Memory Alpha
Register
Advertisement
Memory Alpha
Real world article
(written from a Production point of view)

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, the by now semi-professional (full color) magazine debuted with issue "100", a continuation of the issue numbering from its predecessor.

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, citing complaints about subscription mailing delays and the threat of lawsuits, which was attributed to the financial collapse of the card gaming industry, the principal source of Decipher's revenues. [1]

Attempts to revive the publication by creator/club founder Dan Madsen and its managing editor Larry Nemecek have, to date, proven 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, "Treknology"
Media
Star Trek gaming
Quark's Bazaar
Catalog of items for sale from the fan club

International editions[]

The Decipher version of the magazine has seen 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 "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.

Even though contents were lifted from the American source publication(s) in translation, for both foreign-language versions applied that neither of them were quite clones thereof, as they also contained original Italian/German-initiated content.

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 (approximately) 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]

Advertisement