Oh, the things I get myself into…

Several years ago, I stumbled across a discussion thread online where these fellows were discussing acquiring the old bridge set from the web production, Starship Exeter. It had been sitting for a number of years in a pole barn somewhere in Texas. The weather had taken its toll, and the sets were quite deteriorated.

These gentlemen in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, had taken delivery of the set and were storing it in an airplane hangar in El Reno, Oklahoma. They began to post pictures, and my heart sank. The sets were truly in deplorable shape. I made contact with these guys and offered to come out to Oklahoma and assist with restoration.

Upon arriving, I took inventory of the set pieces and saw that it was only a threequarter bridge set. Some of it had been exposed to rain, and the sheeting it was covered in was swollen and collapsing. However, the framework was still in great shape.

We removed the worst of it and replaced it with new material. I showed the guys how to properly use Bondo and other materials. One of the guys had decided to construct the last quarter of the bridge so that it would be a full 360‐degree set. When I left, things were well underway. I had given them the tools and knowledge to complete the task.

Over the next year, they continued working. They found a more suitable space in which to continue construction in Oklahoma City proper. The following year, I came back to find the set about 90% complete and absolutely gorgeous! While I was away, a script had been written for a production called Starship Ajax.

One of the main characters in the story was Commander JM Colt. You may remember in the original Star Trek pilot, “The Cage,” there was a minor character, a Yeoman with red hair. My wife, Jodi bore an uncanny resemblance to the actress who originally portrayed Colt, Laurel Goodwin. When I showed the guys a picture of her, they were sold that Jodi was going to be their Commander Colt.

I came back a third time with wife and kids in tow and we shot a fair amount of test footage. We discovered quickly that our forays to OKC were becoming rather expensive. We all decided it might be best to hold off on further shooting to focus on travel expense fundraising so we would not be so “out of pocket.” Some time passed, and it became evident that there were difficulty in the production as far as raising these funds. It was beginning like Jodi wasn’t going to be able to play Colt after all.

In the meantime, Ajax put out the word that they needed fabric for TOS era costumes. James Cawley of Star Trek Phase II contacted me and graciously offered fabric he had in surplus. Mr. Cawley is a well‐known fixture in the Star Trek fan film community. Phase II was located in Port Henry, NY, which was only two hours from where I lived in Vermont.

Jodi and I made the trek (no pun intended) where we met James and company, and he put in my hands entire rolls of fabric!!! James gave us a tour of their bridge set with all the lights and graphics up and running. James’ sets blew us away, and we were in awe of his charm and generosity.

At the time, James and his crew were busy finishing pick‐up shots for their production, “Kitumba,” and he invited us to come and participate. Milling around, I looked into the makeup room and discovered James and Bill Lutz attempting to apply a Klingon forehead on one of the actors. The makeup artist failed to show up.

They seemed to be struggling with the process. Jodi nudged me to get their attention, which I did, and offered my assistance. Special F/X makeup is one of the skills I possess. James gladly accepted my help, and before I knew it I had actors lined up ready for Klingon makeup.

James seemed quite pleased.

I went back the following day and from then on, I found myself a niche as one of Phase II’s makeup artists. Jodi and I worked on a couple productions, including “The Holiest Thing” and “Mind Sifter.” During one of our many visits with James, over dinner, we were bemoaning the fact that Jodi was probably never going to get to play Commander Colt.

James suggested we “do our own thing” and produce our own show. After much consideration, we took his advice and created Starship: Challenger. Colt was to be the Captain (hey, why not right?) and we began an outreach to fellow actors, various writers and other talented friends to join us in our project.

Suddenly, we had more story ideas than we knew what to do with. We decided that the only way to utilize all this terrific material would be to create an anthology series; thus, Star Trek: Anthology was born. Two other story arcs accompanied the Challenger story; Mother and Assignment: Earth. Originally, we were going to use the same cast for each story arc, kind of like American Horror Story but with a Trek twist.

Between Phase II productions (which later was renamed Star Trek: New Voyages), we borrowed James’ sets and shot some test footage; enough to make a couple of trailers or teasers. I began serious planning for a larger, full two episode shoot. Unfortunately, due to set construction constraints and conflicting shoot schedules, we were unable to shoot any more footage.

Our Plan B would be to return to Oklahoma City, which basically had been home in the first place, to shoot the two episodes. This was to take place in August 2016, which is the hottest time of year. Trust me, we weren’t looking forward to being under hot lights in a hot warehouse, wearing makeup and velour long sleeve uniforms shooting for 12‐hour days. But our cast and crew were troopers and were going to make the best of it.

That is when the hammer dropped.

In 2015, prior to the announcement of a new episodic series (Discovery), video games and other Star Trek-related media, and in response to misrepresenation made by some unscrupulous independent productions, CBS and Paramount Studios released fan film guidelines that ultimately were too restrictive to let us proceed with the regular episodes we already had planned.

After a LOT of stress, angst, tears and deep consideration, myself, Jodi, and the other producers came to a unanimous realization. If we were going to continue this project, it would no longer be under the auspices of Star Trek. We would make our own universe, our own ship with characters, uniforms, sets, aliens, etc.

Fortunately, the “meat and potatoes” of our scripts could stand on their own very well whether they were in the Trek universe or not. We began to strip down our scripts, detrekifying everything until any semblance of Star Trek was no longer evident. The phrase “We don’t need no steenkeeng guidelines” became our motto. All of this work, blood, sweat, tears, drama evolved into The Outer Rim.

We hope you enjoy these new space adventures that, while inspired by Star Trek and other science fiction franchises, take place in an entirely new universe.

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Star Trek and all related marks, logos and characters are solely owned by CBS Studios Inc. This fan production is not endorsed by, sponsored by, nor affiliated with CBS, Paramount Pictures, or any other Star Trek franchise, and is a non-commercial fan-made film intended for recreational use. No commercial exhibition or distribution is permitted. No alleged independent rights will be asserted against CBS or Paramount Pictures.