TNG INtakes ingeniously put the outtakes back in

Ingenious fan and trekkie, Ryan's Edits, has hit upon an idea so fantastic its hard to believe its not be done before: Edit outtakes back into scenes. The effect is subtle and absurd, with scenes played completely straight except for some hiccup where an actor forgets a line or messes about. Some of them are completely hilarious, and all make the characters feel much more real, with the verbal trips of everyday life. Those where Patrick Stewart slips out of stern Captain Picard mode are particularly funny. Here are a couple of my favourites:

The Star Trek fan film guidelines

Behind the scenes on Star Trek Continues

CBS and Paramount recently released a set of guidelines for Star Trek fan films. For many of the better known fan film productions these are game changing, and for other film makers they define clear limits on what is now acceptable. Continue below to ponder them.

CBS and Paramount announced the guidelines with a message on StarTrek.com:

Star Trek fandom is like no other.

Your support, enthusiasm and passion are the reasons that Star Trek has flourished for five decades and will continue long into the future. You are the reason the original Star Trek series was rescued and renewed in 1968, and the reason it has endured as an iconic and multi-generational phenomenon that has spawned seven television series and 13 movies.

Throughout the years, many of you have expressed your love for the franchise through creative endeavors such as fan films. So today, we want to show our appreciation by bringing fan films back to their roots.

The heart of these fan films has always been about expressing one’s love and passion for Star Trek. They have been about fan creativity and sharing unique stories with other fans to show admiration for the TV shows and movies. These films are a labor of love for any fan with desire, imagination and a camera.

We want to support this innovation and encourage celebrations of this beloved cultural phenomenon. It is with this perspective in mind that we are introducing a set of guidelines at Star Trek Fan Films.

Thank you for your ongoing and steadfast enthusiasm and support, which ensure that Star Trek will continue to inspire generations to come.

There are ten rules, which you can read them in full on StarTrek.com. In summary they are:

Remember that Star Trek/Star Wars crossover from the 1980s?

I'm just off to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but before I go I thought I'd share with you this glorious trailer for the 1980s Star Trek/Star Wars crossover that time forgot, enjoy!



This was rather brilliantly made by Youtube user SonofSpock, who also put together a TV spot for the supposed film. Now if IDW could just have a word with Marvel, I think we know what crossover comic we'd like to see next...

Star Trek Continues, continues

Have you discovered Star Trek Continues yet? The fan made series expertly reproduces the qualities of The Original Series, with remarkably fidelity not just to sets and costume, but lighting and style. It also follows the best of Trek in its thoughtful and smart stories, which I would rate as not just the very best fan productions, but comfortably among the best episodes of all Star Trek.

There have been three episodes (and a few shorts) so far. The first, Pilgrim of Eternity, is a sequel to Who Mourns for Adonais?, with Michael Forest reprising his role as Apollo. The second episode, Lolani, is an entirely original story, focused on the titular Orion slave girl, used to explore issues of slavery and sex trafficking. And the most recent is Fairest of them All, a sequel to Mirror Mirror, picking up right from the end of the original episode and depicting Spock's rise to power.

The Star Trek Continues team are already at work on their next episode, and have been running a Kickstarter campaign to fund further and expanded production. There's just a few hours left on that, but as you'll see if you watch the episodes, its certainly worth your support, this series is amazing Star Trek. The campaign has already exceeded its initial $100,000 goal, to fund two further episodes, and proceeded to exceed stretch goals to fund the building of engineering and planet sets. Further additional funds will secure even more episodes! You can add your support, on Kickstarter.

And continue after the jump to check out all those brilliant episodes:

Book bits: Crisis of Consciousness cover, and more TOS-era news

Books news! Starting with a very snazzy new cover, by Alan Dingman, and released by StarTrek.com, for Crisis of Consciousness, the TOS novel by Dave Galanter, due out in May.

Here's the blurb:

The crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise is completing a treaty mission with the Maabas, a peaceful alien race not native to the star system they currently inhabit, as descendants of refugees from a great war long ago. Several hundred thousand Maabas once took shelter on their new world, and have now been here for mil­lennia. They do not travel the stars, but seek to explore from within. The Federation’s interest is in the Maabas’s great intellec­tual resources—their science, while behind in some areas, excels in others, and their philosophy is in line with that of the Federa­tion. But just as the pact is signed, the Enterprise is attacked by an unidentified vessel. Enough force is shown to keep the alien assailants at bay, but a new danger arises. Their mysterious foes are the Kenisians—a race that used to inhabit the Maabas’s chosen world thousands of years ago, and who now want to take it back.

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it, Amazon.co.jp, iTunes.

Continue after the jump for more book news from the 23rd century:

Gingerbread USS Enterprise

Set phasers to sweet! The Blackmarket Bakery have made Star Trek the center of their Christmas decorations, with an amazing gingerbread rendition of the USS Enterprise now on display in their California store.

With details in sugar and chocolate, the impressive recreation of the Enterprise fires a candy-cane phaser beam at the landscape below, which presumably also helps to support the otherwise gravity defying display! Check out a few more images after the jump:

The Red Shirt Diaries

Have you watched The Red Shirt Diaries? For the unfamiliar, it's a brilliant series of Star Trek parody shorts, presented as logs from Ensign Williams of the USS Enterprise's security department. Each episode takes place around a TOS episode, with the first season making up the first ten episodes of The Original Series. Check them out:

But that's just the start. The creators are busy planning season two, which will continue with parallel episodes to the rest of the TOS season one episodes. Aiming to step up their game, they hope to build a more screen accurate set for Ensign Williams, to film on location at Vasquez Rocks, and on a TOS bridge set at Starbase Studios. To help fund those more ambitious plans, they have an Indiegogo campaign, which ends today! They have actually funded all their stretch goals already, but I'm sure they wouldn't mind raising more to go further!

And you should also check out their website, for more information about the series, and to read The Red Shirt Diaries comic.

The Great Borg Bake Off

We all know resistance is futile, when it comes to a cake, and now Seven of Nine, aka Rosanna Pansino, is here to teach us all how to bake an irresistible Borg Cube cake, in the latest video in her Nerdy Nummies series.

Pansino even transformed herself into Seven for the occasion. Have a watch:



This appears to be the first Star Trek themed Nerdy Nummies video, but there are plenty of other delicious geeky goodies, including Wookie-cookies, Lego cakes, Rubik's Cube brownies, and many more!

Axanar

There seem to be Star Trek fan films popping up left, right, and center of late, but some really stand out from the crowd, and Axanar is one of those. If you have somehow missed all the hype about this impressive production, Axanar sets out to tell the story of Garth of Izar in the Four Years War. As the Axanar Kickstarter page describes:

Axanar takes place 21 years before the events of “Where no Man Has Gone Before”. It tells the story of Garth of Izar, the legendary Starfleet captain who is Captain Kirk’s hero and the role model for a generation of Starfleet officers. Garth charted more planets than any other Captain and was the hero of the Battle of Axanar. His exploits are required reading at Starfleet Academy.

This is the story of Garth and his crew during the Four Years War, the war with the Klingon Empire that almost tore the Federation apart, and whose resolution solidified the Federation and allowed it to become the entity we know in Kirk's time.

It is the year 2245, four years into the war with the Klingons.

The Axanar team are looking to fund a feature film to tell this story, and incredibly have already raised almost $600,000 in their Kickstarter campaign, which closes in just a few hours - At the close of the Kickstarter campaign, they had got up to $638,471! This was to be the first of several Kickstarters to get them to their full budget of $750,000, but they have smashed their initial $100,000 goal for this first effort. And quite right too, what they have already shown is amazing work.

Released a few weeks ago was Prelude to Axanar, a twenty-minute film setting up the Four Years War, in the style of a history documentary.  This on its own is an amazing piece of work, and a completely original approach to Star Trek. If you've not seen yet (or even if you have), check it out:



Aside from impressive production values, Axanar also has an amazing cast, including Gary Graham reprising Enterprise's Soval. Also starring are Star Trek veterans Tony Todd, J.G. Hertzler, and Garrett Wang, and Battlestar Galactica's Richard Hatch, and Kate Vernon.

There's some beautiful design work too, the featured ship, the USS Ares, was designed by Sean Tourangeau (designer of the USS Titan), and the effects work is being done by Tobias Richter. Continue after the jump for a look at some of the ship designs to be featured, many are prime universe interpretations of nuTrek designs:

Starbase 11, the Lego version

Well, sort of. As you might recall from the Drex Files in Exile article on the Star Trek influences born out of the New York World's Fair, the flying-saucer-esque observation towers known as the Astro-View were the inspiration for part of Starbase 11, in Albert Whitlock Jr.'s iconic matte painting.

Well it seems talking to Doug has given me a bit of the World's Fair bug, as when I was fiddling about with my Lego the other day I found myself starting to build the Astro-View. A little while later I had created the model you see here.

My model includes a working elevator (in so much as you can clip it to any point on the rails it would have glided between back in it's operational days), and a row of luminaires (the distinctive street lights that could be seen throughout the fair).

Pleased with my little model I also decided to submit it to Lego Ideas, where, if ten-thousand people support the project, Lego might consider producing it as an actual Lego set. So if you'd like an almost-Starbase 11 set, please do go and add your support to the project.

PS, my Lego King Kong project is also still seeking support on Ideas, I'd be delighted if you could support and share that project too!

Comic panels: Latest from New Visions, City on the Edge of Forever, and more

Some Star Trek comics news for you, starting with the latest updates from John Bryne on his New Visions photo-comic series. Talking on his forums Byrne recently outlined his progress on the series:

So far, with seven stories complete, and an eighth started, I had two direct sequels, one "follow up" that is not strictly a sequel, two returning characters (same story), again not a sequel.

Two of the stories presently in the planning stages contain elements from previous episodes, but are, again, not direct sequels.

He also posted another preview panel, this time using parts of a real world location to expand the possible backdrops for the series:

Here's a little sneak peek at something from the finished lead story for the fourth issue. A combination of modeling and heavily manipulated "location shooting."

The second issue in the series, Time's Echo, is due out in August. Meanwhile IDW's adaptation of Harlan Ellison's original teleplay for City on the Edge of Forever is now underway. Chris Ryall posted the variant cover for the second printing of the first issue, a red version of the Juan Ortiz cover.

Flickring Myth recently posted an interview with the series' writer, Scott Tipton, and artist, J.K. Woodward. Both discussed some of their favourite scenes in the adaptation (Woodward and Tipton respectively here):

Harlan is a very visual writer and he constructs some fantastic visuals in his stories. LeBeque’s hallucination in issue 1, the guardians and their planet, the city itself, Kirk and Spock’s trip through the time vortex are all really fun scenes, but I think the most fun I had was the fight scene in the transporter room that begins issue 2. Wow! what a thrill! and quite time intensive.

There’s a scene coming up in issue 4, I believe, that’s just a conversation between Kirk and Spock that really illustrates the struggle Kirk is going through, It’s some of my favorite writing of Harlan’s and it was cut from the filmed episode, so seeing that on the page will be quite a thrill.

Tipton also talked about an idea for a follow up to the TNG/Doctor Who crossover. Alas IDW don't have the Doctor Who license any more, so it's not as likely to happen now, but we can dream:

...the idea I always wanted to do was a body switch story between Q and The Doctor where Q would find himself trapped in the Doctor’s body and the Doctor was suddenly part of the Q continuum. Q would see the TARDIS, as great a force as it is, as limiting and we could learn a great deal more about what it means to be a Time Lord from that. The Doctor could show us just what it means to be part of the continuum as well, the responsibility, the dangers, the laws(are there any) and the struggle to even comprehend the limitless. I always thought that would be a great character story for both.

Continue after the jump for a look at some of the latest unofficial comics:

Star Trek Into Iceland

Four creatives, Andrew Jason Leung, Ken Lin, Jennifer Puno, and Mike Rousseau, visited Iceland recently, and decided to make the trip a Star Trek themed landing party! The result of their mission can be seen on their website, Star Trek Into Iceland. Taking full advantage of Iceland's epic landscapes, and a few handy sci-fi-esque locations, the team have crafted a grand adventure. I've picked out a few of my favourites below, but you can see many more on their website.

Amazing starship Enterprise ring

I've covered many an item of Star Trek jewellery before, and quite a few products shaped in the form of the USS Enterprise. The two areas have even cross before, in the form of USS Enterprise cufflinks. This new design by Paul Michael Design seems like a pretty good runner for best in class in either category though. Behold, the Starship Enterprise ring:

This snazzy design is available via Paul Michael's Etsy store, where it can be ordered in a variety of different metals and stones to match your desires (or budgets). This appears to be Michael's first Star Trek design, following from many pieces based on Star Wars. I hope CBS seeks him out and gets this licensed and distributed to the world at large, what a great design!

Starships round-up: Stargazer, Vengence, Voyager, Enterprise-C, and German release!

An assortment of starship news, starting with the latest from Eaglemoss' Official Starships Collection. One of my German readers, Michael, contacted me a few days ago to let me know her had come across the first issue of the model and magazine series in German, and subsequently found a German version of The Collection's website, where German fans can now sign-up to subscribe to the series.

The German subscription model will be the same as the UK and Ireland, with the subscription extras coming every two issues (rather than every few months as in North America). The Euro price will be €4.99 for the first issue, and €14.99 for each subsequent issue.

Michael also noted that he had not come across any sort of promotion for the launch in Germany. Curiously, when asked about the German launch just yesterday, The Collection's Facebook page continued to suggest fans still need to keep an eye out for an announcement some time in the future. Which leads me to speculate Michael might have come across a test launch, as was the case when The Collection first turned up in the UK.

Meanwhile The Collection continues apace where it has launched already, with UK subscribers already up to issue thirteen. Looking ahead to issue nineteen, the USS Stargazer, Forbidden Planet have recently listed the issue, including a higher res version of the previously released image, so we can get a closer look at the model:

The Collection's Facebook page has also posted an updated image, of the second larger special issue, the nuTrek USS Enterprise. The new images now shows the Enterprise with blue bussard collectors. They've also given the UK and Ireland publication date as the 6th of March.

Eaglemoss aren't the only starship builders in town. Hot Wheels have also revealed they will be continuing to produce model ships. T-Hunted have reported on a poster, illustrating the Hot Wheels car range for 2014, and hidden among all the four wheels terrestrial vehicles is the USS Vengeance. Hot Wheels already released a model of the Vengeance last year, this new one will be a smaller scale rendition, similar to the small USS Enterprise model released last year, allowing it to be included in their regular toy car range.

Back in the prime timeline, Mark Rademaker has posted another image, showing the latest iteration of his USS Voyager Full Circle refit design:

Mark also posted a description of the process he has created to allow the refit to have happened in-universe in a short period of time:

Imagine a Baryon sweep procedure, but this time with a replicator beam. Absorbs the ship in small "caked" layers, and reorders what is needed to make the new design. Does not work for all parts so some manual work is still required. Consumes an enormous amount of energy, so it can't really compete with a more traditional way of constructing. Still in my eyes this was the only way to get the refit done in the small gap between the events in Destiny and Voyager leaving for the Delta Quadrant again. The mission was important enough to justify this method.

Finally, a new fan film project in the works, Star Trek: Futures, is to feature Tobias Richter's rendition of the Andrew Probert's concept art design for the USS Enterprise-C (as featured in Ships of the Line 2012). They have released a short animation by Richter to promote the alternate timeline miniseries, so we can enjoy seeing the proto-Ambassador in motion:

If First Contact were a musical

Ever wondered what Star Trek would be like if it were a Disney musical? Well comedy musicians Debs and Errol have the answer, with their brilliant Star Trek parody of "Let It Go", from Frozen. Make It So:



Debs and Errol's many other songs include a song about tribbles, based on Taylor Swift's "I Knew You Were Trouble", and "Tie After Tie", a Star Wars take on "Time After Time". You can find out more about them on their website, see their videos on YouTube, and even download their albums.

The Enterprise's demise at the Guardian of Forever

A few months ago I posted some awesome concept art for a fantasy new Star Trek animated series, created by artist Peter Markowski, who has worked on several real animated series for Warner Brothers. Markowski has been a bit busy lately, with little distractions like having a baby and getting a job with Lego! But he's returned to his Star Trek project with style today, depicting two new landing party scenes. First up, the Enterprise's latest encounter with the Guardian of Forever hasn't quite gone to plan:

Then there's a mission to planet with a classical connection:

Be sure to go check out Markowski's blog for lots more Star Trek art, or have a look at his portfolio to see his work on animations including The Green Lantern and El Dorado.

Now if CBS could just prise him away from Lego, this needs to become a reality...

QUOGs turn to the dark side

We all love QUOGs right? Those cute animated style versions of the TOS crew that occasionally adorn T-shirts, greetings cards and other assorted Trek-tastic merchandise. Sarah Trefny of Klickitat Street certainly seems found of them, but isn't content to let them mull about in the Star Trek universe, so has given them a Star Wars make-over, as designs on cookies. Here choices of characters are great, especially tribble-Chewbacca, with Kirk as Han Solo:

As both series are rather lacking in female characters, Uhura of course becomes a rather snazzy Princess Leia:

Spock is our wise old Jedi master, while our new whiz-kid Chekov becomes the apprentice Luke:

C-3PO and R2-D2 are filled by the ship's specialists, McCoy and Scotty:

Meanwhile Sulu makes best use of his piloting skills for the Rebel Alliance:

And a Klingon is that pesky Darth Vader:

Check out some more images of the set, and making of photos, on Klickitat Street.

Star Trek art from the Bad Robot Art Show

Gallery1988 in Los Angeles recently held an exhibition of art inspired by the work of Bad Robot, featuring pieces based on the likes of Lost, Cloverfield, Super 8, and of course Star Trek. If you didn't have the opportunity to visit the exhibition, here is some of the cool, weird, and wonderful Star Trek art that was on show. Links from the artist's names take you to their own sites (where I could find one), while links to titles take you to Gallery1988's listings, where some of the pieces are still available to buy if you like them:

The bad robot itself found its way to the Enterprise in Stephen Andrade's Bad Robot On Board. Andrade also did a really cool pulp fiction style cover using this image.

Andrew DeGraff made the Path Of The Trek, a map version of the first nuTrek film. I've previously featured his similar Star Wars maps on one of my other blogs, it's such a cool way to illustrate a story:

There were some really nice poster designs, such as Mayra Fersner's Hire Orion Tutors:

Scott Derby's TAS inspired To Boldly Go:

Ian Glaubinger's recruitment poster style Launch Into Your Future:

Sam Gilbey's The End Of Vulcan:

Ryan Berkley's nuTrek version of the Star Trek: The Motion Picture poster, Refresh:

Continue after the jump for loads more:

Into Darkness round up

Those Into Darkness trailers just keep coming! But before I get to the latest videos, check out this awesome fan poster for the film from artist Paul Shipper:

This is a follow up to Shipper's excellent poster for the previous film, and is also part of a series of Into Darkness posters from a variety of artists on Blurppy. Be sure to check them out, there are some great designs.

Now to the videos! The latest character profile focuses on Spock:



The latest clip from the film also has Spock in the spotlight (or indeed, the volcano):



The Are You The 1701 website also released a curious video, with clips from the film in the 1701 numbers. See that after the jump, as well the latest TV spots:

Check out neat new TOS movie posters

Over the past few weeks, Chrome Yellow has been running a series of reviews of the TOS movies, each accompanied by a new poster design by artist Matt Ferguson. The series is now complete, and Ferguson is hoping to be able to produce them as prints, so spread the word; let's drum up some support, as they're pretty good! My favourite, by quite a wide margin, is The Undiscovered Country, which illustrates one of the coolest effects sequences, in probably the best film, in brilliant style. I would definitely buy a print of this!

You can see the other five, in descending order, after the jump, or check out each of Chrome Yellow's reviews: I, II, III, IV, V, VI. Or have a look at Ferguson's portfolio, where you'll find more cool Trek art as well.