Star Trek: Frost Contact – 5 Questions With Debs And Errol
Our good friends Debs and Errol are showing their geek love with a great parody of Disney’s Frozen and ST:TNG!
The MUST WATCH video has footage of Star Trek: First Contact and original Trek-inspired lyrics to the tune of Disney’s “Let It Go”. They’ve named this masterpiece after the infamous phrase by Captain Picard, “Make It So”.
I was able to distract Debs and Errol from their busy schedules to grab a few Q and A’s:
GEEKPR0N: Did you use ALL Star Trek: First Contact footage for the video?
Errol: Uh. I dunno. I think we did? Debs?
Debs: Yes we did! The video was edited by a really good friend of mine, Adam Richardson. His day job is actually editing. He’s really talented and…
Errol: … super patient. You sat and nattered at him while he did the video.
Debs: I did not!
Errol: Back-seat video editing.
Debs: I was helpful! He said I was helpful!
Errol: Ya. I bet.
Debs: It took us approximately 26 hours to edit over the course of about a week. That sounds like a ton of work and it was, but we also tended to be easily distracted by TNG on Netflix. Needless to say, I learned a heck of a lot about editing and we now know First Contact very, very well.
GP: What made you come up with the idea to do this song/video?
Errol: I loved the original song, “Let It Go”. I didn’t want to fansquee over it though, because Debs hates things I like and I didn’t want to taint her.
Debs: I don’t hate things you like!
Errol: Yes. Yes you do.
Debs: Anyway, I saw Frozen several weeks after Errol did. The song blew me away and I could not stop singing it for days. You might say that doing a parody of it was one way to get it out of my head (it didn’t work). Errol was the one who came up with “Make It So” and I thought it was great.
Errol: Which surprised me. She rarely likes my ideas. I was originally planning to sing it as Picard…
Debs: …but then I got upset. I really wanted to sing it.
Errol: This happens a lot. We went to some friends who really know their Star Trek and asked for some help. We were looking for a situation where a female character stood up to Picard over a decision he made. They gave a number of answers and we stuck with First Contact!
GP: Do you play this song (or will you) when you play live shows now?
Debs: We performed it for the first time at a local Filk Circle just this past Sunday and we’ll definitely sing it at our next convention in a couple of weeks, Con-G in Guelph! It’s a really challenging song for both of us.
Errol: I was having problems because it was ALL IN FLATS. Blargh. I’m bad at playing in all flats. And I used to play a lot of Chicago songs.
Debs: Do you mean the musical?
Errol: No. I mean the band.
Debs: Band?
Errol: Forget it. Debs was fine as always.
Debs: I really have a lot to work on. It’s definitely one of the hardest songs I’ve had to sing. I’m trying to learn some different vocal techniques that will help me protect my voice during the belting parts.
GP: Are you and Debs both Star Trek fans?
Errol: Actually, Debs is a Star Wars fan. She doesn’t know much about Star Trek.
Debs: Well I know a lot more now than I used to. I love what I’ve seen, and I love that I got to watch First Contact as band homework 😀 But yes, I was so into Star Wars back in the day that watching anything Star Trek-related was considered blasphemy. Now I’m more open-minded.
Errol: I watched an insane amount of TNG when I was in university. It was awesome!
GP: The video has been shared on a number of sites and also in the Toronto Star (local newspaper). Were you expecting that?
Errol: No.
Debs: I thought we might get a few more views because Frozen is really popular but nothing like this.
Errol: We hope that any of our songs would do well but in all honesty, we never expect them to go anywhere because they’re geeky songs so they’re kind of niche. When it was shared in The Star, I was shocked. That’s mainstream!
Debs: It was neat because that was something that my parents could actually understand, and they sent it around to a lot of their friends.
Errol: My mom saw The Star article. She even listened to the song but didn’t watch it because “it was Star Trek.” *laugh* We’re used to writing songs that no one understands! That’s why we never expect any of our stuff to catch on.
Debs: We write the songs and the parodies that we want to write. If that coincides with what other people like, then that’s an amazing bonus!
You can find Debs and Errol on their website.
They are very active on Facebook and Twitter.
They also just released a 7-song parody EP this past October (2013) called CTRL+ALT+DUETS. There are 2 Disney songs on there and one about Tribbles!
They ALSO also have a daily online webcomic! PHEW! These are a couple of busy geeks! And we love them for it…
