The Star Traks stories are comedies that not only hold up Star Trek to the twisted mirror of parody in an attempt to enrage all who hold the genre dear, but poke fun at life in general...and who knows, may even have a message to convey about the silliness of real life.
Well, perhaps the last is a bit farfetched.
—Star Traks Nexus and Corner Grocery Store [1]
Star Traks is a deconstruction/parody of the Star Trek franchise, with all-new characters and copious original content. The series was created by writer Alan Decker, but there are several authors collaborating on the Fan Verse at this point, listed next to their associated series below.
Traks encompasses about a dozen fanfiction series in all, each utilizing the same basic premise: that the poster organizations of the Star Trek universe (Starfleet, Section 31, the Borg, etc.) have a habit of sequestering their strange, incompetent, or just plain inconvenient members in situations where they can't damage anything other than themselves and each other. Often they can be found manning derelict stations, piloting the starship equivalents of clunkers, or patrolling the distant backwaters of space. In the hands of Traks' capable writers, such scenarios make for hilarious, exciting, and occasionally heartwarming tales featuring Starfleet's unwieldiest and unluckiest.
Main series by order of conception:
- Star Traks/Original Traks [2] — The first series, taking place during the TNG era aboard a ship full of misfits and incompetents known as the USS Secondprize. Written by Alan Decker.
- Star Traks: Waystation [3] — Follows the adventures of a small station on the edge of enemy space, built from spare parts - and soon to be the line of last defense in a conflict of massive scale. Written by Alan Decker.
- Star Traks: The Vexed Generation [4] — A spinoff/successor to the original series, focusing on the attempts of another "ship of misfits", the USS Explorer (and later the USS Aerostar), to escape from the Delta Quadrant. By Anthony Butler.
- Star Traks: Boldly Gone... [5] — Set 400 years after the events of Star Traks (and Star Trek). The Federation has entered a tenuous alliance with the Romulan Empire and built an ultra-FTL ship, controlled by a mysterious omniscient being; its crew soon finds themselves on bizarre adventures, even by Traks standards. Written by Alan Decker.
- Star Traks: Silverado — An ancient starship is refitted and sent into duty; its new crew must cope with the shortcomings of their ship and of one another. Written by Brendan Chris.
- Star Traks: Borgspace — Describes the adventures of a Borg cube and its atypical crewmembers. By Maija Meneks.
- Star Traks: Banshee — The story of a Section 31 ship, Traks-style. Written by Brad Dusen.
- The Traks Files — A pair of agents from Starfleet Intelligence investigate strange occurences in the Traks verse. Written by Alan Decker.
- Star Traks: TOSsed [6] — A mini-series about a freighter crew trying to survive in the TOS era.
Associated Sites (fan-written series hosted offsite, but endorsed by the main team of authors):
- Star Traks: Melting Pot [7] — The adventures of the first totally non-human crew in Star Fleet. Written by Paul Clotier.
- Star Traks: Governor's Song [8] — The story of a Klingon ship crewed by misfits. Written by Tom Jacobs (site is offline as of 2013).
- Star Traks: The Incongruous Voyages [9] — A merchant ship working for a certain megacorporation in the 26th century must handle various unexpected difficulties. Written by —.
Tropes:
- Acme Products - The bigger Dillon Enterprises gets, and the wider the range of bizarre/near-magical products found in its store, the more it resembles an Acme Corporation.
- Alternate Universe - The "everyone is competent" universe and the terrifying Happyverse are recurring examples of such, and a number of other less important 'verses are glimped briefly during certain stories. Another variety of Alternate Universe is found in certain extra stories set outside canon: Survivor Traks (Traks characters trapped Survivor-style on an island), Thank the Great Bird They Weren't There (Traks characters in classic scenarios from Trek and other franchises), and the very odd "Contract Negotiations", which features Waystation characters as disgruntled actors in a universe where Traks is a TV show.
- Artificial Human - Larkin (a standard Star Trek android.)
- The Bartender- Mirk. Unusual in that he's a bartender with psionic powers...but still.
- Big Dumb Object - The Smiley Sphere (a yellow Dyson sphere with, you guessed it, a smiley face painted on it.)
- The Captain - Played straight with Bain, and subverted/inverted with every other captain (though they all have moments of inspired leadership once in a while.) A possible exception is Beck, who is neither an outstanding captain nor an incompetent one, simply a person who found her way into a command position by accident and tries her best with varying degrees of success (her character arc in Waystation involves developing leadership skills).
- Fan Verse - Arguably one of the biggest for Trek, owing to the sheer amount of material. Traks started off simply set in the TNG-era Star Trek universe, but has since been augmented with so much original content, and the timeline been extended so far in either direction, that it's become a MASSIVE fan verse. Especially apparent in stories set during the 25th-30th centuries and beyond (Timefleet, anyone?), which tend to be enshrouded in Traks-exclusive circumstances.
- Friend to All Living Things - Counselor Peterman, who essentially keeps a menagerie in her quarters.
- Immortality - The Ba'ku world in Boldly Gone stalls aging - though does little to remedy having a crate of books fall on you, as Jaroch discovered.
- Incredibly Lame Pun - It can be assumed that "Star Traks" is a play on "laugh tracks", making the title of the franchise a very pervasive, very beloved, very lame pun.
- MegaCorp - Dillon Enterprises. Although not necessarily evil, it becomes progressively more powerful and sinister throughout the series, and it fulfills the "looming company transitions to looming government" aspect of the trope when spoiler Bradley Dillon is elected Federation President.
- Spin-Off - Each non-Original Traks series is technically a spinoff of that first set of stories. Lampshaded on the Waystation homepage: "The Inevitable Spin-Off!"
- Split Personality - Jaroch and Tovar both suffer from this (presumably, so do all other Yynsians, since the reincarnation of multiple souls into one body is a species trait for them.) Tovar has it especially bad because he erroneously received not only his own quota of souls, but all of Jaroch's as well.)
