TF01
3,Introduction
4,by Simon Plumbe and Colin Gunn

Once again,  we're  back,  bringing  you  another  menagerie  of Trek
information, fiction, fun and frolics!  Okay,  we know we promised to
release this issue faster than ever before, but we do have a few good
reasons for being late...! For the last couple of months prior to the
release of this issue, we have all  been working hard on the planning
of our first ever  Trek  convention,  Delta  Quadrant, which is being
held in August '96.

As you can understand, it has  taken  up  a  vast amount of our spare
time and energy and it has unfortunately  meant that our time has had
to be split between the convention  and The Final Frontier. Sadly, as
a necessity, when the situation arose  when  one had to suffer it had
to be the mag as  the  con  is  being  run  to a VERY tight schedule.
Anyway, there are full details on the con elsewhere in this issue and
I'm sure quite a few of you will be interested in attending!

As well as this, both Simon and Colin have been under a great deal of
pressure lately with a  number  of  personal  matters (which we won't
dwell on here) that has meant that  both of them have spent less time
on this issue than on previous magazines.

However, combining the fact that this  issue  is only on three disks,
the fact that it is a Generations  special,  and that a number of you
have entered our competition from  last  time,  we still feel that we
should have been able to bring you  this issue sooner and for this we
must apologise. We are trying to change things (I know we keep saying
this!), but you'll find elsewhere  in  this issue a questionnaire and
we'd appreciate it if you could spare  a  few minutes to print it out
(or copy it out by hand if you  don't have a printer), fill it in and
return it to us. It will help  us  shape  TFF for the future and will
enable us to produce the type of magazine that YOU want to read.

As an added bonus, depending on the  response  we get, we may be able
to make a few changes to release  the  magazine  at a rapid rate - if
enough of you don't mind  an  increase  in  the  art gallery and BBS-
sourced material, we  could  quite  easily  produce  an  issue in 2-3
months! To encourage you all to reply,  there are prizes up for grabs
as well, so read  the  info  on  the  questionnaire  in the Editorial
section.

Well, highlights in this  issue  include  an EXCLUSIVE interview with
top comedian and  Star  Trek  fan  Jim  Davidson,  a  feature  on the
official press launch party held  to  celebrate  the video release of
Star Trek: Voyager that took place  back in June in London (including
interviews with some of the  celebrity  guests!), another column from
Tim Gaskill of the Official Star Trek  Fan  Club of The UK, plenty of
reviews, photos and articles on Star Trek: Generations, more stunning
artwork from Mark  Platts,  Gary  Moffat  and  Tobias  Richter, and a
selection of great fiction from  Stuart  Mackaness, Rory Johnston and
Marcus Priddey.

Also, as we wanted to finally  release  this issue and avoid delaying
it any further, you'll notice  that  we  have a slightly expanded art
gallery and BBS section this  time.  Use  the questionnaire to let us
know what you think about this. To  improve things for the future, we
are looking at bringing in a lot  of  new members to the team to help
produce our titles. In the last couple  of weeks prior to the release
of this issue, we brought in a  few new musicians (Russell Lewis, and
Lee Pedder), we have had  a  few  people  leave the group effectively
streamlining the team (Paul  Draaisma  and  Errol  Madoo), and we are
looking at expanding the group from our current size of 21 members to
as many as 50 members by early  next  year. If you are interested and
you think you may be talented enough, get in touch!

Also, a couple of new features start in this issue including our mini
character profiles. Each issue we'll be taking  a look at a couple of
characters from the show, along with  a recent colour photo. Starting
off this issue sees profiles on Worf  and  Riker. As well as this, we
see the start of a new  regular  column  from Colin Gunn - The Pocket
Insider, which is going  to  be  a  replacement  for  the now massive
Pocket Books Guide. Some of our larger guides will start to disappear
from The Final Frontier in  the  near  future,  but  we will still be
producing them as part of a  series  on stand-alone guide disks to be
released soon. These disks will feature  the FULL Pocket Books Guide,
the Fan Club Guide, the CIC Guide and much more!

Finally, this issue sees the start of  our new section devoted to the
recently released ST:TNG Customisable Card  Game.  Here you'll find a
full checklist of all  the  cards,  playing  tips,  new rules, plus a
couple of special articles including  a behind-the-scenes look at the
Alternate Universe expansion set and a feature on the newly developed
Tournament Rules, both of which have come direct from Decipher!

We've also been busy releasing a  number  of other titles in the last
couple  of  months  with  the  long-awaited  release  of  HOLODECK  7
(featuring a stunning  selection  of  Lightwave  and Silicon Graphics
rendered images from Mark Platts and  Tobias Richter!), HOLODECK 8 (a
great selection of Lightwave  images  from  Mark  Platts  from a Trek
video he is working on), ILLUSIONS  2 (which has a healthy sprinkling
of ray-traced  sci-fi  pics  from  Gary  Moffat  and,  again,  Tobias
Richter, catering for  fans  of  Star  Trek,  Star  Wars,  Babylon 5,
seaQuest and Jurassic Park!) and finally ILLUSIONS 3 (featuring a mix
of hand-drawn  and  ray-traced  images  from  Gary  Moffat  and Jason
Brown). If you love ray-traced art, then these should be an essential
part of your software collection.

One thing you might be  interested  in  is  the  launch  of a few new
special subscription offers/services  that  we  have  started. One of
them is a very limited special offer,  the  other is a rather new way
of dealing with subscriptions  to  Infinite Frontiers releases... For
more details, see the Subscriptions article in the Editorial Menu.

Also, if any of you are going to the World Of Amiga show in London in
January, look out for us! Both Simon and Sven will be there (possibly
with a few others from the team). We'll be there for both days of the
show, and for most of the time we'll  try to stick together so we can
be found more easily! Just look  for  a couple of guys wearing either
Infinite Frontiers t-shirts or Trek  t-shirts with Infinite Frontiers
badges!! If you find us, come up and have a chat!!

Finally, we'd just like  to  say  a  special  thankyou to everyone in
Infinite Frontiers who has helped and  supported us over the last few
months and has gone above and beyond the  call of duty to help us get
this magazine out to you. If it wasn't for your help, we're sure that
there would have been no chance of us releasing this issue as soon as
we did. You know who you are, thanks!

Well, no doubt we'll see you all in a couple of months!


                           Simon and Colin
                   Co-Editors, The Final Frontier


                         Infinite Frontiers
                             PO Box 8966
                             Great Barr
                             Birmingham
                               B43 5ST
                               ENGLAND


                          Tel. 0860 948296