Universal Translator

Universal Translator is a Star Trek: TOS adzine - a non-fiction zine of fanzine listings, reviews, and con announcements. It ran seven years and had thirty-two issues. As of Issue #13, it had 250 subscribers. 
It was replaced in 1987 by the adzine Communications Console. 
From the publisher's ad: "[Universal Translator] is a quarterly newsletter listing available, proposed, and international zines for all media fandoms in a convenient, 'see-at-a-glance' format. Also includes reviews, con info, and other items of interest to fandom." from Trek Tales 
From Boldly Writing: "The general format included fanzine listings, announcements, reviews, and a list of conventions. Press publications were listed separately, showing that a significant number of fanzine editors had organized their productions into small presses by that time. Universal Translator had its own in-house reviewer, T'Yenta. T'Yenta announced that she got her pen name from a character in a Star Trek story written by Mindy Glazer, but that she was not Mindy herself."
==Issues==
==Nearly the Winner of a Hugo Award==
In 2017, Linda Deneroff spoke about this zine nearly winning a Hugo Award:
==A Small Letters Section==
From Boldly Writing: 
==Labeling Gen and Slash==
In the third issue of "Universal Translator" (May-June, 1980), some zine ads used the term K/S in a way that suggested zine buyers knew that the term specifically meant sexual relationship stories. However, the overall usage is somewhat inconsistent. The zine Companion #1 was advertised as "a sexually explicit K/S zine." The zine Mirrors of Mind and Flesh was advertised as "a K/S zine featuring both Kirk and Spock and their mirror counterparts." The zine Nightvisions was advertised as "a K/S love story ... there is explicit sexual content." The ad for the zine Nome #2 stated it "contains K/S and other adult material." The Pon Farr Press ad stated that "All issues of NAKED TIMES are devoted to the K/S relationship, and CONTAIN SEXUALLY EXPLICIT MATERIAL." The zine Galactic Discourse #3 was described as "a K/S/Mc character-oriented friendship zine" The zine Sol Plus #6/7 was advertised as "including a Kirk/Spock story with a brief non-graphic sexual scene." In that issue, a review of Contact 5/6 (written by the editor of Sol Plus) characterized Contact as a "GP-rated (Rating for violence, not sex), K/S hurt/comfort zine." A review of Nome #2 stated that "some of the material quite definitely favors the K/S premise, other stories just as definitely don't." The Starsky/Hutch zines were called either S&H or Starsky & Hutch, and there were no mentions of Starsky/Hutch or S/H. 
In the eighth issue of "Universal Translator" (March-April 1981), the review of Companion #2 didn't use the term K/S and includes: "I recommend this -- only for those 'relationship' fans who can accept the Kirk/Spock relationship on any and all possible levels." In this issue, the zine ads consistently used K/S for sexual relationship zines and Kirk/Spock for friendship zines. Contact is called "the original zine based on the Kirk/Spock relationship," Final Frontier "a sexually explicit K/S zine," The Price and The Prize "a K/S adult fanzine," Sun & Shadow "a Kirk/Spock relationship zine," Duet "a K/S zine with a number of stories written within the framework of an existing relationship," and Nocturne "a new K/S zine ... includes same-sex relationships." The Out of Bounds ad didn't mention same-sex or sexually explicit content but described it simply as "a new K/S adult zine."
By 1984, both the ads and reviews, at least in "Universal Translator," used the terms K/S and Kirk/Spock consistently.
In the 1986 (January/Feburary) issue, Universal Translator (like Datazine had done earlier), started to separate Star Trek zines into gen and K/S.
This was a major step in a change in understanding of the genre and the terminology of the word "slash."
From #29 (January/February 1986) : 
From #30 (April/June 1986), the editor adds: 
==References==
 
Category:Star Trek TOS Non-fiction Zines
Category:Resource Zines
Category:1980 Zines
Category:1980s Zines