titled The Night Shift, written by Dennis Russell Bailey, was shot as a trial run and as camera tests at the start of principal photography of "The Tressaurian Intersection". It was released on the internet in August 2005. Legacy Albeit not the first, Exeter's "The Savage Empire" is arguably the vanguard of the modern internet-distributed Trek fanfilm in terms of scope, production value, and large audience reached primarily through social media. A January 2, 2003 mention on SlashDot resulted in a deluge of traffic to the Exeter website and exceeded 10,000 hits per hour. The bandwidth demands proved more than Mac.Com could handle, forcing the film to be hosted on a private server. Immediately thereafter the Sci-Fi Channel website listed the Exeter website as their Site of the Week for January 21, 2003, stating, "The end result is an episode that's actually better than some of the 'official' Trek that's been produced, and it just goes to show what fans can do with today's technology and a heck of a lot of determination.". Exeter also topped the Hot Sites on USA Today's online Web Guide on February 2, 2003. (The today better-known Star Trek: New Voyages''' first film would not bow for another year.) The Exeter starship bridge set still exists. It is restored and expanded as a feature of Starbase Studios; films are still shot in it. The studio is located in the vicinity of Harrison, Arkansas. The creators of several other Star Trek fanfilm productions—including Starship Farragut and Star Trek Intrepid—have cited Exeter'' as an inspiration for their efforts. Cast Main characters "James Culhane" and "Joshua Caleb" are pseudonyms for the Johnson brothers. References External links Exeter Studio production website via the Internet Archive Old Starship Exeter website via the Internet Archive "The Savage Empire" on YouTube "The Tressaurian Intersection" on YouTube "The Night Shift" on YouTube SciFi Pulse review of "The Savage Empire" (via Internet Archive) Fan films based on Star Trek American science fiction films