Last March, DAVID WHITNEY of STARFLEET STUDIOS in Iowa (not StarBASE Studios in Arkansas) released a VOYAGER CONTINUES short film “Derelict.” It features Harry Kim and Seven of Nine along with a Captain Janeway voice-over captain’s log intro by Liam Holwarth-Mulgrew (he legally changed his name to add the “Mulgrew”) that you will swear sounds exactly like Kate Mulgrew herself. It’s uncanny!While TOS, TNG, DS9, and even NX-01 era Trek fan films are fairly common, it’s rare to see a fan series that focuses on the USS Voyager. But David Whitney isn’t afraid to tackle his favorite Trek series and has done an admirable job of bringing the world of Voyager to fan films. In fact, “Derelict” is his second Voyager Continues fan film. His first, the half-hour long “Raven” was released in late 2016.
If you haven’t watched last year’s 10-minute “Derelict” fan film before, now is the perfect opportunity. Last June, David added a new opening credits sequence, which features computer-rendered shots of the Voyager flying through space, created using the fan-developed Star Trek: Excalibur online game. It also features a number of names in the cast who do not appear in this episode but give a promise of what is to come. Characters we can look forward to seeing in future Voyager Continues episodes include Tasha Yar, Data, Troi, and Captain Rudy Ransom.
By the way, David is looking for DONATIONS to help make his third episode. If you want to help him, you can make a one-time donation or sign up for a Patreon by clicking here.
And now, let’s take a look at “Derelict” with that spiffy new intro…!
It’s amazing what you can do in a garage. Hats off to David. This is his best work yet. First and foremost, it has a story. I think this production could stand on it’s own without any references to Voyager crew or the ship itself.
Well crap. my audio sync is off and I can’t seem to correct it. I like what I see though.
Man, I’m sorry about that, Mean Guy. What device are you using to view the video?
Just shows what you can do with 15 minutes. Impressive.
I never felt the 15 (or 30) minute time limit was impossible to work with for fan filmmakers. As it happens, I believe that many fan filmmakers are a bit too indulgent and include extraneous dialog and scenes that really aren’t necessary, and their films can often feel slow and plodding in places. So forcing them to be judiciously frugal and to edit scenes to just the core of what they really need is potentially a good thing in terms of storytelling.
Potentially.
My problem is that the 2-parts-and-you’re-done rule was a guillotine to the neck of creativity. Some fan productions really do need more than 30 minutes–and STC is a great example. Star Trek: Horizon and Star Trek: Renegades were also great examples. Axanar would have been a great example had it ever been made. And while dividing a 90-minute or 2-hour movie into a six or eight part web series isn’t optimal when you really want to make a feature-length film, I understand that CBS and Paramount wanted to set some ground rules. That was their right, and honestly, I’m glad they decided to create guidelines for fan films to follow rather than remaining silent as they did for decades and leaving a big Sword of Damocles hanging over any fan production. And I even think that most of the guidelines are fair and reasonable. But a few of them, in my opinion, simply went too far and placed restrictions that aren’t reasonable or justified. But hey, I lost that war, and fan films are making do…and I’m still writing about them.
Sorry, for the late reply, but, as a scriptwriter, there are ways to get around this. One way is to have more than one writer write a story from several different perspectives each taking no more that 30 minutes. It skirts the requirements widely enough to slip through… well except for the little clause that leaves it open for P/CBS to sue you at any whim even if you follow the guidelines.
But they are simply “guidelines.” Some fan filmmakers are choosing to ignore them completely. Others are hewing to them closely. And some are pushing things a bit here and there. Kinda like 1st grade! 🙂
Kudos to the actors for their recreations of the two VOY characters’ mannerisms. Also enjoyed shots of spacecraft in flight. Very well done. Hope they are able to produce more of them.