Star Trek: Communicator

Star Trek: Communicator was the main magazine publication of the Official Star Trek Fan Club, and was a progression from the earlier Star Trek: The Official Fan Club Magazine. Published bimonthly, licensed since 1982 and carrying catalog merchadise starting the next year, the title grew from an offset magazine to half-sized format and then full color/full-sized beginning with issue "100", a continuation of the issue numbering from its predecessor. This continuation was intended to emphasize continuity, with indeed no staff or scope changes (aside from the new title/nameplate, which changed at least once over the succeeding years).

On 9 February 2001, Decipher purchased the assets of FANtastic Media, including the fan club, and continued publication of Communicator.

In 2005, the company announced the cancellation of the magazine after issue 155, walking away from the entire Star Trek Fan Club license amid the collapse of the card gaming industry that was its primary focus. Decipher cited complaints about subscription mailing delays and the threat of lawsuits. [1]

Attempts to revive the club and publication by creator/club founder Dan Madsen and its managing editor Larry Nemecek in 2007, amid the uncertainty in the franchise and its owners after the Viacom split into CBS and Paramount, proved unsuccessful.

Recurrent sections

Note: a concerted effort was made to group articles and interviews that shared similarities into sections, though both section contents as well as section headings changed several times over the publication's run. A typical subdivision was:
Dossier
Readers' letters
Briefing
News on upcoming episodes, information on Trek actors, sets, behind-the-scenes, etc.
Profile
Information and interviews with actors and actresses in Trek
Tech
Specifications of ships and stations, and the current stage of future Star Trek technology ("Treknology" being coined for this column)
Media
Star Trek gaming
Quark's Bazaar
Catalog of items for sale from the fan club, including exclusives of all merchandise types (wearables, model kits, drinkware, etc.)

International editions

The magazine saw an internationally released variant in the form of the edited Italian language Star Trek: La Rivista Ufficiale, which was published between 1997 and 2000 by Fanucci Editore. From 2000 onward, publication of the magazine was taken over by the official Italian Star Trek fanclub, STIC, with a restarted numbering as (Inside) Star Trek magazine.

A second international edition concerned the edited German-language Trekworld publication from the "Star Trek Central Europe" (STCE) fanclub, the later and studio-licensed "Offizieller Star Trek Fan Club" (OSTFC) as of 2000. [2] Between 1986 and 1999, the fanclub released 64 issues under the auspices of editor-in-chief and fanclub president Dirk Bartholomä, starting out very much like Communicator's predecessor The Official Fan Club Magazine, and likewise transitioning into a FANtastic Media "semi-pro" version-style format over the course of its existence. [3] This was unlike its younger Italian counterpart, which had been "semi-pro" from its start.

Core content for both foreign editions was direct translations of the American source publication(s), but each in addition added original material of their own, separately, by local Italian or German writers.

Issues

100-110 | 111-120 | 121-130 | 131-140 |141-150 | 151-155
For issues 1-99, see Star Trek: The Official Fan Club Magazine
Issue # Month Cover Contents
100 December 1994/January 1995
Communicator issue 100 cover
 
101 February/March 1995
Communicator issue 101 cover
 
102 May/June 1995
Communicator issue 102 cover
 
103 July/August 1995
Communicator issue 103 cover
 
104 October/November 1995
Communicator issue 104 cover
Interviews: Merri D. Howard, Barbara March, Gwynyth Walsh.
105 December 1995/January 1996
Communicator issue 105 cover
 
106 March/April 1996
Communicator issue 106 cover
 
107 June/July 1996
Communicator issue 107 cover
 
108 August/September 1996
Communicator issue 108 cover
 
109 November/December 1996
Communicator issue 109 cover
 
110 January/February 1997
Communicator issue 110 cover
 
111 March/April 1997
Communicator issue 111 cover
 
112 May/June 1997
Communicator issue 112 cover
 
113 August/September 1997
Communicator issue 113 cover
Vulcan's Forge review, turbolifts, designing the USS Enterprise-E, villains, Star Trek: The Experience, Interviews: Rick Berman, Marina Sirtis, Robert Beltran, André Bormanis
114 December 1997/January 1998
Communicator issue 114 cover
 
115 February/March 1998
Communicator issue 115 cover
 
116 April/May 1998
Communicator issue 116 cover
 
117 June/July 1998
Communicator issue 117 cover
 
118 August/September 1998
Communicator issue 118 cover
 
119 October/November 1998
Communicator issue 119 cover
 
120 December 1998/January 1999
Communicator issue 120 cover
 
121 February/March 1999
Communicator issue 121 cover
 
122 April/May 1999
Communicator issue 122 cover
 
123 June/July 1999
Communicator issue 123 cover
 
124 August/September 1999
Communicator issue 124 cover
Special DeForest Kelley memorial issue; DS9 and Voyager season reviews
125 October/November 1999
Communicator issue 125 cover
 
126 December 1999/January 2000
Communicator issue 126 cover
Brannon Braga, Marina Sirtis and Dwight Schultz discuss VOY: "Pathfinder"; Robert Beltran interviewed; 20th anniversary of Star Trek: The Motion Picture; Marco Palmieri, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Jeffrey Lang, Michael Jan Friedman, Susan Wright, S.D. Perry, Karen Rose Cercone, Judith Reeves-Stevens, and Garfield Reeves-Stevens discuss The Lives of Dax
127 February/March 2000
Communicator issue 127 cover
Special time travel issue, CCG finalists, Klingon Hamlet, Interviews: Rick Berman, Harve Bennett
128  
Communicator issue 128 cover
 
129  
Communicator issue 129 cover
 
130 October/November 2000
Communicator issue 130 cover
 
131 December 2000/January 2001
Communicator issue 131 cover
 
132 February/March 2001
Communicator issue 132 cover
 
133 June/July 2001
Communicator issue 133 cover
 
Decipher branding begins
134 August/September 2001
Communicator issue 134 cover
 
135 October/November 2001
Communicator issue 135 cover
 
136 December 2001/January 2002
Communicator issue 136 cover
 
137 April/May 2002
Communicator issue 137 cover
 
138 June/July 2002
Communicator issue 138 cover
 
139 August/September 2002
Communicator issue 139 cover
 
140 October/November 2002
Communicator issue 140 cover
 
141 December 2002/January 2003
Communicator issue 141 cover
 
142 February/March 2003
Communicator issue 142 cover
 
143 April/May 2003
Communicator issue 143 cover
 
144 June/July 2003
Communicator issue 144 cover
 
145 August/September 2003
Communicator issue 145 cover
 
146 October/November 2003
Communicator issue 146 cover
 
147 December 2003/January 2004
Communicator issue 147 cover
 
148 February/March 2004
Communicator issue 148 cover
 
149 April/May 2004
Communicator issue 149 cover
 
150 June/July 2004
Communicator issue 150 cover
 
151 August/September 2004
Communicator issue 151 cover
 
152 October/November 2004
Communicator issue 152 cover
 
153 December 2004/January 2005
Communicator issue 153 cover
 
154 February/March 2005
Communicator issue 154 cover
 
155 April/May 2005
Communicator issue 155 cover
Final issue

Starship replica exclusives

A number of "limited edition" cold-cast resin Star Trek starship miniatures, measuring from eight to twelve inches in length, were produced in 1996 by Legends in 3 Dimensions for the fan club and sold through mail order around the turn of the millennium. Advertised as fanclub exclusives and retailed through issues of the Star Trek Communicator magazine, these replicas were also sold at Las Vegas' Star Trek: The Experience, with editions limited to 2,500 models per ship.

The series consisted of replicas of the USS Enterprise, Deep Space 9, Klingon Bird-of-Prey, USS Enterprise-D, USS Voyager, and T'Plana-Hath, the latter mastered by its designer, John Eaves.

A small pewter miniature of the USS Enterprise-E was also retailed by mail order through Star Trek Communicator magazines during the same era. Produced by Rawcliffe in 1997, the miniature was a homage to the legendary gaming miniatures released by former licensor FASA over a decade before, and was duly executed in the approximate 1:3900 game scale.

The Captain's yacht Cousteau miniature was produced by an unknown manufacturer and executed in PVC rather than cold-cast resin, and like the T'Plana-Hath, was designed and mastered by John Eaves. Limited to 5000 pieces, the Cousteau model came with a stand that resembled the vessel's dedication plaque.

As with the Playmates Toys version of the ship, the upright position of the yacht's nacelle pylons (while in flight mode) was changed to a downward cant by Star Trek: Insurrection's producers after the products had been mastered, resulting in discrepancies between the onscreen appearance of the ship and its contemporary miniature replicas. Eaves also commented that the ship's deflector array had undergone some late modifications for use in the film. [4]

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