This started as an unofficial newsletter in 1979, but was authorized by Paramount in 1982. I'm not certain exactly when I joined the fan club; the earliest issue I still have is #68 (June/July 1989), but looking at covers on Memory Alpha, the earliest one I'm certain I ever had was #66 (February/March 1989). Although #60 also looks familiar... I think there's a chance I ordered it as a back issue, but I don't have it anymore. And I don't remember if I ever ordered any other back issues. Anyway, I subscribed to this for several years. In 1995, the fan club's magazine was renamed Star Trek: Communicator (starting with #100). It ceased publication in 2005, but by then I hadn't subscribed to it for years. I did occasionally pick up issues in stores, though. And um... at some point I remember separating out old issues I wanted to keep from old issues I wanted to try to sell. I don't remember if I ever did sell any of them or not, but I don't believe I still have them, which is kind of a shame. But the ones I do still have include #68, #70, #71, #72, #74, and #86, from before it became "Communicator." #86 was from July/August 1992, but I think it's quite possible that I was still subscribing at least til a few issues into the Communicator era. The earliest one of those issues I still have is #104 (October/November 1995), which would have to be either the last one I still have from my subscription, or the first one I bought in a store. I'm not sure which. I also have #127 (February/March 2000) and #150 (June/July 2004). Those two were definitely bought in stores.

Well, I must say, the magazine got bigger after it changed its name. But I always liked it, and it always had plenty of good articles and stuff. There was a catalog in every issue that had lots of cool merch I would've liked to get, but couldn't afford (not that it was really expensive). It had a letters column, and I'm sure things I wrote were published on more than one occasion, though it looks like only one of the issues I've still got has one of my letters in it. Aside from the magazine itself, being a member of the club... well, I know I got a few patches, which I still have. (I had my mom sew them onto a jean jacket I used to wear, but then it was in a closet or something for years and years after I stopped wearing it. I eventually took the patches off, so now they're just sitting in a drawer.) I feel like there must have been something else I got from being in the fan club, but I'm not sure what. Maybe it was basically just the magazine and the patches. Anyway... the fan club was founded by Dan Madsen, who also founded the Star Wars Fan Club. I was never a member of that, and I don't recall ever getting any of its magazine, Star Wars Insider, though I at least occasionally flipped through the magazine in stores. And it was clearly very similar to the Star Trek Fan Club Magazine, at least for however long Dan may have been involved in it. He was also the guy behind the Back to the Future Fan Club, which I joined about a year after I joined this club.

And I dunno what else to say, except to reiterate that I was very fond of the magazine, in the late 80s/early 90s, and I wish I still had every issue I used to have... and I'm sure there are plenty of issues I never had that I'd also like to have.