Saturday, June 25, 2016

Thoughts on Star Trek fan fiction and Review of Star Trek Continues episode 2: "Lolani"

Recently, CBS & Paramount decided to issue some really draconian 'guidelines' for fan films. These new rules essentially curtail any attempt at making a fan film, as we have known them. I won't go over them here because you can read them for yourself in the link provided above. However, limiting stories to a total of 30 minutes and NOT allowing any kind of series is just plain low.

Personally, I suspect this is because they lost the lawsuit against the Star Trek: Axanar production, where they tried to claim the Klingon language was their intellectual property. Of course that was was going to fail because you can't copyright a language. Despite what CBS/Paramount thought, Klingon actually has, amazingly, become a real language. It's spoken by real people. It also evolved passed the guttural utterances, words and phrases invented by James Doohan (That's right, Scotty himself) and Mark Okrand for the TV Shows and Movies. That can't be copyrighted. And no, I don't speak that language.

In addition to that, I suspect CBS & Paramount are also jealous of some of these fan productions. Forget the amateur stuff you see on YouTube that was obviously shot with a handheld camcorder. I'm talkin' about the fan productions that actually put out a product that's up to Hollywood cinematography standards like Star Trek Continues. CBS & Paramount should be jealous. The 6 episodes produced (so far) have actually been quite impressive. They've certainly impressed me. The stories from this fan production could easily have been made as episodes of the original series. Yes, they really are that good.

Their first episode, Pilgrim of Eternity, was a continuation of the TOS episode Who mourns for Adonais?. It featured the Greek god Apollo as the antagonist. Like so many other Star Trek stories pitting Humans against Godlike Aliens, the Alien learned a few good lessons. Unlike most of those other episodes though, Apollo actually had a good end this time. He became a benevolent figure again, just like he's remembered in Greek mythology.

The third episode, Fairest of them All, was a continuation of the story from the TOS Classic Mirror, Mirror. It tells the story of Mirror Spock deciding to mutiny against his universe's incredibly brutal Captain Kirk. He had good reasons too. I won't spoil it for you. Just follow the link provided and watch it for yourself. If nothing else, it will at least be comforting to you that, even in an evil mirror universe, Mr. Spock still has a conscience.

The fourth episode, The White Iris, is an episode for the Kirk lovers. It offers a pretty fascinating look into his psychology. Despite his reputation, Kirk isn't really a 'love them and leave them' type. This episode explores some of the guilt he had with some of those failed relationships in his past. Specifically, the relationships that ended with his love interest getting killed. That includes Miramanee from the episode The Paradise Syndrome and Edith Keeler from City on the edge of Forever. It also included another of Kirk's loves that was never born, but I won't spoil it for you. All I will say is that it was a very powerful moment for Kirk and the audience as well. If you have a soul, it will bring tears to your eyes.

I don't feel that I can comment on the fifth and sixth episode, since I've only seen them once. I don't fully understand them yet.

However, my favorite is the second episode, Lolani. This episode discusses something that canon Star Trek never did: slavery. I can understand why. Like religion, it's way too sensitive a subject for television networks to want to touch. The show's creator, Gene Roddenberry, didn't want to deal with the controversy. He was fine with episodes talking about the conflict in Vietnam (A Private Little War), racism and Civil Rights (Let that be your last battlefield), the Cold War possibly going hot (Errand of Mercy) and the spectre of nuclear annihilation (A Taste of Armageddon), but religion he didn't want to touch. When it was casually mentioned at the end of the episode Bread and Circuses, it was the studio doing it behind his back when he was on vacation.

All that being said, some things, regardless of how controversial they are, should be addressed. Slavery is one of them. Most Americans don't want to mention that slavery ever happened in this country, for fear of offending certain people. That's unfortunate since slavery still exists in the world today. The rest of the text in this blog post is full of spoilers. If you don't want to see any spoilers, skip the text and go down to the embedded video of the episode.

The episode Lolani is about an Orion Slave Girl that was found aboard a derelict spacecraft, belonging to the Tellarite that purchased her. He and his crew died in a fight over her. They also tried to rape her, thinking of her as a sexual object instead of a person. Sounds disgusting, heh? It should. Most of the slaves of today find themselves in situations like that in the Islamic world. Women there are nothing but property and thought of as just things for pleasure and procreation. (Notice how I use the word 'thing' here to describe a certain group of people?) Arab Oil Sheiks with ridiculous amounts of money are the usual customers since Islam allows men to have up to 4 wives, if they can afford them. Unfortunately, slavery is still also an American issue as well. A great many of the teenage girls that go missing in America today (especially some counties of Maryland) end up being sold into sexual slavery in the Islamic world and other places.

After the Enterprise crew report back to Starfleet about Lolani, things only got worse for her. Orion law required her to revert back to the property of the slave trader that sold her to the Tellarite. That slave trader inspired a LOT of fear in Lolani because he was a very brutal man. Starfleet took a 'Not my monkey, not my circus' kind of attitude (Miserable cowards...) and told Kirk to give her back to the slave trader. All to avoid an interstellar incident. They were not interested in granting asylum to Lolani, either. Being a man of moral courage, Kirk did his best to convince the slave trader that making Lolani a slave again was wrong. Sadly, it didn't work. There's no reason why it would have worked, either. Like the slave trader said, slavery had been a part of Orion culture 'since they learned to make fire.'

There's also a scene where Kirk had to fight this hulking slave trader (masterfully played by Lou Ferrigno) when he caught him hurting Lolani. It ended in a draw. Under Starfleet orders, Kirk had to let him take Lolani back. However, it didn't sit well with him. Before he even got back to the bridge, he decided that he wasn't going to let this happen. He orders Sulu to pursue the slave trader's ship. Moments later, this ship explodes. The bridge crew's hearts are collectively broken in an instant.

Kirk leaves the bridge, wandering the corridors of the ship to collect his thoughts and work through his feelings. He finds himself going back to the guest quarters that Lolani used. He finds a book that he gave her earlier in the episode, describing it as 'a book about an ancient Earth civilization that fell because it drifted from the values that made it great.' That book was about the rise and fall of the Roman Empire.

Inside the book, he finds a data disk left by Lolani with a video message. It explains her actions in destroying the slave trader's ship, wishing to die than be a slave again. She also expressed her hope that her sacrifice would inspire others to liberate the women and girls currently being enslaved by the Orion Syndicate. Kirk played that part for the entire crew on the ship's PA system. Like I said about The White Iris, it will bring tears to your eyes if you have a soul. Gene Roddenberry would have been really proud of this episode. It would fit right in with the original series. Even more than that, it actually has the power to make me emotional. If it can have that kind of an affect on me, I can only imagine what it would do to Neurotypicals. It's virtually impossible for films or TV episodes to get to my emotions, but this one did. If nothing else impresses me about this show, that would be more than enough.

Instead of essentially banning fan fiction like this, CBS & Paramount ought to hire these people to make new TV shows and movies. Who better to give Star Trek fans what they want than actual Star Trek fans? I have every confidence in Bryan Fuller, who is producing the new series currently in production. He is a fan and has previous experience working on Deep Space Nine and Voyager. However, I doubt he'd mind getting some help from knowledgeable folks. Hell, I'll gladly work as a consultant on that show.

The cast and crew on Star Trek Continues wanted to make fan fiction that would be like the original series picking right up where it left off for a 4th season. I say they have succeeded with flying colors. CBS & Paramount, I strongly suggest you re-evaluate your position and allow Fan Fiction to thrive. If nothing else, you'll at least have a ready-made talent pool for writers, directors, actors, make-up artists, et al. who already know the franchise.

- Publius




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