Well, kind of. Star Trek: New Voyages aims to pick up where the original Star Trek left off by filming new adventures for Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the crew of the USS Enterprise, NCC-1701. This is not your ordinary fan film project though. Now a couple years into the project, the producers of New Voyages have been able to attract a lot of talent from the Trek family to work on the show. They have writers that have worked on various Trek incarnations writing the episodes, and now are getting actors with Trek experience as well. Joel interviewed George Takei earlier this year, and they talked about the New Voyages episode he is doing. That episode, titled "World Enough And Time", begins filming this month. It will follow "To Serve All My Days", which stars Walter Koenig, reprising his role as Pavel Chekov. Other notable casting announcements include Michael Mack, who played Commander Sirol in "The Pegasus" episode of ST:TNG, and Leslie Silva. You may remember Leslie from Showtime's short lived Odyssey 5 where she played Sarah Forbes.
In order to make production of the episodes kosher with Paramount, the people behind New Voyages can't make any money from the project. So, everything is available as a free download from a series of mirrors you can find on their website. Right now they have the pilot episode, "Come What May", and their first full episode, "In Harm's Way". There is also a trailer for the next entry in the series, "To Serve All My Days." That one will be introduced by Walter Koenig when it premieres this week at the Star Trek: 40th Anniversary Gala Celebration and Conference in Seattle.
The episodes are rather impressive. Clearly, the New Voyages team has invested a lot of time and money on the production. The sets, costumes, sound, and effects are all far beyond what you find in your run of the mill fan film. The performances from the actors are pretty good as well. I actually really like both Kirk (James Cawley) and Spock (Jeff Quinn) in this. The story of "In Harm's Way" got a little confusing. But, without giving too much away, it does revolve around time travel, which often leads to a confusing storyline. I'm really looking forward to seeing both Koenig and Takei in the upcoming episodes. All things considered, Star Trek: New Voyages is worth a look if you are a fan of the Trek universe.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-04-2006 @ 5:31PM
Jimmy said...
I have seen a few of these and you're right: considering who is making them and that they're being made outside the studio system, they are quite impressive. The writing is good, the acting is good enough, and the effects are surprising well done. Granted, they don't really compare to TNG, DS9, or Voyager, but they are far and away better than the badly done Enterprise. Any Trek fan looking for what you can't currently find, well-done original Star Trek episodes, these are a damn good substitute. If Paramount had a brain in their head they would pick these up for syndication to some cable outlet or sell them on a download service for a fee, or free with a commercial sponsor, but when it comes to respecting the only profitable franchise they've ever had, Paramount doesn't have a brain in its collective head.
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