Gary Davis – Fan Film Factor

WARBIRD VALDORE continues the 3-part fan film CROSSOVER from DOMINION MEDIA with “SMOKE AND MIRRORS” (interview with GARY DAVIS)

Crossovers are quite challenging to pull off! Indeed, in the long history of Star Trek, despite multiple opportunities when more than one series was running concurrently (e.g. DS9 and YOYAGER, DISCOVERY / PICARD / LOWER DECKS / STRANGE NEW WORLDS / PRODIGY), there was never a true crossover where a storyline that began in one series concluded in a different series.

Oh, there were certainly cameos, as when DS9‘s Dr. Bashir appeared in TNG‘s “Birthright, Part 1” or when Mariner and Boimler traveled back in time to Pike’s era in SNW‘s “Those Old Scientists.” But storylines themselves never crossed over to start with one series and end in another.

This hasn’t been the case with other network franchises like Chicago Med/Fire/PD, Law & Order, and of course, Stargate SG-1/Atlantis/Universe, which all featured crossover events.

Obviously, crossovers are challenging to make. Often, different writing teams on separate series have to come together, and schedules have to be carefully adjusted to allow for certain actors and sets to be used for shows in which they don’t usually appear. Production resources often need to be shared, and script continuity coordinators have to be extra vigilant. It can can messy pretty fast if not handled right.

So what about Star Trek fan films?

Like the various studio-produced Star Trek, the vast majority of “crossovers” between different fan series have gone no farther than special guest cameo appearances of certain characters in fan series that weren’t their own. Individuals like VANCE MAJOR’s Erick Minard, GEORGE KAYAIAN’s Captain Allen, NICK COOK’s Captain Hunter, or JOSE CEPEDA’s Captain Ramsey have certainly made the rounds. But seldom if ever has a plot line that began in one fan series ended in another.

Until now, that is.

Last summer, the folks at DOMINION MEDIA released the first of a 3-part trilogy crossing over into a trio of different fan series. Admittedly, all three are made under the Dominion Media umbrella, but they are shot in two entirely different locations 900 miles apart. The first part of the trilogy debuted as part of the fan series PROJECT: RUNABOUT, filmed mainly in the basement of co-showrunner GARY DAVIS, whose home in Ohio features a full TOS-era Starfleet runabout set. “IT’S ALL DONE WITH MIRRORS” was the third installment of that fan series, which began during the COVID lockdown in 2021.

The second installment premiered on March 12 of this year as the second full-length episode of WARBIRD VALDORE. Their first full-length episode, “THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE FEDERATION” debuted during the summer of 2023 and focused entirely on missions of the commander and crew of a Romulan warship. “SMOKE AND MIRRORS” then continued the trilogy storyline begun during Project: Runabout. Take a look…

PROJECT: RUNABOUT – “IT’S ALL DONE WITH MIRRORS” begins a 3-fan series CROSSOVER!

Fans are about to see a true rarity in the world of Star Trek fan films: a crossover of multiple fan series to create a three-part story! The closest fan films came to something like this previously was a couple of years ago when two of the creative groups from POTEMKIN PICTURES got together to present a crossover of fan-series STARSHIP DEIMOS and KLINGON SCOUTSHIP QAB’ELTH. In that “tag-team,” the two episodes actually intersected, featuring the same sequences seen from different points of view.

But now we have something entire new and different, thanks to GARY DAVIS, RANDY WRENN, and the folks at DOMINION MEDIA. For the past decade, DREADNOUGHT DOMINION has entertained fans with the exploits of that titular starship and her gallant crew. More recently, Gary constructed a full set of a TOS-era runabout craft in his basement and launched the spin-off series PROJECT: RUNABOUT, which released its “PILOT” episode in 2021 followed by its second episode, “YORKTOWN,” a year later.

However, there was no new Project: Runabout released during the following year, in part because Gary and Randy were busy launching their third Dominion Media fan series, WARBIRD VALDORE, set aboard a Romulan vessel and told from the point of view of her captain and crew.

With three separate fan series now in active development, it didn’t take Gary and Randy very long to decide to run a single storyline through all of them for a special crossover fan film event. Of course, the fan film guidelines can be a little persnickety on multi-part stories, so the guys set up the three films to each tell a self-contained story without any “cliffhanger” endings. However, a larger plot line will link the productions together for fans who decide to view all three releases in order.

And that order begins with the third installment of Project: Runabout, an episode entitled “IT’S ALL DONE WITH MIRRORS.” Take a look…

Having already interviewed Gary and Randy more times than I can count (not that I don’t absolutely love those two guys!), I asked them if perhaps we could do a video interview with the cast of the series and get to know those actors a little better. Nearly everyone was more than happy to oblige, and we had a really fun time chatting together. I invite you to join the (landing) party…

DREADNOUGHT DOMINION’s command torch is passed “IN OUR OWN TIME”… (interview with GARY DAVIS and RANDY WRENN)

Seven years. That’s how long DOMINION MEDIA co-showrunner GARY DAVIS has been playing Captain Jason Brousseau, commanding officer of the DREADNOUGHT DOMINION. And in the two years before that, Gary played Commander Brousseau, the ship’s first officer. So that’s NINE years in front of the camera on this long-running fan series.

DAVID “RANDY” WRENN, the other Dominion Media co-showrunner, has played his character, Chief Engineer Stephen Denson, for just as long, himself rising through the ranks to first officer and eventually captain of engineering. But as of September 29, 2023, both men performed those roles as leads for a final time in their swan song episode “IN OUR OWN TIME,” which saw them pass the command baton of the U.S.S. Dominion to Captain Maurine Farrell, played by popular fan film actress of multiple fan series, VICTORIA AVALON.

The episode was another strong offering from the team, with a fun, original, and engaging story and their typical mix of seriousness and humor. Take a look…

I plan to speak more with Victoria Avalon when Dominion‘s next episode premieres. But right now, I’ve decided to focus on Gary and Randy and their decisions to step away from the front of the camera to focus (no pun intended) more of their attention to efforts behind the scenes…

DOMINION launches new fan series WARBIRD VALDORE and a new Indiegogo! (interview with GARY DAVIS, RANDY WRENN, JOAN SAVAGE, and MICHAEL BEDNAR…part 1)

DREADNOUGHT DOMINION got its start back in 2015 when the first two episodes “Haunted” and “Anchors Aweigh” were released. Afterward, the showrunner and lead actor, FRANK PARKER, JR. (playing Commodore Samuel Grissom) departed the series, leaving GARY DAVIS and RANDY WRENN to take Dominion where no fan series had gone before…onto the bridge (and corridors) of a Federation-class dreadnought starship.

And so they did, producing and releasing an additional FIFTEEN fan films, including a few crossovers with other fan series, over the course of seven years. (You can watch all the episodes of Dreadnough Dominion on this playlist.) But they didn’t stop there. In July of 2021, using a TOS-era runabout set that Gary constructed in his basement, they filmed and premiered the pilot episode of a new Dominion spinoff series called PROJECT: RUNABOUT. And a little over a year later, they released the second episode of that new fan series, “YORKTOWN,” shot both on the runabout set as well as at the U.S.S. Yorktown Naval and Maritime Museum in the Charlestown Harbor in South Carolina.

You might think that simultaneously producing two ongoing fan series would be enough to keep these two guys busy, and you’d be correct! But when has being busy ever stopped them before???

And so, in July of this year, Dominion Media launched its SECOND spinoff fan series: WARBIRD VALDORE. As you might be able to guess from the title, its stories are told from the perspective of a Romulan warbird commander and her crew. This isn’t the first time a fan series has spotlighted the adventures of another spacefaring alien race. POTEMKIN PICTURES’ BATTLECRUISER KUPOK and SCOUTSHIP QAB’ELTH are both set on Klingon vessels. But this is the first time, to my knowledge, that a Romulan warbird has been been the primary focus of a series.

The new series is filmed in part on sets located at NEUTRAL ZONE STUDIOS in Kingsland, GA and stars JOAN SAVAGE as Romulan Commander Jhu D’Varo, reprising a role she previously played in Dreadnought Dominion. Check out their first episode…

Assuming you just watched it (SPOILER ALERT if you didn’t!), you’ll notice an appearance by MICHAEL BEDNAR, reprising his role of Robert Tacket from STARSHIP FARRAGUT and the upcoming FARRAGUT FORWARD. Now a full captain, Tacket is now in command of the U.S.S. Constitution. His appearance was quite a happy surprise for longtime fans familiar with Farragut (like me!).

Dominion has just launched a new crowd-funder trying to raise $5,000 for their three fan series. If you’d like to donate, click on the link below (I just tossed in $50 myself)…

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/dominion-media-fundraising

I was able to assemble Gary, Randy, Joan, and Mike for a group interview to discuss the new Valdore fan series, their involvement, and of course, the campaign…

“SIREN’S SONG” is VICTORIA AVALON’s swan song from STARSHIP DEIMOS… (interview with VICTORIA AVALON)

There are certain people in fan films who are, for want of a better word, prolific. They seem to pop up nearly everywhere in multiple fan productions. Sometimes they play a minor role or background character. And occasionally, they play major characters in one or more fan films or series.

VICTORIA AVALON is definitely one of these prolific people!

About a year and a half ago, I featured a Zoom interview with Victoria along with GARY DAVIS and RAANDY WRENN of the fan series DREADNOUGHT DOMINION, where Victoria has played their Chief Medical Officer Maurine Farrell for many years. Later this year, she will take over as the commanding officer of that starship, replacing Gary’s character of Captain Jason Brusseau, as Gary transitions to more behind-the-scenes tasks on Dominion.

But for the longest time, I had been wanting to interview Victoria about her OTHER gig as a commanding officer: portraying Captain Siân Gabriel of the STARSHIP DEIMOS, one of the multiple ongoing fan projects produced by one of POTEMKIN PICTURES‘ many creative groups. (You can view all of their hundred-plus releases here.).

Unfortunately, as they say: “every time God opens a window, He closes a door…” (or something like that). And so it came to pass that Victoria is departing Deimos with the release of their latest release “Siren’s Song”…

I asked both Victoria and Potemkin showrunner RANDY LANDERS what led to Victoria and her character leaving Starship Deimos, but neither wished to discuss the matter, and I didn’t want to pry.

According to Randy, Victoria’s Captain Gabriel will be replaced in the center seat by TUCK STEVENS, who previously played the chief engineer, Commander Timothy Harper. I’ll have more information from Randy about the cast changes when Deimos releases its next episode later this year.

But right now, since this is my final opportunity to interview Victoria about her time with Potemkin Pictures and Starship Deimos, let’s do just that…

Surely, DREADNOUGHT DOMINION can’t be serious as they give AIRPLANE! the Star Trek treatment… (interview with GARY DAVIS)

Back in 1980, Paramount Pictures released a farcical feature film called Airplane! (exclamation point included). Many thought it to be a parody of the Airport series of flight disaster movies from the 1970s, and there were a few callbacks to some of those films. But Airplane! it was actually nearly a scene-by-scene, tongue-in-cheek recreation of a dramatic film from 1957 called Zero Hour. If you don’t believe me, definitely watch this video and also this video.

Airplane! was released 23 years after Zero Hour. And now, 43 years after Airplane!, the long-running Star Trek fan series DREADNOUGHT DOMINION has just released one of the first new Trek fan films for 2023, also titled “AIRPLANE!” And like its predecessor, it’s close recreation of the original…at least in terms of dialog and gags.

It’s unusual to see a Star Trek fan film produced almost completely with over-the-top comedy beats. But in the case of Dreadnought Dominion, this isn’t their first bite at the apple of the absurd. Indeed, their previous film “REALITY CHECK” broke the fourth wall repeatedly, “TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES” was filmed live before a studio audience, “A BARREL FULL OF QUINCYS” featured JOHN SIMS’ character of [Q]uincy doing impressions of multiple famous Hollywood movie stars, and “MOM” was a fun romp as Captain Brusseau’s mother gets left in command at just the wrong moment.

So I guess it was time for another Dreadnought Dominion comedy! It looks like I picked a bad dad to give up laughing…

Most Dominion episodes are written by co-showrunner RANDY WRENN. But this time out, co-showrunner GARY DAVIS hijacked the typewriter to pen this production (while Randy directed). So today, the interview spotlight turns to Gary to find out how this project got off the ground (get it?)…

GARY DAVIS drives 12 hours EACH WAY to deliver a new CAPTAIN’S CHAIR to NEUTRAL ZONE STUDIOS! (interview)

It takes a special kinda crazy to be a part of Star Trek (or any) fan films. But when I heard that GARY DAVIS, showrunner of the long-running fan series DREADNOUGHT DOMINION, and his wife Tracey had driven 12 HOURS from central Ohio to the southeast corner of Georgia, installed a chair, and then drove 12 hours back home, well, I just had to find out more!

Now, just to be clear, the chair was the iconic CAPTAIN’S CHAIR, the center of command on the bridge set recreation at NEUTRAL ZONE STUDIOS in Kingsland, GA, which is used for multiple TOS-era fan films and series…including Gary’s. So he’s sat in that chair a lot and would know as well as anyone that it needed replacing. (He also built the chair that was being replaced!)

But let’s also make clear that Gary and Tracey drove down there, staying overnight in a hotel along the way, installed the chair, and then turned around and went back home, staying overnight in another hotel. They didn’t film anything at the studio or hang out any longer than to have a quick chat with people there. According to Gary, he simply did a short walk around the studio looking for things to use in their next Dominion shoot on November 4-6 and then they headed out.

And yes, my friends, you read that right: Gary will be heading BACK to Neutral Zone Studios in two weeks! So he and Tracey made this 1,600-mile round-trip drive just to deliver and install a chair that they could have delivered and installed 14 days later! Huh????

I can’t take it. Gary, get your butt over here now! We need to have a little chat…

PROJECT: RUNABOUT boldly goes where no fan film has gone before: the Aircraft Carrier YORKTOWN! (video interview with GARY DAVIS and RANDY WRENN)

Up until last month, when most fan film Trekkers thought of YORKTOWN, they pictured the long-awaited production A TIME TO HEAL, starring GEROGE TAKEI as Sulu and the late JAMES SHIGETA as Admiral Nogura.

But as of July 17, 2022, YORKTOWN now ALSO means the latest episode of PROJECT: RUNABOUT, a relatively new fan series spun off from the long-running DREADNOUGHT DOMINION fan series. Last year, Project: Runabout debuted with their pilot episode, the 5-minute vignette PILOT, featuring the pilot of a small TOS-era runabout-class shuttlecraft getting ambushed by a Klingon warship. And it was all a music video! But what really got fans’ attention was that showrunner GARY DAVIS constructed the elaborate runabout cockpit set in his basement. Talk about a man-cave, er, cockpit!

This year, Gary and Dominion/Runabout co-showrunner RANDY WRENN tackled a much more ambitious half-hour fan film. But it was even more ambitious than that! For the first time that I’m aware of, a fan production filmed nearly a third of its scenes on board an actual American aircraft carrier from World War II.

That aircraft carrier was the U.S.S. Yorktown (hence, the name of this second episode), which is a proud part of a naval and maritime museum located on Patriots Point in the Charlestown Harbor in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. And it wasn’t just a short scene or two. Gary and Randy shot in nearly a dozen different locations throughout the naval ship, including the engine room, mess hall, briefing room, and even up on the flight deck!

It was quite an undertaking with very impressive results. Take a look…

Obviously, there’s a lot of questions to ask about the making of this fan film…both the scenes on board the Yorktown as well as those in Gary’s basement and the expansion of his sets into an even more elaborate cockpit along with a brand new briefing room and transporter.

So I roped Gary and Randy into a Zoom call, and then the fun started…

DREADNOUGHT DOMINION’S “MOM” debuts on Mother’s Day…of course! (interview with GARY DAVIS)

Ya just gotta love the folks at DREADNOUGHT DOMINION. Well, you don’t have to love them, but it’s hard not to! They spread such fun and joy through their fan films.

You would think that a fan series set on board a three-nacelled dreadnought-class starship would involve lots of battles and intense, serious action. And you would be wrong. Out of all of the most active ongoing Star Trek fan series, Dominion is one of the ones that takes themselves the LEAST seriously. Although they have had a handful of dramatic releases, they’ve also had a whole bunch of good, wholesome, fun-for-the-whole-family style episodes that just make you want to laugh and smile.

And what could be more wholesome than the captain’s mother visiting her son on the bridge of his starship? And what could be more family-friendly than releasing an episode titled “MOM” on Mother’s Day? Are you ready for something adorable…?

Seriously, how cute was that??!

Yeah, I know. Nothing like that would REALLY happen on a Federation dreadnought starship …or any starship, most likely. And the repercussions of a cloaked Klingon scout ship deep within Federation space could lead to interstellar war. And to that I say: “Stop complaining and go call your mother and tell her that you love her!” (My apologies to any out there who have lost their mothers, but if you know any mothers in your life, send them a link to this wonderful vignette and put a smile on their face.)

Speaking of smiles, I just couldn’t wait to ask GARY DAVIS, longtime Dominion showrunner and Captain Jason Brousseau himself, some things about this precious piece of production positivity…

DREADNOUGHT DOMINION’s “The More Things Change” is their best fan film yet! (video interview with GARY DAVIS, RANDY WRENN, and VICTORIA AVALON)

The folks at DREADNOUGHT DOMINION are still going strong after more than eight years making fan films. They’ve given us long episodes, short vignettes, whimsical stories, serious plots, action, adventure, emotional drama…all delivered with that most important of ingredients: a deep love of Star Trek.

Although I didn’t have a chance to cover the May 1, 2021 release of “The Passenger with Baggage,” their tenth fan film (not counting the three crossover/alternate universe episodes: CHAIN OF COMMAND, COMMAND AND CONQUER, and the more recent CALM, COOL, AND COLLECTED), I did discuss “Passenger” briefly in a November video interview with FRANK PARKER, JR., the original show-runner of Dreadnought Dominion.

The last time I covered this fan series was over the summer when they were successfully crowd-funding an Indiegogo campaign that raised $6,250 by offering—among other exciting perks—personalized Star Trek action figures in the likenesses of donors. Seriously, you can read about it here!

That campaign funded a number of things, including the CGI for their next release, which came out on November 6 and was titled “The More Things Change.” I always get excited when a new Dominion episode comes out, not just because I love that starship design and they use the gorgeous TOS sets at NEUTRAL ZONE STUDIOS in Kingsland, GA, but because they have fun, interesting characters, great stories, and honestly, you never know what you’re going to get with these guys!

That was particularly true with their eleventh episode, which gave us a really engaging story with good acting along with great VFX and a solid selection of TOS background music that made it feel very much like a classic Star Trek episode. Yeah, Dominion is still noticeably a fan production, but at its heart, it’s Star Trek to me. And honestly, I thought this was their best episode yet! Take a look and see if you agree…

One of the things that I find to be most enjoyable about this series is that actors who aren’t the captain or first officer get their chances to shine in episodes that feature their character. This was one such episode, as VICTORIA AVALON, who plays Dr. Farrell, was given many dramatic scenes with generous amounts of dialog allowing her to really perform and stand out.

And speaking of Victoria, I’ve long admired her efforts in a number of different Star Trek fan series, including STARSHIP FARRAGUT (where she started her fan film career) and STARSHIP DEIMOS from POTEMKIN PICTURES (where she writes many of the episodes and stars as Captain Gabriel). Indeed, I’d been wanting to interview her for quite a while…and with this release from Dominion featuring Dr. Farrell is such a prominent role, I had the perfect opportunity.

I also invited sh0w-runners GARY DAVIS and RANDY WRENN to join in on the Zoom chat, as they are both also essential to the series. So sit back and enjoy as we get to know these three prominent fan filmmakers a bit better…