Prydonians of Prynceton Fanzine Collection

Collection

Identifier: MsC0942

Staff Only
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Scope and Contents

This collection contains zines from a wide range of media fandoms. Single fandom zines are listed in the series FANDOM, MULTIFANDOM AND CROSSOVER zines are listed by title in their own series, and a small number of zines that fit into neither category are listed in VARIOUS.

The three fandoms which make up much of the collection are Blake's 7 [boxes 2-38], Doctor Who [boxes 39-54], and Star Trek: The Original Series [boxes 66-95].

Dates

Creation: 1971-2000

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research. This collection is housed at an offsite location. Please allow two-three days for retrieval.

Conditions Governing Use

Biographical / Historical

"[B]ack in 1984 we started as a Doctor Who fan club. We were all living between Trenton and New Brunswick, NJ, and had our meetings at someone's home in Princeton. New Jersey Network had just aired the episode 'The Deadly Assassin' (like - there's some other kind of non-deadly assassin? But I digress...) in which the Doctor (played by Tom Baker) returned to his home planet of Gallifrey to solve a mystery and prevent a crime. We learn in this episode that the Doctor's people, the Time Lords, belong to various different 'chapters' (presumably based on the colleges they attended; sort of a satire of the English "old boy network"). The Doctor is a member of the Prydonian Chapter, described as both the most powerful and the most devious of all the chapters. Since the Doctor ran away from Gallifrey and renounced his position in Time Lord society, one Gallifreyan official refers to him as 'a Prydonian renegade.' Hmmm, sounds like a good title for a publication...!

"Anyway, since we were strictly a Doctor Who fan club at the time, we thought "Prydonians of Prynceton" was a great name for the club. The Prydonians are the elite of the Time Lords, and there was that cute visual pun in spelling 'Princeton' with a 'y'. We named our monthly newsletter The Prydonian Renegade.

"In 1986, we began to cover Blakes 7 as well as Doctor Who. In 1987, when Star Trek: The Next Generation came on the air, we gradually began to include all TV and movie science fiction. Plus, we quickly started attracting members from outside the Trenton-New Brunswick area. So maybe we should have changed our name. BUT - we incorporated as 'Prydonians of Prynceton' in 1986. And what the heck, we started as a Doctor Who club and we're still a Doctor Who club. We're just not only a Doctor Who club anymore! So - the name sticks. Deal with it.

"And now you know."

Taken from The Prydonians of Prynceton website, 2016 July. Please refer to External Documents to visit the website.