Star Trek: New Voyages

[Niemz]

Star Trek: New Voyages (formerly known as simply New Voyages) is a fan-created science fiction series set in the Star Trek universe. The series was created by Jack Marshall and James Cawley in April of 2003. The series, released exclusively via the Internet, is designed as a continuation of the original Star Trek, beginning in the fourth year of the Starship Enterprise's "five year mission." The first episode of the series was released in January of 2004.

Early installments of the series were co-produced by Jack Marshall, Pearl Marshall (Jack's wife), James Cawley and Max Rem. As of 2006, three one-hour episodes have been produced with two more episodes currently in production. The first three episodes were directed by Marshall. However, it was announced on December 29, 2005 that Marshall would step down as primary director on the series although he will remain as Executive Producer and post-production supervisor through at least episode 4, "World Enough and Time." Unlike a traditional television series, episodes are being produced at a rate of only one per year.

CBS (and previously Paramount Pictures), which owns the legal rights to the Star Trek franchise, has traditionally allowed the distribution of fan-created material as long as no attempt is made to profit from it without official authorization, and Star Trek: New Voyages enjoys the same toleration.

It stars James Cawley as Captain Kirk, Jeffery Quinn as Mr. Spock, John Kelley, as Dr. McCoy, Charles Root as Scotty, and Andy Bray as Chekov. Eugene Roddenberry Jr., the son of the late Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, serves as consulting producer. Some of the original actors have returned to reprise their roles, including George Takei and Walter Koenig, as Sulu and Chekov, respectively.

[Niemz]

Several past members of the Star Trek cast and crew have expressed support for the project, and even contributed to it.

The pilot, "Come What May", featured Eddie Paskey (Crewman Leslie) as his character's own father, Admiral Leslie, and John Winston (Mr. Kyle) as Captain of the USS Al-Rashid, Matthew Jefferies (an homage to the real Matt Jeffries who designed the original Starship Enterprise). It also featured author and Star Trek Communicator Editor Larry Nemecek as Outpost Director Carl Strickland.

The first episode, "In Harm's Way", featured Eugene Roddenberry Jr., the son of the late Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, as a consulting producer. Sam Witwer ("Crashdown" from Battlestar Galactica) was the voice of the Guardian of Forever but credited under an alias. In the same episode, actor William Windom played Commodore Matt Decker, the same character he played in the 1967 original series episode "The Doomsday Machine." Actress BarBara Luna (sic), who had a part in the original series episode "Mirror, Mirror", also appeared as did Malachi Throne, who guest starred as Commodore Jose Mendez in the original series.

For the second episode, "To Serve All My Days", written by original series writer D.C. Fontana, original cast member Walter Koenig reprised his role as Pavel Chekov.

The third episode, "World Enough and Time", will feature George Takei and Grace Lee Whitney, who played Sulu and Janice Rand in the original series and films. While Takei is playing Sulu, Whitney's role has not been confirmed to be Rand. "World Enough and Time" is co-authored by Marc Scott Zicree and Michael Reaves. Zicree, who is also directing the episode, wrote the "First Contact" episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and "Far Beyond the Stars" for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Reaves originally wrote a script for the unproduced Star Trek: Phase II series in which Sulu ages by thirty years, and that script served as the basis for this New Voyages episode.

The fourth planned episode, "What Lies Beneath," is by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine writers Jack Trevino and Ethan Calk. It was originally slated as a feature-length episode, but is currently being scaled down for standard episode production.

David Gerrold (author of the TOS episode "The Trouble With Tribbles") has signed on to pen two episodes. One, originally entitled "Blood and Fire", was originally pitched for Star Trek: The Next Generation, but was ultimately rejected for its controversial storyline, dealing with an AIDS-like virus and homosexuality. It was later re-worked as the third book in his Star Wolf series of novels.

[Niemz]

* The sets for New Voyages are said to be near exact copies of the ones from TOS. This was made possible by the series having access to the original blueprints, rather than just photos.

* Star Trek: Enterprise has made use of the fan series by borrowing some of their props (most notably the helmsman's pop-up console viewer) during the two-part episode "In a Mirror, Darkly", set in part on a similar ship, the USS Defiant, as seen in the original series episode "The Tholian Web."

* Unlike the official Star Trek series prior to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the CGI-rendered ships are able to move in all dimensions rather than just the horizontal plane. This has been the subject of some controversy. (The USS Enterprise is a heavy cruiser, akin to a battleship rather than an aircraft carrier as some would believe, due to the fact that an aircraft carrier does not engage an enemy directly. Yet, in New Voyages it moves like a fighter jet, allowing it to do fast spins and loop-dee-loops.) Other liberties in the design of traditional Star Trek ships (for example, the Doomsday Machine) have similarly been criticized.

* Improvements in professional quality production software available even to home users have allowed a very small SFX production team led by animator Max Rem to provide the series with cutting-edge special effects work that serves to honor the design of the original series.

* Director Jack Marshall also made a popular fan-edit of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, renamed In Thy Image.

* The series was featured in the December 2005 issue of Wired Magazine, spotlighting the production of "To Serve All My Days." [1]


* There is a brief continuity glitch during "In Harm's Way." When the future Enterprise appears it initially has the number 1701; later it changes to 1701-A. This may be seen as a sign of the timeline bending as the fight with the Doomsday Device goes on. This could mean that at the arrival point the events of Star Trek III did not happen (due to "The Doomsday war") and later Kirk's actions ensure they did and so the ship changes to its replacement. (In much the same way that the episode takes place on the USS Farragut and then becomes Enterprise when the timeline resets.)

* Admiral Leslie (Eddie Paskey) erroneously wears the rank stripes of a Commodore in 'Come What May'.

* The series adopts some of the continuity from the "Shatnerverse" novels. For example, during a "possible future" sequence in "Come What May," Spock states "Captain Kirk is alive" just after a sequence from "Generations." The SE of "In Harms Way" gives the date from which the Enterprise-A travels back as 2373 (and so is after Kirk's "Death").

[earthcrusher]

Never heard of this one

[Niemz]

I watched the first episode, it is not bad...

[earthcrusher]

Where did you see them on the net or DVD?

[brenn]

I'm interested as well. Where is this show playing?

[earthcrusher]

Niemz you need to stop smoking that hashish over there!!

[Niemz]

It is on the web and free! I have the link at home, but you could probably find the site using Google.

[earthcrusher]

I am Net lazy send me the link please.

[earthcrusher]

THANKS!

[Niemz]

Did you watch them yet?

[Niemz]

www.startreknewvoyages.com/index.html

[earthcrusher]

I havent checked these yet! I will when I get some actual time.

[Lexi]

It was okay, as far as I saw...although it did seem to me to be, rather than a revival of the show, simply some actors' chances to play characters they always wanted to play.

Which is hardly a bad thing. ^^