From Fanlore’s page: “TPTB Involvement With Fandom:”

“Fandoms had different levels of involvement with The Powers That Be, the creators of their source texts. This involvement varied in intensity, took on several forms, and had differing end results……

Gene Roddenberry wrote: “…We were particularly amazed when thousands, then tens of thousands of people began creating their own personal Star Trek adventures. Stories, and paintings, and sculptures, and cookbooks. And songs, and poems, and fashions. And more. The list is still growing. It took some time for us to fully understand and appreciate what these people were saying. Eventually we realized that there is no more profound way in which people could express what Star Trek has meant to them than by creating their own very personal Star Trek things. Because I am a writer, it was their Star Trek stories that especially gratified me. I have seen these writings in dog-eared notebooks of fans who didn’t look old enough to spell "cat.” I have seen them in meticulously produced fanzines, complete with excellent artwork. Some of it has even been done by professional writers, and much of it has come from those clearly on their way to becoming professional writers. Best of all, all of it was plainly done with love.” 

Photo credits: Top:  Gene Roddenberry reading the zine Galileo 7 at FunCon 1968, photo by Kathy Bushman. Source: Fanlore

Bottom:  an issue of the 1968 ST-Phile, signed by Gene Roddenberry,Leonard Nimoy, and William Shatner, is an early example of TPTB’s knowledge of a zine fandom. Source: Fanlore.

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