Holy Fan Film, Batman!

By: Dennis Rayburn
11/30/2009

As readers of this column and my Twitter account know, I spent this weekend in Indianapolis, Indiana at the Starbase Indy convention at the Marriott East. Over the next few days, I will be bringing you stories of the convention, and a couple of interviews, especially one very special one with an interesting young actor, Logan Huffman of the new ABC series, V. Be watching for that one.

This year's Starbase Indy featured a few independent and fan films that were shown to the audience over the course of the weekend. On Saturday night, the audience was treated to a double feature from Christopher Allen and Racso Films. The first was a film that they produced about three years ago and has been very well received by the Star Trek fan base. This film has been named one of the top five must see Star Trek fan films byFan Cinema Today, won Best Short Film at Rad-Con 2007, and Best Humorous Film at a recent Shore Leave convention.

The film is called Star Trek versus Batman. This very funny film combines the wonderful campy Batman TV series from the 1960's and Star Trek to make a very entertaining film for everyone. This is not a mashup like the Doctor Who/Star Trek videos I wrote about at Easter, but a totally live action film, complete with an absolutely awesome replica of the 1960's Batmobile. The costumes are very good, the story preserves all of the things we liked about Star Trek and all of the wonderful campy antics of the Dynamic Duo, and the actors deliver a very good performance.

As a fan of both Star Trek and Batman, I was very delighted by the film. It is presented in three parts, each one presented as an episode of either Star Trek or Batman. The special effects were good, and the work on the Batman series opening was very impressive. Each actor's performance was very true to their character and how fans remember them. Summing it up, the film was a riot!!!

I have to agree that this film is a must see for fans of either series. Batman fans will rejoice and remember the Pow, Zonk, Zowie days of the TV shows, and Star Trek fans will see their heroes deal with a totally unbelievable situation in the way we all expect of them, with some unexpected twists and turns.

While there are copies of the film on YouTube, the quality is not anywhere as good as directly from the filmmakers website. Visit there for information, not only on Star Trek versus Batman, but other films they have made and are working on. To see the Star Trek Versus Batman video, please click this link. They are preparing to make a new Batman fan film set after The Dark Knight, but this time dealing with a very dark and evil Harley Quinn. I will be watching for that film when it comes out. They showed a second fan film based on another beloved sci-fi franchise, but as Jill is a bigger fan of it than I was, she is going to write the review on it later this week.

On the scale of 1 to 10, I give Star Trek Versus Batman a solid 9 for a great story, acting, and overall production. Racso Films puts out a great product and I recommend you watch their site for future projects.

See you next time!

Photos:  RacsoFilms.com, fancinematoday.com

Author: Dennis Rayburn

Dennis Rayburn is a columnist for Roddenberry.com. His column, "Two Strips of Latinum" appears every Sunday through Thursday.
Contact: drayburn@roddenberry.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/drayburn
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