For the past four years, the annual TREKLANTA Convention has hosted an awards ceremony for the best Star Trek fan films released during the previous year. Initially called the “Independent Star Trek Film Awards,” the name was shorted to “The Bjo Awards” last year in honor of Bjo Trimble, the woman credited with saving Star Trek from an early cancellation by NBC by coordinating the great letter-writing campaign back in 1968.
The Bjo’s for 2018 were awarded this past weekend in a variety of categories (see the full entry rules here). Each category had four-to-six finalists selected from the following list of 21 nominees:
Release Date | Run Time | Series Name | Episode |
1/1/17 | 0:14:58 | Star Trek: Natures Hunger | “Sting of the Prosecution“ |
1/4/17 | 0:30:05 | Starship Tristan | “Between Two Worlds“ |
1/11/17 | 0:08:26 | Starship Intrepid | “Duty of Care“ |
1/13/17 | 0:11:33 | Starship Deimos | “No Greater Love“ |
2/1/17 | 0:20:42 | Chance Encounter | |
2/10/17 | 0:07:49 | Starship Tristan | “Seeing Red“ |
2/20/17 | 0:57:20 | Quark’s Space Station | “Too Much Traffic“ |
4/2/17 | 0:54:11 | Star Trek Continues | “Still Treads the Shadow“ |
4/4/17 | 0:14:17 | Starship Tristan | “Departures“ |
4/29/17 | 0:15:00 | Survivors | |
5/26/17 | 0:14:09 | Starship Deimos | “The Archive“ |
7/30/17 | 0:49:13 | Star Trek Continues | “What Ships Are For“ |
7/31/17 | 0:14:31 | Starship Tristan | “The Monsters Are With Us“ |
8/13/17 | 0:07:56 | Starship Tristan | “The Voice of Your Blood“ |
8/18/17 | 0:28:20 | The Federation Files | “Extraction“ |
9/8/17 | 0:12:18 | The Derelict | |
10/18/17 | 0:46:34 | Star Trek Continues | “To Boldly Go, Part I“ |
11/13/17 | 0:58:10 | Star Trek Continues | “To Boldly Go, Part II“ |
12/14/17 | 0:05:47 | Starship Triton | “New Orders“ |
12/29/17 | 0:10:13 | Star Trek: The Mirror Frontier | |
12/30/17 | 0:13:35 | The Federation Files | “Walking Bear, Running Wolf“ |
You might have noticed that all four Star Trek Continues episodes from 2017 are on this list, meaning that there was definitely an 800-pound mugato to contend with this past year (four mugatos, in fact!). As such, many of the results below might not seem all that unexpected. That said, there were still a couple of surprises.
Also, I’d like to add, on a personal note, that who won isn’t as important as who participated and, most of all, that these awards are given out annually in the first place. All Star Trek fan films are worthy of our respect and celebration because, whether slick and polished or just grass roots with some soil showing, these productions each resulted from hard work, dedication, and love Star Trek.
So if you haven’t seen some of the nominees above, think about clicking on a few of the links. You just might be pleasantly surprised!
By the way, a big thank you to Treklanta coordinator ERIC L. WATTS for organizing the Bjo Awards and for supplying me with the list of nominees, finalists, and winners And also the photo at the bottom)…
BEST SPECIAL & VISUAL EFFECTS
FINALISTS
Star Trek Continues “Still Treads the Shadow“
Star Trek Continues “To Boldly Go, Part I“
Star Trek Continues “To Boldly Go, Part II“
Star Trek Continues “What Ships Are For“
Survivors
WINNER
Star Trek Continues “To Boldly Go, Part II”
Marc Bell, Stephen Bailey, Daniel Dod, Gabriel Koerner, Michael Struck, Matt Boardman, John Knoll, Tom Martinek, Kenneth Thomson, Jr.
BEST SOUND DESIGN, EDITING & MIXING
FINALISTS
Star Trek Continues “Still Treads the Shadow”
Star Trek Continues “To Boldly Go, Part I”
Star Trek Continues “To Boldly Go, Part II”
Star Trek Continues “What Ships Are For”
Starship Tristan “Between Two Worlds”
Survivors
WINNER
Star Trek Continues “To Boldly Go, Part II”
Stephen Cevallos, Ralph M. Miller, Dan Scanlan, Michelle Sile
BEST ORIGINAL MUSIC
FINALISTS
Star Trek Continues “To Boldly Go, Part I”
Star Trek Continues “What Ships Are For”
Starship Intrepid “Duty of Care”
Starship Tristan “Departures”
The Federation Files “Walking Bear, Running Wolf”
WINNER
The Federation Files “Walking Bear, Running Wolf”
Konora, Dan R. Reynolds
BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING
FINALISTS
Star Trek Continues “To Boldly Go, Part I”
Star Trek Continues “To Boldly Go, Part II”
Star Trek Continues “What Ships Are For“
Starship Intrepid “Duty of Care”
The Derelict
WINNER
Star Trek Continues “To Boldly Go, Part II”
Genie Bolet, Crystal Broedel, Amanda Denkler, Lisa Hansell, Monique Paredes, Thomas E. Surprenant, Matthew Turull, Tim Vittetoe, Aubrey Warner, Randilee Warner, Hillary Warren
BEST COSTUMING
FINALISTS
Star Trek Continues “To Boldly Go, Part II”
Star Trek Continues “Still Treads the Shadow”
Star Trek Continues “What Ships Are For”
Starship Intrepid “Duty of Care”
The Derelict
WINNER
Star Trek Continues “To Boldly Go, Part II”
Ginger Holley, Hannah Barucky, Nora Brand, Michelle Brooks, Hiba Faouri, Miguel A. Moreta
BEST GUEST ACTOR OR ACTRESS
FINALISTS
Nicola Bryant as Lana
Star Trek Continues “To Boldly Go, Part II”
John de Lancie as Galisti
Star Trek Continues “What Ships Are For”
Anne Lockhart as Thaius
Star Trek Continues “What Ships Are For”
Elizabeth Maxwell as Sekara
Star Trek Continues “What Ships Are For”
Amy Rydell as Romulan Commander
Star Trek Continues “To Boldly Go, Part I“ & “To Boldly Go, Part II“
WINNER
Amy Rydell as Romulan Commander
Star Trek Continues “To Boldly Go, Part I” & “To Boldly Go, Part II“
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR OR ACTRESS
FINALISTS
Kipleigh Brown as Smith
Star Trek Continues “To Boldly Go, Part II“
Grant Imahara as Sulu
Star Trek Continues “To Boldly Go, Part II“
Michele Specht as McKennah
Star Trek Continues “What Ships Are For“ & “To Boldly Go, Part I“
M. Brooke Wilkins as Kira
Quark’s Space Station “Too Much Traffic“
WINNER
Michele Specht as McKennah
Star Trek Continues “What Ships Are For“ & “To Boldly Go, Part I”
BEST LEAD ACTOR OR ACTRESS
FINALISTS
Christopher Doohan as Mr. Scott
Star Trek Continues “To Boldly Go, Part I”
Todd Haberkorn as Mr. Spock
Star Trek Continues “Still Treads the Shadow” & “To Boldly Go, Part II“
Roisin McCallum as Parker
Starship Intrepid “Duty of Care“
Vic Mignogna as Captain James T. Kirk
Star Trek Continues “What Ships Are For“,
“To Boldly Go, Part I” & “To Boldly Go, Part II“
Hayward Morse as Dr. Goode
Chance Encounter
WINNER
Vic Mignogna as Captain James T. Kirk
Star Trek Continues “What Ships Are For“,
“To Boldly Go, Part I” & “To Boldly Go, Part II”
BEST DIRECTOR
FINALISTS
Matthew Lee Blackburn
Survivors
Nicholas J. Cook
Starship Intrepid “Duty of Care”
Julian Higgins
Star Trek Continues “Still Treads the Shadow”
James Kerwin
Star Trek Continues “To Boldly Go, Part II“
Vic Mignogna
Star Trek Continues “What Ships Are For”
Aaron Vanderkley
The Derelict
WINNER
Vic Mignogna
Star Trek Continues “What Ships Are For“
BEST ORIGINAL STORY OR SCREENPLAY
FINALISTS
Paul Laight, Gary O’Brien
Chance Encounter
Robert J. Sawyer, Vic Mignogna, James Kerwin
Star Trek Continues “To Boldly Go, Part I“
Robert J. Sawyer, Vic Mignogna, James Kerwin
Star Trek Continues “To Boldly Go, Part II“
Kipleigh Brown, Vic Mignogna, James Kerwin
Star Trek Continues “What Ships Are For“
Aaron Vanderkley
The Derelict
WINNER
Kipleigh Brown, Vic Mignogna, James Kerwin
Star Trek Continues “What Ships Are For“
BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, SHORT FORM
FINALISTS
Chance Encounter
Star Trek: The Mirror Frontier
Starship Deimos“The Archive”
Starship Intrepid “Duty of Care”
Survivor
The Derelict
WINNER
The Derelict
Aaron Vanderkley
BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, LONG FORM
FINALISTS
Quark’s Space Station “Too Much Traffic“
Star Trek Continues “To Boldly Go, Part I”
Star Trek Continues “To Boldly Go, Part II”
Star Trek Continues “What Ships Are For”
Starship Tristan “Between Two Worlds”
WINNER
Star Trek Continues “To Boldly Go, Part II”
Vic Mignogna, Steven Dengler
I want to say to everyone who see this is a real big THANK YOU for all of your work on your story of all part of star trek there.
I Kenny Smith like to see much more about this subject here.
So the elephant in the room wins most of the awards…..go figure…..congrats to all the winners and nominees. Your hard work keeping trek fan films alive is greatly appreciated.
Well, the same thing kinda happened in 2015 when Prelude to Axanar was a nominee. But next years’ awards won’t have the “big guns” and should hopefully show a bit more diversity in the winners. That said, STC really earned every award it won.
As ABBA sang: the winner takes it all!
Congrats to the other contestants, all this is really right stuff.
Mama mia, that’s the name of the game! 🙂
It didn’t matter who didn’t win. Not everybody had new content to show.
Not sure what that means…
I dare to say: Star Trek: The Mirror Frontier and Quark’s Space Station “Too Much Traffic” were two black horses in this year Bjos finale, as I see. Congrats for authors of both.
But I have a question… Why 4-th episode of Quark’s Space Station wasn’t on nominees list?
No idea. Someone has to nominate it. Maybe no one did.
I’m almost 9 minutes into “What are Ships for?” and I’m at the point where I can only watch no more than 60 seconds at a time (from the episode that won ‘best story/screenplay,’ mind you) and at this point after watching Vic and John Delancie the one thing that came to mind is:
The Grandson: Hold it, hold it. What is this? Are you trying to trick me? . . . Is this a kissing book?
Grandpa: Wait, just wait.
The Grandson: Well, WHEN DOES IT GET GOOD?
I’ll have to wait a few more hours before I can watch another minute. But really, when does it get good?
31:51.
But don’t skip ahead. Fight your way through. The first half is VERY slow and plodding. But it’s worth it when you finally reach the last scene. The ending is VERY classic Star Trek…almost like the ending of one of the original 79 episodes. Let me know what you think when you finish it.
Still struggling to get through, but I did manage to get up to 30:30. Other than the violation of the prime directive at 25:40 and the incredible slowness up to this point (I’m thinking like Crow T. Robot here: “Hey, it should be called ‘What are PLOTS for!!'” and when I try to imagine an invasion of ‘Obecians’ I can only picture a gaggle of fat white guys spreading diabetes as a form of some kind of STD . . . . Yeah, I know, but it’s hard to get that image out of my mind . . . . .)
Maybe I’ll finish tomorrow or over the weekend.
Strength and Honor.
Hang in there, David! You’re almost up to the good part! 🙂
Aye yi yi. First 30 minutes: WAY over-developed; last 15 minutes: very underdeveloped to where I was being ‘jerked’ out of the story from logic flaws.
SPOILER ALERT:
To me there was a crucial scene missing: As edited once the Highlains saw color they would have NO reference that purple hair = Obecians and (IMHO) would not automatically make that link 5 seconds after their cone cells turned on. An added scene where an Obecian shuttle is shot down, survivors are captured (say in Act I or Act II) and when color is restored (ACT III or IV) all prisoners have purple hair implies all purple hair people on Highlia are Obecians. NOW there’s a causal link.
When Council Leader John Delancie then remains a bigoted dork-head all Kirk has to do is then threaten to give the Highlians what they want: pull all Obecians off Delancie’s world, give Federation aid to Obecia, NO AID to Highlia (Per Prime Directive) , so Highlia has to choose: either get what they really wish for (no aliens) and keep falling behind in technology to Obecia as the Federation props up the latter OR live in peace with their friends they’ve known for years (even though they’re aliens) and stop being bigoted dick-heads.
I’m thinking Vic was so busy being actor/producer he skimped on the writing part of being a showrunner. Seriously, I think it needed another pass in the writing room. But that’s just me. 🙂
I don’t think it was just the purple hair but also the skin color. But yeah, if you wanted to poke that particular hole, you could. Of course, in “The Enemy Within,” they could simply have sent down a shuttlecraft or beamed down hundreds of more blankets. So it’s not like TOS was infallible either.
As for your solution of the Federation’s “ultimatum,” I don’t think that’s what Kirk is all about. Force the Highlians almost at gunpoint to cooperate? Make them “an offer they can’t refuse”? That’s not the Star Trek way. Better to let them decide for themselves to work WITH their enemies and find common ground.
Anyway, for me, the point of the episode was, of course, to point to our own xenophobia here in the U.S. and make us take a look at it through the “safe mirror” of science fiction. Was the metaphor a little hit-you-over-the-head-with-a-hammer? Yeah? So was “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield.” But that was still the heart of what Star Trek offered back in the 1960s.
I’m sorry you didn’t like the episode, David. But there’s still ten others from STC, so it’s not a total loss…unless you didn’t like any of those either! 🙂
Oh, and what I think really doesn’t matter because it won the award for writing, anyway, but I just thought it could have been better.
But then if it was better, then CBS would get their undies in a twist and would have balked at the episode coming in at 46 minutes. So like the cabin boy, maybe this rum was “just right.”
Maybe! 🙂