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The Final Frontier 8
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STAG_History.pp
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STAG_History
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1994-04-20
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TF01
3,STAG History
4,by Colin Gunn
S.T.A.G. - A BRIEF HISTORY
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by Colin Gunn
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Back in the good old days, yes there really was some. The only way
that fans could enjoy their Star Trek was to either watch the show on
TV (always a good option) or read the appalling Annuals that came out
each year, which re-printed some of the Gold Key Comics that were
published in the U.S. Noticing the ever growing interest in Star
Trek, two of its fans, namely Jenny and Terry Elson, Set up the Star
Trek Action Group in 1973. The club was used as a spring board for
the dream that the two had, which was to hold what would become the
first British convention, and through a lot of hard work the first
ever British Trek convention was held in Leicester in 1974. And the
guests, Jimmy Doohan and George Takei! Prior to the Con, an interview
appeared in the Elson's local newspaper, an article that sparked off
a reaction that neither of them had ever expected. Not only did it
appear in their newspaper, but was also syndicated in the national
press, and as far as Australia! They were deluged with mail and STAG
had begun.
In 1975, a familiar name to Trek fandom, took over the role of club
president. Janet Quarton (of I.D.I.C. fame) took over the running of
the club. Previously in 1974 Janet joined as Membership Secretary.
She would remain as President until 1981. Janet formed a new
committee, including fellow I.D.I.C. committee member Sheila Clark.
Sylvia Billings (who wrote some excellent stories, some of which we
will be featuring in this column) joined the committee in 1977 and
then took over the running of the club in 1981. Again a new committee
was formed and this included Cilla Futcher, Wendy Downes and Kath
Walton.
In 1978 another familiar name to zine readers joined as a committee
member, Valerie Piacentini.
During 1981 and 1983 a staggering amount of fiction was released,
mainly I would imagine due to Sylvia's passion for Trek fiction.
During this period of Sylvia's reign, was the time that I was a
member of STAG (and am once more), and I can attest to this fact as I
would endeavour to buy most of the zine's that they released.
During Jan 1983, Wendy Downes resigned because of her involvement in
running the Leonard Nimoy club - Spotlight. Soon after Cilla, and the
remaining committee members brought in by Sylvia, Kath, also left. To
replace the gap on the committee, Lorraine Church and Deborah Watts
joined.
In 1984 a new president took over in the form of Catherine
Richardson, and once more a new committee was elected. Margaret
Richardson and Lesley Wood took over the running of STAG with
Catherine.
1988 saw Margaret taking over as president and Lynne Collins
(Banister) joining the committee.
In 1990 Lynne took over the Presidency and still remains the
President to this day. She brought in new committee members Peter
Banister and Vanessa Amdurer. All of which are still on the
committee. Although I think she had to marry Peter to keep him there!
In its twenty year history the club has done a lot for fandom and
Trek. The fact that it's lasted this long shows that they must be
doing it right and it's evident that they have Trek and its fans
firmly in their hearts. One of the clubs highlights must be when they
had a feature in the Sun in 1976, whose by-line was "THE LITTLE BAND
OF TREKKERS MAKE THE BBC TOE THEIR LINE". The article dealt with the
absence of Trek on the BBC. And what happened (STAG members were
writing to the Beeb to get them to show Trek again). The Beeb decided
to re-run the adventures of Kirk and Co. for all to watch. Not bad,
eh!
Not content with this victory, the following month of that year
(July) members began to bombard the Beeb with letters to try and get
them to show the now famous Banned episodes, "Empath", "Miri",
Plato's Stepchildren" and "Whom God's Destroy". Unfortunately the
letter writing campaign did not work this time. (However the BBC
decided to show these episodes in its 1993/94 re-runs).
As you can see, the club went through a lot of changes during its
illustrious career, and no doubt will go through more. The club is
now in the very capable hands of Lynne and her committee and I hope
that they remain as such for some time.
Our hope is that this new column will help to promote membership in
STAG and at the same time allow fans of Trek fiction to get a chance
to enjoy some of the enjoyable and landmark fiction that this club
produced. Hopefully in a future column we can get Lynne to write a
few words to our readers. But for now sit back and enjoy the
read.......