Starship Yorktown
Golden Age Film; Series (Drama) — USA
The release of "Yorktown: A Time to Heal" in 2022 represents the culmination of professional and fan efforts to bring a 38 year journey from a teenager's first fan film to a close. A tragic terrorist attack on the USS Yorktown has remifications long after that allow a young man to come to terms with personal loss.
This film not only hired George Takei, but also interested a diverse group of other entertainment industry figures (in alphabetical order)… • Stephen J. Cannell** provided incidental Sound Effects • Peter Kuran** of ILM fame was a consultant for Special Effects. • George Lazenby** was scheduled to play the role of Admiral Nogura but due to scheduling conflicts, couldn't make the shoot. Veteran actor James Shigeta** stepped in to fill the spot in his stead.. • Andrew Probert**, the designer of the USS Enterprise-D, joined the team in pre-production and helped redesign the Yorktown, design for the enemy vessel Nagear ("Reagan" spelled backwards) and create a new design for a Klingon fighter. • George Takei** reprised his role as Hikaru Sulu
There are two Facebook Pages, a public group and a private group .
News, Reviews, & Links
Article about Yorktown in Issue #119 of Starlog Magazine, dated June, 1987, when the film was first shot. The article starts on p15 and continues on p16.(see also 20 Apr 2010 Mystartrekscrapbook blog article): https://archive.org/details/starlog_magazine-119/page/n13/mode/2up?view=theater (01 Jun 1987)
Blog entry on Mystartrekscrapbook about issue #119 of Starlog Magazine, dated June, 1987: http://mystartrekscrapbook.blogspot.com/2010/04/1987-article-on-sulus-solo-trek.html (20 Apr 2010)
FanFilmFollies article by Christopher Moshier: https://www.fanfilmfollies.com/news/yorktown-a-time-to-heal/ (14 Sep 2010)
Video Interview on the Trekspeak Youtube channel (36:31): https://youtu.be/AQCKawMei6Q (07 Mar 2012)
Danver’s Demented Features: Yorktown Interview. Interview with horror host Danver from Demented Features. The interview includes never-before-seen footage from Yorktown: A Time to Heal.: https://vimeo.com/76744288 (11 Oct 2013)
Episodes Yorktown: In Temporary Command — 01 July 1984 A short fan-film produced by Stan Woo
A video of the award ceremony for best Science Fiction film at the Hollywood Teen Film Festival (1984) from John Atkin's Vimeo channel: https://vimeo.com/102597423
Yorktown: In Temporary Command won the trophy for best Science Fiction film at the Hollywood Teen Film Festival for 1984, presented to the young filmmaker by actor Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters). The success of this short student film lead to the making of Yorktown: A Time to Heal, starring George Takei and James Shigeta. It does not appear to have ever been released online.
Yorktown: A time to Heal VFX teaser Trailer 01min 30sec — 04 June 2011 Released by Roland Baron. "This is a VFX teaser trailer for the Fan-Film "Yorktown: A Time to Heal." The film stars George Takei. Principle photography took place in 1986. But the film was never finished because of the difficulty in producing the visual effects in the 80's. Recently I was asked to help out and do the VFX for the film. The Second ship is a Refit version of the "Yorktown" and was designed by Andrew Probert. It is a transitional design incorporating elements of the Original Series and Andrew Probert's TMP refit design."
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/mswALTOF5Hg
Yorktown: Behind the Scenes 08min 43sec — 13 December 2013 Behind the Scenes video by Jeffery Miller on John Atkin's Vimeo channel
Watch on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/81806551
Unformatted Blogspot Notes (The original STR website included many notes, not all of which have been migrated to our new database yet. Here are additional notes about this series that have not yet been completely processed.)
This You Tube account contains CGI which may be in the works for this project: https://vimeo.com/johnatkin/videos Trailers: http://vimeopro.com/johnatkin/yorktown (1:01) or http://www.yorktownfilm.com/ (1:01) See also http://www.fastcopyinc.com/orionpress/fanfilms/yorktown.htm . This is their Trekspace page: http://www.trekspace.org/group/yorktown This is their facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=151211704904054&ref=ts However, unhappiness with You Tube has led to using this account for this project: https://vimeo.com/johnatkin going forward.
The trailer on You Tube will be taken down at some point.
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1985
Shooting began on Super 8 film but unfortunately it was never released.
2009 Here is the trailer, now available on Break.com , on YouTube (2:52) also available directly on Yahoo.com [ALL Deadlinks Apr 6, 2022] Here's another webpage on this project: http://www.fastcopyinc.com/orionpress/articles/star_trek_axiom.htm
2010
Star Trek: Axiom (Golden Age) has also worked on this project.
Apr 08: I received the following comment: Star Trek: Axiom *RESURRECTED* Links http://www.fastcopyinc.com/orionpress/articles/star_trek_axiom.htm http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StarTrekAxiom/The Orion Press article was accessible through the lists of other websites which contain broad Trek content, and the yahoo link is what the title here links to. I am unsure why this repetitious comment was added, but I am embedding it as it clearly refers only to this item and not to the list generally.
Nov 22: I received the following in an e-mail, from the Axion group: We are in pre-production and re-writing the script. There is no requisite schedule or need to build sets or cast when we haven't completed the upgraded script(s). Typically pre-production for a television show or feature film can take years so I see nothing out of the ordinary taking place. We are however soliciting crew and personnel so that we have a ready list of applicants when we do begin physical production. We are also not trying to 'sell a DVD' as the planned documentary release is not yet completed. We are however promoting it in advance as a teaser. None the less, feel free to list our production as you like.
2011
Here is a VFX Teaser Trailer released June 5, 2011: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mswALTOF5Hg&feature=player_embedded
2012
Mar 06:
Here is a trailer posted June 7, 2012: https://vimeo.com/43588987
Here is a short series of clips they released in October of 2012: https://vimeo.com/51264687 (0:55).
2013
This is their new Vimeo account as of August 2013: http://vimeopro.com/johnatkin/yorktown Here is a second trailer released May 2013: https://vimeo.com/65944786 (1:20)
Here is an interview (from October 2013):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2nN8V4i13o (9:08)
2014
As of May 2014, They hope to have it done in 2015.
Footage released June 2014: https://vimeo.com/97575682 and https://vimeo.com/83416513 July 29, 2014. Teaser Trailer released, http://vimeo.com/65944786 (1:01) June 21, 2014, UPDATE. The videos are back up online. JUNE 12, 2014 UPDATE. It appears the original agreement between the parties was broken, and those holding the actual film are being blocked from posting their product online. It's a sad day in the fan film community, and this project may go back into limbo for more decades to come. Most of the video links below are DEAD. (revision above, they are back up) The Same day, update: Plans are still being made to complete this film, but it may be limited to private distribution. At this point, no further information can be expected for a while. I may move this whole section to short term hold unless this clears itself up in a few days.
September 17, 2014, Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS http://vimeo.com/106444433
2015
Footage released Feb. 25, 2015: https://vimeo.com/65944786
July: The film transfer is completed and new pictures from the film were being posted on their Facebook page.
2016
June 22: I left a message on their more active Facebook page asking if they were still on track for a September release. Dec. 12: Posting . Clearly still active as of that date.
2017
April 23: Posting stating rough edit of Act I was complete.
Jun 21: Personal Message on Facebook saying work was continuing, but some of the CGI work had been delayed as the volunteers were being paid to do CGI by other people.
2018
Jan: Left a message asking if I would live long enough to see this one.
Jly 22: I received the following PM from John T. Atkin on Facebook: "I'm changing the name of the Vulcan officer (Jesse Tebbs) in Yorktown to "Zar." Although Xon never appeared in a Star Trek episode, there is that cool test footage of David Gautreaux in Phase 2 and we didn't want to "recast" tht part. "Zar was the original namem for Sybok in the early scripts for Star Trek V before they changed it to Sybok in the film. It fits well, so I'm using it instead of Xon now. It is easy to dub the name "Zar" over Xon, so definitely works the best."
Dec. 2: I decided to not even bother to ask.
2019
Jan 28: Short clip released: https://vimeo.com/313741048?fbclid=IwAR0yPkUo91QPAiYIeOcuVf8IH_UFfkj3MhIxJGjeUbPJoExKd2FrE0JQCDc (0:28)
Undated
Axanar discussion of Yorktown: http://www.trek.fm/axp/35
The film project Ajax has separated from the studio, Starbase Studios, which has also acted as a set for Yorktown, and will be used by Starship Courageous and other Golden Age fan films.
Some Animation: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=207224609290993
A discussion of this project: http://www.examiner.com/internet-entertainment-in-tampa-bay/forget-san-francisco-oklahoma-city-could-be-the-home-of-star-fleet
According to the Star Trek Expanded Universe Wiki, there was an earlier film that was called Yorktown: In Temporary Command, later renamed Yorktown: The Quadroplastine incident. Here is an article about the old film which has been posted on line: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_of7mShM5N1g/S8uzwRUpdNI/AAAAAAAABdM/uMEYIrev8Dk/s1600/sulus_solo_trek_01.jpg The previous film, Yorktown: In Temporary Command, is listed here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2111493/releaseinfo As of March, 2012, it has not been posted on the web, but may be posted in the next year or two. Here is a teen award ceremony for Yorktown In Temporary Command: http://vimeo.com/102597423 (2:25)