''Star Wreck'' is a series of
Finnish ''
Star Trek
''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vario ...
''
parody
A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its su ...
movies started by
Samuli Torssonen
Samuli Torssonen (born 12 November 1978) is a Finland, Finnish film writer, director, actor and producer, best known as the creator of the viral ''Star Wreck'' sci-fi series.
He was a producer and special-effects supervisor of the movie ''Iron ...
in 1992. The first movie, simply named ''Star Wreck'', was a simple ''
Star Control''-like animation with three ships shooting at each other, but later movies featured 3D
CGI, animated characters and, in the latest films, live actors. Often ''Star Wreck'' is used to refer to the latest and most popular film ''
Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning''.
''Star Wreck'' relates the adventures of James B. Pirk (named after the ''Star Trek'' character
James T. Kirk
James Tiberius Kirk is a fictional character in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise. Originally played by Canadian actor William Shatner, Kirk first appeared in ''Star Trek'' serving aboard the starship USS ''Enterprise'' as captain. Kirk leads ...
), Captain of the starship C.P.P. ''Potkustartti'' (English C.P.P. ''Kickstart''). Other characters include Mr. Fukov, Mr. Spook ''(Finnish: Mr. Spökö)'', Mr. Dwarf ''(Wuf)'', Ensign Shitty and Mr. Info (loosely based, respectively, on Star Trek's
Pavel Chekov
Pavel Andreievich Chekov (russian: Павел Андреевич Чехов) is a fictional character in the ''Star Trek'' universe.
Walter Koenig portrayed Chekov in the second and third seasons of the original ''Star Trek'' series and the ...
,
Mr. Spock
Spock is a fictional character in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise. He first appeared in the original ''Star Trek'' series serving aboard the starship USS ''Enterprise'' as science officer and first officer (and Kirk's Second-in-command) and ...
,
Worf
Worf, son of Mogh is a fictional character in the ''Star Trek'' franchise. He appears in the television program, television series ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' (''TNG'') and seasons four through seven of ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' (''D ...
,
Scotty, and
Data
In the pursuit of knowledge, data (; ) is a collection of discrete values that convey information, describing quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpret ...
). The characters speak
Finnish;
subtitles in various languages, including Klingon, are available.
In 2015, it was announced that two new films were going to be released. The first one will be a short film titled "Star Wreck: Timecrash", set in future Soviet Union, and the second, currently untitled one will be a feature-length film.
Films
All ''Star Wreck'' films are available for free download and viewin
online They are offered under a
Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has releas ...
CC BY-NC-ND licence.
* ''Star Wreck'' (1992)
* ''Star Wreck II: The Old Shit'' (1994)
* ''Star Wreck III: The Wrath of the Romuclans'' (1995)
* ''Star Wreck IV: The Kilpailu'' (1996)
* ''Star Wreck V: Lost Contact'' (1997)
* ''Star Wreck 4.5: Weak Performance'' (2000; takes place between IV and V)
* ''
Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning'' (2005)
* ''Star Wreck 2π: Full Twist, now!'' (2012)
The first five ''Star Wreck'' films were re-released on ''Star Wreck: Legacy'' DVD in 2006, with original score replacing the ''Star Trek'' score, and other changes. ''Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning'' was re-released on an ''Imperial Edition'' DVD in 2006, with updated models and effects.
Popularity
''Star Wreck'' has enjoyed a relatively large niche following among sci-fi fans, but it was only the 2005 movie that really pushed it into the limelight. ''
Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning'' was downloaded over 700,000 times during the first week after its release and the current estimates by the hosting service, Magenta sites, are between 3.5 and 4 million downloads, including mirror sites. This has been claimed to make ''In the Pirkinning'' the most popular Finnish film of all time, topping the movie theatre viewings for ''
The Unknown Soldier'' (approx. 2.8 million viewers); the comparison, however, may not be particularly meaningful. Numerous TV and magazine interviews of the film's authors have been published, both in Finland and abroad.
''Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning'' has also been shown on Finnish national television,
YLE TV2
Yle TV2 ( fi, Yle TV Kaksi; sv, Yle TV Två) is a Finnish television channel owned and operated by Yle. TV2 was launched in 1965 as the successor to the former television channels TES-TV (Tesvisio) and Tamvisio, and broadcasts public servic ...
, on the Belgian national television channel Canvas, and Italian TV-channel Jimmy.
A new Imperial Edition DVD has also been released by
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...
in Scandinavia. With the Imperial Edition release, all the space scenes with ''Star Trek'' or ''Babylon 5'' ship models were removed and completely remade.
In September 2007, a 1-DVD version of ''Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning – Imperial Edition'' was released also in Japan by AMG & Medallion Media. The version includes a professional dub for Japanese, as well as new sleeve design and a poster/cue card inside the DVD case.
In 2012, a spin-off called ''Star Wreck 2π: Full Twist, now!'' was released. It is made by Swiss film makers, but Samuli Torssonen and Timo Vuorensola have a guest appearance in their respective roles.
There is also a spin-off animated ''Star Wreck'', created by a different author who has no relation to Torssonen's team, called ''Star Wreck Asskicker'' which tells the story of the ''C.P.P. Asskicker''.
Roleplaying Game
The Star Wreck Roleplaying Game is an English-language role-playing game (RPG) published in Finland by Energia Productions that is set in the Star Wreck universe. It was first released at
Ropecon
Ropecon () is a role-playing convention held annually in Finland. The convention is one of the largest non-commercial annual events of its kind, having reached a record of "over 5900" attendees in 2022. The current venue is the Messukeskus Hels ...
in 2006.
The game is a parody of the numerous Star Trek roleplaying games, but is also playable on its own. Its rule mechanics are built to emulate the setting of the films, with experienced characters becoming more heroically incompetent instead of getting better at their tasks, as is the case in most mainstream games.
In August 2007 the game was licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike license and made available for free download.
See also
*''
Iron Sky
''Iron Sky'' is a 2012 comic-science-fiction action film directed by Timo Vuorensola and written by Johanna Sinisalo and Michael Kalesniko. ''
References
External links
''Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning''''Star Wreck'' forums (English and Finnish)*
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{{Star Trek fan productions
Parody films based on Star Trek
Fan films based on Star Trek
Film series
Finnish comedy films
Finnish independent films
Creative Commons-licensed science fiction films