Old (1980s) Fan Film with George Takei

[Melonpool]

Hi there! This is my first post on this particular board, but I've been lurking for a few weeks now and enjoy it immensely.

I've been thinking a lot about a fan film that I read about years ago in either a "Star Trek Communicator" magazine or maybe "Starlog" in the early 80s. It was a film that was set in the post TOS, pre-TMP era, and was distictive because it starred George Takei as Sulu -- something about a mission that took place during the refit of the Enterprise aboard a different starship.

I haven't searched for the article yet, but from what I can recall, there were several pictures and featured an actor playing Admiral Nogura. I think part of it was filmed in a local bank as well.

Does this sound like anything anyone has actually seen? I wonder if it was ever finished or if it's online? I would think that there might have been some mention of it if it ever went anywhere when "World Enough and Time" was made, since New Voyages wasn't technically the first fan film that George Takei was actually in.

Thanks for any info that you can provide. I'll see if I can locate the article and post a scan.

 

[GSchnitzer]

Hi there! This is my first post on this particular board, but I've been lurking for a few weeks now and enjoy it immensely.

I've been thinking a lot about a fan film that I read about years ago in either a "Star Trek Communicator" magazine or maybe "Starlog" in the early 80s. It was a film that was set in the post TOS, pre-TMP era, and was distictive because it starred George Takei as Sulu -- something about a mission that took place during the refit of the Enterprise aboard a different starship.

I haven't searched for the article yet, but from what I can recall, there were several pictures and featured an actor playing Admiral Nogura. I think part of it was filmed in a local bank as well.

Does this sound like anything anyone has actually seen? I wonder if it was ever finished or if it's online? I would think that there might have been some mention of it if it ever went anywhere when "World Enough and Time" was made, since New Voyages wasn't technically the first fan film that George Takei was actually in.

Thanks for any info that you can provide. I'll see if I can locate the article and post a scan.

You are thinking of the production Yorktown II, spearheaded by Mr. Stan Woo. There was a little write-up about in the June 1987 issue of Starlog (Issue 119).

There's also a brand new write-up about it in our Star Trek Phase II eMagazine (Issue 7). You can find it online at:

http://issuu.com/plasmafire/docs/emagazine_007?mode=a_p

 

[Professor Moriarty]

AAARGHHH!!! What a frustrating (but still fascinating) article by Jeff Hayes about the lost Yorktown II production. Let's hope Stan Woo still has the 8mm live action footage (or even the three-quarters tapes!) and pops up out of hiding, because Jeff is right--there are a LOT of people out there (including me) who would love to take a crack at finishing the visual effects for a vintage 1980's fan production of Star Trek starring George Takei!

 

[Melonpool]

Thank you so much for posting this! it fills in so many gaps! I only wish the film existed in some capacity... oh well. I made 4 Star Trek movies while in high school (even constructed a movie-style wedge of the Bridge for them and had my mom make all the costumes), and understand how these projects can get sidetracked.

One of these days, maybe I'll post some of them to youtube. I used to show them at school and I still occassionally hear from some people that remember them. If that happens to me, I could only imagine how many run-ins with fans Stan Woo has had.

Thanks again for posting!

 

[Maurice]

Sounds like a lot of the story remained unfilmed...unfortunate. You probably couldn't complete it per se if that's the case...although you might be able to piece together sections of it.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

It would be wonderful to be able to find some of these "lost fan films" from the pre-Internet/desktop video era - folks now just don't realize how far back the roots of this whole "roll your own Trek" movement goes. I search YouTube every now and again, hoping that someone like Woo or Jon Cosentino will have converted and posted some of their work.

Cosentino's "Paragon's Paragon" remains the production I'm most curious about - here's a great article about it:

http://mystartrekscrapbook.blogspot.com/2009/01/fan-film-paragons-paragon.html

And oh! that 70s hair! Jim Cawley wasn't the first fan film captain with Elvis sideburns.

 

[Mysterion]

Cosentino's "Paragon's Paragon" remains the production I'm most curious about - here's a great article about it:

http://mystartrekscrapbook.blogspot.com/2009/01/fan-film-paragons-paragon.html

Ummm, am I seeing correctly in those pictures that they have an actress in black-face playing Uhura? I just find that to be amazing even for the 1970s.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Cosentino's "Paragon's Paragon" remains the production I'm most curious about - here's a great article about it:

http://mystartrekscrapbook.blogspot.com/2009/01/fan-film-paragons-paragon.html

Ummm, am I seeing correctly in those pictures that they have an actress in black-face playing Uhura? I just find that to be amazing even for the 1970s.

Yep, seems to be; that was a definite "oh dear" moment when I first read the article in Cinemagic's Special Effects trade paperback that I picked up at a convention in 1980. I think you can probably chalk it up to generally clueless social naivette on the filmmakers' part.

 

[Mysterion]

Cosentino's "Paragon's Paragon" remains the production I'm most curious about - here's a great article about it:

http://mystartrekscrapbook.blogspot.com/2009/01/fan-film-paragons-paragon.html

Ummm, am I seeing correctly in those pictures that they have an actress in black-face playing Uhura? I just find that to be amazing even for the 1970s.

Yep, seems to be; that was a definite "oh dear" moment when I first read the article in Cinemagic's Special Effects trade paperback that I picked up at a convention in 1980. I think you can probably chalk it up to generally clueless social naivette on the filmmakers' part.

I'm not one given to bouts of political correctness, but...wow. Just wow. My day is off to such an odd mental start having seen that article. I don't think "clueless social naivette" even begins to describe this.

 

[Professor Moriarty]

I'm still trying to get over the hair.

 

[Melonpool]

I'm not saying it was socially-acceptible, but I can remember being in an Airband at my school in 1989 and there being an announcement just prior to the school-wide show that this would be the last year that contestants were allowed to wear blackface for their performances.

My group wasn't using blackface, by the way -- it was a group that was doing an "Untouchables" song at a school that had maybe 3 African-American students (none of which were in the airband).

 

[Maurice]

It would be wonderful to be able to find some of these "lost fan films" from the pre-Internet/desktop video era - folks now just don't realize how far back the roots of this whole "roll your own Trek" movement goes.

I posted links to the early 70s Star Trick stop-motion fanfilms here last month, and that got surprisingly little comment. :\

Ummm, am I seeing correctly in those pictures that they have an actress in black-face playing Uhura? I just find that to be amazing even for the 1970s.

Actually, if you read the caption you'll notice that it's not Uhura. Let's keep in mind it's a b&w photo and the actual skin color isn't discernable. In fact, looking at the eye makeup, I'm guessing she's a green Orion woman.

 

[Mysterion]

Ummm, am I seeing correctly in those pictures that they have an actress in black-face playing Uhura? I just find that to be amazing even for the 1970s.

Actually, if you read the caption you'll notice that it's not Uhura. Let's keep in mind it's a b&w photo and the actual skin color isn't discernable. In fact, looking at the eye makeup, I'm guessing she's a green Orion woman.

You're right, it's not Uhura. However, the name of the character (Schamba) is noted in the article to be an african name. I would hope it was supposed to be an Orion, but I don't think so.

 

[Maurice]

Ummm, am I seeing correctly in those pictures that they have an actress in black-face playing Uhura? I just find that to be amazing even for the 1970s.

Actually, if you read the caption you'll notice that it's not Uhura. Let's keep in mind it's a b&w photo and the actual skin color isn't discernable. In fact, looking at the eye makeup, I'm guessing she's a green Orion woman.

You're right, it's not Uhura. However, the name of the character (Schamba) is noted in the article to be an african name. I would hope it was supposed to be an Orion, but I don't think so.

I'd missed that. I read the article a long time ago and forgot about the name. Still, let's hope she's "greenface" and not a minstrel show reject.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Well, the bad news there is that Cosentino reported that he chose the "names of cities in the nations represented by our actors," and that Schamba was "an African city." So, odds are long against an immigrant girl from Orion...

 

[FredH]

Hey, wait a minute! That plot (Paragon's Paragon) is a point-for-point retread of Spock Must Die!--the James Blish novel released six years earlier--just with different characters!

 

[Mysterion]

There's also a brand new write-up about it in our Star Trek Phase II eMagazine (Issue 7). You can find it online at:

http://issuu.com/plasmafire/docs/emagazine_007?mode=a_p

Looked through this issue a couple of times and didn't see that article. Am I just being dense?

 

[GSchnitzer]

There's also a brand new write-up about it in our Star Trek Phase II eMagazine (Issue 7). You can find it online at:

http://issuu.com/plasmafire/docs/emagazine_007?mode=a_p

Looked through this issue a couple of times and didn't see that article. Am I just being dense?

No, you're not being dense.

Both Issue Number 7 and Issue Number 8 featured articles about the old Sulu/Yorktown fan film. It was about six or eight pages in each of the two issues. But we took down both issues, removed the articles, and republished the two issues without the Sulu/Yorktown articles. We did that, oh, a day or two ago.

It's a long story.

Sorry.

 

[Mysterion]

^^^
Ah. So. Well, bummer. Was looking forward to reading those articles.