Why do people dislike the Fact Files?

[USS Lancelot]

So, I live in the US, and had never even heard of the Fact Files until about 5 years ago. I guess they were pretty well known in the UK where they were published, but are pretty much unheard of in the States.

I bought a complete set of all 304 issues on Ebay about 5 years ago from somebody in the UK. I paid about 20 bucks for them, and had to arrange shipping through Fedex for them, which ran me a little over 100 bucks (they are freaking heavy).

Personally, I love them. I still look at them a lot, and will probably never read them all. I know there's some padding; I know pretty much everything contained in them can be found on the web; I know they're not perfect, but I still love them.

But I've noticed that many people who have them have grown to dislike, or even hate, having them around. I was wondering, why? Maybe I'd feel differently if I'd spent five years and a couple thousand dollars collecting the whole set. Maybe if I had been getting them every fortnight for several years, and paying for each issue, I'd feel more resentment towards the padding in them. But I got them in one fell swoop for, what I think, is a pretty good price.

So, for people that collected them as they were released, why do you dislike them? Would you feel differently if you, having never heard of them previously, got a complete, fully-sorted, set all at once for very little money? Just curious.

 

[Daddy Todd]

So, for people that collected them as they were released, why do you dislike them? Would you feel differently if you, having never heard of them previously, got a complete, fully-sorted, set all at once for very little money? Just curious.

If I could find a cheap cheap set, I'd probably add it to the collection, but since a lot of the Fact Files were reprinted in Star Trek: The Magazine, it would overlap with stuff I already have -- and never, ever look at...

 

[F. King Daniel]

I guess it's because most of the pretty diagrams can be found for free online at places like EAS (although I'm sure EAS are breaking a ton of copyright laws), and the info is pretty much padded-out versions of the stuff in the old Ency and Chronologies.

Also we somehow never got full deck plans for the TNG Enterprise, despite their being available.

I've got more complaints, but I've gotta go now. I'll post more later!

EDIT: And we're back!
I was disappointed that several files promised early on, like a "key-location cutaway" for the 1701-A, never materialized even though cutaways for the ship have existed for decades. We got only a text rundown of the ships' interior.

It annoyed me that stuff like Franz Joseph's 1701 floor plans (that were used in the films!), or info from Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise were not included. I get little canon discrepancies may have dissuaded them, but I think it's got a lot more to do with money.

 

[captcalhoun]

because you ended up spending a shit load of money on something that wound up out-dated before it even ended, took up a shit load of space and - as you say - is freely available on t'interwebs.

mine are sat in the loft. if i ever move out, they may well wind up getting binned or bunged on eBay.

 

[Destructor]

I bought a complete set of all 304 issues

I'm amazed the series ever reached completion. I thought it was obsolete before it concluded. Still, it's probably quite nice to have the complete set and good on you for getting it, I say!

 

[captcalhoun]

^it was. and IIRC, it wasn't complete. i'm pretty sure it ended before ENT got cancelled.

 

[Therin of Andor]

i'm pretty sure it ended before ENT got cancelled.

It lacks ENT Seasons 2-4 and "Nemesis", although "Nemesis" was covered by a matching booklet, in similar format, when the "Fact Files" were reconfigured and re-released along with DVDs.

I think the anger tends to come from people who add up the price of the total set of 304, have a sudden realization, and declare it a waste of money but, as someone who collected it and laid out the various sections as they arrived, week by week, I certainly felt like I was getting my $AU 4.95 of value every week. Aussies paid $1,502.80 to own the lot, and it took almost six years to complete.

You know, the price never increased from issue #2. Issue #1 was at a reduced price - and all the binders were free. Six years with no price change (except that Australia added a GST - national sales tax - about halfway through.) Other partworks tend to jump in price every few months, or come with those mail-in coupons where you have to send away a money order or credit card number for extra binders. At one point, they actually issued a complex sticker set to make corrections to previous printing errors, such as a few photos with switched captions, missing diagram labels, or headers with incorrect colour coding.

Suspecting I might need more binders than were offered, I actually bought five copies of issue #1 for the greatly reduced introductory price, which gave me four extra binders and, yes, it was worthwhile being able to space out the pages.

 

[Technobuilder]

I'm a "Collector" by nature, so I'm very glad I never heard of these until now.

Always been a fan of Star Trek, and I enjoyed reading the Magazine (whenever I saw it on the newsstand) but I never had the cash to spend on a subscription at such a young age, and I'm glad I never asked for it either.

Growing older, I've already got so many relics from the past I don't know what to do with, I'd hate to still have more around too.

 

[Eddie Roth]

Personally, I loved the Fact Files. They were very much in the pre-internet days (for me at least) so there was no way to get this kind of in-universe info collected in such a manner. And they were nicely presented. I must've bought them every week for about five years or so. I stopped just short of the final issue - mainly because the advent of ENT disrupted the timeline and several other sections of the whole thing. It became a chore to order all those pages, to arrange and rearrange. That was my issue with them at some point, but other than that, I loved that they made them.

Right now, I have about 20 or so of these binders in my basement. But incidentally, I just thought about browsing through them again just a few days ago.

 

[Jono]

Loved them too. I collected every issue but still have about 20 that need filing properly and are just bolted in a binder. Nearly threw them out when we last moved. I don't look at them anymore but they helped get me into Trek in a big way so I don't know if I have the heart to throw them out.

 

[Therin of Andor]

still have about 20 that need filing properly.

Do it, slacker!

 

[Captain Robert April]

I'll have to look into these when I have some space to call my own again...

 

[F. King Daniel]

One thing I really liked about the Fact Files: In a sheet of Klingon phrases, it had "khest" as "an unpleasent Klingon word". As fans of The Final Reflection will know, "khest" is "fuck" in John M. Ford's version of the language .

Anyone else notice any obscure little Fact Files in-jokes?

 

[captcalhoun]

there's a comment on Mr Homm's sheet about his odd resemblance to Ruk the android in TOS. Both actors played Lurch in The Addams Family, Ted in the 60s series, Carl in the 90s movies.

 

[BolianAuthor]

The Fact Files predated the Star Trek Magazine, but were basically the exact same thing, only in German. In fact, MANY of the very same illustrations were used in the ST Magazine.

I have every single issue of the ST Magazine, and started out liking it until it became no more than a propaganda rag for ENT, and focused almost entirely on it. That, plus the fact that during the ENTIRE run on the magazine, not ONE single interview with Gates McFadden was conducted, even though they had time to interview god knows how many insignificant dead redshirts from TOS, and various VOY and ENT actors multiple times. Not even a BLURB for Gates. It's true... anyone who has all the issues... go and check.

 

[Therin of Andor]

The Fact Files predated the Star Trek Magazine, but were basically the exact same thing, only in German.

The "Fact Files" didn't include any interviews, though. It's my understanding that some illustrations and blueprints created for Fabbri's "Fact Files" were then licensed out to ST: TM.

during the ENTIRE run on the magazine, not ONE single interview with Gates McFadden was conducted

Could be that someone at ST:TM pissed her off and she refused all later attempts. She was certainly interviewed by many other mags, but she was known to withhold signatures on certain collector cards, due to an argument about likenesses, so I wouldn't be surprised she had strict demands re interviews.

 

[USS Lancelot]

The Fact Files predated the Star Trek Magazine, but were basically the exact same thing, only in German. In fact, MANY of the very same illustrations were used in the ST Magazine.

Actually, the Fact Files were quite a bit different from Star Trek Magazine. And they were not only in German. There was a German version, but there was also an English version sold in AUS and the UK. It's true that Fabbri did license some of the Fact Files' blueprints and illustrations for use in the Magazine, but it was far from all of them. Plus, the Fact Files was exclusively in-universe information, and an absolute ton of it. To say "basically the exact same thing" seems to me to imply you never really took a good look at the Fact Files.

 

[Therin of Andor]

the Fact Files were quite a bit different from Star Trek Magazine. And they were not only in German. There was a German version, but there was also an English version sold in AUS and the UK.

And, when the whole thing was over, and the contents rejigged and (partially) republished twice in the UK (once with stapled booklets instead of pads of single sheets), there was a Japanese version, which also began to include material never published in the previous English versions.

 

[F. King Daniel]

There was also a British one with figurines, that lasted about three or four issues before being cancelled. Of the three that I've got (Worf, Borg Queen and Captain Archer), the Archer one is the most interesting since the Fact Files-style sheets have added info through to the end of Enterprise, albeit mostly in the form of box-outs (the Borg Queen one mentioned "Regeneration", and I think the Worf one mentioned the Augment virus thing) and they had actor interviews, too. It's a bit of a shame they were cancelled so soon, since that Species 8472 figurine pictured looked awesome.

(I got them at £1 each from a magazine market once they'd been cancelled)

 

[USS Lancelot]

There was also a British one with figurines, that lasted about three or four issues before being cancelled. Of the three that I've got (Worf, Borg Queen and Captain Archer), the Archer one is the most interesting since the Fact Files-style sheets have added info through to the end of Enterprise, albeit mostly in the form of box-outs (the Borg Queen one mentioned "Regeneration", and I think the Worf one mentioned the Augment virus thing) and they had actor interviews, too. It's a bit of a shame they were cancelled so soon, since that Species 8472 figurine pictured looked awesome.

(I got them at £1 each from a magazine market once they'd been cancelled)

I'd actually like to get my hands on those. What exactly were they called??