Fan Film Friday: Stone Trek
Written by Randy Hall on December 18, 2009 – 12:00 pm -
Ever wonder what Star Trek would have been like if it had been produced by the people who made the 1960s animated show The Flintstones? It probably would have looked just like the Stone Trek fan film series.
Set on the stoneship U.S.S. Magnetize, these independent productions featured the adventures of Captain James. T. Kirkstone (who closely resembled Fred Flintstone), Mister Sprock and Doctor Leonard “Fossils” RcKoy (pronounced “Rock-Coy”) as they and their crew boldly went “where no caveman has gone before.”
Produced by Brian Matthews and Jim Jenkins, Stone Trek featured many voices provided by Wally Fields, a professional artist who also made a significant vocal contribution to the official Star Trek video game Birth of the Federation.
The brief two-part QuickTime animation episodes also featured a 1960s-style laugh track and sound effects that were commonly found in cartoons produced during that time by Hanna-Barbera.
One of the running gags in each voyage was an ongoing count of the number of redshirts killed in that adventure, and several online fans volunteered to be a security officer and be sent to the really final frontier.
The first story was called “The Deadly Ears” and showed the Vulcano first officer’s pointed ears being stung by a pair of alien bees while he was on a landing party. His ears swelled to enormous proportions, jutting out of the Magnetize and causing an attack by a swarm of the insects that felt they were jilted by Mister Sprock on the planet surface.
“20001 B.C.: A Space Oddity” found the stoneship and its crew sent by Stonefleet to learn the fate of another vessel, the U.S.S. Discovery, which was sent out to learn if the new era began in 20000 B.C. or 20001 B.C. (This story gives you a good idea when the series was made.)
After finding and boarding the Discovery, Captain Kirkstone fell into a big black slab and ran into some “friends” of his, which were actually other roles played by William Shatner. Kirkstone made it back to the Magnetize in time to join the rest of the crew in celebrating the arrival of the new year, though which year was never made clear.
In “The Caveman Trap,” the ship and crew attempted to deliver cruise tickets to a scientist and his wife Nancy (who creepily looked and sounded like an enlarged Arnold Schwarzenegger) only to encounter a salt-sucking vampire.
The creature, which could change into any form it wished, made its way to the Magnetize, where Captain Kirkstone made it change into the shape of his greatest love, and you can guess what that was!
Stone Trek crossed over into the Star Wars universe when the stoneship crew was “Marooned on Tatooine” after trying to rescue Queen Armadillo from the Fashion Police (who were allied with the Klingonasauruses, an unlikely cross between Kor and Dino).
While Kirkstone and Sprock tried to earn enough money to buy parts for repairing the Magnetize by joining in a daily pod race, Doctor RkCoy solved the problem by taking bets against his shipmates.
The only single-episode feature in the series was a Stone Trek version of the song “Star Trekkin,” which was originally made as a “claymation” music video by The Firm in 1987. The video was produced as a tribute to the 35th anniversary of the original Star Trek and in memory of “Gene Rockenberry.”
I don’t know what Clint Eastwood might have thought of the series, but it’s time for me to do some reviewing.
The Good: I never cease to be amazed at the kind of energy and passion fans of Trek put into their productions. Stone Trek is a lot of fun from start to finish, the kind of entertainment only fans of both the final frontier and The Flintstones could inject into the project.
The series also had many tips of the hat to Classic Trek. Instead of using a transporter to get to the planet below, the Magnetize had a “transdropper,” which opened up under the people on the pad so they could fall to the surface.
Also, the ship’s “warped” engines were powered by a combination of magma and anti-magma, and Queen Armadillo went shopping at the “Darth Mall.” I guess it says something about me that I found most of those jokes a real hoot!
The Bad: Every once in a while, the QuickTime animation in the episodes became a bit jittery, but overall, the effect was very convincing. If only Hanna-Barbera was still around to enjoy the homage.
The Ugly: Stone Trek began back in 2000, and it became quite popular online. However, no new episodes have been produced over the past few years, so it looks like the series has gone beyond the final frontier. That’s understandable, given the obvious amount of time and effort that went into these fan films, but it would be fun to see what new voyages the crew could come up with.
If you’d like to catch “The Deadly Ears,” watch “The Caveman Trap” or enjoy the “Star Trekkin’” video, check out the official Stone Trek Website.
Related posts:
- Fan Film Friday: Star Trek: Intrepid: Heavy Lies the Crown
- Fan Film Friday: Star Trek Phase II: World Enough and Time
- Fan Film Friday: Star Trek Animated: And Let the Heavens Fall
- Fan Film Friday: Star Trek: Of Gods and Men
- Fan Film Friday: Star Trek: The Continuing Mission
Tags: Star Trek, Stone Trek, The Flintstones
Posted in Fan Film Friday, Web Productions | 1 Comment »
By Jim Jenkins on Dec 19, 2009 | Reply
Thanks for the wonderful review. Brian and I had a lot of fun doing Stone Trek. We’re amazed at how often Stone Trek keeps popping up on the Google. It seems that, like the original Star Trek, we are more popular in reruns. But, Brian and I have gone our separate ways, so the chances of seeing new episodes of Stone Trek are remote.
Again, thanks for the review. Keep on trekkin’, and may the farce be with you.
Jim Jenkins
“Who’s he?”
“Nobody. A writer.”