In my first-ever Fan Film Factor blog from 2016, I credited PARAGON’S PARAGON as the generally-accepted first “major” Star Trek fan film. It was made back in 1974. But even in that blog, I mentioned “…that the earliest Star Trek fan films dated back to when the original series was still playing on first-run broadcast TV on NBC.”
At the time I first wrote the blog, I didn’t have any specific examples of such early fan films, but today I do! From way back in March of 1967, while the original Star Trek was still in its debut season, a trio of youngsters created a short Trek fan film titled THE THING IN THE CAVE. And here’s the most amazing thing: they used actual tunics from the show loaned out to them directly from the Star Trek set on the Paramount lot!
Imagine a fan film today using actual spare uniforms from Discovery or Picard. The mind boggles! But things were apparently much different in 1967 (the year I was born).
So who were these kids, how did they get a hold of actual Star Trek tunics, and why are we only first finding out about this “lost” fan film 53 years later?
For the answers, I have an interview with ALAN WHITE, one of the fan filmmakers behind The Thing in the Cave. A current resident of Las Vegas—where he lives with his wife of 30 years, DeDee—Alan was 20 years old back in 1967. About a month ago, Alan posted some photos to Facebook that he took of individual frames from a surviving roll of film from The Thing in the Cave. I was fascinated by both the age of the project and by how well-made and authentic the tunics looked. Naturally, I reached out to Alan in order to learn more…
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