In the pre-internet, pre-social media days, Starlog magazine was the go-to place for sci fi and fantasy fans to keep up with what was going on with the genre and look back at movies and TV shows from the past.
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What Is It?
For over thirty years, Starlog magazine reported on the worlds of science fiction and fantasy, and for a fair amount of that time, it was the leading source for genre news, information, interviews, and behind-the-scenes coverage. This magazine carried some of the very first glimpses of Star Wars, publishing some of Ralph McQuarrie’s concept art before most fans knew who George Lucas was (other than the director of some teen-hijinks film called American Graffiti). And it chronicled the rise of the Blockbuster Era, giving us scoops on Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Alien, Blade Runner, and many many more. It also delivered retrospectives on favorite TV series which delved into the making of these programs and often included the much cherished (at that time) episode guides. Starlog ruled science fiction and fantasy from the late ’70s into the ’80s and remained relevant into the nineties even if it seemed to have slipped a bit in quality by that time. And then like so many other magazines, it succumbed to the publishing bust of the late ’00s and ended its run with issue #375. There was a promise to continue as an online magazine, but that never happened, and the www.starlog.com site went silent after that.
Created By: Kerry O’Quinn, Norman Jacobs
First Published: August 1976
Final Issue: #375, April 2009
Legacy:
Before Twitter, Reddit, Wikipedia, and before the internet and the media explosion, people still read print magazines. And from the mid-70s into the mid-to-late 80s Starlog ruled as the source of entertainment news and information for science fiction and fantasy fans.
A Closer Look:
The newer generation of sci-fi fans who may have picked up an issue of Starlog off the magazine rack from time to time when it was still on the stands cannot understand just how important this publication was during its heyday. When it hit the newsstands back in mid-1976, there was nothing else quite like it for genre fans. In fact, there was a huge void of information in the science fiction and fantasy universe. Warren’s Famous Monsters of Filmland had mostly retrospectives and focused more on horror and monster movies. The pulps like Analog and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction dedicated little, if any, print space to movies or television, and entertainment magazines like TV Guide—or the local supplement in the newspaper—might have a few tidbits here or there, but these rarely satisfied a sci-fi fan’s thirst for genre news.
And—I know this is hard for the younger generation to grasp—there was no internet then. There was no Wikipedia to look up information on a movie or television show that you might have stumbled upon. There were no sites like The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, or TVLine breaking the latest entertainment news, no genre-focused blogs like io9.com, BleedingCool.com, or SlashFilm.com, and no social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit to bring fans the latest genre scoops. Nope, you had to sit and wait for the latest issue of Starlog to hit the stands—or arrive in the mail if you subscribed—and it initially came out only once every two months. By issue #20, though, it had gone monthly.
I remember reading about Star Wars for the first time in Starlog, and yes, I am that old. I remember the shocking announcement of Space: 1999’s cancellation on the cover of issue #6. I remember the lengthy and enlightening article taking us through Gerry Anderson’s career producing Supermarionation shows like Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. I remember discovering all about The Prisoner and the nightmarish, Kafkaesque world that show created on prime-time television.
And the episode guides—oh, the episode guides! That was like finding buried treasure back then in the pre-internet, pre-Wikipedia days. Finally, you knew all the episodes that had been produced for shows like Star Trek, Space: 1999, UFO, Lost in Space, and many more. Sci fi fans like myself would eagerly await each issue and then greedily devour it from cover to cover, going back to those issues again and again to revisit and rediscover all of the sacred knowledge they held. It was sadly lacking in reviews, something that many of us fans clamored for over the years, but it still provided a wealth of other information on the genre that we could not easily find anywhere else.
Starlog was a huge success with genre fans upon its release, which led to other magazines—and a slew of fanzines—cropping up to give it some competition, but none could ever unseat it from its place as the leader in sci-fi news during its first twenty-plus years of existence. By the ’90s, though, as sci-fi had become a staple on the big screen and had made serious inroads back into television, other entertainment magazines such as Entertainment Weekly and TV Guide began to give the genre more respect. And once the internet exploded with sci fi-oriented sites and blogs in the late ’90s and especially in the ’00s, Starlog became a bit of a relic.
But the next time you turn to the internet to find out the scoop on an upcoming film, read about a television series you just discovered, or find an episode recap, think back to the dark ages when those resources were not right at your fingertips and you had to wait for the latest issue of the magazine each month to find out what was going on in the worlds of science fiction and fantasy.
Should it Be Revived?
Even though magazines have pretty much become a thing of the past, there are still people like myself who read them, and a return of Starlog to the stands would be welcome. In addition, there is still a need for an all-encompassing, genre-focused website, and a revival of this property could take up that challenge.
And as it turns out, that is happening, as the magazine is set to return with its first print issue since 2009. It will be back on the stands in Fall 2026, though an exact release date has not been set yet, and it looks like they are planning only annual print issues at this point. But if their website can become a go-to place for sci fi and fantasy news, as well as deep dives into movies, television shows, books, and more, this could turn into a celebrated return for an iconic genre publication. You can read more about the return of Starlog at their website.
Interesting Facts:
Starlog actually originated from a mid-’70s idea by publishers Kerry O’Quinn (no relation to Terry O’Quinn) and Norman Jacobs to produce a one-shot magazine covering Star Trek. However, Paramount Studios wanted a royalty because it owned Trek, and that would have made the magazine too expensive. O’Quinn and Jacobs found a way around this, though, when they discovered that a magazine covering Star Trek along with other topics would not have to pay this royalty. Thus, Starlog began, and the first issue included an in-depth retrospective on classic Trek along with that invaluable episode guide.
Though Kerry O’Quinn and Norman Jacobs would eventually become legends among sci-fi fans because of Starlog and the other genre magazines they created, such as Fangoria, Cinemagic, and Comics Scene, they actually got their start producing a magazine that covered soap operas!
Where Can You Read It?
Unfortunately, Starlog has never been collected into an omnibus edition, so you have to search out the back issues of the original run to rediscover the magic of its early years. There is, however, a retrospective site that has the covers and summaries for past issues for those who want to reminisce about its glory days. Currently it has covered up through issue #170. The is also The Starlog Compendium that gives detailed descriptions of each issue and acts as a reader’s guide. That has covered up to issue#200
Further Reading:
Wikipedia
The Starlog Compendium: Volume I, Issues 1–200, 1976–1994
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