Fan Film Friday: Star Trek Animated: And Let the Heavens Fall
Written by Randy Hall on November 20, 2009 – 12:00 pm -
Nearly 35 years after Star Trek: The Animated Series was carried on Saturday mornings by NBC, a fan of the Filmation show has produced his own episode, entitled “And Let the Heavens Fall.”
“Ever since I was a kid I’ve always loved animation,” explained Curt Danhauser, who worked as a researcher in the Star Trek Art Department from 1995 to 2001 for Paramount Pictures. “I am also a fan of Star Trek and a writer,” so creating new episodes of the animated Trek is “a dream project for me.”
Danhauser also runs a website that has provided extensive information on the series since 1996. The site features a collection of “Public Service Announcements” made “just for fun” that focus on episodes of the show, including a “Warrior’s Lesson” for Klingons based on the animated adventure that dealt with Tribbles.
Nevertheless, Danhauser said he believes that “Star Trek has always been about the human condition and not about space ships or renegade Klingons.” As a result, he hopes that any stories he produces “will be just the type that the classic series might have undertaken.”
The first act of “And Let the Heavens Fall” was made available for download on September 8, 2008, the 35th anniversary of the animated series’ debut, and the rest of the episode came the following April 25. It featured the U.S.S. Enterprise traveling along the path of a powerful ion storm that had passed through the sector two days earlier.
When Captain Kirk and his crew began rendering technical aid to a courier ship manned by a Gorlan named Revik, who claimed his vessel was damaged by the ion storm, they discovered that a pre-industrial civilization on the planet below was sending radio transmissions into space. Were they communicating with Revik? And if so, why?
To gather more information, Kirk sent a landing party consisting of McCoy, Sulu and M’Ress down to a village on Novarra II where radio waves had been detected. While there, the crew members found a “cathedral” in which offerings to the “Invisible Watcher From Above” disappeared before the natives’ eyes.
Back on the Enterprise, Spock determined that Revik’s ship had actually been in orbit for 47 years and had been reconfigured to allow greater storage of items while fitted with a less powerful engine, an odd configuration for a courier vessel.
After Scotty found a cloaking device on Revik’s ship that would prevent the Novarrans from detecting it, Kirk and his officers concluded that the Gorlan had been “playing god,” but the Prime Directive prevented them from intervening.
When the captain told Revik the Enterprise would give him no further help, the Gorlan managed to download schematics from the ship’s databanks so he could complete any repairs himself. Apparently dejected, Kirk ordered his crew to take the vessel out of the sector.
Just as McCoy complained that the captain was letting Revik “get away with this,” Kirk put the ship on Red Alert and ordered it to be turned around and headed straight at the Gorlan’s vessel. Just before the Enterprise could hit it, Revik fired at the Federation starship.
Now that Revik had fired the first shot, Kirk could defend his ship with a surgical strike that took out the Gorlan’s cloaking equipment. After Revik admitted he’d been beaten and he would have to withdraw his influence from Novarra II, the captain said that he and his crew had followed the Latin motto Fiat justitia ruat caelum, which means: “Do justice and let the heavens fall.”
I don’t have an animated Clint Eastwood hat, but my regular one should do.
The Good: As with most fan projects, “And Let the Heavens Fall” was an obvious labor of love for Danhauser, who did everything from direct the episode to design all the new elements in it. In addition, he provided all the voices from Arex to Sulu except Uhura, which came from Phoebe Danhauser.
With a fan in charge, “Heavens” contained a number of firsts for an animated Trek episode. It was the first time Kirk wore his green leisure tunic and the first appearance of such Classic Trek staples as the universal translator, the radiation vest and the trident scanner.
Also, two well-known people in Trek fandom made a cameo appearance in the program. When Scotty moved toward a panel in Engineering, two people could be seen behind him. They were Michael and Denise Okuda, who worked with Danhauser at Paramount and incorporated some of his research into such publications as the Star Trek Encyclopedia and the Star Trek Chronology.
And “Heavens” ended with a tribute to Trek stars who have passed on. Outlines of McCoy, Scotty and Nurse Chapel were shown over a starscape, and the words “for DeForest, Jimmy & Majel” could be seen below.
The Bad: It struck me as odd that people in a pre-industrial civilization would simply accept the members of the landing party without any qualms. I could almost understand not having any problems with McCoy and Sulu, but M’Ress should have baffled the Novarrans, I thought.
On his website, Danhauser responded that the lack of reaction on the villagers’ part suggested that the planet may have been visited by humanoid merchants in the past, or perhaps they are naturally not xenophobic. OK, that sounds ”logical” to me.
The Ugly: There’s nothing ugly about a renewal of interest in The Animated Series. With “Heavens” under his belt, Danhauser has begun work on his second episode, “Ptolemy Wept,” which will deal with a vast library in space left behind by an ancient and highly advanced civilization.
Slated to be released next summer, that story will feature the return of Lieutenant Erickson, the Starfleet historian who accompanied Kirk and Spock through the Guardian of Forever in 2269 to study Orion history firsthand in “Yesteryear.”
And Danhauser isn’t the only fan who’s shown renewed interest in ST:TAS. Working with NEO f/x, Starship Farragut recently produced an animated episode called “Power Source,” with “The Needs of the Many” coming in the next few months.
Tags: Curt Danhauser, enterprise, Michael and Denise Okuda, Star Trek Animated
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