Meeting of June 1, 1984; at Gillilands', Alexis Gilliland presiding.
The meeting was called to order at 9:17. As the June WSFA Journal was available, it was decided to waive the reading of the minutes. As of May 29th, the treasury, as reported by Lee Shehr, stood at $4,676.39. Dues are due and payable. Pay Up, People! Thirty-seven people are in danger of being dropped; make sure you're not one of them.
PUBLICATIONS: The June WSFA Journal was available; so was May's.
ENTERTAINMENT: Doll Gilliland announced that the film "Saturn 3" could be viewed on the house TV if anyone was interested. Also. there's a midnight viewing of "Star Trek III" at the Skyline Theater.
DISCLAVE '83: Chairwoman Jane Wagner was happy to announce: "It's Over!" She thanked everyone who worked on the con and said WSFA should be receiving "at least a couple of grand" in the near future.
DISCLAVE '85: Chairman Mike Walsh discussed the pros and cons of various hotels; a final decision has not yet been made. More discussion will be forthcoming.
OLD BUSINESS:
NEW BUSINESS:
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
The meeting was hootingly adjourned at 9:43.
Meeting of June 15, 1984; at Olivers'. Alexis Gilliland presiding.
The meeting was called to order at 9:17. As the secretary had inadvertently left them at home, it was unanimously agreed to waive reading the minutes. The treasury stood a $4,498.10. Please check the three lists that are in the kitchen to find out where you stand pertaining to your dues. If you owe, PAY UP!!!
PUBLICATIONS: The June WSFA Journal was still available.
ENTERTAINMENT: Lee Smoire will be showing slides of her trip to SeaCon, England and Germany.
DISCLAVE '84: Chairwoman Jane Wagner asked that if anyone had any viable Disclave bills that needed to be paid, please bring them up to Disclave Treasurer Bob MacIntosh ASAP. She noted that it looks like it'll be possible for Dept. Heads to be reimbursed for one night of their hotel bill. There's also an excellent chance that everyone on the staff will get their membership fee refunded. Final decisions as to how this will be handled must still be worked out. However, after all of this is taken care of, it looks like WSFA will be receiving about $6.000.
DISCLAVE '85: Chairman Mike Walsh says that everything is in a "hold" position at present, but there's a good chance that we'll be back at the Sheraton New Carrollton next year.
OLD BUSINESS:
NEW BUSINESS: Zip!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
The meeting was shushed into adjourning at 9:45.
The WSFA Journal is the heterogeneous monthly newsletter of the Washington Science Fiction Association. Editor-in-Chief: Beverly L. Brandt, 3326 Lauriston Place, Fairfax, VA 22031. Tel. No. (703) 573-8230
Editor's Note: If this particular issue looks like a Trekkie fanzine, it's not deliberate. Everyone contributing to this issue seemed Star Trek crazy. So, to quote Han Solo, "It's Not My Fault!"
7/12 Sharon Harris
7/12 Rosa Oliver
7/19 Ray Ridenour
7/22 Mike Tuchman
7/26 Jan Cox
7/28 (Lawrey Gause)
Paramount Pictures begins the unleashing of this summer's bonanza of escapism films with the sequels Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom (IJ & ToD) and Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (ST III: SFS).
ToD is as thrillingly entertaining as its predecessor, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Again starring Harrison Ford as archaeologist/adventurer Professor Indiana Jones, ToD has its share of hair-raising escapes and derring-do, with Ford having a grand time of it.
Spielberg and Lucas have again succeeded in keeping us at the edge of our seats, although this Indy Jones is not the fluff as was Raiders. Indy attempts to recover a sacred stone (one of five such stones) with magical properties taken from an Indian village by the revived cult of the Thuggee, worshippers of Kali. The Thuggees have also stolen the villagers' children to dig for the remaining two stones the Thuggee priest Mola Ram (played by Amrish Puri) requires to bring absolute power to his people.
Kate Capshaw stars as singer Willie Scott, who is whisked into the adventure quite against her will. Very different from Karen Allen's tough character of Marion, Willie cannot stand danger or the wild, and is constantly screaming, much to Indy's displeasure.
Young Ke Huy Quan plays Short Round, who refers to himself as Indy's "bodyguard". Short Round - who obviously respects Indy immeasurably - appears to be quite at home with the dangerous situations, arguing over everything with Indy: from poker cheating to whose fault it is they're caught in a death-dealing trap (while still caught in it)!
The film's only drawback is the squeamishness it causes. True, it is done with tongue in cheek, but most youngsters might not find it amusing. Even adults may cringe at the sight of the Maharaja's banquet menu of live snakes, boiled beetles, goat's eye soup, and chilled monkeys' brains. These are all legitimate dishes, but to Westerners this could mean a severe drop in attendance at the concession stand.
However, with its escapes from rock crushers, spike-filled rooms, bug-filled catacombs, crashing planes, a high speed chase in mining cars, Thuggee swordsmen, and a fight for the stones over an alligator-infested river (and, of course, much more), IJ & ToD is still solid entertainment.
SS III: SFS: At the end of Wrath of Khan we suffered the loss of the logical Mr. Spock. played by Leonard Nimoy, when he repaired the engines to the Enterprise to escape the detonation of the life creating Genesis device, but not before his brief enigmatic mind-meld with Dr. McCoy (played by DeForest Kelley) to "Remember".
Since then, Trek fans everywhere have speculated as to how they would go about ST III: SFS. The favored theories were that the planet's life-giving properties would re-animate Spock, or regenerate him into another actor, and that his mind (or part of it) had been housed with McCoy.
Well directed by Nimoy, SFS picks up right where Wrath of Khan left off. Harve Bennett wrote and produced this one, and obviously realized what the fans were expecting and/or theorizing.
In SFS the Enterprise returns to Earth, battered and scarred from its battles with Khan. The senior officers learn with horror that their beloved ship is to be decommissioned, due to its age, and that the new trans-warp drive systems are being put to use in the Excelsior, a hunchbacked version of the Enterprise.
With the Genesis planet forbidden to all but scientists, Kirk is visited by Spock's Vulcan father, Sarek (Mark Lenard), who tells Kirk that Spock's body should have been returned to Vulcan for their own mystic funeral rites.
Via the engine room log, Kirk and Sarek deduce that part of Spock's consciousness has been placed in Dr. McCoy. In the meantime, McCoy is acting irrationally, even trying to charter a ship to the forbidden planet.
Unable to obtain official permission to recover Spock's body, Kirk and the Enterprise's senior staff steal the ship and escape the trans-warp drive of the Excelsior thanks to a subtle sabotage by Scotty (James Doohan).
Unbeknownst to them, the existence of Genesis has been learned by Klingon Commander Kruge (portrayed with villainous relish by Christopher Lloyd, best known as Taxi's Rev. Jim), who wants the secret of Genesis, believing it to be the ultimate weapon. Another major obstacle is the realization that the Genesis planet is aging rapidly and thereby destroying itself.
There are only two drawbacks to the film: one is retaining the character of the half-Vulcan, half-Romulan Lt. Saavik who is played not by the lovely and talented Kirstie Alley, but by actress Robin Curtis who stiffly delivers her lines as if she hated each one. The other drawback in the film series is that it has confused Klingons with Romulans. Romulan and Federation space are separated by a neutral zone, the crossing of which is an act of war. The Romulans use cloaking devices to hide their ships. In the film series, it is the Klingon Empire beyond the neutral zone, as well as having the Romulan Bird of Prey ships (even the unacknowledged first Star Trek film got the Klingon ships correctly).
Tremendously entertaining, SFS will have as many long lines around the block as does IJ & ToD, and rightfully so.
(Courtesy of Mark Owings)
KEY: H - Hardback, P - Paperback
and T - Tradepaperback
Asimov, Isaac (Ed.): The Hugo Winners, Volume 4 - $16.95 (H)
Barker, M.A.R.: The Man of Gold - $3.95 (P)
Brunner, John: The Crucible of Time - $3.50 (P)
Douglas, Carole Nelson: Exiles of the Rynth - $2.95 (P)
Duane, Diane: My Enemy, My Ally - $2.95 (P)
Foster, Alan Dean: The I Inside - $2.95 (P)
Freas, Frank Kelly: A Separate Star - $24.95 (H) OR $14.95 (T)
Goulart, Ron: The Prisoner of Blackwood Castle - $2.50 (P)
Harrison, M. John: Viriconium Nights - $2.75 (P)
Jordan, Robert: Conan, King of Thieves - $2.95 (P)
Kapp, Colin: Cage 4, #4: Star Search - $2.50 (P)
Knight, Damon (Ed.): The Clarion Awards - $II.95 (H)
Knox, Robert H.: H.P. Lovecraft - Illustrated in Ichor - $10.00 (portfolio)
Laumer, Keith: Once There Was a Giant - $2.50 (P)
Lem, Stanislaw: Imaginary Magnitude - $11.95 (H)
Lovejoy, Jack: A Vision of Beasts, #1: Creation Descending - $2.95 (P)
Major, H.M.: The Alien Trace - $2.95 (P)
Mazer, Norma Fox: Supergirl (Movie Tie-In) - $2.95 (P)
McKiernan, Dennis L.: The Iron Tower Trilogy, Book 1: The Dark Tide -
$11.95 (H)
McLoughlin, John C.: The Helix and the Sword - $2.95 (P)
Oppenhein, Shulamith: The World Invisible - $2.75 (P)
Pierce, Meredith Ann: The Darkangel - $2.95 (P)
Piper, H. Beam: Fuzzies and Other People - $2.95 (P)
Pohl, Frederik: Demon In the Skull - $2.50 (P)
Purtill, Richard: The Parallel Man - $2.50 (P)
Rottensteiner, Franz (Ed.): The Slaying of the Dragon: Modern Tales of
the Playful Imagination - $14.95 (H)
Ryan, Alan: Cast a Cold Eye - $3.95 (P)
Schmidt, Stanley (Ed.): Analog Writers' Choice: Volume 2 - $12.95 (H)
Somtow, S.P.: Vampire Junction - $16.95 (H)
Stanley, John: The Creature Features Movie Guide - $7.95 (T)
Strauss, Erwin S.: The Complete Guide to Science Fiction Conventions -
$4.95 (T)
Strieber, Whitley: The Night Church - $3.50 (P)
Whitmore, Charles: Winter's Daughter: The Saying of Signe
Ragnhilds-Datter, A Novel - $14.95 (H)
Williams, Paul O.: The Song of the Axe - $2.95 (P)
This month's lead-off art is by Terry McCune. His combination of life-at-the-beach with the Fourth of July holiday is judicious.
Other artists in this issue include Joe Mayhew on Pages 1, 2 and 4, Charles Gilliland on Pages 3 and 4 and Warren Rodgers on Page 4. Thanks to all who contributed.
THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK, as a TV episode, ranks among the best of the third Star Trek season episodes. As a movie, it's pretty good, but as a novel it would have been better if the author had stuck closer to the movie script.
In the book, the author tries to expand upon the Saavik/David relationship. The trouble with this is that in both of the films Saavik shows no sign of any type of affection towards David, although it is apparent that David has a crush on her. Another problem is that David does not have an appealing character. He also has no charisma nor anything intellectually going for him, therefore, it is highly illogical that Saavik would have had anything to do with him.
Another point of contention is that in the beginning the author starts out amateurishly and makes it difficult to get into the book, whereas the movie has a more effective beginning.
To dispel any misgivings among readers, the book is good but if, as noted previously, the author had stuck closer to the movie script it would have been great.
Who'd a thunk it: Mr. Spock's been "Born Again"!
Most S.F. fans found his apparent exit from the Star Trek merry band of senior citizens a hopeful sign of better things to come in STAR TREK III: perhaps the croaking of Kirk, Bones or (Oh Rapture!) Scotty. But the Trekkies cheered mightily as their perpetual adolescent fantasy was gloriously resurrected: the tomb was empty and the shroud, neatly folded.
But Easter was quickly followed by Estrus, when the new Spock, mysteriously accelerated to puberty, comes into Pon Farr, a grumpy sort of heat Vulcans suffer every seven years or so. Thereupon, the second Mr. Saavik, the "Cast-Again" Romulan/Vulcan miscegenette, finding the second Spock's idiotic teen-age hunk phase to her taste, initiated that Masonic interdigitation which we all know as Vulcan foreplay. I suppose that the Saavik/Spock mercy-fuck will result in a new Xmas release: SPOCK III; THE DIAPERS OF KHAN!
So any way, they finally totalled the Enterprise. It was, after all, "Twenty years old." Following from perhaps the same logic, they also off-ed Kirk Junior.... But Wait! Kirk Jr. and the Enterprise were both wasted in proximity to the same mysterious force which up and resurrected Mr. Spock! Could it be? Maybe one of the fragments of the exploding planet (Krypton?) carried a super-baby and a tiny Enterprise off to yet another Paramount production studio.
STAR TREK IV? Will Kirk get a convincing toupee? Will the Trekkies have to make new uniforms? And, will the new Enterprise still look like a frisbee being gang-banged by a committee of flashlights?