Amateur, semi-professional, and low-budget independent filming have taken on a new level of maturity and quality in the last few years. These exciting new forms of entertainment are growing rapidly as non-mainstream filmmakers continue to make more and better films on shoestring bugets, and more fans turn to them for great entertainment.
Shore Leave 31 continues the programming track we started in 2007 as the Fan Film Track with plans to show more than ten hours of some of the best work these new science fiction film makers have to offer. We feature works by by amateurs, mixed (amateur and professional), and other non-traditional film-making groups. Look for us and enjoy!
Written and directed by David Gerrold (author of The Trouble with Tribbles); guest starring Denise Crosby, Bill Blair, and Evan Fowler; introducing Bobby Rice a Ensign Peter Kirk, nephew of the Captain. Pursued and damaged by repeated Klingon attacks, the crew of the Enterprise must respond to the distress call from a Federation research ship. In a matter of hours the ship and crew will be consumed by a nearby star and the crew of the Enterprise will be consumed by an mysterious horror that threatens both ships as the Klingons watch and wait.
Originally pitched to Star Trek: The Next Generation, this episode was turned down due to its controversial storyline dealing with homosexuality and AIDS. Rewritten for the original Trek characters, this episodes brings us social commentary with a message in Gene Roddenberry's finest tradition.
Written by Ethan Calk, Sky Conway, and Jack Trevino; directed by Tim Russ; featuring many Trek alumni from all five Star Trek TV series and feature films. Uhura and Chekovs reunion with Captain John Harriman is cut short when they intercept an automated distress signal. Their investigation takes them to a classified location where an encounter with a shadowy figure from their past alters their lives, turning friends into deadly enemies and sending them on a journey through time from which there may be no escape.
Star Trek: Of Gods and Men is a noteworthy achievement. With excellent production values and a great script, it exceeds some of the big budget Paramount Trek movies. True to Gene Roddenberry's vision, it entertains even as it examines serious issues relevant to our society and our time.
In Just Passing Through, The Starship Farragut's Chief Engineer, Michelle Mike Smithfield, recalls the first time she met Commander Tacket on Starbase 12. In A Rock and a Hard Place, Captain Carter, despite objections from Chief Engineer Smithfield, decides to go on a planetary survey mission with an old flame. They are not the only ones interested in the rocks on the planet!
The Starship Farragut's crew logs are short works to acquaint us with the main characters in the series. After watching, we know a little more about what makes them tick.
Written by Walter Koenig; directed by Robert Dyke; featuring Richard Hatch, Courtney Peldon, Marina Sirtis, Erick Avari, and Walter Koenig. Still guilt-ridden over the accident that took his family's lives, Eric Norris discovers that his body is host to a parasite from another world. Except, it is more than a parasite: it carries his DNA. Is this his new son or - as the government believes - a threat to mankind?
Koenig created a brilliant script that examines such concepts as abuse of power, State's rights vs. parental rights, the idea of what makes one human and eligible for the protection afforded under international human rights laws. Other topics that are particularly relevant to Americans are the questions pertaining to Constitut9onal rights, the special importance of the writ of habeas corpus to individual freedom, and the controversial stand of national security over that of personal freedom. This movie will cause you to think more deeply about those things that are truly important in these times.
Written and directed by Lee Fanning; featuring Elliot moon, Elise Zieman, Luke Weaver, Bennett Parker, Rob Wilds, Steven Burch, Philip barns, Julian Burton, Tyler Gibson, and Jackson Pyle. Something is buried in the mounds! In 1938, John Patton Jr. found the key to our darkest secret an anomalous skeleton that is neither animal nor man. So disturbed by its implications was Patton that he hid it away from the world, though never forgetting what he found. Now his grandson, archeology student Gardner Patton and documentary filmmaker Bart Thompson , are on his trail and they are about to find it again.
This movie is an SF horse of a different color. Although set in the present day, it is clearly science fiction as it deals with the dark secret of humanity's past. See it and decide for yourself whether they author gets it right.
The U.S.S. Exeter, freshly recrewed and commanded by Captain John Garrovick, is on a mission to save a ship infected with the deadly Canopus Plague. The Exeter must travel to the home world of Andorian Lieutenant B'Fuselek to find the cure. But Andorian rebels have other plans ... and so do the Klingons!
Seven years in the making, The Savage Empire was released in 2002 and was intended as a conceptual showpiece for a new serial. With a keen eye for detail, the amateurs of Exeter Studios painstakingly created the set, props, costumes, and visual effects to evoke the look and feel of the original Star Trek television series of the 1960s.
Aaron Yonda and Matt Sloan, aka Blame Society Films, have created the Chad Vader series, a masterful parody that has gone viral on the Internet with over 30 million downloads. The popular Chad Vader short films are a loopy take-off on the Star Wars universe where Darth Vader's younger brother, Chad, is a spectacularly bad manager at a modern day grocery store. With the same menacing dark outfit, many of the manerisms and evil attitudes, but little of his older brother's abilities, Chad is a misfit who does not understand people and who can't cope well with ordinary situations. Come by and have a good laugh as we watch Chad deal ineffectually with the people around him for the entire hour.
As Memory Alpha describes it: Star Trek: Intrepid is a ST:TNG fanfilm set in the 24th century, several years after Star Trek: Nemesis, and features Starfleet and Federation Merchant Service characters as they struggle to colonize a sparse region of space far from the Federation core. In this recently released episode, the discovery of the remains of an ancient settlement on Chiron IV leads the away team into serious danger and Commander Navar must decide where his loyalty truly lies.
The entirely amateur Intrepid Productions, led by Nick Cook, film in Scotland and on location. An active group, Intrepid Productions offers two episodes, two short works, a crossover with Hidden Frontier, a sound track, and an interview on their web site. They have a busy year planned.