With ‘The Good, The Bad, and the Federation,’ Star Trek Finally Gets An Overdue Twist
Fan production follows a Romulan crew as episode's protagonists
Fan-produced Star Trek episodes have become the 21st century answer to fan fiction, as these episodes have proliferated in recent years the way that fanzines once did half a century ago.
And Dominion Media is one of those many productions, creating new episodes since 2013 although the group’s origins run back even further to Starship Farragut and their studio Farragut Studios in 2004.
Lately, however, Dominion has done something pretty innovative in terms of Star Trek storytelling, by creating a new web series in which the protagonists are not human, Federation or Starfleet characters.
Beginning with “The Good, The Bad, and The Federation,” Dominion Media’s Warbird Valdore series produces episodes in which our “heroes” are the captain and crew of a Romulan warship.
To be sure, we've seen individual scenes of stories from non-Federation perspectives, going back at least as far as the doomed Klingons at the beginning of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
But we've never seen entire stories, episodes — and entire series — which center aliens, let alone aliens who are usually Star Trek’s villains.
For the folks at Dominion Media, the origins of Warbird Valdore came from a desire to give more screen time to actor Joan Savage and the Romulan commander she played in previous Dominion-produced episodes.
“In the case of this production, we were premiering an offering of Dreadnought Dominion where our villain was a returning Romulan Commander, played by Joan Savage. Joan had become a fan favorite from her first appearance,” said Gary Davis, Dominion Media’s “showrunner,” one of three executive producers and — like in many fan productions — also takes on a variety of other tasks as well, including directing, props and costuming. “There was chatter in the chat area of our YouTube premiere that we should have Joan on EVERY production. I shot back that we’d LOVE to, but we can’t have a Romulan ‘bad guy’ in every Dreadnought Dominion.
“I then followed with a comment of ‘... why don’t we give Joan her own series?’ The chat room went NUTS with comments of “YES!’ and ‘DO THAT,’” Davis explained during a recent interview via email. “After the premiere I chatted with my two co-Executive Producers, then made a call to Joan and asked her if she’d like to star in her own production? Warbird Valdore was born. We’d make it a Romulan version of Dreadnought Dominion, told in the point of view of the Romulans as the ‘heroes’ of the story, and not the villains.”
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“The Good, The Bad, and The Federation” also introduced a new alien species, the Vancians.
“The Vancians are a totally new and original bad guy species. Since the Romulans are being cast as our ‘good guys,’ we needed another alien race to be their ‘bad guy,’” Davis said.
He described how he went ahead to create this new species — on a budget.
“Since I am the costumer for the show, I knew I needed to costume not only our Romulans, but the aliens as well. I started where I normally do, Amazon and eBay for something that could be an alien uniform without breaking my wallet,” he said. “What I found was a black hoodie with some interesting stripes across the chest. They came in different colors. They were perfect, as the color could denote rank. I also needed a mask, and the TV show Squid Game came to mind as they had these very cool black masks with squares, triangles, and circles on them. They were affordable, and with the addition of black gloves, our aliens were complete.
“All they needed now was a NAME. A good friend of the production, Vance Major Owen, is someone who LOVES a hoodie. He always wears one in his Star Trek Fan Film, and I often tease him about it. WHO wears a HOODIE on Star Trek? Well.. HE DOES,” Davis said. “So, since I was buying HOODIES for our aliens, I gave him a call and asked him if I could name the aliens after HIM. The VANCIANS. He loved the idea. It was even his idea to make the ‘extra-dimensional’ characters.”
Dominion Media has big plans next year to weave Warbird Valdore together with its other Star Trek productions, as well.
“What we have planned is an epic crossover of all three of our productions, and release them in mid 2024,” Davis said. “The crossover story will start in Project Runabout, continue into Warbird Valdore, then a BIG FINISH with Dreadnought Dominion. Three entirely separate adventures, different productions, connected by a story thread, all-together, an epic journey!”
Crowdfunding is usually the life blood for any fan production, and Dominion Media is no exception.
Fans who love their brand of Star Trek fan fiction can keep the stories alive, by donating to Dominion Media's Indiegogo campaign here.
And in the meantime, you can enjoy the full episode of “The Good, The Bad, and The Federation,” here, as well:
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