THE TRUTH IS IN HERE
After 1,995 years of waiting, the world finally lays its hungry eyes on SFX…
The timing of SFX’s launch was hardly ideal. An anxious editorial team faced a momentous decision: Tank Girl or Street Fighter for the cover? Inside the first issue a lead news story bemoaned the lack of British TV sci- fi – we were so desperate we convinced ourselves Bugs was sci- fi enough to cover – and we were in the midst of the first great Doctor Who drought ( though we do mention Paul McGann…). But this formative era of the magazine was about to stumble onto its first great gold mine: The X- Files.
A huge close- up of Mulder stared out of issue four and SFX went from borderline profit to bona fide success. By issue 19 the X- phenomena was so huge that SFX could publish an issue in a plain black plastic bag with nothing on it other than our logo, the X- Files logo and the words “The Truth Is In Here”. It sold out.
Publishing wisdom suggested that big blockbuster movies would be the meat and potatoes for the magazine, but after blockbuster turkeys like Judge Dredd and Batman Forever, SFX swung behind TV instead. A new show called Babylon 5 was making waves: that made the cover. Deep Space Nine was recovering from a dodgy start: that made the cover too. Oddly, Voyager, the much- hyped new Trek show that graced the first- ever Couch Potato feature, never made the cover until it cast a sexy Borg later on.
Doctor Who returned – US style, with Paul McGann in a dodgy wig. It was great for sales, but sadly US audiences were unimpressed and no series materialised.