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thatcrazycajunI just know sffilk will love this, as he has been busily introducing me to these the last couple years or so: Today I am in the Bear Rock Cafe near my home and happened to catch a CNN Headline News report on the Scottish fans who are making their very own TNG/DS9/Voyager-era Star Trek series, Starship Farragut, with pro-quality costumes, sets and effects and everything, and posting them for Internet download. The story mentions other such fannish Net-based Trek productions in passing, such as New Voyages (a TOS-era extension of Jim Kirk & Co.'s original abortive five-year mission), Starship Exeter and Hidden Frontier. The New York Times also reports here on this newest extension of the four-decade-old Trek phenomenon, made possible at least in part by recent advances in computer SFX software that put movie-quality spaceships, starscapes and monsters within the reach of ordinary fans (at least, those with enough time on their hands and money to buy the hardware and software, plus making costumes, sets etc.).
Besides technology's endless march, two other factors fueling the growth of homebrew Trek shows are: 1) CBS/Paramount's amazing laissez-faire attitude toward such productions (apparently, as long as the fans don't make any money off them, the suits are willing to tolerate them in the same way they have historically tolerated the publishing of fanzines with stories and art using their copyrighted characters, as free promotion of the brand); and 2) the willingness of major stars from the "real" Trek franchise, such as Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, William Windom (Commodore Matt Decker in "The Doomsday Machine"), J.G. "Martok" Hertzler and Tim Russ, to participate in at least some of these fan productions, often playing their studio-show characters or some version thereof.
I tried to put a link to CNN's report here, but it proves a tad tricky to get at without searching and only comes in a pop-up Windows Media Player window. That said, it's worth viewing...and probably will show up on YouTube.com within days anyhow, if it hasn't already.
Given that the last two or three years have seen the first real drought of studio Trek product since the 1970s due to Enterprise's flameout on UPN and the ongoing process of restarting the movie series, CBS/Paramount can hardly be surprised if ST fans, notoriously among the most passionate and creative of entertainment cults, start cooking up their own. Personally, I'm delighted to see at least some continuation of "present-day" Star Trek, i.e., from the end of Voyager, because as rich as the tapestry of the various Trek eras has become, I'm tired of prequels and suchlike. I wanna know what the hell is happening now -- to Capt. Will Riker and his new crew on the USS Titan (the Pocket Books novel series), to the remaining crew of Picard's Enterprise-E, to the Deep Space Nine folks in the absence of Odo and Ben Sisko, to Worf and his wayward son Alexander, wherever they may be, and the whole rest of the Trek galaxy that got so shook up in the wake of the Dominion War and the Romulan/Reman civil war of Nemesis.
Most of all, goddammit, I wanna see some new aliens! (And not just humanoids with bad facial-makeup appliances, either.) Let's get the Federation back out there exploring more of those strange new worlds, seeking out that new life and those new civilizations. (One of my big peeves with the new Battlestar Galactica is that after three years or more out in the unknown reaches of space beyond the Colonies, Adama and his fugitive fleet have yet to run into anyone who wasn't a human or a Toaster. All that emptiness and alien worlds with no other intelligent life at all? Puh-leeze. At least Babylon 5 gave us some non-bipedal lifeforms to encounter in space.) Remember, it's "to boldly go where no one has gone before," not "where Kirk and everybody else and his dog already went." Great Bird bless the fans making these new adventures, and may they make many more.
sffilk will love this, as he has been busily introducing me to these the last couple years or so: Today I am in the Bear Rock Cafe near my home and happened to catch a CNN Headline News report on the Scottish fans who are making their very own TNG/DS9/Voyager-era Star Trek series, Starship Farragut, with pro-quality costumes, sets and effects and everything, and posting them for Internet download. The story mentions other such fannish Net-based Trek productions in passing, such as New Voyages (a TOS-era extension of Jim Kirk & Co.'s original abortive five-year mission), Starship Exeter and Hidden Frontier. The New York Times also reports here on this newest extension of the four-decade-old Trek phenomenon, made possible at least in part by recent advances in computer SFX software that put movie-quality spaceships, starscapes and monsters within the reach of ordinary fans (at least, those with enough time on their hands and money to buy the hardware and software, plus making costumes, sets etc.). Besides technology's endless march, two other factors fueling the growth of homebrew Trek shows are: 1) CBS/Paramount's amazing laissez-faire attitude toward such productions (apparently, as long as the fans don't make any money off them, the suits are willing to tolerate them in the same way they have historically tolerated the publishing of fanzines with stories and art using their copyrighted characters, as free promotion of the brand); and 2) the willingness of major stars from the "real" Trek franchise, such as Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, William Windom (Commodore Matt Decker in "The Doomsday Machine"), J.G. "Martok" Hertzler and Tim Russ, to participate in at least some of these fan productions, often playing their studio-show characters or some version thereof.
I tried to put a link to CNN's report here, but it proves a tad tricky to get at without searching and only comes in a pop-up Windows Media Player window. That said, it's worth viewing...and probably will show up on YouTube.com within days anyhow, if it hasn't already.
Given that the last two or three years have seen the first real drought of studio Trek product since the 1970s due to Enterprise's flameout on UPN and the ongoing process of restarting the movie series, CBS/Paramount can hardly be surprised if ST fans, notoriously among the most passionate and creative of entertainment cults, start cooking up their own. Personally, I'm delighted to see at least some continuation of "present-day" Star Trek, i.e., from the end of Voyager, because as rich as the tapestry of the various Trek eras has become, I'm tired of prequels and suchlike. I wanna know what the hell is happening now -- to Capt. Will Riker and his new crew on the USS Titan (the Pocket Books novel series), to the remaining crew of Picard's Enterprise-E, to the Deep Space Nine folks in the absence of Odo and Ben Sisko, to Worf and his wayward son Alexander, wherever they may be, and the whole rest of the Trek galaxy that got so shook up in the wake of the Dominion War and the Romulan/Reman civil war of Nemesis.
Most of all, goddammit, I wanna see some new aliens! (And not just humanoids with bad facial-makeup appliances, either.) Let's get the Federation back out there exploring more of those strange new worlds, seeking out that new life and those new civilizations. (One of my big peeves with the new Battlestar Galactica is that after three years or more out in the unknown reaches of space beyond the Colonies, Adama and his fugitive fleet have yet to run into anyone who wasn't a human or a Toaster. All that emptiness and alien worlds with no other intelligent life at all? Puh-leeze. At least Babylon 5 gave us some non-bipedal lifeforms to encounter in space.) Remember, it's "to boldly go where no one has gone before," not "where Kirk and everybody else and his dog already went." Great Bird bless the fans making these new adventures, and may they make many more.
