As the Twin Cities’ Pioneer Press reported last week, two fans of the original 1960’s Star Trek series, brothers Jimm and Joshua Johnson, have created a new online episode in the same 60’s style, using their own actors, sets and props. Seven years in the making, Starship Exeter “The Savage Empire” has it all. Starfleet and Klingon uniforms, starship corridors and sliding doors complete with sound effects, the bridge, vintage transporter and phaser effects, Andorians and Klingons, techno-babble, hand-to-hand combat, a torn captain’s uniform, and of course a climactic space battle. One has to wonder what Paramount’s reaction to all of this will be, having come down hard on Star Trek fan sites in 1996.

This is the latest of many science fiction fan-films now made possible by the personal-computing revolution that allows amateur filmmakers to duplicate once-pricey television- and movie-production techniques on shoestring budgets. Among the best-known ones are

“Troops“, a Star Wars parody based on the Cops television show, “Duality“, a martial arts choreographed, CGI-rich Star Wars short film starring three of the dark side’s Sith, “The Matrix in Six Minutes”, a LEGO parody, and Hidden Frontier (currently off-line), featuring the U.S.S. Excelsior in the Star Trek: Next Generation era, using live actors and CGI starship interiors and exteriors.