New Star Trek series born locally? | Arts & Culture

West Seattle might go where no neighborhood has gone before! The fertile mind of West Seattle resident Leo Roberts has created what could be the next Star Trek series. Not such a surprise given that this town has a lot of science fiction aficionados, conventions for comics, anime, robotics. In fact, Leonard Nimoy (Spock for those who need remedial Trek classes) attended the 2010 Emerald City Comicon.

Leo Roberts has created a quality fan-favorite episode that he would like to produce as the next series in the family, Star Trek: Phoenix.

“The last Star Trek television series was ‘Enterprise’ and it ended in May,” Leo explains. “Star Trek: Phoenix is a series that takes place 40 plus years beyond the motion picture, Star Trek: Nemesis. This vast span of time gave me sufficient room to create a new universe while paying very close attention to canon and what Gene Roddenberry created.”

West Seattle shows up in the episode because all the forest scenes were filmed in Schmitz Preserve Park. Cast and crew live in neighborhoods from West Seattle, Ballard, Greenwood, Renton, Capitol Hill, Beacon Hill, Everett and Edmonds. A warehouse in Lynnwood was used to construct the set, and EMP allowed them to film in the Blue Room, a special room that very few people ever see the inside of.

It has local actors Ben Andrews who plays Captain Bryce Avari, James Lyle as Dr. Thomas Alden, Roy Stanton as Romulan Ambassador T’Von. The first episode is Cloak and Dagger. Leo proudly exclaims, “We were featured at Norwescon in 2009 and made a promise to fans that we would return in 2010 to present the pilot and on April 2 we fulfilled that promise that ended with a standing ovation.”

They also screened the pilot in Seattle theaters and put it up free online, leading it to be one of the top fan productions in the world, now. Leo is excited about the growing support, “At least three Trek actors have endorsed the campaign and more are on the way from what I'm told.”

While fans in the know are clamoring for more, Leo and collaborators want to be careful to keep up the quality of both the stories and the production, which takes … money of course. Leo says, “I dread this question (when will Part II be out) because I want to tell fans that it’s coming soon but I personally haven’t been able to provide the financial resources to launch production.

“As the creator, I feel it is important to adhere to the standards we’ve established and not detour from them for the simple sake of getting something out the door. Star Trek: Phoenix was only able to exist because of the heartfelt and passionate contributions of over 150 people (volunteers) in Seattle. “

Leo came to film via first music vocal training, then becoming a casting director, and then when the film industry tanked locally, he decided to do something on his own. When seeing the excitement from local artists, he wanted to create the highest quality project he could.

“We want to raise the bar not only for fan films but for films period in Seattle. This would require us to have full sets and basically produce a television network quality series. Emmy award-winner Brian Sipe came to the production after moving to Seattle from Los Angeles and opening a studio. He worked on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and the new Star Trek movie by J.J. Abrams. All of the prosthetic and special effect makeup seen in the pilot are the creations of Brian Sipe.“

The big question is whether a fan film company can convince the ‘big guys’: Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios that their idea is worth taking on as an official project, though Leo is sure that they are well aware of this project’s existence.

Leo says, “All fan productions must operate as a not-for-profit entity and as long as they operate by this golden rule they are allowed to exist. We are very thankful that CBS Studios and Paramount Pictures allow us to operate in the ‘Neutral Zone.’ What CBS/Paramount needs to know is that fans are ready…they are ready for a new series to take place in the future, beyond Star Trek: The Next Generation era. In the meantime, we continue to move forward to produce Part II. The script is almost finalized and we have several draft designs of the sets we need.”

An important step in funding opportunities has just been created by becoming a member of Shunpike, an umbrella for arts organizations. Leo reports, “This will allow fans to contribute to the production and get a tax deduction. It’s a little more of an incentive to donate. Not only can they help make something they like, but they can benefit financially. It’s a win-win.”

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Watch Star Trek: Phoenix online: http://stphoenix.com/