DREADNOUGHT DOMINION didn’t set out to be a tongue-in-cheek Trek fan film parody…and it doesn’t plan to be one for much longer. But for the last ten months, GARY DAVIS and RANDY WREN have taken this passion-driven fan production in some very quirky directions.
Back in 2015 when the first two episodes (“Haunted” and “Anchors Aweigh“) were released, Dreadnought Dominion was actually pretty serious. Those two episodes set up the backstory of the main characters as the USS Dominion prepared to launch. But then the show-runner and lead actor, Frank Parker, Jr. (playing Commodore Samuel Grissom) left the series, leaving Gary and Randy to pick up the pieces and move on.
In late 2016, Dreadnought Dominion did a cross-over fan film with Starship Valiant called “Chain of Command.” With Dominion still waiting to launch Gary’s character of Captain Jason Brousseau takes command and makes Randy’s Commander Stephen Denson his XO.
The following summer, a Mirror Universe version of the same episode, this one titled “Command and Conquer,” showed the same scenes taking place in the Terran Empire. It was a fun little project, and both fan films featured MICHAEL L. KING from Starship Valiant and VANCE MAJOR playing his fan favorite character of Erick Minard.
And Dominion still hadn’t left drydock!
This past summer, Gary and Randy became the first fan filmmakers to shoot a project at Stage 9 Studios (now renamed THE NEUTRAL ZONE), site of the former Star Trek Continues sets in Kingsland, GA and now available to all fans to use. (Support the Patreon for The Neutral Zone by clicking here.) They released two back-to-back vignettes, “Reality Check” (which purposefully broke the fourth wall) and “Silent Acknowledgement” (featuring the first deaf character and actress in a fan series). You can read a great two-part interview with Gary and Randy here.
And yet, after six complete fan films, Dominion was still in drydock!
Acknowledging the ridiculousness of the situation, Gary and Randy created one final script to get them on their way: “Technical Difficulties.” They scheduled filming for the same weekend that owner RAY TESI opened up his TOS sets in Kingsland free to visitors for a Fan Appreciation Weekend. It was a huge success, but it also afforded the Dominion folks to go somewhere only one Trek fan project (“Walking Bear, Running Wolf”) had ever gone before: they filmed before a live studio audience!
ERIC L. WATTS of the fan film Bjo Awards pointed out, “It’s worth noting that the producers of this episode took advantage of the presence of several attendees…who happened to be in TOS costumes and casting them as background characters, particularly in Engineering, which gave those scenes the unexpected benefit of looking like the ship had a full crew complement aboard.”
The result, as you’ll see below, is a fun and original fan film, full of gags and laughter, that has the added benefit of finally—after some technical difficulties—getting the dreadnought Dominion out of drydock and finally on to her missions in space…
Great read. Glad they finally left dock. Now on to some adventures
Indeed! Onward to the stars…
We had a FOUR day shoot earlier this month where we filmed one.. and then parts of another.. production. We’ll be doing pick up shots in the coming months and HOPE to release these two fifteen minute separate productions later this year..
Awesome!!!
Nice write up Jon…Go Boldly!
At my age, just going is usually enough! 🙂
Love it Randy, you all did a great job.
I appreciate the nod to deaf culture and signing. I wonder if deaf persons would appreciate a whole episode dedicated to deaf culture and language.
Well, I know a couple of deaf people. I can ask them. (Although neither is a Trekkie and one is in my son’s 2nd grade class.)
Yes… we are considering a short on the future featuring two deaf characters interacting and talking about living in a hearing world… stay tuned…
Sounds fascinating…er, SEEMS fascinating! 🙂
That is awesome. My nephew is deaf and his immediate family is reluctant to have him signing. because they think technology will “fix” him. Not sure how he is broken. its almost like saying someone who is only fluent in one language is broken.
One of the girls in my son’s class has cochlear implants. Her mother is completely deaf but not her dad. I was chatting with him once about their decision to get the implants in a first place. Now, for most of us, we’d say, “Of course you get them! They can turn your daughter from a deaf little girl into one who can hear! It’s like a miracle!” But consider this: her mother has been deaf from birth. She’s a lovely lady. Although I don’t know more than about ten words and six finger letters of sign language, she and I have some great conversations via typing into our iPhones!
The daughter’s natural state is deafness, like her mother. Disconnect the implants (for a shower or to go into the pool or to sleep), and she reverts to her natural state of not being able to hear. So are the implants making this little girl into something she is not?
It was an interesting question to ponder, although of course, the parents got her the implants…and I agree it was the right move. The little girl still knows how to sign (because of her mother), although she doesn’t need to read lips and has chosen not to learn (unlike her mother). So in many ways, the girl gets to walk in both worlds…deaf and hearing. But I still think about what her dad said about the implants (because it was similar to what you just said): “If the implants were meant to ‘fix’ our child, then that means that she was ‘broken’…and of she is, then so is her mom. And I just don’t agree that that’s the case.”
Okay, back to fan films, folks! 🙂
They didn’t include a link to “Command and Conquer” in the article.
Here’s one:
Actually, I am “they.” I’ll go fix that right now. 🙂