AARON VANDERKLEY is a wonder from down under! When some fans began complaining that the guidelines‘ limit of 15 minutes for a fan film wasn’t long enough to tell a compelling story, Aaron proved them wrong by doing it in less than HALF that time!
Aaron’s first Trek fan film Needs of the Many, (only six and a half minutes long) actually came out six months before the guidelines were announced. And the following year, it won two “BJO” awards at Treklanta (including best short-form fan film).
His second short film, the 12-minute The Derelict, came out in late 2017 and was even more intense that its predecessor. Both films take place in the NX-era and feature amazingly accurate Starfleet uniforms and physical (practical) sets that look like something directly out of Star Trek: Enterprise. The acting, lighting, sound, editing, music…everything has a professional quality level that makes both films MUST-SEE. I interviewed Aaron about these two projects shortly after his second production debuted.
Aaron’s third fan film, Good Men, came out this past January with a length of nine minutes, again within the time limit and again telling a very engaging story…another MUST SEE effort. I decided to interview Aaron a second time about that one. Both interviews are worth a read.
Aaron has just released his fourth fan film in two years, THE FALL OF STARBASE ONE, his longest and ambitious yet…and another MUST SEE. After this, Aaron plans to do only one more “big finale”—likely sometime later this year. As of now, the final script isn’t written or even titled.
I asked Aaron about his decision wrap things up with his next fan film…
As I spoke about in our interviews, it was always my intention to do five – five was the golden number, and I think that’s enough from me.
There’s absolutely every temptation to keep making them (I really would have liked to adapt one of my original short films into a Star Trek story), but I don’t really want to be just known for (or stuck) making fan films. From a career perspective, that’s not very attractive.
I’ll admit I’m a little sad, but I truly appreciate all the care and effort that Aaron has put into all of his FANtastic films. And I certainly wish him all the best in his film career.
So please enjoy this fourth absolutely awesome Australian adventure from Aaron: The Fall of Starbase One…