Friday, January 4, 2013

Day 11 - Trekzines & Virtual Seasons

Everybody likes to see their favourite media spun out over a regular series...

Trekzines, Fanzines and Newsletters
Whether you call it citizen journalism or fan publishing, Star Trek fans have always been heavily into creating magazine-style publications. 

The clubzine of the United Federation Starfleet, published on Issuu



Virtual Seasons, Prose
The virtual season has changed its meaning in recent years, but it started out as group-written, serial fan fiction... 

by Rigel Kent; [n] episodes, Enterprise era on the writer's web site.

Virtual Season, Script-based
One of the good things about being a fan producer is that you have total control over what you do, no financial backers, publishers, no one to explain your creative decisions to! I see virtual seasons as being one of the more 'dangerous' ways of telling a story... 
  • You release your fiction as a script designed to be read rather than performed - there is a subtle difference.
  • You commit to a definite release schedule that emulates the regular programming of a TV series
  • You package your release to have the look of a DVD or BluRay case and cover
  • You rely on a regular reader base to follow and comment on your work.
At the start of this year MZPtv was the major purveyor of fan-based, script-based virtual seasons but an executive decision was made to move entirely to Independent productions, leaving some authors caught mid-season. Fortunately, MZPtv were able to find homes for most of them, including...



by Kyle West; 12 episodes, Post Nemesis. TEN The Entertainment Network

Sebastian Knight, felt like he was being moulded from birth into something he didn't want to be. First it was his father, grooming him to inherit the family ship one day, and then it was Starfleet, trying to turn him into another by-the-book drone. The way Seb see's it, he's his own person, and lives by his own rules.

So when his world is turned upside down after some bad news from home, Sebastian can see exactly what is taking place: people are trying to control his life yet again. And as we'll soon learn, he never responds well to other people trying to shape his destiny. For 26 years, Sebastian Knight has avoided any kind of responsibility, and coasted through life. That's all about to change, and for Sebastian and the crew of the cargo ship Haven, things will never be the same... 

Star Trek: Final Frontier
by Mirabello, Munoz & Rossi; 2 episodes, Post Nemesis.

When is a virtual season not a virtual season? When it very nearly was a real animated series! Star Trek: Final Frontier was developed in late 2005 but was unfortunately not picked up by the networks. In 2010 they started releasing their design documents and concept art to the web for fans to see what might have been, they also released the five part pilot script. In November this year they continued the adventures with parts 1, 2, 3 & 4 of a brand new episode.

Its fifty years after the end of the second Romulan War, the Federation has turned inward, eschewing exploration and diplomacy in favor of strengthening its core systems and protecting its borders from incursion. Captain Alexander Chase of the U.S.S. Enterprise as they fight to save their ship from destruction in the far reaches of the galaxy. 

K

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