What Kirok did ... in July

• Still working behind the scenes on what could be a great "new" project at TrekUnited.
• Broke the news about Star Trek Specter's call for voice actors across a few of the major fan audio drama forums when I spotted it on YouTube.
• Spotted a new Trek audio drama: Space Vessel Bird, tagged it and released into back into the wild 
• Started a discussion with the talented young ladies who have produced Enterprise S5, regarding the possibilities they might have of future development: adding a voice track to make it more like a 'Toon show' style animation, as a PhotoNovel or as an audioBook
• Noticed that STS The Forgotten Frontier, the web comic, is posting again
• Darker Projects is casting for a re-boot of the seminal Star Trek: The Section 31 Files.
• A sleeper favourite from last year, Henglaar, M.D, has just released episode 1.03 "Risk Factors"
• ST Outpost released episode  The Shadow of the Standard Bearer (I have a few to catch up there!)
• ST Excelsior has released Sunset
• Got wind of a great article on audio drama production and the new beta for Audacity 
• In the world of Trek fan films, things have been very quiet: Excalibur is still in with a chance for the Pepsi Refresh Program but ST The Romulan Wars has had to put back their release dates.

Ensign Sue Must Die!

The idea of the Mary Sue in fan fiction has become such a stereotype that, although such characters really do exist (I've even known one in an audio drama!), they are an object of such ridiculosity (words fail me!) that the terrible plot becomes funny in itself. Kevin Bolk and Clare Moseley have decided to have a little fun with the idea with a web comic series entitled...

Kevin (who does the art) and Clare (who plots the storyline and does the scripting with Kevin) shared a table in the Artist's Alley at Wizard World Philadelphia last weekend at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. I particularly like the way he has lampooned the cast of the new movie, the Spock's in episode 1, Chris Pine's Cpt Kirk in number two & four and Chekov in episode five! Checkout the series on DeviantArt, HERE.

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What Kirok did ... in June

• My thread on TrekUnited, Graphics 101, has so far covered composition, photo references, body proportions, sketching using stick figures and character reference sheets. 
• Started another blog to cover craft and construction projects as well as what I like to think of as men's issues, Igor's Workshop. Kicked it off with a simple idea for a budget Moleskine portfolio.
• Continued my investigation that there is more on DeviantArt than just painting and drawing, I have featured ...
  
  
  
  
  
  The photography of Chonastock
• Most of my spare time has been taken up with a secret project that could re-boot an old favourite on TrekUnited
• ...However I have been watching Star Trek Specter closely. The more of it I see the more excited I get!

What Kirok did ... in May

• Celebrated 25 years of marriage to She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed. My best friend and still the sexiest women alive.
• Started a thread on TrekUnited giving a blow-by-blow description of my attempts to re-awaken my latent graphic arts abilities. Being the lazy, uh I mean, efficient man that I am, you might find some short-cuts in there that might be of use to you.
• Continued with the thread on TU of noteworthy Star Trek material on DeviantArt, with the art of Sean Tourangeau and Chris Hoffman.

What Kirok did ... in April

•  Script Frenzy!

Star Trek: Specter - prepare to be amazed!

Commenced in August 2006 , Star Trek: Specter is a movie length, fan-made animation - not a machinima! - which could well give Star Trek: Aurora a run for its money as the animation of the year for 2010! The sheer scope of this work - 20 scenes released so far and still going! - is absolutely mind-boggling! This playlist puts the scenes into order and for details - beware spoilers! - you can checkout the exhaustive entry on the Star Trek Expanded Universe Wiki

Prepare to be amazed!

What Kirok did ... in March

• The first issue of Acrux for this year is shaping up nicely but it is taking longer because its bigger - MUCH bigger - than normal. Got some great submissions too!
• TrekUnited has changed hands and the new management looks like continuing the site in the spirit that it has always been - unbiased, flame-retardant and fan-friendly. As Director of Media I understand that the audio and video centers which have been down for a while are to be resurrected.
• Been following a new critique blog on audio drama - Audio Drama Review
• Posting links on TU of noteworthy Star Trek material on DeviantArt, featuring the art of Trance-Master, J-Redd, MadameManga, RocketShoes, Frenchie1941
• Floating the idea of doing an original pulp audio drama instead of the Crimson Skies mini series
• Trying to clear the decks for April when I will be doing ScriptFrenzy again.

New GoAnimations

I've been fascinated recently by the possibilities of GoAnimate, where RoTV has recently released a new video, The Siren's Carnage, an animated graphic novel. Checkout his production page at GoAnimate for his previous work, especially his first Animated comic, The Derelict which can also be seen as a playlist on on the House of L'Stok's YouTube channel.

The other major release from GoAnimate is Ztar Trek:The Next Constipation by Section31 (on YouTube and GoAnimate), an amazing accomplishment, showing what can be done with the to extend on the generic controls of the standard package. No, that's not a typo - its worth watching, there's nothing worse than PG18 in it and it is quite witty. Checkout her previous series, two seasons of Starmada on her website as well!

New TAS Comic!

Kail Tescar, who has an extensive body of work already with his TAS Comics, has added a Starship Farragut: The Animated Series Comic to his lineup. As you might know, Kail has been working with NEO f/x on their animated series based on the fan film, Starship Farragut and has always said that he would be releasing a comic book spinoff from the series.

Based on a story by Sean Scullion and aided by contributing artists, Guy Davis and Charles Barnard,Kail has put together a neat speculative fiction story with a B Plot that is important to Farragut continuity. As always the artwork has that distinctive TAS (Star Trek: The Animated Series) look to it. I'd be interested in finding out more about the technical process of creating the artwork - it looks like a fusion of hand-drawn and computer generated graphics. Highly recommended!

Drumroll please...

Twelve months ago I was in the middle of a very invasive course of treatment which I finished in April. Today after ten months I am only two kilo's below my original weight and getting my general well-being back.

I try to make a point of facing my problems rather than waiting for them to trip me up, better to seek them out and neutralise them before they can become really threatening. In the past all my problems could be solved with effort: working, saving, building, learning, training. But no amount of skill can improve your health. No amount of work or training can change what is in your bloodstream. All I could do was take the medication and wait for it to run its course, putting up with the side-effects that turned me into a stranger.

I spent a year waging a war made up of battles that I could not win, but a war that I might be able to walk away from as the victor if I could only endure the indignities, counting off the days. This was one problem that I was literally powerless to change and for me that was Hell. Far worse than the physical effects the treatment had on me though, was the fact that it robbed me of the one thing that defined me as an individual. It stole my Chi, my confidence.

After six months of restoring my physical health I started to face the problem of rebuilding that confidence in myself. I started an ambitious audio project in a new fandom - Crimson Skies - and started to realise: I can do this. However before I could go ahead with it, I needed to do The Twelve Trek Days of Christmas, officially started it on December 19, something that I have come to see as an obligation to Star Trek fandom, my way of giving something back to the many great fan production groups in return for all the friendship, enjoyment and inspiration that they have given me over the year.

I am only responsible for nine "Days", two of them, Days 3 and 8, were the work of TWERP and Final Frontier Media respectively, and the eBook publishing is being handled out of Ad Astra this year. I'll soon be finished, I'm expecting to have the last two done by February 19, which means that I will have completed nine major projects in two months!

Hmmm Guess what? [Drumroll please] I've just realised that I've got my Chi back!

What Kirok did ... in February

The Twelve Trek Days of Christmas is winding to a close. This year I am determined that I will complete all the days even if it means dragging into the second month of the new year! Just to keep you abreast of what I am working on...

• Day 10, paper models, is about a quarter done - the sticking point is the fiddly formatting to put it up on the blog - I released as far as The Original Series early in the month.
• The command structure of the USS Southern Cross, an Australasian Star Trek fan club that has always been family friendly, has started a push to improve the fan experience for parents and children 
• Over the weekend of Feb 6/7th we, myself and She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, flew up to the borderlands of the Purple People for a gathering of the clans to celebrate the Diamond Wedding Anniversary of The L'Stok of L'Stoks - my parents. Great weekend with all the credit going to my sisters and nieces.
• On the air trip up there and back I was able to write a little more of Trek Twelfth Night and catch up with some audio ...
  
  
  
  • TWERPcast 19 BondCast
  • TWERPcast 34 HolmesCast
  • Star Trek: The Continuing Mission Ep.6, "We Will Control All That You See And Hear"
    
• Back-tracked and listened to the last episode of ST: Grissom before the latest one.
• From an aside on sffaudio I discovered RadioArchive.cc an amazing repository of Audio! A great resource that I agree will bring the BBC more listeners rather than lose them revenue. I'm currently downloading Under Milk Wood as narrated by Sir Richard Burton in 1963 - a national treasure!

What Kirok did ... in January

The Twelve Trek Days of Christmas ALL MONTH!

• Day 4: A comprehensive guide to every Star Trek audio drama known as at the posting date. Are they good? That's for you to decide!
• Day 5: Five seminal fan films created between 1969 - 2000 that paved the way for the fan film sub-culture we are enjoying today.
• Day 6: Once the preserve of the big production houses with their teams of talented artists, computer graphics have brought animation within the reach of 'everyman'. What is being made, how and by whom?
• Day 7: Star Trek: Twelfth Night - An appropriation of Shakespeare's classic comedy! Have you ever noticed how in a mirror, everything is turned about?
• Day 8: Last year's survey of Music Videos makes a return as Sebastiaan van Mierlo, the owner of Final Frontier Media, gives us his pick of the top Star Trek music videos of all time!
• Day 9: The new and improved Twelve Trek Days of Christmas "Compendium of Games", a survey of fan-made and commercial games based on Star Trek including quick-start rules for a custom-made RPG system, Fantasy Trek