Star Trek: Unity (aka Project Unity) was a large fan fiction crossover to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Star Trek in 2001.
History[]
The idea for Unity came from Joseph Gatch, author of the fan fiction series Star Trek: Adventure. His idea was to involve as many fan fiction series as possible to do a crossover to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Star Trek. Nine fan fiction series agreed to take part in the project, they were:
- Star Trek: Adventure
- Star Trek: The Cantabrian Expeditions
- Star Trek: The Courageous
- Star Trek: Dragon
- Star Trek: The Excalibur Epics
- Star Trek: The Legend Continues
- Star Trek: The Scipio Chronicles
- Swiftfire
- Star Trek: USS Providence.
A website for the series was created in 2001 and hosted on Tripod.com. The website included all the stories from the various authors as well as a special version of the finale where all the stories were combined and interwoven into a single "epic". The site included much of the background information on the Vendoth and their technology, which was used by the authors while writing. It also included a message from Joseph Gatch on the creation of the series. Unfortunately at some point in 2009 the site was removed by Tripod, though some of the pages can still be accessed through the site, Internet Archive: Wayback Machine.
The removal of the site and its files has seen the disappearance of sections of the series from the Internet. As time has gone by several of the series either finished or just stopped. Along with this inactivity has come the disappearance of some of the fan fiction websites and the removal of their stories. As of the 21st of August, 2014 the following sections of the project were available at their respective fan fiction websites: Star Trek: Dragonand Swiftfire.
In September 2010, the site was revived by the author of Swiftfire with as much of the content as he had access to. Nearly the entirety of the project has since returned online with the only exception been The Legend Continues: "Sleeping Giants".
Prologue[]
The plot for the crossover was based on a storyline by Jon Wasik of Star Trek: Dragon, where the Federation gained the wrath of the Vendoth, a species from another galaxy. The Vendoth then travel to the Milky Way to punish the Federation and due to their method of transit a number of ships are deposited at various times and locations around the galaxy. This allowed for series from various time periods to be involved and have their ships face the Vendoth threat.
- Dragon - "Freedom's Price"
- The Excalibur Epics - "Deux Ex Machina"
- The Cantabrian Expeditions - "Howl"
- Adventure - "Honor Above All
- Providence - "The Better Part of Valor
- The Legend Continues - "The Calm Before the Storm"
- Scipio Chronicles - "Scipio's Betrayal"
- Swiftfire - "The True"
- The Courageous - "Galaxy's Pyre"
United We Stand - Together[]
The centrepiece of the series would cover the Vendoth's attack on Earth, which would be told from the perspective of different fan fiction crews. This section was the centrepiece of the series and the various different stories were later combined into a single edition called "United We Stand - Together".
Five of the nine series involved contributed to the main event: Star Trek: Adventure, Excalibur Epics, The Legend Continues, USS Providence, and Swiftfire.
Contributors to the finale:
- The Excalibur Epics - "Deep as a Well...Wide as a Church Door"
- Adventure - "Once More unto the Breach"
- Providence - "Our Sacred Honour"
- Swiftfire - "United We Stand"
- The Legend Continues - "Sleeping Giants"
Aftermath[]
Excalibur, Adventure and Dragon also did follow-up stories on the aftermath of the events of the crossover.
- The Excalibur Epics - "Upon a Painted Ocean"
- Adventure - "Resolution"
- Dragon - "Trials of Command"
External link[]
- Star Trek: Unity (crossover) article at Star Trek Expanded Universe, the fanon Star Trek wiki.