It was nearly twelve years ago when ALEC PETERS, MARK EDWARD LEWIS, and a bunch of members of the production team of PRELUDE TO AXANAR sat together inside a the SOL 7 sound studio in Encino, CA while the sound levels of that groundbreaking fan film were mixed together and equalized.

It is now 2026, and the sequel that fans have been waiting a dozen years to see is now mere weeks from release! Oh, I know what some of yoou are thinking: We’ve heard THAT one before! “Thirty days out…yeah, right!” was the frequent taunt from detractors as the release date of the two AXANAR sequels (permitted by the 2017 legal settlement with CBS and Paramount) slipped later and later and later still—years later, in fact!

So what makes this time different? Why am I confident enough to state on this blog that I firmly believe that AXANAR: THE GATHERING STORM (the first of the two sequels) will be released to fans before the seasons change from winter to spring in 2026?

Because I’ve just watched the entire thing!!!

With the exception of a handful of shots of two of the actors that haven’t been composited yet to replace the green screen with a CGI-generated digital background (maybe a total of less than 3% of entire film), it’s done. All of the incredible VFX shots, every sound effect, all of the digital readout display animations, the opening credits, the closing credits, the voice-over narration of John Gil, and most of all, the sumptuous musical score composed by the identical twin LIVESAY brothers, JASON and NOLAN. (These guys have worked on and orchestrated multiple big-name Hollywood film, TV, and video projects—including STAR TREK: PICARD, DISCOVERY, STRANGE NEW WORLDS, THE ORVILLE, DAREDEVIL, X-MEN, and a host of others. And now they’ve given Axanar one of the greatest soundtracks in fan film history, at least in my opinion.)

I’ll be honest with you, when I first saw a rough cut of Axanar: The Gathering Storm last year, I wasn’t nearly as impressed as I’d hoped to be. The acting was certainly quite decent, and those VFX shots that had been completed looked spectacular. But it all felt kinda flat and exposition-heavy. I feared that, once the long-anticipated sequels were finally released, fans (especially the more cynical and negative ones) would complain, “We waited twelve years and donated a million and a half dollars for this????”

Oh, me of little faith!

Now that I’ve had a chance to hear the sound mix—a combination of dialog, music, and sound effects—I can truthfully say I was absolutely bowled over! This fan film now feels so ALIVE! Now, granted, I was seeing this on a big screen with 35,000 watts playing through 11 cinema-quality speakers! It felt very much like watching a movie in a theater. And indeed, Mark Lewis (who co-directed, edited, and is doing the sound design) told me he would be creating three different soundtracks for this fan film.

The first sound mix will be intended for the private screenings that Alec is planning at rented theaters in Los Angeles, Atlanta, and ultimately (when the second of the two sequels is released during the summer) at San Diego Comic Con and later at Dragon*Con in Georgia. The second mix will be encoded onto the Blu-Rays distributed to Axanar donors. Those who own decent home entertainment sound systems with quality speakers and sub-woofers will be able to at least get close to a movie theater experience, although still not quite the same richness and range of sound. And finally, there will be a third mix for YouTube, compressing the Empire State Building down to the size of a townhouse in terms of digital sound information conveyed, so the film won’t sound nearly as awesome on YouTube. But Mark is still trying to make that version sound as good as possible. Personally, I’ve now been totally spoiled!

And I will say that the amount of meticulous subtleties that have gone into engineering the sound of this fan film is nothing short of staggering. I mean, of course the subtle “spit clicks” that happen when an actor is speaking have been removed, but that’s just the start. Each character’s voice has certain distinct filters applied. For example, the Klingon voices sound deeper and more gravelly with a slight hint of reverb. Garth (Alec) sounds different than Travis (JG Hertzler) not only because they have different voices but because they also have a certain audio “presence” that distinguishes them from other characters. It’s possible that most fans won’t be able to perceive the differences coming through the standard speakers on their computers, but they are definitely there.

Another example of the attention to detail is the sound of the ships themselves. Obviously, the Klingon engines make different noises than the Federation starships. But as I learned yesterday, each class of starship has its own distinctive sound. There’s one VHX shot where a half dozen starships of different classes are coming out of warp, and each one sounds different as it whooshes to impulse.

It’s these subtle, almost imperceptible sound engineering flourishes on things like voices, engines, weapons fire, explosions, and ambient background noises when people are speaking that will make Axanar not just look like an entirely different kind of fan film but FEEL like one, as well.

So what happens in a sound mixing session? Well, if you’re not the sound engineer sitting at the control console or the mentor advising him, the answer is “not all that much!” There’s a LOT of sitting around quietly (talking distracts the sound guys!) and watching them discuss the same few seconds of film over and over and over and over and over again. You hear the same snippet of music and dialog and sound effects repeated enough times that some (most?) people would start tearing their hair out. Not me, though, as I like to edit video (although I know little about adjusting sound levels), and I’m used to the ridiculous amount of repetition of short clips that’s required. So for me, I found the whole day fascinating!

You, however, might think I’m crazy after watching the following video. Alec told me not to record any of the actors’ faces, as some of them are still secret and will be quite a surprise to many fans when they discover who is in the next two episode sequels. So instead, I recorded a few minutes of Mark working on a VFX sequence. Sadly, my iPhone video can’t really convey the subtle differences in the sound and music as tweaks were made. But if you watch, you’ll at least get a taste of the process…

Granted, not every 10 seconds of film required this much adjustment. But many times, close attention is paid to when certain sounds trigger and end, fade in, fade out, etc. Also, there aren’t simply three sound elements (dialog, music, effects). Often, multiple sound effects are layered over each other, and certain instruments in the music can be increased or decreased in intensity without adjusting others, often allowing a certain word or phrase to be more clearly heard without lowering the volume of the entire piece of music.

The man interacting with and helping Mark in the above video is legendary Hollywood composer and musician MICHAEL BODDICKER, the owner of the Sol 7 Sound Studio that we were in. How legendary is Michael? Well, he has his own Wikipedia page, but take a look at that list of credits—including one of my all-time favorite cult classics, Buckaroo Banzai—and you’ll see he’s had quite a busy Hollywood career!

Ultimately, I was at the studio for around six and a half hours yesterday, including having lunch there with the other guests who’d come: both Axanar composers the Livesay brothers, Mark’s son JOSEPH and brother JOHN-PAUL, Mark’s business partner STERLING, Axanar associate producer DAVE HERNANDEZ (who drove up from San Diego), and JOSH BISHOP, a documentary filmmaker who is planning to make a feature length film about the loooooong and complex history of the Axanar fan film project. There was also Michael Boddicker’s assistant Casper in the room with us as well as Michael’s wife and adult son in the adjacent house. Mark himself flew in from Tennessee and Alec, of course, traveled to L.A. from Georgia. I only had to drive 30 minutes on the 405 and 101 Freeways.

Anyway, folks, it looks like our 12-year mission of waiting is finally nearing its endgame. In the meantime, here’s some more photos that were taken during yesterday’s session…

Yesterday, we began looking back at many of the major (and not-so-major) Star Trek fan films released in 2025—and there were a LOT! So many, if fact, that I felt I needed to divide this Year in Review blog into two parts. Part 1 covered January through June. Now, let’s finish out the final six months and see what Trekkie fan filmmakers had to offer us. There’s some really great stuff on this list…

JULY

WHAT’S NEXT

GLEN L WOLFE and DAN REYOLDS like making sets and making fan films, and that’s why they launched WARP 66 Studios and the fanthology series THE FEDERATION FILES nearly a decade ago. Now they are expanding their TOS sets and jumping into the 24th century with the first TNG./DS9/VOY-era set pieces to be permanently available in America (Europe has had a number of them). They are also expanding into fan films with faster runtimes as they launch SCI-FI SHORTS. This first release, which takes place just prior to the launch of the Enterprise-D, was initially intended as an entry into the TREKS IN 90 SECS contest, but it ran over the 2-minute time limit (hey, it’s a challenge!). Still, this vignette is a great way to pass three minutes and 45 seconds…

AUGUST

RAKTAJINO (a STAR TREK parody of “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter)

Nothing starts a morning off right on Deep Space Nine like that wonderful Klingon coffee beverage Raktajino. And nothing starts August off right like another excellently-edited parody music video from IAN RAMSEY of the STAR REKT YouTube channel….

TRIBBLES ARE TROUBLE

LZB PRODUCTIONS released a total of four Trek-ish fan films during 2025. TRIBBLES ARE TROUBLE was their most recognizable Trek story, focusing on—you guessed it!—tribbles. This outing was shot at Neutral Zone Studios and is an example of fans just having fun creating a film on TOS sets without sweating details like what’s visible in the background or not having enough hands available to slide the sickbay doors open. It’s just a basic Star Trek fan film that felt no pressure to be anything else…

THE GREAT EXPERIMENT

The fourth Trek Shorts release of 2025 was Sam Cockings’ first foray into the Star Trek II-VI movie era, complete with monster maroon uniforms and late 23rd century CGI starship interiors. And then, of course, there are some wonderful shots of the USS Excelsior back when it was still NX-2000, as well as other starship classes from that era. Also notable is the first appearance in a Trek Shorts release of David Cheng of Star Trek Fan Productions International in his admiral’s monster maroon cosplay-quality uniform. David produced Time and Time Again (see previous blog), which came out in June.

STARFLEET COACH

Steve Shives’ third Starfleet Jobs release returned to a more lighthearted tone as he shifted from border guard to coach of a spaceball team. That isn’t to say that this latest release doesn’t have a wee bit of a political slant. But again, just like the best episodes of Star Trek, Starfleet Jobs often uses science fiction to hold up a mirror to our society and culture. And I will always maintain that a good story, told well, that also makes us think is absolutely worth our time. And Starfleet Coach definitely gives us all three of those…

STAR TREK: VENTURE – “A MOMENT’S PEACE”

JED T.E. ROHODES is a composer, actor, podcaster, and fan filmmaker from Yorkshire, England. Most of his fan film work has been in the Doctor Who sub-genre, but starting in 2024, he began producing his own Star Trek fan audio dramas, slowly transitioning into the occasional Trek fan film release as well. With limited resources, Jed’s initial efforts, like the fan film below, are essentially subspace video calls–the kind made famous by VANCE MAJOR and many of his CONSTAR saga fan films. Indeed, actor ROY IVEY, who appeared in several Constar productions, plays a character in Jed’s STAR TREK: VENTURE fans series, as well…

TREKS IN 90 SECS winners announced

It’s quite challenging to produce a Star Trek fan film that’s only 90-120 seconds long—but not impossible! For the second year of the now-annual TREKS IN 90 SECS contest, we had ten submissions voted on by fans and readers of Fan Film Factor. And this year, we saw a tie for second place. You can watch all ten submissions here, and here are the top four vote-getters (all released in 2025)…

SEPTEMBER

LORELEY – “PART III: ERSTKONTAKT” (“FIRST CONTACT”)

September kicked off with a quite a bang as the German wunderkinder from the (relatively) new fan series LORELEY dazzled fans with yet another masterpiece of fan filmmaking. Set in the Kelvin timeline, their releases nonetheless have a very classic TOS feel to them. But more than jus strong writing and acting (even in German, I can still follow what’s happening—although I do turn on English subtitles) is their amazing eye toward professional quality cinematography. For although they shoot primarily in front of a green screen, their CGI and VFX, rendered using the Unreal Engine, make everything look unbelievably realistic! See for yourself…

SECOND STAR TO THE LEFT

This latest offering from THE NEUTRAL ZONE and AVALON UNIVERSE was special for three reasons. First, it was one of the last fan films to ever be shot at the Kingsland, GA location of Neutral Zone Studios. Second, the lead actress, SARA McCARTNEY, is neurodivergent, and her mother, RUTH McCARTNEY, wrote this film as a biography/autobiography of both herself and her daughter’s experiences growing up. And finally, I was the film editor on this project, having been asked by director Josh Irwin to help lighten his editing load. The result is a very different—and emotionally-impactful—fan film than what you might be used to seeing, but definitely worth checking out…

A NEW LOOK FOR AURORA

Although only 35 seconds in runtime, this short vignette created a great deal of excitement amongst Trekkers who have been watching fan films for awhile. Back in 2006, 3D animator and fan filmmaker TIM VINING began working on STAR TREK: AURORA, eventually taking five years to complete the five-episodes of his first story. His second story, MUDD IN YOUR I, took another three years from 2013 to 2016 to complete its two episodes. Now, nearly a decade later, Tim has announced that he’ll be making more Aurora episodes, beginning with this amusing short…

FARRAGUT FORWARD wins the SHOWRUNNER AWARD for Best Fan Film

The fourth annual SHOWRUNNER AWARDS ended up with 24 entries for a total runtime of ten and a half hours of top-notch fan films. And the top notichiest of them all, as determined by 11 fan film showrunners who served as judges, was 2024’s FARRAGUT FORWARD (not to be confused with 2025’s FARRAGUT 2024…see below). This movie-era fan film featured impeccable monster maroons and other costumes, amazing sets, a large cast, some very impressive acting, great VFX, wonderful music, and a revenge story reminiscent of Star Trek II: TWOK. Showrunner JOHN BROUGHTON led the cast, and director JOHNNY K really knocked it out of the park…

OCTOBER

STARSHIP ANTYLLUS – Series Finale

After more than a dozen years, the long-running fan series STARSHIP ANTYLLUS came to a conclusion in September with an 84-minute series finale. So why am I listing it as an October release? Showrunner GEORGE KAYAIAN worked extremely hard writing, starring in, directing, and editing this culmination of his 30-chapter storyline. But when it was first released on September 12, George felt that it wasn’t quite “perfect” yet. So he added in a few scenes he’d left out, tightened others to keep run-time nearly the same (two minutes longer) and released a “director’s cut” on October 26. Take a look…

STALLED TREK: “THE DUMBSDAY MACHINE”

Although originally completed in early November of 2024, creator MARK LARGENT kept his third animated TOS puppet parody off of YouTube for nearly a year, giving it a chance to win eight film festival awards in the meantime. “THE DUMBSDAY MACHINE” then made its Internet premiere on October 20, 2025 to uproarious applause and laughter (well, probably not applause, since most people were just watching it on their computer screens). Mark previously created parodies of TOS fan fave episodes “Amok Time” and “The City on the Edge of Forever”—as well as a parody of the Axanar lawsuit that he co-wrote and co-produced with yours truly. You can watch all of Mark’s Stalled Trek parodies here. And you can watch his latest triumph below…

TIME AND AGAIN – Episode 1: AFTERMATH

In January, Jefferson Kelly appeared as Captain Preston Sisko (great grandfather of Benjamin) in the one-shot fan film The Unmade Mind (see entry in the previous blog). Now in late October, Jefferson transitioned into the role of director, co-writing and co-starring in a fan film of his own making. The story is quite complex, endeavoring to explain the eternal question of Star Trek time travel: why do some incursions back in time “fix” a problem (a la “City on the Edge of Forever”), some not affect time at all (Star Trek IV), while still others create entirely new realities (JJ Trek 2009). STAR TREK: DISCOVERY‘s Director Kovich plays a role in a fan film that WILL leave your head spinning and your brain needing an aspirin. But then again, that’s why Janeway once said, “My advice in making sense of temporal paradoxes is simple: don’t even try.” Well, this fan film tries. Good luck…

TEN FORWARD TEST KITCHEN: PLOMEEK SOUP

AARON VANDERKLEY of the THESE ARE THE VOYAGES fan series, based in Australia, has always had the recipe for some cutting-edge fan film concepts. Aaron’s first series of projects was one of the initial attempts by fans to recreate Star Trek: Enterprise with physical sets and impeccable costumes. His second series of fan films leapfrogged into the 24th century with Voyager-era sets and costumes, followed by three SHORT VOYAGES which were initially intended for the Treks in 90 Secs contest but ended up running a little bit too long. Now Aaron has cooked up a new kind of fan series—the TEN FORWARD TEST KITCHEN—which combines Aaron’s 24th century sets and costumes with original short scenes, Trek clips from various series, and actual recipes intended to teach fans how to make certain traditional Star Trek alien dishes. Up first, the Vulcan Plomeek Soup…

NOVEMBER

FARRAGUT 2024

As you’ll see below, November was a busy month for Star Trek fan films. And it brought with it a “whale” of a project (although one without any actual whales) as the time-traveling FARRAGUT 2024 was released to much acclaim and excitement. This was arguably one of the most technically challenging Trek fan films to be produced since STAR TREK: OF GODS AND MEN back in 2006. It has impeccable costumes, top-notch VFX and music, custom-built sets, and was filmed in several indoor and outdoor locations throughout the Maryland/Virginia/Washington, DC area…including on the National Mall and Goddard Space Flight Center. Several dozen people (including me!) worked both in front of and behind the camera under the guidance of showrunner John Broughton and director Josh Irwin. Clocking in at nearly a full hour, this fan film doesn’t feel nearly that long thanks to tight editing by Josh (and me!), a really wonderful score, and some very nice acting…

STAR TREK: VENTURE – “IN THE AFTERMATH”

Another release from Jed T. E. Rhodes, this episode follows on the heels of the battle with the Phantom Fleet, which happened in a previous audio episode (thereby saving a TON on VFX!). While this episode includes another Starfleet “Zoom” call, Jed does get a little fresh air in the beginning—along with a temporary change of uniform…

MIND LEECH

There are two reasons in particular to watch this latest release from the fanthology series The Federation Files. The first is that director of photography Josh Irwin did a particularly excellent job this time out of lighting everything in a very TOS style. He’s usually quite adept at such things, but this time, the artwork of it all (what Josh calls “painting with light”) was especially well executed. The other reason for giving this fan film a viewing is, sadly, that actor E. WAYNE HAWKINS, who played the character of Doc Bell in this and other Fed Files episodes, passed away a few days after MIND LEECH was originally posted to YouTube. To honor him, showrunners Dan Reynolds and Glen L. Wolfe posted a special Directors Cut to YouTube with a tribute to the beloved fan actor. R.I.P. Doc…

TIME AND AGAIN – Episode 2: VALAGANT

The second episode of this fan series in as many months features the villain (or is he the villain?), General Valagant, as he confronts Director Kovich. Co-writer JASON WEDDELL does a very strong acting job portraying the intriguing general…

TASK FORCE 78: WHERE DO YOU GO?

STEVE “HAIRY” HARRIS releases a whole bunch of fan film-related content on his YouTube channel. Among these are music video compilations (with lyrics written by him and songs created using Ai), short edits, and reviews and discussions about fan film releases from multiple genres. And every so often, as part of his TASK FORCE 78 fan series, he’ll release a more traditional (and bare bones) Star Trek fan film of his own. As the month of November was starting to wrap up, Steve debuted a new film co-produced and co-directed with Steve’s wife LINDA HARRIS as well as long-time No-Budget Films creator VANCE MAJOR. Here ’tis…

DECEMBER

THE CASSANDRA EFFECT

December kicked off with the second release from the fledging Netherlands-based USS Cassandra fan series under the command of showrunner Thomas Argante. Their first release came in April and featured only a very sparse captain’s quarters/office set. THE CASSANDRA EFFECT, however, added a more elaborate TOS-era shuttlecraft interior, allowing for a story involving a scientific experiment outside of the ship and, somewhat expectedly, a major disco hit from the 1970s. Ya kinda have to just watch it…

STARFLEET JOURNALIST

While not all of Steve Shives’ releases in his Starfleet Jobs fan series are overtly political, his fourth and final offering for 2025, STARFLEET JOURNALIST, certainly was—as journalism and its slant, one way or the other, is currently a huge concern on both sides of the political spectrum here in the United States. And apparently, it’s still a concern 300 years in the future. Take a look…

TEN FORWARD TEST KITCHEN: HASPERAT

The second release from the TEN FORWARD TEST KITCHEN came just over a month after the premiere episode and shifted its focus from Vulcan to Bajor for some nice, super-spicy Hasperat. It includes a short skit, canonical history of the dish throughout Star Trek history (both on camera and behind-the-scenes), and a recipe that follows the three golden rules: 1) it must look like it does on screen, 2) be easy to make, and 3) actually taste good. This fan series is also launching another new innovation: vertically-oriented shorts like this one, which are becoming very popular on YouTube lately. Each short takes a brief portion of the full video and releases it as a stand-alone segment. Here’s the whole thing…

DECON GEL (a STAR TREK parody of “Silver Bells” by Dean Martin)

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…at least as we come to the end of 2025. And to celebrate the joyous holiday, Ian Ramsey of Star Rekt released his second yuletide carol parody music video in three years. The previous one was MY BLUE UNDERWEAR (a parody of “Winter Wonderland”) back in December of 2022—featuring many shots of Chief Engineer Charles “Trip” Tucker sneaking around the Enterprise NX-01 corridors in his azure skivvies. This year, Ian has returned to the 22nd century with DECON GEL, a Star Trek-inspired parody of the Dean Martin version of “Silver Bells.” If this doesn’t get you into the holiday spirit, well, I’m sure something else will…

ECHOES OF YESTERDAY

This was the first time any Star Trek fan film used the new RENDER NETWORK to create its CGI effects. If you watch this sequel the 2023 Trek Shorts release THIS SIDE OF MORALITY, this new films looks like a simple enough vignette. But ECHOES OF YESTERDAY is presented at full 4K resolution, which would have taken Samuel Cockings’ poor computer in England months on its own to render out these moving interior and exterior CGI shots with at such high quality. Instead, thanks to the Render Network distributing the processing demands virtually across a series of Nvidia-powered GPUs around the world, this entire complex fan film was shot, fully rendered, and completed in only three weeks. Check it out…

WHEN THE PLOT WORKS AGAINST YOU

Two of the winners of the Treks in 90 Secs contest from August (see above) were created by ADAM SCHWARTZ. But Adam has been quite a busy little fan filmmaker! During 2025, he’s created and released nine different comedy vignettes (watch them all here), each parodying a different aspect of Star Trek lore—whether it be the holodeck, food replicators, exploding consoles, non-main characters, or “minor” missions that really don’t really require the fleet’s flagship to complete. To finish up the year, Adam released WHEN THE PLOT WORKS AGAINST YOU, taking a look at everything that tends to go wrong with otherwise very simple and straightforward missions…

CAPTAIN SIMIAN’S FIRST COMMAND

The fun-loving folks at Nature’s Hunger certainly weren’t monkeying around when they made THIS fan film! Clocking in at over two hours and fifteen minutes(!!!), CAPTAIN SIMIAN’S FIRST COMMAND jumps back and forth from TOS-era into movie-era , uses both the Georgia basement TOS sets of showrunner JOSE CEPEDA as well as the North Carolina bridge set built by FRANK PARKER, JR. for CROSSROADS – PROJECT: GEMINI (see the previous blog’s April releases), and incorporates animated AI sequences. This is also the first-ever Star Trek fan film where the protagonist is a damn, dirty ape. Honestly, you’ll go bananas over Captain Simian’s First Command…!

FIRE IN THE NIGHT

And to round out 2025, Sam Cockings made it back-to-back releases as he premiered a second Trek Shorts during December (scroll up a smidge for Echoes of Yesterday). This time, Sam shifted his focus to late DS9/TNG-movie era with a focus on the Enterprise-E and crewman Sam Harriman, played by trained actor MARCUS CHURCHILL. It’s a very ambitious story involving the AI “villain” Grathar and Species 8472. Also appearing were NICK COOK as Daniel Hunter (both commander and captain) and also the voice of Grathar, NIMRAN SAUND in a brief cameo, and MARIE-LOUISE SVALENG as Starfleet historian Louise Nilsson. It’s definitely worth watching…

And speaking of Marie-Louise, 2025 ended on a particularly exciting note for her when long-time boyfriend Sam Cockings finally proposed (and she said “yes,” of course!). Nick Cook was also there to take the following photo of the newly-engaged couple…

We wish Sam and Marie-Louise all the happiness, long-living, and prospering that the galaxy can provide. I am certain they will make beautiful Trek Shorts together!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

It’s the end of another year, and I’m still here, you’re still here, and so are Star Trek fan films! Admittedly, I’ve been less prolific in 2025 than I have in past years because I’ve gotten involved with mentoring my sons Jayden’s high school robotics team, The Bagel Bytes (named after their first sponsor back in 2001, Noah’s Bagels). And I’ve kinda gone all-in, assisting the team with marketing materials and e-mail communication, finding sponsors (including RODDENBERRY ENTERTAINMENT!), filming and editing team videos, helping them set up a Patreon campaign, and a whole lot more. I’m with the team 2-3 times a week, helping out the coach, and just marveling at these amazingly talented teens! But putting in all of those free volunteer hours is leaving me with much less time and energy for this blog.

That being said, I’m still organizing the annual SHOWRUNNER AWARDS, interviewing many Star Trek fan filmmakers, and even assisting some of them with their fan films (as I did twice this past year!). And of course, my regular YEAR IN REVIEW blogs have been an annual tradition since my first one back in 2017. And each year, I remind my readers who predicted back in 2016 that CBS/Paramount’s fan film guidelines would utterly destroy Star Trek fan films that our little sub-sub-sub-genre is still very much alive and kicking.

And indeed, even nearly a decade later, Trek fan films continue to be produced and posted to YouTube—quite a lot of them! Buy, hey, don’t just take my word for it. Check it out for yourself below. In fact, there were so many to cover that I’ve split this year’s compilation blog into TWO parts!

Many of the following fan films were ones that I had intended to cover here on Fan Film Factor, but life and robotics got in the way. So instead, I’ll be spotlighting them here with short blurbs for each one. There’s probably at least a few you haven’t seen, and I strongly recommend that you check out any that intrigue you—and possibly some that don’t, as you might be pleasantly surprised. Let’s dive in…

JANUARY

RED SHIRTS (a STAR TREK parody of “Starships” by Nicki Minaj)

What better way to kick off the year than with a new Star Trek parody music video from the hilariously creative IAN RAMSEY of the STAR REKT YouTube channel? Ian has been creating and releasing a few of these funny little gems each year since his first one back in 2021. This latest effort was a masterpiece, recounting the deaths of every redshirt (and some yellow and blue shirts) during the three seasons of TOS—all to the awesome melody of “Starships” by Nicki Minaj…

WYLDE SPACE: “Chickens of Terror – Part 1”

January saw the debut of a quirky new animated fan series called WYLDE SPACE from creator WADE WHITE, who also stars as the voice of Captain Wylde. This is a Trek parody where all of the characters are paper doll animals with acerbic attitudes. The first short episode premiered on January 6 and was pretty funny…

Wade produces a number of different genre parodies in this style, and you can view them all here. A second part of Wylde Space debuted in February, with another three episodes announced.

THE UNMADE MIND

On January 19, VANCE MAJOR released yet another installment in the CONSTAR saga, this time writing and directing the story of how the USS Constar came to be a museum ship moored at Wolf 359. Shot primarily on the TOS bridge set at WARP 66 STUDIOS in Harrison, Arkansas, this short fan film stars JEFFERSON KELLEY (who also provided the story), a Trekker who has interviewed many fan producers on his numerous podcasts. Over the years, a number of friends commented that Jefferson looked enough like actor AVERY BROOKS that he should play Benjamin Sisko in a fan film, but Jefferson was never comfortable trying to fill that role. So instead, Vance created the character of Preston Sisko, a 23rd century ancestor of the legendary Deep Space 9 commander. Also appearing in cameos in this release are a bunch of other fan film showrunners playing their established characters, including STEVE “HAIRY” HARRIS, JOSE CEPEDA, RANDY WRENN, GEORGE KAYAIAN, and JOSH IRWIN…along with donor and all-around awesome cool guy RAY MEYERS.

THROUGH THE IRON VEIL

It was inevitable that eventually someone would create a Star Trek fan film entirely using AI, and that someone was ELVIS DEANE of Hyperbolic Films on YouTube. He’s been creating digital short films for 15 years, and he has recently begun pushing the envelope with AI. All of his images were generated using the AI generator known as Midjourney and edited in Photoshop. Then he made the video with a combination of Kling AI, Runway, and Minimax (here is a webpage comparing the AI three tools). The dialogue and music also appear to be AI. And while some of the quirks of AI, like inconsistent clothing elements, are evident in this short fan film, they are very minor and easily ignored. And of course, AI generation is only going to improve in the future, and it’s off to a surprisingly strong start with this early release…

FEBRUARY

February brought the third “period” style Star Trek fan film from showrunner JEFF NORD. His first production in 2022, COMMANDERS OF STARFLEET, reimagined Star Trek as a 1930’s/40’s sci-fi matinee serial, presented entirely in black and white with cheesy costumes, sets, and purposefully-cheap VFX. Two years later, Jeff’s second release, DEFENDERS OF THE FEDERATION, took the concept into 1970’s sci-fi, complete with physical spaceship models, pastel costumes, and slightly more elaborate set backgrounds. And in 2025, Jeff took his third project into the 1980’s with a fan film that feels like a cross between Star Trek II and Alien, with the Borg as adversaries. It’s a very unique take on Trek fan films, and definitely worth checking out…

TO KNOW THINE ENEMY

The first (of six!) Trek Shorts releases of 2025 saw the first collaboration of showrunner SAMUEL COCKINGS with a new writing and acting partner, KRIS HANSEN, who supplied the voice of a Klingon adversary named Mersa. In this fan film, Mersa is going up against Captain Daniel Hunter, played by long-time showrunner and star of the Scottish fan series INTREPID, NICK COOK, and the crew of the USS Intrepid. And although Sam has dabbled with digital recreations of characters in some of his previous fan films, this one takes a big step forward by having all scenes of Mersa and her crew on the Klingon bridge be CGI-generated. And while Nick Cook appears on camera for much of the film, there are a few inserted shots of him on the viewscreen that were also digital. Check it out…

STARFLEET SAFETY INSPECTOR

Oh, what would the fan film world be like without a new STARFLEET JOBS video from our friend STEVE SHIVES every few months? Steve released his the first of these fun and funny looks “under the Starfleet hood” back in early 2023 and has made four per year since then. I did a video interview with Steve last year that’s worth watching. But what’s even more worth watching is STARFLEET SAFETY INSPECTOR because it’s hilarious…

MARCH

BATAVIA: “WHERE WE LEFT OFF” (trailer)

I don’t usually include trailers for fan films, but in this case, I’m making a small exception. STAR TREK: DARK ARMADA from the Netherlands was releasing its swan song episode just as I was launching Fan Film Factor in 2016. At the time, plans were in the works for a new fan series from showrunner and star ROBIN HIERT, but nothing solid materialized until the release of the following trailer this psst March. And wow, do things look impressive!

SMOKE AND MIRRORS – A WARBIRD VALDORE FILM

It’s rare that you see a storyline crossover from one Trek fan series to another, although it has happened a few times. But the folks at DOMINION MEDIA decided to take things one step farther and create a trilogy spanning three different fan series. Granted, they are three fan series from Dominion Media, so it’s at least a little easier, but it’s still a challenge. Smoke and Mirrors is the second installment in the saga, continuing from 2024’s IT’S ALL DONE WITH MIRRORS from PROJECT: RUNABOUT. Let’s see what’s been going on with the Romulans…

APRIL

POLITICS OF VIOLENCE

April 5 is affectionately known by Trekkers as “First Contact Day.” And so it’s not surprising that a lot of activity happened in our community on that particular day. The first fan film to lay claim to that coveted release date in 2025 was the second Trek Shorts for the year, POLITICS OF VIOLENCE. This production featured Samuel Cockings’ long-time TREKYARDS co-podcaster, STUART FOLEY playing Captain Foley of the USS Foley. And yes, there’s a story behind that multi-Foley naming, but I don’t know what that story is. Anyway, take a look…

STARCHILD

One of the final fan films to ever be filmed at the Kingsland, GA location of NEUTRAL ZONE STUDIOS (now being re-constructed in Sandusky, OH), this episode of the fanthology series TALES FROM THE NEUTRAL ZONE initially seemed like just another “Mary Sue” fan story. But you can’t always judge by first impressions! The actress who starred in Starchild, GRACE FLORES-ARBOLAY, absolutely knocked it out of the park playing the main character. It’s actually worth watching this livestream interview she did with director/cinematographer Josh Irwin to learn more about what went into her amazing performance. But definitely check out the short film first…

WELCOME ABOARD

April also welcomed a brand new fan production team from the Netherlands, USS CASSANDRA, the work of showrunner THOMAS ARGANTE. Thomas had previously appeared in a bunch of American-made fan films, including THE PASSENGER WITH BAGGAGE, PROJECT: RUNABOUT, and MOM from Dominion Media, and SINKING IN THE SWAMP from Vance Major. Now, in “WELCOME ABOARD,” Thomas leads a new cast of Dutch Trekkers in what is planned to be the first fan series to shoot on TOS set recreations located in Europe…

CROSSROADS – PROJECT GEMINI: “ROMULAN AILS, Part 1”

FRANK PARKER, JR. worked on creating STARSHIP FARRAGUT‘s TOS sets before launching DREADNOUGHT DOMINION in 2015. His most recent fan series is CROSSROADS – PROJECT GEMINI, and like any dedicated Trekker blessed with skills in design and construction, Frank turned his mother-in-law’s North Carolina garage into an elaborate Star Trek-style bridge set! Of course, that’s nothing compared to the extensive basement TOS sets under the home of JOSE CEPEDA (of the fan series NATURE’S HUNGER) in Atlanta, Georgia . But imagine getting both of these do-it-yourself home studios together for one fan film! And that’s exactly what Frank did. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you “ROMULAN AILS, Part 1“…

LORELEY wins “Best in Fest” for 2024 in the DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS

For the past four years, there have been two annual awards shows spotlighting the best in fan films as judged by a panel of fan filmmakers themselves: the DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS and the SHOWRUNNER AWARDS. And while the latter is open only to Star Trek fan films, the former extends eligibility to fan films from any genre. As such, Trek fan films aren’t always the top winners. In fact, no Star Trek fan film had won the “Best in Fest” top category in the Directors Choice awards since SQUADRON in 2022…until now. You can view all of this winners here, but “Best in Fest” was won this year by the German fan series LORELY with “PRELUDE TO PART III – KOBAYASHI MARU.” And even though it’s a 2024 release, I’m including it here because it’s really good…

MAY

DAEDALUS (an AXANAR-related fan film)

The big story in May for Star Trek fan films was what was removed from YouTube. As also happened in March 2024 when CBS’s attorneys contacted YouTube to pull down the AXANAR-related fan film THE ICARUS MANEUVER (now available only on the Axanar website) shortly after its release, history repeated itself in early May of 2025 for a similar short film: DAEDALUS. Apparently, after settling their 2016 lawsuit, CBS remains quite serious about limiting ALEC PETERS and AXANAR PRODUCTIONS to only two 15-minute sequels and nothing more. That said, now that Skydance has acquired both Paramount and the rights to Star Trek, it’s unclear whether studio relations with Axanar will continue to be quite so antagonistic.

In the meantime, Alec did finally enjoy a major legal victory in October when a lawsuit that had been working its way through the Georgia courts for more than five years made it in front of a jury. Fired Axanar director PAUL JENKINS had sued Alec for defamation, fraud, and use of image likeness without permission. Alec had countersued for breach of contract (dropping a concurrent defamation claim just before trial). After an unusually-long nine-day trial (most civil trials take only a few days at most), the judge tossed out Jenkins’ two defamation claims, and the jury ruled against his other two complaints. Alec, on the other hand, was awarded a $60,000 judgement for damages in his breach of contract claim plus an additional $182,281.11 for attorneys fees…for a total jury verdict of more than $242,000.

Meanwhile, I have been invited to a professional mix session at a sound studio in Encino, CA on January 6 and7 where the audio for the first of the two Axanar sequels will be finalized. Only two more composites of green screen talking head footage need to be completed, plus insertions of a few remaining tactical readout animations. Then episode four: “The Gathering Storm” (the first of the two 15-minute sequels) will be finished…with a likely release during the first quarter of next year. Fingers obviously crossed for that

The second and final Axanar sequel is still being planned to debut at a private screening near San Diego ComicCon in 2026. Fingers crossed on that, too, of course. Then I can finally release both my alt-Axanar script (written during a sleepless all-nighter back in 2017) plus my Axanar sequel novella, “Why We Explore” (a semi-biography of Kelvar Garth), which includes spoilers from the two unreleased episodes and has to wait until after they both premiere before I can share it.

And finally, below is the fan film Daedalus, now accessible only on the Axanar website…

FLIGHT OF THE PEGASUS

Teachers and their students can make Star Trek fan films, too! In fact, it’s a great way to engage young adults in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). In 2024, the educators at Spacegate Station in Jacksonville, FL shot a 38-minute Trek fan film titled THE PATH OF HONOR at Neutral Zone Studios in nearby Kingsland, GA starring a number of their junior high and high school students from the Lavilla School of the Arts. A year later, they ventured to several area locations, including the USS Orleck Naval Museum. The kids from the Duvall County Public School District are obviously not trained actors with years of experience and study, but they obviously tried hard, put in a lot of work, and it looks as though the had fun doing so…

STARFLEET BORDER GUARD

It’d been three months, so it was obviously time for another installment of Starfleet Jobs from Steve Shives. However, unlike the more whimsical Starfleet Safety inspector who provided a bunch of fun chuckles, the STARFLEET BORDER GUARD was a pretty obvious commentary on what’s been happening in America this year with ICE deportations and increased border security. Steve never shrinks away from political hot-topics on his YouTube channel, and sometimes those editorials cross over into the realm of Star Trek—just like many classic episodes of the various Trek TV series. Such stories are more likely to make you tear up at the end (I’ll just leave it at that)…

JUNE

FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE

June brought with it the third release from Trek Shorts, a STAR TREK: PRODIGY quasi-tie-in titled FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE. Part of Samuel Cockings’ (and others’) #SaveStarTrekProdigy campaign, which is facing a serious uphill battle, this 22-minute film features a large cast including Sam himself, his father STEVEN COCKINGS, his girlfriend MARIE-LOISE SVALENG reprising her recurring role of Starfleet historian Dr. Louise Nilson, NIMRAN SAUND returning as Commander Anna Keeley, RHEA KEEHN supplying the voice of the Starfleet computer, and yet another appearance of NICK COOK as Daniel Hunter, this time of the Galaxy-class starship USS Gallant in the timeframe just after the destruction of Romulus. It’s a very strong production and worth watching…

TIME AND TIME AGAIN

With much of the footage shot at the Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas during August 2019, the latest fan film from STAR TREK FAN PRODUCTIONS INTERNATIONAL wasn’t completed and released until June 22, 2025 for reasons explained by showrunner DAVID CHENG in this interview I did with him. TIME AND AGAIN features a hotel full of cosplayers in elegant monster maroons and other assorted costumes, plus a number of familiar faces to folks who like to attend American Star Trek cons. Take a look…

BROKEN MIRROR

June finished off with a DREADNOUGHT DOMINION fan film that completed the crossover trilogy that began with Project: Runabout and continued in Warbird Valdore (see entry in March above). Unlike the two prequels which teased a connection to the classic Mirror Universe, the conclusion actually took members of the crew on board the ISS Dominion, where we got to see showrunner GARY DAVIS play a truly evil version of his Captain Brusseau character. Also making his first fan film appearance on American soil at Neutral Zone Studios was Thomas Argante, who had recently launched his new USS Casandra fan series in the Netherlands (see entry in April above). This was a really fun fan film…

Okay, take a breath. We’re halfway through the year, and Star Trek fan films are only just hitting their stride. Come back tomorrow for releases from July through December as we wrap up 2025 on a high note!

They say nice guys finish last. Well, one very nice guy just finished a fan film journey that started 12 years ago…at last! However, that’s only his most recent fan film journey. For GEORGE KAYAIAN, his very first Star Trek fan film dates all the way back to the 1990s with THE INFINITE CHAIN, filmed literally in his parents’ basement and featuring his MOM as the captain! Now George himself is the father of a 16-year-old daughter.

The first of what would become 30 episodes (actually more than that, as several episodes were two-parters) of George’s latest magnum opus, STARSHIP ANTYLLUS, premiered on YouTube in September of 2013. It was never intended to look sleek or dazzling. The budget was barely enough to buy a Happy Meal, and the sets were constructed mostly of materials you would find in a typical crafting shop. But the actors all had experience, and George himself led the cast as Captain Holt Allen, a troubled but skilled starship commander who begins dying in the very first episode.

Yes, you read that right. Antyllus is the saga of one man’s race with his own mortality. As such, you can probably imagine that the feel and style of this fan series is pretty unique, focusing mainly on a single character. However, there is an extensive supporting cast, including George’s daughter Anya, who started working with her dad behind the scenes on his Antyllus at the age of four and began appearing as an alien crew member in the series six years later. With the Kayaians, Star Trek fan films is definitely a family thing.

While I invite you to watch the entire series (here is a YouTube playlist with every episode), please be aware that Antyllus is not for everyone’s taste. As I said, it doesn’t have many bells and whistles. And the episodes don’t move particularly fast. But the overall story is complex and engaging with fan actors and a writer/director who are truly committed to providing the best film-watching experience that they can. Like so many fan series, Antyllus‘ true strength lies in its heart and the love and dedication of the people who made it. If that’s not your thing, there are certainly plenty more Star Trek fan films and series out there for you to enjoy!

Below is the director’s cut of the Starship Antyllus finale…

As I alluded to at the beginning of this blog entry, George is one of the nicest guys in all of Star Trek fan films, and I always enjoy chatting with him. So I was looking very much forward to doing a video interview with George and Anya to discuss the end of this particular fan film journey for them both. Unfortunately, Anya wasn’t feeling well that night, and Christmas was rapidly approaching—making rescheduling problematic. So instead I had a lovely discussion with just “Captain Allen” himsrlf, and I am happy to share that with you now…

Returning for an impressive FIFTH consecutive year, the Fan Film DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS are accepting submissions here:

https://thefederationfiles.com/?page_id=1407

Organized by DAN REYNOLDS and GLEN L, WOLFE (co-owners of WARP 66 STUDIOS in northern Arkansas), the call for entries began on November 1, 2025 and continues through January 11, 2026. Fan filmmakers can submit their film(s)—a maximum of three fan films per director—for a cost of $10 per film entered.

The Directors Choice Awards are open to any fan film from any genre (NOT limited to only Star Trek) that was released onto YouTube or any public media for the first time in calendar year 2025. The $10 entry fee includes submitting the film for consideration in up to seven of the following specialty categories in addition to being considered for Best in Fest (which carries a $250 cash prize). The categories are…

Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Director
Best Original Costuming
Best Make-up/Hairstyling
Best Cinematography
Best Original Music
Best Audio Mixing
Best Lighting
Best FX Make-Up
Best CGI FX
Best Green Screen
Best Composite Shot
Best Screenplay
Best Parody/Comedy
Best Portrayal of an Existing Character
Best Animated Fan Film
Best Editing
Most Canon Award
Best Ensemble
Best On-Location Scene
Best Plot Twist
Best Sets
Best Choreography
Best Trailer
Best Poster
Best Horror Film

The last category is brand new for this year’s awards. Also, I’ve been asked to mention that the poster must be for a fan film that premiered in calendar year 2025. However, the trailer can be for a fan film that hasn’t been released yet. The only requirement is that the trailer itself must have been publicly posted for the first time during 2025.

As with the four previous years (and in line with the name of the contest), the fan films will be judged by the directors themselves. Each director will be e-mailed a ballot for each film they submitted . A director cannot vote for any fan film they themselves directed, and all ballots will be due no later than March 15. If a judge fails to return their completed ballot in time, their film submission(s) will be disqualified.

Once again, here is the link to enter, with the final deadline for submissions being January 11, 2026…

https://thefederationfiles.com/?page_id=1407

Winners will be announced on First Contact Day: April 5, 2026.

Do you miss classic Star Trek? I’m referring to the Star Trek that most of us grew up with—whether it be TOS or the 24th century Star Trek sequels…pretty much anything produced by Paramount and not CBS Studios. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy LOWER DECKS, PRODIGY, or most of PICARD season three. But there was just this certain “feel” to the Treks from the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s that simply hasn’t carried over properly to the new stuff.

Then came STAR TREK: KHAN, the new audio drama available as free downloadable a 9-part podcast. The series tells the story of Khan Noonien Singh (the genetically-engineered villain from the TOS episode “Space Seed” who later tried to exact revenge on James Kirk in the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) after he andhis followers were marooned on the planet Ceti Alpha V. As I listened, I felt as though I were back in familiar Star Trek territory. Granted Starfleet and the Federation play a limited role in the story, there are no Klingons or Romulans to speak of, and life on Ceti Alpha V is generally quite un-futuristic. Nevertheless, the audio drama does an excellent job of transporting the listener back into a much more familiar and comfortable Star Trek experience.

HOW STAR TREK: KHAN CAME TO BE

This audio drama podcast project got its start sometime back around 2017 when Star Trek II and VI director NICHOLAS MEYER revealed that he was working on a new Star Trek project unrelated to STAR TREK: DISCOVERY, which he was working on as a a consulting producer and writer. The following year, when ALEX KURTZMAN signed a five-year deal with CBS Television Studios to expand the Star Trek franchise beyond Discovery, it was announced that a new “prequel” to Star Trek II titled CETI ALPHA V would be produced as a 3-episode TV miniseries, focusing on Khan and his people’s fight for survival on that doomed alien world. Meyer wrote a storyline for the project.

Unfortunately, at the time, Viacom (Paramount) and CBS were still separate companies, each having its own exclusive claim to Star Trek in either TV or movie format. This made creating a television series based on something seen in one of the feature films a difficult legal maze to navigate. However, in 2019, Viacom and CBS merged, removing the copyright issues. But now there was another problem with the concept: cost. Building sets, designing costumes, hiring actors, creating visual FX, etc. for a short three-episode television run was not something that the studio was interested in funding. Expenses couldn’t be amortized over a more extended number of episodes and seasons, and because (spoiler alert!) Khan and his people ultimately die in Star Trek II, there isn’t much opportunity to launch lucrative spin-off projects that might be able to reuse some of the existing sets and costumes.

There were some brief discussions of trying to stretch out the story from three episodes into one or more full seasons, but Meyer worried that the experiences of Khan and his followers would turn into Star Trek‘s version of Gilligan’s Island and simply drag on–killing any chance at real drama.

Finally, in September of 2022, it was announced that a project called Star Trek: Khan would be produced as a multi-part audio podcast with Kurtzman, AARON BAIERS, TREVOR ROTH, and ROD RODDENBERRY as executive producers. Originally set to premiere in 2023, what Meyer later described a “a kitchen filled with cooks” led to inevitable delays. Eventually, the planned three-episode story was expanded to nine half-hour episodes written by veteran Star Trek novelists KIRSTEN BEYER (also a staff writer on Discovery and co-creator of Picard) and DAVID MACK in early 2024.

After actors were cast—including NAVEEN ANDREWS (“Sayid” from the TV series Lost) as Khan, WRENN SCHMIDT as Marla McGivers, GEORGE TAKEI as Captain Sulu, and TIM RUSS as Ensign Tuvok—all voice recording was completed by February 2025. A short introduction and the full first chapter debuted on September 8, 2025 (Star Trek Day) with one additional chapter being released each week through November 3.

“ALMOST” PERFECT…

On the face of it, the story of Khan and his genetically augmented followers (plus Lt. Marla McGivers) doesn’t seem like it would be all that compelling. Without specific spoilers beyond what was revealed in Star Trek II, we know that Ceti Alpha VI explodes six months after Khan and 70 of his people arrive on Ceti Alpha V, shifting the latter planet’s orbit and turning what was once a primitive paradise into a wasteland. Ceti eels kill 20 of his people, including his wife (whom we assume was Marla), and they spend the next fourteen and a half years fighting to survive. Not much to write about, all things considered.

Not that it hadn’t already been tried.

In January 0f 2005, Pocket Books released the third and final of GREG COX’s trilogy of novels on the life of Khan, To Reign in Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonien Singh. It was a dark tragedy that had little time for joy or lightness or anything other than a slow and inevitable slide into desperation, despair, and almost certain doom for Khan and his people. And honestly, while I enjoyed the read, the novel didn’t do much else for me. I never became invested in the characters or story, and there wasn’t much that felt fresh or unexpected from the novel. I would have given it a three out of five stars.

The Star Trek: Khan audio podcast, on the other hand, gets an almost perfect five stars from me. This new story has nothing whatsoever in common with the Greg Cox novel other than covering those early years of Khan’s exile, the explosion of the sixth planet, the resulting devastation of the fifth planet, and the death of Marla followed by Khan’s descent into fury and obsession with revenge against James T. Kirk.

So why is it “almost” perfect? Well, some things can’t be helped. For example, both Tim Russ and especially George Takei have aged significantly since their last appearance together on the U.S.S. Excelsior in Star Trek: Voyager‘s 1996 episode “Flashback.” George was not quite 60 years old back then. Now he is almost 90, and his voice has become quite raspy. The actor tries valiantly to sound younger, but time has put up some significant road blocks, and as a listener, you have to “mentally ignore” Sulu’s apparent advanced age at a time very close to the events of Star Trek VI when the character sounded much younger. (My inner fan simply told myself: “Oh, Sulu has a cold.”) Similarly, even though Tim Russ is not quite 70 yet, he also lacks the tonal qualities of a young Ensign Tuvok. But his voice was close enough that I didn’t really need to rationalize the difference in my head canon. I just “edited” what I heard inside my head slightly as I listened.

But most jarring and difficult to get used to was Naveen Andrews as Khan. And let’s face it, RICARDO MONTALBAN had one of the most distinctive accents in Hollywood history. What fan can’t do a Khan impression hissing, “Kehrk, my old friend…” or “THEEZZ IS CETI ALPHA FIVE!!!” or “From hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee…”? It seems like an easy enough accent to try to imitate, and yet Naveen Andrews doesn’t even try to do so. His Khan is simply his own voice, and it takes three or four chapters to truly get used to hearing it and accepting that voice as being Khan. That said, once you do manage to do so, the payoff is worth it because, I suspect, had Naveen tried to imitate Montalban, he wouldn’t have been able to provide nearly as strong of a performance as he did.

The only other thing that led me to an “almost” perfect rating is that the first few chapters take a little while to get things going. Obviously, with Sulu and Tuvok appearing, the audio drama needs to include a framing sequence looking back on the events of Khan’s exile. And (minor spoiler alert for this one sentence), that framing sequence takes place on the USS Excelsior. But that framing sequence isn’t particularly compelling or engaging, especially at first. Instead, it serves to simply provide an obvious connection to Star Trek canon though the inclusion of two known Starfleet officers and a familiar starship.

Likewise, it takes a little while to get truly interested in Khan and his people. But honestly, that’s to be expected. With the exception of Khan and Marla, the rest of the augments need to be introduced to listeners. And because this is an audio drama, those introductions have to happen through spoken interactions rather than narrated backstory. So it’s no wonder we spend the first few chapters feeling barely invested in most of these characters. But once we start to get to know them, both they and the story become significantly more compelling and satisfying to listen to it unfold. I really started to feel for these people and care about them….even Khan!

WHY KHAN WAS SO SATISFYING

Okay, Trek actors getting old, no Montalban impression, slow start—anything else keeping Khan from perfection? Not really. Within three or four chapters, I found myself counting the days until the next release. I was incredibly satisfied with the listening experience for the following reasons:

1. Incredibly well acted – The cast were all superb. Each actor imbued his/her/their character with unique and familiar attributes, accents, and mannerisms so you never had to wonder who it was who was talking. And some of them were downright over-the-top (in a good way), including MAURY STERLING as Ivan, a Russian augment who was certainly no Chekov! Others, like OLLI HAASKIVI as Delmonda imbued their characters with subtlety that allowed for certain moments to be extra impactful when their voices switched to more intensity for an emotional wallop.
2. Incredibly well produced – There is no question that a great deal of effort and care went into getting not only the voice performances but also the foley (sound) elements perfect. The entire listening experience is completely immersive. And the music, which is used very judiciously, is simply luxurious in the richness it provides at just the right moments.
3. Incredibly well written – At a time when so many fans find quite a lot to complain about when it comes to the writing in Star Trek, I found nothing in these nine chapters to criticize. The story is so much deeper and expansive than the earlier novel. As crazy as it sounds, you actually feel for Khan! Granted, he’s still a villain and never loses that “you just can’t trust him” aspect. But at the same time, he is also in many ways a noble hero whom I found myself, at times, actually rooting for. And then, a chapter later, I was rooting against him again…then for him…then against him. And I never felt manipulated by the writing. Those shifts were not only natural, but they actually laid a path for the development and evolution of the Khan character. I gained such a better understanding of the man that I don’t think I will ever be able to watch “Space Seed” or The Wrath of Khan the same way again.
4. A respect for continuity – Obviously, it’s easy to follow continuity when crafting a story that doesn’t really impact Star Trek in any significant way. All you need to do is start from the end of “Space Seed” and end at the start of The Wrath of Khan. On the other hand, the audio drama ends up going to some places where I didn’t expect, and those places definitely required some continuity. For example (and here’s your first and only minor spoiler warning), how do we even know what happened on Ceti Alpha V after Khan and his people are marooned there? I mean, if there were any recordings or notes made by Marla or the augments, Chekov and Captain Terrel were in no condition to take them back to the Reliant. And even if Khan grabbed them for some kind of sentimental reason or to document his triumph of survival, the Reliant was destroyed when the Genesis Device went BOOOM! The story also addresses another mystery from Star Trek II, and that is the question of why Ceti Alpha VI exploded. I mean, with all due respect to Superman and Krypton, planets don’t simply explode for no reason six months after being scanned by a starship’s sensors. We assume Kirk and Spock and the Enterprise crew wouldn’t maroon 70 people on a doomed planet if they’d known how unstable Ceti Alpha VI was. Or would they?
5. It FELT like Star Trek – Certainly, the inclusion of scenes on board the USS Excelsior with Captain Sulu and Ensign Tuvok would provide a comfortable “classic” Star Trek feel. But somehow, so did the Khan parts (and that was the vast majority of the nine chapters). Star Trek was never solely focused on what happened within the hulls of starships like the Enterprise, Defiant, and Voyager. Very often, we would visit planets and space stations and other ships where the episodes would spend numerous scenes showing us how life was for these alien races or mining colonies or hospitals or prisons or war zones or idyllic paradises. And Star Trek stories, when they were at their best, provided action, drama, tough choices, introspection, and both triumph and tragedy for these other characters who were not in the opening credits of the show. In fact, our heroes were here to either help or resist these guest stars, and in order to make those encounters satisfying and compelling, fans and viewers needed to get to know whom we were interacting with. Khan provides that as when get to know the protagonist and his people.

And there you go…my sincere, heartfelt recommendation that you give this great experiment—Star Trek‘s first-ever audio drama podcast—a try. Listen to the first three full-length chapters, and if you aren’t hooked by then, no one will force you to get through episode nine. But I’m confident that you will be hooked by the end of chapter three. And here’s the best part: each of those podcast episodes is absolutely free to download! I listened to all of them in my car or on walks in my neighborhood. What a great way to enjoy Star Trek.

And make no mistake—the Khan audio drama podcast IS Star Trek.

If you want to see impeccable TOS movie-era uniforms in a Star Trek fan film right now, there’s really only two places to look. The first is FARRAGUT FILMS, whose recent FARRAGUT FORWARD from last year and the upcoming FARRAGUT 2024 due out in the next few weeks feature dozens of carefully-crafted, cosplay-quality recreations of the beautiful monster maroons from the early Trek feature films.

Of course, when you’re talking cosplay-quality Starfleet, why not go right to the source…actual cosplayers! You see them walking around Star Trek conventions looking so dapper and elegant, and in the past few years, many of these same cosplayers have portrayed characters in fanthology films released by STAR TREK FAN PRODUCTIONS INTERNATIONAL and its main showrunner, Southern California-based DAVID CHENG. But David hasn’t limited himself solely to movie-era. Since 2019, his fan film releases have included The Motion Picture-era uniforms, TOS, and both 24th and 25th century styles. Here’s a list…

 THE HUMAN ADVENTURE (2019)
LOOK FORWARD TO THE DAY (2020)
I AM SPOCK (2020)
UNREST (2020)
PEACE AND GOODWILL (2020)
OUTRAGED (2021)
BORG HUNTERS (2022)
SPARE THE FUTURE, SAVE THE PAST (2024)

Back in June, David and company released their latest project, TIME AND TIME AGAIN, which took the idea of using cosplayers to a whole new level. Filmed at an actual Star Trek convention in private hotel rooms, small conference rooms, and elsewhere, you can count nearly two dozen different cosplayers in the cast—many of them familiar faces to those of us who regularly attend conventions, especially here in America. Cosplayers played Kirk, Spock, Scotty, Uhura, Sulu, plus Admiral Nogura and Vulcan Ambassador Soval. Take a look…

Although it’s been a few months since its release, I didn’t want Time and Time Again to pass by unblogged. So I tracked down David Cheng for a short interview…

JONATHAN – At which convention or conventions did you shoot this fan film, and when?

DAVID – This was the Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas during August 2019.

JONATHAN – WOW, that’s more than half a decade ago! Why did this fan film take so long to get released?

DAVID – We shot much of the film in 2019, beginning with the scene at the Star Trek convention. We planned to shoot additional scenes, but then COVID hit, and as you know, the world shut down in April 2020. So we had to halt production on the film as a result.

Rather than not making films altogether, we turned our attention to producing what you aptly called “fandemic” films in which we had different characters film themselves from their own locations, and we edited the clips together into a cohesive story. By the time it became safe enough to shoot in person, we had moved on to working on other projects. Also, with the passing of time, the remaining scenes of Time And Time Again became impractical for us to shoot, so it remained an incomplete project.

JONATHAN – What resurrected it?

DAVID – Eventually, BILL ARUCAN, who plays Admiral Curry in Time And Time Again, asked what was happening with the film. We decided to scrap the remaining scenes that we originally planned to shoot and worked on a new ending that we could realistically film in order to complete the project. So it was not until 2025 that we were able to finally finish the film and release it.

JONATHAN – I’m most intrigued by those convention scenes. There were so many cosplayers! What was the process of getting them into a fan film at a single con? Did you see who was there and just invite them to be on camera, or was there more long-term preparation involved?

DAVID – Every year at the Las Vegas Star Trek Convention, there is a monster maroon group photo shoot scheduled. At these shoots, a large number of attendees wearing the monster maroon uniforms from the original series movies gather together to take pictures.

For the scenes that were shot during the convention, I invited members of the group in advance to take part in the film shoot. On the actual day of the shoot, after we took our group photos, those who wanted to take part in the filming went to a hotel suite. Although we did have a script already written, we did not have to distribute it to the majority of the participants. We just provided direction at the location.

JONATHAN – What was the most challenging aspect of getting this fan film shot and completed?

DAVID – One of the most challenging aspects was organizing and getting all the monster maroon cosplayers together in one place so we could shoot the retirement party scene. Fortunately, the large gathering of such cosplayers at the convention was a convenient way for us to do that. Where else can you get Spock, Scotty, Uhura, and Sulu in once place? Another cosplayer, LUIS VALENTN, who portrays the Vulcan Ambassador Soval, also attended, so I was able to have him join in, as well. For the actual filming, we spent roughly two hours with the majority of the cosplayers. We shot some smaller scenes with a few individuals over the next ninety minutes.

The most challenging part, however, was trying to figure out how to finish the film, given that circumstances had changed over the years that prohibited us from executing some of our original ideas.

JONATHAN – Are there any fun behind-the-scenes stories from the production?

DAVID – I’ve got two fun stories. At the convention, we had cosplayers to portray Spock, Sulu, and Uhura. When we gathered the monster maroon cosplayers together for the shoot, I noticed that one of them, DAVID COE, resembled Scotty, so we decided on the spot to include an impromptu scene in which David portrays the engineer.

For the transporter scene, we had the opportunity to shoot on the transporter pad that was set up at the convention. The only problem was that it was available for all attendees to use, so we had to work around them in order to shoot our scenes on the transporter. There was a lot of ambient noise in the raw footage that we had to eliminate. We also had to loop our dialogue for that particular scene.

DAVID – So what’s coming up on short range and long range sensors for your production company, David?

DAVID – We’re currently finishing up production on the follow-up to our Borg Hunters film, titled, BORG HUNTERS: THE HOUSE OF KOR, which we plan to release in 2026. I am also hoping that we’ll begin production on the follow-up to Spare the Future, Save The Past, which will be called SPARE THE PAST, SAVE THE FUTURE. Long term plans include filming a follow-up to our very first film, The Human Adventure.

I was also honored to be asked to shoot some short scenes for inclusion in other fan film productions and will be working on those very soon.

JONATHAN – Awesome! I’m glad you’ve got so much going on. Thanks for the interview, David.

DAVID – Thanks for having me!

Last week, I discussed how I came to be the primary editor of the newest fan film from the “fanthology” series TALES FROM THE NEUTRAL ZONE. Titled SECOND STAR TO THE LEFT, the story begins as most TOS-era fan films do, with a captain and crew on a mission and then a mystery leading to a threat. But in this very special fan film, something unexpected happens halfway through to turn the story into something completely different. And if you haven’t seen it yet, it’s worth watching first without any spoilers…

Assuming you’ve just watched the above video, I can now share that the lead actress who stars as Captain Fairchild/Cathy, SARA McCARTNEY, is herself on the autism spectrum. Indeed, Sara’s mother, RUTH McCARTNEY, wrote the story as a quasi-biographical/autobiographical remembrance of the struggles that both she and her daughter have faced during their respective lifetimes. In both cases, Star Trek became a sanctuary, as it has for numerous fans over the decades. As such, this production has a very wide appeal.

Second Star to the LEFT was one of the final fan films to be shot at the Kingsland, GA location of NEUTRAL ZONE STUDIOS before their amazing TOS set recreations were packed up and moved 900 miles north to a new location in a shopping mall in Sandusky, OH. You can read more about that move here. Ruth, a long-time volunteer at the Kingsland location, asked set owner RAY TESI for permission to shoot Second Star before the sets were disassembled, and Ray happily agreed.

JOSHUA IRWIN of AVALON UNIVERSE Productions, who has directed multiple episodes of Tales from the Neutral Zone, agreed to drive down to Kingsland from his home in northwestern Arkansas (a trip he has made MANY times!) to direct not only Second Star but three different fan films all being shot during the same manic three-day weekend. Later, Josh asked me to help edit my choice of one of the multiple fan films he was working on, and I decided upon Second Star, as I discussed in part of of this blog feature.

I consider this fan film to be particularly important, as Sara’s performance shows what an individual with neurodivergence can accomplish. At a time when autism is being stigmatized by divisive rhetoric and wild theories as to its causes, Second Star to the LEFT humbly reminds us that being on the spectrum isn’t a disability so much a simply a different ability.

When Second Star debuted on the Avalon Universe YouTube channel, Josh hosted a livestream discussion with several people who were involved with the production, including Ruth and Sara, myself, Ray, Tesi, KEITH HAMILTON (who did some of the VFX), and MICHAEL SEAN CARTER, who is one of the volunteers coordinating the studio move to Sandusky. With Josh’s permission, I’m including that video below to finish off this 2-part spotlight on the film.

The first segment of the video deals with the latest news from Avalon Universe. So I’ve queued up the video to begin at the 20-minute mark when the topic shifts to Second Star. Feel free to back it up to the beginning if you’re curious about other current and future Avalon projects…

This is going to be a different kind of blog today. Usually, I write from the perspective of being on the outside looking in. This time, however, I stepped in as film editor on a very special Star Trek fan film starring a courageous young actress who is on the autism spectrum. And therein lies a tale…a tale from NEUTRAL ZONE STUDIOS.

It was the spring of 2024, and my friend JOSHUA IRWIN was feeling quite overloaded…and no wonder! Ever since branching out beyond producing his series of AVALON UNIVERSE fan films, Josh has been one of the most in-demand filmmakers in the entire community. He gets asked to direct, do lighting, camera, cinematography, special FX, sound, and editing on what seems to be an endless parade of projects ranging from fan films like FARRAGUT 2024 and fan series like DREADNOUGHT DOMINION to fanthologies like THE FEDERATION FILES and TALES FROM THE NEUTRAL ZONE. And as the year began, Josh had no loess than SIX different fan films that he helped shoot, produce, wrote, and/or directed…and he needed to edit each of them.

Some of these were major projects, like the series finale of the 23rd century run of Avalon Universe, an upcoming release to be titled THE ONCE AND FUTURE CAPTAIN. Others were mid-size projects, like a story for Tales from the Neutral Zone called HISTORY NEVER FORGETS (still unreleased) about the crew of the Enterprise-C before its destruction. And then there were three “small” fan films with minimal raw footage that had each been shot in about a day or less with run times of maybe 15 minutes or so. With work life, family life, and fan film life commitments piling up, Josh asked me if I’d be willing to help him edit one of these three shorter fan films.

This request didn’t come out of left field. Josh and I had worked closely on the edit for my AXANAR Universe fan film INTERLUDE, and even though I drove him nuts (and maybe a little vice-versa), we actually worked quite effectively together—finding some compromises when we didn’t agree or else one or the other of us putting our foot down—and wound up with a very nice final cut. Josh understands that I don’t know a hundredth of what he does about the finer points of film editing like levels and color optimization, but he knows I have a good feel of which takes work the best and how to piece together a good rough edit.

“If you can just assemble the cuts in the timeline, Jonathan, I can do all of the rest,” Josh told me. “And even if you edit only one of these shorter films, it’ll really help lighten my workload.” And I was happy to do it. I actually enjoy editing a film, at least on a basic putting-the-pieces-together level. Now the only decision I had to make was which of the three fan films to tackle.

They were each intriguing in their own way, and I thought about them as a drove a very scenic Route 74 through the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains northward toward Palm Springs during a gorgeous wildflower bloom in the area…

As I descended 3,000 feet on a winding road down from the mountains into the Coachella Valley, my decision was made for me when my iPhone’s music playlist came to the 1969 song “Make Your Own Kind of Music” by Cass Elliot. One of the three fan films had been written by the mother of a daughter who had grown up on the autism spectrum and was now a very functional, charming, and well-adjusted adult…willing to play the lead in a Star Trek fan film. The script was somewhat biographical/autobiographical and had an unexpected plot twist.

As I listened to the song, I thought of a young child named Bruce, a member of my son Jayden’s sixth grade robotics team who was also on the autism spectrum. Bruce’s neurodivergence and ADHD was much more significant than the actress who starred in this particular fan film, as I doubt Bruce would have been able to focus enough deliver pre-written lines in front of a camera. But I nevertheless thought of all of the Bruces and other neurodivergent children and adults out there who might draw inspiration from seeing “one of their own” play the lead role in a Star Trek fan film.

As I listened to “Mama” Cass Elliot sing the words “Nobody can tell ya…there’s only one song worth singin’… They may try and sell ya…’Cause it hangs them up to see someone like you…” I imagined that song playing over the closing credits, and I actually began tearing up a little. I got back to my in-laws’ house in Desert Palms, texted Josh, and told him I’d made my selection.

Before I talk further about my edit, let me show you how the finished fan film turned out…

This was actually one of the last fan films to be shot in Neutral Zone Studios at the Kingsland, GA location before the sets were moved last year to Sandusky, OH. The writer, RUTH McCARTNEY, had been a long-time volunteer, and in appreciation for her many years of service, RAY TESI was only too happy to let her take over the sets, with Josh Irwin directing, to produce her very first Star Trek fan film starring her daughter Sara.

The title, SECOND STAR TO THE LEFT, is a play on the directions to Neverland from the play (and Disney movie) Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie: “Second star to the right, and straight on ’til morning.” And yes, Captain Kirk quotes that same line at the very end of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

So why change “right” to “left”? Most people are right-handed. And for a long time, being left-handed was seen by many world cultures as being somehow aberrant or even cursed—and every effort was made by parents to get their left-handed children to favor their right hand in order not to be bullied or persecuted. If that’s not a perfect metaphor the struggles of neurodivergent children and their parents, I don’t know what is.

I took Josh several months to prepare all of the raw footage onto a single hard drive and ship it to me. The reason for the delay? I wouldn’t be able to work with the files in their native format, so Josh turned them into simple mp4 files that I could easily import into my copy of Adobe Premiere and start editing.

There were several dozen files with different scenes, different angles, and different takes. There were voice-overs, reaction shots, B-roll footage…lots to watch through! The first thing I did was to rename each file with titles like “Captain talks to computer in her quarters” and “Fight in Engineering.” That made it easier to go through the script, scene by scene, and assemble the film—like putting the pieces of a puzzle together.

Actually, while the puzzle analogy is mostly relevant for editing, it’s not entirely accurate. A puzzle typically has only one way for the pieces to fit together. But with a film edit, you often have multiple options and combinations of shots, takes, and clip segments you can choose to go with. And no assembly is intrinsically right or wrong—only different—although a good editor can often find cuts that come together more strongly than other assemblies. Indeed, there’s a saying in the film industry that a good edit can save a bad movie and a bad edit can ruin a good movie. In fact, this is even true of the original Star Wars back in 1977, which, as the following video explains, was “saved in the edit”…

Obviously, I’m not comparing a 15-minute fan film to one of the greatest sci-fi films ever created. I’m simply pointing out that editing is an integral element in the ultimate success or failure of the finished project. So with that understanding in mind, I began to piece the puzzle/film together.

We had no VFX ready yet, so I knew those segments needed to be blank inserts describing which CGI shots would be inserted there. The film began with a long captain’s log, which was, fortunately, broken up by the insertion of a brief cutaway scene where the captain of the USS Potemkin says goodbye to captain of the Constitution. It wasn’t a bad scene, per se, but it didn’t really grab the viewer ether. And this is where my first significant editorial decision came about.

As it happened, Josh accidentally handed me the perfect solution without even meaning to. There were a lot of voice-over segments in the film—captain’s log, computer, Klingon commander, Captain Kirk, and the arguing parents at the end—and so many of the files that Josh copied onto the hard drive were audio mp3s. But among those was an audio clip for a completely different Star Trek fan film, THRONE OF ZEUS, of DAN SCANLAN doing an absolutely amazing Scotty impression . There were only two lines: “Scott here,” and “Aye, Scott out.” But those were enough to create a little extra scene over some still-to-be-created VFX where Captain Fairchild interacts would interact directly with Scotty. So I inserted a couple of lines said by myself, intending for Sara McCartney to record those lines later so Josh or I could add them to the final edit. In the end, her mother Ruth (who had final approval) liked the idea, but she wrote alternate lines for a different character, voiced by Josh himself, to say to Scotty. And instead of lengthening the VFX shot, Josh obtained video footage of the transporter from nearby WARP 66 STUDIOS in Northern Arkansas to show during that brief scene.

Another drop-in from WARP 66 was the shot of an empty sickbay. During the scene of Captain Fairchild on the bridge, we had cutaways to an empty corridor and engineering—both shot at Neutral Zone Studios—to show that the ship was deserted. But because we had two consecutive takes of Sara that were slightly out of sync, we would have needed to cut from one shot of Captain Fairchild to a nearly identical angle that didn’t quite match—which would have looked awkward. The fix, of course, is a cutaway shot, and we had the perfect opportunity, as the captain had just called down to sickbay, and we could show that no one was down there, either. We just needed a shot of an empty sickbay, which Josh was able to drive a couple of hours to the studio to get.

While I won’t go into every editorial decision that was made, there are two more that I think are interesting. The first came during the final scene of Cathy’s “Personal Log” in Neutral Zone Studios thanking Captain Kirk. I wanted that to lead directly into the song “You’ve Got to Make Your Own Kind of Music” that would play under the closing credits. Unfortunately, that scene and dialogue goes on for over a minute, and the introduction to that song is only 10 seconds. I reached out to two musicians that I knew who created music for fan films to ask if they could “extend” the song’s introduction, but one wasn’t particularly familiar with guitar (he was more keyboard focused), and the other composer was swamped with work and unavailable.

Figuring that I could always find somebody later on, I wanted to show Josh and Ruth what I had in mind for that scene and I needed something quickly as I was nearly finished with my final edit. So I did something I wasn’t entirely sure about: I went to an A.I. music generator. It took about 25 tries and having to give the prompt increasingly specific instructions beyond “Create a two-minute musical introduction to the 1969 song ‘Make Your Own Kind of Music’ by Cass Elliot.” I had to specify “uplifting” then “mellow and thoughtful leading into uplifting” and details like “acoustic guitar, soft violin, and light drum only” and “NO PAINO!!!!” A.I. can be really stupid and kept throwing in piano…even with the prompt telling it not to! But eventually I got a piece of music that, while not a perfect and seamless introduction, still sounded quite decent. In fact, when Josh and Ruth listened to it, they both agreed that keeping it in the final edit was a good idea.

And finally, there was the question of what to do with the closing credits. Josh had initially intended to end the film like an episode of Star Trek…with a series of still frames with people’s names overlaid. But while this episode STARTED like a TOS episode, it didn’t end that way. And Cass Elliot is a far cry from Trek composer Alexander Courage. Ultimately, I decided to use a series of clips from the fan film itself, which I think ended up working amazingly well. I’m particularly happy with the spot in the credits where the title Second Star to the LEFT appears just as the song lifts up in intensity as it moves into the first chorus. It was my idea to capitalize the word “LEFT” because of its importance in symbolizing something that isn’t seen as quite “right.” Also, the video footage of Captain Fairchild running through the corridors has her going toward the left…just a wee bit of subtlety there.

All in all, I uploaded six different work-in-progress edits to my Google Drive for Josh and Ruth to look at, each with a little more of the timeline completed, and always incorporating their feedback and change requests from the previous iteration. The entire process took about 4-5 weeks. If you’re curious, this is what my sixth and final rough edit looked like…

If you compare it to the finished fan film above, you’ll notice a number of obvious and maybe not-so-obvious changes. Josh added a very nice mix of classic TOS music, VFX, and sound effects. He adjusted the brightness and contrast levels of the video to create a more stark 1960’s “style”look” along with removing stray noises from the set. And as I mentioned, he added his own voice-over to the Scotty scene and increased the reverb on Captain Kirk’s voice-overs. Ruth also wanted to alter some of the on-screen text wording during the transition from past to present and also leading into the closing credits. And a final change was removing the still images of William Shatner’s Captain Kirk (since we’d been listening to the voice-overs of VIC MIGNOGNA from STAR TREK CONTINUES) and replacing those images with close-ups of the command chair which DAN REYNOLDS of WARP 66 Studios was kind enough to grab for Josh at the last minute to save him another multi-hour round trip drive to and from the studio.

All in all, everyone in both the cast and crew, as well as most YouTube viewers appear to be very happy with the results. Second Star to the LEFT debuted on Star Trek‘s 59th anniversary on the Neutral Zone Studios YouTube channel and then five days later on the Avalon Universe YouTube channel—with about 11K views in the first week, almost a thousand likes, and nearly unanimous positive comments.

Next time, I’ll be featuring a recording of a live interview that Josh did with Ruth and Sara McCartney, Ray Tesi, myself, VFX artist KEITH HAMILTON, and MICHAEL SEAN CARTER discussing the film in much more depth. See you back here for that.