Star Trek - Fanzine - Stellar Gas

'Stellar Gas' published by 'Pon Farr Press' is a 1979 Star Trek fanzine edited by Della Van Hise.

'Della Van Hise?' I hear you murmur to yourself, a vague recollection sparking neurons in your brain.  'Where have I heard that name before?'.

Oh my friends, your memory does not do you ill, I wrote a review on that wonderful monster!

Killing Time - Della Van Hise

The thing is, Killing Time charms me.  I can be pretty hard to please, but while I do recognise that it has many problems and should be lambasted for its myriad of inconsistencies, inaccuracies and self indulgences, I also love it for the utter slashy pleasure it was to read. 

'Jen', I hear you say, 'why are you writing another love letter to Killing Time right now?  I thought you were reviewing a fanzine 'Stellar Gas' edited by Della Van Hise'.

OK ok... I'll explain myself.  I like buying and collecting things which connections to other things.  So, for example, when I saw an ebay listing for a fanzine edited by Hise, I was suddenly very excited, and it was very moderately priced too (and already in the UK! Hooray!)!  This is actually a Xerox copy of the fanzine, not an original however it was advertised as such and the quality is very good anyway, so I can't complain!

Now, fanzines are actually a relatively new thing for me, they aren't common in the UK and the postage costs from the states can often be prohibitive so I don't have many, although I am falling in love with them.  I just love fanfiction and actually, when you look into the history of fan communities especially the Star Trek communities, they can be pretty fascinating!

TLDR: I bought on impulse because it had Della Van Hise's name on it and because it was at the right price.

The publication itself is pretty good looking, the layout and art is satisfying; you wouldn't believe my relief when I saw that the text for the longer stories was organised into columns and didn't traverse the width of the page.  However, because of the kind of dated art (in some cases, high contrast to enable easy printing) and text, it reminded me of my old church newsletters!  It's a very odd sensation!

Contents wise, there are fifteen pieces of artwork of varying quality, some are reportedly produced by professional artists, I haven't actually looked into this yet however.

Artists Featured:

• Ralph Fowler
• Cheryl Newsome
• Scott Gilbert
• Kerry Gammill
• Matt Fertig
• Craig Sattler
• Bev Zuk
• Martin Cannon
• Jim Kuzee

There are ten pieces of written work, two of which are prose, while the remainder are poetry.

Writers Featured:

• Tracey Alexander
• Pamela Rose
• Leslie Fish
• Jeanne Powers
• Marilynn Lebo
• Christopher Randolf & James Van Hise
• Della Van Hise
• Merlin Adams
• D J Biehl

The first prose piece is written by Tracey Alexander and is titled 'Lost in Thought'.  Whilst I was reading it I got this terrible sense of deja vu.  There's time travel, a certain female Romulan commander, slash overtones in neon lights, a plot to change history enough for the Romulans to take control, a strange reconciliation with that Romulan commander...

It was too close to the plot of Killing Time.  The writing, too similar, too... familiar.  My partner suggested this Tracey girl was probably a friend of Van Hise, they possibly discussed it with each other.  A quick google search confirmed it.  Tracey Alexander is a pseudonym used by Della Van Hise - one of the many pseudonyms used by Della Van Hise.  Lost in Thought then is an early draft of Killing Time.  I can only imagine Van Hise or Alexander got good feedback for Lost in Thought to make her want to continue to work on the idea.  I have to admit that Lost in Thought is a pretty interesting story with plenty, PLENTY of Kirk and Spock agonising over each other, their relationship, their feelings...  I'm not going to complain, it gave me a case of the warm fuzzies.

Lost in Thought does differ from Killing Time, obviously a lot of content is added, some taken away.  For example, Lost in Thought has a Starfleet sponsored conspiracy, actions on the Enterprise which are tantamount to mutiny, Kirk's mind being removed from his body and placed in another person, then into Spock (all of which has some analogue in the series), and plenty of slashy moments.  It doesn't have the 'second history' story line, nor the beautifully self indulgent characterisation of Kirk as a drug addict ensign, vulnerable to and sensitive to the dutiful ministrations of his Vulcan captain... ... ... Sorry I slipped off into lala land for a second there.

The Kirk / Spock relationship is understandably less physical in Lost in Thought, but simultaneously more intimate due to Kirk literally being on Spock's mind!  The weirdest scene is Kirk taking over Spock's body in order to have sex with the Romulan commander while Spock hid in his own mind.  There's also an indication that Kirk and Spock are already bonded at this point, Spock seems to indicate this, even if Kirk doesn't know.  It certainly isn't a physical relationship at this point, but the general gist by the end is that Kirk and Spock are going to discuss their relationship further. 

Basically, if you liked Killing Time and you like slashy, romancy, dramancy (what?!) stories that are unapologetic and shameless in their distribution of the warm and fuzzies, this story is probably for you.

The second prose piece is 'The Gift' by Christopher Randolf & James Van Hise.  James Van Hise is Della Van Hise's husband and... oh, you guessed it, Christopher Randolf is another pseudonym for Della Van Hise.  I'm not even sure how much James Van Hise put into this story because it has Della all over it, from the overt slash to her stylistic quirks.

The Gift is less enjoyable, mainly because it is utterly batshit crazy.  And yes, I mean more crazy than Killing Time and Lost in Thought combined, let me summarise.

Kirk is stranded on a very wet planet, he can't get back to the enterprise because electrical interference or some such thing.  Kirk gets approached by an elf, who uses a magical knife on him which results in immortality.  Kirk gets back to the Enterprise and finds Spock dying, he uses the magical knife on Spock.  Kirk and Spock are now immortal.  Kirk and Spock get blown up, but survive as pretty much mounds of flesh, because, they are magically immortal.  McCoy takes them back to the same planet as Pike and the Keepers in order that they stay sane.  McCoy ends up going there too, because, he shouldn't have to pay the penalty for bringing them back to the planet.

I don't really have much more to say about The Gift, old, little space elves, space magic, immortality, ridiculous contrivances, also, permanent universe alteration, there is no reset button.  I guess that's the joy of fanfiction as opposed to the novelisations, there can be permanent changes to the status quo.  On the other hand, I'm not sure stories like this are not just a waste of paper.  Sorry if I sound a bit harsh there, but I really do feel that way!  Just think, they could have brought down the price of the production of their fanzine considerably if they hadn't put that piece in!

The poetry is pretty fun, there is a poem by Della Van Hise (under her real name!) here too.  I don't think that the other poetry is by her under pseudonyms, but there's always a possibility!    Although I did like Hise's  Feast of Dust, I preferred the poems by Merlin Adams and Leslie Fish, both of which are written from the perspective of Doctor McCoy.  Adams' poem takes the form of McCoy observing Spock whilst Kirk is on an away mission without him, while Leslie Fish's offering takes an unusual format (rather like a translated poem from ancient Greece), as McCoy considers his relationship with his old enemy: death.  I'm actually a really big poetry nerd, so I'm always interested in reading it.

The final parts of this publication are a ~very useful~ listing of fanzines published under 'Pon Farr Press' and an open letter to the fandom about an unscrupulous seller of unauthorised xeroxed zines at conventions in the states.  I love this kind of thing, because it gives you a snap shot of what was troubling the fans at the time, looks like some things always remain the same!

I realise that it might be a bit strange to review a fanzine which is pretty hard to get, but seeing as this has been out of print for so long, I might scan and upload parts of it, like the art work, some poems and perhaps the first story so that other people can actually read it.  I'll put it on a new page on the blog when I get it done, so keep an eye out.  I do have my eye on getting Stellar Gas 2, mainly for the front cover - Spock on an alicorn, THAT is a picture I must have in my collection!

ps. Sorry if you saw this post before I fixed some errant sentences, I'd edited some of it from my mobile and managed to move entire sentences around accidently!

pps. I am never editing on a mobile device ever again, every correction causes more errors!