Star Trek: New Voyages, The Fan-Based Star Trek Series (nytimes.com) 93
An anonymous reader writes: The New York Times has published an article on Star Trek: New Voyages, a fan production that's based on TOS. “People come from all over the world to take part in this — Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia and every state in the union,” said James Cawley, the show’s executive producer. “That’s the magic of Star Trek. It’s spawned this whole generation of fans who went on to professional careers — doctors, lawyers, engineers — who are now participating in that shared love here.” With TOS fans generally being less than enamored with the movie reboots, are fan produced web series the wave of the future?
Site Streams Slow to begin with... (Score:3)
and now Slashdot.
Seriously, love this reboot series. Worth the buffering every time!
5 Eps on the website (Score:5, Interesting)
I just watched the 5 eps on the website over the last week, very enjoyable, even if fan made. They even had them in HD.
I really wish we had a star trek series on tv, over the last year I re-watched DS9, last year I re-watched Voyager. I finished the Stargate Series last month.
The state of sci-fi on tv really sucks right now.
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The older series didn't have enough angst for the current generation. Not enough "it's about me."
True. Gene Roddenberry banned all of that from being covered. The crew was supposed to get along and that was that.
You can wonder about the viability of that, let alone the hypocrisy, but that's another story. It was declared by fiat.
The last good SF out was Firefly. It's all been downhill since then.
Firefly, good SF, eh? Well, that was 2002. 2005 if we count the movie.
Since then, among others, we've had the Battlestar Galactica remake, and Caprica, Defiance, Eureka, Warehouse 13, FlashForward, Continuum, Orphan Black, Fringe, the 100, Falling Skies, Lab Rats, and who
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I guess it depends what kind of sci-fi you like. I happen to agree with you, most of the shows you listed are decent, plus others like Heroes, Orphan Black etc - plenty of good stuff in the last decade. However of all those shows, only BSG is primarily space-based, so if that's what you're after, pickings are a bit slimmer. Sure, there are cheap-and-cheesy shows like Dark Matter, and I'm sure others that weren't memorable enough for me to remember their names right now. Someone looking to replace the likes
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Stargate Universe was excellent too. What seems odd is that shows that are consistently great from the very start always get cancelled early on, like SGU and Firefly, but shows which are campy cheezefests in the early days and take a good season or two to get going (TNG, Farscape, B5) somehow get renewed.
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You must be joking. SGU was anything but Stargate. Crappy plot, no stargate type fun (you know, Jack O'Neil, Mitchel, Vala). Oh well, at least they had Tamara Johansen :P
anon as not to undo moderation
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Stargate Universe was excellent too. What seems odd is that shows that are consistently great from the very start always get cancelled early on, like SGU and Firefly, but shows which are campy cheezefests in the early days and take a good season or two to get going (TNG, Farscape, B5) somehow get renewed.
I certainly wouldn't consider the examples like B5 and farscape "cheesy" And I'm really surprised you dissed TNG.. Anyways , in answer to your comment, they were signed up for multi year terms, like many other shows, especially if the producer has a solid track record. TNG's producers certainly had that. B5 was signed for the entire run of 5 seasons ,after it was intentionally closed. Not cancelled, because there was no more to it. The only one that was cancelled was the B5 spinoff Crusade, a real shame, b
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The thing is, inter-crew conflicts are unprofessional. Real teams that have to get things done don't do that. They are expected to work out disagreements peacefully, with out letting them interfear with the work. As in, doing work where mistakes cause people to die!
All of this drama is from "Soap Operas" on television, it has warped people's perceptions. Notice that those TV shows never show anyone doing any actual work, either... 8-)
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I wish that we'd get a Star Trek reboot based on a post DS9/VOY time period. There is just so much to work and build from there.
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Star Trek Online and books kinda fill that era, so there is definitely material there already to get started. There is a lot to be done but it won't happen with current corporate structure where the goal is to maximize profits.
Heck I'd love to see a reboot of Babylon 5 as well. Though they might fudge it, in which case I'd pretend it never happened.
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Star Trek Online puts you in charge of a million ton space battle and turns it into button mashing.
I would murder just to have the computer mildly intelligently auto-adjust the "divert power from this shield to that" crappppppola.
Let me focus on the strategy rather than second-to-second immediate reactionary button mashing.
This goes for all MMORPGs in general, of recent vintage. Giving everyone one or two 1-2 second microholds and smash key to break free and other immediate-reaction twitch stuff, please.
An
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STO is one game that would benefit from voice recognition. It would even be "in theme" in STO's case because Captains give orders, their officers implement them.
Imagine if you could say:
"Tactical, Fire at Will"
and have the "Fire at Will" skill go off.
or: "Engineering, Emergency Power to Shields"
Andromeda (Score:5, Interesting)
Try watching Andromeda. I always wrote it off without watching but ended up really enjoying it. Tyr was everything the Klingons should have been. True enlightened warriors instead of playing politics.
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I liked the first couple of seasons of Andromeda. It was always a little campy, but it had some interesting ideas, for instance Tyr and the Nietzschians. It also had a decent ensemble, despite having the overwhelming presence of Kevin Sorbo in the center of it.
Unfortunately, it teetered off the deep end somewhere in season three. That's what happens when your showrunner gets replaced and your star asserts his authorit-ay to alter the show.
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The first season had really lame intro music. I imagine that the fans complained, and a better opening theme was written for subsequent seasons. Also, the production designer remodeled the bridge at the beginning of the second season, and there was no story-driven reason for it. I suspect it was be
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Oh man I agree with the intro and music. You keep waiting for the punchline to the joke but its completely serious.
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Re: 5 Eps on the website (Score:2)
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I tried watching one of the episodes and I could not finish it. Acting on TOS was bad, but this was just unwatchable.
Dammit Jim, it's free entertainment not a million dollar budget production.
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I much prefer Star Trek Continues. The guy playing Kirk has really nailed it. The mannerisms, the acting style, everything. The stories are really, really good too.
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The relevant commentary (Score:5, Funny)
McCoy: It's dead, Jim.
Spock: Fascinating.
Scott: I cannae get ye any mor power!
Rand: [flashes legs, wiggles]
Uhura: Transmission lost, sir.
Chekov: It's a Russian invention.
Sulu: Captain, stay away from the controls! If you touch them, we'll be destroyed!
Kirk: There’s another way to survive (proceeds to write TekWar)
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You do understand that $190,000 in 1966 was equivalant to well over a million dollars today [carinsurancedata.org], right?
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You do understand that $190,000 in 1966 was equivalant to well over a million dollars today [carinsurancedata.org], right?
Dammit Jim, he's an Anonymous Coward, not an Economist.
Or a mathematician.
Or relevant.
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My parent's house, a 2-story colonial, in 1964 was $18,500. The $230/month book of payment coupons was terrifying.
Understanding, or lack thereof (Score:2)
You do understand that is entirely irrelevant to the question of whether $190k then was, or was not, significantly different from 1m today, right?
You also understand that "making the film", specifically the part that got less expensive, is a tiny, tiny part of the undertaking, right?
You also understand that without dedicated props departments (such as those at DesiLu), props take much more time and energy and are less efficiently made in this case as compared to TOS, right?
You also understand that the numbe
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Nope. It's more like "the original" or "the grand daddy of".
This is something that should have "popped" on Slashdot about 10 years ago.
The NYT is basically your embarrassingly uncool parent of a teenager here.
Was going to give it a try... (Score:2)
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... but I'll stick with Star Trek Continues, thanks.
I agree, I found Star Trek Continues to be the more enjoyable fan series, in my opinion they are more like TOS and are nicely put together.
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Vic Mignogna is an extremely believable Captain Kirk. I think he plays a better Kirk than Shatner. They really nailed it when casting him for the role.
James Doohan's son does a decent job as Scotty. Michele Specht is a good actress as well as great eye-candy. The rest of the cast is weaker than the other actors from TOS (I like Mythbuster's Grant Imahara, but he's not a good actor). The production quality exactly matches TOS - from the sets to the lighting to the camera angles. I love
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Considering the acting talent of Shatner, the average doorknob could play a better Kirk. That doesn't really say much.
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Michele Specht is a good actress
Seriously? You must be too taken with that eye candy to notice how over-expressive her face is, how robotic her lines are, and how unnatural she acts. She looks to me like someone in acting school who thinks they have to overact everything to get the point across. She is the most distracting thing on the show in my opinion because her horrendous acting takes me out of the fantasy and tells me it's just her on the stage talking to a camera.
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Vic Mignogna is an extremely believable Captain Kirk. I think he plays a better Kirk than Shatner.
I don't know about better (Shatner defined Kirk, after all), but I agree that he's really, really good.
They really nailed it when casting him for the role.
"They" didn't cast him. STC is, in fact, his brainchild.
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IP is not just an address on the Internet (Score:2)
It is nice to know that self proclaimed "Trekies" are taking the intellectual property that once belonged to Paramount Pictures.
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There is no such thing as "intellectual property" [gnu.org], and you can't "take" it.
The copyrights to TOS episodes belong to, IIRC, CBS. But these fan-made episodes are not those TOS episodes.
These fan-made episodes might be argued to be "derivative works", but even if they are noncommercial creation and sharing of such is fair use and so does not infringe those copyrights.
Copyright (Score:2, Interesting)
What I am still surprised at is the copyright owners don't hunt and pursue their fans and try to destroy them like so many other companies normally would.
I just hope it doesn't happen any time soon considering the new film series that have been happening now.
Of course, I am really hoping that these people are smart enough to use these fan projects to gauge interest in a possible new series.
This is pretty much free research in to target markets for new products done by others.
And since these things tend to b
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What I am still surprised at is the copyright owners don't hunt and pursue their fans and try to destroy them like so many other companies normally would.
Long ago, during WW2, a military training-film editor invented the blooper reel and the Pentagon asked to have them distributed to the troops. SAG complained that it would hurt actors' reputations and tried to ban the reels, but there was ultimately a compromise: distribution was restricted to the Armed Forces Motion Picture Network and they were off-limits to the public.
When I was in the AF in the 1960's we had a library of blooper reels with that caveat appearing in the opening credits, and some of them w
What the story really is. (Score:1)
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James Cawley for Kirk (Score:1)
I through Cawley did a great job as Kirk and was very sad when he stepped down from the role. In fact, I attribute a lot of the series success to his portrayal of Kirk.
Great Web Series! (Score:1)
The federation needs to be united. (Score:1)
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Vic once worked with New Voyages and attempted to wrest control of the production from James Cawley and play Kirk when Cawley stepped down. When Mr. Cawley made it clear it would be a cold day in Hell before that would happen Vic ran off and made his own production, starring himself and his canon-breaking girlfriend, Dr. McKennah.
His shills always pop up to denounce the vastly superior New Voyages at every opportunity. Vic has made it his own personal vendetta.
So no, there is no chance these two productions
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Yes, Dr. McKennah needs to be shoved out an airlock... She is such a bad actress. Grant (Sulu) isn't a great actor either, but at least he knows how to handle a camera in his face. Michele Specht overacts so hard, I don't know why she is there except that she is probably in a relationship off screen with Vic.
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Yes, Michele is Vic's real-life girlfriend. That's the only reason she's on the show. They created the character of ship's counselor, Dr. McKennah, just for her, even though we're told in TNG that ships of the TOS era did not have ship's counselors.
Here's the #1 problem with Continues (and there are many): the magic of TOS Trek was the relationship between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. Spock is the rational mind, McCoy is the emotional mind, and Kirk is the wise mind. Each character is just as important as the ot
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You are very correct about the dynamic not being there between the three of them in STC. Bringing in a counselor kind of gets rid of the point of McCoy as that was who Kirk went to for emotional support. Now he's just a buddy that shows up from time to time. The relationships are all rather mechanical.
That being said, I really enjoyed "Pilgrim of Eternity." The plot for this episode being based on an original episode using the same actor really worked well. It felt very genuine and gave me great hope. Sadly
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I liked Pilgrim of Eternity too. I thought it felt true to TOS, which seemed to be what they were going for over everything else. I was okay with that. It's a fan piece for and by fans, it'll do what the fans involved want to do. Which isn't necessarily broadcast-quality, but for the budget they've got? that's okay. If they had fun doing it, it's a success.
There are probably a dozen or so ongoing fan productions now, and all those I've seen have their merits. Some are more true to one or another incarnation
The air compressor in the sick bay picture. (Score:1)
The air compressor appears to be a c2006 type 4 porter cable 6 gallon 150 psi pancake compressor.
Just in case you wanted to recreate their set recreation.
Imho the compressor is a poorly built piece of junk.
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The air compressor appears to be a c2006 type 4 porter cable 6 gallon 150 psi pancake compressor.
I just mash mine with a griddle.