Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Day 04 - Audio Drama

Audio drama in Star Trek has had a mixed year.

Some prductions which were expected to produce this year, noticeably Star Trek: Grissom and The new Section 31 Files have not appeared as expected. They haven't produced this year however I hesitate to lump them in with those which are in long term hiatus, so this year I have created two levels of hiatus: short-term and long-term to help the browser to see the difference between those which are truly resting and those that might have a problem being revived.

My feature this year is Star Trek: Eras whose annual Trekcast - a staple of The Twelve Trek Days of Christmas - addresses that problem.


As with all things, it is a personal choice. Quality is important, and in the case of Eras the custom-made, quality music from Matt Hallaran is nigh-unique, but there needs to be a point where you call a halt to your quest for perfection and say, "It's a wrap!" With all due respect to the makers of Star Trek: Exeter, they are, and always will be, held up as an example of a fan production that was effectively killed by the refusal of the producers to accept something which they deemed not up to an acceptable standard. Certainly it is their production and so their choice but it is everybody's loss.

I am one of those eternal optimists who never says that a project is ever dead, much like Homer Simpson chasing the flying pig crying, "It's still good! It's still good!" Occasionally the stake will be withdrawn from the heart of one of these productions to prove that there are no such things as burnt bridges. Voyages of the USS Angeles is a prime example of one that has done so and Star Fleet Renegades could be one that does so in the coming year.

Pre-Production
New productions that should be going into production shortly

Mixed media project that will have full animated episodes as the pilot, mid-point and finale with four full-cast audiobook episodes in between, eight episodes in all. Three audio vignettes have been released.
Vignette 1: Ensign Daniel Park

In Production
Productions that have released one or more episodes during 2011

Henglaar, MD
Series based on the popular character from the fan film series ST: Hidden Frontier
HMD 1.01: Recalled To Life
HMD 1.02: Best Served Cold
HMD 1.03: Risk Factors
HMD 1.04: Good With Words
HMD 1.05: Profit Without Honor, Feb 22, 2011
HMD 1.06: Vector of Infection, Dec 5, 2011

Child-friendly audio drama from Misfits Audio: The adventures of Cpt Peter Rabbit in space!
1.5: Why

A ship and crew from the past are the answer to a deadly threat. Quality audio drama by Totally Creative Media
2.1: Earth Aug 27, 2011

Long-running, large ensemble cast present action and intrigue from Pendant Productions
33: Rifts
38: Echoes
41: Gambles
42: Oaths
43: Family
44: Haunted
46: Caged
51: History
53: Memory
58: Law

Unthinkable attrocities and secrets long buried are brought to life in a convoluted and gripping tale from Starship Excelsior
103: Wildfire

Star Trek: Federation Rebirth
Available on YouTube, from Shady Beach Productions, the same group that made the fan film, Star Trek: Requirius

Deep Space Three is a boring place... unless you include the pirates, the ferrengi, the ghosts, the mysterious, ancient archaeology... from Giant Gnome Productions
15: Ambush
31: Old Friends and Memories Dec 5, 2011

Voyages of the USS Angeles
The crew of the USS Angeles are re-united for more adventures! A continuation in audio of the seminal fan film series made in 1999 - 2000.
2x01: Duty's Betrayal Jan 31, 2011

Series Completed
productions which have completed their season and they have announced that they will not be producing any more shows. [UNDER CONSTRUCTION]

Short-term Hiatus
Season not completed, nothing released or heard from in 2011 but production actively being pursued. Planned releases in 2012 [UNDER CONSTRUCTION]

Taking listeners to new worlds and a universe which has only barely been explored, from Giant Gnome Productions. On temporary hiatus.
1: Things Not Seen Part 1 Sep 12, 2011

Long-term Hiatus
Season not completed, nothing released or heard from before 2011. No releases scheduled in 2012 [UNDER CONSTRUCTION]

K

The Twelve Indian Days of Christmas

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Prod'n Title
Prod'n Description
Ep.No.: Episode Title mmm dd, yyyy
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Monday, December 26, 2011

Day 02 - Fan Fiction

In the five years or so that I've been reporting on fan productions we've come a long way! Fan films have matured from the shaky beginnings that their producers would have us forget, to productions that in many ways rival their professional counterparts. Audio dramas have given a new lease on life to a form of media that had been relegated to a historical curiosity - the radio play. Animation perhaps more than any other form of media has amazed me with the the way in which it has empowered those with the creativity and talent to produce some astonishingly good shows.

Fans are riding a wave of technology to new heights - fan films, fan audio dramas, fan animation, digital art, computer generated images - however there is one component of the mass media market that we have not assailed: fan publishing. Where there are fan filmmakers there are fan films, where there are fan voice actors there are fan audio dramas but although there are probably an order of magnitude more fan authors, where are the fan books?

Welcome to Star Trek fan fiction as it stands at the end of 2011! By way of introducing our subject please accept this little present - TrekUnited presents...

"Retribution" by T.L.Shull
Four months after the end of the Dominion War, the Cardassian Union is on the precipice of civil war when the gruesome discovery of a massacre of hundreds of prisoners, including Cardassian rebels, at the Hutet Labor Camp shakes Cardassia to its core. Evidence suggests that members of the Cardassian military were directly involved in the war crimes, but there were no surviving eyewitnesses to the event.

One extraordinary man witnessed the horrific scene. Yet he bears no love for the Federation or for Cardassia. Will he be willing to tell his tale to help them, or will his desire for revenge jeopardize the potential for peace?

TrekUnited Publishing's Mission Statement is that we exist to help StarTrek fan fiction authors create and distribute their work, without any charge or expectation of favour beyond our common love of Star Trek. We do this without any implication of copyright ownership beyond the author's moral right to be identified as such and his ownership of the original characters and ideas contained in his work. If you are interested in our work, this is a quick tour of what we are doing at the moment...
Unlike most magazines, who want "first / exclusive international rights", we want writers and authors to actively contribute to their home forums and submit the best of what they have done to us so that we can take it to a wider audience. Everybody wins that way! Our forums (I include TU in this) get more 'fics submitted; this stimulates feedback and comment so that the writer can tweak their work for a submission to TU Publishing, which in turn publicises the author and their home forum.

So who are the major Star Trek fan fiction forums right now? I can only tell you about the ones that I know about myself, so the following list (in alphabetical order) should by no means be considered conclusive...

Ad Astra - All eras, all genres
alt.startrek.creative - All eras, all genres
The Delphic Expanse - Enterprise era, all genres
Star Trek: New Worlds - All eras, all genres
Trek BBS - All eras, all genres
Warp 5 Complex - Enterprise era, all genres

In addition many fan fiction authors have written series and anthologies that they have published on their own sites. The ones that I know, again not an exhaustive list and in alphabetical order, are...

[Under construction]

Finally I would like to draw attention to virtual seasons (VS). These have grown from humble (but often high quality) beginnings where a group of friends wanted to continue a series after its conclusion - or in some cases put their own spin on an existing series - to script-based episodes on high quality webites. I have tried to make this list roughly chronological but bear in mind that age does not mean a lack of quality...

[Under Construction]

Enterprise VS 5

Enterprise VS 6

Shadows Of War: Enterprise VS 5

Originally written in 2005-2006, it follows the crew of the NX-01 Enterprise through a 4-year time period that picks up about 1 year after the events of "Terra Prime". The season chronicles the formation of the United Federation of Planets and the Earth-Romulan War. The episodes are numbered and NEED to be read in numerical order since the season is somewhat serialized. Thirteen of a planned 23 stories released.

Warp 5 Complex : Enterprise VS 5
Warp 5 Complex : Enterprise VS 6
Warp 5 Complex : Enterprise VS 7

Live Journal : Enterprise VS 7

by Rigel Kent; [n] episodes, Enterprise era on the writer's web site.

Series based on Canon Characters
In some cases the object of the writer's fandom is a certain character and they feel the urge to write a series that features just them! Be aware that these links are not rated for age so your discretion is advised.

by Amanda Cress; 8 episode, Post-Romulan War series featuring a young Chekov. Archived by ST: New Worlds

by Amanda Cress; 12 episode, Post-Nemesis series featuring Wesley Crusher. Archived by ST: New Worlds

Series based on Original Characters
Fan fiction is most often used as a vehicle for writers to weave a story of their own in a familiar setting, for them to take the Star trek we know, whether it is The Original Series or Post-Nemesis, and people it with characters of their own making.

Star Trek: Beyond What's Left Behind
by [author]; [n] episodes, [era] [description]. Not currently online
by [author]; [n] episodes, [era] [description]. [publisher / producer]
by [author]; [n] episodes, [era] [description]. [publisher / producer]
by [author]; [n] episodes, [era] [description]. [publisher / producer]
by [author]; [n] episodes, [era] [description]. [publisher / producer]


K

The Twelve Irish Days of Christmas

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by [author]; [n] episodes, [era] [description]. [publisher / producer]
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Day 01 - Welcome

For the fifth year in a row, the Twelve Trek Days of Christmas sets out bravely to celebrate the year we are just leaving behind and to give you a taste of what you can expect in the coming year.

Why do I do it? My son asked me this very question earlier today and I easily came up with a number of reasons.

In some years it has become my major work for the year it's led me to work on some pretty ambitious projects, work that I'm proud of and think of as my main achievements: The audiobook episodes of Dispatches From The Romulan War and the Trekzine issues of Hailing Frequencies Open rate high but the pdf publishing that we started in 2007 has proven to be a niche that was waiting to be filled. Over the past year it has blossomed into TrekUnited Publishing and we have only touched on the surface of what can be done! Next year promises to lead us further into some pretty exciting territory.

Every year I get to network with the wider world of Star Trek fandom and it is a privilege and pleasure! From the big names who have given their time to us freely, all the way through to the newcomers: the guy with his first fan fiction or who has an idea for a new game, the woman who wants to share their fan art or music video. It is my privilege to bring their work to the attention of their fellow fans, the casual browser and, since these become an archive of their work on the internet, posterity.

But perhaps most of all it is my personal statement about my faith in my fellow men. With all due respect to the Christian roots of Christmas as a religious celbration, it is the Christmas message of "Peace on Earth and Goodwill to all men" that is of primary interest to me at this time. Just those two aspects are reason enough to cherish this tradition, plus the fact that this is understood and respected by every caring, moral person on the globe whether they be Christian, Humanist, Buddhist or Moslem. The globalisation of Christmas could be the closest that humanity comes to standing as one brotherhood of mankind and Star Trek is my chosen way of expressing this.

To all those who celebrate Christmas, and to those who do not, I would like to share with you my wish for your continuing health, happiness and prosperity. We have more things to tie us together than we have things that keep us apart, whether it is a shared love of Star Trek or the higher, humanitarian ideals of IDIC.

Over the next twelve days let me share with you the things that amused and amazed me in Star Trek fandom.

The Twelve Karioke Days of Christmas
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