The “Wonders from Down Under” strike again! The two AARONS—VANDERKLEY and CHAPPELL—are an inseparable team and an unstoppable force when it comes to creating visually stunning Star Trek fan films! Aaron V. writes and directs while his significant other, Aaron C., builds the sets…and both share the title of executive producer on their latest releases.
Based in Perth, Australia, Aaron V. began producing Star Trek fan films in 2016 (before he met Aaron C.), bursting into the spotlight with five jaw-dropping NX-era fan films over the span of four years…
Few fan filmmakers attempt 22nd century Trek projects due to the complexities of designing sets and obtaining/creating costumes for that time period. But Aaron V. dove headfirst into the challenge, directing trained actors within a ridiculously tiny shooting space that somehow turned into a series of very believable starship and starbase interiors.
After a 2-year hiatus, Aaron V. returned in 2021, this time with Aaron C. on the team, and transitioned from the 22nd to the 24th century, now on board the Nova-class starship U.S.S. Explorer. The sets and costumes were still as good—if not better!—as their predecessors, but now the look and feel was firmly in the Star Trek: Voyager era.
Newly rebranded under the banner “THESE ARE THE VOYAGES,” the two Aarons released one episode in 2021 and then two in 2022…
Each was on a similar quality level as the first five NX-era fan films, and all eight are definitely worth checking out.
The Aarons then took some much-needed time off, as making this caliber of Trek fan film, while fun, is very time-consuming and labor-intensive. And while it would have been awesome (and very convenient!) if they’d been able to save their previous sets for future use, the frustrating fact is that the space they shoot inside is used for other purposes, and the Aarons have nowhere available to store the often-sizable set pieces.
The Australian duo didn’t release anything new last last year, but on September 14 of this year, an ultra-short vignette titled UNAVOIDABLE DELAYS premiered with an absolutely gorgeous crew quarters set. The two-and-a-half-minute fan film featured two actors with speaking parts. One of these actors was MAXIMILIANO LAFFONT, who had played an engineer in their previous release Beyond the Sun. When last we saw his character, he had disobeyed an order from the captain and gotten into some serious trouble. Unavoidable Delays appears to be a sequel to that story, picking up with the engineer confined to quarters, awaiting a meeting with the captain.
Let’s see what happened next…
I found this absolutely hilarious! And since it’s always interesting to get some insight into what goes onto behind-the-scenes, I sent Aaron V. a few questions and got really enlightening answers. And stick around till the very end of the blog, as Aaron sent me a ton of photos from the set that appear at the bottom…
JONATHAN – What inspired you guys to create a such a short vignette in a comedic style?
AARON – When Fan Film Factor announced a competition for TREKS IN 90 SECS, I wasn’t quite sure if I wanted to enter, partly because of the logistics of putting a production together again (as we have no standing sets, etc.) and partly because I didn’t have any inspiration of stories to tell in the time limit. Then, as the entries came in and I saw Avalon’s NEW DATA CARD short and saw it was a comedy, something clicked, and I thought, “Star Trek can be funny. I can make this funny.” Ironic that this didn’t occur to me sooner because I love LOWER DECKS.
I started thinking about my original version of Resistance (our previous fan film), and how I intended Maximilliano Laffont’s character from Beyond the Sun to appear. He was going to be accidentally left onboard the ship during an evacuation and join forces with the characters of Resistance to retake the ship, sacrificing himself to save the captain and redeeming himself in her eyes. Due to the pandemic, Laffont was unable to return for filming, so he was written out of the story.
And that’s how Laffont’s character being stuck in his quarters and constantly brushed off by the crew as they have other adventures became the story. If we weren’t conscious of the time limit, we would’ve tried to cram as many gags as possible every time the door opened: Mirror Universe, firefights, new uniforms, hull breach, etc.
JONATHAN – Well, it looks like we’re gonna need to change the rules for next year’s Treks in 90 Secs because you’re 39 seconds over our maximum time 2-minute time limit. Although I admit to wanting to see more gags.
AARON – I think I just need to be better at writing stories that fit the time limit. I am the problem! (Haha.)
JONATHAN – How long did it take you and the team to construct that awesome crew quarters set?
AARON – As we didn’t keep anything from the previous set of stories (shot in 2020-2021), we had about a month’s worth of weekends to build the crew quarters from scratch before we started shooting.
We tried to be as meticulous as possible when it came to designing each piece, so we could re-use things for the following two shorts as well. We looked at the junior officer’s quarters from both TNG and VOY, identified the common shapes, and then designed ours accordingly, so although it’s not 100% accurate by any stretch of the imagination, the audience gets the feel that we’re in the same universe.
JONATHAN – Well, I for one certainly had no problem believing it!
AARON – Although it was completely unnecessary in the context of the story, I really pushed to have Janeway’s replicator on the wall as I really like the sort of ‘open-top’ design. We pulled a lot of set dressing from storage, including the glass table, conference chairs and potted plant. We found this horrifically ‘bum end of the 80s’ triangular, holographic bedside lamp that was perfect for 90s Trek. We painstakingly converted a commercial money box into a TNG desktop computer, as we knew it would play a small part in the story. I think in terms of overall design coming together, this was our favourite set of all three stories.
JONATHAN – Those props and set pieces really made the film, Aaron. How many hours in total did you spend shooting those scenes that ended up being only about two minutes of final screen time?
AARON – We shot Unavoidable Delays over the course of an eight-hour shoot day. It was very strange to have so much time to film a two-page scene, but it gave us space to breathe. We were so used to shooting 5-10 pages a day, sometimes with set changes, that it was nice to have time to sit with the actors beforehand and workshop the scenes, nice for the camera team to have more time to light and set up exactly how they wanted, and nice to just not be in a rush.
JONATHAN – Had you worked with both actors before or only with Maximiliano?
AARON – I’d never met TAMARA CREASEY, who plays the Captain’s Adjutant, and although she came highly recommended, it was pretty much a blind casting. But the doors opened and Creasey said her first line, I knew this was the perfect person to play the role. She got the tone, she got the humour, she nailed it.
JONATHAN – I agree. I got a very Red Dwarf vibe from her performance. I also got a very Voyager vibe—not just from the sets themselves but from the lighting, camera movement, etc.
AARON – This was the first time for me working with director of photography JOE HENDERSON on a Trek project. There was a moment when we were setting up for the shot of Laffont walking to the door and Joe said, “When I was watching Voyager, I noticed that they always used a dolly for this kind of movement, so I think we should do that.” A single tear fell down my face and I was like, not only did he watch the reference material I sent him, he kept watching! I really appreciated that.
JONATHAN – How long did it take to edit this fan film in post-production?
AARON – To do a cut, not long. Because this story had a fairly basic shot structure, was a two-hander and very short, it was fairly quick to edit. The hard part was trimming it down to fit the 90-120 second mark. Since then, it was really just waiting to fit into the busy schedule of our composer, who very generously gives his time to write music for us amidst his professional work. So those circumstances together with a few other factors meant that we weren’t able to enter Treks in 90 Secs.
JONATHAN – Well, there’s always next year, assuming you can trim away about 30 seconds of this film.
AARON – Actually, we did shoot another two shorts alongside Unavoidable Delays back in April-May 2024 and those will be released as soon as it’s our turn in the busy schedules of our wonderful composer and visual effects producer. Each short is inspired by our previous set of three stories in some way, which were arguably some of our most popular adventures.
The next story is called RENAISSANCE and features our captain on a mission to recover remnant Borg technology and finding herself face to face with the mercurial Leonardo da Vinci!
JONATHAN – Oh, that sounds fun! And the other?
AARON – The final story is called DESPERATE MEASURES, and we revisit the world of Outbreak, where two characters are in a race against time to restart a water treatment facility.
JONATHAN – Were you able to save the sets this time?
AARON – Sadly, no. It was so hard to dispose of the sets for all these films. We would’ve left them standing for future use if we could, but unfortunately, we just don’t have the space or the money to do that.
JONATHAN – Have you ever considered crowd-funding?
AARON – I think if we did another full set of stories, we’d have to. We just have to make sure everything is in place—a space, crew, schedule etc.—before we do it.
We did have a script, locations, and we started building set pieces at the end of last year for a standalone story, but we weren’t able to find the right actor for the lead role. We tried twice to revisit it since then, but so far it has ended up on a shelf.
Beyond that, who knows…?
And here are some behind-the-scenes photos from pre-production and production…
