Editorials – Page 2 – Fan Film Factor

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT – why “NO WIN SCENARIO” was such a WINNING episode of ST: PICARD! (editorial review)

I’m often intrigued by the complaints I read about this season of STAR TREK: PICARD…not because I agree with them but because I find it interesting (and sometimes surprising) to discover what people aren’t liking.

This time, two of the biggest complaints I’ve seen online (other than the ubiquitous “It’s too dark!”—which, apparently, is a problem with the streaming service that is being worked on at the source) was that this episode didn’t show any of the Worf and Raffi storyline and also that it was too slow at the beginning.

Not cutting away to the Worf/Raffi B-story was more of a feature than a bug. This episode was a “sinking sub” tale, purposefully designed to be self-contained in order for the characters to face their imminent deaths and inner demons knowing that help would no be coming. “The episode “No Win Scenario” was a crucible of concentrated claustrophobia purposefully plotted to increase tension and suspense. Cutting away to another storyline would have given viewers “relief” from that intense isolation and, in fact, worked against the impact of the focused drama.

As for “slowness,” I should point out that three of the most beloved episodes of The Next Generation—“The Inner Light,” The Measure of a Man,” and “Tapestry“—had little-to-no action. Instead, they gave us compelling character development stories that allowed fans a chance to get to know our heroes a little better. And indeed, the fourth episode of Picard‘s third season, “No Win Scenario” (needs a hyphen!) gave us that same kind of character development.

As I mentioned in my editorial review blog from three weeks ago, Star Trek isn’t just about boldly going but also about WHO is boldly going. If we don’t care about the characters we’re watching, it doesn’t much matter how good the story might be. That’s one of the reasons I don’t particularly love STAR TREK: DISCOVERY. But I am loving ever character on this latest season of Picard.

Of course, there’s no official instruction manual telling writers how to successfully to create compelling characters—and CBS Studios has admittedly been hit-and-miss with their various Star Trek series. But one primary ingredient in character development is, y’know, DEVELOPMENT…taking someone from one place to another place (hopefully a better place) and letting viewers watch and participate in the journey along with these characters. And to do this most effectively, a writer must put characters together to play off of, influence, and learn from each other.

And in that, “No Win Scenario” triumphed mightily! Let’s take a closer look at the character pairings that paid off most satisfyingly this episode…

Seventeen moments of AWESOMENESS in “SEVENTEEN SECONDS” of STAR: TREK PICARD (editorial review)

COME FOR THE OPENING JOKE, STAY FOR THE SPOILERS!

Before I begin the blog, here’s a joke: Why are the scenes in season three of STAR TREK: PICARD so dark?

Because there are four lights!

Ahem.

Okay, if you’re one of those fans who’s saying that season three of Picard is some of the best Star Trek presentations in decades—if not ever!—and that you can’t believe that anyone is still refusing to watch the show at this point, then to you, I can only say one thing…

You’re 100% right!!

The third episode of this staggeringly superb season was all but flawless. I have nothing to complain about (other than the dark lighting, which, I will admit, is beginning to bother me just a bit). But aside from that, this show is firing on all thrusters.

So I’ve decided to write about the AWESOME. The episode was titled “Seventeen Seconds,” a reference to the time it took Riker to ride the turbolift from the bridge down to sickbay when Deanna was giving birth to their son Thaddeus and there were nearly fatal complications. For this blog, I am going to call out seventeen “moments” from this episode that I thought were either awesome or at least significant and compelling. Note that these are moments, not full scenes…

Let’s take a closer look at the CHARACTERS – old and new – from STAR TREK: PICARD’s new season… (editorial review)

OH, SPOILERS – I CAN’T QUIT YOU!

One of the biggest challenges in setting up the final season of STAR TREK: PICARD is what to do about all the characters! You’ve obviously got seven very well-known and loved officers from TNG who each need a chance to shine. Plus you’ve got a few characters remaining from the first two seasons of Picard who need decent screen time or else you lose any and all connection to what was established over the past twenty episodes. (And yeah, I know that some of you are saying, “Maybe losing all connection to the previous two seasons isn’t such a bad thing!” And to you I say: “Quiet, I’m trying to write a blog here!”)

And of course, you also need to introduce compelling NEW characters, including a decent villain, in order to keep things fresh and, er, engaging. Oh, and you only have ten episodes to do it!

Now, keep in mind, those main seven characters need for this to be their big “send-off,” something they weren’t really given in the final TNG feature film Star Trek: Nemesis. So that’s going to eat up a lot of screen time.

Also, the season needs to make the new characters and returning Picard characters interesting. Otherwise, we’re simply waiting for the “big seven” to have their scenes and everything else is mostly boring and wasted time and money. So, yes, those new characters must intrigue us and leave us wanting more of their stories…especially if this season spawns a sequel series (something, at this point, that I would wholeheartedly endorse!).

And of course, the villain is oh-so-important. But making a villain interesting, compelling, and intimidating is no easy task! Compare a Khan or a Chang to a Ru’afo or a Shinzon. No contest. So this is where writing, casting, directing, and acting can all come together to either be magic or tragic, perfection or rejection. And as far as this season of Picard is concerned, I believe the creators and their cast members have captured lightning in a bottle—or maybe anti-matter in a magnetic containment chamber.

Let’s take a look at all of these characters, new and old, who have graced our TV or computer screens for these past two weeks…

Why ONE SCENE from the PICARD season 3 premiere lets us know that STAR TREK IS REALLY BACK! (editorial review)

OF COURSE THERE ARE SPOILERS! ARE YOU NUTS???

Let’s not kid ourselves, the reviews from fans for the premiere of Season 3 of STAR TREK: PICARD have been stratospherically euphoric with a teensy-tiny percentage trying to find something to complain about. In fact, one of the complaints I saw was that yet another Picard season storyline starts with “Help me, Jean-Luc, you’re my/our only hope!” Of course, Star Trek II starts that same way with a message from Carol Marcus; Trek III has McCoy/Spock saying, “Help me, Jim;” Trek V begins with “I need Jim Kirk;” Trek VI has “Only Nixon could go to China” (Kirk is Nxon); and so on. In other words, the criticisms I’ve seen so far are reaching deep, folks, and nearly all of them include, “I liked it, but…”

Yeah, you loved it. You know you did.

But WHY did we love it so much (or at least “like it, but…”)? With so many reviews already out there, I’ve decided that, rather than going through everything or most things that were great about this season premiere, I am going to look at just ONE THING, and it is a very important thing! Do you remember the movie City Slickers with Billy Crystal and Jack Palance? In it, the latter’s character of Curly holds up his index finger and says, “One thing.” Imagine me doing that right now…

Oh, there’s way more than one thing to love in this first episode. But for me, there was one 3.5-minute sequence that encapsulated everything that was oh-so-right about this new season, and what’s been missing from ALL of the other CBS-produced Trek series so far. Literally. It’s one scene that made me confident that writer and showrunner TERRY MATALAS is a fan who gets what Star Trek is and wants to give us other fans what we’ve been clamoring for these past six years.

Ladies and gentlemen, my “one thing”…

Goosebumps, anyone?

Actually, I can already hear the (very few) complainers out there saying, “Yeah, but we’ve seen a ship leave spacedock SOOOOOOO many times before!” And it’s true. Variations of that same launching sequence appeared in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek II, Star Trek III, Star Trek VI, and even Star Trek Generations (plus twice in Star Trek: Enterprise). But that’s the point of this sequence. It is, in many ways, the quintessential Star Trek scene. And y’know what?

CBS STUDIOS HAS NEVER GIVEN US A PROPER LAUNCH SCENE!!!

Oh, they’ve included a few launch scenes across their various series, but those sequences—for various reasons that I’ll get to in a bit—didn’t feel quite right. But this one did.

Why? Well, let’s take a look at what characteristics mark a “proper” Star Trek starship launch scene like the ones we saw in those Trek movies I just listed and in the pilot episode and fourth season of Enterprise.

Why PRODIGY is the “PERFECT” Star Trek for children, fans, and CBS Studio executives! (editorial review)

WITH JUST A PINCH OF SPOILERS!

When I first heard about plans for a new children-oriented Star Trek TV series from CBS Studios (now part of Paramount), I was VERY dubious. First of all, it didn’t “sound” like Star Trek. The show would focus on a group of renegade teenage characters finding a derelict Starfleet ship which they would use to “…search for adventure, meaning and salvation.” Huh? No Starfleet crew other than Kate Mulgrew voicing Kathryn Janeway? Teenagers (and renegade teenagers, at that)? They hadn’t even gone to Starfleet Academy!

At the time ALEX KURTZMAN announced the new “kids-focused” Star Trek series (January 2019), STAR TREK: DISCOVERY was about to premiere season 2, while PICARD and LOWER DECKS were still a year and a year-and-a-half away, respectively. So with only Discovery‘s first season to go on, well, you can understand my trepidation about a new children’s version of Star Trek. I mean, no one would be allowed to use swear words!

Even after Picard and Lower Decks premiered (and I enjoyed both MUCH more than Discovery), I was still apprehensive about STAR TREK: PRODIGY. And to be honest, I wasn’t entirely thrilled with the first few episodes I saw. But I was intrigued enough to keep watching. And by the end of episode 5, I was hooked. After the brief winter holiday hiatus of 2021, the next 5 episodes in early 2022 had me positively captivated by the new series—I LOVED IT!!!

And apparently, I wasn’t the only one. If you look at the average audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes (more reflective of widespread fan reaction…and fans can be HARSH!), here’s how the current five streaming Trek series stack up…

Prodigy is the second-most well-received of the new Star Trek series, all but doubling the ratings for Discovery and Picard and coming within docking range of Strange New Worlds.

Now, when asking WHY Prodigy performed so surprisingly well, it’s easy to say, “Well, it has good writing, quality animation, and solid characters.” Or you could say, “It’s fun and it ‘feels’ like Star Trek.”

But I want to go a step farther. Prodigy serves THREE masters: younger viewers unfamiliar with the franchise, longtime Trekkers, and the executives who want to attract the “next generation” of fans. And looking at it from this perspective, I believe that Prodigy is a “PERFECT” Star Trek series. I don’t mean to imply that there’s nothing wrong with it; everything has room for improvement. But in terms of meeting the needs and desires of its “masters,” Prodigy succeeds perfectly in all three cases.

Let’s take a closer look at what I’m talking about…

2022 Star Trek Fan Film YEAR IN REVIEW!

Ladies and gentlemen, as I begin my seventh (sheesh!!!) year publishing this blog site, I am very pleased to announce that neither the CBS/Paramount guidelines, the AXANAR lawsuit, COVID-19, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, high gas prices, the collapse of the crypto market, crazy conspiracy theories, nor Elon Musk buying Twitter have managed to destroy our little niche of a niche of a niche community of Star Trek fan films!

In fact, I’d say we’re as strong as ever!

The challenge I always face when writing these year-end blogs is having waaaaaay too much to cover properly. There are literally hundreds of fans involved in making Star Trek fan films…from writing and directing to acting and producing to building sets and making costumes to doing make-up and writing music to editing and creating amazing visual effects. And there’s no way I can possibly cover everyone and everything that deserves mention.

So once again, I’m going to spotlight a few of the biggest stories and trends of the past year. And thus, without further ado…

The LOWER DECKS finale’s post-credits EASTER EGG tag…

NEEDLESS TO SAY…SPOILER!

With new Star Trek episodes of the various active series now dropping nearly every week throughout the year, I’ve stopped canceling and reactivating my Paramount+ subscription and have just accepted the reality of yet another streaming service sucking away a “small” monthly fee from my credit card.

And honestly, I do enjoy having Paramount+, even if mainly for Star Trek and little else. But the one thing I most unequivocally do NOT like is the way their app handles their shows’ closing credits! You get about 5 seconds before the active credits roll shrinks down to an unreadable size to make room for whatever show they want to recommend next (as opposed to making the recommendation the small overlay).

This means that, if you wanted to see if that familiar voice you heard on the latest episode of LOWER DECKS was really ARMIN SHIMERMAN or GEORGE TAKEI or JEFFREY COMBS or J.G. HERTZLER, you need to move at warp speed to your remote, hit the right arrow, hit enter, and hope you were fast enough to restore the credits roll to full size before the names of the guest stars finish displaying.

And of course, you’re NEVER fast enough.

So you now need to rewind the playback 15 or 30 seconds (not sure how big the jump is) and let it play again. Of course, then the resizing algorithm activates a second time, and you have to go through the whole rigamarole AGAIN! So next time, you restore the credits to full size and let them play through a little longer before jumping back. This brings up another failure of the Paramount+ application: the credits are slightly dimmed out as they play. I’m not sure what that’s all about, but it confirms to me that there is/was no QA (quality assurance) bug testing at CBS Interactive when the original All Access application was being created, as this problem has existed since day one without ever being corrected.

Now, what if the show’s creators decide they want to include a post-credits easter egg? Disney does it all the time. First of all, that will be dimmed out, too, and barely visible. But also, just in case you missed it (or couldn’t see it well enough or simply wanted to watch it again), by the time you each the end of the credits, the jump back button on your remote NO LONGER WORKS!!! Instead, the application jumps to the next recommended show (which for me is always—shudder!—DISCOVERY).

So you navigate back to the main menu, but now the Paramount+ application takes you back to the beginning of the episode, NOT the end of the closing credits where you left off! And worse, if you’re like me and opt for the cheaper subscription with forced commercials, the app doesn’t credit you the commercials you’ve already watched but instead plays them AGAIN even if you fast-forward to the closing credits! And of course, once you reach them, the resizing algorithm kicks in again…ARGH!

VANCE MAJOR concludes CONSTAR! (some final thoughts from me)

It’s the end of an era.

Granted, that “era” has only been going on since 2016 or thereabouts, but it seems like so much longer! And maybe that’s because, over the past seven years, VANCE MAJOR (Owen is his middle name) has produced and released a total of 146(!!!) Star Trek fan films featuring his character of Erick Minard (in all its many iterations!) as well as a bevy of recurring characters, cameos by a who’s who of other fan filmmakers (including myself), and even his own 5-year-old son Royce…who has been appearing in Vance’s films literally since infancy.

And that doesn’t include Vance’s appearances in other fan series like STARSHIP VALIANT and THE AVALON UNIVERSE. Vance has been a staple of our fan film community this entire time, and his parade of new releases—sometimes coming almost weekly!—provided a recurring reminder that Star Trek fan films come as much from the heart as from the camera.

Of course, Vance’s stuff isn’t to everyone’s taste, and I totally get that. His production budgets are ridiculously humble (like, “Buddy, can ya spare some change?” humble), the quality modest at best, and the acting as likely to be hit as miss. More often than not, there’s limited if any “action,” and the more recent films (especially since COVID) have been little more than a series of interstellar Skype calls as two people have a conversation. “The Best of Both Worlds” or “Sacrifice of Angels” these fan films are most assuredly not!

But what they are, in my opinion, is a form of poetry. Vance presents his thoughts, feelings, observations, perspectives, concerns, triumphs, frustrations, dreams, and passions through his films. Most poets don’t need much more than a pen and paper (or keyboard). For Vance, it also means a camera phone, Starfleet uniform, and video editing software. But the idea and the goal is the same: to share a part of himself with others.

Some of us enjoy that sharing and don’t mind seeing the cord in the doorway or not being able to hear bits of the dialog because of the wind. We don’t mind seeing 20th and 21st century cars and trucks, or clothes and baseball caps that look like they were bought at Target, appearing in a story set centuries in the future. That’s never been what Vance’s poetry has been about. Instead, it was always about using Star Trek to speak his truth…for those interested in listening.

And even though it was never Vance’s primary intention, his fan films also served as inspiration for others for make fan films of their own. If Vance didn’t care about top-tier production quality or jaw-dropping sizzle, then how important was it really? If you have a story you want to tell, then hey, just do do it.

If you don’t like ST: LOWER DECKS but still want to ENJOY it, here’s what you can do…

YAY – NO SPOILERS!

If you’re one of those people who can’t understand why folks like me and many others absolutely love STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS while you just can’t accept it as Star Trek, I might have a simple solution for you…

Just think of it as a holo-comedy-adventure sitcom set in the late 24th century!

Seriously, this makes so much sense if you think about it. Many of the complaints I hear about this satirical animated series center around the issue that not only does the show not take itself seriously, it goes overboard in…

Making fun of Star Trek and Starfleet and most of the races we know from the various series, and
Presenting totally unrealistic and unbelievable scenarios that would never happen in “real” Star Trek.

In other words, it’s too stupid/ridiculous/nonsensical to be taken seriously as part of Star Trek canon.

Fine. You win. It’s not canon. Have a beer to celebrate.

So if Lower Decks isn’t canon, then what is it? Well, maybe it’s the 24th century equivalent of a sitcom. I mean, we already know there’s lots of holodeck entertainment by then—everything from murder mysteries to Victorian romances to campy 1940s black and white sci-fi classics. So why NOT a satire about Starfleet and the Federation, its allies and enemies, its most famous officers, and its most well-known missions?

After all, in the future, folks like Kirk and Picard and their crews are probably pretty well known, like the star players of the top sports teams are today (assuming you like sports—and one would assume that officers in a future Starfleet would be just as well-versed in the most famous officers and their missions).

Of course, I know there’s gonna be people out there who say, “Yeah, but the show is just so inane! Why would anyone want to waste their holodeck time on something so stupid? It’s not even that funny!”

Hey, if you personally don’t think Lower Decks is funny, that’s fine. You do you. I personally think the show is hilarious and brilliant, so please don’t assume your opinion is fact. Different people find different things funny.

In fact, comedy comes in all shapes, sizes, genres, and styles….from a classic like Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night to the raucous slapstick of the Three Stooges. Comedy can range from the dry subtlety of Monthy Python to the riotously raunchy Benny Hill. American TV sitcoms evolved from I Love Lucy to Dick Van Dyke to All in the Family to Friends to The Office. Heck, at one point in time, television’s comedies included (during the same years) Three’s Company, Taxi, and M*A*S*H…how’s that for variety! From crass comedies like Married with Children to more erudite sitcoms like Frasier, from Saturday Night Live to In Living Color, and from The Flinstones to The Simpsons to Rick and Morty…comedy caters to many different tastes and audiences. So why wouldn’t at some folks in Starfleet want to tune in to Lower Decks?

But you wanna hear something mind-blowing? Lower Decks isn’t simply a comedy…

R.I.P – NICHELLE NICHOLS, our elegant Lady of Communications – 1932 to 2022

We all loved her. We all admired her. And we all knew this day would come.

NICHELLE NICHOLS, the amazing actor and person who helped raise women and people of color to new heights of recognition and self-confidence at a critical time in American history, has passed away at the age of 89 from natural causes.

As happens with many people as they approach their tenth decade of life, Nichelle had grown frail and was losing her memory. Her voice was no longer able to serenade us with the melodies of the stars as it did for most of her career. She had recently completed her “farewell tour” of conventions and public appearances with her fans and was living her final years with her son and his family in New Mexico.

But we still loved her.

And it was a love that had been there, for many of us, over the course of decades. She was always Lieutenant (and later Commander and, in fan films like OF GODS AND MEN and RENEGADES, Captain and even Admiral) Nyota Uhura.

*Nichelle Nichols as Uhura through the years: in TOS, in the Trek movies, and in the fan films STAR TREK: OF GODS AND MEN and RENEGADES: THE REQUIEM.*

In the TOS episode “Is There In Truth No Beauty?” it is revealed that the name Uhura means “freedom.” Indeed, it is the Swahili word “Uhuru” that means freedom, and according to Nichelle’s 1994 autobiographical Beyond Uhura, she was carrying the 1962 book Uhuru by Robert Ruark when she read for the part in Star Trek. Later, producer ROBERT JUSTMAN reportedly told GENE RODDENBERRY what Uhuru meant, and Gene decided to name his African communications officer Uhura right then and there.

The character’s first name, Nyota, came years later in 1982, following the release of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Author WILLIAM ROSTLER was writing the licensed paperback Star Trek II: Biographies telling the personal histories of the seven main TOS characters, including Uhura. Rostler contacted Gene and Nichelle directly asking both for permission to give Uhura the first name Nyota, which means “star” in Swahili. They both approved, and since it was a licensed book, Nyota became as official as anything not shown on film. Indeed, a few years later, the 1985 Star Trek novel Uhura’s Song by JANET KAGAN (still one of the best!), became the second licensed product to use that first name for Uhura. However, it wouldn’t be until 2009 and the release of the first rebooted Star Trek film with ZOE SALDANA taking on the iconic role, that Nyota officially became “canon” when Spock calls Uhura by her first name during the movie.

I remember seeing Nichelle during countless conventions, always talking about how moved and excited she was to learn that Nyota meant “star” and that Nyota Uhura meant “Freedom Star” or “Star of Freedom,” guiding those suffering under prejudice, discrimination, and persecution to a brighter future. And goodness knows, Nichelle did just that!