Trekkie Central Staff:

Writers: Heather Ashleigh; Jennifer Cole; Gerri Donaldson; Josh Edelglais; Beo Fraser;

Danny Levy; Alex Matthews; Richard Miles; Eugenia Stoypra; Michael Struck; Sean-Paul

Teeling; Tim Vining and John Whiting.

Head Writers: Gerri Donaldson; Alex Matthews; Richard Miles and Eugenia Stoypra.

Photographers: Jennifer Cole and Richard Miles

Graphics Artists: Steve Gilson and Richard Miles; Front Cover: Richard Miles

Creative Consultants: Michael Hudson and Rick Pike.

Assistant Editors: Heather Ashleigh and Alex Matthews

Editor: Richard Miles

Special Thanks: Contributors: Michael Struck.

Trekkie Central Magazine and Supplemental is produced for fans by fans. This is a free to

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Starship Farragut: The Animated Episodes A Preview

By Michael Struck 4

Character Introduction 6

Michael Struck Interview 7

Welcome to the fourth issue of Trekkie Central

Supplemental.

This issue features Starship Farragut the Animated

Episodes, with an exclusive article by episode creator

Michael Struck and also an interview also with Michael

Struck.

We hope you enjoy this magazine

Live Long and Prosper

Richard

Hello, my name is Michael Struck and I am the owner and manager of NEO f/x, a visual effects company located in Portland, Oregon. We have been

operating since 2003, mainly focused on creating simple logos and videos for those in the Portland area. Around 2005 we wanted to expand from our

core business and enter the entertainment industry. As most new filmmakers find when they begin, it is not easy to break into this industry. So, we

started reaching out to smaller filmmakers, student directors, and internet fan films to slowly ease our way in. In 2005 we found Starship Farragut, a

Washington DC based fan production. Their episodes were set in the TOS timeline and based on a new crew and ship. Unlike New Voyages which had

already established themselves, Starship Farragut was just getting started, so this was our opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a new project.

Fast forward to 2007 and we had helped produce a couple of successful episodes of Farragut, and we found ourselves in demand by other

productions. However, we also wanted to do one of our own pet projects which was 2D animation similar to the

Filmation Trek of the 70’s. I had actually written a story treatment for Farragut, but just like some of the

stories for the original episodes of live-action Star Trek, my story was a bit too ambitious for a limited

funded live production, but could easily be created in animated format. However, I was no

screenplay writer, so I solicited a story from Tom Scott, president of Magique Productions.

This was a very impressive story that was very ‘Trek like’ in its structure and story. While we

made a decision that this would be our animated episode, I still wanted to see my story

come to life. Fortunately, one of the other productions we were beginning to work on was

Of Gods and Men. This is where I met Jack Trevino, one of the writers of OGAM and a

couple of ‘real’ trek episodes on television. He knew of our work in Farragut and

commented that he wouldn’t mind writing a story for this series. I told him of our plan for

an animated episode and my story, and we began collaborating on a script that would

work in this format.

As the scripts were begin developed, I wanted these episodes to not simply be classified as

fan productions. While most of the cast of the live action Farragut would be involved, I

wanted some ‘special guest stars’ to be included as well. One of the plans I always had was

to include a character from the original Trek episodes as part of the Farragut crew. In the

original animated Trek episode “Yesteryear”, the timeline was altered and Spock was no

longer part of the Enterprise crew. Instead, the first officer of the Enterprise was a gray

Andorian named Thelin. This character was originally voiced by James Doohan, and only

appeared in this one episode. My rational for including him in the Farragut crew was

somewhat ‘logical’ if not inventive; Thelin must have been in Starfleet to eventually end up

on the Enterprise in a parallel timeline. And as we all know, one small incident in the past can

have major consequences in the future. So, with Spock not being around in “Yesteryear”,

maybe Thelin did some heroic act that got Kirk’s attention and he was on the fast track to

Lieutenant Commander. With the original timeline in place, however, maybe Thelin didn’t get to

meet Kirk, and he ended up on the Farragut as only a Lieutenant. Either way, I needed someone to

voice this character, and I thought one day ‘why not ask the son of James Doohan to do it’. As luck

would have it, Chris Doohan was interested in getting into voiceover work, so it took little convincing

to get him involved. In addition to Thelin at Navigation, we also have a new character to the Farragut

crew, Lt. Scott Taylor. Taylor is being voiced by Hetoreyn, the composer of the live-action episodes.

Hetoreyn is originally from the UK, so it will be nice to have a non-American accent on the bridge.

The story Jack and I wrote also involved a guest female character. Jack immediately recommended

Chase Masterson from Deep Space Nine and OGAM. This is where I got my first dose of

‘Hollywood reality’. Actors belong to a union that protects their rights, and they simply can’t

work on any project they want…The project must be SAG Signatory which ensures that

the actor is treated as they should be. This is one of those ‘insider’ things I had no

idea about; however, Chase was very open to helping NEO f/x become SAG

Signatory so she could participate. This opened the door to other actors

such as Vic Mignogna and Tim Russ (Tuvok) having some cameo roles

in the episodes.

Once recording began, we started animating. At this time it

was only myself and Kail Tescar (webmaster of

startrekanimated.com) working on the project. However,

word of the project spread quickly and we began getting

volunteers work on the project, including a former

Disney employee, a couple comicbook artists, and even someone that helped pitch a post-TNG style cartoon to CBS.

For the music, Hetoreyn volunteered to participate. Outside of the simplified animations, most people are nostalgic about the music of the original

animated episodes. These were original creations and were used A LOT in not only Star Trek, but other animated episodes created by Filmation. While I

was thrilled to have Hetoreyn working on this, I knew that we had to capture the feelings the original music created. Any misgivings that I had about the

music were put to rest when he delivered a wonderful, modern rendition of the ‘battle sequence’ from TAS. I knew at that point we could capture the

original feeling without resorting to using the original music.

As we moved forward on the episodes, I was spending a lot of time in LA getting the recordings, so I decided to

look up Lou Scheimer…one of the co-founders of Filmation (the original creators of TAS). How surprised

was I when he invited me to his estate that overlooked the San Fernando valley! I showed him our

work and he gave his complete endorsement of the project saying “You have to follow your vision

of what to do, and don’t let anyone detour you. “ He has since recorded a promo and cameo for

these productions that we will be releasing soon.

Overall, this has been a fantastic project. Looking back to 2003, I would have never thought

I would be working directly with actors, or meeting legends in the animation world. The

other thing I never anticipated was the amount of effort it takes to put a cartoon together.

When we originally announced this at the beginning of 2008, we thought for sure it could

be done by the end of the year. However, defining the character and getting the recordings

the exact way we wanted them took a lot longer than we anticipated. Therefore, we have

slipped our release date to the first half of 2009. The goal has always been to release this

before the JJ Abrams film, and we are still on track to do that. Until then, we are planning to

release a couple of trailers to whet the appetites of the online fans.

Until then, you can get that ‘animated feeling’ by having an animated image of yourself drawn

up by Kail from StarTrekAnimated.com. Simply go to

http://www.startrekanimated.com/tas_portraits.html and follow the instructions. Please

note that there is a charge for this service.

TCMS: Can you tell us who the cast

will be for these episodes?

MS: The cast of the original Farragut

episodes will be in these episodes.

This includes John Broughton,

Michael Bednar, Holly Bednar, and

Paul R. Sieber. In addition, the doctor

(Amy McDonough) and Galway (Bob

McDonough) will also make

appearances. In addition, we have

Trek Alumni Chris Doohan, Chase

Masterson, and Tim Russ

participating in various roles. Vic

Mignogna (Fullmetal Alchemist) will

also make an appearance, as will

Jason LaBlanc, a voice-over artist

from Dallas, Texas. Finally, we have a

few cameo appearances that the fans

will appreciate, including Lou

Scheimer…the co-founder of

Filmation.

TCMS: Who wrote these episodes?

MS: There will be two episodes.

Power Source was written by Thomas

J. Scott of Magique Production. He

had previously submitted a

screenplay for the live-action

Farragut as well, and was happy to

shorten it and turn it into an

animated episode.

The Needs of the Many was written

by me and Jack Treviño, writer of a

couple of DS9 Episodes. This story is

also based on a ‘pitch’ I gave for a

live-action episode.

TCMS: Will there be original music

used in these episodes or will you use

bits from the animated series?

MS: Surprisingly, the original music is

not readily available. I actually met

with Lou Scheimer and we theorize

that Paramount has the original, but

it would be unlikely for us to be able

to get it. However, that is fine as we

have a VERY talented composer who

will do a homage to the original

music, along with creating scores

unique to the episodes.

TCMS: What will the running time be for

these?

MS: These will be like the original

episode and they will be slated to run for

about ½ hour. The nice thing about an

independent production is that we are

not restricted to keep it 22 minutes.

Therefore, one of the episodes will

probably be a bit longer than that to

make sure we do justice to the story.

TCMS: How did you managed to get Star

Trek alumi Tim Russ and Chase

Masterson to participate in these

episodes?

MS: Not only Tim and Chase, but

Chris Doohan (son of the original

Scotty, James Doohan), and Vic

Mignogna from the anime world

(Edward Elric on Fullmetal Alche-

mist). Since the beginning of this

project, I had a ‘special’ character

in mind for the crew of the

Farragut. Very similar to M’Ress

and Arex in TAS, I wanted an alien

in the mix. The character I had in

mind was originally voiced by

James Doohan, and then one day

it clicked…why not ask his son to

participate?? One e-mail chain later

and he was hooked on the idea. He

then became our biggest advocate.

The story Jack Treviño and I came up

with was very flexible, so the first

person we asked to participate after

Chris was Walter Koenig, since he was

never in the original animated episodes.

Unfortunately, with his recent

participation in OGaM and the New

Voyages episode, he felt he had done

Chekov to death (pun) and was not

interested in revisiting that character.

Since the main character of the story

could have been male or female, we

decided to go female as Trek has not had

enough strong female characters in its

history. With that, both Chris and Jack

suggested contacting Chase Masterson.

When she found out Chris and Jack were

involved, she assisted us in getting the

project set up with the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and then joined the project.

She then suggested we contact Vic. Vis is a

HUGE Trek fan and jumped at the chance to

participate. From there it was just a fluke to

get Tim Russ. We were interested in

showing a trailer at the Creation Convention

in LA and I contacted him to see if he would

be showing OGaM, and if so, could we

attach the promo to it. He wasn’t showing

anything this convention, but hinted that he

has gotten into voice over (V.O) work

recently. A few quick rearrangements and

we were able to bring him in on a small role

that is perfect for him.

TCMS: Is there anything else that you can

tell us about these animated episodes?

MS: Well, we are still finalizing the premiere

of these episodes. We have a lot of artists

participating in these episodes, and we want

the premiere to do justice to the work they

put into this project.