"Computer, Analyze": Graphical Analysis of Topical Trends Within Star Trek Fanzines
About:
The following is a sample analysis of forty issues of two early Star Trek Fanzines, Spockanalia #1-5 and T-Negative #1-35, published from 1967 to 1979. The focus of this analysis is topics within these fanzines, what content was made to approach these topics, and the frequency with which these topics occurred. The goal is to examine how fanzine topic content changed over time and how content within fanzines shifted towards a prevalence of fandom-and-real-world-related content over content specifically focused on the fictional Star Trek universe.
Note: Within the Graphs and Datasets, “Fanfic” is shorthand for “fan fiction.”
Data Collection & Analysis:
Data collection for this analysis came from the forty aforementioned physical Star Trek fanzine issues. During examination of each fanzine issue, the individual content sections of the fanzine were categorized by broad theme (what the section was about) and by content (approach to that theme). These categories were then counted and combined by year.
Themes: This line graph presents the broad topics of individual fanzine sections, based on the primary focus of each piece of content.
Real Life & Fandom: This category is of the fanzine content which does not involve fictional elements (characters, worlds, technology, races, etc) within the show Star Trek; instead, this content is about the creation of Star Trek, the actors of the show, or on aspects of the Star Trek fandom.
Enterprise Crew: The category which contains any fanzine content focusing primarily on the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise.
Aliens: A category for any fanzine content primarily dedicated to alien cultures within Star Trek. Most of these are various studies of the Vulcan race, but there are also some Klingon pieces as well.
Note: A fourth category, the combined occurrences of fanzine sections dedicated to the Enterprise Crew or Alien races, was added to better visually represent the difference in frequency between fanzines providing content about real-world content and the fandom, versus content of fictional elements within the show itself.
Content: This line graph is a different approach to the same data set, but instead of focusing on the topic of the fanzine sections, it is dedicated to how these topics were approached.
Filk/Songs/Poems: This is a combined grouping of all short-structure works within the fanzines, such as poems and Filk songs (fandom folk songs, often about the fictional elements of Star Trek, but sometimes about the fandom itself, or specific events in fandom, such as conventions), songs, and poems. This is due to the ambiguous nature with which this fanzine content is presented. Rarely did a song include musical notation, and many times authors did not specify if their writing was intended to be a spoken poem, or sung. As such, it was best to combine these sections into one category.
Fanfic (fanfiction): This category represents extended written sections of the fanzines which create a narrative of either the canon characters of the show experiencing fictional events, or the creation of new, non-canon characters participating in fictional events within the universe of the show. This category includes long and short fanfiction, parody stories, play scripts, fictional letters, fictional newspapers, and fictional briefing documents.
Studies: All fanzine sections which present critical studies of elements within Star Trek. This includes studies of characters within Star Trek, studies of alien anatomy, history, and culture, and all fan speculation of any element of Star Trek.
Actor Interviews/Reviews: This category is a combination of fanzine sections devoted to the actors of Star Trek, which includes interviews with these actors, and also reviews of their work in other movies, television shows, albums, and plays.
Fan Interactions: This is a broad categorization of all fanzine content which is not devoted to the fictional universe of Star Trek or to its actors and creators; instead this category focuses on the fans themselves, and how they interacted with one another. Included are fan letters, editorials, ads, news bulletins, rumors, fanzine-specific activities (such as checklists and crossword puzzles), reflections on previous fanzine issues, fanzine reprint notes, editor brags, and fan conventions.
Findings:
With the methodology of the graphs explained, the analysis can begin. As previously stated, the goal is to examine how fanzine topic content changed over time and how content within fanzines shifted towards a prevalence of fandom-and-real-world-related content over content specifically focused on the fictional Star Trek universe.
With these two graphs, it is possible to see several trends in theme and content within the Spockanalia and T-Negative fanzines. From the Themes graph it is clear that despite the early dominance of fanzine sections devoted to fictional elements of Star Trek (Enterprise Crew and Aliens), eventually sections about the show’s actors, creators, and the fandom itself became more prevalent. It should also be noted that there is an overall upward trend in fan interactions until 1974, as over time more and more people sent letters to these fanzines to discuss theories, provide news and rumors, and also to give their opinions on the contents of previous fanzine issues. This data is also highly reflected in the fanzine content graph and corroborates the overarching theory that fanzines were the hub of pre-internet fandom.
The likely cause for these shifts is that many of the later fanzines (1970 on) were far shorter in length than earlier fanzines. These shorter fanzines could contain as few a three sections (for example, an editorial and review, and one fanfiction about the Enterprise); if two of those sections were categorized as Real Life & Fandom, it skews the data in that category’s favor, even if the single fanfiction in the hypothetical issue was forty pages long. As this is a graph showing frequency of topic and not length, it is understandable to see such skews.
The graphs also show a preference for fanzine sections that focus on all elements of Star Trek in general over fan interactions, until 1971 when fan interactions begin to gain dominance. There are several potential explanations for this change.
First, there are simply a finite number of topics. Eventually there is a critical study for every character, the alien races have been well analyzed, and the complete filmographies of the actors have arll been reviewed. While there could easily be infinite poems and songs dedicated to fan adoration of Spock, it is unlikely they would all see publication. Though fanfiction provides limitless potential for fresh content from and for fans, the fanzines themselves have limited space in which to showcase them. It is easier to publish numerous fan letters to advance discussion than it is to publish multiple lengthy fanfictions in a single issue.
The hand of the fanzine editors deserve note as well. Assuming these editors received more content than they could completely publish, it was ultimately their curatorial decisions as to what was and was not published. In earlier fanzines it was likely more gratifying and worthwhile to publish many fan poems, songs, fanfiction, and studies devoted to their beloved Star Trek than letters or other interactions.
This trend toward the prevalence of fan interactions in later years of the fanzines studied could also be indicative of the growing sophistication of the Star Trek fandom. Fans could have been more eager to interact with one another than to rehash topics covered in studies and poems. The year 1972 was also when the first Star Trek-only convention took place, three years after the cancellation of Star Trek. The convention was a massive success, and it is possible that fans, having experienced the joy of their fannish passions in close proximity during the convention, were eager to continue long-distance contact through fanzines.
The Themes graph also shows that, while early Star Trek fanzines (particularly Spockanalia) had a slight preference for sections focusing on alien races, ultimately content about the Enterprise crew gained dominance. Even when alien themes had higher frequency, it was only slightly. This is likely due to the timing of these early fanzines. Spockanalia #1, which has dominant alien themes, was published shortly before the premier of Star Trek Season 2, and Spockanalia #2 was published shortly after its completion. In both cases, fan speculation on all aspects of the show’s alien races, especially the Vulcans, was at a fever pitch. However, after the show’s completion and the mysteriousness of topics regarding the alien races dwindled, fans turned their love to the Enterprisecrew, which comprised the main cast of the show, rightly earning the bulk of their adoration. It should be noted that in creating these categories, sections about Spock specifically, were included in the category of the Enterprise crew. This is due to the importance Spock himself places on his role on the Enterpriseand his relationships with his fellow crew. Sections that included alien races but focus primarily on the crew of the Enterprisewere also included in this category.
Both the Themes and Content graphs present an interesting shift in data in the year 1974, when the growing trend of Real Life and fandom-focused content, as well as fan interactions, experienced rapid declines in frequency. It is important to note that from 1970 onward, this graph contains only information from T-Negative. In the 1974 September issue, Editor Ruth Berman notes that she had switched to offset printing rather than continue to mimeograph the zines, a time-consuming and expensive process. She also noted she was in her final year of earning her Ph.D. This provides reasonable explanation for both shorter fanzines, and more infrequent publication (including no T-Negative for the entire year of 1978). According to Joan Marie Verba, author of the fanzine chronicle Boldly Writing, from the years 1978 to 1985, all Star Trek fanzines declined, despite the enthusiasm garnered by the 1979 Star Trek Motion Picture release. (Boldly Writing, 42). Despite the decline in the amount of content, T-Negative had an impressive publication history a decade long, a rarity for fanzines.
Finally, on a more practical note, these graphs provide at least a small example of the stunning rate with which fans created content based on, around, and related to Star Trek. In thirteen years, two fanzines produced 732 unique pieces of content, without counting fan art (for reasons detailed below).
Limitations:
While these graphs and the dataset are an excellent example of the potential for data analysis of fanzines, this exercise does have several shortcomings, which bear detailing for transparency and education.
First, no fan artworks were included in the dataset. The primary reason for its exclusion is due to the dominance of fanart over all other forms of content in these fanzines. Art exists on most pages, and would frankly be an unnecessary section to categorize; furthermore, it would be another dataset that could impact the legibility of the graphs. Finally, the majority of this fanart is not labeled within fanzines, which can make it difficult to ascertain characters at times. This would further impact accurate categorization.
Second, as far as data analysis goes, examining only two fanzine series of the hundreds that were published is an incredibly small sample set, and does not even remotely begin to accurately express overall trends in the fandom.
Third, the methods of categorization are entirely author preference. While a serious effort was made to categorize these fanzines objectively, the author bias is impossible to deny. For example, a fanfiction about the Enterprisecrew and Vulcans could be categorized on the Themes graph either as “Enterprise Crew” or “Aliens,” and which category it is placed into is entirely subjective based on how the author perceives it.
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Finally, this study does not account for the size of the content involved, only the amount. A 2-line limerick, a five page short story, and a thirty-page fanfiction all counted the same. This offsets the data as later fanzine issues seemed to have less content. While the fanzines did have less content, they were generally close to similar length of earlier fanzines. Based on this data, earlier fanzine issues favored publishing a greater number of shorter content, whereas later fanzines favored fewer lengthy pieces.
Data analysis of fanzines for trends in fandom topics clearly shows great potential, these graphs are but an example of how the data could be used.
Credits:
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Spockanalia was created by Debra and Devra Langsam and Sherna Comerford. T-Negative was created by Ruth Berman. All contents within these fanzines belong to their respective owners.