TCM Issue 7

WELCOME TO

Welcome to the seventh issue of TCM,

and an exciting issue it is as well.

Featured in this issue are no less than six interviews with some of the people behind some of the biggest and newest shows in the fan film world.

The first of these interviews is with Matt Milne, who is involved with a number of fan film productions as composer of the music, this is followed by two interviews with the people who are working hard on a unique fan film Trinity.

We also have an interview with Robin Hiert who is Executive Producer of Dark Armada from the Netherlands. Following on from this we have a first for any fan film, an interview with Hidden Frontier’s Barbara Clifford about the costumes of the various series, and also a bit about the different colour uniform trim. Then we have Beo Fraser talking about his exploits in the makeup room of the studio of Hidden Frontier.

We have also got a couple of new areas of the magazine. The first of these is a Random Thoughts area, where we have asked questions of various fan film stars that we wouldn’t normally ask. First in the spotlight is John Whiting who plays Dr Henglar and General Morrigu from Hidden Frontier and Odyssey. We also have introduced a Character Bio page, where we bring you details on all your favourite characters, first up is Admiral Ian Knapp fro Hidden Frontier.

Finally we have a 20 page detailed review of the Excelsior Ball Three, from the day time activities right through to the away mission on the Monday and Tuesday after the ball.

issue seven contents Page 4 - Interview Robin Hiert (Dark Armada) Page 6 - Interview Matt Milne (Hidden Frontier) Page 7 - The Inquisition (John Whiting) Page 9 - Trinity Page 10 - Interview John-Paul Atley (Trinity) Page 12 - Interview Paul Knott (Trinity) Page 13 - Interview Barbara Clifford (Hidden Frontier) Page 14 - Interview Beo Fraser (Hidden Frontier) Page 17 - Feature Excelsior Ball 3 Page 26 - Captains Log with Rick Pike Page 27 - Next Issue

Trekkie Central Staff

Website Staff

Richard Richard Miles Miles Thomas Thomas Reynolds Reynolds

Forum Staff

Nick Nick Cook Cook Richard Richard Miles Miles Thomas Thomas Reynolds Reynolds

Magazine Creator Richard Richard Miles Miles

Head Writer

Alex Alex Matthews Matthews

Staff Writers

Heather Heather Ashley Ashley Gerri Gerri Donaldson Donaldson Beo Beo Fraser Fraser Eugenia Eugenia Stopyra Stopyra John John Whiting Whiting

Fan Fiction

Alma Alma Ames Ames

Creative Consultants Michael Michael Hudson Hudson Rick Rick Pike Pike

Special Thanks to Interviewees John-Paul John-Paul Atley Atley Barbara Barbara Clifford Clifford Beo Beo Fraser Fraser Robin Robin Hiert Hiert Paul Paul Knott Knott Matt Matt Milne Milne John John Whiting Whiting

General Information John-Paul John-Paul Atley Atley Rob Rob Caves Caves Nick Nick Cook Cook Beo Beo Fraser Fraser Robin Robin Hiert Hiert

Front Cover Paul Paul Knott Knott

Trekkie Trekkie Central Central Magazine Magazine is is produced produced by fans, no profit is being made by fans, no profit is being made from from the the production production of of this this magazine. magazine.

IfIf you you see see this this magazine magazine on on sale, sale, itit is a pirate copy and not in any is a pirate copy and not in any way way endorsed endorsed by

by Trekkie Trekkie Central Central

LATEST NEWS Hidden Frontier productions and Intrepid Productions have recently finished filming the feature length Operation Beta Shield, in a marathon week of filming, the week before the Excelsior Ball Three. Operation Beta Shield has a slated release date of Early to Mid August but no actual date set yet, one thing is certain though fans are looking forward to this a lot. For more information you can visit either the Hidden Frontier website at www.hiddenfrontier.com or Star Trek Intrepids website at www. starshipintrepid.net

Hidden Frontier have also released a trailer for Operation Beta Shield, which is available to view on You Tube and the Hidden Frontier website where it also available to download.

Hidden Frontier Productions have also started filming on the first episode of Federation One entitled ‘Unity’. This is a follow up series from Operation Beta Shield and stars Wayne Webb in a staring and reoccurring role of Matt McCabe. This episode is due for release after Operation Beta Shield and for more information visit www.hiddenfrontier.com Hidden Frontier Productions have also announced their first original production.

Frontier Guard is set entirely outside the Star Trek Universe and will begin filming at some point during 2009. For further information please visit their website.

all the latest happennings from the fan media world

Star Trek Of Gods and Men has finally been completed, with the third and final part of the episode. To view this visit their website at www.startrekofgodsandmen.com

Star Trek The Experience is set to close.

Recently announced by Paramount Studios, Star Trek the Experience is due to close in September.

Intrepid Productions have announced a release date for their next episode ‘Where There’s a Sea’. The release date for this short is 20th July and we have an interview with Captain Hunter himself aka Nick Cook all about ‘Where There’s a Sea’. For more information visit their site at www.starshipintrepid.net

Guy Davis the man behind the manga comic book series USS Tamerlane has recently released the second Omake in the series. The Omake is entitled ‘The Last Night of The Year’ and is available to read at www.usstamerlane.com

Hailed by some as a sad day for Trek, the Experience has had a 10 year run, and will be sorely missed by many Trek fans around the world.

Paramount has not ruled out the Experience returning in some form in the future, although that remains to be seen exactly how it will.

For more information please visit the Star Trek Experience website at www. startrekexp.com Star Trek Defiant have released two episodes recently, the first of these is called ‘The Far and Wondrous Distance Part 3’ this is the final part in this story and is now available for download.

The second episode that they have released is ‘One Hundred and Seven Days’ this and the previous episode are both available for download from http:// pendantaudio.com/defiant

We’re talking with Robin Hiert, Executive Producer on the Dutch Production ‘Dark Armada’ TCM : When did you first discover Star Trek?

RH : I remember my father used to watch Star Trek The Next Generation when I was a kid. I didn’t really know what it was all about, but I remember I liked the intro tune! I think it wasn’t until I was about 12 years old when I started to watch Star Trek. I guess it’s safe to say I never stopped watching and eventually I began to search for more about it on the internet.

TCM : How did you become involved with Dark Armada?

RH : Dark Armada started as a Star Trek fanfic I was writing (for some reason) and I posted it on several forums. The idea of making this into a fan series never came to mind until I read about Hidden Frontier. Someone started this thread about fan series, Hidden Frontier in particular. This made me think: “If they can do it… we should be able to do the same”. It started a discussion about making our own series and it seemed there wasn’t any such endeavour in The Netherlands. Some supported our initiative and others thought it would never work out.

When we started there were so many issues to work out: ‘where do we get our costumes, camera, other equipment, how do we publish it once it’s finished, where do we get the money?’ And many more questions that needed to be answered. ‘The Flying Dutch’ (a Star Trek fanclub) decided to help us out from the very start of our project. Thanks to them we had the chance to reach a large group of people, ideas, experiences and equipment. Later on we got some more help from another fanclub ‘The Federation’, one of the most helpful things they helped us with was a ‘costume workshop’ that started our very own original line of uniforms. We’re now working on Dark Armada for 3 years and it’s

finally starting to get together. We have a wonderful group working on the next episode and we have a lot of equipment, make up, our own costumes, stunning 3D models and newly designed props.

I have several roles in this production (Fan Trek Productions), because we have a limited crew and limited resources. I help organise shoots/events, handle the application of new volunteers, write some of the scripts, design en make costumes and ofcourse I play one of the main characters of the show.

Next to that I try to help out where help is needed to try and keep the production running, for that last reason I’ve even directed a few times. Our production can be divided into 3 major parts. Martin van Buuren is in charge of the technical part (equipment, crew and everything related), Jeroen Steenhagen of the website and financial matters, everything else is the creative part and is my responsibility.

TCM : Can you tell us what Dark Armada is about?

RH : Dark Armada was the name of the story I mentioned earlier. The original idea was that a large group of enemy ships was approaching Earth and had to be stopped…..how cliché. Over the years this concept has been given more thought and it turned into something more complex. In our pilot episode the audience will get to know the crew of the Blue Star, the Batavia and a ‘dark force’ approaching Federation space.

In later episodes we’ll start at the very beginning with the commissioning of

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the Batavia. The pilot episode will be full of things that will be explained in the chronologically earlier episodes. This order of episodes was primarily created to explain the title ‘Dark Armada’ in the pilot.

We never changed the name of Dark Armada although we wanted to at some point. We’ve become known with this title and changing it might not be the best thing to do at this point in the production. If we would have changed the name of the show it would have most likely been Star Trek Batavia or Star Trek Ethernita.

There are 3 important factors in our series. One of those is of course the main starship the U.S.S. Batavia. The second is another ship that is almost always around, the U.S.S. Blue Star. The last important factor is the planet Ethernita for it’s people and diplomatic involvement. I can’t go into any more detail for spoiler reasons.

TCM : Which Character are you playing in DA? RH : I play one of the main characters: Captain Alexander Richardson.

TCM : Can you tell us a bit about that character?

RH : Well yes I could, but I also don’t want to spoil it too much. Alexander is a young Captain who likes a challenge from time to time. He’s always in for a joke, but he’s very serious when on duty….most of the time. Richardson seems to have many secrets; he tends to keep personal things to himself. If you’d like to know more about this or other characters in Dark Armada, visit our website for the latest updates. www. darkarmada.nl

TCM : How did you become involved with The Expedition?

RH : I believe I contacted Thomas, one of the producers of the new show, after he posted a message on the Hidden Frontier board searching for voice actors. I always try to support other productions as much as I can, so I sent him a message that I was interested in a small audio role. He might have hoped I would contact him about it and he knew exactly who he wanted me to play.

Instead of an audio part he proposed that I could record several green screen scenes here in the Netherlands and send those over to the US, but of course we had a lot of details to work out to make that happen.

TCM : What character are you playing in The Expedition?

RH : The character I play in The Expedition is called Keyvon and he is half Kazon and half Cardassian. He is one of the bad guys of this show. I believe that’s all I can reveal about him at this time. If you want to know more I suggest you watch The Expedition at www. theexpedition.org

I believe the big difference between a professional production and a Star Trek production is the motivation of the people involved in it. They are so passionate when they’re making ‘Trek’, something they all like! This is THE opportunity to help produce a Star Trek series without having to be a professional.

TCM : Due to the distances involved how are you and The Expedition filming your lines and character?

RH : As I mentioned earlier Thomas proposed we would shoot the scenes in The Netherlands using the green screen technique and send the video files over to the States. Once there it can be edited and placed in the actual episode.

Ofcourse that would mean we need all equipment, props, make up and costumes in the Netherlands. Because we can use most of the equipment/make up from Dark Armada for it, that wasn’t the problem. I have some experience in designing and making Star Trek costumes, so I offered to make our own costumes for Keyvon and a Klingon guy (played by Nielco van den Bosch). At the time I’m writing this we’re getting ready to shoot, making the storyboards and Nielco’s costume.

TCM : What is it like working on a Star Trek Fan Production?

RH : Now that’s a very interesting question, because I’ve been involved in various aspects of the production. I hope I can motivate people to get involved in these kinds of productions!

Being the creator and producer of Dark Armada feels a bit like a fulltime job. I organise meetings and shootings and people can come to me when they have something to say, suggest or ask.

But when we’re working together, on a shooting for example, that’s when you see that it’s all worth it. The atmosphere is so amazingly wonderful and it’s like we’ve known each other for ages.

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TCM : Dark Armada is quite big in your home country, what is that like and have you ever been recognised in the street?

RH : Oh, haha I wish! It is true that several articles about Dark Armada have been published in several local newspapers and even a piece on Dutch television in a news program called ‘Editie NL’. BUT it’s not really that big in our country and Star Trek is not as popular as in other countries, like for example the US or the UK. Perhaps it will get some more attention after the release of our upcoming episode titled “Nightfall”.

On the other hand our production is well known in the Dutch Star Trek community. We travel around visiting sci-fi and fantasy conventions to promote Dark Armada and other fan films. By showing teasers, trailers, pieces of films and episodes, props, costumes and many other things we try to interest the visitors in watching fan films and sometimes to get involved in those productions. Several times I’ve even been asked to perform a line from our test episode, the “Oh my God!” line. The readers who’ve seen the test episode will know exactly why! So I guess we’re quite big within that community… As long as we can reach the fans, I’m happy. After all a fan series is produced by the fans, for the fans.

Robin Hiert, thank you very much for taking the time to talk to us today.

We’re speaking with Matt Milne, composer extraordinaire.

vising and it went from there. my mom put me into music lessons, but i absolutely hated that and soon understood that my abilities lay in compositon. As for actual writing, i was about 12, and on my computer was a program for changing the instruments and volumes in midi files. So i started to play around with that, then about 3 or 4 months later i noticed a grid for inputing notes. The first few weeks, nothing much happened, but suddenly as if by magic an idea played through my mind, and from then on in, i could put the notes into the program and have it play it back to me. In other words i could write music on a computer, or sequence, as it’s called.

TCM : What star trek fan films are you involved with?

MM : Several; Star Trek Hathaway, Star Trek the Expedition, Star Trek Protector and Star Trek Phoenix. of course i would love to be involved with canon productions, including st11.

And new voyages of course is of great interest. i try not to infringe on other composers territory, unless specifically requested, loyalty between artists is very important.

TCM : How have you become involved with so many fan films?

MM : Several reasons, but the most important of those i think is that art knows art. As i’m sure you all know from life experience, if you are interested in something, it is fairly easy to find that enthusiasm and interest in others who have it. In this case, several of these ‘fan’ productions are made by industry professionals, both tv and film, I am an artist and i think (and hope) that they recognise that and engage with it. The second reason is that i actively seek energetic people to collaborate with and great productions to be a part of.

And the third reason, is that it takes me 3 days to score a standard 45 minute show to a top level, so i’ve got a lot of opportunity to work hard. Whereas most people have only enough energy to score 6 features a year, i am perfectly willing to sacrifice everything to be involved in upwards of 50 features (of course nobody will give me that many to work on, alas) so i have plenty of composing slots available to dedicate to worthwhile, interesting, incredibly enthusiastic and driven groups of dedicated filmmakers.

TCM : How did you first get into writing music?

MM : When i was 5, i can remember a piano in our sitting room. i took to impro-

TCM : What was the first piece you wrote?

MM : Dating back to sometime in the early nineties, i have a small sheet of paper, with a few note names scribbled down. i’m guessing it was something i wrote for a primary school music class. the first official piece in my music catalogue is my 5th piano concerto that i composed for a highschool music exam. there have been 7 others since then, along with several symphonies, 6 violin concertos, several feature scores and around 100 short film scores.

TCM : How do you produce the music?

MM : The same way that John Williams, Howard Shore or James Horner does. i load up the film into my sequencer program, i input the notes into a grid in the sequencer (i could put it in from a keyboard, but i don’t work like that), then pick the instruments and the computer then plays that back as i write it. I can record it and then send it to anyone anywhere in the world using the internet.

A very simple, cheap, high quality, and highly efficient way of writing music. I have the good fortune of not needing to plan, organise or otherwise structure my music, it simply flows from my subconcious interpretation of the film, into my conscious memory, and from there, through my arms and into the computer.

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TCM : Do you have a favourite piece of music for a star trek fan film?

MM : No not really, however my favourite star trek score has to be the genius of james horner in the wrath of khan. the wonderful array of instruments, and the highly creative and emotional scoring following every twist and turn of the film, can’t be beat even today.

My second favourite being McCarthy’ s wonderfully imaginatively synthesised score to Generations, closely followed

by Goldsmith’s score to First Contact and Insurrection. My least favourite score being star trek 4, 5 and 6.

TCM : Have you got a favourite fan film piece of music?

MM : Again no, but my favourite film score has to be jurrasic park 1, harry potter 1, lord of the rings 1 and 3, star trek 2, and the work of Alan Menken from 1989 to 1996, again all the work of great genius, sadly no longer able to give us the benefit of their brilliance, owing to the industry’s continued ignorance and creative ineptitude.

TCM : Are there any future projects that you can tell us about?

MM : Being a creative and enthusiastic person i do my best to get as much work as possible especially with regards to feature work, unfortunately owing to my reluctance to take orders from the lower orders of the business, and unwillingness to keep my mouth shut if i feel the film is damaging to the industry and completely fradulent, work only comes through from great directors, producers and actors who hear of me and my abilities through those i have the pleasure of knowing and collaborating with.

I love being part of a creative team, i love supporting and collaborating with great artists. I hate being pushed about the factory-obsessed, money-posessed, greedy fame and fortune seeking nobodys that seem to occupy the bulk of the industry. To me it seems that the business consists of a few great artists, sat on islands of talent, surrounded by a sea of screaming, fame obsessed morons who are trying and will stop at nothing to drag you into their sea of dispair and frenzy whenever you try to cross from one island to the next, or be heard over their shouts. There are too few good, honest, talented writers and few dedicated producers to make anything half decent, this is why the film industry is in the mess that it’s in, and why every film feels the same, that’s because they are. And the industry’s too narrow minded and paper obsessed to seek and find any serious and gifted

people, to reverse the situation. It wouldn’t surprise you to know that i think a lot of the tv industry works entierly closed shop and that it owns more than a few of the film companies, and it has been that way since the 70s. Not since the days of lucas and episode 4, has the industry been driven by serious, gifted artists seeking to create a masterpiece, and now everyone with those skills are subject to the whims of every self-serving moron the universities, film schools and conservitoires have to throw at us.

Because i think they recieve preferencial tratment from hiring practices while those with genuine gifts and drive, are left stacking shelves. But then that’s just this artist’s impression, i may of course be completely wrong and an utter jerk for saying all of that. Always trust your instincts, but be prepared to admit if they’re wrong, that’s the wise thing to do. Anywho, the reason i said all that is that i feel it’s necessary for you to know that not is all that it seems or is written about, and for you to know why i would turn down a project, or why people won’t hire me.

That rant, and the aformentioned difficulties aside, there are several projects on the go, details of which i can’t really go into but you can google some of these; Andrews’ Raiders, The ghost of hangman’s bridge, Phoenix falling, Revelations, Zen, the star trek fan productions mentioned above, a metal gear fan project, retribution, lost hope, the forger, these dreams, today’s world, The sketchbook, The farm, heroes( a 1 hour short film), Mount Soledad love story, The mighty Kuch, Serial Monogamy, Ethan Allen, The Swan, Degas, Western Sky, My garden, Revenge is sweet, Game Over, crash, Zombie smash, the first episode of Star Trek: the helena chronicles, Dylan’s tree, over flander’s fields mod, the last half of darkness, and of course all of my own compositional work including a few new concertos and some trailer tracks.

Not to mention any rescores. My hobby is to pick up a film and write an entierly new score, to add depth, power and emotion, to films i feel were unfairly degraded by the low quality scoring offered by the poorly trained graduates comprising the biz’s ‘new blood’. that and it’s also a good way to keep talents going during leaner work times.

Matt Milne, thank you very much for your time.

The Inquisition Where we really make people think about what they’re saying ........y’know, sort of.

1. What is your name?

John A. Whiting, at least for today.

2. What was the last book you read?

Small Favor by Jim Butcher.

3. Is the glass half full or half empty?

Depends on which direction you’re headed in: if you’re filling the glass, it’s half-full. If you’re drinking from the glass, it’s half-empty.

4. What is your favourite colour?

Tie: red and blue

5. Scifi or Chick Flicks?

Most SF, but there’s a few good “chick flicks” as well.

6. Picard or Kirk and why?

Kirk. He usually didn’t go around bragging about his moral superiority, unlike Picard. Kirk thought that we were still striving to better ourselves. Picard thought that we’d arrived.

7. What question have you always wanted to be asked?

“If I let you collect the interest, would you keep this $10 million for me until I return?”

8. When was the last time you were star struck?

Gaylaxicon. Twice. I was on two separate panels with people I admire greatly.

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9. Who was it that made you star struck?

Joe Haldeman and Lois McMaster Bujold.

10. What is the natural colour of water?

Water is not tinted, therefore, it has no color.

11. Family Guy or The Simpsons?

[shudder] Neither, thank you. I try never to watch shows about people I would never allow into my home if they were real.

12. Quark or Odo? Odo.

13. The original Enterprise or The Enterprise D? The “original” Enterprise, NCC1701.

14. Football or Baseball?

Neither. How about broadsword?

15. Who would you most like to meet and why?

The list is long. Most, I admire for their intellect and achievements. A few, I would just want a straight answer to the question “Why did you do that?”.

John Whiting. Thank you .

Star Trek : The Orginal Series, season 3. Episode 3, The Paradise Syndrome. This is the starting point for an upcoming Trilogy of movies dealing with the themes of fate and destiny and which asks the question, what would you do if you found out that your whole life had been prophesised centuries before you were even born? Would you accept that your destiny was already decided or would you try and be the master of your own fate?

Established Trek lore plays a large part in the concept and story, with elements drawing from The Orginal Series, The Next Generation and various Trek novels.

The driving force behind the movies is an ancient alliance of three Trek races, the Preservers, the Progenitors and the Bajoran Prophets known as The Trinity.

A major part of the story is the introduction of a signifant protaganist for the crew of the USS Meridian to deal with. There is a little difference in the approach to this new ‘enemy’.

Instead of creating a new alien race, the creators have created something more akin to an organisation, sworn to protect the secrets of the ‘Trinity’ called ‘The Karrindan Guard’ who have access to the advanced technologies developed by the races of The Trinity making them a far more dangerous adversary than we have seen before.

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TCM : When did you first discover Star Trek?

JPA : I never really “discovered” Star Trek, it was something I grew up with and have followed since I can remember. I have vivid memories of watching TNG on Saturday nights, and that’s really what got me into the franchise. It wasn’t until I got into my teens that I re-connected with Star Trek - and Voyager was the first series I really remember following. Deep Space Nine wasn’t something I liked, but somewhere after Voyager’s fifth season I found myself catching up with it through reruns, and it became my favourite series.

I’ve always had outside opinions on Star Trek, though. Enterprise is my favourite series, followed by DS9 Voyager then TNG. TOS is a great classic, but until recently it didn’t have as much exposure on British television so I couldn’t really make a connection except for the movies.

I also think Nemesis was fantastic, and didn’t deserve the abuse it got.

TCM : How did you become involved with Trinity?

JPA : I became involved in Trinity after searching the internet for new fan films, feeling starved with no new releases. I stumbled upon Trinity and was intrigued by its initial premise, so offered my services on the forum.

From there, I began talking with Paul Knott, the Executive Producer, and I was signed up to direct the second

webisode of Prelude. That evolved into directing the first feature.

Just recently we’ve been looking at Trinity’s schedule and its future past filming Prelude (our webisodes) and the first feature (Revelation), and I was signed up to direct all three features and the three series of webisodes.

TCM : Can you tell us a bit about the series?

JPA : What struck me about Trinity is that it wasn’t being developed as a series like other fan films. It was an actual feature film trilogy, so it has a finite existence.

I’m hesitant to make the comparison, but the way Trinity is set out is akin to The Lord of the Rings trilogy, in that the three films are one story - a beginning, middle and an end.

There are also three series of webisodes spread between the release of the films. These allow us to set up story elements and get the backstories out of the way, allowing us to jump straight into the story in the films.

The three films are going to be 90 minutes in length, with the webisodes being between 5 and 10 minutes in length each.

TCM : You have a quarry that is going to be used in the series, can you tell us how that came about and what it is going to be used for?

JPA : For British readers, the quarry will be a familiar element to science fiction they’ve likely seen. The most famous use for quarries of course coming from Doctor Who. It creates a ready environment,

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something barron and a little alien. It’s also a blank slate allowing you to add little touches which can make it seem that little more alien.

For American readers, the quarry is akin to the forests you see in Stargate every other week. I love that we’re using a quarry. It comes with a great heritage, and the site we’ve found is superb. It has a great casm and fantastic scenery, so we’ll really be getting the full use out of it.

As for what’s it’s being used for, I really can’t say too much other than it’s the location of the final climax and holds a great lot of mystery within the first film.

Revelation really is like a mystery film, it presents lots of questions and the crew tries to discover just what is going on.

It’s great fun. I would really love to film scenes for the other two features in the quarry, but in story terms, at the end of the film, it no longer exists. Take from that what you want.

TCM : Can you tell us a bit about the characters in your series?

JPA : The characters are the pinnacle of any film or series, and we have some great characters in Trinity. I really have fallen in love with the characters, and I already have my favourites. There’s something for each character to do as well, they all have their own little moments to shine. And there’s a truly heartbreaking scene where a character I totally love does something really bad.

But I’m not going to tell you who or what it is. It’d be like letting you know Bruce Willis’s character in Sixth Sense is dead - before you’ve seen the film!

TCM : What ship is going to be used in the series?

JPA : The ship is, for me, one of the best things about Trinity. It’s called the Meridian and is a Steamrunner class, which were seen very briefly in First Contact during the initial battle with the Borg. The design of the ship is so

TCM : Is there anything else that you can tell us about the series?

JPA : For a film set post-Nemesis (by about 10 years) it really does a great job at drawing together nearly every Trek series to date. The biggest influences come from TOS of course. We’ve really embraced their philosophy of

unique, and it’s really small. It’s a bit like the Defiant, small but mighty. That’s another thing that attracted me to Trinity, that this wasn’t the Federation’s flagship having this great adventure, it was just a regular service vessel. Nothing special about it or its crew, yet they’re the ones that make this amazing discovery.

The model is superb as well, and it looks even better post-battle.

questioning who we are, what makes us human, why are we out here?

The jumping-off point for the series is the TOS episode ‘The Paradise Syndrome’. We investigate what the Obelisk is, and by this time a lot more have been discovered. We also take elements of William Shatner’s Preserver series of books.

If you’re observant enough, you’ll spot the references to the past shows and films, and if you’re really observant you’ll spot references to other fan series.

That was another of our mandates, to not violate the “fan canon” that has been established. So far, we’ve done a pretty good job. I personally am taking a lot of care to honour the legacy of Star Trek and its fans, to deliver them a film they will really enjoy. It’s something I want to enjoy as well, because I’m a fan too.

TCM : And can you tell us a bit about the ship. (ie what class, max speed etc)?

JPA : The canon on the Steamrunners is hazy at best. They were designed for First Contact, but the models were lost after production wrapped on the film. So, to date, that’s their only canon appearance.

But that gives us a lot of freedom as to what we want to do with the Steamrunner.

The trick for us was to make this ship powerful, but not too powerful. It can’t be too powerful because there would be no drama when this vessel is put in harm’s way. We needed the audience to feel this ship could be destroyed in combat, and I feel that really comes across. We’ve struck a perfect balance.

It’s a little smaller than the Intrepid class, with about half the firepower of the Defiant.

John-Paul Atley, thank you very much for your time.

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TCM : When did you first discover Star Trek?

PK : Way back in 1985-6 BBC2 here in the UK was showing re-runs of the orginal series, so I suppose it was then I started watching them, and then TNG was released and the BBC started to show it in the same time slot, so it was just natural to carry on watching, and from that point I was hooked.

close to where I live, and the scenery is gorgeous, and while we were there taking a look at it for use in Trinity, we found that a stone circle has been ‘built’ in one of the main parts and we all agreed that it was really cool and fitted with a sequence in the first movie perfectly.

TCM : How did you become involved with Trinity?

PK : Short version.....I created it. Long version......I’ve always been a sucker for Epic stories with a long running arc (Blakes 7, Babylon 5 etc.) and I was wanting to restart a Play by Email RPG that I used to run so I started to jot down ideas and develop a backstory which would lend itself well to the game, in doing so I came up with a prophecy idea that would be the guide to the overall story. After developing the story it became clear that it was a little too complicated and ‘big’ for a role play game, so I started to develop it as an online ‘Virtual Series’ where a new episode script is released about once a week, and follows the same pattern of an actual TV show. As the story developed it became a ten part miniseries, and then eventually became the Trilogy of movies that we have today.

The overall theme of the movies is that of Fate and Destiny, basically whether our own decisions are actually our own or are we fulfilling the wants and needs of a greater power, this is where the prophecy (which survived through all of the projects incarnations) comes in, and once knowing that your life has been prophecised, can you change what is to come and be a true master of your own destiny.

TCM : Can you tell us a bit about the characters in your series?

PK : We have several characters involved with the first movie, but as a first movie we wanted to keep the cast list as small as possible, simply so that we could ‘get it right’ without having to worry about a large cast.

We have our Captain (James Brunel, Human), a Romulan First Officer (SubCommander Tevek, who is aboard as part of an officer exchange program, and really doesn’t want to be there), A Trill Chief Engineer (Lt. Commander Nadya Denna, who has a very close relationship with the Captain), Dr. Willard Lynch (An old friend of Brunels, along as a Special Advisor), Lt. Commander Morgan Teller (A grizzled old soldier on his last tour before retirement) and a number of supporting roles. Without giving too much away I can’t really say anything more on the subject of characters, but as things progress little things will be mentioned about each one.

TCM : You have a quarry that is going to be used in the series, can you tell us how that came about and what it is going to be used for?

PK : When looking for locations, it was the one place that instantly sprung to mind, it is an old quarry that has been transformed into a country park

TCM : What ship is going to be used in the series?

PK : The ship we are using is the USS Meridian, a Steamrunner class vessel.

The initial idea was, because I was still learning 3D modelling, and the original time frame of Production, to find a mesh online, secure permission

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to use it, and make use of that. I wanted a canon starship that we knew existed, but hadn’t seen much of, so the Steamrunner seemed like an obvious choice. Upon looking for a suitable 3D model, I only found really low detailed ones which were quite old and wouldn’t hold up very well on screen, so at this point the production timeline had been amended so I began the task of building a new mesh, which was detailed and would look really good on a big screen. Due to a complete lack of reference images and a lot of conflicting information, the mesh that I built isn’t a ‘true’ Steamrunner as some of the details have been altered slightly, but as it stands it’s the most detailed 3D mesh of the ship around. The mesh hasn’t been released as yet, but I’m sure it will be in the future.

TCM : And can you tell us a bit about the ship. (ie what class, max speed etc) PK : As I said before, it’s a Steamrunner class ship, as for specs, there isn’t any at the moment, simply for two reasons, 1/ conflicting information in and around the net make it difficult, and 2/ it isn’t really that important to the story, a lot of people (myself included I will admit) seem to be more interested in the technology of Star Trek as opposed to the story and characters. A spec sheet will be written up prior to release of the first Movie as a reference guide, but at the moment, it’s not really needed.

TCM : Is there anything else that you can tell us about the series.

PK : Only the basics, Trinity is a series of 3 full length feature movies (90-120 minutes each) interspersed with small webisodes that bridge the gap between the movies. Once the movies are complete there is potential for several spinoffs (we’re having new ideas for these every day).

Paul Knott, thank you very much for your time.

The Costumes of Hidden Frontier Productions We’re speaking with Barbara Clifford, Head of Costume for Hidden Frontier Productions.

TCM : How did you become involved with the costuming department of Hidden Frontier?

BC : Rob cast me as Myra Elbrey. I didn’t realize that the show was actually a series so I just wore the costumes provided (even though my was very large & John Whiting & I had to share it). Since I’ve been involved in a lot of Community Theater productions, I was use to “pitching in”. So when we started our second season, I decided that the women needed costumes that fit instead of the “large” provided. So I just made a jacket trying to match what we were using. I took pattern pieces from different patterns I already had & made a jacket.

Rob really liked the idea and next think I knew I was “Head of Costumes” ;-)

TCM : What things do you have to keep in mind when creating a costume for one of the characters be it alien or human?

BC : That when the series first started all costumes had to be “one size fits all”.

So we got robes in brown, black, and grey and a few jumpsuits (ex-large) and that was the standard dress for all aliens. I then started making removeable trim (cuffs, collars, belts) so that things could be added, reversed, or even put on upside down. When the script called for the “Tom Corbett” scene, we ordered a variety of sizes in the dark blue jumpsuits so that small & large sizes would have something that fit. Eventually, Adam & JT took over costumeing the aliens and did a fabulous job. Now Rob has a new costume designer that designed the costumes for the Archein.

TCM : Do you create all the costumes yourself or do you have any help?

BC : I can’t say that I actually “created” any of the costumes but I did make most of the jackets myself. In season 6 & 7, fans made & donated the Admiral and dress uniforms. But I made or converted a majority of the jackets. Some

of Rob’s original jackets had light grey tops, when I realized that they should be dark grey I changed out the tops to match everything else.

TCM : The trim on the top of the starfleet uniforms was changed, who decided that and do you think that it looks better then the previous style?

BC : Well, I actually changed that and it was a surprise to Rob. As I mentioned, I was originally working from the costumes Rob already had then I was working from a picture. When I really examined the pictures, I realized that between the grey and black there was a grey trim. Since I was working full time and was the only person making jackets, I decided to save some time & buy some available trim instead of making the trim myself. Personally, I like the fact that HF trim is lighter. It sets us apart from all the other shows, I’ve heard that the explanation for the lighter trim is because our characters have been to “The Patch”, I like that.

TCM : Have you encounted any problems with either the designing of a costume or getting the correct colours for any of the costumes?

BC : Finding the correct colors is really hard. And since the costumes have to be durable and machine washable they are made of polyester, not the “coolest” fabric to be wrapped in. I find it very difficult to make the jackets.

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TCM : Have you ever brought material that has matched the colour of the starfleet uniform (the red, blue and gold), and then once it is in front of the camera it has turned out a different colur when seen on screen?

BC : Yes, the red is very difficult to match. One red actually came across as orange. The blue & gold not as much trouble on camera but finding it was pretty hard.

TCM : What was your favourite costume to do, and why?

BC : Once I had more time to concentrate on the costumes, I actually enjoyed finding stuff for Myra. Plus it was easy to fit her since I didn’t have to schedule anyone else. I think “Dancing in the Dark” I have a different costume for every scene.

TCM : How long does it take to make a starfleet uniform?(on average) BC : It takes about 40 hours from pinning patterns to material, cutting out the material, quilting, sewing, and fitting.

TCM : Are there any other costumes that you would like to tell us about, (what were ones that were easily put together, etc)?

BC : The only costumes that I actually “sewed” together were the jackets and some jerseys. The other costumes were bought and altered.

Barbara Clifford, thank you very much for taking the time to talk with us.

The Make-up of Hidden Frontier Productions This time we are speaking with Beo Fraser, Head of Make up for Hidden Frontier Productions.

TCM : When did you first discover Star Trek?

BF : I was exposed to Star Trek at an incredibly early age. My mother has a large collection of The Original Series on tape, so I used to sit around on weekends as a boy just watching them over, and over again. I remember when I first saw Generations (Star Trek VII) I had no idea who this bald man was!

I thought to myself “why on Earth are they on a sail boat?” But things became clear, and after that I was exposed to The Next Generation and the subsequent spin offs. The rest, as they say, is history.

TCM : How did you become involved with Hidden Frontier?

BF : My involvement with Hidden Frontier came totally by accident one night when a friend of mine sent me a link to a fan-made Star Trek show, and I was of course intrigued. I remember downloading every single episode and watching them in the space of a few nights; I didn’t sleep very much while I was catching up! From there I got involved with Hidden Frontier as a member of the forums, posting and interacting with the fan community. After a while I struck up a conversation with Rob Caves (Hidden Frontier’s Executive Producer) and be-

came a forum moderator. Being a forum moderator was at the time probably one of the hardest jobs in the production, and you end up making a lot of people upset! But it was very fulfilling, and I’ll admit to enjoying laying the law down in Current Events on occasion. Then one day I took a visit to California after my first year of University. What was originally to be a two week trip turnedinto three weeks, a month, then 3 months!

After that, I moved out here permanently and, amongst other things, became a full time member of the Hidden Frontier crew!

TCM : How did you end up involved with the makeup?

BF : That was sort of a progression.

Rob and I were heading to Halloween in Hollywood in 2006 and I remember saying to him “Well, we have a whole makeup department here. Let’s figure out how some of it works!” So we went that year as bloodied Bajorans. Subsequent to that, on one shoot none of the normal makeup team managed to make it and I was the only person around. But I’d never actually touched any sort of makeup except for that one time for Halloween, and it wasn’t the best job. Either way I gave it a go; wasn’t exactly wonderful, but muddled through. I started

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learning properly from John Whiting who was at the time the head of makeup, and became a full time member of the team! John Whiting retired from full time makeup duties at the start of Odyssey, as he needed a well deserved break.

For some reason they asked me to take over as the head of Makeup, and so I did! Since then we’ve had some major changes, from a complete remodel of the makeup room into a working makeup studio, to the expansion of the team.

TCM : Could you tell us a bit about what is involved with the make up ib HF, Ody and Helena BF : Every actor’s first stop is the makeup room, so I’m often the first person that they see during the day!

Even the humans get some makeup, so we start by taking every one through into the makeup room and getting them prepared with a bit of moisturizer or skin cleanser. We talk with the director of the episode to determine what they want, and then we begin the process!

Whether it’s just painted faces or full on prosthetics; we go through the process of putting them on, and then camera test, which means we take the actor into the studio and put them in front of the camera. Usually the director has some comments, which means we take them back into the makeup studio and keep working. After a couple of camera tests to ensure the makeup is perfect, we’re done! That is until we have to take it all off again at the end of the day.

TCM : Have you got any favourite aliens that you have done, and If so what ones were they?

BF : Oh absolutely!

There are a couple that I have a soft spot for. The Romulan was the first makeup job that I had any actual creative input on, when we decided to use three pieces for the forehead ridges compared to the original flat forehead piece we used to use. I also have to say that doing a Cardassian is always fun. It’s the first makeup that I remember from watching Hidden Frontier that changed from using a really awful facemask which didn’t even move when the actor talk to being an actual Cardassian! That was some cool makeup that HF started doing, and I was thrilled to learn how it’s really done. It is still one of the best makeups in the Hidden Frontier universe in my opinion. And finally, I think my absolutely favourite has to be the one off Bolian we did for Odyssey’s pilot episode “Iliad.” That was a collaborative effort between myself and John Whiting, with some kindly provided guidelines from a friend of the production, and took an entire three hours to complete to any degree of satisfaction - it had bald caps, full head colouring, prosthetics running across the entire face - it was the best makeup we’ve done, and if we have the time in the future I’d love to do it again.

TCM : You also work a lot with facial pieces, what is that like and do you prefer working with them to just painting a human face a different colour?

BF : Working with facial pieces is incredibly difficult, as you can see from episode to episode, they’re never perfect. In one episode you can barely see the edges and in another episode it’s pretty obvious we’ve just stuck this thing on someone’s face and tried to make it work. Part of that is because different circumstances, such as room temperature, humidity, etc., effect the pieces and

the actor’s skin which can lead to varying results of appliance. The stuff that we use to blend the edges also has the same problems of drying out too quickly, not working in the right place sometimes - so it can be very hit and miss. I’m quite proud to say that lately we’ve been more hit than miss. If you look at Ro Nevin’s nose, and T’Lorra’s forehead, in Odyssey’s fourth episode “Vile Gods” you will notice that you barely notice the pieces.

And I’m hoping that the quality of prosthetic appliance continues to increase in this fashion.

In the manner that it’s much harder to replicate prosthetic application from one episode to another I prefer the simple “paint and go” approach, like we do with the Archein. However, do prefer the end result of using prosthetics - it takes away the humanness of the actor and leaves in its place the Cardassian, or the Bolian, or the Klingon - characters that look so alien it really makes our Trek universe more expanded. So I hope we use more prosthetics going forward - I just hope I get better at learning to apply them!

Between all of this though one of the things I really enjoy doing is wound makeup - what colour is the Archein blood? What happens if you cut a Vrijheidian across the face? How can we make this person look as beaten up as possible? This involves a mixture of prosthetic and face-painting. Tybiss in “Vile Gods” is the best example of this, where his remaining good eye is pretty much in tatters after his final encounter with T’Lorra, and was some of the most fun I’ve had in the makeup studio.

TCM : Have there ever been any aliens written into a script that you just couldn’t create in make up?

BF : Honestly, I really don’t think so.

Sometimes we’ve changed an Andorian into a Bajoran, or a Romulan into a Vulcan, because of time constraints, but I don’t think we’ve had something yet we really couldn’t do.

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TCM : If so what alien was it?

BF : I think the closest we came to us being stumped is Dais, who is a Bolian/ Nausicaan hybrid. I really wanted to include a lot more Nausicaan features into her facial structure, but frankly I had absolutely no time to figure out how we’d do it, and even where to begin! So we went with a more Bolian approach, which I think works when you take into account the darker skin tone. But the writers haven’t come up with anything that’s absolutely and totally stumped us.

Yet!

TCM : What sort of make ups do you use and how do you apply them?

BF : We use a plethora. Water based pigments generally make up the colours that we apply to the face and body, and is water soluble so a nice washcloth or shower takes care of it easily. Bond-oh! is our blending tool of choice, which we use as a filler (in the same way you use filler on cracks in the wall) to remove a lot of the blended edges, and recently we’ve gone back to using liquid latex to creating an even finish over the Bondoh!. The prosthetics are either adhesed with something called “prosthetic adhesive” (what an original name!) or medical adhesive, which isn’t as scary as it sounds! Removal involves copious amounts of sponges and Bond-off!, the technical name for the substance that removes Bond-oh! Bond-oh!, Bond-off!.

TCM : Are there any particular aliens that you would like having a go at creating in the future?

BF : Borg. Oh, my god, I want to do a Borg. I have absolutely no idea how we’d manage it though, and it’d probably give me a heart attack just trying to get it done. If not a Borg, perhaps a Gorn.

Yeah, I’m not overreaching!

Beo Fraser, thank you very much for taking the time to talk with us.

Excelsior Ball Three: Extremely Bonkers Throughout!

Part One: Casa Caves

If you tell a perfect stranger, that you’re about to board a plane for an eight to ten hour flight, just to spend the weekend with people you met fleetingly the same time last year, you are probably going to get the odd look or two. Believe me, when I told my work colleagues that I was planning on attending this year’s Excelsior Ball, that’s exactly what happened.

But when it comes to Star Trek fans, we are a breed above the rest, willing to cross hell or high water in order to meet our heroes, and for many of our Internet brethren, the people who write, direct, produce and star in Star Trek: Hidden Frontier, and her sisters shows, Odyssey and Helena Chronicles, are that to a tee - a hero.

Luckily, I wasn’t that alone in my endeavour, as on the same plane was Richard Miles, the esteemed editor and creator of Trekkie Central, accompanied by his brother, taking their first ever flight, whereas for me, this was my 3rd trip to the States in the last decade. I also knew that I would be seeing some other long-haul travelers, Nick and Lucy Cook, from bonnie Scotland, as well as Bodo Hartwig, coming from Germany.

Nick and Lucy of course represent Star Trek: Intrepid, the only released fan-film from the UK, while Bodo is the composer of various pieces for both Odyssey and the audio series, Star Trek: Diplomatic Relations. He also plays the Vulcan officer, Lt. Solek, for Intrepid, who will be premiering in the follow-up to “Heavy Lies the Crown”, titled “Transitions and Lamentations”.

The Internet has had quite a few uses over the years since its inception, most

importantly allowing people from differing continents to become good friends.

It was thanks to this that allowed me to become pretty good friends with John Whiting, known to most people as either “Dr. Henglaar” of Hidden Frontier, or “General Morrigu” of Odyssey. John was gracious enough to put me up for the first few nights of my stay, which allowed me to participate in the final 3 days of shooting for the joint Intrepid/ Hidden Frontier feature-length project, “Operation: Beta Shield”. It was this that allowed me to finally see if Jim Davies, the man behind the character of Siroc was as nasty as his character, and he was anything but, as both he and John opened up their home to me, swapped jokes and tales, compared tattoos and generally enjoyed each others company.

Here, I got to fulfill a desire I have had since I got into Trek: to actually be made up into an alien. Although I technically do play an alien in my role on Intrepid, as Lt. Keran Azhan, Azhan is an El-Aurian, which means he looks just like a human. Because of my role in Beta Shield, I got to be made up into a full-fledged Romulan - I even got to wear Michelle Laurent’s ears pieces, when she is made up as T’Lorra! How is that for a honour? I got to act alongside Karl Puder in his role as General Korg, and play out a scene with him, which was both funny and hard work. It was funny because I couldn’t see that well, not being able to wear my glasses, and having to guess at eye lines, and it was hard work because working with certain props was a lot more complicated then it should have been!

When not filming, I participated in helping out whenever I could, be it being made up as an extra for a scene from Federation One’s premiere, “Unity”, running the tape or manning the slate, running through lines with various cast members, and doing whatever I could to be involved in a Hidden Frontier production. Last year, I got to meet so many

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new people and this year, I was able to reacquaint myself with them, as well as see them in their natural environment, doing what they love and do best.

Watching Becky Wood transform herself from her human guise into the villainous Vindenpawl was a sight to behold, because it was less about make up and costume then it was about facial expressions and posture. Seeing the fun-loving and wise-cracking Risha Denney transform into Elizabeth Shelby simply by donning her uniform was almost eerie, even more so given how easily she would switch between the two persona when something comedic happened.

Likewise, watching Jennifer Cole and David O’Neill work together seamlessly as a team in order to direct the episode and coordinate both the actors and the necessary set pieces was like witnessing a carefully choreographed dance, with only the occasional glitch (they are human after all, and mistakes happen).

But what got me the most about visiting Casa Caves, is the welcoming arms that embraced not just me and the Intrepid crew, but everyone who visited. We were all welcomed and treated like part of the family, a very large, eccentric and happy, extended family, because in a sense, that what the show’s forums have made us. We all sat together outside, eating delicious takeout, swapping stories, and sharing hopes and dreams regarding the upcoming Ball and the planned Away Missions. No day was the same, each bringing new people for a visit, new scenes to run through and new friends and experiences to remember forever. Even the teasing I received over a particularly ill-suited wig I wore during filming my Romulan scenes will remain a cherished memory from my visit to a place where Trek lives on in it’s purest form.

Just don’t call me “Hailey” to my face... okay?

Yes, that means YOU too, Andrew Foster... :p

Part Two: Welcome to the Radisson Hotel

With the filming over, it was time for the real festivities to begin, as the Radisson Hotel became to grounds of a rather large assembling of Hidden Frontier cast and crew, and fans from across America, as well as us lucky few from Europe.

Beginning on the Friday afternoon, the EB3 started slowly with a “Getting to Know You” session for everyone who had arrived early.

The Laguna Room served as the main base of operations, while a selection of people, including myself, Wendy Smith, Rick Pike and Ryan Crisman, sat at the arrivals desk and handed people their specially printed ID badges to those who had registered their intent to travel to the convention. Each badge was labelled with the person’s name, screen name and their affiliation, be they cast and crew, another fan production, a member of the EB committee or a simple fan in attendance.

The Emcee for the weekend, Andrew Foster, head of the EB Committee worked tireless to keep people amused and help the friendly atmosphere permanently engaged, as fan videos and early Areakt Studios works were shown on the giant screen in the room. Others enjoyed what was on offer at the bar, which became a hub of activity as more people arrived over the course of the weekend.

First and foremost though, this was a gathering of friends, in some cases friends who only knew each other via the Internet, but that did not matter to any of us, because we all had a shared interest in common. Our gathering also attracted a lot of attention from innocent bystanders, who would pop their head in to see what all the laughing was about, when bloopers were aired, or cheers during particular moments of screened episdoes. When Dale Darr, HF’s resident Klingon extra arrived, and donned

full costume and make-up, even more people came to see just why a Klingon Warrior was wandering the corridors of the hotel, mek’leth and all.

Over the course of the weekend, various discussion panels were held, as cast and crew answered questions from the audience and the forums, and discussed their own ideas and feelings towards characters and arcs, story conception and creation, make-up techniques and general background of the various shows. These same people also sat willingly through autograph sessions and photo calls, happy to give their fans something back for the effort in making the trip in the first place.

I myself had he dubious privilege of sitting on both a panel and an autograph session, talking about my work for both “Star Trek: Intrepid”, as well as the ideas and format of my own audio series that had premiered several months ago, “Star Trek: Diplomatic Relations”, which was both a strange experience, and an honour. The idea that people wanted my autograph was a little hard to swallow, but seeing the disbelief in both Nick and Lucy’s faces made me realise that is probably what people like Risha, John, Wayne Webb, Brandon McConnell and Sharon Savene think when they are doing a signing.

But it wasnt just about the cast and crew, as the fans were allowed their own chances to shine, during the acting contest, judged by Risha and Brandon, as hopefuls acted out scenes from “Star Trek: Odyssey” episodes. There was also a trivia contest, which Rob, Jonathan Conner and Jenn judged as Andrew asked questions to the willing volunteers (myself included), questions that were pretty hard in some times, and suprisingly simple at others (if you had watched the entire run of HF recently, that is). For the last contest, arranged

by Jenn Cole, audience members were asked to play a game devised by Jenn

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herself, called “What Were You Thinking?” were when a question was asked, participants were told to write not the right answer, but the answer they believed everyone else would write down.

My favourite memory of the Ball has to be when my latest tribute videos were played in the presence of the actors who feature in them, namely when my T’Lorra video showed, as Michelle Laurent watched. Afterwards, she gave me the biggest hug and thanked me personally for it, saying she was very touched. It brought home to me that Ball is all about making connections, and it shows that the people who help Rob Caves make his vision come to life are still human, still everyday people doing a job, not realising the effect they have on others. But events like the Ball allow them to realise just how much they mean to their fans, as well as interact not only with their fans, but their fellow actors, some of whom, they may have never meet, due to the complexities of the green screen work and scheduling.

When the Ball rounded up, Rob Caves and Andrew Foster finished up by delivering emotional speeches for everyone concerned, both of them summing up the fact that a great weekend had been had by all, thanking everyone for coming no matter how far they travelled.

Jonathan unveiled both the newly created model of the Galaxy-class Mark 4 version of the USS Excelsior, with sensor pod replacing the 3rd nacelle, as well as presenting both Rob and Nick Cook with a dedication plaque for the newest ship of the Hidden Frontier fleet, the Diplomat-class starship, Federation-One, which will be the ship of the newest HF spin-off of the same name.

Emotions were very high as people said their goodbyes to friends new and old, some staying for the Away Missions, others heading home on the next plane.

But even as we all left, talk of the EB4 was already under-way.

May God watch out for whichever hotel hosts it...

Part 3: The Celebrity Dinner and Beyond...

After the experiences of last year’s attempt at a group dinner, the EB organisers decided to make sure that any group dinner this year was planned to the last detail. This year, the venue was Cozymel’s Mexican Restaurant, so everyone, fans cast and crew alike, would be able to have a proper sit down meal together on the Saturday night.

After spending most of the day together, as it was, the bonds had already started to form, so the evening promised to be a relaxing, enjoyable night.

No one left disappointed...

The food was excellent, the conversation fun, and the activities gut-splitting.

Cozymel’s has a product called a “Margarita Taster”, which has 5 small glasses filled with a different Margaritasstyle drink, which became very popular with a few of the patrons that night. So intrigued by it were others that soon, a drinking game game into being! First up, Team Intrepid went up against Team Odyssey, and unfortuantely, the (mostly) Scottish pride took a beating, as Team Odyssey whooped their asses, as poor Lucy Cook struggled to suck her partially frozen drink through a straw, whereas all Odyssey crewmembers downed theirs in one or two swallows!

Despite cries for a rematch, Odyssey then moved on to take Team Helena for a go, this one more closely played but still with Team Odyssey emerging victorious, while Team Helena members JT Tepnapa and Adam Browne ended up suffering from Brain Freeze. Afterwards, Helena captain Sharon Savene, who had abstained from the contest, offered her loosing crew some belated advice: “Remember to open your throat when you swallow...” Kinda late with that, my dear Captain...

After the dinner wrapped up, everyone still laughing at the results of the contest and various frivolities of the night, most

of us headed back to the hotel, which in it’s lobby, boasted a piano. The previous night, this had been the focus of a small group of EB attendees, but that night, almost the entire group swarmed the piano, where either Andrew, Beo Fraser or Bodo tinkled the ivories, and Becky or attendee Don Polansky regaled the rest of us in song, occasionally joined in by other attendees and cast, depending on the song. It was a magical and memorable experience, hearing these people, who could be called strangers, singing side by side, as the night stretched into the early morning.

When not singing, Don invented a new drink, the “X-rated Foreplay”, which helped keep the festivities continuing most of the night, as various hotel guests, arriving or leaving shot odd glances at this large group of people assembled around the piano, belting out songs to their hearts content. Personally, I wish I had taken part in that evening a little bit more then I did, but I was tired out from the emotions the day and night had brought up, so I left everyone to their singing.

Next year, I am guessing a piano will be a staple requirement of which ever hotel we stay at...

Excelsior Ball 3 Report by Richard Miles Day One

What to say about the third annual Excelsior Ball. I was looking extremely forward to my first Excelsior Ball (also my first ever convention) and although I didn’t know what to expect, would I have fun, would I get along with anyone, what would happen and many other thoughts were running through my mind. However when I got there I was immediately met by Jennifer Cole, aka Admiral Cole and The Grand Majan, who welcomed me with open arms. (Thanks Jenn) At 1.30pm the proceedings were started

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with the Welcome videos, which are currently featured on the Excelsior Ball website at www.excelsiorball.com, followed by some tribute videos by Alex Matthews available to view on You Tube and Star Trek Excelsior, a look at a very early voyage of Captain Shelby – we were told to remember the line ‘Shields’.

Whilst these videos were being shown there was also a chance to mingle in the crowd and get to know other people that attended, and identify them with their names from the Hidden Frontier forums, there was also a chance to meet some of the cast and crew from the shows including Rob Caves; Beo Fraser; Barbara Clifford; John Whiting; Andrew Foster; David O’Neill and Karl Puder as well as some people from other fan films including Nick and Lucy Cook from Star Trek Intrepid, Bodo Hartwig from Star Trek Intrepid and Michael Hudson and Alex Matthews from the audio series Star Trek Diplomatic Relations.

Then at around 4.30pm fans were treated to a one off viewing of the prequel series to Hidden Frontier the ‘Voyages of the USS Angeles’ movie “The Price of Duty”, and it was very good, considering it was made around ten years ago, and was thoroughly enjoyed by the people watching. This was followed by Star Trek Odyssey’s pilot episode ‘Iliad’ at the same time this was showing the first of six autograph sessions took place, giving the fans and some of the crew a chance to obtain autographs from the stars of the various Hidden Frontier shows. On the first autograph panel were Barbara Clifford, aka Myra Elbrey; John Whiting, aka Dr Henglaar and General Morrigu; Karl Puder, aka Korg; Jennifer Cole, aka Admiral Cole and the Grand Majan and Sharon Savene, aka Captain Faisal and Majan Seram, special thanks to Sharon for flying back from the UK and then going straight to the Radisson Hotel to join us that day. At 6:00pm there was a dinner break, where upon around 20 people went to the local

Subway, where we had a semi healthy dinner and got a chance to get to know other people a lot better. After the dinner we all headed back to the hotel for that evenings events to proceed.

That evening we all enjoyed a trivia quiz, a Weakest Link based quiz, where two fans were invited up to the front to answer questions based on Hidden Frontier productions, this was a very entertaining but very difficult quiz and well done to Alex Matthews and Camren for getting so many right. This was followed by the second and third episodes of Star Trek Odyssey; ‘The Wine Dark Sea’ and ‘The Lotus Eaters’ respectively. Which were enjoyed again by the fans that were present.

Following this was game that was set up by Jennifer Cole called ‘What Were You Thinking?’ the rules basically were Jennifer would say a subject – based on Hidden Frontier – and the fans were to right down their answers, the difference was we were to write down answers that we thought other people would be writing down, quite a difficult task I can tell you. This concluded the evenings events and people headed back either to their hotels, houses or rooms at the Radisson, although those that stayed at the Radisson were able to have a knees up in the reception area of the hotel, that apparently went on well in to the early hours of the morning.

Day Two

Arriving around 9am on the Saturday morning we all entered the room and were again welcomed by Andrew Foster and were able to rewatch a few of the messages from the day before as well as a special message from the people behind Star Trek Dark Armada. Following on from that Star Trek Hidden Frontiers finale ‘It’s Hour Come Round At Last’ was shown and at the same time there was another chance to get autographs of the cast and crew of Hidden Frontier. Then around 11am the first panel discussion of the weekend took

place. The panel entitled ‘From Concept To Chronicles: Story Development’ and was a talk with the writers and story developers, who let use in on some of the background of the worlds of Star Trek Odyssey and Star Trek Helena Chronicles, which was an extremely fascinating and educational talk.

After lunch we went back to watch The Helena Chronicles pilot episode ‘Sanctuary Lost’ followed on by a chance to meet the cast of Helena Chronicles in the second panel talk entitled ‘Back To The Patch: Meet The Helena Chronicles Cast’ during which fans were able to ask the cast questions and the cast answered them to the best of their abilities.

We then were able to watch Helena’s second episode ‘Obsessions’ followed

by Odyssey’s fourth episode ‘Vile Gods’ and again at the same time the opportunity to get autographs this time from the cast of The Helena Chronicles. Then around 4.00pm the third panel started, this one entitled ‘Andromedan Odyssey: Meet the Odyssey Cast’, although this one was a smaller group the talk was no less animated and interesting. This was followed by a screening of the first episode of the ‘Voyages of The USS Angeles’ ‘Return To Duty’ and the chance to get autographs from the cast of Odyssey. Then at around 5.30pm both fans and crew were treated to a glimpse of what was to come from Hidden Frontier Productions, first off we saw the trailer for Operation Beta Shield, this was followed by a preview of a few minutes of Operation Beta Shield itself. Then just when we didn’t think that there would be anymore Rob announced that Hidden Frontier Productions have been working on their first original project, entitled ‘Frontier Guard’ we then were treated to the two trailers that are now available on the Hidden Frontier website at www.hiddenfrontier.com. That evening most of the people attending went out for a meal at a local restaurant a report of which is in Alex Matthews report.

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Day Three

The third day of the Excelsior Ball started a little differently from the previous days. When I arrived at the hotel it wasn’t quite ready for the day’s proceedings, so a small group of us went to the local subway for breakfast, when we got back to the hotel the ball had already begun with ‘The Best of The Bloopers’ which were absolutely hilarious these were followed the fourth panel ‘The New Bad Guys on The Block: Meet The Archein’ a talk with a rather bedraggled group of actors (morning after the night before), this however did not dampen the fun that was had in this talk as both fans and crew took it in turns to grill the Archein over their Alpha Quadrant conquest plans. After this the fans had the chance to get autographs from the Archein themselves, whilst this was taking place the brilliant ‘Orphans of War’ was shown. Panel five started at 11am and was called ‘Creating The Look: Makeup’. This panel firstly talked about how they did certain makeups and then two of the panel – Beo Fraser and Heather Ashleigh – showed us how the makeup is actually done, and after seeing it in real life I was even more impressed.

Following lunch Star Trek Intrepids ‘Heavy Lies The Crown’ was shown followed by a special preview of their upcoming short ‘Where There’s A Sea’ due for release on the 20th July. Then we swiftly moved into the sixth panel discussion of the weekend ‘Fun with Fanfilms: HF-Verse Fanfilms and Joint Projects’ a look at the Hidden Frontier, Intrepid, Diplomatic Relations and The Expedition. Fans were then treated to another ‘Voyages Of The USS Angeles’ episode ‘Last of The Iconians’ as well as the final autograph session of the weekend. The final panel was ‘Tell Us What You Really Think: Fan Feedback’ a chance for us fans to tell the producers what we really thought. Then a couple of presentations the first one going to Rob and Risha Denney, an actual model

of the recently refit USS Excelsior, and this was followed on with the presentation of two plaques the first two Rob with the ship name ‘Federation One’ on it, this was followed by the presentation of an identical plaque to Nick Cook of Star Trek Intrepid. Then at the end of the afternoon Rob did a closing speech.

Round Up

Would I go again? Yes. Would I recommend it to you? Yes, everyone was extremely welcoming even Rob after my moment when I was star struck at actually seeing him in the flesh (sorry Rob). The weekend itself was extremely fun and entertaining and the talks were well thought out and informative. Thank you to everyone who works extremely hard on any or all of the Hidden Frontier versions of Star Trek and long may it continue.

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The Captains Log with Rick Pike A Fan’s Perspective on Star Trek Fanfilms: Is it Really Star Trek? And Why Do They Do It? [Richard Miles and I met up recently at the Star Trek: Hidden Frontier “Excelsior Ball” after chatting previously via the large and active Hidden Frontier forums. He asked me to write a little about what the Hidden Frontier and the fanfilm industry seemed to be about, from my perspective.]

As someone who is a relative newcomer to the Star Trek fanfilm world – I’ve only been recently active in this internet phenomenon for about 3 years -- I’ve casually followed the development of this new media form beginning with fanzines and fan fiction stories to crude home-made productions, to more professional looking productions. I was active years ago with the J. Michael Straczynski’s Babylon 5 feedback group on CompuServe (where JMS would do similar to what Rob Cave’s does on his weekly Hidden Frontier chat – toss out ideas, solicit raw feedback, and generally discuss how the show was created, how it develops, and where it might be going). After Babylon 5 ended, I kind of dropped out of the science fiction fan world. It has been only in the past 4 years that I rediscovered fanfilms in their current form, and frankly, I was stunned.

What I saw bowled me over. These shows were inventive, interesting, and demonstrated something that had been killed by the commercialization of giant Star Trek “cons” – the genuine love of the Star Trek universe, it’s characters, and the ideals of the Federation promoted first by Gene Roddenberry and those writers who followed him. And most of all, these fanfilms looked excellent!

I started watching anew first with New Voyages (Phase 2) and enjoyed that show and its remarkable sets and attention to detail mimicking the original Star Trek series. While there, on the New Voyages forums, I learned about other productions such as Farragut, Intrepid, and Hidden Frontier. But for me, it was mostly Hidden Frontier that held my attention. First, there were 50 epi-

sodes, over 7 years to download. And I did what most people do: watch a few, get hooked, and then go on marathon downloading/watching binges. I was hooked. I was amazed at the characters. I saw how they creatively used the green screen in the early episodes, and how they attempted to use makeup to recreate some of the aliens. In the first season or two, it’s clear they were learning… but wow, they were having a good time, and even more amazing, they were telling really interesting stories!

This was Trek, I knew it.

As the seasons progressed, the stories on Hidden Frontier had added depth and character development. The CGI work approached and, in my mind, sometimes exceeded that seen on television. And the writing continually got better and better for me. The writers, from year to year, seemed to really understand these characters, and to understand the true vision of Star Trek.

I was getting a steady dose of Star Trek, and getting to explore new worlds and new civilizations (albeit by green screen technology). And boy was I happy.

Even Hidden Frontier’s relatively controversial addition of a gay crewman in a lead role fit in with what I have come to believe is an extrapolation of the vision of Star Trek, because THIS was the Trek that I remembered… this was Gene Roddenberry’s Trek. Compelling stories about outer space, new civilizations, new adventures, but ultimately, stories about our own human condition here, and now. I liked how the gay plotline was integrated into the normal activities of the crew… and how the characters’ development was treated as just another storyline. Just as Star Trek of the 1960’s touched upon what were extremely sensitive issues (race, government control, ethics and morality) so was this Hidden Frontier exploring the same types of controversies and social issues here in the mid-2000’s. I loved it.

I also liked the fact that just as Roddenberry put a mixed racial crew on prime time TV in the mid-1960s (unheard of!), Caves had put a gay crewman and his relationships into a TV show without making it the focal element. Even though some Trek fans didn’t like it.. I

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thought it was true to the spirit of Star Trek. And still do.

Since rediscovering fanfilms, the various fanfilm forums, and the various fanfilm productions and some of the emerging new productions, I have had the opportunity to get to know other fans, as well as many of the producers, cast, and crew of several different fanfilms ( most notably, Hidden Frontier and Starship Intrepid.

As I have become more and more involved as a fan with Hidden Frontier, I was amazed at their dedication, creativity, and sheer determination to make these films. They do it using money out of their own pockets, on their own time, and in addition to all their other responsibilities to family, work, school, and other commitments. I was intrigued at why they did it. What motivated them to do it? That lead me to becoming more active in the Hidden Frontier productions, helping out as I could, helping to get donations for needed equipment and supplies to allow them to continue to make their shows. I helped out and attended their conference last year (Excelsior Ball 2) and was able to assist in the production of an episode. Since then, I have had the chance to work as crew on the set, and meet this talented group of people.

Making these fanfilms is hard work. It takes an incredible amount of time. And takes a huge amount of these people’s personal lives (and money!) to make it happen. Some do it to learn the craft of science fiction story writing, acting, directing, CGI graphics, or film production. Other support these fanfilms to help keep the Star Trek shows alive in uncertain times. But most importantly, I have come to believe, these people, fans, cast and crew alike truly believe in the positive values and ideals of the Star Trek universe, the lofty goals of the Federation, and a hope for a better future for all us. Sounds like some pretty good reasons for me... and I’m happy to be a very small part of this exciting new form of entertainment.

Rick Pike is a science fiction fan first and foremost. In addition to that, he is a member of the Hidden Frontier Productions staff for Public Relations and as Fan Donations Coordinator. He is amazed and thankful for all of the various Star Trek fanfilms, and their casts and crews. Rick lives in Maryland and his best friend seems to be an otter. He can be reached on the Hidden Frontier forums as rick20625 or by e-mail at rick20625@hiddenfrontier.com

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HIDDEN FRONTIER and INTREPID PRODUCTIONS PRESENT

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