TF01
3,Voyager - Official Magazine
4,

            Star Trek: Voyager - The Official Magazine #1
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                     Published by Starlog Press
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Marcus Priddey
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Starlog, as you know  not  only  produce  their  own magazine by that
title, but  they  also  did  the  official  magazines  for  The  Next
Generation, and are currently releasing one for Deep Space Nine.

This new magazine for the new series, contains portrait photos of the
entire cast, a plot synopsis  for  the pilot, "Caretaker", interviews
with co-creator, Rick  Berman,  "Caretaker"  director  Rick Kolbe and
designer, Richard James and that is basically it.

Whilst the interviews, synopsis and  photos  are very nicely done and
laid out, you don't actually get  that  much for your money. At least
in The Next Generation's first issue you  had a portrait of each cast
member and a full page interview with  each one, and if memory serves
a couple of posters for less than £3.00.

Unfortunately, in the Voyager magazine you  only get what I described
above. You DO get portraits of the entire cast, but not one interview
with any of them. Where  the  interviews  went in the Next Generation
magazine, you now have adverts. Heck,  every  other page is an advert
for Star Trek related merchandise.

It says on the front of  the magazine "Premiere Collector's Edition".
Why? Just because it's number one  of the series? Frankly, if Starlog
expect this to sell,  then  they  should  seriously reduce the number
adverts, because if you are likely to  be charged over £5.00 you want
to feel you've bought something worthwile and to be honest, this just
does not cut it.

Overall, avoid buying unless you  are  a serious collector (the tacky
"hologram" on the front stop you).  3/10


Sven Harvey
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In what is now  time  honoured  tradition,  Starlog are publishing an
official magazine to  compliment  the  Star  Trek: Voyager television
show. Also as usual the first  collectors  issue has a special cover,
this time with a prismatic metal  foil  effect  on the front (the DS9
premiere was gold coloured).

The magazine is in  the  usual  Starlog/Star  Trek  mag  style with a
remarkably familiar layout (and  adverts!).  This  isn't really a bad
thing though as it is usually a  good idea to introduce something new
using familiar media. They can always change the mags layout later!

The mag starts with a  short  introduction and an artist's impression
of the  Voyagers  dedication/commissioning  plaque  followed  by  the
standard full colour shot of  the  crew.  An articular interview with
Rick Berman reveals the background of  Voyager and its casting and is
a particularly  well  thought  out  piece.  There  is  then  a  small
introduction to each character  as  well  as each characters standard
full colour press shot ("U.S.S. Voyager Crew Portrait Gallery") and a
full colour double page spread shot of NCC-74656 USS Voyager herself!

This is followed by  a  pretty  much  bog-standard plot synopsis with
plenty of photographs  from  the  pilot  episode  "Caretaker"  and an
interview with the director of  Caretaker,  Rick  Kolbe, who also the
Next Gen episodes "Where Silence  Has  Lease" (season 2), "Evolution"
(season 3), Darmok (season 5)  and  of  course the final episode "All
Good  Things..."  as  well  as  the  DS9  episodes  "Past  Prologue",
"Vortex", "The Homecoming", "Melora" and "Blood Oath".

Finally there is an interesting interview with designer Richard James
on how some of  the  unique  Voyager  props  came  into being and the
interesting use of locations  for  "Caretaker"  including the new ex-
Maquis rank bars for the Starfleet  uniforms worn by those who crewed
Chakotay's Maquis ship before joining the Voyager crew.

The magazine is very nicely put together on high quality glossy paper
and  the  full  colour  photos,  as  usual  for  Starlog,  have  been
reproduced very well and whole thing is, well just like all the other
Starlog official Star Trek magazines - pretty  much a must buy if you
want to keep track of all those episodes, it is really good but isn't
outstanding compared with the TNG and DS9 magazines but it is up with
the normal standard. My only  complaint  is the relatively high price
compared with `normal' issues of the magazines.


Simon Plumbe
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Following on from the success  of their critically-acclaimed official
magazines covering Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep
Space Nine, Starlog Press have  released  the premiere issue of their
new magazine devoted to Star Trek: Voyager.

The first issue  is  an  extra-large  72  page  edition, featuring an
interview with series co-creator,  Rick  Berman, "Caretaker" director
Winrich (Rick) Kolbe and set designer Richard James. As well as this,
there is a full scene-by-scene  synopsis  of the show's pilot episode
in the now familiar Starlog style, and full page photos on all of the
cast.

Unlike the regular issues of  both  the  TNG  and DS9 magazines, this
first issue seems somewhat sparse in  the  way  of contents - I would
have expected more than just a  handful  of articles, and certainly a
couple of interviews with some of  the  cast would have been welcome.
However, with saying that, the interviews go into great depth and are
far  longer  than  you  would   normally  expect  from  their  sister
publications (the interviews each  span  7  pages  as  opposed to the
usual 3 or 4), and in Voyager  there  are more cast members than ever
before in Star Trek, so the  photos  naturally take up more space and
the synopsis for "Caretaker" spans a staggering 15 pages!

Now, when you compare this to  the  premiere editions of TNG and DS9,
you'll notice that so much  space  wasn't  devoted to the pilots, but
then again, they never had the same  level of depth and complexity in
their respective story lines than Voyager has.

I admit that the number of  articles  does work against the appeal of
the first issue, but there is  no  denying that the actual QUALITY of
them is superb - certainly up  to the usually high Starlog standards.
However, the high  cost  of  the  first  issue  does  really make the
magazine too expensive for  casual  readers. Whereas regular editions
of both DS9 and TNG cost  around  £3.50,  this first issue of Voyager
retailed for a staggering £5.50. Why?  Well, the cover had a spectra-
foil backing behind the photo  of  the  USS  Voyager, and the binding
used was a method known  as  perfect  binding - far more professional
looking, but considerably more  expensive  than  the traditional twin
staples used on regular issues.

Overall, it's a good first issue  and  I  for one didn't mind the low
number of articles considering the fact  that they were all very well
written, but the cost is really too expensive. Had Starlog produced a
standard edition for the usual price, as well as this deluxe edition,
then I would have had  no  qualms  about  recommending this to anyone
even vaguely interested in Voyager.  As  it  is,  I think most of you
would be better off having a quick  flick through in your local comic
store before making your decision to purchase.    7/10