Tag Archives: Star Trek

Star Trek: Phase II

by Cimaxion

Start Trek: Phase II is an amazingly expert series of fan films made by and starring James Cawley. Aside, from the new faces playing familiar roles, the show nails the original Star Trek look head on. I mean for goodness sake there’s an entire Enterprise bridge set that is perfect. Everything works! A lot of hard work goes into these films and they serve admirably as new Star Trek episodes. Fantastic.

Here’s the Phase II web site.

With thanks to Paul Gallagher at Dangerous Minds.

How to Build a Working Star Trek Phaser

by Editor

Hack n Mod has a fascinating DIY instruction manual for building a Star Trek phaser that shoots Blue Ray laser light. I’m not interested in actually building a Star Trek phaser that shoots real laser light at all. But I’m interested in the whole idea of posting about how one would do such a thing. The images are interesting. I like phasers and would probably use one to take over the entire world.  If you build one of these things, please do not shoot yourself or anyone else in the eye with it.

First Star Trek Fan Film Made by Kids in 1969

by Editor

Ha ha!  This is great!  Jr. Star Trek is one of the very first fan films ever made for the original Star Trek series.  Peter Emshwiller made it in his house at the age of ten.  It actually made its way onto PBS television and has been a feature of many Star Trek conventions over the years.  Do kids still do this kind of thing?  They should.  What a fantastic effort and how much it must have taught the kids about making a movie.  They somehow capture the atmosphere of the classic television show by taking it very seriously.  Kids at that age didn’t see anything funny about Star Trek.  Their imaginations and intellects were fired by the show and they revelled in its deeply optimistic vision of the future.

You can read much more about this film and its maker at a great fan film blog from Clive Young called Fan Cinema Today, which chronicles all things related to films made by fans.  This kind of filmmaking has an important place in art and entertainment.  Unauthorized films are an expression of profound interest and respect by fans who go this far with their endeavors.  They extend the life of a fictional world that has been established in a particular medium and provide many people with an excellent outlet for their creative minds.

Star Trek Movie Trailer

by Editor

The last few Star Trek movies have been uniformly awful. But this new one looks very promising. I think it was a great idea to go back and redo the original show’s characters as they venture forth on their first mission together. The main hitch would be if the movie misses the sly humor that made the original characters so interesting. But this looks like the first really fresh take on the old series in many years. Great trailer.