Whereas other "Days" of the Twelve Trek Days of Christmas are easy to define - we have done gifts of audio dramas and fan films, etc, how can I give you IDIC? Well, remember those audio dramas do not come from me, my contribution has been to point you towards those who are giving their work away for free all the time! In the same way, although I try to be as good a person as I can, what I am doing today is pointing you to examples of IDIC in the real world.
But first, let's get back to basics: what is IDIC? As any Star Trek fan will tell you, in Star Trek canon, it is an acronym for the Vulcan philosophy of Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. As the more skeptical science fiction historian will point out, it was seen by the cast of The Original Series as a marketing ploy by Gene Roddenberry to merchandise copies of the pendant used in the TV series through his Lincoln Enterprises. As with many things though, it has grown to be more over the years, Star Trek fandom took the philosophy to heart.
Trekkers Against Bullying (Fb) is a social media campaign and website that seeks to publicise incidents of bullying, their prosecution and the groundswell of feeling against it. By identifying Star Trek with the campaign, it seeks to show that there is no place for it in our fandom and that we support the fight against it personally and as a social group.
Star Trek fan productions have used the power to create their own dramas to add LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender) relationships into a future Utopian Star Trek society. The fan film series, Star Trek: Hidden Frontier would have to be the highest profile however gay subplots are common in most fan productions of all media. Whether you support this way of life or not, Star Trek's IDIC philosophy suggests that you should respect people's choice of "diversity", in a way creating a middle-ground where you do not have to accept the choice as your own but by the same token do not attack it. This, in a way, defuses the confrontationist stances that come about when people have to take sides.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Friday, January 4, 2013
Day 11 - Trekzines & Virtual Seasons
Everybody likes to see their favourite media spun out over a regular series...
Star Trek: Final Frontier
Trekzines, Fanzines and Newsletters
Whether you call it citizen journalism or fan publishing, Star Trek fans have always been heavily into creating magazine-style publications.
The clubzine of the United Federation Starfleet, published on Issuu
Virtual Seasons, Prose
The virtual season has changed its meaning in recent years, but it started out as group-written, serial fan fiction...
by Rigel Kent; [n] episodes, Enterprise era on the writer's web site.
Virtual Season, Script-based
One of the good things about being a fan producer is that you have total control over what you do, no financial backers, publishers, no one to explain your creative decisions to! I see virtual seasons as being one of the more 'dangerous' ways of telling a story...
- You release your fiction as a script designed to be read rather than performed - there is a subtle difference.
- You commit to a definite release schedule that emulates the regular programming of a TV series
- You package your release to have the look of a DVD or BluRay case and cover
- You rely on a regular reader base to follow and comment on your work.
by Kyle West; 12 episodes, Post Nemesis. TEN The Entertainment Network
Sebastian Knight, felt like he was being moulded from birth into something he didn't want to be. First it was his father, grooming him to inherit the family ship one day, and then it was Starfleet, trying to turn him into another by-the-book drone. The way Seb see's it, he's his own person, and lives by his own rules.
So when his world is turned upside down after some bad news from home, Sebastian can see exactly what is taking place: people are trying to control his life yet again. And as we'll soon learn, he never responds well to other people trying to shape his destiny. For 26 years, Sebastian Knight has avoided any kind of responsibility, and coasted through life. That's all about to change, and for Sebastian and the crew of the cargo ship Haven, things will never be the same...
Sebastian Knight, felt like he was being moulded from birth into something he didn't want to be. First it was his father, grooming him to inherit the family ship one day, and then it was Starfleet, trying to turn him into another by-the-book drone. The way Seb see's it, he's his own person, and lives by his own rules.
So when his world is turned upside down after some bad news from home, Sebastian can see exactly what is taking place: people are trying to control his life yet again. And as we'll soon learn, he never responds well to other people trying to shape his destiny. For 26 years, Sebastian Knight has avoided any kind of responsibility, and coasted through life. That's all about to change, and for Sebastian and the crew of the cargo ship Haven, things will never be the same...
Star Trek: Final Frontier
by Mirabello, Munoz & Rossi; 2 episodes, Post Nemesis.
When is a virtual season not a virtual season? When it very nearly was a real animated series! Star Trek: Final Frontier was developed in late 2005 but was unfortunately not picked up by the networks. In 2010 they started releasing their design documents and concept art to the web for fans to see what might have been, they also released the five part pilot script. In November this year they continued the adventures with parts 1, 2, 3 & 4 of a brand new episode.
Its fifty years after the end of the second Romulan War, the Federation has turned inward, eschewing exploration and diplomacy in favor of strengthening its core systems and protecting its borders from incursion. Captain Alexander Chase of the U.S.S. Enterprise as they fight to save their ship from destruction in the far reaches of the galaxy.
K
When is a virtual season not a virtual season? When it very nearly was a real animated series! Star Trek: Final Frontier was developed in late 2005 but was unfortunately not picked up by the networks. In 2010 they started releasing their design documents and concept art to the web for fans to see what might have been, they also released the five part pilot script. In November this year they continued the adventures with parts 1, 2, 3 & 4 of a brand new episode.
Its fifty years after the end of the second Romulan War, the Federation has turned inward, eschewing exploration and diplomacy in favor of strengthening its core systems and protecting its borders from incursion. Captain Alexander Chase of the U.S.S. Enterprise as they fight to save their ship from destruction in the far reaches of the galaxy.
K
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Day 10 - Trek Modelling
Plastic scale models are generally of canon subjects but there have been a couple of instances where non-canon ships have become popular modelling subjects...
The USS Titan is known in canon as the command which Riker and Troi are going to after their marriage at the start of Star Trek Nemesis. Simon & Schuster's Pocket Books has released a series of licensed novels named after this new command and commissioned a competition to design the new vessel which was won by Sean Tourangeau. You can see various graphics of Sean's design in his gallery and - when it is in stock! - you can order a copy.
The USS Titan is known in canon as the command which Riker and Troi are going to after their marriage at the start of Star Trek Nemesis. Simon & Schuster's Pocket Books has released a series of licensed novels named after this new command and commissioned a competition to design the new vessel which was won by Sean Tourangeau. You can see various graphics of Sean's design in his gallery and - when it is in stock! - you can order a copy.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Day 09 - Trek Gaming
So you think of youself as a gamer? Well here for your entertainment is the fifth Twelve Trek Days of Christmas "Compendium of Fan-Made Games"! For more games, organised along much the same lines, see the previous compendiums from 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011.
Sports
There are very few fictional sports unique to Star Trek, The only three I can pin down are the phaser firing range and...- Could THIS be the genesis of Star Trek's Hoverball,
- Jon Baas explains in great detail the workings of Parrises Squares... as played at the UFP Starfleet Academy, on Facebook anyway!
Martial arts
The fictional martial arts that are listed on Memory Alpha are Anbo-jitsu, The Vulcan Nerve Pinch, Tsunkatse and ...- Mok'bara. Interesting animation and combat rules for STO [?]
- Bat'leths, of course, are available on STO.
Tabletop games
Wikipedia defines these as, "any game where the elements of play are confined to a small area and which require little physical exertion, usually simply placing, picking up and moving game pieces."- Dexterity/coordination games
- Board games -
- Domjot, We don't have the game but we have a song about the game from Rick Moyer!
- Tri-Dimensional Chess is still going strong...
- Kenneth, of Queens, NY, has created an interesting 3D chess scenario: The Tower Siege: 3D chess game, see the discussion on the 3D Chess Yahoo Group.
- Don't recall seeing this website for KlinZha nor this one, its even on Board Game Geek!
- Card games
- Dice games
- Domino and tile games - kal-toh has been mentioned as a desirable mini-game for STO.
- Casino games -
- Dabo was introduced as a STO minigame in season two and I know of a certain fan who, for their legendary party had a functioning Dabo table!
- Pencil and paper games -
- Guessing games
Computer games
Strangely enough, there seem to have been virtually no computer-based games in the 24th century! The only one that comes close is "The Game", the addictive holographic game from TNG.- Computer Games, Text-based
- Computer Games, 2D Games
- Computer Games, 3D Games
- Star Trek Online (STO) has become a major phenomenon, not least because of its support of fan-made mads in it's Foundry!
- Star Trek: Excalibur a fan made game "coming real soon" - latest trailers.
- The Mods
- This is when fans mod (modify) an existing, commercial game. In contrast to other parts of the entertainment industry, game manufacturers, the owners of the license from Paramount, not only allow but encourage their fans to mod their products - STO in particular has been pro-active in this respect right from the start. There are far too many Mods for me to list here, I've simply picked one Mod from each gaming engine to feature here.
- For Doom:
- For Escape Velocity Nova:
- For Elite Force II:
- For ST Bridge Commander:
- For ST Starfleet Command:
- For Crysis 2: The team from ST Enterprise - Temporal Cold War are still going strong on their mod ST: Enterprise - MACO - latest update: Aug. 26: Engineering screenshots and a new member to the team!
- This is when fans mod (modify) an existing, commercial game. In contrast to other parts of the entertainment industry, game manufacturers, the owners of the license from Paramount, not only allow but encourage their fans to mod their products - STO in particular has been pro-active in this respect right from the start. There are far too many Mods for me to list here, I've simply picked one Mod from each gaming engine to feature here.
Role-playing games
If you prefer your gaming to be face to face and your fate decided by your game-master and the roll of a many-sided dice then the older games are still being played.- Last Unicorn Games or LUG (1998-2000)
- If you own an old copy of one of the Last Unicorn Games RPGs it's not a dead end, Memory ICON's Fan Produced netbooks available for free download are still a massive resource.
- Decipher or CODA (2002-2007)
- After Decipher stopped making their high quality RPG manuals in 2007, a number of fans started adding their own material to the mix. Similarly, Patrick Goodman is still working on Beyond The Final Frontier where you'll find archived CODA gaming material covering every series.
- Amarillo Design Bureau is still commercially, very active with their Prime Directive RPG extension of the long-running Star Fleet Battles wargaming series for the GURPs and D20 systems, two strong and popular gaming systems.
- With the release of the D20 Modern RPG rules, a number of gamers have tested the boundaries on this new frontier!
Simulation
To me the term "simulation" is very close to roleplaying (which in fact are sometimes called 'sims') but the Wiki article specifically mentions war games and this would seem to fit the strategy games best.- UFP Starfleet Academy is a Facebook Play-By-Post [?] slightly non-canon simulation of the year 2375 (the 2nd year of the Dominion War) at the San Fran Cisco campus of Starfleet Academy.
- Star Trek: Asteroid Base is an RPG-X SRP (Serial Role Play) at The Last Outpost, a small RPG community who use a modification of Raven Software game, Star Trek: Voyager Elite Force to create Star Trek scenarios.
- Edgeworth: Raspberry Crystal has produced a "virtual hike" of this Inworldz, fan made, Star Trek role playing sim.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Day 08 - Fan Films
The start of a new year has brought new promise of releases, filming and new series but it has also brought with it the possibility that the fan film community might be saturating their pool of potential supporters. Audience expectations are rising of acting, story and production levels and, whilst many young and Trek alumni professionals have given their support freely, there are some things that can only be obtained by loan, donation or purchase. Sets, costume and props have always been a visible investment, but there are dozens of less visible costs that need to be addressed: cameras, lighting, computer memory, transportation and storage...
Only time will tell! As things stand, 2013 looks to be a bumper year for Star Trek fan films and on behalf of Star Trek fans everywhere I wish all fan production groups a happy, prosperous and creative New Year.
Star Trek: Phase II Fb - as one would expect! - have been very active in 2012 ...
Starship Farragut Fb released their latest episode, The Price of Anything, in December and are set for more quality production to come, Conspiracy of Innocence written by Bobby Nash, crossovers with Star Trek Continues and the involvement of Jack Marshall.
K
Only time will tell! As things stand, 2013 looks to be a bumper year for Star Trek fan films and on behalf of Star Trek fans everywhere I wish all fan production groups a happy, prosperous and creative New Year.
December saw the release of Five Late News, the first Australian-made Star Trek fan film, the first season finale of Eternal Night, the Star Trek multimedia fan series from of Matt Miller, whose website, Trekzone.org, celebrates ten years online this year. Trek fans will recognise 21st century canon characters and situations bleed into a plotline that is a topical as... todays news! Whilst you are on his website, check out the audio drama shorts that Matt has done over the past year that build up a back-story for Eternal Night set in Star Trek's 25th century as his protagonist, Evie Cunningham, enters her fourth, and final, year at Starfleet Academy.
Star Trek: Axanar, the brain child of Alec Peters, recently announced that BattleStar Gallactica star Richard Hatch will play the main Klingon antagonist in this new series, telling the back-story behind Garth of Izor, slated to be produced and released over the next two years.
Star Trek Continues Fb have made great strides in twelve months with three vignettes released, Turnabout Intruder, which segues from the last aired canon episode, You've Got the Conn and Happy Birthday, Scotty. Shooting of the first full episode, which stars Vic Mignona as Captain Kirk, is reported to be in January.
Star Trek: Intrepid Fb have put back their latest release, The Stone Unturned, until early in the new year and are still working on their vignette, Nemo Me Impune Lacessit.
- Released The Child on Apr 5, originally written by Jon Povill for Gene Roddenberry's Phase II series
- Released the nine minute short Going Boldly with their new Kirk, Brian Goss.
- Probably their next release will be Kitumba which has been delayed by some final edits.
- They've been working steadily on their upcoming episode, Bread and Savagery, and have released a sneak peek!
- They have The Protracted Man and Mind-Sifter in production and Troublesome Minds in pre-preoduction.
- Phase II members have been cross-fertilising with other productions such as Star Trek: Axanar
Star Trek: Phoenix Fb, who have not released anything since their first, very impressive episode in 2010, Cloak & Dagger Part I, continue to try to gather backing to continue.
Star Trek: Renegades Fb is another new series from the makers of Star Trek; Of Gods And Men, have passed their goal on Kickstarter. This is another professional level fan film with some big names slated to appear!
Star Trek: The Romulan Wars uploaded their latest episode, The Wounded, to YouTube in February
Star Trek: Secret Voyage Fb This professional quality fan film might have closed its doors! According to a Facebook post on Dec 16th, exec. producer Craig Sheeler cited competition for funding between the rather large number of fan film projects around at the moment for an inability to complete the second episode that was 80% in the can! I would like to add my voice to their supporters in the fan film community who are urging them to consider alternatives that could allow them to continue in a different format or media: vignettes, graphic novels or audio dramas spring to mind.
Starship Ajax Fb is still working on the mammoth task of building their bridge set - you can help on FundRazr - costuming and rehearsing.
K
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)