Sci Fi Genre Gems: Nuggets from the worlds of science fiction and fantasy that may have slipped under the radar or faded from our memories but that are still deserving of our attention.
First Published: August 1976
Final Issue: #375, April 2009
What Is It? For over thirty years, Starlog magazine reported on the worlds of science fiction and fantasy and for a fair amount of that time it was the leading source for genre fans for news, information, interviews, and behind the scenes stories. This magazine carried some of the very first glimpses of Star Wars, publishing some of Ralph McQuarrie’s concept art before most fans knew who George Lucas was (other than the director of some teen-hijinks film called American Graffiti). And it chronicled the rise of the Blockbuster Era giving us scoops on Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Alien, Blade Runner and many many more. It also delivered retrospectives on favorite TV series which delved into the making of these programs and often included the much cherished episode guides. This magazine ruled science fiction and fantasy from the late seventies into the eighties and still remained relevant into the nineties even if it seemed to have slipped a bit in quality by that time. And then like so many other magazines, it succumbed to the publishing bust of the late 00’s and ended its run with issue #375. There was a promise to continue as an online magazine, but that never happened and the www.starlog.com site has since shut down.
Why It Stands (make that Stood) Out: The newer generation of sci fi fans who may have picked up an issue of Starlog off the magazine stand from time to time because its cover or some particular story caught their interest cannot understand just how important this magazine was during its heyday. When it hit the newsstands back in mid-1976, there was nothing else quite like it for genre fans. In fact, there was a huge void of information in the science fiction and fantasy universe. Warren’s Famous Monsters of Filmland had mostly just retrospectives and focused on horror and monster movies. The pulps like Analog and Fantasy and Science Fiction dedicated little if any print space to movies or television, and the entertainment magazines like TV Guide (or the local supplement in the newspaper) might have a few tidbits here or there that rarely satisfied a sci fi fan’s thirst for genre news. And, I know this is hard for the younger generation to grasp, there was no internet then. No Wikipedia to look up information on a movie or television show that you might have stumbled upon. No sites like Hollywood Reporter, Deadline Hollywood, or Vulture.com breaking the latest entertainment news and no genre-focused blogs like Axiom’s Edge, ScienceFiction.com, or Geeks of Doom culling through the mountains of posts to bring fans the latest genre scoops. Nope, you had to sit and wait for the latest issue of Starlog to hit the stands (or arrive in the mail in you subscribed) and it initially only came out once every two months (by issue #20 it went to monthly).
I remember reading about Star Wars for the first time in Starlog. I remember the shocking announcement of Space: 1999’s cancellation on the cover of issue #6. I remember the lengthy and enlightening article taking us through Gerry Anderson’s career producing Supermarionation shows like Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. I remember discovering all about The Prisoner and the nightmarish Kafka-esque world that show created on Prime Time television. And the episode guides, oh the episode guides! That was like finding buried treasure back then in the pre-Internet, pre-Wikipedia days. Finally you knew all the episodes that had been produced for shows like Star Trek, Space: 1999, UFO, Lost in Space, and many more. Sci fi fans like myself would eagerly await each issue and then greedily devour it from cover to cover, going back to these issues again and again to revisit and rediscover all of the sacred knowledge they held. It was sadly lacking in reviews, something that many of us fans clamored for over the years, but it still provided a wealth of other information on the genre that we could not easily find any place else.
Starlog was a huge success with genre fans upon its release which led to other magazines (and a slew of fanzines) cropping up to give it some competition, but none could ever unseat it from its place as the leader in sci fi news for several decades. By the nineties, though, as sci fi had become a staple on the big screen and had made serious inroads back on television, other entertainment magazines such as Entertainment Weekly and TV Guide began to give the genre more respect. And once the internet exploded with sci fi oriented sites and blogs in the late nineties and especially in the 00’s, Starlog became a bit of a relic. But next time you turn to the internet to find out the scoop on an upcoming film or to read about a television series that you just discovered or to find an episode recap, think back to the dark ages (pre-internet) when those resources were not right at your fingertips and you had to wait for the latest issue of Starlog each month to find out what was going on in the worlds of science fiction and fantasy.
Interesting Fact: Starlog actually originated from a mid-70’s idea by publishers Kerry O’Quinn and Norman Jacobs to produce a one-shot magazine covering Star Trek. However, Paramount studios wanted a royalty since they owned Trek which would make the magazine too expensive. O’Quinn and Jacobs founnd a way around this, though, when they discovered that a magazine covering Star Trek (along with other topics) would not have to pay this royalty. Thus, Starlog began and the first issue included an in-depth retrospective on that series along with that invaluable episode guide.
More Information: Unfortunately, Starlog has never been collected into an omnibus edition, so you have to search out the back issues to rediscover the magic of its early years. There is, however, a retrospective site that has the covers and summaries for past issues for those who want to reminisce on the history of the magazine. Currently it has covered up through issue #170.
