NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

Not being a fan of Star Trek I approached this with some trepidation, but the list of contributors boded well and there are some excellent poems herein. Mandy Coe sets the agenda in BRED TO BOLDLY GO

	no further than Butlins, the future
	was not an option for us.
	...

	Menstrual cramps, Benny Hil,
	Nimble-girls with tape-measure belts
	-the distant rumble of feminism had not yet
	cast doubts on our gentle mutilations:
	bleach, mascara, crippling high heels.
	So my sister and I forgave Star Trek
	the tin-foil bikinis, the obligatory mushy kiss.

	After an episode with Uhura
	displaying her permanent earring,
	short skirt, modelling the the colour black,
	saying: 'Hailing frequencies still open, sir'
	and then fading into the background
	I went to a club in Reading.

	Willy's one immutable dream
	is to play doctor with Bev Crusher
	or, in fact, with any, at least
	partial sentient, female being
	extant in the universe. But, it seems
	there are few who are impressed
	by him or his extensive knowledge
	of any and all things Star Trekkular.

	...

	... Willy considers himself a trekker,

	never to be confused with a trekkie. Trekkies,
	says Willy, urgently need to get a life.

	Infinite Diversity: each to his own
	I know America's sunny side up
	by nature, and good luck the them, I say,
	but I'm a Celt: I can't handle hope.

	Spock, you grim old Vulcan
	I'm going to rip that skin-tight
	suit right off, peel you to the bone.
	I'll make you raise more than an eyebrow
	when I dress you in more homely gear:
	a tartan shirt perhaps and baggy
	denims tucked into gumboots.

The work in the haiku section fails to impress either as haiku or poems.

The best section is probably BEYOND THE FINAL FRONTIER, episodes as yet unwritten. Here the poets' imaginations are not so limited by the subject matter. Thus Ian McMillan's THE LOST BARNSLEY EPISODE OF WHICH ONLY FRAGMENTS REMAIN

	In which Captain Kirk is seen, briefly,
	before a silhouetted pithead

	and Mr. Spock looks quizzical
	beside a line of police vans.

The book is printed on black paper with stars in the background and the poems in white type. All very appropriate and as I boldly go I'll leave you with this stanza from U.A. Fanthorpe's ALIEN IN RESIDENCE

	It spoke our tongue. Shook hands with the Captain
	(A social gaffe) and kissed Uhura (indelicate).
	Produced documentation. Spoke of Arts,
	And a Council (not known to our Federation),
	Uttered a pronounced anti-gaviton layer.
	Produced books (how did Galactic customs let them through?)
	Signed them; tried to sell them.