Slashdot Mirror
Fan-Made Star Trek Episode Available for Download
Minnesota trekker writes "Two Minnesota fans of the original "Star Trek" series spent seven years, off and on, creating an all-new episode in the 1960s style using their own actors, sets and props. Behold, the U.S.S. Exeter (www.starshipexeter.com). The episode's look and feel is amazingly authentic. The story is inventive and the acting surprisingly good. The damn thing, dubbed "The Savage Empire," is actually watchable. The site gives lots of details on how the episode was created, and even more background is available on the Pioneer Press site."
This is pretty cool. I remember a similar community effort being discussed several years ago to bring the Timothy Zahn Star Wars sequels to the screen (or to tape, whatever). Never got off the ground, AFAIK.
I am a little worried as to how this will be treated by Paramount. They are notoriously evil when it comes to "protecting" their copyrights, especially when it comes to Trek.
Also, why the Exeter? Is there any reason given as to why the Federation would name a ship after an East Coast prep school with a history of buggery?
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
Is it just me, or the old fashioned klingons were far better vilains that the new ones? I mean, old klingons were cynical, smart, dissimulated, and very dangerous.
But NG's (or motion-picture) style klingons are irracional, fanatic, even dumb, and it's by no way credible that this kind of civilization would ever manage to build any kind of science or engineering.
Note that both know how to be brutal, but the first ones used brutality as a tool for their objectives, and, for the new ones, it's an almost biological characteristic.
I remember that I've read, in a magazine, that the klingons of the 60's represented the enemies of the U.S. in that time (China, USSR), and, the klingons from 80 to date, represented the new ones (fanatics). It may be, but, as vilains, the previous generation of Klingons were way more fun.
I'm sure many of the comments here will amount to "these guys have too much time on their hands" or "haw-haw, these guys can't get laid," but I say good for them. Criticizing and tearing something down by making snarky comments on the Internet is the easiest and least impressive thing in the world.
Actually doing something is hard. Especially something as eccentric as this. These guys had the passion and the perseverance to make something -- to start a project many people would consider too expensive and time-consuming to bother with, and they saw it through to completion. I have to respect that.
More than once I've heard people say something like "wouldn't it be cool to build some cheap sets and make our own episode of (Star Trek, Star Wars, X-Files, My Mother the Car)", but these guys actually went ahead and did it. Which, despite whatever shortcomings the film project might have, is a hell of a lot more impressive than sitting around talking smack about it.
I watched this a few days ago, actually, and it was fun to watch. The people who made it have a lot of love for their subject matter, and put a lot of work into the little details, which I appreciate. And that big pink dinosaur is a riot -- and as special effects go, still beats the heck out of that "lava monster" Spock mind-melded with in that classic Trek episode.
So I say good for them, and I hope it doesn't take another seven years for the sequel.
It looks like the pages are hosted at Apple's .Mac, and if you use the .Mac services to create a web site with movies, it automatically uses the EMBED tag. Maybe Apple figures people will buy QuickTime Pro just to get the "Save" link working from the player...
-BearKlaw
The biggest reason why I hate embedded movies on a website is that I can not select 'Double Size' for the movie. Those movies are very tiny with my preferred resolution and I hate having to change my monitor resolution just to watch a movie in a web page.
I end up sifting through the html and javascript and grabbing the raw url anyways.
Oh well,
--jeff++
ipv6 is my vpn
Ok, it comes across as flamebait, but I too am sick of going to web sites with movies that I can't watch because apple is too lazy to type "make" on a linux box.
Hate to cross-post, but...
Can people who have already d/led these please get them up on the P2P networks? How about renaming them starshipexeter_actone.mov, etc. ?
Thanks
They have every right to claim copyright on the movie. The movie and the script are original works and are therefore are immediately copyrighted when put into a concrete form.
As for Paramount, they probably could make a big stink and intimidate the producers of the movie into some sort of settlement (since they of course have deeper pockets) but in truth this probably falls into the realm of fair use, much like the Star Trek parodies on SNL, etc.
It is especially important to note that the name of the movie does not include Star Trek anywhere. It also does not use any names from the original shows and movies. In general there is not enough to really call this infringement.
Please do put these on Kazaa or Winmx. Going to the website after it's been slashdotted and already it took about a half hour to get a minute or so of the video. I'm looking at a 1.6 kb download happening. From the minute I watched already I love this thing. Quick please, before Paramount swoops down in their stolen Bird of Prey and lobs a couple of antimatter torpedos on these guys. -Sorry couldn't help that last bit. :-)
Enjoy your Karma, after all you earned it. Feel your Karma Joe, feel it burn.
I've never figured out why anyone would give a shit about who else is getting laid! The only person you should worry about getting laid is yourself.
It's not like sex is some contest you win by getting it regularly. Grow up already!
That this thing is actually quite bad? The dialogue is rushed, the acting horrible. I wanted to like it. Oh well.
Here's what's got me wondering... They spent seven years tweaking every nuance of this. Why would someone do this? Why?
They're actually trying to tell us something. We could spend our time consuming products we don't need... watching mindless drivel on TV, or we could "do something" by making a cheap knock-off of a cheap TV show from 30+ years ago. Millions of years from now, our society and culture will only be known through the continuing "Star Trek" parodies. For Auld Lang Syne!
This is really just an extreme case of fanfiction, not much different from Star Wars shorts you can download from theforce.net (if you haven't seen "Troops" -- start there!!) Do you have any idea how VAST fanfic is? Here's a hint: in 1984, just the *index* of =known= Star Wars fanfic (probably about comparable to Star Trek fanfic in volume) was around 200 pages in 6 point type. The actual "one of each" SW fanfic collexion (sponsored by LucasArts) *fills* a double garage over in Santa Barbara.
:)
(BTW, do you know what subgenre of fanfic Shatner and Nimoy both collect?
In general, studios leave fanfic alone, so long as it's nonprofit, and doesn't violate some arbitrary rule (like George's "there is no sex in the SW universe" -- which is why SW slashfic, tho very popular, is underground to this day). Selling fanzines to cover printing costs and postage is acceptable. As to copyright issues, that's long since been beaten to death (including by fanfic-writing lawyers, with varying degrees of cluelessness) but when it's come down to push and shove, essentially the studio can assert copyright on the fanfic as a derivative work. LucasArts has been involved in some court cases about that, but they soon learned that 1) they couldn't stop it anyway, and 2) nothing serves so well to keep fan fever alive, thus money coming into their coffers.
As to how the studios do protect their material, they generally confine themselves to prohibiting distribution of actual images from film or TV, and being very hardassed about attempts to market novels to Real Publishers. Essentially, you need to already be on the studio's contract to do that. (Fanfic novels are ignored so long as no one ever attempts to sell them to a publisher.)
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?