought tears to my eyes and eternal regret that I felt I was forced to do at the time. What made it more painful was that the Great Recession was getting under way at the time, and these things were not commanding as much value as they should have and were sold at an absurd loss. I still have the complete set of the American version "Official Magazine", but I miss seeing the Fact Files on my bookshelf. Now that things are more financially stable for me than they were back when I felt it necessary to sell them, I was thinking about going back and getting them again, but it will be more difficult and considerably more expensive now, over 10 years later. Hang on to them as long as you can. They're not getting any less rare.

 

[DimesDan]

I had them, I had all of them actually, but when I moved in with Mrs-Dimesdan, as they were at my dads, he asked me what I planned on doing with them, so, I took them apart and put them in the recycling.

 

[137th Gebirg]

 

[DimesDan]

You'll be able to take solace from the fact they became something a lot more useful.