The Dreadnought Explorations, published in the 70's?
Atavachron
Atavachron
Have any of you ever seen/read/owned...
- Thread starter Atavachron
- Start date
What can you tell us about it?
I haven't either - but I just looked it up on Google. There were 5 issues of this fan anthology written back in '76 and it does sound interesting...
Oh now you've gone and done it. You had to ask. And now, I shall have to answer...
The first issue came out in 1976. I was 22 at the time and had just started the High Desert Science Fiction Society (Hideous) about a year earlier in the Antelope Valley (60 miles north of L.A.) We had pretty good turn outs for such a small desert town (Pop. 10,000) and sometimes a group member would bring by a guest that had never attended. One night a regular member, Carol Yocom, brought by two girls, Gina Martin and Linda McClaren. They had these big plans to publish a fan based magazine called The Dreadnought Explorations based on Star Trek. Some of us had never heard of such a thing and were intrigued by the idea. Someone else asked if they needed any help with their endeavor and they said they would gladly accept help of any kind. Well, it just so happens that my wife, Debra who wasn't really into Star Trek or Science fiction in general, for that matter, was a real good artist. She would accompany me for support. But, she drew a picture of The Gorn that Gina and Linda really loved. Not to be out done by my wife, I drew a few pictures myself and the girls loved them too. In fact, everything I brought to them, they published. A close friend of mine, John Crawford (who actually got me interested in Science Fiction, but that is another story) and his wife, Candy, would attend our meetings too. Candy is a great artist too and she did a few pictures that were also published.
As for the stories that Linda and Gina wrote, they were pretty good and I was really taken with the idea of publishing a magazine. So much so that I had intended to start my own magazine. Unfortunately we moved from the desert to the SF Bay Area and have lived there ever since. My publishing plans cast aside forever.
As for The Dreadnought Explorations; it went on into 1977 and with issue number 5 it ended because the Paramount "suits" had written a cease and desist order and told the girls that, due to copyright infringement, they had to send Paramount all proceeds from there publication. Gina and Linda composed a letter which stated that they would comply, and promptly sent them all their bills, stating that they were a non-profit affair and there were no profits, just debts. Paramount didn't reply.
So, as you can see, I have a personal interest in these particular fanzines. If you ever see them flip through them and see if you can see some of my art. It was a pretty cool thing to be associated with one of the very early Fanzines that tried to keep Star Trek alive.
Here are some scans of the stuff I did away back 30 odd years ago:
This last one was made into a poster, printed on real heavy card stock, that we sold at a buck each.
Atavachron
The first issue came out in 1976. I was 22 at the time and had just started the High Desert Science Fiction Society (Hideous) about a year earlier in the Antelope Valley (60 miles north of L.A.) We had pretty good turn outs for such a small desert town (Pop. 10,000) and sometimes a group member would bring by a guest that had never attended. One night a regular member, Carol Yocom, brought by two girls, Gina Martin and Linda McClaren. They had these big plans to publish a fan based magazine called The Dreadnought Explorations based on Star Trek. Some of us had never heard of such a thing and were intrigued by the idea. Someone else asked if they needed any help with their endeavor and they said they would gladly accept help of any kind. Well, it just so happens that my wife, Debra who wasn't really into Star Trek or Science fiction in general, for that matter, was a real good artist. She would accompany me for support. But, she drew a picture of The Gorn that Gina and Linda really loved. Not to be out done by my wife, I drew a few pictures myself and the girls loved them too. In fact, everything I brought to them, they published. A close friend of mine, John Crawford (who actually got me interested in Science Fiction, but that is another story) and his wife, Candy, would attend our meetings too. Candy is a great artist too and she did a few pictures that were also published.
As for the stories that Linda and Gina wrote, they were pretty good and I was really taken with the idea of publishing a magazine. So much so that I had intended to start my own magazine. Unfortunately we moved from the desert to the SF Bay Area and have lived there ever since. My publishing plans cast aside forever.
As for The Dreadnought Explorations; it went on into 1977 and with issue number 5 it ended because the Paramount "suits" had written a cease and desist order and told the girls that, due to copyright infringement, they had to send Paramount all proceeds from there publication. Gina and Linda composed a letter which stated that they would comply, and promptly sent them all their bills, stating that they were a non-profit affair and there were no profits, just debts. Paramount didn't reply.
So, as you can see, I have a personal interest in these particular fanzines. If you ever see them flip through them and see if you can see some of my art. It was a pretty cool thing to be associated with one of the very early Fanzines that tried to keep Star Trek alive.
Here are some scans of the stuff I did away back 30 odd years ago:
Atavachron
Interesting that Paramount shut you down, but left a lot of other fanzines alone. I wonder why you were singled out.
I know I once read the story on this zine shutdown. Paramount was quite tolerant of most fanzines - in fact the publicity/media packages for all the TOS movies specifically mentioned estimates of just how many unlicensed fanzines had spun off from the TV series.
Was it that "Dreadnought Explorations" was more professionally printed? Perfect bound? Sold in bookshops? Sold to fans for an amount above usual printing costs? Offered to pay contributors by the word for submissions? Placed paid display ads in magazines? Infringed on Franz Joseph's "ST Tech Manual" (whose deal with Paramount gave him the right to license his designs to RPGs without going through Paramount)?
I know Paramount did state a reason why this zine infringed more than others. It went beyond "fair use" but I can't recall how.
Aha! Here you go:
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=V81wCQ_4BiwC&pg=PA43&lpg=PA43&dq=%22dreadnought+explorations%22+zine&source=web&ots=yUeJJOZkSB&sig=u3ZIl0dzuzawLou4MFlWffMZX3s&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result
Paramount stated in the "Cease & Desist" letter that they were happy to encourage most ST fanzines - but Verba seems to infer that DE contained an early example of K/S material: ie. homosexual love scenes! ("Boldly Writing" by Joan Marie Verba).
or
http://www.alternateuniverses.com/judygran/copyright.html
...it's worth remembering that the only zine that Paramount ever threatened to sue for copyright infringement was the genzine Dreadnought Explorations, which Paramount went after because of its similarity to commercially-licensed professional fiction. When I was a law student, I interviewed Bruce Hosmer, the attorney handling Star Trek products for Gulf & Western, about this issue and he told me that DE was ordered to cease and desist because the photograph of the Enterprise on the cover suggested to the reader that this was an "official" Star Trek product. Mr. Hosmer also stated that he thought it was possible for a fanzine to be a "fair use," though understandably as the representative of the copyright owner he took a fairly restrictive view of the type of zine he considered "fair".' (Judith Gran)
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I have never read this before. All I recall is that in 1977 Gina and Linda quit making the 'zines. I had quit doing art by then and we kind of fell out of touch with one another. But as for the artwork on the cover, that was a line drawing, NOT a photo. As far as I know they never used a photo in any issue.
This series of fanzines was later sold with all five issues bound together. I wonder if any of my artwork survived into this format.
Atavachron
I had all 5 issues, I liked them a lot and was very disappointed then they ended so abruptly -- the main storyline continued from issue to issue, and when they ceased publication, they left off on a cliffhanger.
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