H.M.S. Trek-A-Star
| Fanwork | |
|---|---|
| Title: | H.M.S. Trek-A-Star |
| Creator: | Dorothy Jones Heydt, Karen Anderson; Anderson was the director of the "Karidian Light Opera and Piano Moving Company's" production of Filbert and Sullivan's space operetta |
| Date(s): | 1967 & 1968 |
| Medium: | Filk, live performance |
| Fandom: | Star Trek |
| External Links: | trekastar.doc |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
H.M.S. Trek-A-Star is a Star Trek filk operetta which involves the tunes of several Gilbert & Sullivan songs.[1] It was written by Dorothy Jones Heydt and Karen Anderson, and performed on July 7, 1967 at Westercon XX, on August 29, 1968 at WorldCon, at Minicon 4 in 1971 [2], at Star Trek Lives! in 1972 [3], and perhaps other cons.
Karen Anderson was the director, and it was a "Karidian Light Opera and Piano Moving Company" production.
Operetta
Spock's song beginning "I am the scientific officer" to the tune of "I Am The Captain Of The Pinafore" included the lines
- Give three point one four one six cheers
- For the officer with pointed ears!
Followed by a crew's chorus of
- Hip Hip! Hurray!
- Hip Hip! Hurray!
- Hip Hip! Hurray!
- Hip!
This was explained as the "point one four one sixth" of a cheer, a practice adopted by some SCA groups who would occasionally give "3.1416 cheers" to show their shared geekiness.
Productions
Cast at Westercon XX
- Kirk: David Thewlis
- Spock: George Spelvin
- Yeoman Rand: Dorothy Jones
- Stackstraw (an alien): Jon DeCles
- Uhura: Astrid Anderson
- Bugeye/Chekov: Jerry Jacks
- Crew: Felice Rolfe, Bjo Trimble, John Trimble
- Accompanist: Karen Thewlis
Cast at 1968 Worldcon
- Kirk: David Gerrold
- Spock: George Spelvin
- Yeoman Rand: Dorothy Jones
- Stackstraw: Arthur Weiss
- Uhura: Astrid Anderson
- Bugeye/Chekov: Jerry Jacks
- Crew: Kathy Bushman
- Accompanist: Felice Rolfe
Star Trek Lives! in 1972 "One year we had a song contest. We had a production of “H.M.S. Trek-A-Star,” which was done by a Dover High School group, and they were very good. We got them hotel rooms, and we paid for their costumes, and they came up and did the show. Before the show came on, we had a song contest, which had lots of entries. I don’t remember who played the piano and sang them, but some of them were very funny.... we didn’t have a lot of filk. At that point, filk, I think, was in straight science fiction. People were probably writing it, but we were not, it wasn’t part of the convention except for that one song contest. I think we printed the words of the winning songs and put them into the goodie bag...." [4]
References
- ^ [www.rahul.net/figmo/cons2003/trekastar.doc HMS Trek-A-Star Script], Word .doc
- ^ Minicon 4 program book, page 4, archived at http://mnstf.org/minicon4/Minicon_4_program_book/Minicon_4_program_book.pdf
- ^ from Media Fandom Oral History Project (2017)
- ^ from Media Fandom Oral History Project (2017)