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A Fan’s Guide to the Best Star Trek Fan Films

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When it comes to Do-It-Yourself projects, the ultimate expression has to be  fan films . The amount of work required to pull off a fan film, from the construction of sets and costumes, to the writing, to the lighting, the camerawork, the acting, the direction, the sound design, the scoring… it’s a fabulously massive undertaking that requires an insane range of skills to even comprehend, let alone pull off with flare.

Star Trek  has long encouraged a range of intrepid explorers in the field, however. Fans from all backgrounds and walks of life have come together over the decades to share their love of the magic underlying this incredible setting, trying to share what they themselves love most about Roddenberry’s incredible vision for a socialist future where all people work for the betterment of society as a whole, and their own self-growth, rather than the accumulation of profit.

So, sit back and  engage  your senses as you travel through time and space on some kind of star “trek” in  a bold exploration of the imagination and the power of art.

1 – Digital Ghost (2000)

Digital Ghost is a German-made  Star Trek  fan-film set within the  Star Trek: Generations  timeline. The story involves two Enterprise-E crewmembers who are sent on a mission to test Starfleet’s new fully-autonomous starship design, and who soon discover that all may not be as it seems.

There aren’t magnificent sets in this one, but the CGI is surprisingly good, especially when you remember that this was made back in 2000. But, what stands out for me most with this film, is how well-acted it is. The CGI makes it all come alive, and there are some very clever moments in there, but what makes it engaging to watch is the interactions between the two visiting crewmembers and the experimental ship’s computer.

2 – Star Trek: Of Gods and Men (2007-2008)

There can absolutely be no better example of an  incredible   Star Trek  fan-film experience than one  which uses actual members of the original series cast! . Walter Keong and Nichelle Nichols star in this superb 3-part drama (finally combined into one feature film), and directed by  Tim Russ  (Tuvok in  Voyager ).

The story, the acting, the sets, and the CGI all positively glow in this one. The care, dedication, fun, and  love  of  Star Trek  is so plainly visible in every aspect of this film that it easily outshines most of the modern  Trek  material created by big studios.

3 – Star Trek: Axanar (2014)

Here we come to the biggest name on this list, because it was a landmark film in the evil of corporate Hollywood and the further eroding of artistic power in the world.  Axanar  was an incredible production, providing a powerhouse script, production value far beyond anything seen before, and a huge cast of veteran  Star Trek  actors (Richard Hatch, J. G. Hertzler, Kate Vernon, Gary Graham, Michael Hogan, and Tony Todd).

The film is a 22-minute documentary-style experience recounting the events of the Battle of Axanar, which was briefly mentioned in the original  Star Trek  series episode Whom Gods Destroy, and depicted in  Axanar  as a decisive military engagement between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire.

The incredible feature film that had been planned for release was killed by the subsequent CBS/Paramount lawsuit, but this gem remains behind.

The film was so good, so popular, and raised such a huge budget on Kickstarter, that CBS and Paramount sued its creators in an attempt to destroy fans’ ability to produce similar work ever again. Sadly, they succeeded.

The resultant lawsuit ended with CBS/Paramount drawing up a restrictive list of rules that all future fan films would need to follow: “be no more than 15 minutes long and have no stories longer than two installments (for a total of 30 minutes); play on YouTube without commercials; and all participants are required to be amateurs who have never worked on Star Trek or another licensee of CBS or Paramount Pictures.”

This effectively killed off all  Star Trek  fan projects, forcing other planned productions like  Star Trek: Renegades  to quite literally go renegade and remove all references to  Star Trek  from their production.

It’s a truly sad example of how dismally copyright laws function in the world today, offering little protection to real creators while allowing mega-corps to demand ever-greater control over all the artistic projects that make it into the public eye.

4 – Star Trek: Renegades (2015)

Something is folding time and space around entire planets, cutting them off from the galaxy. Admiral Pavel Checkov (played by Walter Koenig) enlists the aid of Section 31 chief Tuvok (played by Tim Russ) in an effort to enlist an extra-Starfleet operation to discover the cause, a crew of misfits, even criminals, who can do what Starfleet can not.

Directed by Tim Russ, this was intended as a pilot episode for a new  Star Trek  series. When the pilot was rejected, a series was planned, but was later scrapped due to the disastrous move by CBS/Paramount to restrict the creative ability of fan productions. Renegades would then go on to live as its own science fiction production, removing all references to Star Trek to escape studio censorship.

A Fan’s Guide to the Top Science Fiction TV Series From one fan to another: the best sci-fi shows of all time.

5 – Star Trek: Horizon (2016)

In a time prior to the United Federation of Planets, a young coalition of worlds led by Earth battle the Romulan Star Empire for their very survival.

This was another masterful little fan production, falling someplace between grand productions like  Axanar  and  Of Gods and Men , and more amateur productions, and offering a first-class homage to the  Star Trek  universe.

While the planned sequel was annulled by CBS/Paramount due to their ridiculous feud with the  Axanar  production, we at least have the full feature film original to enjoy.

6 – Chance Encounter – A Star Trek Fan Film

A gentle and heart-warming science fiction love story, with all original characters, set within the Star Trek universe.

The Most Underrated Science Fiction Films of the 1970s 1970s scifi films included some of the greatest ever made, but also some unsung gems.

Quite possibly the sweetest little fan film in existence, the team behind this film would later go on to create  The Holy Core,  another  Star Trek  fan film that went even farther in the creation of something superb.

I absolutely love the writing of this one, as well as the acting. The special effects aren’t as sharp and polished as other productions, but I found that this doesn’t really matter much given how superb the rest of it is, and how much range of special effects through the many decades of  Trek  there is anyway!

I spent the entire film immersed, enjoying it as much as I’ve ever enjoyed another  Star Trek  experience, and I think you will as well.

7 – What We Left Behind (2019)

Ira Steven Behr announced a new  Deep Space Nine  project in 2017, eighteen years after the series finale,  What You Leave Behind , aired. Bearing the same title, this would be an immersive documentary journey into the creation of, and life of, the last great  Star Trek  series to air on TV.

The documentary is wonderfully potent, drawing back the cats and crew for an in-depth and sometimes harrowing discussion of the show’s making, with stars Alexander Siddig, Avery Brooks, Colm Meaney, Michael Dorn, Nana Visitor, Rene Auberjonois, and Terry Farrell all appearing to speak about their experience making the show.

DS9  was really transformational, managing to bridge all that had come before, with a deeper level of internal exploration than had been seen in Star Trek. Of course, there were downsides as well.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine  is a premise completely ripped off of J. Michael Straczynski’s  Babylon 5  series, which he had pitched unsuccessfully to Paramount some time before DS9 was put into production. Everything from the premise, to even at least one character’s name, was pulled from B5 without even a hint of shame.

And yet, however terrible that sin is, the seed of Straczynski’s initial vision, and the hard work of the amazing cast and crew of DS9, ended up providing  Star Trek  with its own brilliant jewel, something that offered a new type of show that kicks harder than previous iterations while maintaining the optimism, pacing, and theatric reverence that all embodies true  Trek .

8 – The Holy Core – A Star Trek Fan Production (2019)

A thoughtful and exciting adventure set in the TNG era of the “Star Trek” universe, featuring all original characters. The crew of a Federation starship assist the deeply religious Vitans to restore their polluted atmosphere after centuries of war. Events soon take an unexpected turn, however, and the crew must rely on their courage and principles to prevent disaster…

I love this one for the use of real sets, the style, the lighting… it’s a love-letter to everything great about TNG, and manages to be both exciting and reflective in its story and construction. Proof that, while Paramount/CBS gutted fans’ ability to create work of  Axanar  level production value, fans will continue to showcase their passion for the source material.

Seriously though,  this production uses full sets , and in an age where fan productions frequently rely on less-expensive green screen replacements, the use of real physical sets shows. It makes  The Holy Core  something unique and very special.

9 – Interlude: A Star Trek Fan Production (Axanar Continuity)

While not officially endorsed by the  Axanar  team, this little film dives into some of the  Axanar  continuity and envisions a short scene from one of the crucial battles of that timeline, as the new Klingon D7 cruisers are fielded for the first time.

It has a high-production feeling to it, though perhaps not quite as immerse as the original Axanar was. Still, a work of art, soul, and beauty, and I’m honestly just so impressed with all the great work that went into making this.

10 – Doomsday: A Star Trek Fan Production (2022)

Tales from The Neutral Zone in association with Avalon Universe presents “DOOMSDAY,” the third Star Trek Fan Film from Neutral Zone Studios in Kingsland, GA Based on the original story by Norman Sprinrad, music by Sol Kaplan, and visual effects by Samuel Cockings, “DOOMSDAY” is an exciting Star Trek adventure!

This  feels like TOS  and is just frankly incredible, offering up a brief vision of the original series’ brilliance with modern styling.

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Fan Film Factor

Exploring the world of Star Trek fan films.

List of Fan Films (highest to lowest rated)

Articles and interviews spotlighting the fantastic world of fan films and the fascinating folks who make them.

Viewing log entries: BY RATING                 Click to View:   Newest First     or      Alphabetically

NOTE: In cases where there are multiple episodes of a fan series in one feature article, the highest-rated episode determines the placement on this list.

Created by Fan Film Factor blogger  JONATHAN LANE, this special video compilation features clips from nearly three dozen Star Trek fan films spanning decades.  The goal was to show people who were unfamiliar with Star Trek fan films what was possible.  So the main criteria for being included was that the segment make a typical person think, “Wait!  This is a FAN film???”

If you’re new to Star Trek fan films or just looking for ideas of which one(s) to watch first, start with this video and see if anything speaks to you.  Most likely, you’ll come away with at least one clip that leaves you wanting more.

READ MORE….

Blog entry posted: August 7, 2021

THE HOLY CORE (interview)

It’s not easy making a set-based  TNG -era  Star Trek  fan film! Unlike TOS, where there are multiple set recreations where fans can film,  TNG  sets are much more difficult to construct and maintain. Most often, 24th century  Trek  fan films go the route of compositing actors filmed in front of a green screen with digitally-generated backgrounds.

Such was  not  the case with GARY O’BRIEN from Great Britain. His first  Trek  fan film, the  must-see  CHANCE ENCOUNTER , was released in 2017 to rave reviews from fans. While filmed primarily in outdoor locations, it also featured an elaborate shuttlepod interior set as well as a turbolift constructed for the production. For Gary’s next  TNG -era project, however, there were a LOT of sets to build. Unfortunately, a 30-day  Kickstarter campaign  in early 2018 failed to reach more than half-way to the goal, and so no money was collected from backers.

Just when all seemed lost, however, an angel donor named ALEXANDER MAYER stepped up with an offer to fund the entire project.

READ MORE…

Blog entry posted: May 13, 2019

As a project, INTERLUDE began when JONATHAN LANE wanted to see a fan film shot on the (at the time) newly-completed U.S.S. Ares Bridge set in Lawrenceville, GA.  Using a short sequence taken from the script for the first of the AXANAR sequels, Jonathan expanded the story first into an eight-page online comic book and then into a full shooting script.  The story serves as a direct sequel to PRELUDE TO AXANAR and a lead-in to the sequels—essentially an “interlude” between the two.

The project kicked off with the addition of JOSHUA IRWIN and VICTORIA FOX, two professional filmmakers from Arkansas who had already made names for themselves in the fan film community with their AVALON UNIVERSE projects.  All told, more than fifty people came together to create an exciting and touching fan film with top-level production quality, stunning visual effects, powerful performances, and music from an Emmy-winning composer.

Blog entry feature for version 1 posted: April 5, 2021 Blog entry feature for version 2 posted: April 23, 2021

Originally crowd-funded with a $26K  Kickstarter  way back in September of 2015 and a$32K  Indiegogo campaign  the following year,  Pacific 201  was the brainchild of Harrisburg, PA-based showrunner ERIC HENRY.

What makes  Pacific 201  so unique and exciting is the time period it covers in Federation history. The year is 2200. It’s four decades after the end of the Romulan War and the founding of the United Federation of Planets, and still more than six decades before the time of Kirk’s five-year-mission. Earth and the Federation are at a crossroads. Those who remember the horrors of the Romulan attacks fear a return to deep space exploration and the risk of provoking new enemies. But a new generation born after the war dreams of returning to a renaissance of exploration and discovery.

Blog entry interview for Part 1 posted: November 14, 2020 Blog entry feature for Part 2 posted: December 31, 2020

STARSHIP EXETER (feature), Part 2 – “The Tressaurian Intersection”

What a long, strange trip it’s been for Starship Exeter!

In December of 2002 when Starship Exeter released its first episode, “The Savage Empire,” it was a total game-changer.   Exeter rewrote the rules of what a Star Trek fan film could be and helped to usher in what many call the modern age of fan films.  Twelve years later, Starship Exeter released the final act of its second episode, “The Tressaurian Intersection,” considered by many to be one of the few MUST SEE Star Trek fan films out there.

Blog entry PART 1 posted: January 16, 2016

I always found it eerily appropriate that this two-word piece of dialog, spoken by Captain Kirk at the end of the final TOS episode “Turnabout Intruder” in 1969, was the last line uttered for the entire original Star Trek series run.

Kirk was referring to the tragic descent into hate-filled insanity of his former love, Dr. Janice Lester. But for me, these two words were so much more powerful: If only Star Trek hadn’t been canceled. If only Star Tre k could have…

…continued.

Blog entry PART 1 originally posted: April 15, 2016 (updated October 20, 2017 )

View all Star Trek Continues episodes, vignettes, and videos here: http://startrekcontinues.com/episodes.html

Some fans believe that Axanar was the first fan film to use professionals or, at the very least, the first to pay them. Both of those assumptions are incorrect by nearly a decade.

The first fan film to feature a known Star Tre k professional in their credits was the debut episode of Star Trek: New Voyages in early 2004, “ Come What May ,” which featured Doug Drexler as visual effects artist (under the pseudonym “Max Rem”) while Doug was also actively working doing the digital FX for Star Trek: Enterprise and also for the new Battlestar Galactica .

Blog entry PART 1 posted: July 8, 2016

If you’re a true Star Trek fan, you should watch “Mind-Sifter,” the ninth episode released from Star Trek: New Voyages .

You shouldn’t watch “Mind-Sifter” simply because it’s a well-constructed, well-acted, and well-produced story.  And you shouldn’t watch it simply because it feels like good Star Trek .

No, you should watch it to honor the memory of an amazing woman who almost single-handedly helped to define, grow, and nurture Star Trek fandom while it was still in its infancy.  I dare say that we all wouldn’t be here today celebrating Star Trek as passionately as we do if it weren’t for Shirley S. Maiewski, also known as “Grandma Trek.”

Blog entry posted: January 12, 2016

ADVENTURES OF THE USS PARKVIEW – “The Bunny Incident” (audio interview)

Easter came early to STARBASE STUDIOS on a cold day in January.  That’s when Emmy-winning musician and Parkview Elementary School teacher KEVIN CROXTON brought 33 students from his Music Club to shoot a Star Trek fan film.

I consider this a MUST SEE Trek fan film not simply because the kids are adorable but because it really is a remarkably well-produced fan film!  It’s well-lit with lots of interesting camera angles, the sound levels are perfect, the music is great (the kids even get to sing!), there’s amazing make-up on Spock and the Klingons (plus really nice TOS Klingon uniforms), and all of the children do a spectacular job.

Blog entry posted: March  29, 2018

AVALON UNIVERSE: “Avalon Lost” (audio interview)

THE AVALON UNIVERSE kicked off its debut with a complete surprise for most fans: the 2-part  GHOST SHIP , a sort of “ Star Trek  meets  The Walking Dead ” hybrid fan film that quickly went viral and now has a combined 280K views on YouTube!

Filmed both in Kingsland, GA on the old  Star Trek Continues  TOS sets and also in the new WARP 66 Studios in Arkansas,  Ghost Ship  looked amazing. Lighting, make-up, directing, editing, music, VFX, acting…everything came together flawlessly to present fans with one of the most polished-looking set-based fan films in a long time.

The second Avalon Universe  fan film,  “Avalon Lost,”  premiered and quickly surpassed 35K views! This time, it was a one-parter with a very unexpected ending.

Blog entry posted: March 8, 2019

The AVALON UNIVERSE is an alternate Star Trek timeline where show-runner JOSHUA IRWIN (from Fayetteville, Arkansas) can play around with stories without worrying about tripping over existing canon.  in the very first episode from the Avalon folks, GHOST SHIP , Captain Derek Mason (played by TYLER DUNIVAN) is given command of the U.S.S. Excalibur ).  But in the very next episode, AVALON LOST , the character died.  Or did he?

Four episodes were released since then with a new lead actor, but now with the seventh Avalon release in less than three years, fans discover that Captain Mason might not have died after all!  But where is he?  When is he?  And do these strange aliens who look like people he’s known mean him harm?  Find out as Captain Mason and viewers watching enter the COSMIC STREAM…

Blog entry posted: July 17, 2021

The  AVALON UNIVERSE  made its unexpected debut in our universe on Halloween of 2018…which was somewhat appropriate, considering the storyline of the debut episode (the 2-part  GHOST SHIP ) was kinda a “ Star-Trek -meets- The Walking Dead ” mash-up. Exactly one year later, on Halloween 2019, the latest  Avalon Universe  fan film,  DEMONS  (the third story so far), premiered the first of its two segments, with part 2 coming out a week later. In between was the one-part  AVALON LOST , which came out in February of 2019.

All three stories were something quite different than most other fan films…and I don’t mean just the unusual meshing of  Kelvin -verse uniforms with TOS-style sets…along with nacelles and shuttlecraft which looked slightly different than the familiar Prime Universe technology. No, what fans noticed almost immediately was a quality level—of acting, directing, lighting, camera angles and lens selection, sound mixing, film editing, pacing—that was a step or three above the vast majority of other  Star Trek  fan films.

Blog entry posted: November 30, 2019

The bar has just been raised for Star Trek fan films.  On May 2 of last year, Gary O’Brien and Paul Laight launched a Kickstarter to fund their latest short film.  Based in Oxfordshire in the United Kingdom, over the past eleven years Gary and Paul had collaborated on eight other short films.

At first, their script had nothing whatsoever to do with Star Trek .  It was, quite simply, a chance encounter between an older man and a younger woman.  Then Paul suggested adding in a science fiction element, and Gary (who would later be crowned the U.K.’s “Ultimate Trekker” and win a trip to Los Angeles to tour Paramount Studios) suggested that the idea might work well as a Star Trek story.

Blog entry posted: February 1, 2017

The strangely surreal  DATA & PICARD   Star Trek  fan music video has been viewed on YouTube nearly seven and a half million times…making it one of the most widely seen  Trek fan productions of all time.  When the musician/DJ/remix artist/film editor/YouTuber POGO (whose real name is NICK BERTKE) first uploaded this unusually hypnotic video back in late 2016, it was certainly a project I intended to cover. But less than two years later—and before I was able to blog about him—Pogo/Nick created some  major  controversy and trouble for himself.

And so I was torn. On the one hand, Pogo had created this wildly popular  Star Trek  fan film music video…and his background story is quite interesting. On the other hand, hate speech and homophobia is anathema to me. I am totally repulsed by Pogo’s prejudices against gay people and women. If you can’t stomach my decision to post this blog feature, then please feel free to skip it.

Blog entry posted: May 1, 2019

AARON VANDERKLEY is a wonder from down under!  When some fans began complaining that the  guidelines ‘ limit of 15 minutes for a fan film wasn’t long enough to tell a compelling story, Aaron proved them wrong by doing it in less than HALF that time!

Aaron has just released his fourth fan film in two years,  THE FALL OF STARBASE ONE , his longest and ambitious yet…and another MUST SEE.  After this, Aaron plans to do only one more “big finale”—likely sometime later this year.  As of now, the final script isn’t written or even titled.

Blog entry posted: June 24  2018

Back in early 2015, a group of young fan filmmakers out of Vancouver, Canada launched an Indiegogo campaign trying to raise $15,000 (Canadian) to complete their production. It would be a crossover fan film featuring the ships and characters from Star Trek ,  Star Wars ,  Mass Effect , and  Halo . They had already been working for nearly two years, starting out pretty slow with just a few artists, all of them new to the pipeline process of working together on an open, collaborative, community-driven movie project.

By 2015, they had managed to build a team of 20 digital artists, two sound designers, several actors (including Mark Meer from  Mass Effect ), one dedicated screenwriter, two social media coordinators, and many more. Along the way, they picked up sponsors that donated some pretty amazing free hardware, software, plus meeting and studio space. Having now developed an industry-grade pipeline process, they just needed $15,000 to finish this incredibly ambitious project.

Blog entry posted: January 4, 2019

The vast majority of the fan film community had no idea that GHOST SHIP  was coming (including me)!  But just a few weeks ago, on Halloween, the newest full-length  Star Trek fan production from JOSHUA IRWIN and VICTORIA FOX debuted on YouTube.

A “ Star Trek  meets  The Walking Dead ” mash-up, of sorts, the film combines spooky zombie horror tropes with comedic moments and fun characters to create a wonderfully enjoyable space adventure.  And it follows the  guidelines  completely, including dividing the fan film into two less-than-15-minute segments.  The cast is made up of trained actors along with a crew of experienced film producers.  The result looks great, sounds great, and is written, directed, and edited at a noticeably high level.

Blog entry posted: November 22, 2018

GOOD MEN (interview)

Last October, I  posted an interview  with the fan film wonder from down under, Australia-based Trekker AARON VANDERKLEY.  When the  fan film guidelines  came out in 2016, many fans worried that it would be impossible to create a decent  Star Trek  fan film story in 15 minutes or less.  But Aaron had already disproven that six months earlier when he released the six-and-a-half minute  NEEDS OF THE MANY , an emotionally intense NX-01 era fan film with great acting, real practical sets (not green screen), and wonderful costumes.

In September of 2017, Aaron wowed the fan film world again with yet another NX-01 era fan film, the twelve-minute  THE DERELICT .  Even more intense than his first effort,  Derelict  cemented Aaron’s reputation as a top-notch  Star Trek  fan filmmaker.

But Arron wasn’t done yet!

Blog entry posted: February 12, 2018

When the fan film guidelines  set a 15-minute limit on the runtime of  Star Trek  fan films, many in the community shouted,  “It can’t be done!”  AARON VANDERFLEY in Australia apparently didn’t get the memo.

Between 2016 and 2018, Aaron released four different NX-era fan films, each impeccably produced, beautifully acted and directed with compelling stories, and none over the 15 minutes allotted by the guidelines.  The four films seemed to be completely unconnected to each other, but now with a fifth and final release, Aaron ties all five films together in a masterful effort that is as good, if not better than, his previous releases.

Who says it can’t be done?

Blog entry posted: August 6, 2019

Fan films like  Star Trek: Horizon ,  Prelude to Axanar ,  Star Trek: Renegades ,  Star Trek Continues , and  New Voyages  have been viewed millions and millions of times on YouTube….and with good reason.  All are excellent productions of professional-level quality.

But those are the “big fish” in the fan film pond.  Two much smaller fish have swum underneath the sonar and haven’t been noticed by more than a couple of thousand viewers each…which is a shame because they are two of the best, highest quality  Star Trek  fan films you’re likely to see!

They didn’t have mega-budgets like some fan films, nor did they use big-name Hollywood actors or Trek veteran producers.  Both short films take place during the Enterprise NX-01 era and use real, practical sets instead of green screen.  The costumes look amazing, and the actors do a really spectacular job.  Add in subtle lightning, great make-up, excellent camera work, a strong script, solid directing, and even top-notch editing, and these two fan films can easily take their place among some of the best ones so far.

Blog entry PART 1 posted: October 6, 2017

THE RED SHIRT DIARIES (interview)

THE RED SHIRT DIARIES ran from September 2014 through January 2016 and produced 30 hilarious short episodes plus an almost equal number of specials, sneak peaks, and light-hearted behind-the-scenes vignettes.  Much like potato chips, I guarantee you won’t be able to watch just one episode.

What makes this series fun, creative, and unique is the fact that Ensign Williams (played by the amazingly talented ASHLEY VICTORIA ROBINSON) is NOT directly involved in any of the missions that we TOS fans have seen a thousand times. And yet she  is  involved… in her own way.  A poor player strutting and fretting her hours behind the stage, Ensign Williams is stuck on Deck 7, commenting in her logs on what is going on.  And her insights and observations are hilarious… as are guest appearances by certain fellow crew members and other colorful and familiar faces like Trelane, Harry Mudd, and Balok.

Blog entry posted: October 16, 2018

The first hints of THE ROMULAN WAR  fan film appeared back in 2017. Not to be confused with the fan series  THE ROMULAN WARS (plural) from show-runner LEE GARTRELL in Arkansas, this fan film from show-runner MARK NACCARATO in Tennessee is a straight-up two-parter—presented in the same “mockumentary” style as  PRELUDE TO AXANAR .

By the time 2018 hit,  The Romulan War  had most of its scenes filmed and was crowd-funding for mainly post-production costs with a $10K  Indiegogo  (which ultimately took in more than $13K). With visual FX by the sensei of CGI, Great Britain’s SAMUEL COCKINGS, the trailers and stills from this dynamic fan film created a palpable excitement throughout the community. Frustratingly—but unavoidably—post-production would stretch out another two-plus years. However, unlike other fan films,  The Romulan War served fans an almost constant stream of “hors d’oeuvre” vignettes and trailer/prequels and even a couple of short comic book stories leading up to the big premiere of the main fan fillm.

Blog entry audio interview posted: October 20, 2020 Blog entry crowd-funding interview posted: April 10, 2018

When you think Star Trek , you probably don’t immediately think of the Czech Republic in central Europe (Star  Czech  maybe, but not Star  Trek ). But when it comes to  Trek fan films, there’s some folks in Prague who have taken things to a whole other level!  A number of fan groups have already utilized an amazing 360-degree 24th century-era bridge and ready room set, but the group from SQUADRON has taken things to a whole new level.

Having filmed just prior to the pandemic and only partially crowd-funded just after the lockdown started and the global economy began to collapse, the Squadron folks managed to do a whole lot with relatively little.  Costumes, props, make-up (including a Vorta, two Jem’Hadar, a Vulcan, Andorian, Trill, and Orion), VFX, lighting, editing, music—all are executed flawlessly in this Dominion War era fan film.  The lines are all in Czech, but English subtitles are available on YouTube.  It’s not to be missed!

Blog entry for Zoom video interview posted: February 7, 2021 Blog entry for Music Video posted: February 22, 2021

THE ROMULAN WAR: War Stories (feature ) War Stories: “Final Flight” (feature) “Holocaust” Motion Comic (interview)

War stories, if done right, can be very compelling.  They test the characters, twist them into unrecognizable shapes, and spit them out…sometimes for the better but all-too-often for the worse.  How do we survive war?  How do we fight?  What decisions do we make that might have been  unimaginable  to us during peacetime?

There are just some of the questions that are asked in a fascinating new “enhanced” audio drama just released in the lead-up to the debut of  The Romulan War  fan film series.

Blog entry posted: August 15, 2018 Blog entry posted for “Final Flight” posted: December 20, 2018 Blog entry posted for the “Holocaust” motion comic: February 17, 2021

The last time fans saw the kooky TOS crew of the USS Second Prize  was in 2012’s “ Amutt Time .”  But  last summer,  Stalled Trek  creator and certified genius lunatic MARK LARGENT announced a Kickstarter to fund a brand new episode: “The City on the Edge of Foreclosure.” He successfully raised   $4,181 from 114 backers, and so it was off to make a new fan film parody.

But before he could begin, Mark found himself forced to switch over to a new 3D modeling and rendering application, Blender 3D, and it required a bit of a learning curve.  To challenge himself to master the new digital tool by tackling an actual project, Mark decided to create a Stalled Trek “quickie,” and the vigneette ALL AHEAD FULL is the hilarious result.

Blog entry posted: June 19, 2019

Okay, now I’ve seen everything!

Star Trek MUPPETS???  Well, why not?

Truth to tell, when I first found this little gem—entirely by accident on YouTube—I wasn’t expecting much. It looked silly, and I didn’t really get what the title meant.  And then I watched it. Hilarious! Brilliant! A perfect parody of one of the most classic fan-favorite TOS Star Trek episodes: “Amok Time.”

Blog entry PART 1 posted: March 11, 2016

How’s this for a first? A parody fan film of another fan film! And not just any fan film…it’s a parody of Prelude to Axanar !

Prelude to Ax’d-We-Are is a love letter to the amazing fan production that has become so popular… and it also doubles as a bit of light-hearted satire on this whole copyright infringement controversy. Oh, and it’s pretty darn funny, too!

So how did this Axanar parody come about? Who can we blame?

Blog entry posted: April 22, 2016

“Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”

Rear Admiral David G. Farragut issued that order in 1864 at the Battle of Mobile Bay during the American Civil War.  A century and a half later, a group of dedicated Star Trek fans has followed that order with enthusiasm to make a film series that bears his name.

Starship Farragut had its fair share of torpedoes to get past, but speed on it did.  And through a full decade of filming and production, Farragut has continued to grow, improve, and evolve into one of Star Trek fandom’s MUST-SEE fan-based series.  Along the way, Farragut boldly went where no fan film had gone before, blazing a successful trail for other fan series to follow.

Blog entry PART 1 posted:  February 5, 2016 Blog interview for “Homecoming” posted: December 7, 2021

To quote Scotty, “I’ve always held a sneaking admiration for this one.”  Actually, my admiration for the efforts of Fan Trek Productions (out of the Netherlands) has never exactly been “sneaking.”  These “semi-professional” (their words) fan filmmakers have consistently turned out really impressive, self-funded episodes of their fan series.  And now, after ten years, that series, STAR TREK: DARK ARMADA, has released its final episode.

But that’s only the beginning!

I’ll explain that unusual comment in Part 2, but first, let’s take a look back at a decade of a truly remarkable fan series…

Blog entry PART 1 posted: January 13, 2017

Back in 2013, LEO TIERNEY of the United Kingdom set out to make a  Next Generation -era  Star Trek  fan film called  STAR TREK: DECEPTION .  Most live action fan films set in that time frame either record away teams in outdoor locations or else use green screen composited actors in front of virtual backgrounds…since creating practical sets in the 24th century style is incredibly challenging.

Leo, however, was up to the challenge of building a  TNG -era set!  He decided to design and construct an actual Starfleet runabout cockpit set in which to film his actors.  He just needed a little bit of money to do it.  How little?  Well, considering what even the cheapest fan films cost, £500 (about $635 back then) was an amazingly small amount for what Leo was planning.  Ultimately, after a month, his January 2013 Kickstarter took in a little over twice that amount: £1,174 (about $1,500).

Then it was time to get to work…and so he did!

Blog entry posted: January 19, 2018

Shortly after the debut of the first Star Trek: Deception back in mid-2013, writer/director LEO TIERNEY began discussing the production of a sequel.  However, the idea mostly languished until Leo briefly brought it up again on Facebook in 2015.  But even then, nothing much happened for nearly another year.

Leo began working in earnest on Deception II  in 2016, and once again set out to construct actual physical (practical) sets—this time for both an  Excelsior -class bridge and also for the bridge of a Klingon bird-of-prey.  And he constructed both…in a tiny garage!

September 8, 2020 is the 54th anniversary of the first airing of STAR TREK  back in 1966. It is also the five-year anniversary of the beginning of production on  STAR TREK: FIRST FRONTIER , the long-awaited fan film from show-runner KENNY SMITH.

Kenny had a dream to create a fan film focussing on the very first captain of the  U.S.S. Enterprise  NCC-1701,  Robert April , and his first mission commanding that legendary starship. Kenny’s dream was BIG! He wanted real sets and real professional actors and even visual effects with a real, custom-built 11-foot model of the  U.S.S. Enterprise …none of this CGI nonsense. Go real or go home!

Blog entry audio interview posted: September 8, 2020 Blog entry video montage interview posted: February 28, 2019 Blog entry interview posted: March 19, 2017

Man, are you guys ever in for a treat! The full-length Star Trek: Horizon has just been released to the general public, and it is a cinematic triumph of Trek fan films.

Show-runner Tommy Kraft gave me a special link to view the movie early. I’d watched barely the first 15 minutes when I shot him a Facebook IM saying simply “F—king WOW!”

Horizon (no ‘s’ at the end, folks!) starts out with a bang—several, in fact—and immediately lets the viewers know that they’re in for a wild and high-quality fan film ride.

Blog entry PART 1 posted: February 26, 2016

STAR TREK: RENEGADES , Part 1 (feature) STAR TREK: RENEGADES , Part 2 (feature) STAR TREK: RENEGADES , Part 3 (feature) STAR TREK: RENEGADES , Part 4 (feature) RENEGADES: The Series , Part 5 (feature)

Before there was Renegades: The Series , there was STAR TREK: RENEGADES , one of the largest, most ambitious fan film projects ever attempted.  Nearly four hundred thousand dollars in crowd-funding, multiple Star Trek veteran actors reprising their roles from the various TV series, paid industry professionals on both sides of the camera, two years in the making, enthusiastic plans to present this to CBS as a potential pilot for a new Star Trek TV series, and even a gala Los Angeles red carpet premiere at the historic Crest Theater in Westwood.

Looked at through the hindsight lens of the constraining limitations of the post- guidelines reality we now live in, it’s hard to imagine that something like STAR TREK: RENEGADES could even have been attempted, let alone successfully completed and released with such fanfare.  How on earth (or in space) did they manage it?

Blog entry PART 1 posted: July 14, 2017

It’s amazing how much movie trailers have changed in the last few decades!

Three months ago , I shared a link to a fan video from 2016 that featured a modern take on the trailer for  STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN .  The updated trailer was created by   JONATHAN WORMAN , a talented video editor based in Toronto, Canada who has worked on commercials, music videos, shorts, and documentaries over the past eight years.  Posting under the name “Orange Band,” Jonathan’s  Wrath of Khan  trailer has already garnered more than 100,000 views on YouTube.

Then, last month, Jonathan Worman did it again!  This time, he tackled  STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE .  And…wow!  Considering how relatively slow the pacing was for the first  Trek  feature film (I still think it’s a good movie…just slow), this new and updated trailer makes the film look like a real thrill ride!

Blog entry posted: December 22, 2017

Most fan films feature fan-written scripts with fan actors, fan-generated visual and sound effects, etc…some with small budgets and others with big budgets.  But as far as I’m concerned, fan films don’t stop there!

Sometimes fans can show their innovation and cleverness by taking existing Star Trek footage from the five decades of countless episodes and 13 feature films, editing and manipulating it in new and creative ways.

One of the best examples I’ve seen of this recently is a fan-edited version of the trailer for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan .  JONATHAN WORMAN is a talented video editor based in Toronto, Canada who has worked on commercials, music videos, shorts, and documentaries over the past eight years.  Last summer, he released a brilliant “modern” version of a trailer for this beloved fan favorite feature film.

Blog entry posted: September 8, 2017

STONE TREK , Part 1 (interview) STONE TREK , Part 2 (interview)

When it comes to fan films, Star Trek is no stranger to mash-ups.  Fans have taken Star Trek into the Star Wars universe and vice versa. Kirk and Spock have met the 1960s TV Batman and Robin.  Heck, the Enterprise has even picked up Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz!  (I’ve already done a feature on Star Trek vs. Batman .  The others are coming.)

But by far (at least in my opinion) the most inspired, creative, and well-executed of all the Star Trek fan film mash-ups is Stone Trek , a series of nine cartoon shorts created by Brian Mathews and released online using Adobe’s Flash software between 2000 and 2007.

Stone Trek is NOT some silly crossover where the USS Enterprise travels back in time to Bedrock and Fred Flintstone beams up to meet Captain Kirk. Instead, it’s a complete hybrid of the two shows, an entirely new entity combining recognizable elements of both but ultimately emerging as something totally unique and original.

Blog entry posted: October 2, 2016

The time has finally come! After nearly six years, TEMPORAL ANOMALY has been released to astound and amaze Star Trek  fans. Written, directed, and produced by SAMUEL COCKINGS—the King, Ace, and Jack of all trades involving CGI animation—back in 2013,  Temporal Anomaly  has traveled a long and challenging path on its way to completion. This included an e-mail directly from CBS saying, “You can’t release this fan film!”

Yep, for only the fourth time, CBS stepped in to put the kibosh on a  Star Trek  fan film project (the others being  Axanar,   Federation Rising  from Tommy Kraft, and “ He Walked Among Us ” from  Star Trek: New Voyages) . Considering there are literally several hundreds of  Trek  fan films, the VAST majority  never  hear from CBS. But Samuel did…just weeks before releasing his half-decade labor of love.

Blog entry posted: January 31, 2019

SAM COCKINGS surprised the fan film community at the beginning of May 2021 by launching an Indiegogo campaign funding not just one fan film but SIX different fan films!!! The series of unrelated anthology stories will be set in different time periods of Trek  from TOS to the  Wrath of Khan  era to the Dominion War to the  Enterprise -E encountering another “Doomsday Machine” planet-killer. Calling the anthology series  TREK SHORTS , Sam announced participants from various other  Trek  fan series including:  INTREPID ,  AVALON UNIVERSE ,  STAR TREK CONTINUES ,  DREADNOUGHT DOMINION ,  DARK ARMADA , and TEMPORAL ANOMALY .

Sam was so excited and eager to show fans (and potential donors) the amazing quality of these productions that he didn’t wait to release the first one!  Featuring four different actors from three previous fan productions, Sam debuted A LONG WAY FROM HOME to rave reviews for acting, uniform quality, and stunning VFX that meld characters into virtual backgrounds seamlessly.

Blog entry posted: May 13, 2021

This fifth release from the AVALON UNIVERSE not only follows the introduction from LEGACY , but it also picks up on the mysterious plot points left unresolved in the excellent 2-part  Avalon  release  DEMONS from late 2019.  While most of the recent “fandemic” films tend to have just one character on the screen at a time, that would have been impossible with this production due to the stunts requiring hand-to-hand combat. So VICTORIA FOX and JOSHUA IRWIN came up with a very clever way to work masks into the outdoor fight scenes and simultaneously minimize the need for make-up.

You don’t usually see convincing hand-to-hand fight scenes in Star Trek fan films. But when your main star is also an accomplished martial artist and works in the entertainment industry, you’ve got a valuable asset. CHUCK MERÉ , who plays Captain Lance Ramirez, was the fight choreographer and did a fantastic job. He also was one of two FX make-up artists on the production.

Blog entry posted: January 5, 2021

You don’t have to be a theoretical physicist to write a Star Trek musical…but it sure helps!

BOLDLY GO! – Where No Musical Has Gone Before didn’t start off as a fan film.  In fact, it was only performed six times in front of audiences in late February and early March of 2016 in Pasadena, CA at the Ramo Auditorium at Caltech.  But last month, a year after its too-short theatrical run, the full two-and-a-half hour live performance was posted to Youtube…and now I consider it officially a “fan film.”  And not only that, but it’s one to which I am giving a rating of “ Highly Recommended + ” because it’s REALLY good!  (And if you don’t want to commit that much time, at the end of this blog, I’m including time codes to skip to the four best musical numbers that are MUST SEE/HEAR.)

Blog entry posted: May 26, 2017

Back in the summer of 2016, ALBERT MARTINEZ debuted a new fan film consisting primarily of breathtaking CGI visual FX inspired by the Kelvin- verse style of starship design.  CHASING THE INFINITE SKY  quickly went viral with hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube.

Usually, my interviews of fan filmmakers are simply audio or text (’cause I can’t afford camera crews!). But today I present to you a special VIDEO interview. At the end, the video also includes a new REMASTERED higher-quality version of  Chasing the Infinite Sky .

Blog entry posted: February 13, 2019

SAMUEL COCKINGS was in the middle of a crowd-funding campaign for his TREK SHORTS series of green screen fan films.  He’d been planning to put together a now teaser-trailer for the third Trek Short, “Hours to Doomsday,” which would star MARCUS CHURCHILL, reprising his role of Ensign Sam Harriman from Temporal Anomaly , along with NIMRAD SAUND as Lieutenant Keeley.  But on the scheduled day of filming, Nimrad was diagnosed with COVID-19 and couldn’t come for the shoot.  (She fully recovered.)

Not wanting to cancel the shoot entirely, Sam called up Marcus, who was still an hour and a half away, and told him to come anyway.  Sam then spent the next 90 minutes writing a 5-minute vignette script for Marcus to perform.  The finished product, including Sam’s impeccable CGI and Marcus’ fine acting (and a voice-over cameo from ROBIN HIERT of DARK ARMADA) looks FANtastic and is proof that necessity can certainly be a mother.

Blog entry posted: May 27, 2021

INTREPID (3-part interview) INTREPID: “Dangerous Minds” (Interview)

If you hear the words “ Star Trek ” and “Scotland,” chances are you’ll immediately think of Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott.  But do you think of NICK COOK and the cast and crew of the  STAR TREK: INTREPID  fan series?  You should…because  Intrepid  is currently the longest-running  Star Trek  fan series still in active production (and there’s no end in sight).

Even though their first episode didn’t premiere until 2007, production actually began way back in 2003—before there was YouTube!—and you could count the total number of  Trek  fan series on one hand (well, maybe you’d need a couple of fingers from your second hand, too).

Since then,  Intrepid  has released twelve fan films PLUS an additional three crossover fan films with  STAR TREK: HIDDEN FRONTIER …and has also had its characters make cameos in three (soon to be four) additional fan series.

Blog entry feature posted: December 5, 2019 Blog entry interview posted: February 12, 2020

HINDSIGHT: The Unmaking of ALTERNATIVE VICTORY (feature)

Back in the winter of 1982, a number of dedicated Trekkers from northern California came together to make a  Star Trek  fan film.  Most were in high school or college, and nearly all of them were pretty clueless about filmmaking.  But the thing was: they  didn’t know  they were clueless!  And so they soldiered on, always imagining the awesomeness of their final production.

This 2013 documentary is a retrospective from 30 years later, featuring the young kids—now all grown up—who tried to make  Alternative Victory .  Looking back from the perspective of adults in their 40s and 50s, the documentary isn’t just about the making of this fan film. It’s about the  people  involved and the  effect  this shared experience had on all of their lives…even decades later.

Blog entry posted: April 24, 2020

LAST SURVIVOR (interview)

Back in 2010, a short 10-minute 24th century-era Trek  fan film made its debut. Despite being ultra-low budget, it was actually quite ambitious, being shot in multiple outdoor locations by a team of just four people…two of whom appeared on screen. It was called  SURVIVOR and was written, produced, and directed by MATTHEW BLACKBURN, who also starred in the leading role.

Most fans thought  Survivor  was just a one-and-done effort, but seven years later in the summer of 2017, Matthew released a sequel:  SURVIVORS . Still low-budget, this time six people had produced the fan film, and it was 15 minutes long and a bit more ambitious.

At the very end of 2018 (two days before the new year), Matthew released what seems to be—at least from the title—the final installment of the  Survivor  trilogy:  LAST SURVIVOR . It’s my favorite of the three, although they are each very enjoyable.

Blog entry posted: March 15, 2019

Without a doubt, we live in a veritable renaissance of Star Trek fan films… one after the other they come, dazzling us with intricate and expansive sets, elaborate green screen backgrounds, meticulously crafted costumes, breathtaking special effects, professional level make-up and lighting, and rich music and sound effects.  Production teams in the hundreds often include veteran Star Trek actors and professional screenwriters who have worked in Hollywood.  Heck, some of these fan films are even being shot in Los Angeles with crowd-sourced budgets well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But what if your budget is missing four or five zeros at the end?  What if you’ve got virtually nothing to spend on your fan film?  With all the blazing supernovae of independent Star Trek cinematic achievements out there, is it even worth it to make just a simple “fan film” anymore?

Blog entry PART 1 posted: January 26, 2016

To paraphrase (De)Forrest Gump: “Fan films are like a box of chocolates—you never know what you’re gonna get.”

That was certainly the case when I sat down to watch the premiere of the new fan series  PROJECT: RUNABOUT , created by GARY DAVIS and RANDY WRENN, who are also the co-showrunners behind the veteran fan series  DREADNOUGHT DOMINION . I went in completely cold, knowing only that Gary had worked long and hard to build a brand new TOS-era cockpit set in his basement and that British VFX phenom SAMUEL COCKINGS had designed an awesome-looking CGI model of a 23rd century runabout and was really excited about the visual effects that he was creating for this initial release.

What I was NOT   expecting was…a music video??? And honestly, a  really  good   music video!

Blog entry posted: July 23, 2021

The brainchild of local resident MICHAEL L. KING, who would play the main character of Jackson Bishop, STARSHIP VALIANT was the first completed fan production to film on the 360-degree bridge set at Starbase Studios back in late 2013. In 2016, they would also be the last fan series to film at that location.  During those years, they produced three excellent fan films focusing mainly on the characters rather than the more typical space battles or threats to the ship.  Starship Valiant would introduce the character of  Chief Engineer Erick Minard, played by VANCE MAJOR, who would go on to appear in several dozen more low budget fan films.

After a nearly four-year hiatus, Starship Valiant returned in early 2021 to release a brand new fan film episode titled “Animals.”  In a four-part series of blogs, we take a deep dive look into the long and rich history of this highly-respected Star Trek fan series.

Blog entry countdown posted: January 19, 2021 Blog history features posted: January 21 – February 11, 2021

In today’s world of cutting-edge Star Trek fan films, teams of dozens—sometimes hundreds!—work to make these ambitious cinematic endeavors come to life on YouTube, Vimeo, or even a DVD or Blu-ray.

So it’s definitely worth taking notice when a top-tier Trek fan film is produced by only ONE man.  Well, I should qualify that.  His first episode cast was comprised of 17 people (including the creator himself and his wife Jeannette), the original music was composed by John Catney, and a number of CGI 3D meshes and textures were created by other artists.  But everything else – the writing, directing, producing, sets, make-up, wardrobe, lighting, sound, camera angles, editing, and 3D animation – that was all in the hands of one guy: Tim Vining.

And he never even had to get out of his chair!

Blog entry posted: February 16, 2016

STAR TREK: DISCOVERY Opening Title Sequences by Fans

Like STAR TREK: DISCOVERY itself, people seem to either love or hate the opening title sequence for  Star Trek: Discovery …just as they did for the “Faith of the Heart” opening for  Star Trek: Enterprise .  But  Enterprise  was canceled before YouTube existed (or rather, just as it was being launched).  Now, however, fans feel quite comfortable making and posting their own new versions of the opening title sequence, and there are currently dozens of videos out there!

After reviewing all the ones I could find, I selected my  TOP TWELVE .  Yeah, I know it’s supposed to be TOP TEN, but I just couldn’t eliminate the final two.  They were just so good!

I’ve assembled those twelve fan-made videos here in one blog—ranked in order so that my favorite is last.  Which one is  YOUR  favorite?

Blog entry posted: March 22, 2018

Two of the most ambitious and visually stunning  Star Trek  fan films you will ever see don’t feature a single human actor on the screen. Instead, both fan films star action figures from the Art Asylum line for  Star Trek: Enterprise  and  Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan  (plus a Terminator action figure thrown in for good measure).

One of these fan films took two and a half years to complete…the other took more than eight years! Both of them will blow you away, and you’ll be even  more  blown away when you go behind-the-scenes to see the meticulous work and craftsmanship that went into each one.

Blog entry posted: March 10, 2021

Before there was Renegades: the Series or Star Trek: Renegades , there was Star Trek: Of Gods and Men .  And if you are a student of fan film history (or you want to be), this article is required reading.

You see, Star Trek: Of Gods and Men marked a turning point for fan films…several turning points, in fact.  It was the first time a major fan film used the resources of another major fan film for shooting.  It was the first time multiple Star Trek acting veterans all appeared together in the same fan production reprising their iconic characters.  And it was the first time a major fan film had done a stand-alone feature-length film.  (Other fan series had done hour-plus length episodes, but these were all for ongoing fan series.  Star Trek: Of Gods and Men was a one-shot story with a movie run-time of nearly 90 minutes.)

A look at this groundbreaking fan production from 2008 actually allows us to look at its fascinating place in the grander history of all Star Trek fan films…

Blog entry posted: August 14, 2016

In the spring of 2016, STAR TREK: PHASE II founder and show-runner JAMES CAWLEY announced, shortly before the unveiling of the  fan film guidelines by CBS, that his fan series would cease all fan film production.  This left three projects nearly all filmed but still uncompleted: “Bread and Savagery” (a sequel to the TOS episode “Bread and Circuses), “Torment of Destiny” (a sequel to “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky” and featuring the now-deceased RICHARD HATCH), and “Origins: The Protracted Man” (co-written by DAVID GERROLD and the recently-passed DAVE GALANTER).

On January 4, 2021, without any fanfare or explanation, James Cawley quietly posted “Origins: The Protracted Man” in its unfinished format. The film is still very close to completed, but there are some obvious places where the sound and/or image quality is off, the VFX are low resolution or missing entirely, and some scenes remain unfilmed. And the entire film is has a slight horizontal compression. But nevertheless, there is enough to get a good feel for how this excellent fan film would have turned out…including amazingly powerful performances.

Blog entry posted: January 12, 2021

The one thing that nearly every fan and viewer agrees on is that the visual effects sequences in Star Trek: The Motion Picture are stunning and some of the grandest, most beautiful, and unforgettable in Star Trek ‘s 50-plus year history.

Those VFX sequences, overseen by the legendary DOUG TRUMBULL and JOHN DYKSTRA, were rushed together in less than six months. To see the finished breathtaking scenes, one would hardly think any of them were created with anything other than the most painstaking attention to detail over years…not simply months.

But apparently, there were indeed some mistakes. And now a fan has fixed those mistakes—not with physical models and high quality camera equipment but instead using only his computer…

Blog entry posted: December 23, 2019

DREADNOUGHT DOMINION (feature) DREADNOUGHT DOMINION (interview) DREADNOUGHT DOMINION (audio interview) DREADNOUGHT DOMINION (interview) DREADNOUGHT DOMINION (interview)

Back in April of 2015, a new Star Trek fan series called DREADNOUGHT DOMINION premiered with its initial episode.  It wasn’t the only TOS-era fan series to feature the crew of a non-heavy cruiser class starship, but it was the first and only one to feature the crew of a Starfleet dreadnought -class starship based on the mid-1970s Franz Joseph Star Trek Technical Manual .

Over the next half-decade and beyond, the cast and crew has served up a steady and consistent meal of fan films ranging in length from short vignettes up to full episodes 22 minutes in length. This is particularly impressive considering that the two show-runners, GARY DAVIS and RANDY WRENN, live in Ohio and North Carolina, respectively, and they film at NEUTRAL ZONE STUDIOS in Kingsland, Georgia with many cast and crew members from out of state, as well.

Blog entry feature posted: November 11, 2016 Blog entry interview posted:  July 29, 2018 Blog entry audio interview posted: June 16, 2019 Blog entry interview posted: March 31, 2020 Blog entry interview posted: November 18, 2020

There’s a whole sub-sub genre of  Star Trek fan films where the filmmakers don’t bother with sets or actors but instead simply use their CGI or animation skills to tell a story. I call these “fanimations.”

These “fanimators” tell a STORY through their productions. It’s not easy! It usually involves at least two different ships (or a ship an an object), since having only one ship usually falls into the “hero shot” video category. For there to be a story, the viewer needs to imagine  the crews on board, hear in their head the familiar orders given (“Raise shields!” “Evasive maneuvers!” “Fire phasers!”), and figure out what has happened at a pivotal moment. In other words, the viewer should be able to figure out the story even without words or narrations…and hopefully the story is compelling and makes some sense.

Blog entry posted: September 18, 2019

At the heart of every Star Trek  fan film is…well…heart. The drive to create fan-produced stories emanates from a deep love of  Star Trek . And few Trekkers love the series more than cosplayers. So what happens when a bunch of cosplayers get together to make a  Star Trek  fan film?

Writer/producer DAVID CHENG and his team produced THE HUMAN ADVENTURE , a  TMP -era vignette focusing on the “meeting” Admiral Kirk had with Admiral Nogura convincing the Starfleet commander to give Kirk back the  Enterprise to investigate the giant cloud approaching earth.

On the surface,  The Human Adventure  is a fairly simple and straightforward fan production—minimal VFX, no custom-built sets, basic sound, etc. But below the surface, there’s a lot to be said for this effort.

Blog entry posted: October 10, 2019

There are some amazing cosplayers and impersonators out there…folks you walk past at conventions and you do a double-take. “Was that…? Nah, couldn’t be! Could it?”  One of the most convincing cosplay impersonators out there has to be JENS (pronounced “YENS”) DOMBEK…also known as “The German Spock.” Born in Berlin and currently a resident of Brieselang, Germany, Jens is completely committed to our favorite Vulcan/Human hybrid, portraying him in all manner of uniforms and clothing.

Like many others, I was blown away by the simple-yet-complex intensity of a fan film monologue that lasts a total of less than 80 seconds and takes place against a stark and empty black background. One of the best things about fan films is that there are no rules—guidelines, yes, but I’m not talking about those. Fans can add in or leave out whatever they want. And in this short film, so much was left out in order to distill a haunting but loving tribute to the “emotionless,” logical first officer of the starship Enterprise .

Blog entry posted: July 8, 2020

The name MATTHEW BLACKBURN isn’t the most famous in the fan film community, but Matthew has just released his fourth  Star Trek  fan film in ten years, and he’s still going strong. The first three each had the word “Survivor” in them and all follow a general “pattern” of featuring nearly all of the action down on a planet where the protagonist(s) is/are separated from any help from the ship.  While down on the surface, they face a threat that usually involves running, climbing, and at least one solid fight scene. And all in all, these fan films are really quite excellent!

Matthew and his team of six people have now released a fourth Star Trek fan film,  LEFT BEHIND , and it’s another  very strong offering—definitely their most ambitious so far.

Blog entry posted: October 28, 2020

The MINARD Saga (feature and interview)

In an  interview with fan film maker  VANCE MAJOR , I called him the  “Where’s Waldo of  Star Trek  fan films.”   The interview included a list of over a dozen different  Trek  fan films that Vance had written, directed, produced, appeared in, and/or worked on.

But now, after releasing ANOTHER seven (yes, SEVEN!)  Trek  fan films—one per day!—in just seven days, I think I need to rechristen Vance the  “Oompa Loompa of  Star Trek  fan films” …perhaps even  Willy Wonka  himself!

Prior to these most recent seven fan film releases, Vance’s previous production was the emotionally charged  Minard .   The fan film followed the career of the chief engineer character whom Vance first portrayed in the extended edition of  STARSHIP VALIANT ‘s initial episode “ Legacy ” back in 2014.  The 7-minute  Minard  was meant to be one of many non-linear pieces of a “tapestry” of fan productions and short vignettes focusing on this character.

Blog entry posted: September 22, 2017

View all episodes:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmKxi5xAVJrJuLkreoPnHq-nAc2wIt4_t

Ratings vary by episode from:

As far as fandom and canon go, the animated series (TAS) is a peculiar life form. TAS was the first time we ever learned that the “T” in James T. Kirk stands for Tiberius (which became official canon in  Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country ). Details of Vulcan from the animated episode “Yesteryear” made it into fourth season episodes of  Star Trek: Enterprise . And many fans consider Robert April to be the first captain of the  USS Enterprise  NCC-1701 and Dr. McCoy’s daughter’s name to be Joanna…both revealed in TAS episodes.

CURT DANHAUSER has already released numerous animated Trek fan films, ranging in length from short vignettes to 66-minute multi-part releases. Curt’s latest 23-minute episode spotlights Scotty and premiered on July 9, 2020, timed to coincide with the year marking one century since actor JAMES DOOHAN was born and exactly 15 years to the month of his passing in 2005. This year also marks the 25th year since Curt Danhauser’s Guide to Animated  Star Trek website debuted on the Internet.

Blog entry posted: July 20, 2020

From its humble beginnings as just a fun activity for the STARFLEET fan club chapter USS Angeles , Hidden Frontier turned into a fan film production dynamo for more than a decade, going on to produce 50 episodes over seven seasons plus five spin-off series and even cross-overs with other fan series.   Hidden Frontier broke new ground in using green-screen compositing, generating home-made 3D visual effects, recasting established characters from Star Trek canon, and even featuring the first gay Starfleet officers in a fan film series.

Blog entry PART 1 posted: April 1, 2016

View the 7 seasons of Star Trek: Hidden Frontier here: http://www.hiddenfrontier.net/productions/hf/

Back during the summer of 2012, something happened at the annual  Creation Entertainment   Star Trek  convention in Las Vegas that had never happened before and hasn’t happened since: there was a convention table dedicated solely to an unlicensed  Star Trek  fan film!

STAR TREK: SECRET VOYAGE  was a unique  Trek  fan film, featuring the U.S.S.  Enterprise  NCC-1701 from TOS but with an entirely different crew on a secret mission. Shot primarily in a desert area in southern Nevada, the cast and crew featured a mix of trained professionals, semi-professionals, and just plain old  Trek  fans. Considering the amount of footage and variety of camera angles, it was a very ambitious production.

Blog entry posted: March 25, 2021

STAR TREK STUNT DOUBLES (audio interview)

How many people does it take to make a  Star Trek  fan film?  Five?  Ten?  Fifty?  A few have listed over a hundred cast and crew members in their credits.

But what if there’s just ONE guy?  One guy doing all the camera work, costuming, make-up, writing, direction, lighting, sound, editing, compositing, visual FX…and even playing all of the roles?

Meet  MrBonk85  (that’s his YouTube handle) and his  STAR TREK STUNT DOUBLES  fan series.  I first discovered this fellow a few months ago when he released his version of the TOS episode “Spectre of the Gun” (see below).  It compressed the classic episode down to just 5 minutes, a mix of recreations of scenes using original dialog with unexpected flourishes of humor.  And this one fan was was playing all of the roles himself!  It was  very  surreal.

Blog entry posted: May 11, 2018

View all episodes: Youtube Playlist

How many people does it take to make a Star Trek fan film?

Think about the actors, writer(s), director, camera people, sound people, lighting people, costumers, make-up, props people, set designers and builders, special effects, visual FX, music composers, editor…and don’t forget all the production assistants and even the folks who bring the snacks, do the catering, or just run our for pizza.

For the “big” productions, like Star Trek Continues or Axanar , the number can be 50 or even 100 people!  For some of the smaller productions, maybe one or two dozen.

But for a little fan film released in 2010, the answer was just…FOUR.  Titled STAR TREK: SURVIVOR , the 10-minute production featured just four names in the credits, including one name who was the writer / director / producer / star / director of photography / camera operator / editor / music composer / special effects / miniatures / make-up / visual effects / and additional voices guy: MATTHEW BLACKBURN.

Seven years went by, and Star Trek: Survivor seemed content to hold its place in fan film history as a simple one-off project.  I’d written a blog about it early on for my FAN FILM FRIDAY feature on the Axanar website, and I was planning on bringing it over here to FAN FILM FACTOR eventually.  But before I could, Matthew Blackburn surprised me with a SEQUEL!!!

Blog entry posted: June 30, 2017

At the beginning of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , Admiral Kirk quips, “Galloping around the cosmos is a game for the young…”  If he only knew!

The captains just keep getting younger as 8-year-old ARIANNA ANDREWS takes the center seat in ARIANNA’S ENTERPRISE …an impressive 6-minute fan film.

As a dad myself, I smiled the whole time as I watched this adorable little girl put in a top-notch acting performance along with her father (a professional actor and writer) and her mom.  I reached out to Arianna’s daddy, CHRISTOPHER ANDREWS, with enthusiastic praise and some questions for him and his daughter.

Blog entry posted: July 26  2018

VANCE MAJOR had previously made a name for himself when he turned his character of Chief Engineer Eric Minard  from the fan series  STARSHIP VALIANT  into an artificially long-lived Starfleet officer whose career spanned from the Christopher Pike era all the way through the Battle of Wolf 359, the re-taking of Deep Space Nine, and beyond. Along the way, Minard has encountered multiple alien races, survived space battles and starship crashes, and even squared off against his Mirror Universe doppelgänger. All the while, Vance paid for his dozens and dozens of fan films with the change he found in his sofa, and shot them all on his cell phone.

To me, Vance represents the true HEART of the  Star Trek  fan film community—a Trekker who does this not to get noticed or to get accolades for quality or “sizzle” (most of his episodes are, frankly, minimalistic and slow-moving) but because it’s in his blood…an itch he has to scratch. And Vance invites others to come along and play in his little corner of the sandbox simply because it’s fun!

Blog entry posted: December 9, 2019

CONSTAR CONTINUES (audio interview with GREG TEFT) CONSTAR CONTINUES (audio interview with GREG MITCHELL)

When you hear the word “Constar”—at least if you’re a member of the Star Trek fan film community—you’ll probably think of VANCE MAJOR. Between his MINARD saga fan films, his  CONSTAR CHRONICLES  and  CONSTAR CONTINUES  fan series, and his brand new  CONSTAR COMPLETED fan productions, Vance is responsible for roughly a hundred  different  Star Trek  fan films!

But Vance isn’t SOLELY responsible for them, and he’ll be the first to tell you that. In fact, shortly after his  Constar Chronicles  fan series dropped forty new fan films at the end of 2019 and his  Constar Continues  was about to kick off in early 2020, I asked Vance if he wanted to do a Fan Film Factor interview to discuss his newest series. And that was when Vance suggested, rather than yet another interview where he was the center of attention, why not shift the focus to some of the other important people who help make the U.S.S.  Constar  fly…both literally and figuratively.

Blog entry audio interview with GREG TEFT posted: December 1, 2020 Blog entry audio interview with GREG MITCHELL posted: December 8, 2020

It was the dawn of the Modern Age of Fan Films…

Although fan films date back to the early days of the original Star Trek series, it wasn’t until the mid-1990s that fans were finally able to create something with off-the-shelf consumer products that looked like more than just a crappy home movie.  By the late 90s, fans could record and edit footage using digital cameras, do their own 3D effects and Chroma-keying, and even add music through the use of MIDI.  Many fans were also getting quite good at costuming.  Suddenly, the only limits facing fans who wanted to make their own filmed versions of their favorite genre franchises were their imaginations, creativity, and skills with these new technologies.

Blog entry posted: February 21, 2016

Last November, the fan series DREADNOUGHT DOMINION returned from a 16-month hiatus with a new episode that crossed over with sister fan series STARSHIP VALIANT …an episode entitled “Chain of Command.”  You can read more about that endeavor here in th is Fan Film Factor blog .

Written by Vance Major, Gary Davis, and David R. Wrenn, and directed by Vance and Gary, the scenes for “Chain of Command” were filmed separately in the states of Ohio, North Carolina, and Oklahoma (the former location of Starbase Studios) and then edited together into a 7-minute fan film.  It focused on the new CO of the USS Dominion trying to find a first officer.

It’s rare to see the full (or nearly full) casts of two different fan series cross over into a single fan film.  What’s even rarer is to see them cross over TWICE!

Blog entry posted: August 14, 2017

THE FEDERATION FILES  is an anthology  Star Trek  fan series from show-runners GLEN L. WOLFE and DAN REYNOLDS, both currently based in Arkansas. In fact, Glen is 50% owner of what remains of the TOS sets formerly known as STARBASE STUDIOS. But more recently, Glen and Dan constructed a new TOS bridge set for use in their fan films.

With the release of their latest  Federation Files  episode, the  Star Trek/Star Wars  crossover “Galaxy Hopper,” Glen and Dan come together once again for a very exciting and good-looking fan effort on board the  USS Lexington . What stands out this time—in addition to a really awesome astromech droid!—is a brand new TOS bridge set constructed specially for this production…along with the director: KELLY REYNOLDS.

Blog entry posted: January 3, 2019

 The the seventh overall fan film from the fan series THE FEDERATION FILES  (you can view all of their releases on  this YouTube playlist ), “The Green Manifesto” was written and filmed after the start of the global pandemic and provides a possible origin story for the COVID-19 outbreak.

Set solidly in the 21st century during the time of World War III, the story focuses on Colonel Green from the TOS episode “The Savage Curtain” (although in this fan film, Green is still a Major). His genocidal campaign in the 21st century resulted in the deaths of 37 million people. Green believed he was cleansing the gene pool—a hero in his own mind and to scores of followers…an evil homicidal monster to others and to the annals of future history.  But how did he kill so many people so quickly? This “fandemic” fan film seeks to shine a light on this dark question with a little help from today’s headlines.

Blog entry posted: August 2, 2020

When is a  Star Trek  fan film NOT a  Star Trek  fan film? Or is it vice-versa? For GLEN L. WOLFE, writer and director of the sixth installment of the anthology series  THE FEDERATION FILES , “Voices from the Past,” any distinction is totally blurred and probably irrelevant. No matter what “Voices” might  seem  to be, it is at heart VERY much a  Star Trek  fan film!

Granted, it certainly doesn’t look like a  Star Trek  fan film. There are no starships flying around, no one wearing Starfleet uniforms, no Klingons or Romulans or Cardassians in sight. No main characters from any  Star Trek  TV series or movie are walking around. “Voices” doesn’t even take place in the 23rd or 24th century. And yet, it’s 100% a  Star Trek  fan film!

Blog entry posted: May 14, 2020

Last year, show-runner GLEN L. WOLFE released “His Name Is Mudd,” the first fan film in a new anthology series called THE FEDERATION FILES .  Now Glen and his producer DAN REYNOLDS have released the second production in the anthology series, “Walking Bear, Running Wolf.”

Glen has actually worked in myriad capacities on more than a dozen different fan films (take a look at his IMdB page for a complete list) from actor to producer to set decorator, cameraman, even electrical operator.  But The Federation Files was Glen’s first chance to really take charge, writing and directing both episodes of the new anthology series.

The fourth AVALON UNIVERSE  fan film,  LEGACY , is a short vignette that will lead into their major fifth release, AIR AND DARKNESS . Filming on both projects happened at WARP 66 STUDIOS in Mountain Home, Arkansas  on GLEN WOLFE’s TOS bridge set. But as you’ll see from the fan film, the bridge underwent some noticeable modifications to mimic the look of the U.S.S.  Ares bridge set in Lawrenceville, GA.

And indeed, an  Ares -class starship, the U.S.S.  Athena , is the setting for this vignette, with visual FX done by his lordship—or is it shiplord?—SAMUEL COCKINGS. The music was composed by ADAM MULLEN, who has been scoring scores of VANCE MAJOR’s many  MINARD  and  CONSTAR  fan films and has recently begun scoring for DAVID CHENG’s many cosplay fan films that have come out this year. Adam is a busy guy!

Blog entry posted: December 28, 2020

NEW ORDERS might not seem like much. There’s minimal VFX, and only two characters are talking to each other via subspace for most of it, with a third popping up at the very end. But for me, it was so much more—it was a chance to watch two dear friends come together to make a fan film.

JOSHUA IRWIN and VANCE MAJOR have worked together before this. Josh (as well as his  Avalon Universe  collaborator VICTORIA FOX) has appeared in some of Vance’s  CONSTAR  productions, like “ SHAKEDOWN .” And Vance made a very brief cameo in the  Avalon Universe  episode  DEMONS . But this time felt different.  New Orders wasn’t simply one of them appearing briefly in the other’s film. It was two fan filmmakers who have become “legends” in our small-but-close-knit community, coming together as equals, and teasing the arrival of an awesome fan-favorite character into a fresh, new universe.

Blog entry posted: May 17, 2021

When everything else is stripped away, fan films are the chance we adults get to live out the fantasies we had as children. We are the music makers. We are the dreamers of dreams. And Benny Hall is the very epitome of what fan films are all about. LET OLD WRINKLES COME is a 16-minute fan film shot both at  Neutral Zone Studios  in Kingsland, GA as well as at the iconic Vasquez Rocks Park north of Los Angeles where Kirk fought the Gorn and Vulcan was destroyed by Nero. But this time, Kirk isn’t fighting a Gorn—he’s fighting a Mugato!

The fan film has a real flavor of the 1960s TOS  Star Trek , right down to Kirk putting the moves on a female crew member. I mention this because, what seemed totally normal five decades ago as Kirk regularly hit on crew women like Yeoman Rand, Dr. Helen Noel, and Lt. Marlena Moreau has been supplanted by the #MeToo movement. And while  Let Old Wrinkles Comes  has generally been getting very positive feedback, Kirk’s romantic overtures toward a female crew member in this fan film are stirring up a bit of controversy.

Blog entry posted: January 8, 2020

Holy campy cosmic crossovers!

Is it true that the Caped Crusader cunningly confronted a cranially-controlled Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock??? Did the Dynamic Duo actually encounter an Enterprise ensnared by a capricious collaboration of the Clown Prince of Crime and the captivating Catwoman??? Hold onto your phasers and buckle your utility belts, because Batman and the Boy Wonder are about to go where no Gotham superhero has gone before…

Blog entry posted: March 26, 2016

As you know from reading my many blogs, there’s a heck of a LOT of Star Trek fan films out there!  And thanks to the annual Lucasfilm Star Wars Fan Film Awards (which have been going on since 2002), there’s at least as many (if not more!) Star Wars fan films out there!

But surprisingly, there’s almost no crossover Star Trek/Star Wars fan films on the Internet. And it’s not as though the idea of crossing the franchise streams is completely alien. Fans have edited together scenes from both franchises to create clever mash-ups where the USS Enterprise battles a Star Destroyer or Captain Picard confronts Darth Vader over the view screen. But try to find a film where fans themselves portray the characters of both realities at the same time, and you’ll be looking for a long while.

Fortunately, you don’t have to look…I found one for you!

Blog entry posted: December 15, 2016

Back in the fledgling days of filmmaking, silent movies endeavored to tell stories without the benefit of spoken words. Indeed, the early works of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton endeavored to make audiences laugh with purely physical (“slapstick”) comedy. In many ways, silent movie-making is a bit of a lost art.

But what’s so great about the fan film format is that there are no rules (only  guidelines ), and that freedom and flexibility allow fan filmmakers to explore all aspects of cinematic expression…including, as of now, silent slapstick comedy.  Granted, I don’t think Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy have anything to fear (yet) from the comedy hijinks of JENS DOMBEK (“The German Spock”) and his buddy MICHAEL O’CONNOR KELLY. But who cares? It’s fun watching Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock in a whimsical series of sight gags.

Blog entry posted: February 26, 2021

CERBASI TREK – The Search for Nicolas (interview)

The Cerbasi family lives in the town of Reading in the United Kingdom.  “Captain Daddy” WAYNE CERBASI has two sons, PETER (almost 12-years-old) and NICHOLAS (9-years-old).  And a few months ago, they made a 16-minute  Star Trek  fan film.

Most machinima-based  Trek  fan films use only the video game renderings for all of their scenes.  What makes  Cerbasi Trek  unique, however, is that this is the first time (that I’m aware of, and I’ve looked hard) that a  Trek  fan filmmaker has utilized green screen compositing alongside machinima to incorporate  real  people INTO the computer-generated scenes.  Wayne and his two sons appear  with  the CGI characters on the virtual bridges, and the result is a really fun-looking adventure…

Blog entry posted: April 27, 2018

Just before the start of the new year, the anthology series  THE FEDERATION FILES  released its third full episode: “Extraction.”  Produced by GLEN L. WOLFE and DAN REYNOLDS, this episode was written by Glen and features Dan as the captain of the  USS Nikita , a dreadnought-class starship.  Glen also appears briefly as a shuttlecraft pilot.

But the cast is much more extensive than that.  The 12-minute fan film features Romulans, a Starfleet bridge crew, shuttlecraft pilots, and a team of TOS-era MACOs.  The episode also features a Starfleet shuttlecraft interior set that took about four weeks to build.

Blog entry posted: January 4, 2018

Recently, Glen Wolfe “rescued” (my word) a fan film from several years ago that was partially filmed at  Retro Studios in Ticonderoga, NY, but never completed. That fan film was  STAR TREK: EQUINOX.  Glen came in, created a new 24th framing sequence, and finished the ill-fated fan film half a decade later.

Late last year, Glen decided to do an encore with another uncompleted fan film from 2006-2007 called  STAR TREK: ORIGINS  – “The Wounds of War.” Once again, Glen produced a framing sequence and incorporated filmed elements of the the original footage to create an entirely original production—a new episode of the  The Federation Files  that he chose to call “ FRIENDS AND FOES .”

Blog entry posted: June 4, 2021

If there were ever a game of “Where’s Waldo” using the credits of Star Trek fan films, Glen L. Wolfe would surely be Waldo.  If you visit Glen’s IMDb page , you’ll see him having participated in a dozen different fan films and series stretching back to 2013: Star Trek: Renegades, Horizon, Deception, Secret Voyage, Ambush, Equinox, Temporal Anomaly , and multiple episodes of New Voyages and Continues .  He’s worked on fan films as an actor, producer, cameraman, electrician, and art designer.

And now Glen can add writer and director to that list, having finally been the show-runner on a fan film of his own.  “ His Name Is Mudd ” serves as the debut release of the new THE FEDERATION FILES , which is produced in conjunction with Starfleet Studios in Iowa.

Blog entry posted: October 21, 2016

When the global pandemic hit and the world began sheltering in place (at least in many countries), I wondered what effect the quarantining would have on  Star Trek  fan films. After all, most fan films involve multiple people interacting closely together. Even the distance between an actor and a camera person can’t always be six feet…and who wants to film a bridge crew who are all wearing masks? I mean, I suppose you could do a fan film that takes place entirely on board a Breen or Gorn vessel, but most races in  Star Trek  show their mouths and noses.

When I finally saw how one group of Trekkers from France solved that problem, their answer seemed so elegant (leave it to the French!) and so obvious that I just had to stand up and clap for their ingenuity and inspiration. At first, you don’t even realize it’s a  Star Trek  story, but then—well, rather than spoil it, just watch the short film first, and then read on.

READ MORE..

Blog entry posted: June 10, 2020

The world is just a little topsy-turvy at the moment. Social distancing is affecting nearly all aspects of life. And for us Trekkers, that includes our fan films.  Lately, a series of fan films have been produced entirely during the weeks of shelter-in-place orders. This “fandemic” film, LOOK FORWARD TO THE DAY , features three  very  familiar characters to fans: James T. Kirk, Mr. Mr. Spock, and Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy…having the future equivalent of a three-way Skype call or Zoom meeting. Our new normal, apparently, is also the new normal in the late 23rd century—at least temporarily for our three heroes.

What makes this new fan film extra fun is that the three actors portraying Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are not only cosplayers, but two of them are impersonators of these characters who appear at many conventions.

Blog entry posted: June 18, 2020

At the end of March, a new Star Trek fan production titled MELBOURNE (just that, no “Starship” in front of the name) posted its debut fan film: “ Storm Front, Part 1 .”  One of several fan series shot on the sets of STARBASE STUDIOS (while they were still in their previous Oklahoma City location), Melbourne initially released two ultra-short vignettes, “Pen Pals” and “Pen Pals 2” .)  But fans were really waiting for their first full episode to see what this new fan production would be all about.

Most successful Star Trek fan projects have a driving force behind the production, and in the case of Melbourne , that driving force is show-runner/producer/writer VANCE MAJOR OWEN (his friends call him “Vman”), who lives in Kansas with his wife of 17 years and his newborn son, Royce.  I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Vance for a very friendly interview.  In fact, “friendly” is one of the best adjectives I could use to describe this warm and humble film producer from the Sunflower State.

Blog entry for “Storm Front, Part 1” posted: April 21, 2017 Blog entry for “Storm Front, Part 2” posted: July 30, 2018

PARAGON’S PARAGON was the first “major”  Star Trek  fan film to be produced…way back in 1974. It wasn’t the first  Trek  fan film ever; those were being made when TOS was still in first-run (like  THE THING IN THE CAVE  from 1967). But writer/director/producer JOHN COSTENTINO, a carpet-layer from Warren, Michigan, spent $2,000 of his own money (the equivalent of $11-15,000 today) to build multiple elaborate set replicas of the bridge, transporter room, turbolift, and other parts of the starship  Enterprise  (or, as he renamed it, the U.S.S.  Paragon ).

Unfortunately for fans wanting to get a true feel for this early fan film, there wasn’t much available beyond  8 minutes of highlights without dialog. But then, in April 2021, the same fan who had posted those highlights, ROBERT LONG II, unexpectedly posted a new, longer version…this time with restored audio. Although still not the entire 100-minute fan film, the two 15-minute parts show the first 25 minutes plus 5 minutes of “next week on Paragon’s Paragon .”

Original blog entry posted: January 10, 2016 Restored release blog entry posted: April 30, 2021 Restored release interview posted: May 6, 2021

View: Paragon’s Paragon , Part 1 View: Paragon’s Paragon , Part 2

Do they know it’s Christmas time at all? This is an interesting question when it comes to  Star Trek . The earliest mention of the annual winter holiday was waaaay back in November of 1966 when the ninth episode of TOS, “Dagger of the Mind,” mentioned that Captain Kirk had met Dr. Helen Noel at a Christmas party in the science lab. (Noel / Christmas…get it?) Later on, Picard enters the Nexus in  Generations  and emerges inside of a Christmas holiday with his “family.”

Now, in a brand new release from  STAR TREK  FAN PRODUCTIONS INTERNATIONAL , we get to see what happens at Starfleet HQ and on a couple of familiar starships on Christmas eve.  PEACE AND GOODWILL  is the fifth fan film that this group has released, and the fourth this year alone! ( You can watch all of their releases here. ) The latter four were all produced remotely with the actors recording their lines in separate locations and editing the footage together later—what I have taken to calling “fandemic” films.

Blog entry posted: December 17, 2020

QUICK TREK (interview)

DAVID WHITNEY is an avowed Voyager fan and has already made a name for himself and his STARFLEET STUDIOS production company with a series of Voyager Continues  fan films including the half-hour long  RAVEN  from 2016 and the short fan film  DERELICT .

With plans in motion for more  Voyager  and  Raven  productions, David has also busied himself with a new and unique series of five “ QUICK TREKS ” (not to be confused with  Short Treks , since David’s fan films came first), each running between two and four minutes.  The first  Quick Trek debuted last November and focused on Captain Janeway’s quest to order a simple cup of coffee while being “thwarted” at every turn by a friendly and helpful barista.

Blog entry posted: October 12, 2018

RICHARD WELLS: I was initially explaining the idea of using the sets for educational productions to my cousin, who is a teacher, and she said she would talk to some friends about it.  A few months later, out of the blue, she called and said, “We have the first script ready!”  And I suddenly realized: “Okay, so I’m producing a fan film.”  I hadn’t really thought about doing my own film before that phone call.

The local teachers who wrote the lesson plan scripts – each is a short story teaching some aspect of science in an engaging way – plan to incorporate our show into the classroom with their students.  Hopefully, it will inspire them to go further along with their science interests.

Blog entry posted: May 9, 2016

Now, this is intriguing!  If you look about half-way down the fan film guidelines to the second-to-last point under #6, you find the following:

No unlicensed Star Trek -related or fan production-related merchandise or services can be offered for sale or given away as premiums, perks or rewards or in connection with the fan production fundraising.

That seems pretty straightforward.  If you want to give away any perks, they have to be licensed Star Trek merchandise.  You can’t give any patches or T-shirts or signed scripts or posters or anything related to your fan production in exchange for donations…at least if you want to make sure you aren’t sued or sent a cease and desist letter by CBS and Paramount.

So how was it that STARSHIP REPUBLIC, the newest fan film to launch a crowd-funding campaign (and the first to do so since the Axanar settlement), was offering a whole set of perks?  Sure, most perks were digital, but there were also physical posters in the mix (like the two images shown above).

Well, it turns out that they simply asked CBS for permission–and they got it!  Well, kinda…

Blog entry posted: February 24, 2017

The various  Potemkin Pictures productions have seen three bases of operations over a ten-plus year period. Things began in Albany, GA with their first fan series (back when you were allowed to call it that), PROJECT: POTEMKIN . When show-runner RANDY LANDERS moved to Alabama, some of the production team stayed in Georgia while others migrated to Alabama and various new creative groups formed:  DEIMOS ,  ALEXANDER ,  TRISTAN ,  MARIE CURIE ,  BATTLECRUISER KUPOK ,  TRITON , and  ENDEAVOUR …releasing (prior to the pandemic) an average of a dozen combined fan films each year.

In 2019, Randy and his wife moved again, this time to Lexington, KY. This has allowed a whole new assemblage of fan filmmakers—writers, directors, producers, actors, make-up and costuming people, set builders, etc.—to join in on the fun in a brand new location.

First blog entry posted: November 6, 2020

On May 13, 2005, Star Trek: Enterprise aired its series finale, “These Are the Voyages”–completely skipping over a half-decade of the much anticipated Romulan War with Earth and the Coalition of Planets.

Many fans were, quite understandably, disappointed.  In addition to strengthening the alliances that would form the Federation and shaping the very direction of Starfleet technology from pure exploration into vessels that could also fight and defend, the very nature of the Romulan War promised action and drama that the fifth Star Trek television series (sixth if you count the animated series) had not previously been able to develop.

Two and a half years later, on November 23, 2007, Star Trek fans began to fill in that missing half decade with a new fan series: STAR TREK: THE ROMULAN WARS .

Blog entry posted: August 21, 2017

View episodes from here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WryHWtn28xU&list=PLUQz8J8ePpZ5dcXW4_XfAYn4aKARs2bcv

A couple of months ago, VANCE MAJOR announced that he would be returning to fan films with a new series titled CONSTAR CHRONICLES , about the heavy cruiser class starship that Erick Minard commanded in the later part of his long career.  The debut episode of that new series just premiered a few weeks ago as a 5-minute crossover with Dreadnought Dominion  featuring Vance’s friend GARY DAVIS playing  Captain Jason Brousseau .  It’s a fun little vignette, and I must say that it’s about time!  You’ll get that joke after you watch it.

Blog entry posted: August 23, 2018

TO HAVE BOLDLY GONE (audio interview)

I think it was Deforest Gump who once said, “ Star Trek  fan films are like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re gonna get…” Or did I dream that?

Speaking of dreaming and never knowing what you’re gonna get, I recently experienced the brand new 2-part  Star   Trek  fan film  TO HAVE BOLDLY GONE , written and directed by (and starring) LARRY FLEMING…and it was quite a head trip, lemme tellya!

To Have Boldly Gone  is the first time Larry has been a show-runner on his own  Trek  fan production…and the film is a pretty wild ride! Is it a parody? A dream sequence? Theater of the absurd? Take a look at this 2-parter and decide for yourself…

Blog entry posted: July 10, 2019

It’s now the age of the pandemic fan films—or fandemic films, as I like to call them—at least for the time being. And like the coronavirus itself,  Star Trek  fan films are proving to be quite tenacious and hard to get of…which is a GOOD thing if you like  Star Trek  fan films (and I certainly do)!

After releasing the LOOK FORWARD TO THE DAY with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy having a long distance “Zoom call,” DAVID CHENG and MIKE LONGO have teamed up once again, this time with KEN HAYASHIDA, to present a brand new “Zoom call” adventure…this time featuring Captain Kirk, Captain Sulu, and Admiral Nogura (along with a forth “Away Team Officer”). The 7-minute vignette is from STAR TREK FAN PRODUCTIONS INTERNATIONAL and is very nicely done (especially since all of the actors are cosplayers and have impeccable monster maroon uniforms).

Blog entry posted: October 16, 2020

VOYAGER CONTINUES – “Derelict” (feature)

In the genre of Star Trek fan films, the universe (quadrant?) of the series Voyager is a rare setting.  But one stalwart fan believes that the indomitable Intrepid -class starship, lost for seven years in the Delta Quadrant, is the perfect subject matter for a Trek fan production.

I interviewed David Whitney of STARFLEET STUDIOS as he was completing post-production on his first VOYAGER CONTINUES project: STAR TREK: RAVEN , which debuted last October as a 32-minute fan film.  That film concentrated on events in the Alpha Quadrant during the time that Voyager was missing but ended with a scene on Voyager itself.

Now, half a year later, David just released his second effort, a 9-minute short film titled “Derelict.”  This one focuses on two members of the crew—Harry Kim and Seven-of-Nine—on board a, you guessed it, derelict spacecraft. And while Raven used mostly green screen sequences where actors were composited against virtual backgrounds created in CGI, “Derelict” uses practical (physical) sets with consoles that had originally been created for and used by the television series Stargate Atlantis !

Blog entry posted: April 4, 2017

If the release of the new guidelines by CBS and Paramount was the shot heard round the fan film world, then the subsequent response by the show-runner of Star Trek Raven was the first hint of return fire.

A week after CBS and Paramount published their guidelines for Star Trek fan films, an announcement went up on the news page for Star Trek Raven , a little-known fan series based in central Iowa filmed at Starfleet Studios (not to be confused with Starbase Studios in Oklahoma). The production had only released three short vignettes so far ( this , this , and this ), but Raven was about to become one of the most talked about fan films.

On July 1, the lead producer for Raven , David Whitney, posted this proactive statement:

The rules which pertain to direct copyright infringement and intellectual property will be adhered to. The rules which do not directly support their copyright, and copyright law, will be ignored.

  Wow! Them’s fightin’ words!!

Blog entry posted: July 17, 2016

From way back in March of 1967, while the original Star Trek  was still in its debut season, a trio of youngsters created a short  Trek  fan film titled  THE THING IN THE CAVE . And here’s the most amazing thing: they used actual tunics from the show loaned out to them directly from the  Star Trek  set on the Paramount lot!

Imagine a fan film today using actual spare uniforms from  Discovery  or  Picard . The mind boggles! But things were apparently much different in 1967 (the year I was born).  So who were these kids, how did they get a hold of actual  Star Trek  tunics, and why are we only first finding out about this “lost” fan film 53 years later?

Blog entry posted: May 7, 2020

• August 28, 2024 | Interview: Nicholas Meyer On Why ‘The Wrath Of Khan’ Endures, And His “Toxic” Memos With Gene Roddenberry
• August 27, 2024 | Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery – The Final Season’ On Blu-ray Comes To A Satisfying Conclusion
• August 27, 2024 | See Spock Imprisoned By Sela In Preview Of ‘Star Trek: Defiant’ #18
• August 26, 2024 | Edgar Bronfman Drops 11th-Hour Bid For Paramount; Skydance Merger Set To Complete In Early 2025
• August 26, 2024 | Production Begins For ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’

Fan Film Review: There’s A Lot Of Love In ‘Star Trek: First Frontier’

| October 27, 2020 | By: Dénes House 92 comments so far

Star Trek: First Frontier is an ambitious, full-length, fan-produced film focusing on Robert April, the first captain of the original USS Enterprise. The fan film, with over 900,000 views on YouTube since it was released month, strikes many of the notes that made Star Trek: The Original Series so special. And even though Star Trek: First Frontier is not exactly a bases-loaded home run, it swings for the fences with such gusto—including building an 11-foot model of the USS Enterprise for visual effects shots—that it’s impossible not to love it. This production was not crowdfunded, but it still breaks many of the fan film guidelines set out by CBS in recent years. However, as its principal photography was all completed before the guidelines were set in place, the team behind it hopes that the movie is “grandfathered” in as a result.

“Even when you were in diapers, you used to look at the night sky, and talk about those distant stars and galaxies, and tell me how far they were away. You read all about it in your science book. You’d say, when I’m grown up, they won’t be so far” – John April

Star Trek: First Frontier follows Captain Robert April as he returns from a dangerous mission in which he saved the lives of dozens of his crewmates, but all he can see in his mind’s eye are the people he was unable to save. The guilt of it manifests as a post-traumatic stress disorder, and though he puts up a strong front, he does not feel able to return to the stars that have drawn him onward since he was a child. “I am broken!” April says to his wife, Sarah. “I am not the man I once was! I have no idea how to be that man again.”

Robert Pralgo as Robert April and Tara Ochs as Sarah April

But April is pressed back into service by a series of attacks by the mysterious alien race, the Sa’ryn: bug-eyed, ’50s sci-fi-style monsters whose only motivation is destruction. “They have evolved to be cruel,” one character explains. “To become more vicious, to terrorize. That is what they do.” The Sa’ryn have been awakened from hibernation by Starfleet explorers and have taken some officers captive, including April’s sister. April is enlisted to take the newly built Enterprise out to find and rescue the hostages and to figure out how to stop the Sa’ryn’s deadly rampage through the galaxy.

There’s a lot to love in First Frontier . The project was the brainchild of director Kenneth Smith, who penned the story but instead of casting himself in a lead role, brought in a number of professionals. Robert Pralgo ( The Vampire Diaries ) plays Robert April as an intelligent but tormented man, learning to come to grips with his limitations. Tara Ochs ( Nashville ) is fantastic as Sarah April, a brilliant doctor who loves her husband but cannot figure out how to give him the help that he needs. The standout performance is by veteran character actor Barry Corbin ( Northern Exposure ). In the small role of April’s father John, he gives Robert the folksy inspirational speech that reignites his passion for space. However, other performances are on an uneven par, as with other fan productions.

Captain April (Robert Pralgo) on the bridge of the USS Enterprise in First Frontier

The costumes are superb, looking like a gentle upgrade to the uniforms from “The Cage” and “Where No Man Has Gone Before” without being a complete redesign. The sets are convincing, for the most part duplicating the pilot-era Enterprise interiors in excellent detail. The cinematography is solid with the exception of a few out-of-focus patches, taking a cue from Jerry Finnerman’s iconic imagery from TOS but dialing down some of the colors to suit a more modern palette. The score is borrowed directly from James Horner’s compositions for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , which at points seems to handcuff the action, as though the film was shot and cut to match the existing score rather than the other way around.

Some of the effects shots are fantastic. The 11-foot Enterprise model looks gorgeous, and even when Smith had to fall back on digital effects to speed up the production, many of the CG elements are quite convincing. In other spots, the film betrays its made-on-a-shoestring budget, with most of the matte effects feeling quite rough. There are a number of awkward edits, and at times characters and ships show up in places with little explanation, and April seems to make the same realization several times during a short stretch of story. The sound mix is annoyingly distracting, with the music and sound effects at times so overwhelming that you can’t hear the dialogue at all.

The USS Enterprise in First Frontier

But every fan film is a learning experience, and this one was made with a lot of love and a metric ton of ambition. I wish the Sa’ryn had more of a motivation than their “all will die” motto indicates. At its best, Star Trek shines by having alien races embody some aspect of human culture that Starfleet’s encounters with them can explore. The script includes a number of action set pieces, but resolving them doesn’t necessitate any growth on the protagonist’s part, making them feel episodic rather than integral.

Still, Star Trek: First Frontier captures a lot of the love of exploration and discovery that TOS built into the DNA of the Star Trek Universe from the very beginning. When Captain April invokes a blessing over the Enterprise in the film’s closing minutes and the ship heads out into the great unknown, any Star Trek fan will feel a sense of satisfaction and anticipation for what lies ahead. “The Good Lord has seen fit to provide us with plenty of stars to sail by. May he also see fit to provide a strong wind in our sails and safe passage on our journeys.”

Make it so.

Watch Star Trek: First Frontier

Behind the scenes on First Frontier

Ever since seeing the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode “The Counter-Clock Incident,” First Frontier producer Kenneth Smith has been fascinated with the character of Captain Robert April. Before Kirk, before Pike, April was the one who took the original USS Enterprise out of drydock for the very first time. What struck Smith so deeply about the character was his sense of deep satisfaction with his life. “When [he was] given the opportunity to relive that life, he turned it down. That always fascinated me,” Smith said. “I knew he must have had some amazing stories to tell to be that satisfied with his life with Sarah. He would be the first married Captain.”

First Frontier producer Kenny Smith (seated) with his team

His interest in the character led Smith to ultimately create this 80-minute fan film, detailing his version of April’s first voyage aboard the Enterprise. When his attempt at crowdfunding the movie failed, Smith decided to pay for the production himself, pursuing a seven-year journey step by step. Along the way, Smith collected some impressive talent for the production, including a moving opening narration by Nichelle Nichols.

Behind the scenes with actors Barry Corbin and Robert Pralgo

And his passion for The Original Series led Smith to attempt what no other fan production has done: construct a full-size, physical 11-foot model of the original Enterprise herself and shoot the visuals with old-school model photography techniques.

11-foot model of the USS Enterprise

For more on this project, visit the official Facebook Page .

Keep up with the news and analysis of Star Trek fan productions at TrekMovie.com .

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I guess there are no black or brown people in April’s world. Star Trek is a bout diversity, I guess they forgot that!

No need to bring up race but talk all you want.

Black lives matter

Haha I noticed that too but they do have a token Asian even though they make up nearly 40 percent of the earth’s population. Actually my comment is half tongue in cheek, because this is a fan film and I assume the makers are using their enthusiastic friends and family for the cast. Good work to actually get this off the ground and sincere congrats on the overall look and feel. I will have to check it out when I get a change. I enjoyed many of the other fan films based on TOS and I expect to do the same with this one.

The article notes they cast actual actors, not just their friends and family. Either way, could have brought in some non-white members of the fandom.

How do we know they didn’t try?

They didn’t

You didn’t even watch it. Some important characters are not white at all.

I would love to see a fan film where there’s only one token white guy. That’s way closer to what the real future will look like.

They’re on their own ship. Stupid comments beget stupid comments

Yeah, it’s a super-white cast, which is quite sad.

Is that really what you took away from this? No black or brown people? It must be exhausting going through life obsessed with the colour of someone’s skin or what’s between their legs. I pity you.

Now THAT was a stupid reply.

Came here to say this. Representation is important especially in Star Trek projects.

You must really hate when people talk about racism.

The first voice heard is that of a proud woman of color.

Sometimes you make a fan film with a group of friends, maybe just maybe you don’t have friends of every ethnicity (Hey maybe we should have a “Friends diversity act” and have quotas to full fill). My opinion is: If you need to bring up colour, … you are automatically racist or full of prejudice. Colour shouldn’t matter, no matter on which side of the colour spectrum you are. Also, SJW are known to draw the victim card when they run out of arguments.

But it’s Star Trek. Diversity is explicitly a mandate in casting. It’s a fan production, the alien is a non-white actor, there’s an African American playing a minor role as a crewman and Nichelle Nichols graces the opening in VO, but I feel zero shame for noticing halfway through that the rest of the cast is white. This reverse racism psychology some people try to pull to attack inclusion efforts is not productive.

For a production where they actually were able to cast many roles with professional actors, that has to be seen as an unfortunate misstep IMO. It’s not the end of the world, and not something we need to dwell on out of all the wonderful things they managed to do so passionately, but it’s a valid thing to note.

I agree. It seems like a very unfortunate example of unconscious bias based in who the creators know, their social circle.

I have to say that one of the first thoughts I had was “Where in the United States was this made?”

That cast doesn’t look like any crowd I see in urban Ontario where I live or where I grew up on the west coast – and I’m leaving aside the city of Toronto which is more than half BIPOC.

I expect someone from London, or Birmingham or Manchester would say the same.

So, it not just that it’s not reflecting Star Trek’s representation and values going back to TOS, it just doesn’t look like reality to me.

Star Trek is not solely about diversity. It’s about the human adventure. Don’t lose sight of the message just because there weren’t enough colored people to alleviate to satisfying your wokeness.

Yup, yikes.

I don’t think that wokeness has anything to do with my sense that this doesn’t even look like my suburban Canadian high school or university classes in the 70s and 80s, let alone the demographic of our kids’ schools today.

WOW. You must be a boomer.

“ Colour shouldn’t matter, no matter on which side of the colour spectrum you are.”

If you’re white, you are absolutely right. Your color does not matter as it is reflected everyday in nearly everything you see.

If you are not white, then color does matter because you seldom see persons of your color, and when you do many times these images are negative.

“Color not mattering” is a very convenient world view for those who are not people of color. For the rest of us color matters ALL THE TIME because it is the first thing people note about us.

Wrong person to reply to, but I agree!

LOL it never ceases to astound me that somebody can be the type of person to unironically use the term “SJW” and be a Trekkie.

Agreed. And for some reason the “Wrath of Khan” soundtrack which takes you out of the world on the first note.

Lt Tai is of latin decent and in a same sex relationship, there is the asian guy, and that one female is clearly Andorian. Get your shit straight before you start bitchin’

I’d like to take the Andorian and the counselor to Risa.

World War 3 (2026 – 2053)

https://www.reddit.com/r/DaystromInstitute/comments/9uq4ej/world_war_3_was_a_nuclear_exchange_mainly/

Asians and Black Africans were the highest percentage of races killed in Star Trek’s War World Three… This would explain the limited number of those races throughout the Star Trek universe.

Again, it’s a fan production, so they aren’t bound by canon to inform any decisions they make, but that’s not only not canon, but also suuuuch a stretch, especially in 2020.

We don’t need an in-universe explanation to justify why the TOS guest roster is almost entirely Caucasian. We know the unfortunate real world reasons but at least TOS had a groundbreaking regular cast, despite never giving Uhura and Sulu enough to do.

OH PLEASE. No one is buying that crap.

Perhaps similarly to the Klingons their appearance has somehow changed in this century, or they have self segregated to a distant corner of the Galaxy.

They always do. I never watch these crappy fan films, they always try to live in the past. Just looks horrible.

Would you have said the opposite if had been an all non-white cast?

This deserves to be canon.

I like what’s in here. Fan films are not like the real thing but this one shines on its own.

No. No fan films “deserve” to be canon. That’s not how this works.

I thought these things weren’t allowed beyond a certain length anymore.

It said it was made before CBS changed the guidelines.

It does say that, doesn’t it? Right there in the first paragraph. Not sure how I missed that!

Being filmed prior to the guidelines, doesn’t supersede it having to follow the current guidelines. I suspect this will start being pulled down pretty soon. How hard would it have been to break it up into 4 20 min episodes instead of skirting the guidelines Cbs/ paramount have instituted.

Actually I believe it does.

If ViacomCBS had any issues, they would have pulled it by now – it’s been 6-7 weeks. The “guidelines” are just that “guidelines” and every film is a case-by-case basis if it crosses any. This film was self funded, shot 5 years ago before the deadline,runs 90 or so minutes, and has several professional actors – there’s 4 points – but ViacomCBS has done nothing. Trust me, ViacomCBS knows about this film, and has for some time.

But then there are several active fan film series domestic and international that breaks the “series” rule in the guidelines and ViacomCBS has done nothing about them either. Again, “Case-by-Case”.

Remember, the guidelines were put in place by a CBS and Paramount THAT NO LONGER EXISTS – it’s now ViacomCBS with most of the people who were there when the guidelines were in place now gone.

Perhaps it’s time for the current ViacomCBS to clarify the status of the guidelines.

The guidelines would only allow two 15 minute episodes if I recall. Luckily, this was filmed before and they could release it as intended.

It was shot before the guidelines. If ViacomCBS wanted to do something about it, they would have by now.

Phase 2’s last episode was also filmed prior to the restrictions and that has yet to see the light of day. How are these people getting away with this?

Phase 2’s last ep still had work to be done on it that couldn’t be done after the hammer dropped. Even says so on their website

Actually, it was the last 3 in various states of completion.

P2 is run by a bunch of cowards who kowtowed to CBS in order to license their sets as a for profit museum attraction.

That was a childish, uninformed and stupid response.

Childishly expressed, perhaps, but their “museum” is a re-creation and NOT a curated institute acquiring 1960s era artifacts and restoring them.

Their license is pretty much the same commercial type Universal Studios got to sell tickets to watch select fans make and be in a Trek “episode”.

And now they are adding the TNG Bridge to the “museum”…

Not sure what the point of building a physical miniature is when you light and comp it in such a way that it LOOKS like it is whole-cloth CG. And that’s coming from a huge fan of miniatures. Really wish they had the TOS strong keylight look in the exteriors. I just spent a couple minutes skimming through, haven’t actually watched all of any single fan film in my life. The guy playing April seems to have some gravitas, that’s something anyway.

I suspect the poor lighting was done precisely for the look you fingered, as they likely anticipated eventually resorting to CGI which the article mentions?

Wow, pretty cool that some fans take their enthusiasm to an extreme and we get to watch the fruits of their hard work. I really liked many of the other TOS fan films on YT. The look of this fan film is great and I look forward to checking this one out sometime when I get the chance.

The one pet peeve I have with the fan films (and I know many will say it is ridiculous haha – guilty as charged) is that according to a network memo from the 1960s both TOS producers Gene and Bob Justman made it quite clear that the delta insignia was to be worn by all starfleet personnel regardless of the ship they served on. I know this was never corrected on the TOS shows and each ship and starbase had a unique insignia, but I am happy that the prequels like Discovery are adhering to that intent and going forward it would be nice to see the fan film prequels do the same.

A for effort, the review sums up my impressions from skimming it as well. Just a shame they couldn’t enlist an audio engineer to donate his time – sound mix is the biggest issue.

Yeah. The score is way too loud – and, maybe it’s just because I listened to the Horner scores so many times as a kid, but the music is distracting and doesn’t really fit here.

I know it’s a fan film with a limited budget, but everything else is so well-done that the sound/music really stand out.

Back when i was 12 or 13, i read Diane Carey’s classic ‘Final Frontier’. It remains perhaps my very favorite Star Trek novel, and defined my perception of April.

‘First Frontier’ offers a completely different take — but as regards the Enterprise family, it’s fully as convincing. I watched it once, and then again, about a month ago… It is actually a very satisfying view; not easy when all we’ve got is a TAS episode with the Aprils and few other canon references.

This felt like a feature-length pilot, and follows in the footsteps: the fresh-out-of-spacedock ship (‘Broken Bow’); the sensitive and mysterious mission as impetus (‘Caretaker’); the troubled, reluctant hero that has no desire for the job (‘Emissary’). With the Nichols voiceover, there’s even a sort of cameo from some preceding luminary.

But in many ways, it has the most to do with TMP and ST09. Both function primarily to introduce us to the ship and to get the crew together on the bridge at the end. In that regard, the central conflict — the story that gets the Enterprise family together — is really secondary.

And that’s fortunate, as the central conflict story is pretty nowhere. But, well, that too follows in the footsteps of TMP and ST09.

OK, the balancing of the sounds and music and dialogue are a mess. Ditto for some of the editing, visual effects, and so forth. It’s annoying, and the sound issues are a relatively simple fix.

When i realized that they were using just the Horner Trek scores, i worried that it would be too conspicuously ‘Horner-scored films’ derived. But that quit bothering me early, and overall they did a nice job. (On these fan-film productions, i always wish for fresh music — but low budgets force hard choices. They did a nice job with Horner here.)

But Star Trek is ultimately about people; and it does it best, accordingly, when it has a big heart. And ‘First Frontier’ has plenty of heart. The writing job on the characters was quite good.

And, in common with the feature-length pilots earlier, i found myself eager to see more of this crew…

… and, yes, that fabulous 11-foot Enterprise model!

Obviously we won’t get that (thanks very much, CBS), but it’s a satisfying trip.

Quick addendum RE feature-length pilots… April leaning forward and ‘Let’s see what’s out there,’ recalls (or anticipates) Picard at close of ‘Encounter at Farpoint’.

Oh just read your post, agreed on Final Frontier. That story flowed so well, it will always to be me the first mission of the Enterprise, granted as the unnamed Empress at the time. Even the discussion between George Kirk and April on naming the ship rang true. That story has such good flow…. wish someone would make it into a film!!

This film does have a few rough spots. But the script is good, the performances by the lead actors are top notch, and the film has heart. It’s clearly a labor of love and I very much enjoyed watching it.

I am going to watch and I am sure I am going to love it, but I got to say, why wouldn’t you make a fan film of Diane Carey’s Final Frontier?!?! That was easily among the best Trek stories ever that captures all the good in Trek in one amazing adventure. “Final Frontier is the story of a secret mission gone horribly wrong–and a moment in time when the galaxy stood poised on the brink of one final, destructive war. And it is the story of a legendary ship–and a man we know as the father of Star Fleet’s greatest captain.” Had Robert April as the pacifist explorer that knew he needed Kirk’s Dad aboard (security officer/military) in a universe before both could co-exist in a JTK type. And it had great situational comedy and amazing starship combat.

“I am going to watch and I am sure I am going to love it, but I got to say, why wouldn’t you make a fan film of Diane Carey’s Final Frontier?!?!”

Well that’s pretty simple, for copyright reasons. Making a fan film is one thing, using an official story can probably get you into real trouble with the company and probably cut you off from making future films.

You’d think you’d be able to get a free sign off given it would sell more novels I bet. My preference though – CBS uses that awesome 1701 set and does it officially.

Well you can say that about every Star Trek novel. ;)

And it doesn’t stop CBS or Paramount from making an OFFICIAL movies/shows dealing with novels, but never done it. Many fans thought Picard might be about the Destiny novels that fans seem to love but sadly didn’t happen. Those I heard a lot about as well.

incredible. thats passion and love for trek. love it.

Great review – absolutely hit the nail on the head from what I had noted while watching it. It’s good to enjoy a TrekMovie article thoroughly again.

The sound mix was very off at times, especially where music was concerned. Some of the effects appeared as if they still needed work here and there. My biggest gripe were the design of the aliens. They looked as if they should have been in season 2 of Lost in Space…

This is no way meant to detract from the overall of the film. The story and acting were stellar.

With what they had, the end result is a testament to what can be done with so few resources.

The Enterprise model looks gorgeous. I would love to see them take on a build of the TOS production version. The bridge was likewise amazing.

Does anyone know if they have plans for anything else Trek related?

Also, do they have anything other than Facebook page?

This was good, some scenes were a little fake,but still good only comments are the Men are too bulky for Starship personal & Captains.

Other than effects, seem correct,as too the people of color things, there was a few Granted ( Asian, Hispanic, black, and of course aliens (blue, black, yellowish, but no Vulcans, Klingons, Romulans.

Still guest, stars was very nice to see and hear(Beginning dialogue).

A well made efforts, for a independent Film feature, fascinating!!

This is what frustrates me with Star Trek cannon. I have read books on the series, listened to audio books and i have seen all the episodes and movies for the entire franchise. The story about first contact has been depicted and described several different ways… Johnathan Archer was depicted as the original captain in stories that claim that the first enterprise was a top secret project. This was enforced by the Enterprise series… I am a Trekkie at heart but I wish there was more control over the cannon like there is in Star wars.

Anything that is not in television and movies is generally considered “not canon”. The exception is some of the comics were considered Kelvinverse canon, but even that may not be the case if filmmakers or show runners decide to do different things in the shows or movies.

The reason for this is that there is `’fandom.” Star Trek was saved not necessarily by it’s creator – but by legions of fans who wrote their own stories and self-published them. That spirit of possibilities is what has always permitted different takes in the “official” published Star Trek literature. Now, 50 years later, it’s also true in fan made films and even in official “pocket universes” which give alternative takes on familiar stories.

Nx-01 was the first enterprise or did they forget there was already a series about that with Capt. Archer, which I might add, was quite fabulous!

While you are correct….Archer was the 1st captain of “an Enterprise” which was an NX class starship… in a non-federation state. Capt April was the 1st captain of the Constitution Class NCC class starship under the Federation…

A kind review for a well-intentioned attempt at Star Trek.

Got to respect their passion. Just can’t sit through these fan films though. But thats OK I guess lol

Star Trek Continues is worth a watch as a whole.

I would love to see another production with this cast and crew if they learn lessons from this one:

• Fix the sound mix, we’re all agreed there.
• A lot of it seemed like it needed more light on-set. It felt dark and cold – bring back some 10000w lamps with colored gels. As someone else mentioned, the high-key space lighting from TOS would have looked better than the deep shadows during the space sequences.
• The lead actors were great, but I think, like a lot of fan films, there’s a need to put more oomph and volume behind the lines. It’s a fine line between cinematic style and hammy stage acting, but it felt like there was a lot of low-key whispering. I rather wish Robert Pralgo had been encouraged to do ‘faster and more intensity,’ Lucas-style :) Even RSC-trained Patrick Stewart leans into his lines with more gusto. I think this is what sort of also led to the (typical for fan films, but manageable) difference between the pro and amateur actors’ delivery.
• Pacing was a problem. It’s the curse of the first-time director that they fall in love with every shot and want to keep every scene, but it could have had snappier energy and better edits. It could have easily been trimmed to 60 minutes or even a tight 45-minute pilot episode.
• Edits were a problem. A lot of cuts that left the viewer wondering what they were looking at or which ship they were on, particularly in the final battle sequence. Different lighting, reverse camera angles, or using quick glimpses of the ship exterior to hint to the viewers that we’re about to move locations would have helped. (Also, showcases why the Reliant had to look different to the Enterprise in TWOK, because two Constitution-class ships onscreen gets confusing quickly.)
• Cinematography was static and kind of boring. Needed more dynamic moves, dolly zooms, whip pans, Steadicam shots to tell the story.
• Barry Corbin in 20th-century clothes and in a 20th-century house felt odd (something that also didn’t work in Star Trek: Horizon ‘s Earth sequences), like someone had wandered onto the set from outside. Even small towns evolve in 300 years!
• Was a lesson learned? Where was the nice summation, the buttoner line that would have put things into perspective at the end? All good classic Trek needs an Aesop… :)

Boy you guys were right about the sound mixing, holy moly. Other than that, interesting story and overall looks pretty solid, except for those birds flying over San Fran 😂

It is a good film. Watched half and really enjoying it.

I Love this fan Star Trek episode! My only criticism was that Captain April needed to shave. But his acting was superb! (I did 22 years in the US Navy so seeing officers unshaven is taboo in my world!) Bravo Zulu.

I agree. April should have been clean shaven. I understand that the producers/creators were going for the “seasoned” , “battle weary” look. But an officer should always be clean shaven.

The production was really great for a fan film. Yes, things could have been better regarding special effects and such, but on their budget? Impressive.

The special effects explosions and such were very crude, like something I used to do in the mid-90’s on my own video editing. Outside of that, they made a darn good try, but the story was loose and the interpersonal relationship drama fell flat. I don’t blame the actors. I blame the writing. If the personal drama doesn’t aid the story, then don’t have it.

I think the whole essence of Star Trek was completely missed in this fan film.

With very, very poor special effects and some awful editing and camera work it is nothing short of cringe worthy. I had to stop watching it 3 times it was so bad and then continue at a later time or date to complete the agony.

The writers have attempted to create an all action, unknown aliens are evil, plot and yes most of the cast was white. Although there was one Asian, Hispanic and African American officers in the film this didn’t do enough to show how diverse the Star Trek universe is.

Even the title sequence was a bit of a nightmare, with the stuttering U.S.S Enterprise attempting to flash across the screen, reminiscent of The Original Series opening credits.

I guess this fan film is ideal for Halloween!

Is it me, r is the deflector dish too big?

Thoroughly enjoyed this!!I I really liked the plot and especially the actors..they did an outstanding job. I always wonder what it’s like, from the perspective of a young actor who didn’t grow up with TOS, to wear makeup and costumes and perform on sets that are all replicas of a 50 year old sci show. It’s got to be a hoot!

The not so good” Yeah, the STII music was distracting for me as well. Wish they would’ve gone with TOS and it yes, was a bit loud in parts. Even with the imperfections though, you can tell it was from made from the heart and that one heck of a lot of work went in to it.

Cheers mates! Thanks for entertaining me for a bit!

I really hope the production team would consider trying to find someone to properly score this fan film. It deserves as much. It looks really good. The current soundtrack though, I just can’t sit through the movie with the wrath of Khan soundtrack. :( It’s so overused. Surely there were other options.

Sorry, but even the opening credit sequence is horrible. All the ships look really bad and don’t know how to fly.

Well, it’s a fan film…..

Really impressive. Good “final” contribution to the fanon of TOS-inspired fan films that bridged the era between ENT and DSC. The use of the TWOK score is a tad off, they should have used 50s and 60s style scifi scores instead. The movie looks like a true TOS prequel with throwbacks to 50s invasion flicks. The score is off. But nonetheless really awesome…

OMG This is so highly unwatchable bad. It actually makes STD look good…which is not meant as a complement.

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CBS and Paramount Pictures are big believers in reasonable fan fiction and fan creativity, and, in particular, want amateur fan filmmakers to showcase their passion for Star Trek . Therefore, CBS and Paramount Pictures will not object to, or take legal action against, Star Trek fan productions that are non-professional and amateur and meet the following guidelines.

Guidelines for Avoiding Objections:

• The fan production must be less than 15 minutes for a single self-contained story, or no more than 2 segments, episodes or parts, not to exceed 30 minutes total, with no additional seasons, episodes, parts, sequels or remakes.
• The title of the fan production or any parts cannot include the name “Star Trek.” However, the title must contain a subtitle with the phrase: “A STAR TREK FAN PRODUCTION” in plain typeface. The fan production cannot use the term “official” in either its title or subtitle or in any marketing, promotions or social media for the fan production.
• The content in the fan production must be original, not reproductions, recreations or clips from any Star Trek production. If non- Star Trek third party content is used, all necessary permissions for any third party content should be obtained in writing.
• If the fan production uses commercially-available Star Trek uniforms, accessories, toys and props, these items must be official merchandise and not bootleg items or imitations of such commercially available products.
• The fan production must be a real “fan” production, i.e., creators, actors and all other participants must be amateurs, cannot be compensated for their services, and cannot be currently or previously employed on any Star Trek series, films, production of DVDs or with any of CBS or Paramount Pictures’ licensees.
• The fan production must be non-commercial: - CBS and Paramount Pictures do not object to limited fundraising for the creation of a fan production, whether 1 or 2 segments and consistent with these guidelines, so long as the total amount does not exceed $50,000, including all platform fees, and when the $50,000 goal is reached, all fundraising must cease. - The fan production must only be exhibited or distributed on a no-charge basis and/or shared via streaming services without generating revenue. - The fan production cannot be distributed in a physical format such as DVD or Blu-ray. - The fan production cannot be used to derive advertising revenue including, but not limited to, through for example, the use of pre or post-roll advertising, click-through advertising banners, that is associated with the fan production. - No unlicensed Star Trek -related or fan production-related merchandise or services can be offered for sale or given away as premiums, perks or rewards or in connection with the fan production fundraising. - The fan production cannot derive revenue by selling or licensing fan-created production sets, props or costumes.
• The fan production must be family friendly and suitable for public presentation. Videos must not include profanity, nudity, obscenity, pornography, depictions of drugs, alcohol, tobacco, or any harmful or illegal activity, or any material that is offensive, fraudulent, defamatory, libelous, disparaging, sexually explicit, threatening, hateful, or any other inappropriate content. The content of the fan production cannot violate any individual’s right of privacy.
• The fan production must display the following disclaimer in the on-screen credits of the fan productions and on any marketing material including the fan production website or page hosting the fan production: “Star Trek and all related marks, logos and characters are solely owned by CBS Studios Inc. This fan production is not endorsed by, sponsored by, nor affiliated with CBS, Paramount Pictures, or any other Star Trek franchise, and is a non-commercial fan-made film intended for recreational use. No commercial exhibition or distribution is permitted. No alleged independent rights will be asserted against CBS or Paramount Pictures.”
• Creators of fan productions must not seek to register their works, nor any elements of the works, under copyright or trademark law.
• Fan productions cannot create or imply any association or endorsement by CBS or Paramount Pictures.

CBS and Paramount Pictures reserve the right to revise, revoke and/or withdraw these guidelines at any time in their own discretion. These guidelines are not a license and do not constitute approval or authorization of any fan productions or a waiver of any rights that CBS or Paramount Pictures may have with respect to fan fiction created outside of these guidelines.

'Star Trek Continues': Vic Mignogna Beams Us to a Fan-made Final Frontier

"Star Trek Continues" is exactly what it sounds like: A fan-made science fiction series that picks up where the original "Star Trek" TV show left off, putting Kirk, Spock and the rest of the starship Enterprise's crew through a whole new set of adventures in the final frontier. The cast — made up of of talented voice- and stage-actor Trek fans, including Vic Mignogna as executive producer (and Kirk) — works on an exact-replica set, evoking the original show's performances to create what feels like lost episodes from the series itself.

Since its debut in 2013, "Star Trek Continues" has published five episodes online, and the sixth will premiere in May. (Episode 7 is nearly done as well.) The project's crowdfunding campaign to finish Episode 7's post-production phase and film three more episodes is live on Indiegogo until May 4 . 

Space.com caught up with Mignogna to talk about the show he calls his "love letter" to the original series, the key to "Star Trek" storytelling and what's to come in the next two episodes of the web series. (Plus, Space.com's own Karl Tate explores the set in this Trek-tastic new video .)

Space.com: How did "Star Trek Continues" begin?

Vic Mignogna: I've loved the original series of " Star Trek " ever since I was a little boy; I used to eat, sleep and breathe that show, basically. I would make my own uniforms and make my own props, and use my parents' movie camera to round up kids in the neighborhood to shoot little episodes. That show really inspired me when I was 10, 11, 12 years old, 13, 14.

Over the years, I have been developing skills in filmmaking and acting, and all different elements of production, and a few years ago I helped another fan production — I directed an episode for another fan production, and I kind of got bitten by the bug again. So I got a bunch of friends together and we all poured a lot of love and money and sweat and time and effort and talent into starting this web series. And people have really enjoyed it. We've got over 4 million views now, and have won a dozen awards, and people seem to really, really be enjoying it and it's very gratifying.

Space.com: How long did it take from the idea's inception to the first episode going up online?

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Mignogna: We started out by releasing some little 3- to 5-minute dramatic vignettes introducing the world to our crew and the actors that were going to be playing those iconic roles, and we released three of those vignettes. They're all online, they're on our YouTube channel . They were basically a preview while we were finishing building all the sets and getting ready to shoot the first episode.

To date, we've been around three years and we've got six episodes: five online, released. The sixth one is done and will be premiering in May at Megacon, and the seventh episode is also done and will be premiering in the fall.

Space.com: Has the project grown in scale over time?

Mignogna:  The project already started at its beginning at a higher level of quality than people had heretofore seen in fan production. But I will say with every episode, I feel like our cast and crew have gotten better and better. When we released a first episode, a lot of people were like, "Wow, how could you do any better than this?" And then we would release the second one and people would say, "Oh my gosh, I don't know how you did it, but this one's even better." And then the third one, they would say, "Oh my gosh, this one's even better, and the fourth one's even better, and the fifth one's even better!" So in different ways I think we are improving, but from the very beginning our quality level was extremely high. [ See the Evolution of the Starship Enterprise in Photos ]

Space.com: How do you decide on the specific plots or issues to focus on for particular episodes?

Mignogna: The original series' stories were very compelling stories that many times had an ethical theme or a moral plot or point or a social commentary, and so I was committed from the very beginning to telling those kinds of stories . And that's exactly what we've done. If you watch our episodes, you'll find that one of the things that makes [them] feel so much like the original series is that we tell very thought-provoking, intriguing, passion-filled stories.

Space.com: Can you say what's coming up in episodes six and seven?

Mignogna:  I will tell you this: Our next episode is going to be so groundbreaking, nobody has ever done anything like this. I don't want to give away too much, but I will tell you that the engineering room will be featured prominently. It will be making its screen debut in Episode 6.

Gigi Edgley, who was one of the main characters in Farscape, is our guest star for this episode. And let me just say that there was an element that they incorporated into several episodes of the original series, and no fan production has done this to the degree that we're doing it in Episode 6.

And I will tell you that Episode 7 has already completed shooting. It's a wonderful, very, very thought-provoking episode about a very topical issue, and [I'm] very, very proud of that episode as well.

Space.com: What has been the most difficult part of producing the show?

Mignogna:  Oh, my gosh, everything. I have to tell you, whenever you set out to do something at this level of quality, there are so many moving parts, and if you watch our episodes you see that there are tons and tons of elements to this production. Getting the lighting just right, getting the costumes just right, casting it, makeup, camera teams, sound team, props, art direction — there are dozens of moving parts that all have to come together to make it work, and I am so very, very proud of the team that I've assembled. The reason that we're able to do this quality-level work at a fraction of what it would normally cost is because everybody is basically doing it for virtually nothing. They're doing it because they love the original series of "Star Trek," they have a passion for it and they want to pay tribute to it the same way I do.

Space.com: What was it like putting together the replica sets?

Mignogna: The partial bridge was the only thing that had been built of all these sets when we partnered up [to work with another "Star Trek" fan production's set]. And then my director of photography, Matt Busey, did all of the diagrams and architectural drawings for all of the rest of the soundstage. And then a bunch of local volunteers, and just really good "Star Trek" fans, came together, including myself, and we all spent several months building all of the rest of the sets, and then three years ago we shot our first episode on those sets. So now — "Star Trek Continues" is the sole owner of those sets — we call our studio Stage 9, which is named after the soundstage where the original series was shot.

Our cast and crew come together at least twice a year to shoot episodes on those sets. They were patterned after the original series soundstage, and I would say that they were within inches of perfectly accurate to the original sets. [ How 'Star Trek' Technology Works (Infographic) ]

Space.com: Was there anything particularly hard to put together?

Mignogna: The pieces that were scattered all around the original soundstage were pieces from the 1960s; those pieces don't exist anymore. We need[ed] to come up with our own way to recreate and reproduce those pieces. And I'm very proud of the job we've done, doing so.

Let me say, as amazing as our sets are, at the end of the day, the sets are just a backdrop to the story. If the story isn't any good, if the acting isn't any good, then it really doesn't matter how accurate the sets are. The only reason that our sets need to be accurate is so the audience will immediately accept the setting as the original-series Enterprise or the original series of "Star Trek," and then allow us to tell them a good, thought-provoking story. That's one thing that a lot of fan productions miss. A lot of fan productions build really nice sets, or they make nice costumes, but those things are merely a vehicle to tell a good story. As far as "Star Trek Continues" is concerned, story, story, story is king. That's the most important thing.

Email Sarah Lewin at [email protected] or follow her   @SarahExplains .  Follow us   @Spacedotcom ,   Facebook  and   Google+ . Original article on   Space.com .

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Sarah Lewin started writing for Space.com in June of 2015 as a Staff Writer and became Associate Editor in 2019 . Her work has been featured by Scientific American, IEEE Spectrum, Quanta Magazine, Wired, The Scientist, Science Friday and WGBH's Inside NOVA. Sarah has an MA from NYU's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program and an AB in mathematics from Brown University. When not writing, reading or thinking about space, Sarah enjoys musical theatre and mathematical papercraft. She is currently Assistant News Editor at Scientific American. You can follow her on Twitter @SarahExplains.

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Five Star Trek Fan Films You Should Watch Right Now

Star Trek is one of the franchises that popularised fan fiction. When the adventures of Kirk, Spock, Bones and the rest of the Enterprise ended on television, their exploits were kept alive with books, comics and an animated series, before they returned in several feature films. Fans have also kept the series alive by writing their own adventures for the Enterprise crew, or acting them out with their friends. With the rise of the internet, fans have places to show their love for Trek online, as well as upload their own additions to the universe:

Prelude To Axanar

Axanar represents an important moment in Trek history, both in and out of the universe. As the title suggests, this was a taster for a film centred around the battle of Axanar, the Federation’s first battle with the Klingons. Shot as a fictional documentary, it was designed to show that great fan films didn’t need huge budgets, as well as act as a showcase for the film itself. However, Paramount and CBS, who own the copyright, got wind of the efforts and threatened to sue the team. It was eventually settled, after harsh guidelines and restrictions on fan productions were introduced, but meant that the project would now be released as two 15-minute parts, rather than a 90-minute feature.

Star Trek- Horizon

Set in the prequel era of Star Trek: Enterprise, this impressive fan film focuses on the Discovery and its mission to help a Romulan defector and keep an ancient doomsday weapon out of their hands. While not the most original premise, the draw here is that, for a fan project, it’s very impressive. The effects are good for its small budget, and various elements from Trek canon make it feel like part of the universe in a seamless way. A sequel was planned but was reworked into an original project after the fan fiction guidelines changed.

Star Trek Continues

As Kirk says in the iconic intro to the original series, the Enterprise is on a 5-year mission. Although changes to the airing of episodes meant that the dates didn’t always go in order, the series chronicles three of those years. Star Trek Continues shows some of the events of the final year, giving the series a proper conclusion. The look and feel of the original series is lovingly recreated, with sets built from the original blueprints and filmed in the same aspect ratio. It also features a stellar cast including Mythbusters Grant Imahara as Sulu, and the son of original Scotty, Chris Doohan playing the role of his father. Many Trek alumni cameo, such as Micheal Dorn and Jason Isaacs. It also features cameos from other sci-fi projects such as former Doctor Who Colin Baker and Battlestar Galactica ‘s Jaimie Bamber.

A Long Way From Home

The Covid-19 Pandemic disrupted everyone’s daily life, with many people unable to work or leave their houses. Film and TV projects were disrupted, with many films delayed and series shortened. This fan film was made during the 2020/2021 lockdowns in the UK. With only a few actors and locations, this fan film manages to stand alone, whilst also featuring nods and easter eggs to many other series, and films both official and fan-made.

Of Gods and Men

An unofficial 40th Anniversary celebration, this mini-series focuses on Uhura and Chekov (with the original actors reprising their roles) as they find themselves in an alternate timeline where Captain Kirk was never born, as an act of vengeance from one of his enemies. Despite not being officially endorsed by the rights holders, it did have lots of coverage on the official website. As well as several former cast members reprising their roles from various instalments of the franchise, it also credits creator Gene Roddenberry’s son as an executive producer.

Also Read: May The Fan Film Be With You

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The best Star Trek series, ranked

Ready to settle in and watch some Star Trek episodes? Since there are so many, we’ve ranked all of the different series to help you get started on your quest.

Star Trek is one of the greatest franchises ever created. If you're new to the world of transporters and holodecks, you have so much wonderful content to catch up on — of course, some would say too much content.

Since there are over 850 episodes and counting (all of which you can stream on Paramount+ ), watching all of Star Trek can be more difficult than fighting a Gorn in the desert. To make things easier for you to get started, we've ranked every series (besides the short-form series Short Treks ) of this long-running franchise. Some of these choices were a bit daunting to play favorites with, but, like Jim Kirk, there's no belief in the no-win scenario.

Without further ado, here's our list of every Star Trek series ranked from worst to best.

11. Star Trek: Picard (2020–2023)

Star Trek: Picard was meant to be like comfort food to fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation . And whether fans were turned off by the changes in franchise direction with shows like Discovery or just wanted to see Patrick Stewart back in action, Paramount clearly thought this show would be almost universally beloved.

That didn't happen . The warm and fuzzy feeling of seeing a few familiar faces in the first season evaporated because of an often-confusing plot about androids. The second season continued this confusion with a time-travel story that often bordered on incoherence. While many Star Trek shows take a few seasons to hit their stride, it was shocking that so much of this relatively short series was seemingly created with "make it so-so" in mind.

10. Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973–1974)

If you're in the right mood (or you've been sipping on some Saurian brandy), Star Trek: The Animated Series has some wacky entertainment value. Any given episode had the writers throwing in stories like a giant version of a beloved character. And the animators threw some fun curveballs, including making the embodiment of evil into a shirtless hottie that would make even shirtless Kirk jealous.

However, this animated show was often caught between two very different worlds. It wasn't fully a return to the (relatively) grounded exploration of space, science, and morality of The Original Series . And it didn't fully lean into the chaotic possibilities of a cartoon world (something Lower Decks would later handle much better). So, while more and more elements of The Animated Series have become canonical thanks to shows like Discovery , and it's fun to hear the voice acting of the Original Series cast, this cartoon is one that all but the most hardcore fans can skip.

9. Star Trek: Enterprise (2001–2005)

Despite what you might have heard, Star Trek: Enterprise is not a bad show. It just didn't start as a very good show. The series was tragically canceled after the fourth season, which was arguably when it had just begun to hit its stride (thanks in part to longer story arcs and a really fun glimpse into Trek 's popular Mirror Universe).

At the end of the day, Enterprise is a show best enjoyed by Star Trek fans that like to pore over the Memory Alpha wiki and familiarize themselves with Trek minutiae. As a prequel show, it laid the groundwork for everything from Starfleet policy to alien interactions that other shows explore in more detail. If you don't have a shot at winning any Star Trek trivia contests at your local bar, it's still worth watching how captivating Scott Bakula can be in the captain's seat.

8. Star Trek: Prodigy (2021–present)

Star Trek: Prodigy was very difficult to rank. Unlike the other two Trek cartoons, this series was explicitly designed for younger audiences. Paramount clearly wants to use this show as a gateway for these younger fans to explore the wider world of Star Trek , but there are enough elements (most notably the return of Kate Mulgrew , reprising her role as Captain Janeway via a holographic form) to keep veteran franchise fans invested.

Ultimately, your enjoyment of this series will be largely dependent on how much you enjoy animated/YA entertainment. If nothing else, you should check out the first two episodes of this show to see just how beautiful the CGI animation can get.

7. Star Trek: Discovery (2017–present)

If Enterprise is the Star Trek show cut off too soon, Discovery may very well be the first Star Trek show to outlive its welcome, though it will end after its fifth season . There are many things the show gets right, from nifty effects to quirky characters to amazing casting (seriously, Sonequa Martin-Green is electrifying whenever she is on screen).

The show veers from a disjointed-but-interesting first season to a mesmerizing second season, which gets a real shot in the arm by introducing Captain Pike (played by the inimitably charming Anson Mount ) and Spock (played as a perfect homage to Leonard Nimoy by Ethan Peck). Later seasons, however, prove that the series can't get away from galactic-level threats, and character drama begins overriding plot development enough that we want to slingshot around the sun and return this series to its earlier roots.

6. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001)

Like many Trek series, Star Trek: Voyager had a rocky beginning, and it was often overshadowed by the excellent Deep Space Nine . Ironically, Voyager dramatically improved with what could be a cynical casting stunt: adding the alluring Jeri Ryan (constantly wearing a catsuit, no less).

Though it really looked like a desperate ratings stunt, Ryan turned the reformed Borg Seven of Nine into the most interesting character on the show. And, despite their alleged clashes behind the scenes, the actress helped to elevate every scene she shared with Kate Mulgrew. Between the new cast member, improved writing, and Mulgrew being nothing short of a damned icon, Voyager soon became appointment television, and it's definitely worth binge-watching for modern audiences.

5. Star Trek: Lower Decks (2020–present)

Lower Decks is an impressive show for many reasons, including the fact that its execution elevates its initial premise, which focuses on the lives of the lower-level staffers aboard the starship. Because showrunner Mike McMahan previously wrote for Rick and Morty and the animation takes its cues from the cartoon adventures of Rick Sanchez, many fans may have assumed Lower Decks would simply be " Star Trek meets Rick and Morty ."

Thankfully, that's not the case. Aside from animation similarities, the main element these two cartoons have in common is a breakneck, borderline chaotic pace. But as entertaining as it can be, Rick and Morty is an often nihilistic show with gags revolving around how nothing really matters. Lower Decks , however, is a lighthearted series that serves as the cure to modern Trek . If you've dismissed other contemporary series such as Discovery and Picard because they are grim, violent, and serious, Lower Decks is a wonderfully lighthearted alternative that is never afraid to poke fun at its own franchise.

4. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022–present)

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is a truly pleasant surprise to fans of the franchise. Set years before Captain Kirk sat in that famous chair, we see Capt. Christopher Pike (Anson Mount reprising the role) lead the U.S.S. Enterprise into bizarre adventures alongside some familiar characters (Ethan Peck returning as Spock, for example) and a few new ones.

Part of what helps this show shine is that it marks a return to episodic Trek in that every installment is a self-contained adventure as opposed to other newer series like Discovery and Picard , which build entire seasons around a single plot. The characters all ooze with the same swashbuckling charm of The Original Series characters, and we can't wait to see more of their adventures. We also can't wait to see more of Anson Mount's amazing hair (arguably the most awesome practical effect in the franchise).

3. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994)

Star Trek: The Next Generation has the dubious honor of being the first Trek show where veteran fans warn against new fans starting at the very beginning. Early episodes ranged from stupidly horny (planetary inhabitants in the episode "Justice" were barely wearing scraps of clothing) to ridiculously racist ("Code of Honor" may very well be the worst Star Trek episode ever made). Many of these problems stemmed from the fact that despite being called "The Next Generation," the show was trying to recreate The Original Series (right down to using some of the same writers and shamelessly reusing scripts from the scrapped Star Trek: Phase II series).

As fans like to joke, the show got better as Commander Riker's beard got longer. Season 2 was a major improvement, which was then usurped by season 3, which brought in new uniforms, new sets, and Michael Piller to head up the writing team. Just like that, TNG embraced its differences from its famous forerunner (Picard was cerebral whereas Kirk was impulsive, Data yearned for emotion whereas Spock detested it, and so on). At last, the gamble paid off, and the next generation of this franchise ushered in the next generation of Star Trek fans.

2. Star Trek: The Original Series (1966–1969)

What can we say about The Original Series that hasn't been said already? Gene Roddenberry successfully fused science fiction with American pioneer spirit to create his vision of this " Wagon Train to the stars." The episodes were both fun and thought-provoking in equal measure, and William Shatner as Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Spock, among many others, turned in performances that seared themselves into our collective pop culture consciousness.

The Original Series offered social commentary about racism, imperialism, and (often to Spock's annoyance) the human condition. And the blend of big acting, ambitious sets, and poignant plots helped this show become something truly transcendent. The OG Star Trek shaped not only the future of the franchise but television itself, and it's not hard to see why it continues to win over new generations of fans year after year.

1. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993–1999)

Placing Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in the top spot is perhaps a contentious decision. However, this series did more than measure up to the quality of The Next Generation (a lofty feat in and of itself). The show also made a number of storytelling and production choices that have helped DS9 seem more relevant in recent years than ever before, including tackling issues about race, religious fundamentalism, and war on a regular basis.

Perhaps the main way DS9 feels so pertinent is that the show broke the longstanding Trek rule of making only standalone episodes. As the powers that be focused more on creating their next show, Voyager , DS9 showrunner Ira Steven Behr was able to get away with creating long story arcs and frequent episode callbacks. The end result of this is that Deep Space Nine is the first of the pre-streaming era Trek shows that is perfect for binge-watching.

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'Part of My DNA': Star Trek: Discovery's Elias Toufexis' Lifelong Fandom

The end of Star Trek: Discovery marks an important franchise milestone. The Paramount+ series was the first in the third wave of shows set in the universe Gene Roddenberry created six decades ago. Elias Toufexis, who played two different characters across Star Trek: Discovery 's five seasons, was there at the beginning and the end.

As a lifelong fan of Star Trek , the Smallville alum was at home on the deck of a starship, the rocky terrain of an alien planet or even the long-lost I.S.S. Enterprise. In an interview with CBR to promote the Discovery Season 5 Blu-Ray release , Toufexis talked about the ups and downs of his time on Star Trek. He also spoke about what it feels like to know he'll be associated with Roddenberry's franchise for the rest of his life.

CBR: Your first appearance was in Star Trek: Discovery Season 1, Episode 3, "Context Is for Kings." You played Cold, who was there when the USS Discovery was introduced to the audience. What was that experience like?

Elias Toufexis: It was a little difficult for me, personally speaking, [as] a giant Star Trek fan . The show came to Toronto, and I was living in Toronto at the time. So I called my agent -- "You've got to get me on the show. You've got to get me on the show." When I auditioned for it, [the casting] breakdown had said guest star. For me, a guest star, like I was on Smallville or Supernatural... the [episode] is about the guest star, or the show is about something and the guest is a big part of it. That's what I was expecting. It's so secretive; you get the role, and they don't really tell you what it is. Okay, you got it. You're going to get the side. You're going to get your lines soon. Then I got the script, and he's in three scenes. And I was so upset because I thought, well, now I'm burning myself.

You didn't think you'd have a chance to come back and play another role? A lot of Star Trek actors have portrayed multiple characters .

'Not Quite Ready to Say Goodbye': Star Trek: Discovery's Wilson Cruz Reflects on Series' End

In an interview with CBR, Star Trek: Discovery actor Wilson Cruz looks back on Hugh Culber's five-season arc across the Star Trek series.

[I thought] I'm burning myself on this show. I'm never going to get to do the show again, and I'm such a big Star Trek fan. It was a lot of that going on inside me on set. Sonequa [Martin-Green] was exactly the same as she always is. She's great. She was great from the beginning. Fantastic to work with, fantastic to hang out with. She's a great person, a great number one on the call sheet. Fantastic. She made it easier. And I kind of gave up, gave in and just said, let me just embrace it.

What else do you remember about that first Star Trek: Discovery experience? Is there anything that resonates with you more now in retrospect?

I did have fun. Being on the ship for the first time, they were just like "No pictures!" I'm taking pictures of everything. I remember seeing a Gorn -- like a baby Gorn. And I remember going, "They don't know what the Gorn is yet." Like, this shouldn't be here. Or at least it shouldn't say Gorn! But it's great. [Filming the episode] actually turned out to be pretty cool because it was directed by Akiva Goldsman, who I now know. I did feel like this [was] all new. They hadn't had the ground beneath their feet solid yet, and you could feel that [the producers and crew] were just kind of figuring it out, like any show in the first season, right? I think they even shot it out of sequence. So it may have been like a week and a half into filming the whole thing... Then by the time I was doing ADR [Additional Dialogue Recording] for that episode, it was like cut that, cut that. [The part was] cut back even more.

How large was Cold's role initially, compared to what Star Trek: Discovery viewers actually saw?

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My character went from this relatively cool arc at the beginning of the episode to like nothing, so I was really upset. I begged the casting directors -- please don't forget about me. Please call me when there is something I can play. And to their credit, five years later, I didn't even audition. They just called me, and they said we want you to play this character. And I was like, "Oh, yes." I love those guys.

What was it like returning in Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 to play L'ak? How different did the show feel compared to the one you remembered from Season 1?

The only thing that felt the same was Sonequa. She's always been great and she was really the leader. She embraced more of a leadership role. Of course, that's what five years will do, right? But she was fantastic and just as great of a person as she was five years ago. But a lot of the showrunners had changed, and a lot of the storylines. They jumped [900 years] into the future and all that. It was very different from when I was originally on there. [I] could tell they knew what they were doing, and they [were] a really well-oiled machine at that point. I came on very much as a as a new kind of [player], joining something that has been well established. And I could feel that.

CBR: Was it challenging at all to fit into that machine, especially since L'ak was a much bigger part of Season 5's story and one of its primary antagonists?

'They're Not Really Villains': Star Trek: Discovery's Moll & L'ak Actors Defend Their Characters

In an interview with CBR, Star Trek: Discovery actors Eve Harlow and Elias Toufexis discuss Season 5's freewheeling antagonists Moll and L'ak.

They were so welcoming that a week in I felt like a part of the whole family. I never felt like an outsider. And trust me, as a guy who does guest stars -- like show after show of guest star [roles] -- it's almost never as great as that set was. I was super excited because I'm a giant Star Trek fan. Then I found out I was going to be the first [unmasked] Breen , so I'm making Star Trek history, too. It's really all pluses.

CBR: With both the first and the final season of Star Trek: Discovery behind you, is it somehow more special? Knowing you were there to help start the series and help send it off?

I hadn't thought of it that way initially when it was cancelled... and it was not so much cancelled as [Paramount] just [won't] make any more seasons . I was upset for my friends because they lost jobs... They could have had more seasons. They could have kept going. But I understand [the] plans with the [new series Starfleet] Academy. and then Section 31, and all that stuff. Pragmatically I got it, and emotionally I was gone anyway. Only recently have I thought this way. I was there at the beginning and at the end. And it was great to see [the show] grow. Maybe there is something there that that I've not emotionally thought about yet, but I'm proud of it. I'm proud of that [final] season, especially. I'm really proud of it. If it has to be the one the one that they went out on, it's a pretty good season to go out on.

During Season 5, you shared a clip of a Star Trek fan film you made as a teenager. What was it about Trek that so captured a young actor's imagination?

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It's hard to quantify, hard to put into words. I don't remember a time in my life that Star Trek wasn't there. My dad showed me [Star Trek: The Original Series] and then I grew up with [The Next Generation] and Deep Space Nine and those movies. Like [ Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan ]. I could start now and do every word to the end. The movie is part of my DNA. I don't know what particularly drew me to it other than the great characters and the great stories. I think Star Trek generally -- and I don't know if this is from a mature point of view as opposed to when I was a kid -- but they talk about real things, real issues, real [life]. Kind of like the old Twilight Zone show . It's just like, let's talk about this issue and make it really entertaining with great actors. I also had a connection to [William] Shatner, because we grew up in the same neighborhood. I always loved William Shatner. The first play I ever did was in the William Shatner Building in Montreal, so I always had that kind of connection to it.

How much of the memories or excitement that you had growing up came back to you when you were on the set of Star Trek: Discovery ?

Being on set, I was texting -- again, I wasn't supposed to take pictures and mail them, but I did -- and I would e-mail my family [saying], look at this! I'm sitting on the bridge of the Enterprise, for real. Like, can you believe this? It still hasn't sunk in. It's so strange to me. It's hard as you get older not to be cynical about things, to just embrace the romanticism of it all. I've been so romantic about Star Trek forever, that now being part of it is just mind-blowing.

Star Trek: Discovery is streaming on Paramount+ and is now available on Blu-Ray, DVD and digitally.

Star Trek: Discovery

Star Trek: Discovery is an entry in the legendary Sci-Fi franchise, set ten years before the original Star Trek series events. The show centers around Commander Michael Burnham, assigned to the USS Discovery, where the crew attempts to prevent a Klingon war while traveling through the vast reaches of space.

Release Date September 24, 2017

Cast Oyin Oladejo, Emily Coutts, Anthony Rapp, Sonequa Martin-Green, Doug Jones, Mary Wiseman

Main Genre Sci-Fi

Rating TV-14

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"the most devious mind in the universe": star trek names its ultimate villain & they're the right choice.

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Star Trek Elevates [SPOILER] to Godhood, As They Kill Off an Original Series God

I’m glad voyager’s tom and b’elanna are no longer star trek's only successful romance, i don't care if modern star trek breaks established canon.

Warning! Warning! Spoilers for Star Trek #23 ahead!

IDW Publishing's ongoing Star Trek comic book series has officially established Data's evil brother Lore as the most dangerous villain in franchise history, as he threatens to tear apart the cosmos at its very fabric. The latest issue of the Trek comic leaves readers on a massive cliffhanger, teasing that Lore may be responsibile for destruction on a scale no other villain in franchise history has ever dreamed of.

Star Trek #23 – written by Collin Kelly & Jackson Lanzing, with art by Megan Levens – features the fruition of Lore's plan to ambush the godlike beings of the Star Trek galaxy, elevating himself to their level in the process, as he seeks to obtain the highest echelon of cosmic power.

As the crew of the USS Theseus race to stop the unhinged android's diabolical quest for godhood, Beverly Crusher frankly asses Lore as, " the most devious mind in the universe ."

The Star Trek franchise is loaded with powerful, god-like beings, and one of them just perished at the hands of an evil force who just got an upgrade.

Lore Has Always Been Dangerous – But Now Star Trek Has Made Him Its Worst Villain Ever

Star trek #23 – written by collin kelly & jackson lanzing; art by megan levens; color by lee loughridge; lettering by clayton cowles.

Since his introduction on Star Trek: The Next Generation , Lore has always been a memorable character, and a fan-favorite enemy of the franchise's heroes, but IDW's Star Trek comics have used him like never before.

Beverley Crusher's diagnosis of Lore as the greatest threat she and the all-star crew of the Theseus have ever faced comes as part of a frantic exchange with Montgomery Scott, as the intensity of the situation mounts. " From here on out, it's on you, me, and the rest of the crew to outthink the single most devious mind in the universe ," Crusher tells Scotty, to which he solemnly responds: " Aye, aye, Captain Crusher ." Given that by the end of Star Trek #23, Lore has seemingly blown up all existence, it is fair to say that Crusher was not exaggerating.

Considering that the crew in question span nearly the entire scope of the franchise, and includes many of its greatest characters, this says everything fans need to know about Lore's villain status. Whatever becomes of the Star Trek galaxy, and beyond, at the conclusion of this story arc, Lore's reputation as an antagonist has certainly been solidified. Since his introduction on Star Trek: The Next Generation , Lore has always been a memorable character, and a fan-favorite enemy of the franchise's heroes, but IDW's Star Trek comics have used him like never before.

Lore May Have Caused The End Of The Star Trek Universe As Fans Know It

Star trek "pleroma" part 5 (of 7).

In a way, Lore – and his role in the series thus far – has been a measuring stick for Lanzing and Kelly's commitment to expanding the frontiers of the franchise.

Star Trek's exploration the vast universe beyond the confines of Earth has always been about more than just space; since the earliest days of the franchise, time travel and mysterious, cosmic-powered beings have featured prominently in some of Trek's most iconic tales. The single greatest virtue of IDW's Star Trek ongoing series has been its embrace of this, and writers Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing have used the comic book medium to take this to a level only glimpsed by all prior Star Trek media.

In a way, Lore – and his role in the series thus far – has been a measuring stick for Lanzing and Kelly's commitment to expanding the frontiers of the franchise. More than just a foil for his good-natured counterpart Data, Lore has become an enemy of all existence itself. While it took bold creators at the helm o f Star Trek comics to actualize this, it is only an extension of the character's nature, which is what makes it so exciting that Lore has firmly claimed the title of Star Trek's ultimate antagonist.

Star Trek #23 is available now from IDW Publishing.

Star Trek (2022)

It’s stardate 2378, and Benjamin Sisko has finally returned from the Bajoran Wormhole omnipotent—but his godhood is failing with every minute. Sent by the Prophets on a mission to the deepest parts of space aboard the U.S.S. Theseus, he witnesses the unthinkable: someone is killing the gods. And only Sisko and his motley crew of Starfleet members from every era of Trek can stop them.

“You cannot, you cannot”: How Martin Luther King Convinced One Star Trek Legend Not to Quit The Original Series

Nichelle Nichols almost quite Star Trek: The Original Series. However, Martin Luther King convinced her to change her mind.

• Nichelle Nichols almost left Star Trek: The Original Series for Broadway.
• However, her mind was swayed after Martin Luther King told her that he was a big fan of hers.
• When she told him that she wanted to leave, he convinced her to stay in the series.

Martin Luther King’s impact on the political landscape of the United States of America and the world as a whole cannot be measured. Being influential in every way possible, his activism and political viewpoints shaped the country into what it is today, making a significant contribution to the betterment of the treatment of people of color. However, as history would have it, civil rights wasn’t the only way that he changed lives.

It would seem that on his days off, he would be out in the world, inspiring actors into not quitting their jobs. The legendary actress, Nichelle Nichols had her life completely changed when King inspired her to not quit Star Trek: The Original Series.

Martin Luther King—The No. 1 Nichelle Nichols Fan?

Nichelle Nichols’s contribution to the big screen cannot be understated. The actress played the iconic role of Nyota Uhura, and she was one of the first black characters to not follow a stereotype in popular culture. Having complexities and a personality that did not follow any mold, she created a new standard for writers when they were writing characters of color.

Long before her passing , Nichols gave an interview with NPR , where she revealed quite an interesting piece of information about her time in Star Trek: The Original Series . The actress was once attending a fundraiser for the NAACP, where she was told that she would be meeting her biggest fan ever.

I remember thinking, ‘whoever the fan is, is going to have to wait. Because Dr. King — Dr. Martin Luther King, my leader! — is walking toward me!’

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To her surprise, she was met with the legendary Martin Luther King . Interestingly enough, the activist ended up complimenting her on the character that she crafted in the hit series. She then tried to talk to him about what he was most well known for, stating that she wished that she could march with him for their cause.

He complimented me on the manner in which I’d created the character. I thanked him, and I think I said something like, ‘Dr. King, I wish I could be out there marching with you.’ He said, ‘no, no, no. No, you don’t understand… You are marching. You are reflecting what we are fighting for.’

However, he told her that she did not need to as she was making a lot of difference with her character. Being the personification of what he was fighting for, he told her that she was playing a character that they had been desperately trying to show the world.

Martin Luther King Would Not Let Nichelle Nichols Leave

While Martin Luther King was telling Nichelle Nichols all these niceties, he did not know that the actress had recently had a conversation with the creator of Star Trek: The Original Series about quitting. She wanted to pursue other professional opportunities and try her hand at Broadway. However, the showrunner, Gene Roddenberry, had told her to think about it for a weekend before taking such a big decision.

I said, ‘Well, I told Gene just yesterday that I’m going to leave the show after the first year because I’ve been offered…’ — and he stopped me and said: ‘You cannot do that.’ And I was stunned. He said, ‘Don’t you understand what this man has achieved? For the first time, we are being seen the world over as we should be seen.’ He says, ‘Do you understand that this is the only show that my wife Coretta and I will allow our little children to stay up and watch?’ I was speechless.’

Oddly enough, she ended up having her encounter with King during that very weekend. As the activist was telling her how big of an impact she was having, she tried to tell him about her decision to quit the series. However, before she could finish her sentence, he told her not to go through with it.

You cannot, you cannot…for the first time on television, we will be seen as we should be seen every day, as intelligent, quality, beautiful people who can sing dance, and can go to space, who are professors, lawyers.

Before Genius: MLK/X, Samuel L Jackson and 6 Other Actors Masterfully Played Martin Luther King Jr.

In a separate interview , she mentioned that he immediately told her that she could not leave the role when she was making such a big difference to Hollywood by simply being a part of the series. She was helping the world see people of color in a completely new light; being seen as human rather than a construct or a stereotype.

Such big words coming from someone as influential as King made Nichols change her mind and rethink her decision. It is safe to say that fans are very glad that she did not leave the series when she had planned to.

Star Trek: The Original Series is available for streaming on Paramount+.

Martin Luther King Jr. Nichelle Nichols

Written by Ananya Godboley

A poet and art enthusiast, Ananya Godboley is a striving academic who is pursuing a career in Criminal Psychology, currently doing an undergrad degree in Psychology. Passionate about History, Philosophy and Literature, she loves to learn about new and interesting subjects. A writer for FandomWire with over 1000 published articles, she adores all things superhero and Taylor Swift.

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Kevin Feige Explains the Flattering Reason Why Marvel Studios Poached A Star Trek Writer For One Upcoming Series

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Marvel Cinematic Universe: 10 Characters Who Appear In The Most Movies & Shows, Ranked

2021 marvel game with 'very positive' reviews drops to historically low price on steam, the lord of the rings: the rings of power season 2 premiere review, key takeaways.

• Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige draws inspiration for the Vision series showrunner from Star Trek: Picard.
• Feige is impressed by Terry Matalas' work on Picard Season 3, leading to his choice for the Vision series.
• Despite potential impact concerns, Vision is set for a 2026 release on Disney+.

While the upcoming Disney+ show Vision features an established hero from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and is a spinoff of another MCU show, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige confirms that the show’s choice of showrunner takes inspiration from another franchise.

Wandavision was the first proper Disney+-era project for the MCU and was one of the more successful projects on streamer thanks to the novelty of a small-screen project that tied into previous MCU plotlines and even led into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness . While Elizabeth Olsen’s return as Wanda and Katherine Hahn’s standout performance as Agatha Harkness were the central focus of the narrative, fan-favorite Paul Bettany’s reprisal of his role from the Avengers films was also very well received, and fans were excited when it was revealed that a Vision Series featuring Bettany was in the works for Disney Plus .

The characters who appear in the most MCU projects, ranked by the number of appearances and how important their appearances were.

While at the time it was clear that the MCU’s Vision series could be the perfect follow-up to WandaVision , the hand at the wheel for the project comes from much further afield. In an in-depth interview with Inverse , Feige admitted that his choice of Terry Matalas as the showrunner for Vision was inspired by his admiration of Star Trek: Picard’s third season, which Matalas was responsible for. “That’s how I got to know him,” Feige revealed during the interview. “It was from his amazing [work on Picard Season 3. I said: This is incredible. I don't know how this exists. Let me find the person who made this.” Feige has been an avid Star Trek fan for ages and has previously confirmed that many MCU projects draw inspiration from his love of that franchise, making this just another step in a long-maintained direction.

It’s not clear what vision Matalas has for Vision’s storyline, but it’s unlikely it’ll be anything drawn directly from Star Trek: Picard. His attachment to the project has far more to do with the effect that his sole control over the third season of Picard (which was set up to be filmed alongside the second season due to scheduling) had on public perception of the show. While the series had been well received in some quarters, there was a noticeable contingent of fans that didn’t seem interested in the show on the whole, especially after the second season went live. However, the third season was a standout even with those that had been critical of the earlier seasons, with season three boasting an impressive 97% critic score and 89% among audiences, far outstripping the two prior seasons’ audience scores of 52% and 30% respectively.

While the creative choice is good news for the series, there should be some concern that it might be too late for the MCU's Vision series to really have an impact on the viewing audience. Agatha All Along, another WandaVision spinoff series that is much closer to release, has been derided as the MCU’s most unnecessary project in large part due to the amount of time that’s elapsed between the conclusion of WandaVision in 2021 and its late 2024 release. While Vision gets a lot more consideration as a member of the Avengers and a fan-favorite predating WandaVision, the currently scheduled 2026 release date would mark a half-decade wait for the character’s solo outing. With the events of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness already done and passed and the newly reworked Avengers: Doomsday slated for an early 2026 release, how the Vision series can even stay relevant to the MCU’s current state of affairs if it’s related to WandaVision remains a mystery.

While Star Trek might be stellar inspiration for the series, the recent return of Robert Downey Jr. means that Marvel is also borrowing from Doctor Who , and that should be concerning as that franchise has similarly seen a downturn in popularity and fan confusion due to its return to past stars. How this will affect the MCU ahead of Vision's 2026 release remains to be seen.

Vision is currently set for release on Disney+ sometime in 2026.

WandaVision

A 2021 Marvel game with 'Very Positive' reviews drops to a historically low price on Steam, giving players the perfect chance to pick it up.

Source: Inverse