Samuli Torssonen's Star Wreck

Running time: 47 minutes

This is the new Pirk (in graphical terms) and he has gotten the new uniform too. The bridge images and other background pictures are from the Star Trek Technical Manual.

Star Wreck IV: The Kilpailu ("kilpailu" is Finnish for "competition") is the fourth movie in the Star Wreck series. More detailed 3d models were used, stereo sound was added and the ship-interior graphics were done again from scratch. The animation resolution was changed from 320x200 to 451x338. This was originally the first animation to be edited in a Windows based program called Ulead Media Studio. I have to say that having only four audio tracks was quite frustrating !

The special effects were again composited frame by frame on Autodesk Animator Pro. I thought that it would have been too painful to create them in 3D Studio rel. 4.

The new characters were drawn by our budding graphical artist, Rudi Airisto. He would like to apologise for the silly-looking Turenki graphics - the palette simply ran out of colors ;-)

Spook couldn't bear Pirk's incompetence anymore, so he resigned and returned to Vulgarus to become a master Yoga.

So, this is Mr Info, Spook's replacement. Played by Petri Lehtinen. Being a robot, Info is immune to Pirk's insults, but is at least as irritating as good old Spook.

The not-so-aptly named Mr Dwarf, a traitor to the Plingon race serving in the P-fleet. Dwarf keeps his finger firmly on the trigger and is delighted with Pirk's militant leadership...

But he's no perfect soldier either. Plingon warriors never shower, so Dwarf smells like hell! Played by Rudi Airisto.

And here is our ice-cool villain, the mercenary Hans Duo, played by Antti Satama. If there's money to be made, Hans and his trusty old Rautapulu (translates roughly as "Iron Pigeon") are the pair for the job.

Here you can see the Rautapulu in action as Hans Duo disables the Potkustart's twist engines.

And what would Star Wreck be without wacky aliens? This fellow's a zarquon, Pirk's employer for this episode. The zarquons offer invincible technology to whichever race can prove their worthiness, and Potkustart's crew is there to represent humanity. Played by Rudi Airisto.

The Plingons and the Turenki are also interested, so a competition is declared - t he first side to get a zarquon artifact from a hidden world wins. The plingons play rough, the Turenki (having hired Hans Duo) play sneaky and Pirk plays plain dumb.

Incidentally, Turenki is the name of a small village in Finland. One of the SW6 actors used to live there...

A Heavy Plingon Battlecruiser and a Vulture closing in on the Potkustart.

The Potkustart returns fire with full twinklers.

The deflector plates are down! The lens flare effects were added in Ulead Media Studio.

The Potkustart taking some "minor" hull hits from the Plingon Battlecruiser.

Target their bridge ! Fire everything we've got !!

The victorious Potkustart. The explosion sequence in the background was ripped from the Star Trek TNG episode "Yesterday's Enterprise". Perhaps I should have used somekind of antialiasing...