Meeting Vic Mignogna – A Startrekkers letter to Star Trek Continues
To Fans from a Fan
Saturday night was just kicking in on Florida Supercon, most of the big names had already presented themselves in their Q&A sessions on the main hall, energy was going down and you reach the point of starting to get ready to go home, but not until one last session of your favorite show “Star Trek”.
In one of the smaller rooms, a regular guy name Vic Mignogna was trying to reach out to the anime fans introducing the boldly universe of star trek fan films. As trekkers, of course we knew him, but his humble and direct approach to these fans was something unique.
He stormed the room with great energy and shouting about the free dvd he would give to each person part of the audience. He was making clear they were free and that dvds are not for sale. Everyone was excited not just to get a free dvd, but to get it from the guy running the show in person. As more people were arriving to the session room, he announced they would present their latest episode of the Star Trek Continues fan film production: episode 6 “COME NOT BETWEEN THE DRAGONS”. As some tech issues were being taken care, he opened the mic for some quick questions.
As trekkers and fans of his work, the big elephant in the room was the recent pronunciation from CBS regarding the new policy for Star Trek Fan Films, which could jeopardize all fans productions, specially his.
There are several groups producing star trek fan films, currently Star Trek Continues and Star Trek New Voyages are the ones with focus on continuing the original 5 years mission that was cut short to 3 seasons. These 2 groups and others work on different approaches and budgets, some with own investment, others doing kick-starting campaigns from big to large bucks, some of them hiring people to do some of the work, others simply goes DYI with their own limitations, but all of them are product of fandom somehow.
So I took the liberty of asking Vic if he could comment on this issue. I felt that wasn’t one of his favorite subjects, still he would share his thoughts and fears about it with the crowd. He first mentioned that CBS have been nothing but forthcoming for many and many years about fans producing and sharing their creations of a product that clearly belongs to them. He stated that Star Trek Continues was the only production running with the proper certification as non-profit organization and that any of their team were taking salaries to do it.
The initial investment (near US$150 thousands) was done by Vic himself to build the stages and basic set up to start the shootings. He said as every people, he works and pay his bills and the money he saves, he spends with what he loves most, in this case Star Trek. But recently, due to some developments on other fan films, CBS was forced to take ownership and defend their intellectual property and that he agrees with that. Nevertheless he thinks positive of this situation based on the way they produced and respected so far the studio and their ownership. He cross fingers and thinks positive moving forward.
As a fan, I perceived that he wanted to pass the message that Star Trek Continues is not here for money, but that he was a bit worried that all of his hard work and dream could be affected by other groups that are not on the same premises and objectives. I could also say it was a touching moment for fans that shares the same passion as his.
After that they started the projection of the episode. As most of the fans already know, it’s a great production, exactly the same as the original series in terms of looks, sound (score), everything. It’s pretty much the same deal, with just different actors. Vic makes a great Bill Shatner personification, almost identica, it’s really fun to watch these episodes. They get better and better each one. This one specifically, had a meteor creature type as the monster of the week theme, with was a creation from one of member of his team that actually works in Pixar Studios. Vic said that he got a call one day from him, saying that he wanted to help and he did. Most of the team members and actors had similar approach towards this project, lots of people pitched in to help and support the cause.
He opened the mic again for Q&A, the fans had more questions about the latest episode and production issues and etc. What stroked most was Vic’s final notes on the original objectives of the project and what could come next. As a fan I was thrilled. His goal is to produce near 13 episodes which is the current average for online series season and that he wanted mainly to bridge the gap from the 3rd season end till the very first motion picture. Then he made 3 great questions that he wanted to somehow answer then with the remaining episodes:
1) What happened to Kirk that would take him away from the captains chair to an admiral desk job at the fleet?
2) What happened to Spock that would make him go through the “Kolinahr” and purge all of his emotions?
Then before asking number 3, he mentioned a detail about the Enterprise badge was the same for everyone in Star fleet and that Gene Roddenberry mentioned before that it was because the Enterprise was the only ship that completed the original 5 year mission, so question 3) would be: what could have happened to the Enterprise and also to the other ships and crews, that would be the only one to “survive”, but also would need a big refit after that?
After making these 3 questions I could see everyone in the crowd with their eyes shinning in awe thinking about possibilities (as Spock would says). In that emotion the session was put to an end due to time limitations. Some of the fans reached Vic to get a hand shake and get a picture (like we did).
I can state that I entered the session with an expectation and Vic let us out with much greater perception of what fan films could and should be for Star Trek. Also, it was great pleasure to meet such a nice guy and star trek fan with such a positive energy.
The message from the Startrekkers fan club in Brazil to Vic and all of his team is that we do hope that Star Trek really Continues, boldly going where no fan has gone before. LLAP