Star Trek Hunk or Stealth Loon?

Letter to the Editor: Here's a little-known fact about the recent release of Star Trek: First Contact I just noticed - to my disgust.

Neal McDonaugh, the actor who plays "Lt. Hawk," was also the actor who played the role of "Neal Henderson" in the 4-hour miniseries Cruel Doubt, aired by the NBC network in May 1992. This was a dramatization of the real-life murder of Lieth von Stein of Washington, North Carolina by his step-son Chris Pritchard, who enlisted two friends (Henderson and James "Moog" Upchurch) to do the actual deed in 1988.

The miniseries was peppered with scurrilous insinuations that the three young men were inspired to commit the murder by the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game. In a squadroom scene, police "investigate" the first edition Player's Handbook, uttering sinister quotes from it - which of course do not exist in the real book. There is also a camera close-up of a piece of artwork visibly pasted into the pages of the real book, portraying an orc in banded mail with a dagger and backpack, to try and connect the game to the presence of a knife and backpack found at the scene of the crime.

There have only been two instances of a television network falsely portraying a best-selling book in a non-fiction program - and the Player's Handbook was the target in both cases. (the other one was the CBS movie Honor Thy Mother of 1992, dramatizing the identical murder.)

McDonaugh portrayed Henderson sharing a dingy motel room with James Upchurch, plastered with AD&D posters and other assorted games such as Heroquest. When the police break in and interrogate the nervous Henderson, he is seen sweating and fiddling with assorted polyhedral dice, until the "heroic" cop John Crone knocks the dice out of his hand. As the story unfolds, Henderson appears to have been the "wheel man" for the murder, portrayed as being naively controlled by Upchurch the "dungeon master."

It's ironic that an actor who helped smear an imaginative hobby for millions of viewers ending up landing a role in one of the most enduring and imaginative series ever presented on large and small screen. Since there is some overlap between Star Trek fans and RPG players, no doubt McDonaugh will get a cool reception at Star Trek conventions.

The editors wish to point out that McDonaugh's First Contact character, the square-jawed Lt Hawk, ended up assimilated by the Borg and hurled into the inky blackness of space. A fitting symbolic punishment for the actor who played him? You be the judge.

Page XX

Dear Shadis,

You guys put out absolutely the best gaming magazine. My only complaint is in relation to proofreading. It pains me greatly to see articles of obvious quality suffer the degradation of poor proofreading (or lack of any at all.)

A prime example is the Hunters Inc. article in issue #32. Great article. Hang the proofreader.

Thanx fur yuor impoot. Wee 'll tyr anddo bettter neckst tyme.