Star Trek (Fan made productions)
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This article deals with fan-made productions using elements of the Star Trek franchise. Paramount Pictures and its licensees are the only organizations legally allowed to create any commercial products with the name and trademark Star Trek. Consequently, these fan productions are unauthorized and subject to legal issues. Even so, this massive body of work exists and continues to grow. Fans have produced works in the performing arts (fan films, the stage, audio drama or filk), literature (fan fiction and screenplays), the visual arts (2D & 3D) and the recreational arts (games, models & crafts).
Fan films
With the cancellation of in 2005 and the improbability of any professional productions for the next few years, Star Trek fan films have become news. The number of groups producing fan films has trebled with a new crop of fan films planned for release in 2006. For the purposes of this article we are categorising them by productions status and notability. Produced films are listed first with the most notable productions first. Films that are in post-production (filming or preparing the raw footage for release) come next followed by those in pre-production. Fan Trailers have been listed last, not because they are any less notable, but because they are not meant for production at all. Some fan trailers, such as [Grayson], have eclipsed many produced fan films in popularity.Notable projects
A few productions are more notable than others due to fan and media attention from around the world. These films are often larger productions, with larger budgets, and in some cases are produced with the participation of actual Star Trek cast and crew.
- Starship Exeter
- An online series which focuses on the adventures of the starship Exeter (NCC-1706) in the time, with production design matching the era. One complete episode has been released, with the second mid-way through its release in installments. A third episode is planned. This series features extensive use of interior starship sets and many human, Klingon, and Andorian characters.
- A long-running series with 45 produced episodes, the series focuses on the starship Excelsior and its home base, Deep Space 12, as they mediate disputes between various races, and fend off attacks from a powerful new alien race, The Grey. This series is offshoot of a previous Los Angeles Star Trek fan series, Voyages of the USS Angeles, sharing some settings and characters. [Fan Films Quarterly] recognized Hidden Frontier as one of the 10 most pivotal moments in fan film history within the pages of FFQ's the Summer 2006 issue (issue #4), released in June 2006.
- One of the most ambitious fan film projects, co-creators James Cawley and Jack Marshall aimed to complete the original series' five-year mission, with fan actors cast as Kirk, Spock and the rest of the Enterprise crew on an exact replica of the original bridge set. The series has received major media coverage, with articles in Variety and Wired.
- Two episodes have been produced - the pilot, "Come What May" and episode one, "In Harm’s Way” in October. The second episode, "To Serve All My Days" (penned by D.C. Fontana, story editor on the original series) is currently in post-production, and features Walter Koenig guest-starring as an older version of Pavel Chekov, his character from the original series. Several other actors from the original Trek series have also now signed on to appear in future episodes, including George Takei reprising the role of Hikaru Sulu in the third episode, "World Enough and Time", joining the original Yeoman Janice Rand, Grace Lee Whitney. [Fan Films Quarterly] recognized New Voyages as one of the 10 most pivotal moments in fan film history within the pages of FFQ's the Summer 2006 issue (issue #4), released in June 2006.
- Star Wreck
- A series of Finnish parody movies created by Samuli Torssonen from 1992 onward. The first release was a simple animated film, but later films grew more complex, moving into 3D animation, then live action. The latest film, , was released in October 2005 and became an internet sensation, having drawn more than four million downloads from the main site alone, making it the most popular film of all time in Finland.
Stone Trek's U.S.S. Magnetize
- Stone Trek
- A Flash animated cartoon series that presents episodes of Star Trek as it might have appeared in the universe of The Flintstones, complete with 1960's style laugh tracks. The series takes place aboard the stoneship U.S.S. Magnetize, powered by its magma/antimagma engines. Characters include Captain James T. Kirkstone, the Vulcano first officer Mr. Sprock and ship's doctor Leonard "Fossils" RcKoy. The series also features a running count of redshirts killed in each episode, and fans can write in to nominate themselves to be caricatured as a redshirt in future episodes.
Produced fan films
- [Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Star Trek V
- Ryan K. Johnson's take on a film the original Mystery Science Theater 3000 never tackled. Ryan, Tom Servo, and Crow T. Robot mercilessly lampoon the fifth Star Trek feature film and William Shatner's direction.
- [Redshirt Blues]
- David Rogers' film presents the tale of space weary security officer on the Enterprise who is sick of Kirk, the ship, and the redshirt he must wear everyday. While on patrol, he meets another Redshirt on first assignment, to whom he reveals the truth about Redshirts. This film gained national exposure when screened on the SciFi Channel's Exposure in 2001.
- In this 1989 film, the "Ferrari" have stolen all of the Pepsi from Starbase Seven-Up, and it is up to the crew of the Enterprise to rescue it. Captain Picard, along with Doodah the android, Ya Har, Jordashe, Rigor Mortis, Sexx Toii (the Betamax counselor), Ensign Expendable, and Weasley Crushme all leap into action. Along the way, viewers meet the harried Star Trek writing crew and the Ferrari's fearsome leader. This film has been popular for years, and was featured by the BBC in a series on Star Trek fans.
- [Tales of the Seventh Fleet]
- A new ongoing multigenerational fandom video project covering all timelines, currently focusing on a small destroyer, the [U.S.S. Justice] in the late 23rd and early 24th centuries. Most of the cast are members of Star Trek fan clubs located in New Jersey. Two episodes have been completed, along with other special shorts. A third episode is nearing completion for a 2006 release.
- The Voyages of the USS Angeles
- This series started with a feature length film, The Price of Duty, produced in the mid-1990s by a Los Angeles Star Trek club's "video production committee." This era series takes place around the wild region of space introduced in the film '. It was the basis of the later fan series ', and spawned other local fan productions as well. Neither the series or the movie is currently available on the internet due to strict regulations by the production team responsible for the creation of the show. It was only made available to the cast and crew of those production teams. Some episodes titles are "A Little Night music", "Dreamers", "Q In the Dark", and "Price of Duty".
Fan films in production
Fan film groups which are either filming or have completed filming and are in post production prior to release - does not include trailer or teaser-only projects.- [Star Trek
- Developed from a 1997 audio drama series (Star Trek: The Undiscovered Series), Andromeda was launched in June 2004 by fans in Osnabrück, Germany. Filming began the next month, and the first teaser trailer was released in October 2004. of that year. Primarily a three-man operation, Andromeda is shot live action shot against green screen with CGI ship scenes. Episodes are planned to be 45-60 minutes long, with audio in German with English subtitles. The [current release estimate] is for the end of 2006.
Fan trailers
Fan produced trailers for films that are not intended for production.
Fan audio dramas
Inspired in part by the success of a long-running series of audio adventures produced by Big Finish Productions in the United Kingdom based upon Doctor Who, some similar audio series based upon characters and situations from Star Trek have been launched. Unlike the Doctor Who productions — which are produced under license by the rights holders of the Doctor Who property, the BBC — these Star Trek audio series are not similarly licensed by Paramount. It is worth noting, however, that the Doctor Who audios were not initially licensed by the BBC, although this was when they were produced on an amateur rather than a professional basis, as has been the case since 1999.
Fan fiction
Screenplay & novel-episodic series
Legal issues
The attitude of the Star Trek copyright and trademark holders towards fan works has varied over time. In early 1996 for example, Viacom [went on the attack], sending out a wave of cease and desist letters to webmasters of Star Trek fan sites which contained copyrighted film clips, sounds, insignia, or other copyrighted material. Under threat of legal action, many Trekkers shut down, leaving behind scanned copies[link] of letters sent by Viacom. Shortly afterwards, Paramount [launched] a subscription-based website, Star Trek Continuum. In the lead up to the release of the film Star Trek: First Contact, then-president of Paramount Digital Entertainment David Wertheimer [stated] Viacom was targeting sites that were "selling ads, collecting fees, selling illegal merchandise or posting copyrighted materials."
Faced with the threat of legal prosecution, most of the sites complied with Viacom's demands, deleting the offending data. However, [a handful of webmasters] resisted Viacom's pressure tactics, demanding specific citations of offending material from Viacom.
Viacom's actions were seen by numerous sources as an example of a wider civil liberties issue and poor public relations. In a Wired [article], Jennifer Granick, a San Francisco criminal lawyer who went on to champion cyber rights, felt that the unofficial sites should be covered by the fair use doctrine in U.S. copyright law. In a 1998 [article], UCLA associate professor Howard Besser saw it as an example of the content industry "exploiting concerns over digitization and attempting to reshape the law by strengthening protection for copyrights holders and weakening public rights to access and use material."
Fan fiction has been a specific battleground for the legal issues balancing a copyright owner's legal rights against a fan's use of that material, and Star Trek has been at the forefront of the controversy. Many of the precedents set by fan fiction apply to other media, particularly fan films and audio dramas - however, the same dangers apply as well. Incidents where fan have broken the tacit agreement between authors and fans (for example, trying to make money from a derivative work themselves, or [accusing] an author of appropriating their idea) have caused a backlash from certain authors.
Star Trek fan films currently operate in an informational vacuum, since Paramount has made no official statement regarding their existence, pro or con. Fan filmmakers have generally kept a low profile, hoping not to draw attention to themselves. However, with the demise of official productions[link], the fan film community has been drawing more attention in the media[link] [link], and even a certain amount of [recognition] from the entertainment industry.
Cow Creek Films, the production company at the time for Star Trek: New Voyages, had [contact with Paramount] to successfully reverse a cease and desist order which resulted in a set of guidelines being verbally agreed on:
- No profit can come from the film.
- It cannot be shown in festivals or at conventions or any other venue where money is charged for admission either directly for the film or the event itself.
- It can only be a free download and cannot be offered in lieu of a "donation".
- They were NOT giving permission to do the show, but rather turning a blind eye to it as long as the producers stick to the rules.
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