2024 Star Trek Fan Film YEAR IN REVIEW

First, my friends, I must apologize for being a bit less diligent in my coverage of Star Trek fan films this past year. Granted, I’ve still published over 65 blogs since January 1, 2024, but that’s compared with 90 blogs in 2023 and 114 in 2022.

The reason behind my diminished output is that I’ve been spending much of this past year co-authoring a book, which I’ve only just completed (it will be out early next year). It was a paying gig, so it needed to take priority. It’s actually my third co-authored book, my first being Starship Spotter (with ADAM “MOJO” LEBOWITZ, ROB BONCHUNE, and ALEX ROSENZWEIG) and my second, Being Santa Claus, still available for purchase in various formats here on Amazon.

But enough about me!

Let’s get started looking at what’s been happening in world of Star Trek fan films for the last twelve months. As usual, I won’t have enough time or space to get to everything, but here are the biggest stories of the year…

IS CROWD-FUNDING STILL A THING?

Sadly, the year kicked off on a bit of a sour note as a debate began to rage on social media whether Trek fan films should continue crowd-funding. It began when RANDY LANDERS announced that POTEMKIN PICTURES would no longer do any public crowd-funding. But then he added (somewhat forcefully) that he felt that other fan productions shouldn’t crowd-fund either. Things got heated from there. And sadly, in part because I didn’t agree, Randy told me to no longer cover any of his Potemkin releases on Fan Film Factor…and I have, of course, complied with his wishes, albeit regrettably.

Perhaps ironically, not many fan productions chose to crowd-fund this year. In fact, I only counted four during all of 2024 (well, technically five, since FARRAGUT FILMS ended one campaign and began another shortly thereafter), and those were for:

In previous years, crowd-funding campaigns were much more prolific. Now, it seems they are diminishing in frequency and, in general, bringing in less money (although FARRAGUT FORWARD did reach $47.5K before wrapping). Will 2025 continue to see this phasing out of crowdfunding? I guess we’ll just have to wait and find out.

TWO BELOVED STAR TREK ACTORS WHO APPEARED IN FAN FILMS PASS AWAY

Tony Todd and Gary Graham

This past year was not kind when it came to taking actors from us far too soon. In January, at the age of only 73, we lost GARY GRAHAM, who played the recurring character of Vulcan Ambassador Soval on Star Trek: Enterprise and reprised that role in the fan films PRELUDE TO AXANAR in 2014 and again in THE VULCAN SCENE the following year. Also Gary’s original character of the mercenary Ragnar debuted in STAR TREK: OF GODS AND MEN in 2007 and then returned in STAR TREK: RENEGADES in 2015 and later RENEGADES: THE SERIES in 2017.

And then in early November, actor TONY TODD—best known by Trek fans for playing Worf’s brother Kurn along with the older Jake Sisko in the poignant DS9 episode “The Visitor”—passed away at the age of 69. Like Gary, Tony appeared in Prelude to Axanar, in his case creating the original and memorable character of Admiral Marcus Ramirez.

JERI TAYLOR, co-creator of Star Trek: Voyager, also passed away in October of this year. Although she didn’t have any direct involvement in fan films, hers was a significant influence on Star Trek.

Jennifer Cole

And finally, a pioneer of Star Trek fan films (and my personal friend) JENNIFER COLE passed away in June at the at of just 57.  Jennifer began in fan films in 1999 with VOYAGES OF THE U.S.S. ANGELES. It lasted for one full-length feature and five additional short episodes before ROB CAVES evolved the series into STAR TREK: HIDDEN FRONTIER. Jennifer appeared in a total of 23 of the 50 HF episodes, plus 8 episodes of two different spin-off series and the crossover fan film (with STAR TREK: INTREPID) OPERATION BETA SHIELD, which Jennifer also directed…as well as directing 17 episodes of HF. All told, Jennifer has producer credits on nearly FIVE DOZEN Star Trek fan films!

All four of these people will be sorely missed by members of the Star Trek fan film community.

AXANAR COMPLETES PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Speaking of AXANAR, the big news for that long-anticipated fan film in 2024 was that, ten years after the premiere of Prelude to Axanar, the final live-action footage of the actors for the two 15-minute sequels (permitted after the settlement of the 2016 lawsuit) was shot at ARES STUDIOS in Lawrenceville, GA. A total of 20 different actors were filmed over the course of three years, beginning in 2021, some of them replacing unusable footage shot by PAUL JENKINS in 2019 before he was fired from the project in 2020.

Does this mean that Axanar is finished and ready to be released? Sadly, not quite yet. Picture-lock edits of both episodes are now finalized, meaning that all scenes have been cut together with footage of some actors still showing green screen backgrounds and animatic placeholders inserted for several dozen VFX shots that have not yet been completed. Ever so slowly and carefully, shot-by-shot, the CGI is being finalized, and the finished production is taking shape. In addition, color adjustments for the actor footage, sound-mixing, sound FX, and music are all being worked on.

Why isn’t it all done yet? Not being involved in the day-to-day post-production, I can’t say for certain. But I do remember when I made my Axanar Universe fan film INTERLUDE, all but one of my scenes were shot in late 2019, and a final scene was filmed in early 2020. And Interlude wasn’t released until April of 2021. Post-production took us nearly a year and a half for a 10-minute fan film. The Axanar sequels will be three times that runtime with exponentially more VFX shots.

That said, fans were given a taste of the quality that the sequels will offer with the March release of THE ICARUS MANEUVER by Axanar director MARK EDWARD LEWIS. The four-minute Axanar Universe fan film (plus another two minutes of closing credits) was removed from YouTube shortly after by CBS for failing to include “A Star Trek Fan Film” under the title and the required legalese at the end of the credits, but it is viewable on the Axanar website with those two corrections added to the new version.

DIRECTORS CHOICE AND SHOWRUNNER AWARDS CONTESTS RETURN FOR A THIRD YEAR

While the annual DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS aren’t limited to just Star Trek fan films—unlike the SHOWRUNNER AWARDS, which are exclusively Star Trek entries—both contests are the only ones to focus solely on fan films with judging panels made up of actual filmmakers. In the case of the Directors Choice Awards, the judges are the directors of the submitted films themselves. For the Showrunner Awards, the judging panel consists of 12 showrunners of fan films and series both past and present.

Because fan films are made primarily as labors of love, there isn’t much other incentive to produce them other than to scratch the filmmaking itch and play in the [insert genre] sandbox. Obviously, no one goes into this for the monetary fortunes it will generate, so the satisfaction that comes not simply from winning an award but knowing that recognition comes from your peers and fellow fan filmmakers makes the continuation of these two award shows extremely important to the community.

Here are the winners of this year’s Directors Choice Awards (announced on April 5…Star Trek Day), and here are the winners of this year’s Showrunner Awards ( announced on September 8…Star Trek‘s anniversary).

Also debuting this past year—with the intention of continuing into the coming years—was the new TREKS IN 90 SECS contest. Sponsored/administered by Fan Film Factor, the idea was to see what kind of a Star Trek fan film could be produced with a run-time limit of just a minute-and-a-half to two minutes maximum. And we got some wonderful submissions for our inaugural year. Unlike the other two award shows, any fan viewer was welcome to cast their vote online through this website, and here were the top three winners.

A BAKER’S DOZEN NEW FAN FILMS FROM SAMUEL COCKINGS—INCLUDING THE FIRST-EVER LOWER DECKS TIE-IN FAN FILM

If fan films were tribbles, then SAMUEL COCKINGS is a storage compartment full of grain! This past year saw the release of no less than THIRTEEN separate fan films, including CERRITOS LOST, the first fan film to be directly inspired by from STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS.

Sam also experimented with the first multi-part saga in his TREK SHORTS fanthology series: PRODIGY RECKONING (inspired by STAR TREK: PRODIGY, of course). So far, five episodes have been released…all since mid-July:

Including credits, these five films already have a combined runtime of 53.5 minutes, and the story is only halfway done. It’s also getting quite exciting!

In addition to the above six fan films, another SEVEN Trek Shorts were released in 2024:

Some of the above films utilized digital aging and de-aging software to make certain recurring characters appear older or younger at different points in their Starfleet careers. It really is uncanny how far “simple” fan films have come!

During this past year, I managed to do a video interview with Sam and Trek Shorts star NIMRAN SAUND along with an audio interview with Sam and his girlfriend/actress MARIE-LOUISE SVALENG and a 2-part text interview I did with just Sam alone.

LEO TIERNY PIONEERS A NEW WAY OF PUTTING ACTORS INTO VIRTUAL STAR TREK SETS

As long as we’re talking about the United Kingdom, British fan filmmaker LEO TIERNEY released  STAR TREK: DECEPTION back in 2013, wowing fans with his masterful physical recreation of a Deep Space 9 runabout cockpit set. In 2018, he followed it up with the even more impressive  DECEPTION II, turning a tiny English garage (convincingly!) into the bridges of both an Excelsior-class starship and a Klingon bird-of-prey.

Now 2024 has seen the release of DECEPTION III, the third and possibly final installment of the series. This time, Leo avoided the need to build physical sets by creating an innovative “poor man’s A.R. wall.” He filmed his actors not just agains a green screen but in front of a large 86″ television showing virtual backgrounds of starship interiors. Creating his shots using this method resulted in much cleaner scenes, as the filmmaker didn’t have to worry about stray hairs and other digital artifacts that often appear when compositing actors who were filmed in front of a green screen. Granted, 86″ LED televisions aren’t exactly cheap, but if a production can afford one, this approach presents a number of intriguing possibilities. Leo discusses this latest film in this blog interview.

EUROPE IS ALSO A HUB OF STAR TREK FAN FILM PRODUCTION

Not to be outdone by their Brexited brothers across the English channel, fan filmmakers in a number of other European countries have done their part to keep up with Misters Cockings and Tierney.

Prominent among these is Germany, which boasts one of the most passionate populations of Trekkers on any continent (including North America!). Back in March, Germany’s longest-running fan film group, EUDERION: INFINITY (operating since 2008) released their fourteenth fan film, THE LEGACY OF THE ARCHEIN. A very impressive, primarily green-screen production, their latest episode introduced the first Exocomp to fan films: C.A.R.L., who has developed quite a following! I interviewed three of the cast/crew, and they are extremely nice folks.

Also making a name for themselves in Germany (and around the world!) are the fan filmmakers from LORELEY PRODUCTIONS. Another group using mostly green screen and outside locations, Loreley got its start in 2021 and released their first fan film, KOMMANDOÜBERNAHME (“Taking Command”) in January of 2022. Since then, they have dazzled fans with their Kelvin-universe VFX and exciting filmmaking, releasing their second project, MONSTER, in March of 2024. I haven’t had a chance to interview them yet, but I’m looking forward to doing so net year when their third film, ERSTKONTAKT (“First Contact”)—with 11 shooting days and 33 actors—debuts in the spring.

And a third group from Germany (whom I also haven’t had a chance to cover yet) called the CONNIVERSE fan series released three new full length fan films plus a short Holiday Special in 2024—all under the unifying title “STARFLEET LEGENDS.” The setting is mainly TOS Pike-era with Captain Pike himself, Captain Robert April, and Kelvar Garth, along with other new characters…all speaking German, of course, but English subtitles can be turned on and are well-translated. You can watch all of their offerings here.

But it wasn’t just Germany!

Just to the east, the Czech Republic continued knocking out impressive Star Trek fan films thanks to the efforts of FSF FILMS and in the amazing 24th century bridge set located in the capital city of Prague. Their releases in 2024 included the serious story THE THIRD OPTION along with the more comedic SWEET OBLIVION…both with excellent English subtitles.

Italy produced one of its first-ever Star Trek fan films with the wonderfully artistic DELL’AMORE E DELL’ONORE (“Of Love and Honor”) in June. I interviewed show-runner JACK PONISSI and members of his team, which you can view on this blog. They intend to produce more fan films in the future.

And finally, 2024 included what I believe was the first Star Trek fan film from Hungary since 2005! SAREK NAGYKÖVET KISZABADÍTÁSA (“Freeing Ambassador Sarek”) was fairly basic—shot by a few fans calling themselves Kóbor Trekkerek (“Stray Trekkers”) at HungaroCon 2024 in Budapest on October 19. Without any dialog (except during the post-credits), there was no need for subtitles. Hopefully, it won’t be another two decades before we see more Star Trek fan films from Hungary!

AND DON’T FORGET AUSTRALIA!

Jumping continents, the wonder from down under, AARON VANDERKLEY, continues to dazzle and amaze with his fan filmmaking skills. This year included three new releases in his Voyager-era THESE ARE THE VOYAGES fan series. However, this trio of fan films had a total combined runtime of less than nine minutes! Nicknamed SHORT VOYAGES, these three vignettes covered the emotional spectrum from whimsical, UNAVOIDABLE DELAYS, to quiet and introspective, RENAISSANCE, to dramatic suspense, DESPERATE MEASURES. Aaron provided interviews and behind-the-scenes photos of their awesome sets in this blog and also in this blog.

MEANWHILE, BACK IN AMERICA, FAN SERIES KEEP ON TREKKIN’

The good ol’ U.S. of A. is filled with ongoing fan series from creators who both continue a single storyline or character(s) and also ones who produce fanthology series set in different eras and on various vessels.

Going alphabetically, here is a partial list of the fan series that released at least one new film in 2024:

DEFENDERS OF THE FEDERATION – JEFF NORD released his first “retro” Star Trek fan film, COMMANDERS OF STARFLEET, in 2022. Shot in black and white and produced in a 1930s/40s cinema style, it showed how Star Trek might have looked had it been created as a Saturday matinee serial adventure. Jeff’s second effort gave fans a 1970s-style Star Trek fan film. Of course, Star Trek actually existed in the 1970s (TMP was released in 1979), but DEFENDERS OF THE FEDERATION was intentionally much cheesier. Read my interview with Jeff here.

THE FEDERATION FILES – DAN REYNOLDS and GLEN WOLFE are the co-owners of WARP 66 STUDIOS in Arkansas, and they are also co-producers of THE FEDERATION FILES fanthology series. In 2024, both Dan and Glen each got to write and direct one TOS-era fan film apiece. MOTHER came out in late February, and here is my blog video interview with Dan and his wife KELLEY REYNOLDS. Then SLIPSTREAM was released in early December, and I haven’t had a chance to interview Glen yet. However, a very interesting video interview discussing Glen’s process for writing a script is on the schedule and will hopefully be posted in a few weeks.

PROJECT: RUNABOUT – GARY DAVIS and RANDY WRENN are co-showrunners on DREADNOUGHT DOMINION, WARBIRD VALDORE, and PROJECT: RUNABOUT. And in July of 2024, the latter became the first of the trio to feature what will ultimately be a crossover trilogy running through all three fan series. IT’S ALL DONE WITH MIRRORS is the third adventure to utilize Gary’s basement TOS-era runabout set, and you can watch a video interview with Gary, Randy, and the cast members on this blog.

STAR TREK FAN PRODUCTIONS INTERNATIONAL – DAVID CHENG and his team have entered the 25th century with the new SPARE THE FUTURE, SAVE THE PAST. I have an interview with David about his new characters on his blog.

STARFLEET [JOBS] – STEVE SHIVES released his first four installments of STARFLEET [JOBS] in 2023: LAWYER, JANITOR, UNION REP, and GUIDANCE COUNSELOR. You can access all four plus a video interview with Steve on this blog. Steve added another four installments in 2024: HR, CHAPLAIN, CHEF, and HISTORIAN. All eight are excellent and truly worth watching and enjoying. You can access this year’s offerings on this blog.

STARSHIP ANTYLLUS – As this long-running (like from 2013!) fan series approaches its conclusion next year, showrunner GEORGE KAYAIAN released three new installments in 2024: EPISODE TWENTY-FOUR, EPISODE TWENTY-FIVE, and EPISODE TWENTY-SIX. You can read my 2-part interview with George here.

TASK FORCE 78 – STEVE HARRIS loves Star Trek fan films in a way few of us do…so much so that he is one of those special folks who takes the time to interview fan filmmakers, host online watch-parties, and even do reviews that aren’t simply target practice. He also takes the time to make a few fan films himself under the banner TASK FORCE 78 and released a few in 2024. Steve doesn’t have many resources, so these aren’t super-high quality productions. But what he does have is heart and passion, a few good friends, and some editing software. And in the end, what else do you really need? You can visit Steve’s HARRISFILM PRODUCTIONS YouTube channel here.

UNDERCOVER – At the end of 2023, MATTHEW BLACKBURN premiered UNFINISHED BUSINESS, which was appropriately titled because I completely flaked on covering it! I had previously covered nearly all of his annual releases in what I liked to call the “SURVIVOR” Saga. So yeah, I totally dropped the ball and will be interviewing Matthew in the coming months about both 2023’s and 2024’s releases. His latest installment UNDERCOVER, came out in September. Matthew also released a “Trek-adjacent” crossover fan film RAIDERS OF THE LOST TREK, which was very amusing and featured some uncanny vocal impressions of HARRISON FORD and JOHN RHYS-DAVIES.

NOTHING HAPPENED THIS YEAR IN THE AVALON UNIVERSE, BUT THAT’S NOT THE WHOLE STORY…

You would expect that a fan film NOT getting released wouldn’t qualify as a highlight item for a Year-in-Review blog (unless, of course, it’s Axanar…see above). However, since Halloween of 2018, every year has seen at least one new adventure set within the AVALON UNIVERSE from fan filmmaker JOSHUA IRWIN. Some years like 2020 (the year of the lockdown) and 2023 had only one release. Others like 2021 had as many as five. But 2024 saw no fan film that took place within the Avalon Universe. Indeed, Josh is still working on the series finale, THE ONCE AND FUTURE CAPTAIN, for a 2025 release.

So why is this no-news actually news? Because the main reason that Josh has fallen behind on the series finale is because he has been so busy making fan films for OTHER productions. Here’s a list of some of the projects he has helped out on in 2024…

  • MOTHER from THE FEDERATION FILES – Josh was director of photography.
  • IT’S ALL DONE WITH MIRRORS from PROJECT: RUNABOUT – Josh was director of photography, lighting supervisor, and gaffer.
  • BETWEEN TWO WORLDS – Josh was DP and editor.
  • Josh also helped shoot three of the TREKS IN 90 SECS entries for this year.
  • Josh was DP and editor on the just-released JURASSIC ISLAND, a cross-over of Jurassic Park and I Dream of Jeannie (no, that was not a typo!).
  • Josh has begun directing the upcoming FARRAGUT 2024.
  • Josh was also at NEUTRAL ZONE STUDIOS shooting a number of TALES FROM THE NEUTRAL ZONE fan films before the sets were moved from Kingsland, GA (see below). Among these was LA MORT DE LA GUERRE (which Josh himself wrote, DP’d, edited, and co-directed) released in May. A couple of other Tales from the Neutral Zone are still awaiting editing…and believe it or not, I might be helping to edit one of them! Stay tuned, folks.

NEUTRAL ZONE STUDIOS MOVES TO SANDUSKY, OHIO

Speaking of NEUTRAL ZONE STUDIOS, as I just mentioned above, the amazing TOS sets that were used for countless fan films since initially being constructed for STARSHIP FARRAGUT and (later) for STAR TREK CONTINUES were forced to relocate this past year. More details on the reasons for the move are in this blog interview with owner RAY TESI.

The unexpected new location was announced in October: a mall in Sandusky, Ohio—nowhere even close to the previous location in southeastern Georgia and a ridiculous drive from Ray’s home in Boca Raton, FL. (Ray will need to fly there, of course.) At this point, the primary task is to get those sets reassembled and begin offering the studio once again to fan film producers who want a ready-to-use, affordable way to shoot good-looking TOS-era stories. Ray expects to be back up and running sometime in 2025.

7-YEAR-OLD ROYCE LEONARD MAJOR STARS IN CONSTAR: THE MOTION PICTURE

Let’s hear it for both ROYCE MAJOR and his dad VANCE MAJOR for bringing “the next generation” into Star Trek fan films. Royce has actually been appearing in many of Vance’s 150+ CONSTAR films since he was a wee bairn. But now at the age of 7, Royce is playing a much more, um, major role! CONSTAR: THE MOTION PICTURE features a wonderful performance of this little Trekker in numerous scenes—while also including appearances by dozens of members of the fan film community. A fun interview with Royce (and his dad) can be found on this blog.

TWO FAN FILMS USE ADVANCED DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY AND A.I. TO “RESURRECT” DECEASED STAR TREK ACTORS

And finally, two fan films were released in 2024 that brought back to life beloved Star Trek actors who have sadly passed away. The first was my own AN ABSENT FRIEND, an animated fan film that used the A.I. speech synthesis technology from ElevenLabs to recreate with uncanny believability the voices of LEONARD NIMOY and DeFOREST KELLEY playing the roles of Spock and McCoy…following the “death” of James T. Kirk on the Enterprise-B in Star Trek Generations. The rights to recreate the voice of DeForest Kelley disappeared with the passing of De and his wife Carolyn, and I contacted the estate of Leonard Nimoy to confirm they had no objection to my use of a digital recreation of the actor’s voice for this short fan film. For more information on how I went about doing the A.I. voice generation and animation, you can read this 3-part blog series from earlier this year.

The other “fan” film (perhaps not the most accurate nomenclature, as this production was licensed by Paramount) brought back both Spock and Kirk in a beautiful tribute to their lasting friendship. 765874: UNIFICATION was produced by OTOY Inc. to highlight their OctaneRender and LightStage scanning, along with their “digital doubles” technologies as a way of generating original Star Trek content for the new Apple Vision Pro VR headset. It was their fourth “fan” film in their 765874 series (watch all of them here). Also involved were Roddenberry Entertainment, WILLIAM SHATNER, ROBIN CURTIS, GARY LOCKWOOD, and SUSAN BAY NIMOY…along with a cast and production crew that numbered almost 300 people (!!!) according to names listed in the credits.

So what does the arrival of A.I. and other digital technologies mean for the future of Star Trek fan films? Already some fan filmmakers are using A.I. to create extra voices in their films when they don’t have access to voice-actors. Others are editing Star Trek music videos around A.I.-generated songs. Will we see more “resurrections” of deceased actors, or will legislation catch up with innovation? Will OTOY make more classic Star Trek for fans? Good questions!

Obviously, no one knows what will happen next…except that Star Trek fan films will continue to be made by the fans who love this treasured franchise. And of course, I’ll be here covering these passion projects and giving their creators a chance to share the stories behind their stories.

See you all in 2025…!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.