Criticism: Official UK Magazine

[B5JMS Poster]

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From: sgwm <sgwm at maitreya.demon.co.uk>
Date: 23 Nov 1997 19:34:08 -0500
Lines: 101

Having been thoroughly unimpressed, to say the least, with the first
three issues of the Official UK Babylon 5 Magazine, I am delighted to
report that issue four is a vast improvement on its predecessors in a
number of ways. Praise to John Freeman and his staff. The magazine may
have been late, but if this increase in quality is the cause then I'd
rather it was late every month.

To understand the improvements, previous criticisms of the Magazine
have been that the articles on set reports and director interviews
have already been done and done better in other magazines already,
that many "articles" seemed to be adverts for merchandise, that the
first two issues contained the comic strip recycled from #11 of DC's
run of B5 comics, that nothing new was revealed to fans even though
the magazine had backstage access that no others had. My main
criticism to date had been that issue 2 promised a "full report in
issue 3" on the Claudia Christian (CC) affair. Issue 3 delivered, what
was IMO and those of others, a biased one-sided account which did not
quote or address any of CC's comments made on the net - when we were
promised in issue 1 that no issue would be swept under the carpet.

Thankfully, many of the negative criticisms directed at the magazine
are now being dispelled. It is particularly gratifying to know that
the Editor, John Freeman, with whom I had talked regarding my
concerns, is open to ideas, is willing to listen and act on concerns,
has responded to ideas and most of all has had the integrity to
re-approach the CC affair in an open, honest and forthright manner. I
have been scathing in my criticism before, because I felt it was
wholly justified. Likewise, it is only fair now to give credit now to
John and his team for making the efforts they obviously have made to
improve the magazine to what is now a good standard. This is to be
commended in the highest terms and my praise for them is freely given.

New articles that are particularly noteworthy are  as follows :

1) An article on the effects team at Netter Digital with the promise
of a further more detailed interview to come. It was particularly
interesting to see how the effects were constructed and rendered from
the models.

2) An article on the beautiful virtual sets created by Tim Earles -
including an interview and his original artwork and designs for the
sets. 

3) A interesting fifth season set report.

4) An interview with CC, originally conducted prior to her departure,
was appended with a more recent dialogue with her opinions stated for
the record.

5) The comic, featuring the return of Babylon 4, is getting quite
interesting.

Overall the magazine had more of interest to fans, covered areas no
other magazine has so far covered, and basically showed it had the
guts to bite the bullet on the CC issue and not sweep over it with
smooth PR doubletalk - a tactic employed by every other official
magazine I have ever read. 

In short: buy it!


Merchandise Watch:

This is a monthly guide showing improvements and downturns in quality
and value of the magazine. It is best viewed in a non-proportional or
non true-type font (try using courier if having difficulty).


      Total [--------------- Page Counts ---------------]
Issue Pages Articles  Comic    Ads   Merch  Comps  Edit'l Score (/10)

  1     66   38       10      6      8      2      2           2
  2     66   34(-4)   13(+3)  9(+3)  6(-2)  1(-1)  2(nc)       3
  3     66   38(+4)   12(-1)  8(-1)  2(-4)  1(nc)  4(+2)       4
  4     66   35(-3)   14(+2)  6(-2)  4(+2)  1(nc)  2(nc)       7 


Key:

Issue 	 : Issue number of magazine
Articles : Number of pages taken by genuine articles
Comic 	 : Number of pages taken by the comic
Ads 	 : Number of pages taken by adverts
Merch  	 : Number of pages taken by merchandising
           articles\adverts\reviews
Comps 	 : Number of pages taken by competitions
Edit'l   : Number of pages taken by editorials and Joe's column
Score 	 : A personal rating of the issue on content, quality 
	   and value scored out of ten.

The figures in brackets represent the change in number of pages
compared with the previous issue. nc represents no change.



--
Fear not your enemies, for they can only kill you; fear not
your friends because they can only betray you. Fear only the 
indifferent, who permit the killers and betrayers to walk
safely on the Earth.
                                         Edward Yashinsky

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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 26 Nov 1997 00:04:56 -0500
Lines: 31

>Thankfully, many of the negative criticisms directed at the magazine
>are now being dispelled. It is particularly gratifying to know that
>the Editor, John Freeman, with whom I had talked regarding my
>concerns, is open to ideas, is willing to listen and act on concerns,
>has responded to ideas and most of all has had the integrity to
>re-approach the CC affair in an open, honest and forthright manner. I
>have been scathing in my criticism before, because I felt it was
>wholly justified. Likewise, it is only fair now to give credit now to
>John and his team for making the efforts they obviously have made to
>improve the magazine to what is now a good standard.

At risk of being perceived as doing an "I told you so," let me point out just
one thing.

The interview with CC that you cite as being fair and just and balanced *WAS
ALREADY IN HAND AND TYPESET AND APPROVED BY ME PERSONALLY* when the previous
issue appeared...before then, actually, because the production process runs
about 7-8 weeks for articles, though news features tend to be more timely.  

So basically John and I put up with a great deal of accusations and mudslinging
and invective on not being fair when there was already a very fair ("too fair"
some have grumbled) piece in and slated to appear in the very next issue.  The
brief piece in 3 was just a last minute addition to the whole thing, because it
couldn't go uncommented upon for that long to wait until issue 4.

My point being...we do try and do the right thing.  We ask that you trust us to
continue doing so, and let us have the benefit of the doubt until shown
otherwise.


 jms
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