Trekkies boldly go where no one else dares

George Takei

The Trekkies have struck again.

Most of us might think of Star Trek as a television sci-fi programme whose time came and, after an extremely robust career on both the small and big screens, went again.

But those diehard fans of Captain Kirk, Klingons, and that mantra about boldly going where no man has gone before don't give up so easily.

Since there is no more Star Trek on television, and since the various generations of the film series appear to have run their course, the fans are taking matters into their own hands and shooting their own Star Trek episodes on digital video for broadcast to fellow fanatics over the internet.

Paramount Studios, which owns rights to the show and its spin-offs, doesn't appear to mind as long as no commercial transactions are involved. And the fans are lapping it up.

One amateur production group called New Voyages claims to have received 30 million hits on its website.

Its episodes, shot in upstate New York, are so popular that some of the actors who appeared in the original show have agreed to make guest appearances.

Among them are George Takei, who played Sulu, and Walter Koenig, who played Chekov. One of the original Star Trek writers, D.C. Fontana, has penned an episode.

Another site, in Los Angeles, is boldly exploring gay themes that no official Star Trek episode has explored before.

A third, based in Austin, Texas, imagines a space ship in which the crew was turned into salt in an episode of the TV series and is replaced by Texans.

Amateur Star Trek has taken off in Belgium and the Netherlands. Another production, to be found at www.ussintrepid.org.uk, is based in the Scottish Highlands.

Altogether, there are believed to be more than 20 online Star Trek homage shows either in existence or in the works.

The New York Times followed the fortunes of a group of Trekkies creating their own show in the woods of Virginia, complete with intergalactic weaponry and cloaking fields.

Participants had a blast donning the costumes and spending hours trying to perfect the makeup, especially for the Klingons.

One organiser described the experience as "online community theatre". Another, Paul Bednar, marvelled at how he had allowed his producer-friend to talk him into donning a form-fitting blue tunic, black trousers and ebony boots.

"I used to joke with him,'You'd never get me in a Star Trek uniform'," he told the paper. "Even on Halloween, it's not going to happen. Next thing I know, I'm wearing a uniform."

- INDEPENDENT