Star Wreck Arvoton

Last week, a new copyright law went into effect in Canada that (among other goodness), now includes parody as a legitimate exception to copyright.

I can’t begin to describe how good that makes me feel.  It’s been a hard position to be in, bursting with ideas for this project and yet facing the very stark reality that it may have to be abandoned.  In many ways, it feels partially abandoned already.

No more.

It’s time to get busy and make some cartoons.

It has been a long time since I have posted on this.  I have not abandoned this project, but it has been on hold while Canada and the United States deal with a bout of copyright insanity.  The new laws that are being proposed/pushed in Canada I find very chilling, especially with projects such as this.  Star Trek (and Star Wreck, for that matter) are copyrighted properties.  I can say that this is a parody and as such protected by law, but the reality is if someone wanted to make a legal issue of it I simply don’t have the money to fight.

So instead, I find myself watching and waiting as crazy proposal after crazy proposal work their way into and out of (and sometimes back into) bills currently being reviewed for passage.  I wish things were looking less grim, and I am encouraged by the continuing Star Trek fan film productions out there, but I am taking a good hard look at the ramifications of playing in someone else’s backyard.

A Trek music video.  Enjoy.

http://youtu.be/quG0Nh_skJI

I just finished re-watching Starship Exeter.  This is to me the ultimate Star Trek fan film.  With all due respect to James Cawley, whose efforts have been nothing short of awesome, this was the first Star Trek fan film that I watched and to me this effort manages to capture the feel of the original series.  The Tressaurian Intersection episode feels exactly like the sort of production that would have come out of mid- to late-1960s television.  It has a built-in familiarity to old-school Trek fans that other efforts do not seem to possess.  Alas, Starship Exeter is, at its heart, a tragedy.  It has produced exactly 1.8 episodes.  The last is incomplete by virtue of some unknown factor(s).  I do not know why the release of the final segment has been so long (3+ years) delayed.  However, I am willing to spend money on seeing this episode completed.  It is of value to me, and is reminiscent of some unrealized dream of my youth.  I would gladly be a part of it.

Producers – please tell me how!

Now all my pretty pictures can be found in one place.

I figure it’s about time to add the Arvoton version of the Plingon Battlebruiser to the chart.

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Here are a few more interior shots of the Arvoton bridge.  Keep in mind that these are deliberately low resolution – the purpose is to let me lay out the bridge set.  When I have a good outline of where I want things to be, I will start replacing low resolution elements with far more detailed ones.

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Here’s the rough work-up for the bridge of the Arvoton.

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It’s been a while since an update, largely due to an increase in responsibilities in the “day job,” but work has been continuing…

• Laying out interior sets for the Arvoton (starting with the bridge)
• Fleshing out character designs, including costuming
• Initial concepts for props

Oh, dear.  I seem to have found a new way to waste an awful lot of time…

So I may as well post about it!  Actually, I wrote all this to a friend who asked me how it was.  I took a very long, thoughtful approach to it as this friend is a big Trek fan and a big gamer and I wanted to make sure he had a good picture of it.

Overall, I’m enjoying it a lot.  It’s set in a post-Voyager era, but there are bits and pieces that can give your own characters at least the look and feel of any other era including the original series.

It’s also come a long way since it was first introduced a year ago.  The reviews at the time were terrible, but I have yet to encounter any problem described by the folks who wrote about the game back then.

So if you want to know the details…

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