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Star Trek: New Voyages, Downloadable Video

Posted by timothy on from the commitment dept.

tm2b writes "What if you could make new episodes of the original Star Trek, with the same characters, worse acting (believe it or not), better special effects, and lower resolution? It seems that some fans secured the Roddenberry family's support for doing just that. They call it Star Trek: New Voyages and they've completed one full episode and and working on another to be released in August. They plan to pick up with the fourth year of the "five year mission," and the first episode can be downloaded in zipped WMV format. It's worth checking out if you can ignore acting that actually makes you yearn for the quality of the original cast. Personally, I love seeing what they can do rendering the old ST tech with modern CGI."

41 of 349 comments (clear)

  1. Torrent? by The+Iconoclast · · Score: 3, Funny

    Does anyone want to set up a .torrent file?

    --
    Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
    1. Re:Torrent? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You know what would be useful?

      A system like BitTorrent, but that could also be seeded with a list of URLs where the file is available online.

      All copies of the software would work together, which each user automatically and optimally assigned different parts of the files to retrieve from the URLs. Using Content-Range: and those "seed" URLs, each user would download a different part to get things rolling. Then they would all work collectively to send those parts of the files back and forth between each other, until everyone has the whole file.

    2. Re:Torrent? by Jugalator · · Score: 4, Funny

      Baud!?

      If you're still using that ancient unit, I really doubt you can get much better? :-O

      --
      Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
    3. Re:Torrent? by Syre · · Score: 4, Informative

      Overnet already does something kind of like this.

  2. WMV by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Zipped WMV Format? Is this some sort of Romulan Empire technology I'm not familiar with? Boy, let me rush right over and download that! :P

    1. Re:WMV by sql*kitten · · Score: 4, Funny

      WMV is a tool of the Devil.

      Really? Why? Or rather, why moreso than Quicktime?

  3. *WORSE* acting??? by YetAnotherName · · Score: 4, Funny

    Worse than Shatner?

    Oh.....come.....on.....I.....find that......hard....to.....believe!

    1. Re:*WORSE* acting??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      For those that haven't seen it yet and fail to believe the possibility of worse acting, watch Starship Exeter. I kid you not, it's frightening and full of that classic star trek alien/android 'i don't get that joke' humour that makes you sooo angry.

    2. Re:*WORSE* acting??? by Surazal · · Score: 3, Informative

      Starship Exeter is not as bad as Hidden Frontier.

      Starship Exeter: Done old-school style, and the actors are not that horrible to watch. I even feel nostolgic just watching it, pining for the good old days.

      Hidden Frontier: Done with schnazzy new graphics, but the actors want to make you scream. I mean, apparently, Star Fleet's Weight-Loss Program just isn't as effective in TNG time or something. This show proves that very large people who can barely fit into obviously home-tailored uniforms still hs the ability to make me nauseous.

      I'll have to check out the new episodes I haven't yet seen on Starship Exeter (last I checked before today they just had the first one completed and the next was still months away from production).

      And for this new one, well, sheessh, it's just something else to kill yet more time with this evening. ;^)

      --
      --- Journals are boring; Go to my web page instead
  4. What's next? by Limburgher · · Score: 5, Funny
    Star Trek Fan Fiction Fan Fiction?

    WARNING:Approaching Nerd Factor 9. . .

    Seriously, though, I salute their courage and hard work. This can't have been simple to put together.

    --

    You are not the customer.

    1. Re:What's next? by RLiegh · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It does look like they've put an unimaginable amount of thought, time and effort into this; it's just a damned shame that they couldn't have gotten people who can actually act for it.

      They decided that going for the visual resemblence of TOS cast was more important than hiring (or recruiting, I'm sure tons of people would volunteer) people who actually can act to play the parts.

      Personally, I'd rather see someone who looks nothing like shatner but is able to act play the part of kirk than watch a shatner-alike ham it up.

    2. Re:What's next? by kfg · · Score: 5, Funny

      WARNING:Approaching Nerd Factor 9. . .

      Cap'n, I canna giv' ye Nerd Factor 9. The lassie weel only go 11 and up.

      KFG

  5. Hidden Frontier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Another great fan made Star Trek is Hidden Frontier

  6. Are they trying to... by dotslashconfig · · Score: 5, Funny

    Make the Star Trek name absolute mud? Honestly, it has all been downhill since TNG...

    Star Trek DS9: "To boldly go... no where. We're on a freaking space station people. We stay stationary, people... that's our job - to be dull!"

    Star Trek Voyager: "To boldly promote the worst captain ever! Yeah, Janeway - you go, girl. Magically know stuff that no one else does. Cool, baby!!!"

    Star Trek Enterprise: "To boldly go and fuck up the entire timeline."

    Give it up, already... this is just getting pathetic. Leave us with the good stuff and get rid of this marketing money-driven drivel.

    1. Re:Are they trying to... by hikerhat · · Score: 4, Funny

      Hmm. I thought Voyager was pretty good. But then, unlike most slashdotters, I'm not afraid of women.

    2. Re:Are they trying to... by jhoger · · Score: 3, Interesting

      TNG was great. It concentrated mostly on ethics and morality stuff.

      DS9 was much more interesting to me. Because they stay in place, there is a chance for political tensions to develop. Makes things a lot more interesting being able to fully explore relationships between ST cultures. In many ways it was the best trek for my tastes.

      Voyager sucked. Cheese factor over the top even for trek.

      Enterprise: let me explain this to you since you seem to find it so hard to understand: with time travel involved which is THE BASIS OF THE SERIES, you can't really have a fucked up timeline. There will be changes to it, but in the end I'm sure the timeline will be pretty much as we'd expect at the end of the show. Some things may happen earlier/later, but in general it will all work out. You and the other 5 guys that spout this on Slashdot every day are simply wrong.

      I'm tired of you folks saying they should pack it in. You're wrong, there are plenty of us that still enjoy trek. If you can find any way to produce sci fi that doesn't cost money and require marketing, lay it out there for us. With your limited imagination though, I doubt you could come up with much.

    3. Re:Are they trying to... by aardvarkjoe · · Score: 3, Insightful
      With your limited imagination though, I doubt you could come up with much.

      You're defending Enterprise, and then turn around and accuse somebody of "lack of imagination"?
      --

      How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
    4. Re:Are they trying to... by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I thought DS9 was the best of all. With the previous series, they rarely had to deal with deep-seated hatred between two races. It also had a long plot-arc, something that was practially verboten in OS, and in TNG until 4th season.

      Most of all, I liked DS9 because it didn't try to paint Starfleeters as such perfect, moral people, and didn't try to paint an idea that all problems can be solved in a week (or two). And I was tired of all the moral pontificating that TNG had, it was a better show when they were OFF the Enterprise, like on the homeworlds of other races.

      Being on a station didn't seem to stop them from going places, they still had runabouts, went to numerous Gamma quadrant planets, and later, they did eventually get the Defiant.

    5. Re:Are they trying to... by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 3, Interesting

      > when they first meet the Borg via Q.

      Yeah, that was good. The best episode of the second season, IMHO. Q is always fun, and there's always good chemistry between Patrick Stewart and John de Lancie.

      > Then "Measure of a Man" about Data.

      I'm sorry. This really could have been a great episode, done right. But the "legal regulations" for Data's arbitration board were so utterly contrived, so completely ludicrous, that they made no sense whatsoever. Legal proceedings are at least putatively designed to dispense justice, not to cause Cdr. William Riker and the rest of the Enterpise crew the maximum amount of angst possible. They totally destroyed my suspension of disbelief (and I can usually take a lot in the direction). It just didn't work.

      > Also the one about Prof. Moriarty was pretty good as I'm also a Sherlock Holmes fan.

      Meh. I'm a Holmes fan myself, but I didn't care for it much. Possibly because I'm allergic to holodeck episodes.

      > But the crowning episodes in my mind was "The Inner Light" and "The Defector".

      "The Defector" was pretty good, and "The Inner Light" was one of the finest pieces of SF ever produced for television. But neither is second season, so they can't be used to argue the quality of the second season.

      Chris Mattern

    6. Re:Are they trying to... by dasmegabyte · · Score: 4, Funny

      Like Next Generation is any better..."To boldy go where no man has gone before, have it attack us, and then escape at the last minute by reversing the polarity of something!"

      --
      Hey freaks: now you're ju
    7. Re:Are they trying to... by APDent · · Score: 3, Funny

      I enjoyed Terry Farell and late Nichole Deboer as well.

      I assume you mean " later Nicole deBoer". IMDB certainly seems to think she's still alive.

  7. New, horrible acting? by The+Living+Fractal · · Score: 4, Funny

    Did they get Steven Segal as the captain, whose mission it is to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and BEAT THE CRAP out of their civilizations? (fade-in Segal beating the crap out of a green alien dude with his bare hands, then saying "Where the hell is that chick who jumped out of the cake?!")

    Ok, I admit it, I'm a troll.. I just can't help it. I like negative karma ;p

    --
    I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
  8. Whew... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Capn' I don't think the mirrors will hold, even by rerouting auxillary power!

    Seriously, all mirrors were slower than death already while the post was in the Mysterious Future...

  9. zip ? by selderrr · · Score: 4, Funny

    what's the point in zipping a WMV file ??? I can't imagine getting more than 1% gain, probably even a negative compression effect...

    --
    When will I end this grieving ? When will my future begin ?
    1. Re:zip ? by Flamesplash · · Score: 5, Informative

      Someone already said this, but I'll expound

      If you don't zip then people can stream it off your server, if they end up watching it multiple time then that's additional bandwidth off your server, if you zip it they have to DL it and are more likely to just remember they have it localy and rewatch it from there.

      zipping seemed stupid to me till I found this out.

      --
      "Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door." - Emily Dickinson
    2. Re:zip ? by NanoGator · · Score: 3, Informative

      "what's the point in zipping a WMV file ???"

      Probably to fix some stupidness with Microsoft's Media Player. Let's say you link to a .WMV file that's 100 megabytes. When you click on it, WMP fires up and sits there and does NOTHING until the whole 100 meg file is down. It appears to be frozen, and you have NFI how much you have left to XFER. If you try to start another media file that WMP monopolizes, it just kills the transfer as opposed to opening a new window. If you put it in ZIP format, you know how long it'll take to get, and you don't have WMP sitting around in limbo. Pretty lame, huh?

      --
      "Derp de derp."
  10. I thought I didn't understand slashdotting... by Jugalator · · Score: 4, Funny

    I went to Mirror 1. The page loaded quickly, as did the main page. I got confused. This was Star Trek and on Slashdot. I initiated the download. I got 0.1 KB / sec.

    *phew*

    The world hadn't gone crazy after all.

    --
    Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
  11. Ob. quotes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Scotty, beam me down a zipped WMV file!
    Sir, I just doanna 'ave the power!

    Bones, what the hell happend to those mirrors?
    They're dead, Jim.
    Can't you bring them back up?
    Dammit, Jim, I'm a doctor not a .torrent!

  12. Overnet/Edonkey links by Syre · · Score: 3, Informative

    Here are links for the files in Overnet / Edonkey format:

    Star Trek New Voyages Teaser.zip
    Star Trek New Voyages act_1.zip
    Star Trek New Voyages act_2.zip
    Star Trek New Voyages act_3.zip
    Star Trek New Voyages act_4.zip
    Star Trek New Voyages Episode_Trailer.zip
    Star Trek New Voyages Series_Trailer.zip

    Someone post the Torrents pls!

  13. The crowd is wrong, as usual by njdj · · Score: 5, Insightful
    worse acting (believe it or not),

    Trashing Shatner's and Nimoy's acting shows you're really sophisticated, one of the in-crowd. Like EVERYbody agrees they can't act, right?


    Stop being a mindless sheep. There is nothing wrong with Nimoy's acting, and little to complain about in Shatner's. They're not Alec Guinness, but their performances in the original Startrek were perfectly adequate.

    1. Re:The crowd is wrong, as usual by sql*kitten · · Score: 4, Interesting

      There is nothing wrong with Nimoy's acting

      I saw an interview with him once where he said that whenever the camera stopped rolling, he would spontaneously burst into laughter or start crying. Maintaining Spock's emotionless facade took a lot of effort for him, he couldn't keep it up for long. Hell they had to write a "Data goes crazy" episode every now and again, I reckon that was just to keep Brent Spiner sane.

  14. Re:BitTorrent link? by JudgeFurious · · Score: 4, Funny

    Of course there's no need to take all the mirrors down but it's too late for such kindness because to paraphrase Mr Scott in "Wrath of Khan"

    Kirk: "We've got to set up a torrent! The mirrors will die!"
    Scotty: "They're dead already!"

    New episodes of Star Trek (in any form) + Slashdot = server death. No way around it.

    --
    Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
  15. Captain's Log, Stardate 2004.48 by Bob(TM) · · Score: 5, Funny

    The beginning of our fourth mission year brought a new challenge ... perhaps beyond our capabilities. Upon entry into Cyberian space, the efficiency of the Enterprise warp engines was reduced to nearly 1% of their rated capacity. Working together, Science Office Spock and Chief Engineer Scott have determined the physics of the region of space we currently occupy is somehow different from normal space - rapid movement, at least in the conventional sense, is impossible. Originally observed and reported by a member of the Engineering staff, the phenomena has been unofficially named for him.

    Recommend commendation for Ensign Sleesh Doot for identification and communication of this phenomena. Let us all hope we are all able to make it out to be able to see he actually gets it.

    --

    The little guy just ain't getting it, is he?
  16. what would happen? by AndyChrist · · Score: 3, Funny

    What if you could make new episodes of the original Star Trek, with the same characters, worse acting (believe it or not), better special effects, and lower resolution?

    You would never, ever breed.

    You might forget for a while having been beaten up for your lunch money as a kid.

    You get to wear for a little while, clothes more fashionable than anything else you ever wear. (Them ST uniforms is sharp!)

    Or THIS could happen

  17. Next time let's act smart! by ClausCCC · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The next time someone posts a link to a video instead of each and everyone trying to get the files and slashdotting the server in the process we do the following: Everyone flips a coin 10 times. The lucky guys (1 in 1024) whose coin flips all come up head actually go and download the files. Whose who got the files seed a .torrent. No Slashdotting => happy slashdot crowd!

  18. Congratulations! by master_p · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Although their work is not up to the quality of Paramount's production, I want to congratulate them for chasing and finally realizing their dream. Keep up the good work, guys! and don't be disappointed because of any negative comments out there!

    I think that only teams like them can offer something new and innovative...big companies are locked onto money chase. These guys can do anything, as long as they are doing it for hobby.

  19. Re:The mirrors, they're all dead, Jim. by ziggy_zero · · Score: 5, Funny

    All of the mirrors must have all been wearing red shirts.

    --
    I belong to the ______ generation.
  20. The tech geek connection by tm2b · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I've been thinking about this since stumbling across it (and downloading it before submitting it to Slashdot).

    What's really cool about this is that, as promised, the low price of quality digital video equipment and computer editing is really letting people chase their passions in this way, and the low cost distribution of the Internet is letting

    That's really cool. All the snide comments about Trek creativity that some readers would undoubtable make aside, perhaps the promise of a creative renaissance in video fiction can actually be fulfilled. It doesn't matter if 99% is crap, a higher volume means more great stuff being created and it just becomes a matter of finding the great stuff.

    May a thousand flowers bloom. Times a thousand.

    --
    "It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
  21. Petition for Star Trek Topic on Slashdot by doconnor · · Score: 5, Interesting

    For too long Star Trek, the most important series in Geek history, has had second class status to Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings and even The Matrix. Those series has their own topics. Star Trek deserves better. Join the others who have signed the petition to give Star Trek a topic on Slashdot.

  22. I thought it was really cool. by LionKimbro · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I watched it, I thought it was great!

    It felt authentic, in a way that everything after ST:TNG does not.

    It's true, it's rusty. But they seem really comitted, and I think they're going to master this system that they've created.

    I just have one major wish:

    I really wish the audio were redubbed. Do the shots just using the microphones on the set, and then perform a seperate dubbing session, so that the sounds are clear.

    Regardless of whether the audio is improved or not, I'm a dedicated fan now.

    I haven't watched a Sci-Fi TV show in about 7 years. But I'm excited about these shows! :)

  23. Working Torrent... by The+Blue+Knight · · Score: 5, Informative

    ... is located here... At least until my tracker gets hosed.

    --
    TIAVAS HS ENI I RNG S YO Y I N G