About Starship Saladin

[Ken Thomson, Admin]

My name is Kenneth Thomson Jr. and I'm the showrunner of Starship Saladin. In the series, I play Captain Raymond Keith Martin.

Our website is www.starshipsaladin.com

We are based primarily in Austin, TX but have cast members across the globe. So far, our only released productions have been in audio, comic and prose formats, but we are deep into production of a 3d animated feature called Starship Saladin: "Invasion!"

I have had the honor to be part of several productions in the last few years, from Starship Farragut's animated films, to "The Price of Anything" to Star Trek Phase II's "Kitumba" and Star Trek Continues "Pilgrim of Eternity." I have done animation for Star Trek: Excalibur's pilot vignette, am currently assisting with ExeterTrek, Star Trek: Antyllus, Starship Ajax, and had a small crossover cameo in Star Trek: Eagle "Past Regrets." I also worked on Star Trek: Secret Voyage and Project Potemkin. I'm still active on all these projects, and hope to continue to contribute to the legacy of Star Trek.

My primary skills are in 3d animation and modeling 3d objects (starships) and writing. I've apprenticed as a medieval armourer in the past, done some prosthetic makeup work. My sets are virtual for the most part and I use greenscreen for compositing. I shoot in HD format. I've been making movies a long time, since about 1974 or so. I've read tons of books on FX work, and I worked in the game industry for about 7 years. I also worked on Battlestar Galactica, both the revival efforts by Richard Hatch as well as the 2003 miniseries. I created the Celestra for that project, one of the ships of the fleet.

Starship Saladin had its genesis in 1975 with the publication of the Starfleet Technical Manual by Franz Joseph Schnaubelt who created the first new Starfleet designs ever to be published. The Destroyer, Scout, Tug and Dreadnoughts were born in that publication. Through the years, the scouts have been mentioned in canon productions (Star Trek: The Motion Picture), the destroyer and tug classes seen on computer monitor screens in Star Trek II and III both, and have appeared in countless fan productions as well.

In 1985, I played the Star Trek Roleplaying Game by FASA. And while the SFTM designs were not used in that game, officially, we nevertheless set our characters' story on the USS Saladin, NCC-500. Some people ask why I didn't pick a dreadnought or a Constitution Class starship, and basically, the reason is this.... I felt that it was more interesting to have less resources to work with, and more of a challenge, to use a smaller ship than the Enterprise. I wanted to tell stories that were a little different from the Star Trek we've all known. I wanted to tell the tale of a fine ship and crew, but one that didn't get the choice assignments, and didn't get to be solely explorers and scientists. They have the daily grind, the duty to protect the Federation from threats (usually mundane) like smugglers and outlaws like pirates. They still come across the same kinds of adventures as the Enterprise, but when they do, they are making due with resources that are dedicated to law enforcement, and marines, aka MACO soldiers are their main force to handle these situations.

I'm excited to be bringing this forum to life, but I will need your help to keep it lively.

Sincerly,

Ken Thomson

[Ken Thomson, Admin]

Episodes of Starship Saladin span several eras.

The story continuity for this series begins during the Romulan War, with ancestors of Ray Martin aboard the USS Cochrane, NCC-63, and old Intrepid Class Starship, the type seen in Star Trek: Enterprise. As the stories progress in time, we pick up tales of the Saladin's crew when they were cadets, setting them in the Captain April/Pike era. I've got a few tales that I've posted that include Captain Pike and his first officer, Number One, who in my continuity, is the sister of Nurse Christine Chapel. Her name is Morgan Chapel.

As we get into the TOS era and the crew is assigned to the Saladin, I follow the timeline of TOS closely. For ease of telling when things are happening, my internal calendar for Starship Saladin reflects the years at exactly 300 years after the corresponding dates in the 1960's, though I don't use real dates so it doesn't matter that much. But for general purposes, 2266-2269 are TOS era. I don't get too wrapped up in conjectural dates because that's what they are. Conjectural. However, at a glance, it makes it really easy to tell when things are supposed to happen.

Anyhow, the TAS episodes are canon to Starship Saladin. They happened. We have life-support belts in the series, the technology for a rec-deck with holographic projection systems, which was the TAS forerunner of the Holodeck, but it's image without substance. A lot less sophisticated. I don't think I'll ever use it, but I never say never. I just want to be clear that the tech is canon to the series.

Another thing that I am adamant about, is that I follow all continuity of all the series and movies. Including the JJ Abrams series. I allow this because in Star Trek: The Next Generation, they had an episode called, "Parallels" in which it was established that there are untold thousands of parallel universes that are all similar but different from the 'prime' universe. With that taken into account, I even consider all fan fiction, comics, novels, etc. to have their own allowed 'canon' because with an infinite playground, all things are possible.

So that said, if we run into continuity clashes, I just chalk it up to a different universe. I'm not going to shoehorn everyone's continuity together because it's a lost cause and an impossible task. But because of "Parallels" pretty much anything is possible. That said, please also respect my characters as I will respect yours and we'll all have fun.

I do like internal continuity to be consistent. So when we have crossover stories, I like to either avoid anything that declares someone elses continuity to be messed up, or, we can turn an apparent inconsistency into a story element or something. I love to tell stories and make things work. For me, the story you're watching is more important than a minor conflict with one that came before. Major conflicts bug me to no end, but a casual comment by a character isn't enough to stop a good story from happening.

One example: ST:TNG introduced the Trill. They didn't like transporters. DS9 Jadzia Dax would have been severely crippled if she couldn't use transporters, so we just chalk that up to the one trill's personal preference/phobia.

If one is too much of a stickler for absolutism, they have a hard time enjoying anything. I feel that any 'absolute' statements in anything should be taken with a grain of salt, and considered the point of view of the one saying it, or as a mistake, or as not knowing all the information needed, not as a 'fact.' That allows for open creativity instead of a stranglehold on storytelling.

Anyhow, back to the subject of the Saladin adventures.

Beyond TOS/TAS era, there are more adventures on the Saladin. I have seperated two distinct timelines even. In one, my stories related to the game Star Trek Online, the Saladin was refit by taking its primary hull and mating it to the secondary hull and engines of the original Enterprise when the Enterprise was refit for ST:TMP. Yes, I know that's a stretch, but it's a comic series and they don't have destroyers in STO, so I needed a Constitution Class ship and an explanation for it. Those comics are already online. We have an engine malfunction that generates a temporal wormhole and end up in the future. Those stories continue, and more comics will be coming, but they're not a huge priority at the moment. In my 'real' continuity, the Saladin is refit to TMP era standards and the adventures continue past Star Trek VI, at least into the era of the first part of "Generations."

I don't entirely limit my storytelling to one era, obviously. I have approximately 42 stories written or outlined so far. The plan is to film some live action, some 3d animated and most as stories or comic books.

[Ken Thomson, Admin]

Updated July 21st.