Template:Realworld Starlog was a monthly print magazine devoted to science fiction film and television and was conceived in 1976 by Norman Jacobs and Kerry O'Quinn. David Houston, who came up with the concept with O'Quinn, became an editor for the magazine as well as a contributor with numerous articles and interviews. Originally published under the imprint "O'Quin Studios, Inc.", it was later accommodated in "Starlog Press" as the founders started to bring more and other genre publications into the mix, starting in 1979 with the horror/fantasy orientated magazine Fangoria. According to the web-master of The Starlog Project, their original intent was to put out a one-shot magazine covering Star Trek: The Original Series. On the urging of their distributor the magazine was enhanced with articles about other genre productions to make it appealing to a more general public. Still, its first issue, dated August 1976, featured The Original Series on its cover and over the years the magazine remained Star Trek heavy with frequently published Star Trek-related articles, features and interviews. Given the founder's original intention and the fact that it was launched shortly before its conception, coverage of Star Trek: The Motion Picture was particularly heavy.
The formula caught on with the readership, and within two years the magazine was upgraded from a quarterly magazine to a monthly magazine. Apart from being one of the earliest specific genre publications, Starlog has also been one of the longest running, outliving its contemporary Cinefantastique by three years.
In order to dampen the heavy Star Trek nature of the magazine (not altogether too successfully one might argue), particularly so in the years 1986-1993 during the production of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home through Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, it was decided to split off the majority of the coverage for Star Trek from 1987 onward, when the spin-off television series went into production, into a number of officially endorsed "Official Star Trek Magazine" series publications, The Official Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine, The Official Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Magazine, and The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, each running for several years, with a couple of movie feature one-shots to boot.
Aside from the "official" magazines and the below mentioned Future Life, Starlog magazine served as the source publication that spawned a slew of other spin-off serial publications, most of which also containing additional Star Trek material, including, The Best of Starlog, Starlog Poster Magazine, Starlog Spectacular, Starlog Yearbook, Starlog Scrapbook, Science Fiction Video Magazine, SFX Magazine, Starlog Photo Guidebook, and Starlog photo guidebook Special Effects, each of which with a varying degree of succes.
As with the other publications of Starlog Press, Starlog, where its behind-the-scenes features were concerned, was notable for the reproduction of production material (quite often made available by the production staff themselves), rarely seen afterwards. Nevertheless, as far as Star Trek was concerned, neither Starlog, nor its "official" spin-offs, quite achieved the wealth and the depth of the later 1990s volumes of competitor Cinefantastique, a bit ironically perhaps, considering the original intent of the founders. Yet, what Starlog did do that set them somewhat apart to this very date, was giving attention to the more peripheral contributors to the franchise, such as guest actors, guest directors, guest writers, people like novelization authors, as well as to lesser known production staffers and companies, who were rarely, if at all, referenced to in other publications as far as their Star Trek contributions were concerned.
In April 2009, Starlog decided to temporarily discontinue publication of the magazine in a print format with its most recent issue (#374), choosing to go exclusively into digital format at "Starlog.com". When that site shut down, contents were accommodated on the website of its sister publication Fangoria.
Future Life
Very early on, from 1978 onward, real-world space exploration related articles were included in Starlog as background articles for illustrative purposes. This gave O'Quinn and Jacobs the idea to launch a true and similar sister magazine Future Life that broached the subject from the opposite site of the spectrum; real world space exploration articles, lightened up with articles stemming from the realm of science fiction film, television and literature. The magazine, featuring interviews with real world scientists such as Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clark, launched in April 1978 as a (bi-)monthly publication. The publication did not enjoy as near a success as it sister publication had, and publication ceased after 31 issues in December 1981, with a special released in October 2006, on the occasion of the 40th Anniversary of Star Trek. Three issues of the regular run, issues 9 (March 1979), 16 (January 1980) and 17 (March 1980), contained Star Trek-related material. Despite its short life, the web-master of the above mentioned The Starlog Project has, nevertheless, cited accessibility, humaneness, being less dry, and realism as the strong points of the publication. [1]
Notable issues
As stated, Starlog has been very heavy on Star Trek throughout its entire run. However in some cases, content was restricted to short editorials, reviews, announcements and columns by staff writers. Listed below are those issues that contained larger and more in-depth articles and interviews.
Issues 1-50
Issue | Cover | Contents |
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1, August 1976 |
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2, November 1976 |
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3, January 1977 |
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4, March 1977 |
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6, June 1977 |
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9, October 1977 |
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12, March 1978 |
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17, October 1978 |
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As Future Life 9, March 1979 |
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24, July 1979 |
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25, August 1979 | note: with Star Trek poster
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27, October 1979 |
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30, January 1980 |
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31, February 1980 |
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As Future Life 16, February 1980 |
File:Future Life issue 16 cover.JPG |
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32, March 1980 |
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As Future Life 17, March 1980 |
File:Future Life issue 17 cover.JPG | note: cover, and interior art by Rick Sternbach
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33, April 1980 |
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36, July 1980 |
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37, August 1980 |
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38, September 1980 |
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39, October 1980 |
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40, November 1980 |
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42, January 1981 |
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47, June 1981 |
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49, August 1981 |
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Issues 51-100
Issue | Cover | Contents |
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51, October 1981 |
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52, November 1981 |
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53, December 1981 |
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54, January 1982 |
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56, March 1982 |
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59, June 1982 | note: with Star Trek poster
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60, July 1982 |
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61, August 1982 |
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62, September 1982 |
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63, October 1982 |
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64, November 1982 |
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66, January 1983 |
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67, February 1983 |
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68, March 1983 |
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71, June 1983 |
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72, July 1983 |
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80, March 1984 |
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81, April 1984 | note: with Star Trek poster
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82, May 1984 |
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83, June 1984 |
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84, July 1984 |
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85, August 1984 |
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86, September 1984 |
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87, October 1984 |
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88, November 1984 |
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91, February 1985 |
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94, May 1985 |
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95, June 1985 |
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100, November 1985 |
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Issues 101-150
Issue | Cover | Contents |
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101, December 1985 |
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102, January 1986 |
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103, February 1986 |
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104, March 1986 |
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105, April 1986 |
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106, May 1986 |
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107, June 1986 |
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108, July 1986 |
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109, August 1986 |
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110, September 1986 |
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111, October 1986 |
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112, November 1986 | "Star Trek 20th anniversary celebration" Special Edition
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113, December 1986 |
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114, January 1987 |
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115, February 1987 |
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116, March 1987 |
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117, April 1987 |
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118, May 1987 |
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119, June 1987 |
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121, August 1987 |
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124, November 1987 |
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125, December 1987 |
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126, January 1988 |
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127, February 1988 |
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128, March 1988 |
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129, April 1988 |
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130, May 1988 |
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131, June 1988 |
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132, July 1988 |
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133, August 1988 |
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134, September 1988 |
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135, October 1988 |
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136, November 1988 |
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137, December 1988 |
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138, January 1989 |
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139, February 1989 |
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140, March 1989 |
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141, April 1989 |
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143, June 1989 |
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144, July 1989 |
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145, August 1989 |
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146, September 1989 |
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147, October 1989 |
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149, December 1989 |
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Issues 151-200
Issue | Cover | Contents |
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151, February 1990 |
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152, March 1990 |
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153, April 1990 |
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154, May 1990 |
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155, June 1990 |
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156, July 1990 |
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157, August 1990 |
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159, October 1990 |
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160, November 1990 |
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161, December 1990 |
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162, January 1991 |
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163, February 1991 |
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164, March 1991 |
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165, April 1991 |
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168, July 1991 |
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169, August 1991 |
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170, September 1991 |
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171, October 1991 |
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172, November 1991 |
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173, December 1991 |
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174, January 1992 |
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175, February 1992 |
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176, March 1992 |
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177, April 1992 |
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178, May 1992 |
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179, June 1992 |
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180, July 1992 |
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183, October 1992 |
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184, November 1992 |
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186, January 1993 |
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187, February 1993 |
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188, March 1993 |
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189, April 1993 |
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190, May 1993 |
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191, June 1993 |
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192, July 1993 |
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193, August 1993 |
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194, September 1993 |
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195, October 1993 |
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196, November 1993 |
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197, December 1993 |
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198, January 1994 |
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199, February 1994 |
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Issues 201-250
- note:This list is currently incomplete.
Issue | Cover | Contents |
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201, April 1994 |
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203, June 1994 |
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204, July 1994 |
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205, August 1994 |
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206, September 1994 |
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207, October 1994 |
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209, December 1994 |
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210, January 1994 |
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211, February 1994 |
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212, March 1994 |
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213, April 1994 |
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214, May 1994 |
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216, July 1994 |
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218, September 1994 |
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219, October 1994 |
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220, November 1994 |
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221, December 1994 |
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222, January 1995 |
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External links
- Fangoria.com - current homepage
- Template:Brokenlink - archived Starlog homepage
- Starlog at Wikipedia
- The Starlog Project - Website with content descriptions.
- FUTURE LIFE: THE ENTIRE RUN - Website with content descriptions of the sister publication Future Life
- Starlog Magazine - online archived versions at Archive.com