Table Of ContentALSO:
COFFY
SPIDER-MAN
EMILY BOOTH
DOCTOR WHO
GHOSTBUSTERS
LEONARD NIMOY
ISSUE
411
AND MORE!
MOVIES TV GAMING AUDIO COMICS BOOKS
APRIL 2015
Printed in the UK
£4.50
CONTENTS
FEATURES
LEONARD NIMOY 8
We celebrate the legendary STAR TREK star, who
recently passed away.
NO STRINGS ATTACHED 14
A look ahead to AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON.
TWIN MAGIC 20
We introduce you to the new additions to the team
– QUICKSILVER and SCARLET WITCH.
NOW IS THE TIME 24
Get up to date with the latest comic book
shake-up - AVENGERS NOW!
EARTH’S MIGHTIEST ANIMATED HEROES
8
28
STARBURST remembers the celebrated small
screen version of the ULTIMATE HERO team!
PRODIGAL SON 32
It’s happened! SPIDER-MAN is heading to the MCU.
Read all you need to know, and how things may have
worked out if he’d have been there all along.
THE WEB OF THE SPIDER-MEN 36
Our ten most interesting incarnations of SPIDEY who
aren’t PETER PARKER.
SMALLER SCREEN... BIGGER ADVENTURES 38
Update yourself with all the goings-on in
MARVEL’s TV shows.
SPENDERS ASSEMBLE! 42
The top buys and the super-tat to blow your cash on.
APOCALYPSE WOW
14
52
We chat to the face of the HORROR CHANNEL
about the upcoming season.
REVENGE IS A DISH BEST SERVED HOT! 56
Legendary director JACK HILL regales us on the
BLAXPLOITATION classic COFFY.
SCARE US AGAIN
52
60
How HORROR keeps repeating, remaking
and rebooting…
INTERVIEW: JEREMY BERG 86
The director of extraterrestrial horror film THE
DEVICE talks UFO’s, alien abductions and the X-Files.
INTERVIEW: SIMON KURT UNSWORTH 92
We talk fire and brimstone with the author and
discuss his debut novel, THE DEVIL’S DETECTIVE.
INTERVIEW: PETER V. BRETT 94
The DEMON CYCLE author fills us in on the fourth
entry to the saga, THE SKULL THRONE.
INTERVIEW: SARAH LOTZ 98
We sit down with THE THREE author to chat about,
planes, evil kids and Jane Austen...
32
62
56
THINGS TO COME . . . . . . . 11
BLUE BOX SECTION
OUTSIDE THE BOX . . . . . . . . . 46
REVIEWS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
WATCHING DOCTOR WHO . . . . 48
MIND GAMES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
GIRL FROM PLANET X . . 54
HORROR OBSCURA . . 65
INDEPENDENTS DAY . . .69
CINEMA . . . . . . . . . . 74
60
DVD & BLU-RAY . . . . 78
AUDIO . . . . . . . . . . . 88
BOOKS . . . . . . . . . . 90
COMICS . . . . . . . . 100
ANIME . . . . . . . . . 108
GAMES . . . . . . . . . 110
MERCHANDISE . . .120
EVENT PROFILE . . . . . 122
126
TV ZONE . . . . . . . . 126
IT’S ONLY A MOVIE . . .129
Regulars
CONTENTS
www.starburstmagazine.com
ISSUE
411
april 2015
EDITORIAL
Editor
JORDAN “MIKE” ROYCE
every piece of hot flesh they
chucked up my lunch, so I’m
can get their teeth/gums into
you can provide all the
24/7, then where does it all
explanations without any such
FEED BACK hoping
go?! In England if ever walking
horrible language.
around fields it seems you
Max, via EMail
You can write to StarburSt via snail mail:
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Leonard
nimoy
by Livvy Boote
9
“The miracle is this: the more we
share the more we have.”
-Leonard Nimoy, 1931-2015 A Lifetime of
Love: Poems on the Passages of Life.
In the time that Leonard Nimoy spent with
us, he shared an awful lot.
Leonard decided to become an actor,
despite his father’s scepticism, because
he wanted to make a difference to society.
“When I chose to be an actor, it was not
because I wanted to be famous, it was
because I wanted to make a contribution.”
And weren’t his contributions magnificent?
For most of us, his most memorable
role was as Mr Spock in Star Trek: The
Original Series.
Leonard struggled with the role at first.
Having been trained to use acting as a form
of emotional expression, Spock brought
challenges that few actors confront. How
do you portray and develop a character
who doesn’t emote? How can you make an
audience connect to a man who is so shut
off from emotion?
For Star Trek fans, who can become so
immersed within its universe, it’s hard to
imagine the scepticism and anxiety Leonard
would feel at the premise of such a character
as Spock. Leonard took on the role, thankful
for some steady work after 15 years of
playing minor parts - but the prospect of
dodgy pointy ears and plucked eyebrows
naturally made him concerned that it would
turn his career into what he called a “bad
joke”. The role frightened him. But, in his own
words, in an interview with Pharrell Williams:
“If it scares you, it’s coming from a place that
might have a creative button”. So he took the
chance; and if he hadn’t, today’s sci-fi world
would look very different.
Despite his initial mixed feelings,
Leonard’s perseverance and eventual
affection towards the character has helped
to make Spock one of the most significant
fictional characters of the past 50 years.
His portrayal of the stoic yet loveable
half-Vulcan half-Human brought a
dimension to the show that was, to use
Spock’s favourite expression, “…fascinating”.
Leonard’s involvement with the character
pushed him to approach Gene Roddenberry
with concepts which became essential to
Spock’s character; the idea of a culture
which communicates with their hands,
producing the legendary Vulcan salute,
inspired by his Jewish upbringing and the
images of Hebrew prayers he witnessed
as a child in the synagogue. His dedication
to Spock’s development created the
iconic eyebrow raises, the looks of quiet
judgement, and alongside the oh-so-very
different William Shatner and DeForest
Kelley, it all brought a sort of magic to the
show - without which Star Trek would surely
have never received the praise it has earned
today, or inspired as many people. He was,
as Roddenberry said, “The conscience of
Star Trek.”
But of course, Leonard’s contributions
did not end here. His influence could be
said to have started at boyhood; at 13, he
discovered the marvels of photography
and developed film in his family bathroom.
The magic of developing photos as a child in his own home inspired Leonard to learn
photography as an art later in his life.
This began with his fascination with an
Ancient Greek fable; one of human beings
who were born in pairs, then torn apart
and separated through the jealousy of the
Gods, spending the rest of their lives trying
to fulfil the inexplicable feeling of loss they
had been left with.
With this in mind, Leonard strove to
capture the human condition through
photography, to immortalise the depth
of humanity’s beauty, strength, emotions
and diversity. His ‘Secret Selves’ project
shows the layers of a person’s character
that they hide behind their surface; the
‘Shekhina’ photo-shoot creates a subversive
combination between religion and sexuality;
his ‘Full Body Project’ challenges society’s
perception of body image. Leonard’s role
in Star Trek, then, was not the only thing
10
to draw him towards the controversial and
ground-breaking.
In his interview with Pharrell Williams in
2014, he shared his opinion on the artistic
life. “I came across, eventually, a piece of
writing that expresses the artistic condition,
I think, brilliantly. It says Edward Booth, the
actor, heard the solemn whisper of the god
of all arts. He said: ‘I shall give you hunger,
and pain, and sleepless nights; also beauty,
and satisfaction known to few, and glimpses
of the heavenly life. None of these shall you
have continually, and of their coming and
going, you shall not be foretold.’ And that to
me sums up the life of a creative person.”
After spending years waiting for his big
break, and desperately hoping that Spock
would be it, even with his funny prosthetic
ears and purple eye shadow - it’s not hard to
imagine the pain and sleepless nights taking
up much of his artistic career. But in turn
the role also brought something beautiful
- a gateway into photography, directing,
a (bizarrely wonderful!) music career, an
opportunity to make lifelong friends. And a
character who would stay in the hearts and
memories of generations of people.
For sci-fi fans, Spock is not just one of
the most prominent characters within the
sci-fi world; he was also a role model, a
character almost more relatable, somehow
more human than anyone else on the show.
Leonard helped make Spock someone who
struggled with accepting who he was, a
man of two worlds who faced prejudice
wherever he went.
And so when, in 1968, a young mixedrace girl wrote to the magazine Fave, asking
Mr Spock how she could be happy in a
society where she didn’t feel she belonged,
Leonard responded with a heart-felt
response that resonates today.
“Spock learned he could save himself
from letting prejudice get him down. He
could do this by really understanding himself
1931 - 2015
and knowing his own value as a person. He
found he was equal to anyone who might try
to put him down - equal in his own way.”
He continues to say, “Spock decided
he would live up to his personal value and
uniqueness. He’d do whatever made him
feel best about himself. He decided to
listen to the little voice inside him and not
to the people around him.” Leonard has
helped make Spock more important, more
inspirational than almost any other fictional
character for so many people.
In the 83 years that Leonard Nimoy
lived, he contributed in many ways; he
directed Star Trek IV; he produced evocative,
thought-provoking art and poetry; he fought
for equality, and the equal pay of his female
co-worker and friend Nichelle Nichols while
filming Star Trek. He overcame alcoholism
and quit smoking, and helped others through
the same difficulties; and he created a
character who influenced millions of people
to be yourself, to be brave, to boldly go where
no one has gone before.
It might seem fitting to round this off
with the immortal phrase ‘Live Long and
Prosper’ - after all, it’s one he used so often
to sign out with his fans. But after everything
Leonard has done to inspire so many of us,
the following few lines of his own poetry
seem to me to be a perfect reflection of our
love and appreciation for his life. Goodbye,
and thank you, Mister Spock.
“Celebrate the dreams and hopes
Which have filled the souls of
All decent men and women.
We shall lift our glasses and toast
With tears of joy.”
-Leonard Nimoy, 1931-2015 A Lifetime of
Love: Poems on the Passages of Life.
