star trek zines

Zine and Newsletter Archive

COPYRIGHT . While we had permission from the writers and artists to publish their fanworks in our zines with reprint rights and hard copies of many (though not the earliest) of these zines do exist in the British Library, none of us in fandom in those early days envisioned online publication. Unfortunately we have lost touch with most of the writers and artists and some of them are no longer with us. We are hoping none of our contributors will object to us making the zines available through the Archive as part of our way of honouring and preserving early fandom. If you are a writer or an artist who does object, please contact us to discuss various options, such as removing your work. The story/art pages can be replaced with placeholder pages leaving only the title and the contributor’s name in the Table of Contents. Contact Us

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Enterprise Log Entries 44 - 94

Enterprise incidents 1 - 12, enterprise mission review 1 - 2, enterprise personal log 1 - 3, home to roost 1 - 3, idic log 1 - 19, idic newsletters 1 - 48, log entries 1 - 43, make it so 1 - 26, one-off zines 1, one-off zines 2, repeat missions 1 - 4, stag newsletters 1 - 49, variations on a theme 1 - 8.

A History of Zines

River H. Kero

River Kero (he/him) is a queer Canadian artist who has just graduated with a BFA and lives in Vancouver, BC. His practice consists mostly of graphic novel work, scriptwriting, prose, and illustration. He lives with his younger brother, their dog Pogo, and his cat Matilda. [email protected]

View All posts by River H. Kero

If you’ve ever been into an indie bookstore or cruised around at a comic convention, you’ve likely seen or flipped through a zine. Zines (pronounced ZEEN) have been around since the early 20th century, and have been an enormous part of underground and non-commercial publication . Zines are characteristically cheap to make, often photocopied, and have a distinctly “DIY” look. Often, they represent the voices of people on the fringes, and their content is hyper local.

As far as content goes, zines can feature poetry, art, collage, interviews, comics, and more. Your local small press can roll out zines covering topics from anarchistic gatherings in your area, to comics about police brutality, to tutorials on how to build your own garden boxes. You can even find artistic zines online today, featuring art and artists from all around the world. 

Zines have travelled a long way before arriving on your bookshelf or computer screen…so let’s take a little look at where they’ve been!

The 1930s and ’40s

The very first zine dates back to May of 1930 in the USA . A little publication called The Comet was first created by the Science Correspondence Club. The letter section of the zine was a prominent feature, where fans discussed science as well as science fiction.

At this time, photocopiers had not yet been invented. Enter the mimeograph, also known as a stencil duplicator. This machine was invented in the 1800s and remained in use until the 1960s and ’70s when it was slowly replaced by the photocopier. It was not ideal for large editions, but it was perfect for the pulp fan magazines of the 1940s–60s.

The 1940s saw a boom in the science fiction fanzine culture. In October of 1940, Russ Chauvenet coined the term fanzine in his sci-fi publication Detours . A number of authors of the day created zines, including Ray Bradbury, Jack Williamson, and Robert A. Heinlein.

Additionally, the 1940s saw the first ever queer fanzine. A woman named Edythe Eyde (also known as Lisa Ben, an anagram of “lesbian”) typed out the first copy of Vice Versa in June of 1947, creating a total of nine issues before ending it the following year. The publication was free, and Lisa Ben mailed them to friends as well as hand delivering them.

In 1949, the Xerox Corporation introduced the first xerographic copier, and “xeroxing” was officially born.

The 1950s and ’60s: Folk Zines, Comics, and Star Trek

Several popular zines centring folk music culture emerged during the 1950s. Lee Hoffman was a prominent figure who published several science fiction zines as well as folk zines such as Bad Day at Lime Rock , Caravan , and Quandry .

Artists such as Robert Crumb, Art Spiegelman, and Jay Lynch began to find their voices through fanzines , inspired by magazines such as Mad and Cracked. These artists went on to found the underground comics movement that changed the face of the comics industry.

While folk zines were still around in the 1960s, rock and roll zines also took the stage. Paul Williams’s zine Crawdaddy! was the most popular of these, but it soon became popular enough to turn legit and become a full-on magazine.

Spockanalia was the first Star Trek zine in 1967, and it was wildly popular. The second issue featured letters from the cast, including Leonard Nimoy.

In 1968, Star Trek was to be cancelled after two seasons, but through fan lobbying (part of which was organized through fan zines), the fans were able to get the show back on the air for another year.

The 1970s and ’80s: Punk Zines and the DIY Movement

Copy shops were now widely available in the 1970s, changing zine production forever. Now, zinesters were able to make many copies quickly and cheaply, and the look of zines changed along with it.

The punk scene became the main hub of zine culture during the ’70s. Zines took on a grungy, do-it-yourself style. Some of the most popular of these were Sniffin’ Glue, 48 Thrills , and Bondage. Most works came out of New York, L.A., and London. Punk zines continued well into the 1980s.

The 1990s and 2000s: Riot Grrrl and Queercore

Riot Grrrl, an underground feminist punk movement, came about in the 1990s. With this movement came a huge sweep of political zines that spread the feminist manifesto.

Queercore (AKA homocore) is another offshoot of anarcho-punk subculture, this one aimed at critiquing homophobia within the genre and society as a whole. QZAP (Queer Zine Archive Project) was first launched in 2003 in an effort to preserve as many queer zines as possible.

2010s and Beyond: What’s Next?

Zines are still all the rage, both in digital and DIY physical forms. There are now zine fests, libraries collect zines and bookstores sell them. The POC Zine Project was created in 2015 to archive zines written by people of colour.

The zine is as popular today as it ever has been. It remains an important part of subcultural movements and underground press for marginalized voices. Anybody can make a zine… that’s the best part!

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A Brief History of Zines

By chloe arnold | nov 18, 2016.

Zines have now become so mainstream that even Kanye West has one. In February 2016, the hip-hop artist tweeted : “Season 2 Zine pronounced Zeen short for magazine. A lot of people pronounce it wrong.” The tweet included a picture of the publication Kanye had made to accompany his second line of footwear for his brand, Yeezy. After decades of existence, zines are no longer strictly counter-culture, but they originated as small-scale DIY efforts—many with an anti-authoritarian message.

Most definitions of zines include the fact that they are small-circulation, self-published, and often inexpensive or free. That’s generally true, although these are more guidelines than hard-and-fast rules. The most important aspect of a zine is generally that the publication identifies as one. Many zine-makers will say zines are as much about the community as the product, and that identifying as a zine is what separates these publications from comics, literary journals, websites, and other types of independent publications.

The first zine is often traced back to a 1930s effort by the Science Correspondence Club in Chicago. It was called The Comet , and it started a long-lasting trend of sci-fi related zines. The important sci-fi zine Fantasy Commentator began in 1943, and ran in various iterations (though not continuously) until 2004. One of the pieces serialized in Fantasy Commentator eventually became Sam Moskowitz’s book on the history of sci-fi fandom, The Immortal Storm. The interconnectedness of zines and sci-fi is reflected in the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) Hugo award for Best Fanzine , first given out in 1955 and still awarded today. (As the name of that award shows, zines were originally called fanzines , alluding to the fans who made them. Eventually, fanzine was just shortened to zine , and the range of topics widened to include practically anything.)

The relationship between zines and sci-fi deepened after 1967, when the first Star Trek fanzine , Spockanalia, was produced. It gained plenty of attention, and the second issue included letters by members of the show, including writer D.C. Fontana and actors James Doohan, DeForest Kelley, and Leonard Nimoy. (The actors all wrote their letters in character.) In 1968 , Star Trek was reportedly going to be canceled after two seasons, but a letter-writing campaign—partly organized through fanzines —that generated over 160,000 missives was able to help get the show back on the air for another year .

The technological innovations of the ‘70s made zines easier to create than ever. In particular, the rise of copy shops allowed zine-makers to produce their work cheaply and quickly. (Previously, zines had been produced using mimeographs , which push ink through a stencil to make multiple prints, but the process was impractical for large-scale production.) Steve Samiof , one of the people behind the popular punk zine Slash , told Dazed in an interview earlier this year that the copy shops of the '70s were “extremely inexpensive—you could pay under $800 for 5000 copies and that would be the actual printing cost.”

In the ‘70s and ‘80s, the main hub of zine culture became the punk scene in London, LA, and New York. Compared to the earlier sci-fi zines, punk zines had a grungier, DIY aesthetic that reflected the subjects being covered. Slash and other popular zines like UK-based Sniffin’ Glue covered seminal punk bands like The Clash, The Ramones, and Joy Division. The first issue of Punk , published in 1976, featured an interview with Lou Reed.

The first issue of Sniffin' Glue. Image credit: Wikimedia // Fair use

The dedication of the early punk scene allowed zines to get interviews with people who would go on to be big names before they had achieved fame. When punk started to gain popularity, many of the zines that previously helped define the scene shut down. Sniffin’ Glue ended in 1977 and in 1979 Punk followed suit.

In the 1990s, zines flourished again thanks to the riot grrrl scene. As an alternative to the male-driven punk world of the past, riot grrrl encouraged young girls and women to start their own band, make their own zine, and get their voices heard. Key bands included Bikini Kill, Heavens to Betsy, Bratmobile, L7, and Sleater-Kinney. By 1993, an estimated 40,000 zines were being published in North America alone, many of them devoted to riot grrrl music and politics.

But riot grrrl was more than just a musical genre, it was a feminist movement—though it was often difficult to pin down the specifics of that movement. As Max Kessler wrote in Paper , “Whatever riot grrrl became—a political movement, an avant-garde, or an ethos—it began as a zine.” Riot grrrl spread from its epicenter in Olympia, Washington to across the country and other parts of the world.

Many of the members of these bands also had their own zines. Bikini Kill ran a zine of the same name, and Tobi Vail, a member of the band, ran her own popular zine called Jigsaw . The zine Snarla was made by artist Miranda July and musician Johanna Fateman. Both Bust , first published in 1993 , and Bitch , published in 1996 , started out as zines connected to the riot grrl movement and have since grown into full-scale magazines.

Philipp Messner via Flickr // CC BY-NC 2.0

  Today, zines are more diverse than ever. The rise of the internet has helped make the cost of production almost zero, and online zines such as Plasma Dolphin , Pop Culture Puke , Cry Baby , and Cherry have brought young artists together to collaborate. However, zines are also still sold in person through zine fairs as well as online via Etsy and Big Cartel. The internet has also made it easier for zine makers to connect and find community regardless of location.

While the zines of the past have been shaped by the predominant themes of sci-fi, punk music, and the riot grrrl movement, there have always been zines on a variety of subjects. Today, that diversity is reflected in publications like Home Zine , which invites artists to explore the concept of feeling at home;  Filmme Fatales , which explores feminism in film; and Dad Tweets —a short, humorous collection of selected tweets from a real-life dad. There is even a zine about what plants are best for attracting bees and other pollinators. In fact, there is an entire magazine, Broken Pencil , dedicated to covering zines and zine culture. (In the 1980s and early 1990s, Factsheet Five , a zine of zines , performed a similar function.)

The usefulness of zines as historical documents is now being recognized. Many universities have their own zine collections and there are also numerous independent zine libraries both in America and around the world. It’s easier than ever to learn about zines first-hand. However, the best way to learn and be involved in the community is the same as always: start reading and then start creating.

We will keep fighting for all libraries - stand with us!

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Hope for the Future: Kirk/Spock Fan Fiction

By Garret Dixon (2023)

Star Trek fanzines were an immensely popular and long-lasting phenomenon, of which, those featuring the romance between Captain James T. Kirk and his subordinate, Commander Spock (shortened to K/S), garnered their own sub-community. I propose that K/S fanzines were the ultimate Star Trek medium, surpassing its books, movies, and even the show itself. More specifically, the K/S zine industry realized Star Trek’s utopian vision in their production, distribution, and the portrayal of Kirk and Spock’s romance.

The characters of Kirk and Spock were introduced in the first Star Trek series, posthumously dubbed Star Trek: The Original Series (often shortened to TOS). Captain Kirk and his crew aboard the USS Enterprise travel the galaxy, discovering new planets and meeting new civilizations. Star Trek’s portrayal of humanity and human civilization is a utopian one; the Earth has been unified under one Federation, and mankind no longer wages war (Memory Alpha, 2004). Along with world peace, according to the Star Trek: Voyager episode “Dark Frontier” , both money and capitalism went “the way of the dinosaur ” in the 22nd century. As the creator of the show Gene Roddenberry puts it, “We must have an optimistic projection of man and his society if we are to approve of and identify with Captain Kirk, the crew of the Enterprise, and their mission” (Roddenberry, 1967). Although the Enterprise is technically a military vessel and uses military terminology for its crew, Roddenberry rather classifies it as a “semi-military”, devoted primarily to exploration (Roddenberry, 1967). In a guide to those wanting to write an episode for Star Trek, Roddenberry discloses that he primarily uses military terminology to give the audience something more familiar to contextualize the Enterprise and its crew. The crew is multi-racial (and multi-species), a third are women (wow!), and there is no class differentiation between enlisted and officers.

The phenomenon of Star Trek fanzines started with Spockanalia , created in 1967 and died out in the late 90s as fan fiction moved to digital platforms (Verba, 2003). The first K/S entry was a two page story called Grup by well-known (in the fanzine community) author Diane Merchant about two unnamed men having sex. Diane later revealed, through other writing, that these two men were Kirk and Spock. In the following years, K/S grew in popularity, leading to a massive split in the zine community between those that saw Kirk and Spock as good friends, and those that saw their relationship as something more (Verba, 2003). These K/S stories featuring two gay men were almost exclusively written by women. In the seven fanzines I use for my primary sources, with over 100 authors, over 80% of them are women. In Veldman-Genz’s Selling Gay Sex to Women , they cite the emergence of e-books and online media as a major factor in erotica’s, especially gay erotica’s, rise in popularity. Zines thrived long before the internet, due to a massive demand and many passionate groups producing zines with no other motive than the love of Star Trek.

The K/S zine publishing industry lived up to Star Trek’s post-capitalist ideal by having no large companies, no marketing teams, no advances, no royalties, and no profits. Although devoid of the profit motive, the teams that create these zines produce issue after issue, losing sleep, and still inspiring others to do the same (Zier, 1984). There is little information on how exactly this industry operated, so I looked to seven different primary sources, all zines, to glean how they were produced and distributed. The production of a zine relies on two different groups of people: those who write the pieces featured, and those who edit, put together, and print the zine itself. My seven selected zines range from about 50 pages to 250, and feature between two and 24 different authors. With smaller zines, it’s hard to tell how closely the writing and editing team work together, but with larger zine series such as Contact , people send in their stories by mail, and the editors choose which to put in the final product. The reach of fanzines is large, according to Contact 2’s Editor Page, they say they’ve received mail from every part of the US, England, and from Australia. The editing team themselves nominally work for a publishing company. In these seven fanzines there are four different series, four different publishers, and four different addresses. These publishing companies are nothing more than a front however, where every address points to a house in a subdivision, presumably the editor’s. In one case, two different publishing companies for the zines Acceptance and IDIC Log are run by one woman out of a cottage in Dundee, Scotland. There are most commonly three roles for the editing team: the editors themselves, the typing, and the printing/reproduction. The number of people on this team varies, often multiple roles are fulfilled by the same person, but never is someone alone putting together a zine. The production of a zine seems to always be a group effort, and this goes a long way to explain how people start producing zines in the first place. Those that produce new zines either have experience producing a zine before, or personally know people who produce them. In their first edition of Mind Meld , the editors thank the editing team of Contact for their help , and according to google maps, their houses , both in Baltimore, are a half hour drive apart. What I have found is a technically interesting phenomenon of a massive decentralized publishing industry, but also a remarkably intimate, organically growing community devoted to the publishing of K/S fiction.

Once the zine is edited, typed, and printed (by local no-name companies), the next step is to spread and distribute them to hungry readers (Contact 4, 1977). There are no marketing teams, instead the zines initially hand-to-hand, or word of mouth. The crucial information a reader needs to know is what the home address of the editor is. Although past the profit motive, the use of money has not gone extinct. Readers sent an SASE(self addressed stamped envelope) to the editor with money in it, adjusted for inflation about $15 for a 120 page zine up to $34 for 250 pages (Contact 8, 1982). The editor then sends the zine back in the return envelope. Many zines announce their new upcoming issue with a release date, meaning that you can simply send the money to the same address to get the next issue. To get the address for a new zine, either you get it from a friend or see an ad for it in another zine. Zine ad sections are a part of the last few pages of a zine, a kind of ‘miscellaneous’ section, usually containing trivia and advertisements for new zines and fan-made music with blurbs and addresses to send money to (Contact 4, Mind-meld I). Curiously, both Acceptance and IDIC Log do not have price tags on them at all. They are both edited by that same woman out of Scotland, and it is possible that she was distributing them for free. That, or the payment section is implied or was not digitized.

This post-capitalist industry was ironically created from corporate greed. From its very outset, copyright laws doom the industry to failure and to obscurity, yet they have become a phenomenon wide and long-lasting.  Paramount owns the rights to Star Trek, but zine publishers avoid copyright violations by calling on the “Fair Use” section of copyright law (U.S Fair Use Copyright Index). Fair use says that it’s ok to use copyrighted materials without permission, as long as it’s not for profit and doesn’t cut into the owner’s profits too much. What this means, in practice, is that there will never be a monetary incentive to produce zines, and zines can never be too popular, lest they steal market share. Zines were popular, however, and the zine industry flourished unchecked by Paramount’s power. Paramount does not hesitate to enforce its claims on fan-made material, even when non-profit, like it did against the fan-funded film Axanar (Gardner, 2017). In this case, the courts decided that fair use did not apply because Axanar challenged Star Trek’s IP too directly, a logic that could easily apply to zines threatening the popularity of the many Star Trek books. The zines’ defense against this was that there were so many different publishers, to the point that trying to stamp them out would not be worth the time or money. This decentralized structure happened in fact due to the copyright law requiring that they be non-profit.

The romance between Kirk and Spock also signifies a kind of ideal relationship. In the seven fanzines I’ve cited here, there are wide variations on how this relationship is portrayed. The biggest differences are between fanzine series, with the Contact series being more physical and featuring stronger declarations of love than Mind-meld and Acceptance . It appears that the zine editors choose submissions that roughly fit the zine’s theme, primarily along the lines of how explicit Kirk and Spock’s relationship is and if there are stories from other characters featured in the zine. Contact is about exclusively Kirk and Spock, whereas IDIC Log has stories from several different viewpoints. There are noticeable differences within fanzines as well, as each piece has a unique author. Within Contact 8 itself the stories range from platonic adventures of Kirk and Spock to stories where dangerous situations lead to physical contact and declarations of love.

All these stories, regardless of variation, represent a utopian ideal of a relationship. K/S is not free from conflict, in fact, they fight with each other quite often. However, they always end up together at the end closer than they were before. Along with this happily-ever-after ending, Kirk and Spock are shown to be able to perfectly communicate with each other. Stories in Contact 8 make use of telepathy to allow Kirk and Spock to perfectly understand each other. Spock is from an alien species called the Vulcan, and all Vulcan have the ability to mind meld with other sentient beings, allowing pure thoughts and emotions to be transmitted between them. One caress of the cheek or touching of foreheads, and Kirk and Spock are able to directly communicate. This is rarely shown as perfect, it’s quite taxing on Kirk’s human brain, but Kirk and Spock are seen working on it and working to communicate better through it. This, too, represents an ideal scenario between two people, where physical, emotional, and mental barriers break down completely and two become one.

Fanzines are a present day manifestation of the utopian ideal of the future ingrained in the stories of Star Trek. Although Star Trek: The Original Series provided the source material for fanzines, the show itself did not live up to its own ideals. Star Trek is an incredibly profitable IP for Paramount, and therefore is forced to place profitability above all else. Star Trek was canceled after only three seasons and less than three years on air because its ratings on NBC were too low (Asher, 1993). Fanzines, however, have no such bounds. Those who produce them do it without the quest for profit and without the need for ratings. Arguably, the fanzine industry is more successful than the show itself, as TOS zines were produced in great numbers for over thirty years, rather than the three of TOS itself. Not worrying about ratings or making money may have opened the door to explore gay romance itself. Not dependent on social norms or wide acceptance, zines were able to express and fantasize about areas that the show dared not go.

The K/S fanzine industry is a pure manifestation of love and of the ideals of Star Trek. The mammoth zine industry operates as a non-profit, as the production of fanzines is a combination of crowd-sourced art pieces put together by an editing team in someone’s house and printed by a local lithographer. Readers acquire these fanzines by mailing said editor’s house an envelope with money and get the zine back, and they hear about the address from friends or from another zine. This diffuse, intimate industry is entirely shaped by the threat of copyright litigation by Paramount, yet adapts and succeeds because of it. The content of K/S zines, the romance between Kirk and Spock, also represents an ideal of a relationship with no emotional, mental, or physical barriers between two people. Star Trek depicts a post-scarcity society that no longer uses money as incentive, yet people still work together and reach for the stars, and in that way, I think zines are its most faithful medium.

Works Cited

Roddenberry, Gene. Star Trek Writers/Directors Guide . Paramount TV Production, 1967.

Harmony Press, ed. Contact 1 , 1975. https://archive.org/details/StarTrek-Contact-1

Harmony Press, ed. Contact 2 , 1976. https://archive.org/details/StarTrek-Contact-2

Harmony Press, ed. Contact 4 , 1977. https://archive.org/details/StarTrek-Contact-4

Harmony Press, ed. Contact 8 , 1982. https://archive.org/details/star-trek-contact-8

ScotPress, ed. Acceptance , 1982. https://archive.org/details/StarTrek_Acceptance

Zier, Sandy, ed. Mind Meld 1 , 1984. https://archive.org/details/StarTrek-MindMeld-1-JQ-OCR

IDIC, ed. IDIC Log 13 , 1993. https://archive.org/details/IDIC_Log_13/mode/2up

Verba, Joan Marie. Boldly Writing: A Trekker Fan and Zine History 1967 – . 2nd ed. FTL Publications, 2003.

Veldman-Genz, Carol. “Selling Gay Sex to Women.” Essay. In Women and Erotic Fiction: Critical Essays on Genres, Markets and Readers , edited by Kristen Phillips, 133–49. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2015.

Gardner, Eriq. “CBS, Paramount Settle Lawsuit over ‘Star Trek’ Fan Film.” The Hollywood Reporter. The Hollywood Reporter, January 22, 2017. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/cbs-paramount-settle-lawsuit-star-trek-fan-film-966433/ .

“ U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index.” copyright.gov. Accessed April 14, 2023. https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/ .

“United Federation of Planets.” Memory Alpha. Fandom. Accessed May 5, 2023. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/United_Federation_of_Planets#Economy .

Asherman, Allan. The Star Trek Compendium . New York: Pocket Books, 1993.

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Handmade Works of Passion: Zines of the Past, Present and Future

With dazzling artwork and prolific prose about science fiction, hip-hop movements or serious topics like AIDS, zines are handmade, self-published books or pamphlets made for “passion, not profit,” according to aficionado David Sandner.

A fan of zines since a teenager, Sandner, professor of English, comparative literature and linguistics, wants others to learn more about these individualistic literary gems. He is the project director of “Zines to the Future! (Re)making SoCal Futures” — a virtual exhibit at Cal State Fullerton’s Pollak Library. A zine , pronounced “zeen,” is short for magazine or fanzine.

“Zines all have one common element: the celebration and exploration of science fiction and other genres,” Sandner said.

With the theme “Imagining Diverse Futures,” the exhibit in the Salz-Pollak Atrium Gallery opens virtually Oct. 29 and continues through December. The library is not open for in-person exhibits due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The exhibit showcases the history of zines and displays of rare zines and original zines created by CSUF students. Students, including art, African American studies and English majors, are involved in the project in a variety of ways from making and writing zines to creating art or installing the physical exhibit, Sandner said.

Online activities and events include zine-making workshops at the library’s Innovation/Makerspace Center, videos, a virtual panel and readings, and more. ( See related story ) The interdisciplinary project is supported by a $5,000 award from California Humanities, funded through the Humanities for All Quick Grant program.

When did zines begin and what draws people to create them?

Zines began as “fanzines” in the 1930s when science fiction was just getting started as a genre. They reflected the passion of fans talking about something they loved. Zines spread science fiction until it became the ubiquitous genre we know today: the source of countless streaming TV shows, movies, books, manga, comics and more. People make them because they need to express something —and there is no better outlet for their passion.

What are popular zine topics?

While zines began in science fiction, “zinesters” brought zine-making to rock-and-roll music, giving rise to the first rock-and-roll criticism and magazines. Punk embraced zines and their DIY (do-it-yourself) aesthetic. The hip-hop and Riot grrrl movements used zines to spread the word. Zines are vital in the queer community, talking about AIDS, for example, when no one else would, and leading to the Queercore, punk+queer music movement. There are hundreds of “kinds” of zines, depending on how you see it — from general to specialized zines of all sorts. There is no limit … and that’s the point.

Why did you want to do this exhibit?

CSUF’s University Archives and Special Collections is a treasure and has an amazing science fiction collection, including the papers of important writers like Philip K. Dick, Frank Herbert and Ray Bradbury, among others. Zines have become a big deal with many people in the “maker” movement wanting to make their own, including students who began to make zines themselves and show them to me.

What are some exhibit highlights?

The exhibit features zines that date back to the 1930s. These include the International Observer, published by early science fiction writers and editors. Others are the first Star Trek zines that helped save the show from cancellation and the Philip K. Dick zines made by Paul Williams, who invented the rock-and-roll zine. The Philip K. Dick Newsletter helped promote a neglected writer, who is now considered an important 20th century American writer. We have early zines in the rise of Tolkien fandom, “sword and sorcery” fandom, and Los Angeles science fiction zines out of one of the oldest and strongest fandoms  — and from which emerged the first queer zines and magazines. There are also early zines with writing by H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Bloch, the author of “Psycho,” and many others.

What do you hope people learn?

Zines are humble productions made from love and yet they changed our popular cultural landscape. Zines had a role in the way so many Star Trek shows are still being produced or in the publication of new high-end editions of Philip K. Dick’s work. They drove punk music and hip-hop into our consciousness — even for those who didn’t read them — because they provided a way for true believers to connect and talk. Science fiction invented zines, and in doing so, invented a way for fans to change everything. The large scale fandom of Star Wars and large events like ComicCon or WonderCon are the outgrowth of the early, on-the-ground organizing of ephemeral zines made for the love of art.

Contact: Debra Cano Ramos, [email protected]

Kirk/Spock Slash Fiction Zine Collection Coll2007-008

Publication Rights

Preferred Citation

Acquisition Information

Processing Information

Scope and Content of Collection

Arrangement

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Act Five: Scene One (Mkaschef Enterprises) December 1985

Act Five: Scene Two (Mkaschef Enterprises) April 1986

And Another K/S Zine (Entwhistle and Duck Productions) July 1983

Another K/S Zine (Entwhistle and Duck Productions) December 1982

Consort 1 (Reprehensible Press) January 1985

Dreams of the Sleepers (Pon Farr Press) 1985

The Fifth Hour of Night (Pon Farr Press) 1986

Final Frontier (Tiger Press) 1981

Impact No. 93 (Fire Trine Press) April 1985

Naked Times 3 (Pon Farr Press) 1979

Naked Times 4/5 Part 1 (Pon Farr Press) 1984

Naked Times 4/5 Part 2 (Pon Farr Press) December 1984

Naked Times 6 (Pon Farr Press) April 1985

Naked Times 7 (Pon Farr Press) July 1985

Naked Times 8 (Pon Farr Press) November 1985

Naked Times 10 (Pon Farr Press) June 1986

Nocturne (Defiant Press) July 1981

Out of Bounds, Again (Shoestring Press) 1983

Out of Bounds, Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves (Unrepressed Press) 1984

Out of Bounds, Overflow (Shoestring Press) 1983

Out of Bounds, Too (Shoestring Press) January 1982

Passages (Pulsar Press) 1978

The Poet and I (Merry Men Press) April 1986

A Question of Balance (Pon Farr Press) 1980

Shades of Grey (Mkashef Enterprises) 1986

Still More California K/S (Noel Silva) 1986

Still Out of Bounds Old Friend! (Shoestring Press) 1982

T'hy'la No. 1 (Kathleen Resch) 1981

T'hy'la No. 2 (Kathleen Resch) 1982

T'hy'la No. 3 (Kathleen Resch) 1982

T'hy'la No. 5 (Kathleen Resch) 1985

T'hy'la No. 6 (Kathleen Resch) 1985

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Discovering Fanzines: Online Fanzine Resources

• Online Fanzine Resources
• Fanzine Collections In Other Locations

General Online Resources

• British Fanzine Bibliography A large bibliography of fanzines produced in Great Britain between 1931-1990, compiled by a group of British SF fans.
• eFanzines.com An online library of science fiction fanzines, both new and old.
• FANAC Fan History Project A site devoted to chronicling the history and present state of science fiction fandom, and which includes many scanned current and old SF fanzines.
• FanFiction.Net A large online repository of fan fiction for many different fandoms, including TV shows, movies, books, anime/manga, comic books, games, and plays/musicals.
• Fanlore.org An ever-growing fan-run, fan-authored online wiki with thousands of entries about all sorts of fannish creations, including individual fanzines and fanzine authors.
• ZineWiki An open-source encyclopedia devoted to zines, zine production and zine culture. Zinewiki is a major source of information on the independent small press universe of which fanzines are a significant part.

Fanzines for Some Specific Fandoms

• Blake's 7: Judith Proctor's Pages One fandom with a significant cult following has been "Blake's 7", a groundbreaking British science fiction show that ran originally from 1978-1981. Fan Judith Proctor has produced a one-stop reference site devoted to the show, which includes an index to most B7 fanzines.
• Destinies Entwined: "The Sentinel" Fan Fiction "The Sentinel" was a cult science fiction/crime series that ran in syndication from 1996-1999. Like many cult television shows, it has resulted in a flurry of stories based around this particular universe.
• ERBZine (Edgar Rice Burroughs) A weekly e-zine devoted to the literary works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, the creator of Tarzan and Doc Savage.
• Quantum Leap: Al's Place "Quantum Leap" was a time-travel show broadcast on NBC from 1989-1993. As with many cult shows, it developed a passionate group of fans who have generated a number of stories and fanzines devoted to its characters and universe. This site contains an index to many QL fanzines.
• Star Trek: Kirk/Spock Zine Index One particular - and prolific - subset of fan fiction is known as "slash". Slash refers to fan fiction concerned with homosexual relationships between two or more characters; the first slash fandom detailed a same-sex relationship between "Star Trek" characters Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock, and these so-called "K/S" stories have proliferated over the decades.
• Star Wars Collector's Bible: SW-Related Fanzines A reference list, prepared by a collector and producer of "Star Wars" merchandise, of fanzines relating to this seminal SF movie series. "Star Wars", like "Star Trek" and other fandoms, has generated a large number of amateur publications by interested fans.
• The Professionals Zine Index "The Professionals" was a popular British crime drama broadcast from 1977-1983. It has generated a strong cult following which has resulted in a number of fanzines devoted to the show and its characters.

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• Last Updated: Dec 22, 2023 1:12 PM
• URL: https://guides.lib.uiowa.edu/fanzines

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Published Sep 8, 2022

Living Star Trek: How Two Women Breathed New Life into the Franchise

Without social media or the internet, Jacqueline Lichtenberg & Jean Lorrah made miracles happen to bring fans closer together.

StarTrek.com

How did Star Trek survive?

I’ve always been fascinated by early Star Trek fandom. From Bjo Trimble’s infamous “Save Star Trek ” letter writing campaign to the first major convention in 1972, fandom perpetuated and saved Star Trek from sinking into relative obscurity.

In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, however, many Star Trek fans were isolated. This may be hard to comprehend in the internet age, but there was a time when Star Trek fans didn’t know that other fans existed. Even for someone like me, who grew up in a small town in Kentucky during the ‘90s, it was hard to find and connect with fellow fans.

So, how did these early Trekkies do it?

This year marks the 45th anniversary of the publication of Star Trek Lives! It was, essentially,  a how-to book, covering everything from conventions and clubs to zines and fanfic. It was hugely popular and had eight printings by Bantam Books between 1975 and 1979. Without a doubt, it gave many lost fans a roadmap to follow.

One of the writers of this book, Jacqueline Lichtenberg, created The Star Trek Welcommittee — with the blessing of Gene Roddenberry — in order to help newcomers connect. Lichtenberg also wrote “Spock’s Affirmation,” one of the earliest stories written for a fanzine based on characters from the show. Eventually, this developed into the first of the Kraith stories—a fan-created Star Trek storyline with multiple writers contributing through zines.

At a Star Trek convention in the mid-70s, Lichtenberg invited Jean Lorrah to collaborate on the third novel in the sci-fi series, Sime~Gen . Lorrah was also an early fan who contributed to fanzines and wrote a full-length fanfic novel ( Night of the Twin Moons ), before making the leap to writing for Star Trek professionally with books like Survivors , Metamorphosis , and The IDIC Epidemic.

I recently reached out to both Lichtenberg and Lorrah to see if they would answer a few questions about early Star Trek fandom, how women primarily led that movement, and how it has shaped modern-day fandom and Comic-Cons.

StarTrek.com: Thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions. I’m fascinated by early Star Trek fandom and how it blossomed into what we have today. How do you think Star Trek Lives! shaped modern fandom?

Jean Lorrah: It showed people all over the U.S. who loved the show that they were not alone — that there were organized fans, and that they could join them. It was just an interesting read for many people, but for the double-dyed fans it opened a world of connections to like-minded people at a time when such books still were found in libraries, so every copy reached many readers. For the first time [it] showed them how to find one another.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg: I've often said — and I think it's still the most important thing we did—we blew the lid on fanfic.

In doing that, in telling the world that they can't do this to us; they can't take Star Trek away from us; they can't cancel us; they have no power over our imagination; we tore down walls for several generations to come to the gymnasium of the imagination where we share visions, articulate emotional wisdom, and become strong enough to "make it so" in everyday reality.

The "message," or theme, of Star Trek Lives! was simply, "You are not alone."

Do you remember the first Star Trek convention you went to? What was that experience like?

J. Lichtenberg: Technically, the first Star Trek con was a backyard BBQ with a few dozen people involved. I wasn't at that one, but knew the people involved.

I was at the first Star Trek con held in New York City at a hotel, and the story of that con is told by Joan Winston both in her short chapter in Star Trek Lives! and in her book The Making of the Trek Conventions: Or, How to Throw a Party for 12,000 of Your Most Intimate Friends .

J. Lorrah: I'm pretty sure my first convention was a SequesterCon, a midwestern convention with no media guests, where creative fans sold their zines and artwork and Trek -themed crafts to one another and held panels about every imaginable aspect of Trek.

J. Lichtenberg: It was at the first con that I accosted Gene Roddenberry in a hallway, told him about Star Trek Lives! , and asked if he'd write a forward to it if I could sell it. He said yes and gave me his home phone number. Eventually, I called and said the publisher bought it and [asked if he] would do  the intro. He sent it to me right away.

J. Lorrah: We were such nerds, and primarily female. There have always been men in Trek fandom, but to be in this [part of the] creative fandom they had to understand that women ran the show. That was not a rule—it simply was that way, as in zine fandom women outnumbered men by about ten to one.

I had been purchasing zines individually, [and] seeing ads in the ones I got hold of that let me find another one or two. But I went home from that convention with as many zines as I could fit into my luggage. The next year I came back with a complete draft of The Night of the Twin Moons . It was my kind of con—where fans came to talk to one another, not to crowd into auditoriums and corridors to hear and get autographs from actors.

It seems like many of the people involved in and leading the fan movement in the late 60s and early 70s were women. Why do you think that is? Do you think it was important for women to take the lead in the area of fandom?

J. Lorrah: Absolutely! Within Trek fandom, women were the creators they were rarely allowed to be elsewhere. Women created Trek fandom, which eventually morphed into media fandom. It was our little world, with no need to ask permission of men to do what we did there. Heck, we were Amazons on our own little island! And media fandom, to this day, is a female-dominated world.

J. Lichtenberg: This is what most people don't understand about fandom. The word fandom comes from "fanatic" and "kingdom." [It] essentially designates a place that has no physical location.

Science Fiction fandom existed entirely on paper by snail mail and at cons. [The cons] might be the same weekend every year but rarely in the same hotel, or same city—but the people were the same. Anyone, literally anyone, a grammar school-age kid even, could start a fanzine, and even win a Hugo Award for it. Anyone could start a con, and it would be reviewed and reported on in dozens of zines.

Today, this amorphous, but well-defined, association of people exists online and spreads across countries. But [back] then it was on-paper and rarely by telephone.

Anyone can do anything. You don't need permission. You don't need to be selected or elected or anointed.

I love Joan Winston’s chapter about visiting the set of The Original Series and attending the final cast party. It’s more than 50 years later and I’m even jealous reading about that! Did you have any personal connections with the original series cast? Are there any stand-out moments that you remember?

J. Lichtenberg I didn't know any of the cast and crew before the cons. After a few years of several cons a year, at which I was included with the guests, hanging out in the green room or guest lounge, behind security lines, doing autographing, etc. I got to know most of them, and some of them remembered me from year to year.

J. Lorrah: Con-going over the years, eventually as a guest myself with my pro Trek novels, I met George Takei, Walter Koenig, Majel Barrett, and Mark Lenard. The latter, it turned out, had been asked to autograph so many of my Sarek and Amanda zines through the years that he had finally read them. He told me, "I was a little bit afraid to meet you!" Later, after he got over talking with the woman who had sexualized his character, he confessed that my stories had influenced his later portrayals of Sarek in the films.

J. Lichtenberg: In 1976, Joan Winston and I took a road trip together. We had roomed together at a bunch of cons, and sometimes I'd pick her up at her Manhattan apartment to drive her to a con and back. So that year Robert Heinlein was guest of honor at Worldcon in Kansas City, and Joanie and I planned a big summer tour for Star Trek Lives!

I had dedicated my first novel, House of Zeor , to Heinlein, so I particularly wanted to give him an autographed copy of it. He had a deal going with the con: give blood at the bloodmobile, get a pin for your badge, stand in line, and get his autograph. He'd autograph only for donors.

I did that and stood in line, and instead of asking for his autograph, I gave him mine in a copy of my book. He later read the book, called me, and we had a nice chat. I was in the Science Fiction Writers of America directory, [so] he had my number.

On this 1976 trip, I had done a few cons before [where] I met Joanie at another [con] in Iowa, then we rented a car, drove to Kansas City, did Worldcon, flew to LA, rented a car, and visited Paramount Studios and Gene Roddenberry's office (where I found a copy of Kraith Collected on a coffee table, well dog-eared).

The best part of visiting the set on that trip happened in a nearby restaurant. We were sitting at a table when the waiter brought over a bottle of champagne that we had not ordered. Classically, [the waiter] pointed across the restaurant to Gene and some VIPs having lunch, [and said], "Complements of that gentleman." I still have the label.

From what I can tell, “Spock’s Affirmation” was one of the first short stories published in a Star Trek fanzine based on characters from the show. This eventually evolved into the Kraith stories. I understand that it’s a shared universe with multiple writers contributing, but can you tell me a little about that series and why you were inspired to start it? Was this type of fan fiction common at that time?

J. Lichtenberg: “Spock’s Affirmation” is probably novella length and was written because earlier issues of T-Negative had intriguing fiction.

Spockanalia and T-Negative were two of the first Star Trek zines and had opposing editorial policies. Spockanalia was the home for those adhering strictly to facts established on the air—strictly to canon. T-Negative was the home for wild imagination, inspiration, and explanations involving made-up ideas that blended well with aired- Trek episodes.

I contributed an article to Spockanalia , not my first fanzine writing, mostly because I wanted a contributor's copy, but also because I was inspired by the style and quality of the writing in the first issues. Keep in mind, Spockanalia was intended to be a "one-shot"—being the only zine by that name, ever. Issue #2 was a surprise to the whole editorial crew.

Meanwhile—there's always a meanwhile in fandom—I was taking a course in commercial fiction writing. There were homework assignments, and dreary ones at that. So instead of following directions, I wrote Star Trek fanfic for the homework and sent the homework assignments to T-Negative for a free copy.

I was practicing ways to convey what it is about Star Trek that energizes so much creativity among the kind of people who don't follow leaders and don't lead followers, but [also] aren't loners. I was practicing for Sime~Gen , even though I'd already started selling Sime~Gen professionally. That ambition to practice turned into Kraith .

Jean, you’ve written several professional Star Trek fiction books. How did you make that leap? Did you approach those publishers with your ideas? Or did they approach you first?

J. Lorrah: At the time I first had ideas for pro Trek novels, they would only look at agented work from established science fiction writers. So once I had those credentials, my agent submitted the ideas. I didn't write the whole books until they were contracted, because by then I was writing steadily in both Sime~Gen and my own Savage Empire series and didn't have time to write what would have turned into fanfic if rejected.

I wrote the prospectus for Survivors while Tasha Yar was still a continuing character, and it was rejected because they did not want to establish that much background on a continuing character. A week after Tasha died on screen, Paramount contacted my agent and greenlighted the book!

What do you think about modern day Comic-Cons? Are you happy with the way that they’ve grown, or do you wish they’d gone a different direction?

J. Lichtenberg: I'm happy with the way they've grown. The torch has been passed to the visual/audio media and the Superhero story — the story of an individual, starkly different from all others, dedicated to making things better for people who aren't so very similar to themselves. These are stories to inspire us to abandon the idea that once we've done all we can, we are finished doing, even if the task is not complete.

These are stories about exceeding the design specifications of the body, mind, and soul, and about choosing tasks that improve the world. The superhero is the science fiction hero.

What advice would you give to someone attending a Star Trek convention for the first time?

J. Lorrah : Meet and befriend other fans with your specific interests, and friend one another online. I would tell a zine fan to see if there is a convention-within-the-convention of like-minded creative types. To find them, go to the dealer's room and see if anyone is selling zines, new or used. Strike up a conversation and see if you get invited to private parties. But hey—we all know you're not going to meet any zine fans. We are a dying breed.

J. Lichtenberg: We are not a dying breed! We have moved to Comic-Con, and to online sites like FanFiction.net.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

This article was originally published on August 3, 2020.

Anthony Darnell (he/him) is a writer for Phantastiqa and a fan of horror, science fiction, and cult media. Find him on Twitter @darnell_one.

Stay tuned to StarTrek.com for more details! And be sure to follow @StarTrek on Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram .

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Louise , a Grup

Grups , a contraction of " grown ups ", was the word used by the Onlies , or children , of Miri to refer to adult inhabitants .

On that world , adults and children entering puberty developed the fatal form of the life prolongation project . Purple blemishes covered their skin , and they became insane and dangerous. In this state, the adults attacked anyone near them, and destroyed their surroundings.

During the initial outbreak of the plague , three centuries earlier , the children were forced to hide from all adults, including their own parents , until the adults died . This left the children with a deep-rooted fear of and distrust for adults. ( TOS : " Miri ")

External link [ ]

• Grup at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works

Category:1960s Zines

This category is for zines which were published within the 1960s, but a specific year is unknown, or were published over a period of years within the decade.

Pages in category "1960s Zines"

The following 61 pages are in this category, out of 61 total.

• List of Star Trek TOS Zines Published While the Show First Aired
• List of Star Trek Zines published 1967-1970 (the Pentathlon list)
• Astra's Tower
• Australian Science Fiction Review
• Australian Science Fiction Review/First Series
• Bags End Gazette
• The Baum Bugle
• The Comic Reader
• The Crewman's Log
• The Film Clipper
• The Forum (SFWA newsletter)
• The Fridian File
• The Hailing Signal
• Heroes Unlimited
• Horizons (zine)
• Inside Star Trek (Star Trek newsletter in English)
• James Doohan International Club Newsletter
• Leonard Nimoy National Association of Fans Journal
• Middle Earthworm
• Minas Tirith Evening-Star
• Nargothrond
• Nimoyan-Spock's Scribes Yearbook
• Plak-Tow (Star Trek: TOS newsletter by Shirley Meech)
• Rocket's Blast Comicollector
• The SH-sf Fanthology
• Shades of Sherlock
• Spock Underground
• Spock's Showcase
• Star Trek Concordance
• Star Trek Gab
• Terran Times
• The Journal of Omphalistic Epistemology
• Tolkien Journal
• Triplanetary (multimedia zine)
• U.S.S. Spock Chapter Bulletin
• The Vorpal Sword
• Vulcanalia (Star Trek: TOS newsletter)
• Where No Fan Has Gone Before (Star Trek: TOS newsletter published by Bjo Trimble)
• The William Shatner Fanatic Bulletin

Media in category "1960s Zines"

The following 5 files are in this category, out of 5 total.

• Zines by Year

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Screen Rant

15 biggest star trek plot holes & loose ends that can be solved by comics.

IDW's new Star Trek comics have explored many of the franchise's abandoned plot lines, and here are 15 more begging for follow-up.

• IDW's Star Trek comics can resolve forgotten plot lines, like Agnes Jurati's post-Picard fate, to create an epic, cohesive story.
• Armus, from TNG 's "Skin of Evil," could be explored further in IDW's comics, delving into his origin and potential tie-in to the god war.
• The First Federation, alien Cytherians, and other powerful races left behind in the Star Trek universe could find new life and resolution in IDW's comics.

Over the course of its 58-year history, Star Trek has featured numerous alien races and exotic planets. Some of these races, such as the Vulcans or the Borg, became integral to the Star Trek mythos. These races received substantial development throughout the years. Yet for every race or planet that would become foundational, many more were just forgotten about.

The Star Trek franchise is littered with loose ends and dangling plot lines. Recently, one of Trek’s biggest mysteries, the parasitic aliens from the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation , returned to the pages of Defiant. IDW’s new line of Trek comics has synthesized a number of franchise loose ends together, creating an epic, and cohesive, story. There are many more such plot lines in the Star Trek universe, and IDW’s comics are the perfect place to resolve them. Unconstrained by a visual effects budget, these stories could get the resolution they deserve.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 3 Ending Explained

15 the borg queen was going to be a major player in the star trek universe…until she wasn’t, idw’s star trek comics could actually show what agnes jurati has been doing.

Agnes Jurati, played by Allison Pill, was a key character in the first two seasons of Star Trek: Picard , but her most intriguing storyline was left out to pasture. After winning a war of wits with a Borg Queen in season two, Jurati becomes a new type of Queen. More benevolent than her predecessors, she and her forces appeared out of the blue, petitioning the Federation for membership.

These Borg were also monitoring something that could potentially be a threat. This highly intriguing premise was promptly discarded in favor of a Next Generation reunion in Picard’s final season. While a future spin-off show could address this issue, IDW’s Star Trek comics would be ideal to continue the story. The vague threat Agnes is protecting the Federation from could be displayed in all its cosmic glory, as could her new Borg .

Star Trek: Picard

After starring in Star Trek: The Next Generation for seven seasons and various other Star Trek projects, Patrick Stewart is back as Jean-Luc Picard. Star Trek: Picard focuses on a retired Picard who is living on his family vineyard as he struggles to cope with the death of Data and the destruction of Romulus. But before too long, Picard is pulled back into the action.

14 Armus Had an Intriguing Origin, But Was Left Behind on a Desolate Planet

The comics could tie armus into its franchise-spanning "god war".

Armus made one major appearance on-screen, but between his mind-blowing origin and murdering Tasha Yar, he made it count. In one episode, Armus boasted to the crew of the Enterprise that he was a cast-off from a “race of Titans.” These mysterious Titans distilled their evil and destructive urges, and it created Armus. A holographic form of Armus appeared in the recent Holo-Ween miniseries, but IDW’s new line of Star Trek comics would be perfect to follow-up on Armus and his origin.

The new Trek comics have explored humanity’s relationship with their gods. Armus, and the Titans that made him, could become major players in the ongoing god war that is rocking the franchise. The Titans could return for Armus, and find themselves in Kahless’ cross-hairs.

Armus was named after Burton Armus, a producer on Star Trek: The Next Generation .

13 The Mystery of Darwin Station’s Illegal Activities Are Perfect For the Comics

Darwin station flaunted the federation’s rules, and idw can reveal how they got away with it.

Genetic engineering of any kind is illegal in the Federation, but Darwin Station did it anyway, and the comics could solve lingering mysteries surrounding it. There is a “real world” reason why: the writers had not thought up the embargo on genetic engineering. The ban was revealed later in Deep Space Nine’s run, making it a retcon. However, the comics could provide a great “in-universe” rationale for the Darwin Station's actions.

Even before the ban was revealed, Trek already had a dicey relationship with the topic. The warlord Khan was the product of genetic engineering, for instance. IDW’s Star Trek comics could show how Darwin Station skirted around not only the law, but the ethics of what they were doing. Star Trek: Defiant has worked in the franchise’s gray areas, making it perfect to continue Darwin Station's story.

The Federation's ban on genetic engineering was first mentioned in the Deep Space Nine episode "Doctor Bashir...I Presume."

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: The Next Generation is the third installment in the sci-fi franchise and follows the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew members of the USS Enterprise. Set around one hundred years after the original series, Picard and his crew travel through the galaxy in largely self-contained episodes exploring the crew dynamics and their own political discourse

12 The Kelvan Empire Was More Powerful Than The Federation (But Haven't Been Seen in 50+ Years)

The kelvans’ unique appearance is absolutely perfect for a comics return.

The Kelvans are the perfect Star Trek loose end for IDW to address. Hailing from the distant Andromeda Galaxy, the Kelvans came to ours on a mission of colonization. Of course, Kirk and company convinced the Kelvans of the error of their ways. Kirk gave the Kelvans their own planet, and then they were promptly forgotten. The Kelvans had technology able to traverse the gaps between galaxies, something the Federation still does not have as of the 32nd century.

The comics could showcase the Kelvans’ highly advanced ships, but even more importantly, the Kelvans seen on-screen were not their real form. Their true forms are highly Lovecraftian in nature, which could provide a challenge to even today’s FX budgets , but the comics would have no such issues, and could show the Kelvans in all their horrifying glory.

11 The First Federation Had Massive Starships, and Massive Potential

The enigmatic first federation of star trek history is perfect for comics.

In the recent “Glass and Bone” story running through the flagship Star Trek title, artist Marcus To brought the Tzenkethi and their gigantic warships to stunning life.

The First Federation is one of Star Trek’s biggest mysteries, in more ways than one, and IDW’s comics could develop them even further. In their sole appearance, the First Federation possessed massive, globe-like starships that made the Enterprise look insignificant. Despite their episode ending with the promise of a cultural exchange, the First Federation was never seen again.

The First Federation’s enormous ships might prove daunting to a visual effects team. However, in the recent “Glass and Bone” story running through the flagship Star Trek title, artist Marcus To brought the Tzenkethi and their gigantic warships to stunning life . The First Federation appears far more peaceful than the Tzenkethi, meaning their ships will look very different , giving the comics an opportunity to explore an entirely new design aesthetic .

Star Trek: The Original Series

Star Trek: The Original Series follows the exploits of the crew of the USS Enterprise on a five-year mission to explore uncharted space.

10 Star Trek Characters Who Own Their Own Starship

10 the cytherians could've tipped the balance of power in the alpha quadrant, they can still return to play an important role in the oustanding "god war".

Introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation’s fourth season, the Cytherians send probes out into the galaxy. One such probe found Lieutenant Barclay, and greatly increased his intelligence . Barclay then hijacks the ship, taking it to the Cytherians' homeworld. The Cytherians were an immensely powerful race who only sought cultural exchange, but they were soon forgotten. With their great power and intellect, any information imparted by the Cytherians would have huge ramifications across the quadrant, but no canonical media has ever followed up on it.

With classic (and powerful) races such as the T’Kon and the Organians making their return in IDW’s Star Trek comics, the Cytherians could make an entry into the god war as well.

Some fans have speculated the Cytherian seen in "The Nth Degree" may be connected to the god-like entity from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

9 Where Did the Tin Man Go? The Comics Can Finally Solve The Mystery

Tin man was one of the most unique life forms ever seen in star trek.

The Star Trek universe is full of diverse types of lifeforms, and Tin Man might rank as one of the most memorable. The size of a small starship, “Tin Man,” as he came to be called, was a space-faring organism of great power. In his episode, both the Federation and the Romulans fought for control over him, but he proved to be more than a match for them.

In the same episode, Tin Man bonds with a troubled Betazoid. Data witnesses the whole thing happening, and refuses to describe it to Picard, heightening the mystery of Tin Man. While Tin Man may not be a Star Trek god in the same sense as Q and the Organians , he is still quite powerful and could easily become a target for Kahless and his crusade against the gods.

8 “Time Squared” Set Up an Eerie Mystery, But Never Delivered

The star trek comics can reveal the mystery of the episode's 'time trap'.

“Time Squared” set up an intriguing mystery, but even the episode itself failed to deliver on the set-up. In it, the crew of the Enterprise discover a shuttlepod containing a copy of Captain Picard from six hours in the future. The crew discover that a calamity will befall the ship then. Shortly thereafter, they find themselves caught in some sort of vortex.

While a tense and enjoyable episode, “Time Squared” never revealed who was behind the time trap and the future Picard. IDW’s Star Trek comics would be the perfect forum to explore the implications of “Time Squared” further. The time trap the crew encountered could easily be worked into the god war storyline.

Q was originally intended to be behind the events of "Time Squared," but Gene Roddenberry nixed the idea.

7 The Preservers Are Important to the History of the Star Trek Universe

The preservers explain a key franchise mystery.

Introduced in Star Trek’s third season, the Preservers were one of the franchise’s attempts to explain why so many aliens encountered on the show were humanoid. The Preservers traveled the cosmos, abducting people from their home planets and settling them on another. The Preservers themselves never appeared on-screen, only remnants of their advanced technology .

Their motivations are unknown, as is their final fate. IDW’s line of Star Trek comics have shown races far more advanced than the Federation, such as the T’Kon Empire and the Shapers of Sardakesh . In both cases, the comics gave a true glimpse of these entities’ amazing powers, and they far outstrip anything the Federation is capable of. The Preservers should get this treatment as well, as is befitting such an important Star Trek race.

Every Star Trek Movie Comic Book Adaptation, Ranked

6 doctor moriarty’s missing years: we need to know what happened, how did moriarty end up working for the shadowy section 31.

One of the best Star Trek villains, the holographic Doctor Moriarty’s missing years deserve to be explored in the comics. In the episode “Ship in a Bottle,” airing during Star Trek: The Next Generation’s sixth season, Moriarty was trapped in a mobile memory cube. It was made to appear that he was exploring the galaxy with the love of his life. Moriarty seemed to have a happy ending.

However, in Picard season three, he is seen working as a security program in a Section 31 facility. No explanation was given as to how Moriarty ended up there, or if he even had any choice in the matter. Last year’s Star Trek Annual featured a group of rogue holograms, and the story beautifully touched on their right to exist. Moriarty’s return in the comics could touch on similar themes.

Professor Moriarty was played by actor Daniel Davis in all three of the character's appearances.

5 The Franchise’s Worst Episode Can Be Redeemed By The Return of Lazarus

Lazarus’ episode seeded several mysteries that idw can finally pay off.

Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise met Lazarus early in the five-year mission, but only the bare minimum was revealed about him, and the comics would be perfect to continue his story. Lazarus claimed to be fighting an evil entity from another dimension–albeit one that looked like him. Lazarus was also a being of great power: his appearances nearly destroyed the galaxy.

However, Lazarus was forgotten by the following episode, which, thanks to its incoherence and go-nowhere plot lines, is regarded as one of the franchise’s worst. IDW’s Star Trek comics are perfect for bringing Lazarus back. The evil entity Lazarus was fighting, whatever it may really look like, could be brought to life in the comics.

4 Worf’s Brother Kurn is One of Star Trek’s Most Tragic Characters

The comics can rectify a massive wrong in worf's family legacy.

Worf and his family drama have been front and center in IDW’s line of Star Trek comics, and they should keep this trend going by bringing back his brother Kurn. Kurn, once a high ranking member of the Klingon Defense Force, had his memory wiped later in Deep Space Nine. At that time, the peace treaty between the Federation and the Klingos was null and void. In the aftermath, Worf was dishonored and this shame carried to his brother –hence the mind wipe.

Worf’s son, Alexander returned during Day of Blood , forcing Worf to confront the fact he was a less than stellar father. Like Alexander, Kurn did nothing wrong but had to pay because of Worf’s actions. Kurn’s return, and the ensuing drama, could make for compelling stories.

3 The Aftermath of Voyager’s Return Was Never Explored On-Screen

What happened to all the technology voyager brought back.

When the starship Voyager returns home after seven years in the Delta Quadrant, it brought with it vast stores of information and technology. Voyager brings back powerful new weapons to fight the Borg, such as the transphasic torpedo . However, no on-screen Star Trek has explored what happened to the awesome technology in the wake of Voyager’s return.

Indeed, it seems some of Voyager’s innovations have been swept under the rug. Several Voyager characters have returned in IDW’s Star Trek comics. This allows for their stories to continue. For example, Harry Kim, Voyager’s Operations Officer, has grown up as an officer, and may have even joined Section 31. IDW has a golden opportunity to develop Voyager’s characters even further by revealing their lives post-return.

Star Trek Voyager

Led by Captain Kathryn Janeway, Star Trek: Voyager follows the crew as they embark through truly uncharted areas of space, with new species, friends, foes, and mysteries to solve as they wrestle with the politics of a crew in a situation they've never faced before.

2 The Whale Probe Nearly Destroyed Earth (and The Federation)

It took off to another part of the galaxy…and was never seen again.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is one of the most popular films in the franchise–and the source of one of its biggest dropped plot lines. The movie’s mysterious “whale” probe, named because the only creature that could communicate with it was whales, nearly destroyed Earth . It caused a great deal of environmental damage, but Kirk and company were able to save the day by depositing two 20th century whales in the ocean.

The two whales convinced the probe to stop whatever it was doing, and return home. The probe was an object of unbelievable power, able to render all technology useless. Where it went after Star Trek IV is unknown, but it would make a great addition to the god war storyline currently unfolding in IDW’s comics.

The Whale Probe was added to the opening credits for Season Four of Star Trek: Lower Decks .

1 The Aliens from “Schism” Need to Follow The “Conspiracy” Aliens Back to the Star Trek Universe

The “schism” aliens are still one of the franchise’s most terrifying, and mysterious.

The sixth season Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Schisms,” ostensibly a story of alien abduction set in the 24th century, was one of the franchise’s most unnerving episodes . A race of mysterious, vaguely humanoid aliens from somewhere in subspace begin abducting Enterprise crew members and performing experiments on them. The aliens were depicted as just that: aliens.

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry hated "Conspiracy," on the grounds that it painted Starfleet in a bad light.

In many ways, the aliens from “Schism” are like the parasites from “Conspiracy.” In both episodes, the Enterprise was under siege by terrifying aliens. Both episodes also end on an ambiguous note, with the implication that these species could return, and destroy us, at any moment. IDW’s Star Trek comics brought the “Conspiracy” aliens back, and made them more terrifying than ever–and there is no doubt they could do the same with the subspace dwellers from “Schism.”