Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 5, 1993 TAG: 9303050148
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WARREN EPSTEIN KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. LENGTH: Medium
FAN CLUB BOLDLY TREKS TO THE STARS
Dan Madsen didn't fit in with his high school's social set.He was 4 feet 2 inches tall. He didn't like sports. None of the cool kids hung out with him.
But before he graduated he found acceptance in a different place. Actually, it wasn't just a different place, it also was a different time - the 23rd century, aboard a space ship that trekked among the stars.
He became a loyal fan of "Star Trek," and when he entered the "real world" he brought his Trek obsession with him. Madsen, 31, is now the president of the universe's only official "Star Trek" fan club, based in Aurora, Colo.
Heading a fan club may not sound like the achievement of the millennium, but Madsen's organization is light years beyond the average fan club. Thanks to its founder's business sense and the popularity of "Star Trek," it has grown from a hobby to a $1.5 million company.
Madsen and his 10 full-time staffers produce Star Trek - The Official Fan Club magazine. They forward fan mail to Trek stars. They collect $11.95 annual dues from each of more than 50,000 members worldwide. And they sell enough Trek memorabilia to decorate a star base - Klingon Birds of Prey models, plastic phasers, Enterprise clocks, communicator pins, mugs covered with Trek-character images that "beam off" when the mug is full.
They also produce Sci-Fi Channel magazine, a guide to the new cable channel, and Lucasfilm Fan Club magazine, a guide to George Lucas' "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" films. (They produced Back to the Future Fan Club magazine from 1986 to 1990, when the movie series ended.)
While science fiction has sparked readers' imaginations since Jules Verne took them to the stars and H.G. Wells took them to distant tomorrows, a new wave of futuristic TV shows has blasted science fiction into warp drive.
"Star Trek: The Next Generation," introduced in 1987, attracts about 10 million viewers each week, more than have watched any other hourlong independent drama series in history.
It was joined in the past few months by "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," "Space Rangers," "Time Trax," and the Sci-Fi Channel on cable.
Although "Space Rangers" was placed on hiatus Jan. 27, after only four weeks of airing, and some of the others face uncertain futures, Madsen believes the newest in the "Star Trek" family is going to make it big.
"The response we've gotten to `Deep Space' has been overwhelmingly positive," Madsen says. "I can just remember the outrage when `Next Generation' came out: `You're making a `Star Trek' without Kirk and Spock?!' But they really proved it can be done. This time around, fans seem much more accepting."
Madsen was only 4 when the original "Star Trek" premiered, but he recalls how, while watching reruns when he was a young teen-ager, a particular episode drew him into the world of star ships and phasers.
Madsen became a loyal fan, and although Trek's first journey onto the big screen ("Star Trek: The Motion Picture," 1979) was a critical flop, it inspired Madsen to produce a bi-monthly Xeroxed newsletter, "Star Trek - The Motion Picture" Fan Club, filled with stories about cast members and his insights into the Trek phenomenon.
He started with 15 members, each paying $15 a year.
As the mailing list grew to include hundreds of trekkers, Madsen left his job at a comic book store for one at a print shop, where he learned about typesetting, page makeup and magazine layout, and exchanged most of his pay for the shop's services.
Over the next four years, he spent about $30,000 to expand the newsletter and hire assistants.
In 1983, the newsletter caught the attention of Paramount executives, who chastised him for publishing it without their permission, and then offered it "official" status.
"They said I had just the amount of fanaticism and professionalism they were looking for," he says.
Practically overnight, the newsletter was transformed into a slick magazine. Madsen was granted a license to sell Trek memorabilia. Celebrities returned his phone calls.
Over the years, in fact, he and assistant John Davis have interviewed every major Trek star, writer and director. The show's creator, Gene Roddenberry, became their close friend and remained so until his death in 1991.
There are more than 400 Trek clubs nationwide, but Madsen's is by far the biggest, and the only one with Paramount's seal of approval.
"None of them can compete with us now," Madsen says. "We're on an entirely different plane." `Next Generation' has really expanded `Star Trek' fans to include all kinds of people. It's no longer just the little nerd living in the basement of his parents' house."
To beam into the club, send a check or money order of $11.95 to the following coordinates: Star Trek, P.O. Box 111000, Aurora, Colo. 80042.