Tag: Line of Duty

In Part 1, we began what will likely be our last-ever interview with Australian fan filmmaker extraordinaire AARON VANDERKLEY as he releases his fifth and final NX-era Star Trek fan film. The first four, NEEDS OF THE MANY, THE DERELICT, GOOD MEN, and THE FALL OF STARBASE ONE, came out beginning in early 2016, and none was longer than the 15-minute limit set by the fan film guidelines. In fact, the shortest was only 6 and a half minutes in length and was nevertheless a dramatic masterpiece—beautifully acted, tenderly directed, with amazingly accurate NX-era Starfleet uniforms and very ambitious sets. Aaron was the writer and director on each of these MUST-SEE fan films.

His latest offering LINE OF DUTY, is perhaps his most powerful fan film so far, and certainly the most ambitious. It’s garnered nearly 50K views on Youtube in just two weeks. Check it out…

After the debut of his first Trek fan film, Aaron’s intention was always to produce a total of five and then move on to other challenges. And so this is a bittersweet interview, celebrating his amazing portfolio of work and his latest fan film triumph while acknowledging that, sadly, this is all we’ll get. But we’re so thankful for these five amazing productions.

And now, the conclusion of our interview with Aaron. When we left off, he had just said that everything went perfectly smoothly with his latest project, no hiccups at all…

Continue reading “Australian AARON VANDERKLEY releases his FINAL NX-era fan film LINE OF DUTY (interview, part 2)”

When the fan film guidelines set a 15-minute limit on the runtime of Star Trek fan films, many in the community shouted, “It can’t be done!”

AARON VANDERFLEY in Australia apparently didn’t get the memo because six months earlier, he’d already released an amazingly powerful 6-minute fan film called NEEDS OF THE MANY with strong acting, impressive sets, and spot-on uniforms from the NX-era of Star Trek. Aaron was already a professional freelance filmmaker and wanted to try his hand at Trek fan films. This was only his first effort, but there was a LOT more to come!

In mid 2017, Aaron did it all over again, this time with the 12-minute THE DERELICT, an intensely dark and haunting horror/thriller (very unique for a Star Trek fan film). Again, the acting was top-notch, the uniforms amazing, and now there was even action, suspense, and a few stunts thrown in. It really felt like part of an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise.

By the beginning of 2018, Aaron treated fans to a third superbly-crafted NX-era film, GOOD MEN, this one only 9 minutes long. Time limit? What time limit!

Finally, last summer, Aaron flirted just 30 seconds shy of that 15-minute runtime with his most ambitious release so far, THE FALL OF STARBASE ONE. Taken as a whole, the four fan films appeared to be mostly unrelated to each other beyond their time period, which seemed to take place during the Romulan War with Earth and the Coalition of Planets.

But then I watched Aaron’s fifth and final (or so he says) Star Trek fan film and noticed that not everything was as unrelated as it seemed. More on that in a moment during my interview with him. But first, take a look at Aaron’s latest Star Trek triumph: the very unique and masterfully-produced LINE OF DUTY (finally cracking the 15-minute mark as a 20-minute two-parter)…

Below is what will, sadly, be my final interview with Aaron Vanderkley (unless he changes his mind about this being his last Star Trek fan film). If you want to read more interviews with Aaron, I’ve done two previous ones which you are welcome to check out here.

And now, let’s hear what Aaron has to say about Line of Duty…

Continue reading “Australian AARON VANDERKLEY releases his FINAL NX-era fan film LINE OF DUTY (interview, part 1)”