u/LengthinessLow4203

A sister series to "Star Keep" released on Webtoons. New issues of "Star Keep" are scheduled for every Friday until the book "STAR KEEP - THE ARK" is finished being adapted. The second run will be to edit, refine, invite other non-ai artists to the work and update the series.

Star Keep: The Unreturned will release on Webtoons on October 16, 2026. This sister series is open ended and is not an adaptation.

Hope y'all enjoy! Thank you for inviting me to the new subreddit u/DarthWalker-34381 !

I left some alternative renderings (and mistakes) here too. Decided to make a master post for this because, as one fellow redditor put it, I actually think I really need this in my life too!

Imagine Star Trek: The Next Generation and Dragon Ball Z were fused together, not as a silly parody or a lazy costume swap, but as a genuine, high-stakes sci-fi epic. That is the idea behind Ball Trek, a seven-season concept that blends the heart, martial arts, and cosmic scale of Dragon Ball with the diplomacy, philosophy, and space exploration of Star Trek.

Here is how a universe like this actually works.

The Core Idea: What is Strength For?

Dragon Ball is always asking who can get stronger. Star Trek asks what powerful people and civilizations should do with their power. Ball Trek brings those two ideas together.

The backstory starts decades before the main show. Frieza conquered and exploited the Saiyans. Before their home world was wiped out, Starfleet stepped in and evacuated a group of survivors. To avoid a full-scale galactic war, the Federation could not just attack Frieza, so the surviving Saiyans integrated into Federation society.

This sets up the big question: What does a warrior species do when nobody is commanding them to fight? Some become scientists, some become Starfleet officers, some hold onto old traditions, and others push for total Saiyan independence.

How the Characters Fit

Goku represents protection. He is curious, friendly, fearless, and amazing at first-contact missions with new alien species. His main flaw is assuming that getting into a fight will fix people the way it fixes him.

Vegeta represents autonomy. As displaced Saiyan royalty, he refuses to let Starfleet civilize him. He forms his own moral code, deciding that true honor means choosing not to dominate others just because you are strong enough to do so.

Gohan represents personhood and is one of the main emotional leads. He grows up on the starship, becoming a scientist, professor, and explorer who happens to be a terrifyingly strong warrior when pushed. Gohan proves that your biology, raw power, or heritage does not decide who you are.

Frieza represents absolute control. He builds an empire called the Frieza Collective, offering galactic peace, stability, and protection, but only if civilizations surrender their freedom. His core mistake is believing that freedom is just a flaw that needs to be engineered out.

The Rules of the Show

1. The Star Trek Rule: Punching harder cannot fix every problem, and sometimes it makes things worse. Exploration, diplomacy, science, ethics, and alien culture drive the plot. Power complicates moral choices, especially with something like the Prime Directive. If Starfleet says we cannot interfere, but Goku says people are dying, who is right?
2. The Dragon Ball Rule: It still has to be fun. Martial arts, intense training, rivalries, emotional transformations, absurd comedy, and cosmic battles are all essential. Goku still misinterprets protocol, Vegeta still loses his temper over minor things, and Bulma still invents impossible technology out of Capsule Corp tech and Starfleet engineering.

The Seven-Season Arc

Season 1: The Seven Worlds. Deep-space exploration leads Starfleet to discover ancient, mysterious artifacts called the Dragon Balls scattered across different alien cultures.

Season 2: The Namek Expedition. Starfleet travels into deep space, encounters Namekian organic technology, and clashes with Frieza’s imperial fleet. Goku unlocks Super Saiyan during a battle for liberation.

Season 3: The Red Ribbon War. Tension builds inside the Federation over human reliance on super-powered aliens. Dr. Gero creates enhanced humans, turning Androids 17 and 18 into a major story about civil rights and bodily autonomy.

Season 4: The Cell Singularity. Cell attempts ultimate biological synthesis. Gohan takes center stage to prove that potential and genetics do not define a person's worth.

Season 5: The King Kai Protocol. Starfleet discovers scientific proof that consciousness exists beyond physical death, leading them to study the Celestial Network and cosmic consciousness.

Season 6: Majin. An ancient threat named Buu emerges. The crew has to figure out if a force of nature can develop true personhood through simple kindness, friendship, and ordinary life.

Season 7: Frieza. The ultimate clash between Frieza's forced peace and the crew's belief in true freedom. Frieza offers a safe galaxy without free will, but Gohan, Goku, and Vegeta stand together to prove that preservation without freedom is not really living.

The Big Takeaway

Strength is something you possess, not something that possesses you. The universe is worth exploring precisely because nobody, whether it is Starfleet, the Saiyans, or the Kais, has everything completely figured out.

What do you think? Which character dynamic or season concept sounds the most interesting to you?

Hear me out... I've only eaten there a couple of times, but everyone I saw must have been from Venus or something. Strange conversations about metaphysics and space travel were overheard... every time I've been there.

I overheard one conversation from two dudes who sounded like they were writing a sci-fi/fantasy movie with the things they were talking about.

And a big lady talking about Einstein while getting tartar sauce...it was weird af y'all.

I legit think only actual aliens eat here....

This film is an interesting one because of what I would say is its texture.

This is somehow a very meaty film, if you will, but not all of the meat tastes good or tender. It has all the ingredients to be a great 80s slasher film too but it doesn't quite land that archetype imo.

By texture I think I mean the setting is great, the shots are good, the look and feel of the film - the graininess, the aging...it all kind of just adds up into a fun little watch.

The premise of this film and how the mummy wakes up is perhaps a little inconsequential in some ways. There isn't any real payoff for the killer alien mold and it doesn't seem to be any kind of nod to contemporaneous society of the 80s either. Maybe I've just reached a dead end in my analysis or the film "isn't that deep, bro" but it just seems like there is the missing subtext of, "what is this film trying to say?" Why does it exist?

And yet, part of me yearns for a sequel or conclusion of some sort to this film. It's just weird...it seems like an oddity. It's got that 60s or 70s liminal feeling with the university and I think mainly that setting is contributing to a bit of nostalgia or something. Kind of like an itch in my brain I can't scratch. Why do I like this film so much?

Well, in highschool in the early 2000s I used to debate. On some occasions I'd travel over 3 hours away to a huge school that had an auditorium that looks kind of like the UN. Well it had this kind of...hmm...60s or 70s feeling to it. The clean industrial green shag carpets, the wood panel walls, you know... just retro. But at the time when I was debating it felt contemporary i.e. I didn't have a sense of what the 60s-80s were like when that style was still being used in construction etc. All of the tactile sensations I used to get in those settings are present in this film. I can almost smell this film. Can almost touch the walls or smell the newspapers in the library or something.

Perhaps that's the real reason I enjoy this film. Not for the janky acting or story, but the setting and way the film has aged.

It's neat as the kids used to say. The Wiki says there is a Mystery Science Theater episode on this film and that's probably my next watch.

So YouTube Free Movies it was again tonight.

This film was something of a marvel and the type of work that transcends the scope of your imagination on the first watch.

My watch was influenced by the 50s television show 'The Invaders' and the 90s film 'MIB.'

There were therefore some moments where I saw homages whether intentional or not playing both forward and backward in time relative to this film's era. The Crichton Estate is sitting on this one and needs to revive it for the modern times. It is unbelievable how relevant this film is. Michael Crichtons third eye was rocking with this one. Way ahead of its time or possibly not. I am more convinced that those technologies were real now after having seen them in this film. Reminds me of Brainscan too. Just retro future technology that seems just as advanced as anything we could ever make today too.

And if you ever wondered what neuralizers would look like from MIB if they were used offensively? Well you could see that here in this film.

But about the film itself. It was so stylish and it really pops. The suspense was great, the music and effects were superb. Edit: I should also point out that every actor and supporting actor's performances were top notch. Really superb acting. I think this is an actor and director's film - this is a great film for actors and directors to study I believe. A film for filmmakers.

I suppose subliminal messaging in advertising is a corrupt and powerful enough reason for the plot of this film to exist but I kind of find it absurd in some ways if that were still being done today. I guess who knows. Now there are more AI Agents than people online so who knows. Who knows.

A great film I wish I could see for the first time again.

Would you buy it? What games would you want for it? How much would you be okay spending?