Tag: MrBonk85

Star Trek STUNT DOUBLES doubles its offerings!

Ah, how do I describe STAR TREK STUNT DOUBLES to the uninitiated?  The words wacky, zany, low-budget, irreverent, unpredictable, funny, low-budget, inspired, creative, one-man show, clever, did I mention low-budget?, wild, crazy, thr0w-caution-to-the-wind, Star Trek fan film parody vignette series all seem to get close…but not quite there yet.

Star Trek Stunt Doubles is a “I’m doing it my way, marching to the beat of my own drummer, if you don’t like it then don’t watch it” labor of love that, to me, is what fan films are all about.

And you may very well not like it.  That’s okay.  Personally, I love it because I never know what’s coming next.  Most of the time, it’s word-for-word recreations of scenes from classic TOS Star Trek episodes, lovingly crafted and redone by one guy in front of a green screen wearing uniforms, costumes, make-up, wigs, fake mustaches, and lord knows what else!  Then, just when you least expect it, a character will say something that leaves your head spinning in the What-The-Frak??? moment of weirdness and humor.  As I said, I never know what’s coming and when.

And hey, if you don’t like what you see, nearly all the episodes have runtimes of only  between 2 and 5 minutes.  So Stunt Doubles is hardly much of a time investment.  But if you look closely, you’ll realize just how much time and effort its creator, who goes only by the name MrBonk85, has to put in even to get this ultra-low budget fan production done.  After all, HE is playing every part!  And where does he find all those costumes???

I chatted with MrBonk85 back in May of this year (you can click here for the blog).  It’s a short audio interview if you’d like to listen now…

At the time, there were seven Stunt Doubles episodes that had been released: vignette parodies of “The Enemy Within,” “Spectre of the Gun,” “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” “This Side of Paradise,” and “Charlie X”…plus two original shorts not based on specific TOS episodes.

MrBonk85 ended our interview saying he wasn’t sure if he’d be making any more parody vignettes in the future.  Well, guess who has released SIX more episodes since then…!

Continue reading “Star Trek STUNT DOUBLES doubles its offerings!”

STAR TREK STUNT DOUBLES – the power of ONE! (audio interview with MrBonk85)

How many people does it take to make a Star Trek fan film?  Five?  Ten?  Fifty?  A few have listed over a hundred cast and crew members in their credits.

But what if there’s just ONE guy?  One guy doing all the camera work, costuming, make-up, writing, direction, lighting, sound, editing, compositing, visual FX…and even playing all of the roles?

Meet MrBonk85 (that’s his YouTube handle) and his STAR TREK STUNT DOUBLES fan series.  I first discovered this fellow a few months ago when he released his version of the TOS episode “Spectre of the Gun” (see below).  It compressed the classic episode down to just 5 minutes, a mix of recreations of scenes using original dialog with unexpected flourishes of humor.  And this one fan was was playing all of the roles himself!  It was very surreal.

This initial fan film effort was followed a couple of months later by a similar take on “Where No Man Has Gone Before” and about a week after that by “This Side of Paradise.”  Again, one guy appeared as every character—even female characters—green screen composited against TOS backgrounds with TOS music.

Needless to say, I just had to know more.  So I reached out to this gentleman and asked if he’d care to do an interview.  I learned from his response that Mr. Bonk’s real name is Paul (there are no credits in any of the episodes), and he was happy to chat with me.

Our conversation took place a few weeks ago.  At the time, there were only these three episodes, and—as you’ll learn in the interview—Paul/MrBonk85 wasn’t planning on doing more any time soon.  Well, guess what?  He just added a fourth Stunt Doubles episode, a quick 2-minute version of “Charlie X.”

All four of these vignette mini-episodes appear below.  But first, for your listening pleasure, please enjoy this interview with the one-of-a-kind (well, often MORE than one-of-a-kind) MrBonk85…

And now, here are the four Star Trek: Stunt Doubles episodes that have been released so far…

UPDATE: Over the next five months, six additional vignettes were released.  You can watch them here.

Plus, MrBonk85 has created a special  Youtube playlist to hold all of the Stunt Doubles episodes, including ones that might be produced after this update.