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- TF01
- 3,Generations - Official Movie Magazine
- 4,
-
- Sven Harvey
- -------------
-
- In what seems to be an ongoing tradition, Starlog have published the
- official adaptation of the latest movie. It comes in two versions; a
- standard version or a special 3-D 'lenticular' edition for a couple
- of pounds more. To be honest the nice effect on the cover isn't worth
- the extra money.
-
- The magazine is thicker than the usual DS9, Next Gen or Voyager
- magazine fare but in a very similar format. The publication has a
- great photographic coverage of the movie as well as behind the scenes
- information and of course the usual complement of Trek related
- merchandise adverts!
-
- Add to this interviews with the major cast members, Rick Berman and
- director David Carson and you have a reasonable keepsake of the
- movie, except for one thing...
-
- You would assume that the magazine would give you a decent idea of
- what the film was about. However the actual film plot is storyboarded
- by only 8 pages of stills! That is quite ridiculous - an 84 page
- magazine with less than 1/10th on the film plot! Quite silly! Why? A
- way to get us all to buy the novel? Probably...
-
- Overall 4/10
-
-
- Simon Plumbe
- --------------
-
- I won't waste space describing the magazine here again, but contrary
- to Sven's point of view, I actually quite like the magazine. As with
- everything Starlog have proudced, the writing and interviews are of
- an exceptionally high standard and it's quite easy to see why Starlog
- have the reputation as being amongst the best in the world when it
- comes to SF publications.
-
- All of the interviews were thoroughly entertaining, and it was good
- to see that a fair amount of space was devoted to each of the cast,
- including the Classic Trek stars. There is a liberal selection of
- photos covering the entire cast of the movie, and there are shots
- from all of the major scenes. It is also interesting to see a good
- mix of photos from scenes that were either edited out of the finished
- film (such as Kirk's skydiving sequence) or the photos from the
- original ending.
-
- While some may argue that such a magazine needs to cover the plot of
- the movie, I don't really think that that is quite the case. As far
- as this magazine is concerned, there is a good 8-page spread telling
- the story of the film in a photographic way, with captions which
- effectively tells the entire story. Now, the people who are likely to
- be buying this magazine KNOW the story of the film, so they are not
- really interested in being told the plot AGAIN, are they?! Another
- point to make is that, as with all OFFICIAL productions, Starlog are
- at the mercy of Paramount and can't include anything in the magazine
- that Paramount don't want them to.
-
- As this movie special was produced PRIOR to the film's release, there
- is NO WAY that Paramount would allow the publishing of the film's
- plot, in the same way that none of the Official Fan Clubs were
- allowed to. Having experienced Paramount's writing restrictions first
- hand (as have Colin Gunn and Tim Smith as well through our work for
- the Official UK Fan Club), we can attest to the fact that Paramount
- scrutinise everything carefully and they expect writers to toe-the-
- line without exception. I am quite certain that they placed a great
- deal of restrictions on Starlog over this particular publication!
-
- With regard to Sven's closing remark about the magazine being a way
- of promoting the novel... I couldn't disagree more. Not only would
- the magazine refer to the novel if that were the case, but remember
- that this magazine is from Starlog Press and the novel is from Pocket
- Books - two separate companies.
-
- Overall, this is a far better way to remember the film - it doesn't
- have Data's jokes or swearing, and it has equal exposure of all of
- the cast! Another first-rate title from Starlog. 7/10
-
-