Star Trek fan-made production exist since the end of the Original Series: without Kirk & co, it was up to the fans to create new adventures set in the utopian future imagined by Gene Roddenberry, some of which have achieved cult of their own, like Of Gods and Men and, despite some behind the scenes problems surrounding them, the highly successful Star Trek: Horizon and Star Trek Continues.
Now, another fan-made movie will add to this ever-increasing list of productions: it will be the first-ever Italian fan-made Star Trek movie, titled Dell’amore e dell’onore (“Of love and honour”). This non-profit project will be financed by a crowdfunding campaign and it’s set to be released in 2023; the first trailer has been released on February 25th.
Set in the year 2256, some years prior to the Original Series, the project will tell the adventure of the starship USS Tucker III (a name familiar to most Star Trek fans) commanded by veteran captain Daniel D’Amato; once a proud Starfleet flagship, now considered old and obsolete in comparison to the more “modern” Constitution and Miranda class vessels, and on its way to decommission.
What started as a routine mission for this old vessel and its crew, will turn into a deadly fight for survival, which will test our main heroes’ will and intellect.
This fan film will be shot in Turin, in real sets whose realization and the building is the point of the crowdfunding campaign: scenes made in CGI and green screen have already been shot. The purpose behind this project is, obviously, to pay homage to 50+ years of Star Trek stories, and the authors promise a story rich in ethical and philosophical implications.
For the occasion, we interviewed its screenwriter, Jack Ponissi.
Treksphere (TS) – Let’s begin with Of Love and Honor’s main setting, and more specifically with its time period: your project stands as a prequel to the Original Series, and is set a few years prior to Kirk and co.’s adventures. Why this timeframe, and what were you most interested in exploring about this period?
Jack Ponissi (JP) – The main reason that interested me was the political situation: the Federation is expanding and exploring uncharted space, the Romulan Star Empire is in one of its isolationist phases and the Klingon Empire is internally fractured and, while still in theory a powerful enemy, the infighting means that it’s not going to attack anytime soon.
Also, Klingons at this point are seen as ruthless but mostly mythological adversaries by most humans: while older officers, such as our captain D’Amato, have engaged them in battle in the past, the newer generations never had any contact with them and tend to idealise them.
TS – About this, the main ship of the movie, the USS Charles Tucker III (Brooker class), is obviously a callback to one of the main characters in Enterprise. Your project is completely original with a new story and new characters, but how much is it related to other Trek films and shows? Can we expect further references and homages to classic Trek?
JP – There are several little homages that the long-time fan will be able to discover in the movie, but the film is totally able to stand on its own and it won’t be required to know anything from previous Trek to understand the story.
TS – Of love and honour promises to do what Star Trek has always been able to do particularly well: pondering on existential and philosophical questions, and studying the many facets of what it means to be human. What themes were you most interested in exploring?
JP – Our main themes are duty, love and prejudice. In fact, a lot of the story deals with how far in a certain direction these things can bring you and how hard it can be to find a balance.
TS – From the project’s official website we can already find much info about the characters’ lives, relationships and motivations. What have been the main inspirations for those characters? How much are they inspired by preexisting Trek heroes and villains?
JP – Well, some previous episodes and movies, such as Journey to Babel and The Wrath of Khan certainly influenced the characters and the story (for example the beginning situation, with a ship full of cadets commanded by a captain whose main job is a teacher is similar to that of TWoK), but each of them has a different twist and, most importantly, grows during the course of the story. Personally, I’m a big fan of the TOS and TNG-era Trek, so I’m bound to have been influenced by it, but the story is still original and able to stand on its own.
TS – You’re all big Trek fans, and you’ve already spent a lot of time, energy and enthusiasm on this project, and so the question is due: can you tell us something about any upcoming projects, if they’re on the horizon? What would you like to do next?
JP – Well, our main goal right now is releasing this film, to do so we need to fully fund it. We have an ongoing crowdfunding campaign on our site www.trekfanfilm.it and anybody can contribute to this goal.
After the movie is done we’ll see: we have a few ideas involving a possible new Trek story but also several set in original universes. As I like to say: one thing at a time. Right now we’re running a series of video interviews to get the public to familiarise themselves with our actors and characters, you can already find a couple of them on our social pages.
WATCH THE TEASER
Dell’amore e dell’onore will be written by Jack Ponissi (who will also compose the soundtrack) and directed by Valter Chiorino.
The cast features stage actors (and long time Star Trek fans) Mirco Faedi, Luca Bocci, Domenico Malpezzi, Astrid Vaira and Ilenia Palazzolo among others.
To read more info and to contribute to the project, we refer you to the official website. > https://www.trekfanfilm.it/
