More Science Fiction Fanzines Arrive
Special Collections has just received a nice collection of Star Trek fanzines, which complement the Star Trek materials already in the M. Horvat Science Fiction Fanzine collection. Included in this donation are copies of some of the more prominent Trek titles, such as Spockanalia, Masiform-D and T-Negative. There is good coverage of fan activities throughout much of Trek’s history, from the original series in the late 1960s through the revival of the concept in the late 1980s with Star Trek: The Next Generation.
This collection of Star Trek fanzines was originally assembled by an Australian fan, but we have another source to thank for their donation to the UI Libraries - the Save Farscape team. Farscape was a ground-breaking science fiction television series that ran for four seasons on the SciFi network before it was cancelled in 2003. Like the early Star Trek fans who mobilized to save the show, Farscape fans came together to lobby for the future of the series, often in creative ways. The effort was successful enough to convince network executives to finance a mini-series to wrap-up loose ends in the plot, and this past month it was announced that Farscape will return as a series of online “webisodes.” In addition to the Star Trek fanzines that came her way during the campaign, one of the organizers has also donated some material from the Save Farscape effort. The grassroots campaign organized a variety of fundraisers, including a cookbook with recipies contributed by fans entitled Foodscape. The cookbook mixes earth-bound cooking with recipies for delicacies referenced in the series, resulting in an intriguing document of fan culture and the creativity science fiction ideas can generate. Also included in the donation are promotional items and copies of scripts, most signed by one of the show’s producers and writers, Ricky Manning. Efforts to sustain or revive a series are increasingly one of the staples of media science fiction fandom, and the materials from the Save Farscape campaign provide a glimpse into how one such organization pursued its goal.
