As a lapsed Star Trek fan, I’ve only recently become aware of a fan activity that goes beyond wearing costumes and wielding props at science fiction conventions: the fan film.

Paramount, the studio which owns the franchise, used to come down hard on folks who attempted anything without their express permission (and without paying their franchising fee) but apparently looks the other way at these efforts nowadays.

I’m talking about sites which stream these home-made classics, like Hidden Frontier, the New Voyages, and Starship Exeter. These brave souls have sunk a ton of money, effort and pixels into “filming” their visions within the Star Trek cosmos, and they’re getting better at it all the time.

Hidden Frontier goes where no Trek has gone before in chronicling the voyages of gay crewmembers – with appropriate restraint and 24th-century sensibility.

It made me wonder what might happen if followers of Christ became film fanatics. I’m not necessarily talking about worthy results like The Jesus Film Project or even The Passion of the Christ. I mean … well, more like ….

What if filmmakers armed with the latest, relatively inexpensive digital tools set out to chronicle what a Christ-like life would look like today or tomorrow?

What if they put their emerging genius into telling something that could be called The Ongoing Story of Christ?

Would helpful fellow-fans donate their time to build CGI models if needed, or stitch together costumes, or build props, or write scripts?

Is that an exciting thought, or what?