Star Trek TNG: The Mushroom Incident

[Captain Atkin]

I made this silly Star Trek "fan-film" back in May of 1993, as part of a fun High School project. I recently discovered a VHS copy of the film at my Dad's place, after thinking that it was lost forever. Just in time for its 20th anniversary!

You can see this masterpiece of filmmaking at:

https://vimeo.com/64948054

 

[Melakon]

It looked like poor Riker was having trouble keeping his beard on.

The skullcap in your presumably 20 years later avatar is much more convincing than Picard's.

 

[Captain Atkin]

It looked like poor Riker was having trouble keeping his beard on.

The skullcap in your presumably 20 years later avatar is much more convincing than Picard's.

Sadly, that isn't a bald cap in my avatar... although I'm sure you knew that... lol.

The bald cap in the film was actually a white swimming cap. We couldn't find a bald cap on short notice, so the actress playing Troi painted it with foundation makeup to match my skin tone.

 

[Melakon]

In the late 60s, my best friend and I used to make movies with his old windup 8mm film camera (before Super8). There was a carnival supply in the nearby city where we'd get stuff like skullcaps, monster masks and hands, etc. We never tried to do Star Trek for some reason (lack of props and costumes most likely), we usually did local commercial parodies and spy films. Once we drove out to the big city airport 30 miles away just to film the spy parking his car and walking into the terminal and a shot of a plane taking off. I wish I'd had copies of those.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Once we drove out to the big city airport 30 miles away just to film the spy parking his car and walking into the terminal and a shot of a plane taking off.

Funny you should say that. In "Free Maltz", we wandered into the international cargo area at Sydney Airport to film a sequence, with me in convict clothes and Maltz makeup. It was 1987, and pre-9/11, of course.


Maltz's arrival in Sydney by Therin of Andor, on Flickr

http://therinofandor.blogspot.com.au/2008/08/free-maltz-as-i-mentioned-recently-ive.html

 

[Melakon]

The good old days, when you could innocently film at an airport without arousing suspicion. We didn't risk filming in the terminal though, since we obviously didn't have any permits being 17 year old kids. Back then, there was an outdoor viewing area accessible through the terminal, where you could watch and photograph planes. I don't think they started cracking down on that sort of thing until the early 70s.

 

[oswater]

I really liked it! It's charming in a personal, homemade sort of way. This makes me want to dig up old tapes of things I made when I was little and go down my own memory lane.
Great stuff!

 

[Captain Atkin]

I really liked it! It's charming in a personal, homemade sort of way. This makes me want to dig up old tapes of things I made when I was little and go down my own memory lane.
Great stuff!

Thanks! I was about 17 years old when I filmed this. We filmed it in my High School theatre classroom at the end of the school day, and had less than two hours to get it done. The FX were added later using toys of the Enterprise-D and the Romulan Warbird (from Playmates). This was the second comedy fan-film that I made as a young teenager. I made a similar one for Classic Trek with my brother and sisters. My uncle filmed it for us, and is looking to see if he still has a VHS copy at home. If he does, I will probably post that one online too.