New Star Trek Souvenir Special Magazine Available Now + Excerpts From STM #30

Titan has released a new Star Trek Souvenir Special Magazine, which is on newstands this week. We have details and the cover for that below, plus some excerpts and images from the latest official Star Trek Magazine (issue 30).

 

Star Trek Souvenir Special! – Preparing for the Final Frontier – the cast of Star Trek speak out! 

official release:

Don’t miss out on this amazing 148 page Star Trek Souvenir Special celebrating 15 years of Star Trek publishing from Titan with interviews and features from across the years as well as some stunning new imagery. This is a must have for all Star Trek fans!

This Star Trek Souvenir Special hit newsstands on Nov 23, 2010. To order your copy, click here.  If you can’t wait that long, this Souvenir Special is available now digitally to read in full on PC, Mac or iPad. To purchase, click here.



New Souvenir Special

 

STAR TREK MAGAZINE ISSUE 30

"Bad Boys" Feature excerpt

The lead feature in the latest issue of Star Trek Magazine examines the bad boys who have populated the Star Trek universe. Does the means justify the ends? This extract from the article gets the big debate moving…

The successful operation of Starfleet depends on a strict adherence to rules and regulations, an understanding of and compliance to command structure and the obedience of orders from superior officers. Except, of course, when it doesn’t.

Several of Starfleet’s finest, even legendary, figures have been known to disregard rules from time to time. James Kirk certainly falls into this category, with a longtime reputation for flouting authority and taking bold, even aggressive action at the slightest provocation, regardless of the consequences. However, a careful examination of his career shows that even when Kirk disregards Starfleet’s highest law, the Prime Directive, it’s never for aggrandizement. Be it rescuing a stagnant civilization caught in the grips of oppressive rule ("The Return of the Archons," "A Taste of Armageddon," "A Piece of the Action," "Bread and Circuses," or "The Apple"), or acting to thwart an enemy’s attempts to undermine a budding society ("Friday’s Child" or "A Private Little War"), Kirk always acts for what he believes to be a greater good. In the eyes of some, this makes him an amoral rebel, whereas others see him simply as "unconventional."

In contrast, Jean-Luc Picard often is regarded as one who always follows the rules, or at the very least is more thoughtful and restrained with respect to stepping outside the parameters of protocol and duty. Of course, as a younger man, Picard was more carefree, most notably by eschewing tradition and leaving the family home and vineyard for a career in Starfleet. It wasn’t until the Academy’s venerable groundskeeper, Boothby, took the young cadet into his stewardship that Picard truly started down the path to maturity. Even then, overconfidence and even recklessness came to the fore on occasion, such as him being unafraid to charge outnumbered into a fight with Nausicaans ("Tapestry"), an action which ended with him stabbed through the heart and requiring an artificial replacement. That event is viewed by many – including Picard himself – as a turning point in his life, after which he developed a more introspective nature.

Picard’s later reputation for deliberate judgment and action often serve him well, especially during occasions where he finds himself forced to set aside the rules to accomplish his mission and protect his ship and crew. Showing the primitive Edo that the aliens they worship aren’t gods ("Justice"), helping someone in distress in defiance of non-interference directives ("Pen Pals," "Homeward"), or defying Starfleet and even the Federation itself in defense of the seemingly helpless Ba’ku (Star Trek: Insurrection) Picard demonstrates a willingness to defy the letter of the law in order to uphold its spirit. While certainly not as impulsive or cocky as Jim Kirk might’ve been in similar situations, Picard still comes across – on occasion – as a bit of a rogue when required by circumstances.


"Bad Boys" feature in new Star Trek Magazine


Robert Duncan McNeill interview excerpt

Like Nick Locarno, the character he had played on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Robert Duncan McNeill’s new character, Tom Paris had a tainted past. In this extract from an interview in the latest Star Trek Magazine, the actor shares his thoughts on the differences and similarities between the two characters…

"Fundamentally there’s a huge difference between the two of them," notes McNeill. "Nick Locarno was somebody who appeared to be a really good guy to the Starfleet teachers, faculty and staff, but deep down was a rotten guy. I think Tom Paris was the complete opposite of that. He appeared to be a little rotten on the outside, but was really a good guy underneath it all. Initially, Voyager’s creators might have conceived the character to be very much like Nick Locarno, but it became clear to me quite early on that he had to be very different.

"Nick Locarno was someone who was there for one story and to serve a very brief purpose. But for Tom Paris to last, as well as be relevant, he had to be a real hero and a character who, underneath all his warts, faults and weaknesses, was someone that viewers would want to come back to every week. That’s why I felt it was necessary to bring a sense of humor to Paris. To me, Star Trek was its most successful whenever it had a bit of irony and tongue-in-cheek quality along with a sense of fun and adventure. So I tried to bring the spirit of that into everything I did, even if it wasn’t scripted."

Starfleet officers and rebel Maquis have no choice but to put aside their differences and join forces when they are stranded 75 thousand light years from home at the end Voyager’s pilot episode "Caretaker." For Tom Paris, it means a second chance; he is awarded a Starfleet field commission to lieutenant by Captain Janeway and appointed Voyager’s chief helmsman. It is, however, far from a smooth ride for him, and it takes a while for Tom to earn the respect of his captain and shipmates.

"What was really important for our show was that this mismatched group of people came together with their strengths and became a team," says McNeill. "That was a challenge, though, with Tom Paris, because he was initially meant to be a lone wolf. So I looked for opportunities to showcase his value as a team player.

"That began in the pilot with Harry Kim [Garrett Wang], where I wanted to show Tom as being sort of the wiser, older brother to this character. Even if it was lightly scripted, I tried my best to emphasize that while Tom might look like he doesn’t care about anybody else, he actually does care about Harry, who’s a little less experienced and needs a bit of help. The more I did that, the more, I think, our writers started writing to it.

"Something else I feel was unique about Tom was the fact that he was kind of a down-to-earth straight talker. With all the technobabble, sci-fi talk and complicated stories and situations, I tried to be the one who had a sense of plain speak and be a little folksy with my character."


Robert Duncan McNeill interviewed in in STM #30

More in the Star Trek Magazine 30

Issue 30 of The Official Star Trek Magazine will be on newsstands tomorrow. It comes with two covers, with one available only in comic book shops.


Regular cover


Comic book shop exclusive cover

This Star Trek magazine issue is also available digitally to read in full on PC, Mac or iPad. . To purchase the new issue, click here. For back issues, click here. For a digital subscription to get every issue, click here

You can also Subscribe to get all the upcoming issues of Star Trek Magazine.

To receive Star Trek Magazine exclusives, including sneak peeks, interviews, promotional offers, and sweepstakes, visit: titanmagazines.com/mailing/.

To become a fan of Star Trek Magazine on Facebook, visit: facebook.com/StarTrekMagazine

 

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Looks like a great collectors issue!

Does anyone else scoff at the notion of Kirk breaking the 6ft mark?

6ft? With the lifts, maybe.

good magazine

Bah. I saw the words “Souvenir Special” and thought I was going to get an article on goodies and stuff to put on my Christmas list.

That’ll learn me one.

Hey this looks pretty good. I hope there is a section on the Terrran Empires Kirk and Archer. They were pretty bad A$$ them selves.

Voyager wasn’t exactly my favorite of the Trek series, but I did always like the character of Tom Paris. I mean, c’mon, how can you not like a guy who spends his spare time tinkering with hotrods/spaceships, hanging out in a pool hall, and playing Captain Proton? Nice to see rednecks and nerds still exist in the 24th century. :)

Would it kill you people to give us a UK/Ireland release date?

8. The regular issue of STM, the second pictured above, is on the shelves of WH Smith right now.

I don’t know when that 148 page Best of Special Edition is out though…

#9

Thanks! I got that issue last week. I know there is something like a thre week diffence in the release dates between us over here and the Americans. So if operations are normal, we won’t see this til mid to late December. I checked the Titan Magzines website, but the thing hasn’t been updated since before the summer.

http://titanmagazines.com/app?service=external/Product&sp=l87

^ The last ST Magazine listed is the one from May.

Titan aren’t as good as they used to be. IMO, they pandered to much to the US market, and seem to have forgotten that they started out in the UK and Ireland back in 1995. It’s certainly not the fun magazine that I remember when I first started buying it almost ten years ago.

Lol, Garak? Yeah right. Where’s Khan?

Kirk is one of the greatest characters ever created. Half those other blokes deserve a place on the list of intergalactic nancy boys.

I hardly think Kirk was cocky, he was driven by logic which given that several super computers met their untimely demise during a battle of wits with the great captain is solid foundation and justification for Kirk’s confidence that the impertinent may equate with cockiness.

@11. “Lol, Garak? Yeah right.”

Never saw the whole series, did you?

I never understood why the Tom Paris character wasn’t Lorcano. Even the dark secret in Paris’ past, alluded to in the early seasons of Voyager, could have been a reference to the pilot incident with Lorcano.
(And they could have even kept the Paris name – they could have said he went by the assumed name ‘Lorcano’ at the Academy so that he wasn’t seen as piggybacking on his father’s reputation.)

Same with Vorik / Taurik. Why not just make ’em the same character as their earlier appearances on TNG? Just one more thing that annoyed me with Voyager.

14

The producers didn’t want to have to pay the writers who came up with the character Locarno. Every episode in which Locarno would have been seen would have meant a pay check for the original writer.

As for the souvenir issue, 90% of the content in it was culled from issues within the past three years. I wanted some older stuff that I missed, but instead we end up getting stuff reprinted from as recently as two or three issues ago.

It was marketed as a “Fifteenth Anniversary Issue”, so why did they use content from the past three-four years?

That does sound good although i’m just still not too certain that I like it. Anyhow will look far more into it and decide for myself! :)