Fan Cinema Today

This is the latest in a series of articles, each one covering five “must-see” fan films. After all, there’s so many fan flicks out there—how do you find the good stuff? Try these! Some are classics, others are just cool, but either way, you’ll be entertained.

With the new Star Trek big-screen movie out this week, it seems only appropriate to boldly go over the best fan films:

Star Trek: New Voyages/Phase II—”World Enough And Time” (2007)
This popular series of big-budget fan films has been moving along for a few years, even getting Walter Koenig (“Checkov”) in for an interesting, if talky, episode, but this is the one that got balance right. Featuring George Takei himself (“Oh my!”), the episode finds Kirk and the gang stumbling across an aged Sulu and his daughter; before you know it, there’s action, suspense and the weighing of classic Trek themes. NV/P2 is the standard bearer for Trek fan films, so if you’re only going to try the show once, this is the episode to dig into, as featured in Homemade Hollywood.

(2001)
By this point, the joke that red shirt crewmembers are the only ones who die has been flogged to death. This short flick makes it funny again, however, by taking that concept and playing around with it, asking “What’s it like to wear that scarlet uniform?” Two Red Shirts run around on an alien planet (in reality: Long Island—how appropriate!). One’s a complete newbie; the other graduated from the Denis Leary School of Bitterness. All I can tell you is, before it’s over, somebody’s gonna die.

Star Trek: Of Gods And Men (2008)
The filmmakers insist that it’s not a fan film ’cause it was a SAG-registered production; so what? A fan film is “An unauthorized amateur or semi-pro film, based on pop culture characters or situations, created for non-commercial viewing.” You better believe this falls into that category, even with the presence of more ex-Trek actors than you can shake a painstik at. Besides Walter Koenig again, there’s Nichelle Nichols (“Uhura”), Alan Ruck (“Cameron” from Ferris Beuler’s Day Off), Voyager’s Tim Russ (who also directed) and a slew of other folks from the various spin-off series that no one cares about.

The 90-minute film is undeniably bad, featuring a convoluted plot, dodgy camerawork (spot the studio ceilings far above the sets) and creaky dialogue. Even so, the fan film is also a must-see because it’s undeniably fun to have so many Trek alumni from across the years in one place. Plus, even in this pile of screamin’ steamin’, Ruck once again shows that he should have been the movie star to get Tom Cruise’s career; somebody throw this guy through the giant Cheerio to 1982 and make him try out for Losin’ It.

Star Trek: Hidden Frontier (2000-2007)
Across seven “seasons,” this scrappy little series produced 50 episodes, making by far the most prolific Trek fan series ever—a title it’s likely to hold for a long time to come. The production values are mega-low budget—actors are green-screened in on top of backgrounds, so they rarely move and mostly just talk—but the series improved as it went along and it broke new Trek ground by featuring the first openly-gay character in the franchise’s long-running history.

Star Trek Vs. Batman (2007)
Mix old-school Star Trek with the 1960s Adam West Batman show and what do you get? A freakin’ awesome time.

After the Enterprise accidentally winds up in the 20th Century, Kirk and Spock beam down to Gotham City for no particular reason. They’re immediately captured by the Joker and Catwoman, and soon after, have their brains stolen, reducing them to zombies with only one thought: Kill Batman and Robin. Soon they’re all back aboard the Enterprise, saving the day but not before some serious damage gets done to the infamous time/space continuum, so the heroes have to…nah, you’ll have to find out for yourself. Trust me; it totally rocks if you’re willing to have some unabashedly stupid fun.