Red Shirt Diaries: Ashley, Jason—and who's Bones?!

The truth HAS been out there for some time, but it hit home today: The Red Shirt Diaries is the cutest, bestest and yet heart-felt little Trek parody webseries out there: The fans are flocking, even before last year's "Season 2" Indiegogo that upped the bar this year … the buzz is growing… and now—yes, I got to don McCoy's dark hair and blue tunic once again!

THANK YOU, ASHLEY AND JASON.

That's Ashley V. Robinson and Jason Inman, of course, who not only announced their engagement recently but also have quite an up-and-coming profile—doing RSD as well as their awesome Geek History Lesson podcast/ YouTube, Jason's  DC All Access webshow co-hosting, and Ashley's burgeoning acting career (listen to this clip!). And of course, they first came on Trekland's STV radar a year ago during that Indiegogo drive (and yes, I still need to post the rest of the vidchat). 

This nighttime fun on Hollywood Boulevard came last Sept. 11 as they held a mini-season premiere screening at IO Club and Theatre for crew, cast and local backers, but I held off the posting until our McCoy spoiler was closer…which, of course, with "Operation: Annihilate!" meant late in the "season." Never fear—you can catch their "finale", RSD's angle on "Amok Time," on Monday next—and of course gotta catch 'em all on YouTube or via the RSD site. (At 5 minutes each, tisn't difficult).

Quite aside from moi's return to solid/dotted-rank, this is quite a landmark episode for Ashley's Ensign, er, Lieutenant Williams as well—and remarkably a big dose of pathos in what is admittedly a winky fun vibe of a series. And how many past World of Williams references can you catch? 

WILL there be a Season 3? WILL their Mirror Universe dream come true? Will Ashley's crack about Commodore Decker bear fruit? It's up to you guys and what they call "online analytics," of course—so, and she says, "SHARE AND LIKE! SHARE AND LIKE!"

STV: Ensign Williams logs in from 'Red Shirt Diaries' !

Finally… on the last day of their Indiegogo…I finally get this posted. Good thing it's not as if they needed my help! 

Meet Ashley V. Robinson and Jason Inman, whose Red Shirt Diaries web series is the slyest, most inventive little take on what NCC-1701 lower-decks life for redshirts 'n' redskirts might have been like…and now an Internet cult hit, to boot. It's all in bite-sized, three-minute weekly "log entries" from Ensign Williams of security, her friends—and, yes, her famous superiors. Organized, of course, by historical records otherwise known as the first 10 outings of Star Trek—original series style.

Are YOU hooked yet? It's so simple—and yet more addicting than a cordrazine slush.
If you're a noob, give a look here on their YouTube channel at the 10 episodes up so far—the TOS classics in aired order, through "Corbomite Maneuver"…told of course, through the long-suffering yet surviving ensign's oddly eventful personal logs, right from her simple quarters on Deck 8.  

Want to see more? Today is the last day of their very modest campaign and they've met two stretch goals already—including a bonus show and location shooting! So, you can still help them out with their drive for RSD's "Season 2", which would get the enterprising duo (and more) through the remaining 16 episodes of TOS' Season 1…and maybe even to Vulcan and plak tow...

Give a listen and find out all the backstage secrets, the genesis, what lies ahead for as we present this first of a four-part visit with Ashley and Jason RIGHT ON THE SET (ie, their living room)—and even a surprise visit from Gertrude/Beauregard. 
 

"Cookin' With Gas": Another holiday Trek gift from Pony

Merry Christmas or what-have-you—it's my pleasure to pass along a little holiday treat from my buddy Pony Horton, CGI FX whiz and sometime producer/actor extraordinaire with the flair for comedy ... who last yuletide brought us the gift of the inevitable Star Trek/Nixon mashup, 1701 Pennsylvania. Please tell me you saw it, starring Ralph Miller in the role he was born to play-gate?

Well, now, Pony is back, with this video present set in the future ...though it's not of a holiday theme per se, it's just his way of saying "greetings of the season." In that whimsical away.

UPDATE: You can see "Cookin' With Gas" direct at Pony's YouTube page ... enjoy!

Meanwhile here's Teaser #3, via Pony:


Cookin' With Gas teaser trailer #3 from Pony R. Horton on Vimeo.

LA ALERT: NixonTrek short gets a PopCon LA screening

Short notice, guys-n-gals, but WORTH a look:

Recall the bizarrely wonderful Nixon-Trek spoof 1701 Pennsylvania Av.?

Our good friend Pony Horton, CGImeister and co-saviour of No-Win Scenario, lets us know that it will get a big-screen look at L.A.'s PopCon this weekend at 10:30-11 p.m.  Pony, along with audiomeister and spoofster extraordiinare Ralph Miller wil be around for a brief Q&A, too.

If you haven't already thought of hitting up PopCon LA, this year's expanded version of the ITVFest industry event and awards now including comics, social media, music and fashion— pros and exhibitors—then get to the LA Convention Center downtown and indulge. It gets underway today, but you can get single- and multi-day tickets ... and the fan-fave Tim Russ Band (below) plays Friday night, as well.

Happy holidays with ... Nixon and Star Trek??!!

Just in case you missed this stocking stuffer on Christmas Eve ... here ya go. No worries—it's the gift that keeps on giving!

Yes, it's a little wacky gift to Treklanders everywhere from some of the folks who bring you New Voyages/Phase II—that's sound masestro and jokester Ralph Miller, doing his infamous Nixon sendup full-bore, and Pony R. Horton as the agent, and behind camera as writer/director, plus the CGI and editing involved. Lots more cameos too of your P2 favorite faces ... including Kurt Carley, P2's onetime Chris Pike. And, once again, a "fan film" that's really full of professional work:



Pony tells me: "I am thrilled to have had a great deal of help from my friends Ralph Miller, James Cawley, Rob Mauro, Charles Root, Gwen Wilkins, Kurt Carley, Michael Stern, and John Carrigan in the making of this film, which is a short inspired by James Cawley's STAR TREK: PHASE II and Ralph Miller's hilarious Richard Nixon characterization.  I'm releasing it as a kind-of PHASE II stocking-stuffer, since we're in-between regular PHASE II releases right now."
 
Ralph has been pulling the wry video stuff and bloopers ever since New Voyagers began; Pony has handled CGI for recent full P2 episodes, and helped John Carrigan with those same CG skills to bring to life the "lost" 2005 vignette "No-Win Scenario."

And don't forget to watch the end credits' stills, too!

Star Trek [The Experience] LIVES!—or at least a little bit

As co-creator (and ST:TE actor/staffer-now-archivist) Vernon Wilmer himself says, here's a little gift to all those flocking to Vegas this long weekend for the big cahuna Creation blow-out—otherwise (now) known as Vegas Khhaaaan!

That's Vernon and writer-director April "Commander Tahryn" Hebert  at right in this brilliant flick—and it's for all you bittersweet fans missing Quark's, the museums, the rides and the "time station" at Star Trek: The Experience. Or, even more so, for all you young'uns since '08 with no memories of your own—just photos and tall tales to cling to.

But if you go looking in official sources about The Experience for any of Tahryn's topics heard here in this brilliant little flick, you will come up short. Nothing these guys talk about was ever planned—it simply grew: first as actors' therapy and the need for context and backstory in a random assignment as aliens at a Las Vegas tourist mecca ... and, later on, because the STTE family simply became its own monster and universe unto itself. Because Star Trek is hardly just your garden-variety tourist theme ride, you know; the Canon Continuity Monster devours all, of course.

I had a front-row seat on the building and opening and updating and closing for The Experience, 1997-2008, but Vernon's ongoing blip.tv series Star Trek: My Experience begins to catalog all the between-the-lines "other" that we at the old Communicator, startrek.com and the like never really got a chance to catalog until it was too late—and what many fans remember today as the BEST PART.  Thank Kahless for him!

And, in turn, both of them for this...



(Oh, and if any of you first-gen fans get a bit of a kick out of that headline... my pleasure.)

STV: Aren't you a little short to be a parody?

All these years on the pro side of Trekland can easily leave one jaded, but every once in a while life still has its geek moments. Sometimes they even pop up from another franchise! *gasp*

With TREKLAND truly alive now, I dusted off another "Switching to Video" long waiting in the wings... and so it was that, while in Dallas a year ago, I had a memory timewarp back to the days when just about the only things fans put on frames of celluloid were parodies and satires, not whole-cloth new fan-made episodes. And while FedCon USA may have been a bust, this moment was not. In short:

I GOT TO MEET PRINCESS ANNE-DROID!

(Or Cindy Freeling (nee Furgatch).

Those of you wondering what the hell... I'll say nada but refer your Googlefingers to a little cult classic called Hardware Wars. Nuff said.