Star Trek: Frontier

executive producer: Robin Swope

cast: R.S.Swope, Jessica Swope, Ferd Gavina, Brinton Swope; other voices computer-generated by AT&T Text-to-Speech
characters: an original crew of the Federation dreadnought Star League
characterizations: fairly well developed, especially the helm officer and the captain

sets: machinima (low-end 3D digital) from The Movies! game
quality: mediocre (but average or even slightly above average for machinima)

special effects: R.S.Swope

base of operations: Erie, Pennsylvania

setting: U.S.S. Star League, NCC-2101, a Federation dreadnought; series era time frame

music: sampled from the original Star Trek series soundtrack, but nicely executed

website: R.S. Swope's You Tube channel for the episode's acts; personal website: http://www.theparanormalpastor.blogspot.com/

Notes: We contacted R.S.Swope, creator and producer of Star Trek: Frontier. He was gracious enough to take the time to answer a few questions for us:

Q: What led you to your decision to create a Star Trek fan film?

A: One of the goals in my life was to write a Star Trek episode. When I was in Seminary while ST:TNG was on it's original run, I toyed around with an idea that I wanted to submit in the open door policy they had back then. It dealt with the differences between the TNG and TOS Klingons and was going to be a racial metaphor since the LA riots were happening around that time as well. I did not do it, and I had been regretting it ever since. So When 'The Movies" game came out I toyed around with it until I could make a fan film.

Q: What can you tell us about your second episode, "A Matter of Time"?

A: I did the intro to "A Matter of Time" and did the outline of the scripting, but it took so long to make the first one I gave up. It had the crew of the Star League go back to the 1960s to stop renegade scientists from altering time. It was to be a comedy piece where they found out they were actually in an alternate universe when they saw Star Trek on television.

Q: Do you write professionally?

A: I have a book coming out on Amazon in few days but it is a Spiritual guidebook for beginners or as I call it "A book for those who are spiritual but not religious". I also have a blog that is fairly popular about paranormal activity- The Paranormal Pastor- where I mainly retell chilling supernatural missionary stories and other avenues of Fortean Studies (UFOs, Ghosts, Cryptids) with a dramatic flair. I've also been approached by a national magazine to do some work in the future.

Q: Can you describe the process you used to create Star Trek: Frontier?

A: I used "The Movies Game" with skins and mods found on the internet and modified them by myself in photoshop. I scripted each episode and used the film creation aspect of the game for all interiors. I did animation by capturing images from the Star Fleet Command Video game and used photoshop to animate the space scenes. The episode was to have more of the captains backstory with his involvement fighting alongside the Klingons in the border war, but I cut them due to time constraints. I then did a final edit on Microsoft Movie Maker with the sound and dialogue mixed with the Audacity sound program.

Q: Can we expect more from you in the future?

A: Not in the near future. When I did this fan films were a rare commodity; now they are commonplace, and I yield to those with extra money, time, and talented artists to produce more viewable product than I can at this time. I am now concentrating on writing in my free time.

Our thanks to R.S. Swope for taking the time to answer our questions!

Episode 1: Shadow of Truth (click on title to read Fred Dixon's review) written by Robin S. Swope (RSSWOPE) The Federation dreadnought Star League comes across the wreckage from Klingon battlecruiser. Rescuing three survivors, the crew learns that the Klingon ship has been attacked by a Federation destroyer! Teaser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qtnYncPz7I Act 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu2FvjD61as Act 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJVntW-Gaf4 Act 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21qRffofClA Act 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKShE1x7VrM Quality Rating: 78% This was an interesting concept for me. A Star Trek fan film composited from video games. While not as smooth as I would have liked (it was somewhat jarring to look at at time), it was a very good effort. The story, in my opinion, was very well done, and I liked the background of the Star League's captain. It made for an excellent story!

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Click on the titles to visit the Orion Press pages on:

Project: Potemkin · Star Trek: Axiom · Star Trek: Aurora · Star Trek: Eagle · Star Trek: Frontier
Star Trek: Lexington · Star Trek: The Motion Comic · Star Trek: The Multiverse Crisis
Star Trek: The New Animated Series · Star Trek: Of Gods and Men · Star Trek: Phase II
Starship Exeter · Starship Farragut · Starship Mojave · Tales of the Seventh Fleet

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