Star Trek: Aurora

July 27, 2007

No, 'Star Trek: Aurora' is not the title of the J.J. Abrams directed film coming out in 2008, but an animated show that can be seen online.

Directed by animator Tim Vining, 'Aurora' takes place just after James T. Kirk's 5-year mission, and before 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture'....

Unlike many other 'Star Trek' fan films that can be seen online, 'Aurora' does not focus on a crew of Starfleet officers and their battles with Romulans, Klingons, or any renegade faction, but a group of two civilian merchants of the vessel Aurora: Captain Kara Carpenter, and her Vulcan first officer, T'Ling. (Possibly taking inspiration from Joss Whedon’s ‘Firely,’ as well as Han Solo and Chewbacca of ‘Star Wars’ fame).

We get a portrait of young Capt. Carpenter who is still feeling the effects of losing her family to a surprise attack from a Romulan warbird, which she had witnessed years before while on a family-run merchant vessel.

As short and quick as the entries to this series is, you can get a sense of where the Trek franchise needs, which is: Engaging stories and characters which can appeal to fans as well as non-fans; a sense of adventure and danger that the original series hinted at.

As a classic 'Star Trek' fan myself, I liked seeing a group of Andorians pass by in the second segment and seeing a bit more of the civilians we usually saw as background characters in classic series stories such as 'Operation: Annihilate!', 'Devil in the Dark' and so on.

Too, a 'thumbsup' has to be given to Mr. Vining for having his two primary leads females; something that the Trek franchise has somewhat been lacking: Strong females that are not only sexy, but intelligent and independent.

Interesting as well, Capt. Carpenter and T'Ling are voiced by the same individual, Jeanette Vining. (I personally would not have noticed this was the same person listening to the carefree Carpenter, and the droll T'Ling).

I do have a small fan-boy nitpick: Ever since ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ (also known as ‘TNG’) the Vulcans were seen as monolithic in look; as not only the males wore the infamous bowl-cut, but also the females.

Mr. Vining does not actually have T’Ling wearing her hair in that fashion, as her hair is indeed short, but slicked back. (I will personally see this as a personal choice for the character to wear her hair in that fashion!)

As of this review, part 2 of the 'serial' has been uploaded to the site: www.auroratrek.com.

I look forward to see how this proposed 4-part series turns out.