Potpourri

It's tough keeping up a job, family and a blog. Priorities, priorities, priorities. Also what is interesting to attract readers attention? If you haven't hooked them by the first line, then it is most likely never to be read or acknowledged. Oh well, if you look at my track history this is life. But pressing on....

More Star Trek!
There seems to be a proliferation of fan based Star Trek amateur films being created for free distribution on the web. It has to be free or else the mother company (Paramount/CBS) will come down on them. Actually it is amazing that that has not already happened since intellectual rights are being trampled all over, but there is a fine line between franchised property and creative expression of a concept. All this gobbledygook aside, the quality and quantity is increasing. There's still a lot of junk but there is an amazing amount of passionate time being applied to the recreation of Roddenberry's Trek Universe.

Star Trek Intrepid
This Scottish born rendition follows an different crew and ship of a 'Next Generation/Voyager' timeline. The ship and crew are assigned un-welcomely to protect a new colony. It's very strange for me to hear aliens sounding a bit like Sean Connery but the production quality is very good with very high quality acting for the most part.

Star Trek Exeter
This Texas based production is based in the Original Star Trek time-line with another Constellation based ship on patrol on the outer reaches of known Federation space. The acting is a bit over the edge and mimics the style and feeling of the characters from the 60's based series. Interestingly this production used green screens for their first episode but has since built extensive sets as well as using an interesting set of CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) and miniature based special effects.

Of Gods and Men
This mini-series is still in post-production but includes several of the Original Star Trek Cast and Guests. Associated with the very popular Star Trek New Voyages. (See Star Trek Series Lives) This much anticipated film was at one time being offered to CBS for their sale/distribution but now has been decided to be released as a free web based film.

Several other sites have popped up with various quality episodes such as Tales of the 7th Fleet, Star Trek Hidden Frontier and an interesting CGI animated Star Trek Aurora series.

As always, the weakest link in all of these films is the script. It is easy to forgive the acting, uneasy editing and presentation if the story is engaging. I do see that home video, editing and CGI effects are getting nothing but better as equipment and software becomes available and affordable.