The Magazines of Star Trek Part II: Starlog Press (1976-1998)

 Hey everyone! How were your weekends? Most of us who live in Ontario and Quebec had a scary weekend thanks to the storm that happened on Saturday. Everyone I know is fine, and most of them have their power back, which is good. Today I'm here for part two of my look at the Magazines of Star Trek. Part 1 covered the fan club magazine, and the other two officially licensed magazines. Today we're going to be looking at Starlog Press and the magazines they published that have to do with Star Trek. I am going to briefly touch on Starlog Magazine itself, but will mainly focus on the Star Trek centric publications. So let's get into it.

Published from 1976 until 2009, Starlog was THE magazine for everything going on in the world of Science Fiction. Though it mostly dealt with movies and TV shows, Starlog covered the latest Science Fiction books and comic books as well. The first issue, which was published in 1976 featured Star Trek, which was just two TV shows at this point, Star Trek: The Original Series (1966-1969) and Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-1974). The magazine would feature the franchise regularly as it moved into the movie era of the early to mid '80s, and then the continuous production of movies and TV shows from 1987 until 2005. After an attempt to go digital in early 2009, the magazine ceased publication altogether.

In 1982 Starlog Press published a one off magazine for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. In fact from 1982 until 1987 the movies would be the only thing keeping the franchise going, since there weren't any TV shows until Star Trek: The Next Generation debuted in 1987.

One was done for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock in 1984.

Two were done for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home in 19865. The Official Movie Magazine, and the Official Poster Magazine.

One for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier in 1989.

One for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country in 1991.

And one for Star Trek Generations in 1994.

Starlog Press also put out anniversary magazines for Star Trek. The first was the 25th Anniversary Special in 1991, and they also did a 30th Anniversary Crossword Puzzle magazine as well in 1996. I don't have very much to say about any of these magazines as I've never owned any of them. I've mainly seen them in ads in the Starlog Press Star Trek publications that I did own. Though the 25th Anniversary magazine is one I saw in the gift shop at Paramount Studios when I went to visit the set of Star Trek: The Next Generation in January 1993. I didn't get it though. I bought Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual instead. Well, my parents bought it for me, because I was 6 at the time. So let's talk about those publications now.

First is the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Journal magazine published in 1992. This magazine is awesome. I still have my copy up in my bedroom closet with my other Star Trek and Star Wars reference books, and to this day, I still go through it as often as possible. It contains info about the universe of Star Trek: The Next Generation, including the Enterprise-D, Klingons, Romulans, and the Borg. Including schematics for those races. It's mostly made up of schematics for every major room on the Enterprise. The Bridge, Sickbay, Engineering, Ten Forward, the Observation Lounge, Shuttlebay 2, the Captain's Ready Room, and the Transporter Room are all included. The only major rooms we don't see schematics for in this magazine are the Battle Bridge, the Captain's Quarters, the Senior Officers's Quarters, and the Crew Quarters. All of the photos used in the book are from seasons, 1, 2, and 4, with none from seasons 3 and 5 and no info from season 6 since this book came out as season 6 went into production. Like I said, I still have my original copy from 1992 and it's still in great shape after 30 years.

That same year, Starlog Press published Star Trek: The Next Generation Makeup FX Journal which focused on Makeup Design Artist, Michael Westmore and the work he did in bringing the new life and new civilizations shown on Star Trek: The Next Generation to life. I actually owned two copies of this magazine. My dad bought me a copy at the Hobby Center sometime in 1992, and then I got the second copy from the cast of TNG when I visited the set. I don't know what happened to the copy I got from the set, but the original copy I gave to my dad for safe keeping because I didn't have room for it with my other reference books. So I haven't read it in over six years. There were some cool pictures though of the various stages of makeup design. If I remember correctly they showed step by step how Brent Spiner was turned into Dr. Noonien Soong for the 4th season episode, "Brothers". Now we get into the multi-issue magazines that came out from 1987 to 1998.

The Official Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine began publication in December 1987, three months after TNG debuted. The magazine was similar to the aftershow, The Ready Room, that modern Star Trek shows have now in that there would be several interviews with cast and crew, as well as summaries and behind the scenes tidbits on specific episodes. Aside from the first issue, which only tackled the pilot episode, "Encounter at Farpoint", and several issues that focused on a certain element of production, every issue had summaries of four or five episodes in it, which included some of the dialogue. 

The first issue I ever got was #19 (as you can see the cover of above). It was a special making of some of the show's most acclaimed episodes like "Yesterday's Enterprise", "Data's Day", and "The Mind's Eye". I also had issues 20, 21, 24 and 25 (covers not shown). I don't think we have any of them anymore. I haven't seen them since before we moved in 2016. 

The series ended at issue #30 in 1994 since that's when TNG ended it's historic seven season run. I didn't have any issues after 25, or any before 19, but the covers appeared on the subscription pages for the magazine in the other Starlog Press TNG publications that I had, so I got to see all of them. 

1993 saw the debut issue of The Official Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Magazine come out, around when DS9's pilot episode, "Emissary" first aired. I don't have a whole lot to say about this magazine as I've never owned an issue of it and it's the exact same format as the TNG magazine, just for a different show.

Unlike the TNG magazine though the DS9 one didn't have summaries for EVERY episode. Alot of episodes were skipped in favour of focusing on the production of the show rather than summarizing every episode. So that's interesting. It ended in 1998 at issue #25 when DS9 ended. 

When Star Trek: Voyager debuted on UPN in 1995, Starlog Press also published a magazine devoted to the series, The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine. Like the DS9 publication, this one did not include summaries of every episode. Mainly because it ended at the end of the show's fourth season. Again, I didn't own any issues of this magazine. In fact, I didn't even know that it or the DS9 magazine existed, because I wasn't buying Starlog or Starlog Press publications, and I never saw them on the magazine racks in any store. Not even at Chapters. 

This magazine ran even shorter than the DS9 one did, as it ended at issue #19. For whatever reason Starlog Press discontinued all of it's Star Trek publications in 1998. Though aside for this magazine and the DS9 magazine, Starlog Press hadn't actually done any Star Trek publications outside of the 30th Anniversary crossword puzzle book in 1996, and they hadn't done any movie related magazines since Generations had come out in 1994.

I think that's because by 1998, Star Trek wasn't as popular as it had been in 1991 and 1992, during the franchise's 25th anniversary. DS9 retroactively became a classic when streaming became a thing in the early to mid 2010s, and Voyager was pretty underrated during it's entire run on UPN, except with the hardcore Star Trek fans. Even though there's so much more of it now, by 1998 there was already so much Star Trek out there that it was difficult for new people to get into it. The pull back of merchandise proved that. The DS9 and Voyager toylines produced by Playmates weren't sold here in Canada. In fact the last Playmates toyline to be sold here was the one for Star Trek: First Contact in 1996. Anyone who had them, and the later mixed lines that Playmates did, got them in the United States. Even the comics became harder to find, because I don't think any of the WildStorm Star Trek comics came out here either. So Star Trek wasn't as popular with the general public once TNG ended in 1994.

And that my friends is the end of my look at the Magazines of Star Trek. I hope you enjoyed this retrospective of the history of Star Trek in magazines. I'm planning on doing the Magazines of Star Wars at some point. That will be a much shorter article because there aren't as many Star Wars centric magazines out there, as the main one, Star Wars Insider, has been in continuous publication since 1987 (when it was known as The Lucasfilm Fan Club Magazine), and the secondary ones all ceased publication in the '90s or early 2000s. I will be back with plenty more blog posts this week, so until then have a great night and I will talk to you all later. Take care and stay safe!