Whatever happened to Starship Exeter?

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Thanks for the kind words, all.

Farragut's studio is in Georgia, but the braintrust and all the cast and crew are still in the DC area. The producer lives about three miles up the highway (Georgia Avenue, interestingly enough) from my front door.

I may be doing some stuff with Farragut over the next several months, but not writing. Polaris is consuming more and more of my free time and that will just accelerate through the end of this year.

 

[Barbreader]

CaptainKen...

The difficulty of getting back to the subject of Exeter is, of course, that the folks producing
(12) Starship Exeter
have left their fans waiting with baited breath.

Their work is brilliant. But I was not surprised that the only word out was that the end of the 2nd episode (movie?) will definitely NOT be out in the next two months. For some reason, people read between the lines to say it would be out in three. Which is not what I understand, "not in two months" to mean. Whenever they get it out, it will, without doubt, be brilliant and wonderful to watch. Folks just have to be grateful that they take to time to do this.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

BTW, Barb, I really appreciate your reviews of the Exeter shows. Observations like yours and CaptainKen's encourage some of us to feel that what we intended to create does come across somewhat as we'd hoped; that the audience "gets it (no patronization intended, IMAO when the audience doesn't get popular entertainment it's way more often the failure of the creators than any viewers.).

 

[Barbreader]

Dennis, my reviews have no element of charity. I enjoyed your work more that Star Trek XI, and to say otherwise would simply be a lie. I admit to being a lot less impressed by expensive production values than many people. But your production values are good enough that anyone objecting is just focused on the fact that you don't have a mult-million dollar budget. As the daughter of an electrical engineer, a member of both the American Museum of National History and PBS, and a fan of real science lectures, I know that real science usually looks more like your Trek than like JJA's Trek. That means the element of suspension of disbelief is better in your stuff than on his. Your Trek also has real ideas in it, while his is not merely lacking in ideas, it's cartoonish.

The primary purpose of my blog is to help the mild uncostumed, non-convention-going Trek fan find Fan Films like yours, and encourage them to realize that there are better fan films than those produced by a few kids in their basement. At the same time, if, in listing every Fan Film I can find, I help those who are seriously into Trek find films they would have missed... that's a good thing, too.

I thought when I started Star Trek Reviewed that by now I'd have located, watched and reviewed all the fan films, and I'd be starting on the audio productions. Instead, I am still finding new films almost every day, and have eliminated any hope of ever getting to the audio productions. The Fan Film world is far larger than I had imagined.

 

[Maurice]

have left their fans waiting with baited breath.

I believe you mean bated, as in diminished or moderated, not baited as in tease, harass, lure, entice, or entrap.

 

[xortex]

Dennis, why was that conference room scene deleted where he describes being unlucky enough to be born in a romantic age. That was beautiful. Was it the acting?

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

The conference room scene was overly long, much of the dialogue was verbose and overwritten, and there were issues of unintentional borrowing from another source which I refuse to discuss here but were of primary concern to me when I understood what they were and how they happened. I think a little bit of everything went wrong with the scene on the stage as well, and in the end the way that it was originally written and edited together just wasn't usable let alone nearly good enough for the show. Jimm has a real good sense of this kind of thing, and he along with several others worked and reedited and reshot and god-knows-what all quite a number of times before they could make it work at all.

It was probably the biggest hurdle Exeter has had to overcome to get this episode finished, and it sure was not my proudest moment as a writer.

Moving on, now.

 

[CaptainKen]

No harm done....I have purposely kept what we are doing quiet per a request from the Exeter team...we want the end to be a surprise.

As for Jimm in the animated episode (even as a voice), I will certainly ask.

You are a perfect promoter! Wow! Are you ever building the suspense for me! I really, really, really can't wait to see Act 4 of Exeter!

Please persuade Jimm to do that voice-over! That would be really cool. Why use an unknown Captain/voice/ship, when Captain Garrovick is available? Seriously, even if they only produce those 2 episodes, every serious Trek fan really should see them. It's a new ship, but Exeter has the look and feel of TOS! It would be really cool to hear Garrovick (maybe see him?) in Animated Farragut. This is an awesome idea, Michael!

We fans just love this crossover kind of stuff. My own theory is that it helps to promote a sense of continuity, it helps to create the universe of Trek; if the series interact with each other (even a little) it shows they're all part of something bigger, something Roddenberry called "Star Trek."

Any word on this idea of recruiting Jimm Johnson for the voiced line, Michael? I really hope you're able to include Jimm / Capt. Garrovick in Animated Farragut. It's a WIN-WIN-WIN for everyone involved. I know you said it would be a voice-only part, but it sure would be cool to have a quick clip of the Exeter and then of Garrovick in his chair, speaking that line that you said was available. I'll even let you delay the release date by another 2 weeks to make that happen.

You've been a little quiet lately, Michael. Hard at work? Or sneaking in a vacation? My son and I talk regularly about seeing the rest of the "Power Source." I think this means he liked it, VERY MUCH! The last couple times we've talked about watching Star Trek, he's been asking to see the one with Capt. Carter! More power to you,
Ken

 

[NEO f/x]

Just working hard on the ending of Power Source, and beginning the next episode (including just completing a trailer for the next episode...which will be released within a couple weeks after Power Source is released...probably for DragonCon).

As for Jimm, no word yet, but was just completing some of the last scenes in Exeter today, so that was on my mind, ironically. I will see if I can get hold of him this week as I assume ADR is needed for Act 4...so it would be a simple matter of him recording an extra line. However, he will not be seen on screen if he does do the line...just the line

I am glad we are starting to get a fan-base for these episodes.

 

[Kail]

I have a bunch of Garrovick artwork from the comic already. Just throwing that out there.

 

[CaptainKen]

I have a bunch of Garrovick artwork from the comic already. Just throwing that out there.

Did you hear that Michael? Kail is experienced in drawing Garrovick! In fact, he's already drawn! And he looks great.

 

[NEO f/x]

I have a bunch of Garrovick artwork from the comic already. Just throwing that out there.

Did you hear that Michael? Kail is experienced in drawing Garrovick! In fact, he's already drawn! And he looks great.

I know...it was Kail's Exeter comic that really helped me realize he could help with Farragut.

I don't think it has anything to do with the ability to put him in...it is Jimm's and Farragut's desire to do a cross over. I certainly think it is a good idea, but each group may want to stand out on their own.

With that being said, I have put the invite out there for Jimm to make a 'vocal appearance' in the next episode. He just hasn't responded yet (he is typically slow with e-mail).

 

[Maurice]

No kidding...I haven't heard back from Jimm on any emails in six months! lol

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Jimm is less interested in spending time on the Internet than anyone under the age of forty that I've ever met. He's terribly mentally healthy in that respect.

 

[DestinyCaptain]

Bummer, I would really like to have heard his views on the project and so on. Dennis, did he post much back in the initial stages of the project? Would it be possible to find his old posts?

 

[CaptainKen]

Michael:
I'm glad you got the invite out to Jimm.

Kail:
See if a test drawing of Garrovick could tempt Michael.

Dennis:
Love the Kennedy quote you tagged on postings.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Thanks.

DestinyCaptain, Jimm and I have always communicated primarily by phone - often lengthy conversations (I can tell you that he enjoyed J.J. Abrams's Star Trek a good deal). Emails tend to be of the "that shot looks good, go ahead and upload the full rendering to the server" type.

The first communication I ever had from Jimm was to an email I sent him in May or June of 2004, to my cell late one afternoon while I was grocery shopping.

 

[xortex]

I think Starship Exeter is awesome as long as power and politics don't go to Jimm's head.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

There's not enough of either involved in Starship Exeter to make that much of a risk.

 

[xortex]

Well there should be if it's done right. So far so good. Fans will trickle in especially if it gets better. Believe me they're waiting. Trekkies three is waiting. Why can't Jimm do what James Cawley is doing. There's no saying how good it could get. It could blow Paramount away someday.