Star Trek: Renegades - listen to what the fans are saying

Deposit Photos image 26492123 (c)

There I was, minding my own business, scrolling idly through the Facebook feed - and I come across an article from Space.com (no less) - about a crowd funded Star Trek spin-off! Here it is. The film itself is on Youtube, and you can watch for free. If you're really keen, there's a Star Trek Renegades web site.

I find this development fascinating. To me, it says two things:

• Trek fans are hankering after some of the development that's happening in the Star Wars universe. Even the name resonates. Star Wars has Rebels,  Star Trek has Renegades.
• Trekkies aren't getting what they want from the big studios, so they put their hands in their pockets and funded the thing themselves.

I think it's a fantastic development. It's got *spaceships* after all.

Another reason why I think it's fantastic is because I don't want to know about dystopian plots. For me the real world is full of misery and to spare. It's the first thing I thought of when I read a write up in "The Weekend Australian"for two new hard SF titles - Seveneves by Neal Stephenson and Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson. Both titles will please lovers of hard SF. Not a warp drive or hyper drive in sight.  

Seveneves is set at a time when the moon (ours, that one up in our night sky) is destroyed. The pieces will come down in due course, and the world will have to start again. Meanwhile, a space station is to be set up to rescue the species. They've got two years.


Aurora is about a generation ship on its way to the stars. The story is set 500 years in the future and focuses on the problems faced by generations of people who have never known any life outside a spaceship.

There's nothing particularly original about either concept, but that's not the point. I'm sure, in the hands of these skilled writers, the stories will be well told. But (sorry) I'd rather have Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Wars: Rebels - and yes, Star Trek: Renegades. I'd rather be up there whipping through the light years in my souped-up freighter than thinking about the doomed billions who won't be getting up to that spacestation.

When you think about it, this is sort of the film version of fan fiction, and self publishing. If Big Business doesn't give you what you want - do it yourself. Cheers!