This is a real year of transformation for
Starlog.
Multiple changes in paper quality, page count, amount of color, etc.
And this is the last issue of the current, 74-page iteration. Next
issue, of course, is another special 100-page movie review issue. But
after that, things change again (don't worry, it's for better).
Starlog #75
74 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $2.95
The 11th "
Starlog Science Fiction Classic" is another current film,
Twilight Zone the Movie,
so it's by definition not a classic (at least not as of
September-October 1983). In fact, this issue even has an article on the
movie's premiere, so how can it be a classic? Or am I just tilting at
windmills ...
The rundown: Kerry O'Quinn's From the Bridge column responds to a reader's letter concerning getting a job at
Starlog (short answer: do something else first); reader letters in Communications include lots of fallout from Ed Naha's column in
issue #69 regarding the anti-nuke film
The Day After (correspondents include former
Starlog
editor David Houston, who defends nuclear weapons as a necessary
deterrent against communism), reader praise for David Gerrold's
A Matter for Men, lots of conflicting views of the
V mini-series, and more; Log Entries short news includes the cessation of sister magazine
Comics Scene's short life, a sneak peek at
Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes,
short obituaries for James F. Butterfield and Art Cruickshank, a nice
one-page report on the progress of the unmanned space probe Pioneer 10,
and more.

Richard Schenkman interviews Barbara Carrera, who plays Fatima Blush in the Bond film
Never Say Never Again;
Paul Mandell contributes the first part of his retrospective of 1950s
Superman George Reeves' work; Lenny Kaye's Space Age Games column
continues his look at arcade games; Lee Goldberg profiles "The
Forgotten James Bond," George Lazenby, and includes a sidebar on Barry
Nelson, "The First James Bond"; Sal Manna interviews the great Ralph
McQuarrie and showcases his color concept illustrations from
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi; David McDonnell interviews John Lithgow about his work in the
Twilight Zone movie,
The World According to Garp, Blow Out,
and more; Steve Swires wraps up his two-part interview with outspoken
screenwriter Lorenzo Semple, Jr. (who includes a mea culpa for the
Flash Gordon film);
Starlog reports on the world premiere of
Twilight Zone the Movie
in Rod Serling's hometown, with reporting by Robert Greenberger and
photos by Deborah Upton; Don McGregor concludes his two-part interview
with Bond titles creator Maurice Binder; it's definitely an issue for
conclusions: David Gerrold concludes his four-part excerpt of his
groundbreaking novel
A Matter for Men, and he pens an
introduction while Alex Nino provides the illustrations (including the
final, full-page, full-color one); Ed Naha interviews actress Nancy
Allen; and Howard Zimmerman uses his Lastword column to report on some
of the controversy over
Return of the Jedi, and he complains that the Hugo awards have no category in which
Starlog can be recognized.
"What [George] Lucas said was that he personally will not be producing or directing [further Star Wars
films]. He has already written the outlines to the two remaining
trilogies. No matter how far removed he may be from the daily, on-line
production, rest assured that Star Wars chapters one, two, three, seven, eight and nine will still be true to Lucas' vision."