Wolf 359 Prelude, Parts I and II

[Ithekro]

I read somewhere an interesting idea that there were actually two ships at the battle named Melbourne. One was being decommissioned and it's replacement was finishing test trials. Desprjte for vessels they sent both ships to Wolf 359

My guess is someone decided that the Excelsior that delivered Shelby and Hanson to the Enterprise was the Melbourne, rather than the wrecked Nebula-class ship at Wolf 395. Like Hanson telling Picard that Riker had been offered the Melbourne in a way that was, "yes it is right there, he can be captain in five minutes if he just takes it and beams over there".

 

[David cgc]

The first scene of the next part has been released as a teaser.

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ETA: There's also a text update with some screenshots from other scenes.

Happy Belated New Year Everyone!

I hope you had a nice Holiday Season! Mine was fine. After the miserable year I had in 2024, my holiday's were nice and quiet. The perfect way to cap off the year for me. So far 2025 has been reasonable for me, I hope it continues.

On to Wolf 359...

Back in December, I stated that I completed the first half of the video. Well since early January, I've been working tirelessly conceptualizing and shooting the scenes for the battle and the remainder of the video.

I'm happy to report that as of this update that "Wolf 359: The Massacre, Part II" can now be watched in full from start to finish. All the scenes have been conceptualized, and the music is in place.

The vfx in some of the smaller sequences have been completed, like the Enterprise arrival at the graveyard. However, most of the shots are in various states of completion, some with nothing but the hero ship for the shot and the star background. It was simply a matter of getting the shots churned out so I could get this behemoth edited together.

As such, it will still be some time before release.

That's whats been taking me so long. Coming up with new and different angles of ships being destroyed, thinking and rethinking the story elements so that everything flows better, making sure the music matches the action and transitions smoothly between tracks and on and on.

I want Part II to be better than Part I was.

Now, with most of the editing done and music inserted, I have to work on the various elements that will be composited together. Adding in the phaser and torpedo effects, wreckage's, explosions, debris, etc. and compositing. Lots and lots of compositing.

As there is still a while yet before this juggernaut is released, I wanted to give you guys something in the meantime. So I decided that I would go ahead and release the opening segment which is about 3 minutes long to act as a teaser. This segment will be in the full release, but this way everyone will be able to get a taste of what Part II has to offer in terms of action and story while you wait.

I'm working on wrapping up this segment now and it should be released sometime later this month. So keep your eyes peeled!

 

[Akiraprise]

Man, he's good. Wish Paramount would get on board and release the Wolf 359 Massacre as a ShortTrek on P+ when complete.

 

[Dukhat]

Man, he's good. Wish Paramount would get on board and release the Wolf 359 Massacre as a ShortTrek on P+ when complete.

Huh? This is a fan project not made by Paramount.

 

[Akiraprise]

I know. Doesn't mean in some alt universe Paramount regularly acknowledges some fan projects are better than, or a strong complement to, their own stuff and works with the creators to showcase them for the betterment of all Trekdom.

 

[Dukhat]

I’m not sure how that helps us, but I acknowledge that you’re being facetious.

 

[Akiraprise]

I'll just say the work is great and I think Paramount should hire and give him creative freedom then.

 

[Dukhat]

I'll just say the work is great and I think Paramount should hire and give him creative freedom then.

I also think the work is great, and the people who made it clearly did their homework in regards to the types of ships used (and quite better than that STO version of which ships participated in the battle.) Unfortunately CBS/Paramount are not in the habit of hiring fans for their productions, which is too bad in this case because the guys seem to know what they're doing. At this point, I would think that if Paramount ever decided to recreate the battle, that they would royally screw it up by having some guy who doesn't understand design lineages make ships that would look completely out of place for the time period.

 

[David cgc]

New trailer for Part II of "The Massacre," releasing on September 24.

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[Dukhat]

New trailer for Part II of "The Massacre," releasing on September 24.

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I hope they post all their CGI models somewhere. I really like their new/old Klingon ship. Although the Sydney class warping in out of nowhere and filling the screen was a little weird.

 

[Maurice]

Paramount doesn't care if you're a fan or not. What matters is:
Do you have the chops to do the shots?
Can you work to deadline?
Do you work with the same tools as the VFX companies they use for the VFX pipeline?
And, foremost, have you applied for a job?

 

[Bixby]

it sounds like Dukhat is saying would Paramount give these fans an obscene budget and carte blanche to direct an official project/show?
Since the trailers are merely dropping in already filmed scenes with the actors, these demos don't sell their abilities working with a script, directing actors, and handling a ton of post-prod, I'd say their best hope is becoming an FX supervisor...

 

[Dukhat]

it sounds like Dukhat is saying would Paramount give these fans an obscene budget and carte blanche to direct an official project/show?
Since the trailers are merely dropping in already filmed scenes with the actors, these demos don't sell their abilities working with a script, directing actors, and handling a ton of post-prod, I'd say their best hope is becoming an FX supervisor...

Not to mention that CBS/Paramount seem far more comfortable giving those jobs to people they’ve already hired in the past, no matter what product they actually turn out. Hence my comment about the guy who doesn’t understand design lineages.

 

[Maurice]

Honestly, most fan productions are woeful in the story department, so sweating the details isn't important if you've got nothing interesting to say.

I looked at the earlier parts of this previously and it makes no logical story sense to attack the way depicted. They knew the Borg were quick to adapt and that their weapons—which the Borg adapted to against the Enterprise—were likely to be useless in short order, so their only real hope might have been to hit the target all at once en masse and hope the Borg couldn't adapt to and deal with so many attackers at once, especially if their weapons were all tuned differently. This just makes them look foolish.

It was always a better idea to leave what happened to the imagination.

 

[Danlav05]

New trailer for Part II of "The Massacre," releasing on September 24.

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I wish Constitution class was seen more in the tng era. Its a pity they changed the Stargazer late in the game

Great to see it in action here!

 

[Dukhat]

I wish Constitution class was seen more in the tng era. Its a pity they changed the Stargazer late in the game

It was far better to have had Greg Jein's model as the Stargazer instead of a reuse of the TMP Enterprise.

Great to see it in action here!

It's not technically a Constitution class. Or at best, it's a variant. It's the sideways-facing nacelle variant with 'shuttlebays' in the saucer, based on the incorrectly built AMT model from "Booby Trap" with the nacelles placed wrong and the window inserts removed.

https://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/schematics/constitution-variant2-boobytrap.jpg

 

[Airmandan]

Honestly, most fan productions are woeful in the story department, so sweating the details isn't important if you've got nothing interesting to say.

I looked at the earlier parts of this previously and it makes no logical story sense to attack the way depicted. They knew the Borg were quick to adapt and that their weapons—which the Borg adapted to against the Enterprise—were likely to be useless in short order, so their only real hope might have been to hit the target all at once en masse and hope the Borg couldn't adapt to and deal with so many attackers at once, especially if their weapons were all tuned differently. This just makes them look foolish.

It was always a better idea to leave what happened to the imagination.

If you read the Q/A that he has pinned in the comments, his justification for the order of battle is Hanson's stubbornness and being unable to change.

4) What was Hanson's tactic? The idea behind Hanson's tactic was that attack wings would be cycled in and out of battle to keep continuous fire on the cube while giving the wings previously in combat a chance to repair any damage sustained before being cycled into battle again. This would go on until the fleet wore down the cubes defenses. Then all ships would swarm in for the kill. At least in theory anyway. In practice, however, it was a disaster. One that Hanson could have mitigated from the start had he simply called off the attack. Thus, it was my intention to depict Hanson as being a liability for Starfleet during the battle. I based him on the "crazy/corrupt admiral" theme used throughout TNG (i.e. Admiral Mark Jameson, Admiral Pressman, Admiral Satie, etc.) Only with Hanson, he's not so much "crazy" or "corrupt", as he is "complacent" and "stubborn" as well as inexperienced against a real threat like the Borg. Hanson foolishly believed that tactics employed against adversaries like the Cardassians or Tzenkethi would work against the Borg as well. Unfortunately, this made him not only unwilling to call off the attack early on (despite the losses) but he doubled down, sending in one attack wing after another. It wasn't until after the destruction of "attack wing five" where Hanson changes tactics. This time, he sends in two wings which would flank the cube together in an attempt of confuse the cube. This would give an opening for Hanson's battle group to begin it's frontal assault. And his plan actually worked! If only for a moment. He was successful in not only confusing the cube but his assault damaged the cube as well (not visually -- but internally, specifically the cubes power grid was weakened by the heavy onslaught from the retuned phasers and torpedoes. See: nitpicks section). It was only when the cube returned fire and quickly destroyed Hanson's ships one by one that he realized his mistake and called for the retreat. But it was too little too late.

5) Why didn't the background ships participate during Hanson's assault? Attack wings eight through twelve were acting as reserve units for Hanson's assault. Basically, if Hanson's attack was successful, those wings would be called in to provide additional fire. However, things changed quickly and with the cube disrupting comms there was no time/way to call in the reserves until it was too late. So Hanson was forced to flee.

(Project) Wolf 359: The Massacre, Part II - Q&A- What's the battle going to be like?My concept while designing the massacre from the beginning was this:In Part One: Admiral Hanson represents the old way of Starfleet thinking where diplomacy and peace reigned supreme and combat tactics were a distant second. This is exemplified by ships allowing civilians to remain onboard despite the Borg threat and Hanson sending in small groups of ships one after another until the admiral himself was killed due to being a poor tactician. In Part Two: Captain Amasov is going to represent the new way of thinking for Starfleet. It will be Amasov that develops the first tactics that will be used in future Borg encounters including: "The Battle of Sector 001" and even the "Dominion War." The battle tactics used here may not be the best because this is just the infancy of Starfleet actually getting their hands dirty and fighting hard.Premise: Set about 30 minutes after Admiral Hanson's death, the rest of the fleet has since regrouped at "Fallback Position Omega" near the fifth moon orbiting planet Wolf 359 b. Captain Amasov, now in command of the fleet, has formulated a new battle plan (one that was proposed to and rejected by Hanson himself as being too reckless) which involves a massive "ambush and swarm" attack. He begins preparing a trap to confuse the cube which will enable the fleet to ambush it without being picked off on approach.Meanwhile, the cube (after holding position and taking its time assimilating survivors and technology from earlier) has been suffering from disruptions to its power distribution systems since Admiral Hanson's aborted assault (the admirals attack did more damage than first thought). Unable to fully regenerate due to these disruptions, the cube is unable to go to warp for an extended period and must travel at impulse speeds towards the far side of the system. As it passes near Wolf 359 b, Amasov springs his trap... The timing of the Klingons arrival hasn't been finalised yet. They may arrive like what was shown or they may arrive later when things seem bleak for Amasov. Either way, the last-minute arrival of the Klingons will add an additional 25 ships to the fight and basically turn Part Two into a huge "free-for-all." The toll from such heavy combat keeps the cube in a weakened state that will allow the Enterpise to catch up to it later and recover Picard.

 

[David cgc]

To an extent, he (and the Oral History team) are kind of locked in to not doing "All the ships rushed the cube, then were shot down," if they want to create a narrative rather than just forty shots of different ships exploding.

 

[Maurice]

There’s a story to tell, but you can’t tell it this way stick with dead stills of Hanson. You show the task force being organized, the strategy discussed, then the attack, and it begins very organized but falls into chaos as the Borg just systematically pick off the ships. Hell, maybe one or more of the tractored ships consider the suicide run Riker later called for, and we see how that wouldn’t have worked, either.

 

[Dukhat]

To be fair, they’re not trying to make a fan production like STC. They’re just trying to show VFX of the fleet, with some still shots of people’s reactions mixed in.

I’ve mentioned this before, but speaking just about the VFX, I commend them for doing their homework regarding the ships that they created for the scene. All of the ship designs look like they would have logically participated in the battle if the 1990’s TNG VFX budget had allowed those ships to be seen as filming models (although the refit Ent-B style Excelsior design was created after BoBW so logically it wouldn’t have been there.) With that said, there are times when the ships look a bit video-gamey, but that’s the limitations of using CGI models rather than physical ones. But nobody is ever going to recreate this scene with physical models, so there you go.