Background

Shot in 1984, this was the first film of what turned out to be the Star Drek Quadrology. It started life as a one-off parody of Star Trek clichés, but by the end of filming we had learned so much and knew we could make a bigger and better one, so a sequel was definitely on the cards.

Filming (on a hired video camera) was completely indoors and shot at the MWD District Office Conference Rooms, Wellington, New Zealand. Original editing was painstakingly done with two VCR’s side by side and a plug in microphone for the overdubs. For the remastered version, all the original footage was digitally transferred to PC in August 2008. The scenes were re-edited, cleaned-up, and re-soundtracked in 2009. All the original Special Effects (FX) and credit sequences were re-done using CGI.

Shooting covered the period 27-28 July 1984. We filmed the Bridge scenes on Day 1 (inexplicably against a wooden panel backdrop). The cast was short as well, so we ended up using this as a rehearsal and entirely re-shot the Bridge scenes on Day 2. This time with a full cast, a white backdrop, and a TRIPOD (the hire company didn’t have one available, but we ended up “borrowing” one from MWD) It’s a remarkable feat that it edited together so well, considering for most of us it was our first time behind and in front of the camera.

Storyline

More thrills than something with less thrills... more stars than something with less stars... more magic than you can shake a grothian deblis at... The starship 2ndprise is orbiting a planet in the distant star system Arue Sirius 2, because it seemed like a good idea. The landing party meet up with Chuck & Bob of the evil Front Ear gang, and teach them a lesson...

Trailer

The best visual parts of the film condensed into a 3 minute "teaser"

Movie

Introducing the intrepid crew of the USS 2ndPrise, zooming about the universe bringing truth, justice, and the american way to ungrateful alien worlds

Bloopers

Uncensored funny out-takes from Day 1 & 2 filming schedule

Extended & Deleted Scenes

Alien Abloutions (deleted)
There's an extended scene we left off the original cut, and also off the 2009 version. As JK SP & GR walk off down the corridor, the camera panned up to show the ship's ablutions, doors to "Men" and "Women", then a bucket for "Disgusting Aliens". The scene didn't really work so we left it out

Bird Sketch (deleted):
This was designed as an incidental humerous scene, totally unrelated to the movie. It ran too long in relation to the rest of the film and proved to be a distraction, so was dropped from the 2009 version except for the intro. It was never fully shown in the original 1984 cut either, as we didn't have one complete usable take. Here is the full version for the first time, in 3 stitched together parts

Remastered FX 2009 (extended):
Also included in this feature is a collection of extended FX from the 2009 version. A correctly scaled 2004 Dinky model was photographed from various angles, converted to PNG images, then overlaid against photographic backdrops and animated in Adobe After Effects. The Romulan ship was a converted photo; Spook's viewer was designed in Corel Draw and overlaid with the Romulan footage; and the exterior planet view was a photograph with an animated mist overlay

Original real-time FX used in the 1984 cut (deleted):
(These were replaced by CGI in the 2009 version). The "2ndPrise" model used was the horribly out of scale 1980's Dinkey Toy. The original Evil ship was actually the body of a Transformer action figure.

Original front & end title sequence credits used in the original 1984 cut (deleted):
were made up from a combination of Apple Mac Word document printouts and plastic alphabet shapes! Here they are for you nostalgia fans…

Behind The Scenes - Filming Days 1 & 2

A look behind the scenes filming on Day 1 & 2, showing the set-ups, rehearsals, and background discussions. Interesting to note some of the dialog and scenes in the final print were as a result of these on-the-fly discussions. Like the out-takes, the language used is often VERY "colourful" and completely uncensored

Behind the Scenes - Original FX

A brief look behind the scenes at making the original real-time effects

World Premiere 1984

The World Premiere was held at the old Wellington Tavern, Molesworth Street, Wellington, New Zealand, on 15 August 1984. An audio tape recording was made at the premiere, although very muffled and quiet in places there were some clearly audible parts. Several photo's were also taken at the premiere, these are presented as a slideshow with parts of the audio recording overlaid