Behind the Scenes With the Star Trek Fan Reboot

SternisheFan writes: The original Starship Enterprise was on a 5-year mission, but the original series was canceled after the third year. A continuation of Star Trek:TOS is being created by a dedicated cast and crew intent on keeping true to the spirit of Gene Roddenberry's television show. From recreating the original sets with incredible accuracy and attention to details, staying faithful to original storylines has been a true labor of love for all involved. Here are a series of videos showing the progress being made on recreating the iconic series. (And if you missed it last time, here's the first episode they produced.)

Comments

Great show

[The Real Dr John]

I chipped in for their funding campaign, and I am glad I did. So far the first 3 episodes are great. Mignogna and crew have really done a wonderful job on Star Trek Continues.

Re:Great show

[WindSword]

I did the same after watching The Pilgrims of Eternity and I'm glad I did. Lolani was a true Trek episode, it was a "thinker". Fairest of Them All was a good follow up to Mirror, Mirror - much better than Enterprise managed.

What makes these shows so good is not only the very faithful recreation of the Enterprise and all that goes with it, but the effort that goes into the scripts. If you haven't watched them, do so and enjoy.

I felt the same joy as when I was a child in the 60s watching these for the first time and remembering how I wanted to be James T. Kirk For those of you who don't get the original series and grew up with Social Workers in Space aka ST:TNG, you need to understand how important this show was for science fiction fans. Before Star Trek, most science fiction on TV was pure dreck. The most notable exception being The Twilight Zone which did some good SF episodes. The Outer Limits managed a few good episodes, most notably two written by Mr Happy, Harlan Ellison. Star Trek was different and even though I didn't appreciate it as a six year old, was raising a lot of issues and providing me with an education. I first heard of John Milton and my first Shakespeare here and as I grew older, I understood the subtexts of the plots.

OK, some of the episodes weren't great and by today's standards the special effects really show their age, but remember when it was made. The 60's was a seriously weird time to grow up. The Vietnam war was in full swing as was the fight for equal rights for all - and we had hippies. Amidst all of this, we were still being fed the Brady Bunch on prime time TV. Star Trek was different. "You don't know, man, you weren't there."

Finally, as a bonus for my contribution to KirkStarter (sic) I got a signed photo of the seriously gorgeous Michele Specht which I've had to hide from my partner to maintain the peace. Phwoar!

Re:people still watch that crap?

[Grishnakh]

Enterprise was actually surprisingly good, with a few exceptions; I only watched it a few months ago, since I had turned my nose up at it when it was new. It did start out a big rough and had a little too much gratuitous sexuality at first, but when it settled down it was pretty good. The main problems with Enterprise are: 1) the opening theme music. It's absolutely horrible. I don't know WTF they were thinking with that whiny emo crap. But there's an exception here: the two mirror-universe episodes in Season 4 had excellent music and intro scenes of humans blasting everything and conquering. And 2) the whole Xindi attack plot arc in Season 3 was too much. It was an obvious parallel to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and just didn't go over that well.

I also didn't bother with the second Abrams movie; the first one was too much of a disappointment.

Lesson for Hollywood

[mrsam]

This fan fic already has a few episodes in the can. And it's so good, that even the most horrible episode in the bunch (the one with the Orion slavegirl), is simultaneously unwatchable, and completely watchable on its merits as a very faithful recreation of a typically bad episode from the original series. These guys have got it down pat. They know exactly how to faithfully remake an honest homage to an average bad episode from the original series. And it's certainly doesn't hurt that the episode's guest star was none other than Lou "The Incredible Hulk" Ferrigno. As an Orion slave trader. In full body green makeup!

It's eery watching Chris Doohan in this series. The guy is a spitting image of his old man. Looks like a younger Scotty. Close your eyes, and you can't tell it's not Scotty. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the episodes as they came out. They were far more entertaining than either of the two terrible reboots. I refused, on principle, to pay money to watch the crap reboots in the theaters. But if these folks ever manage to crank out a reel, and it makes it down to my local megaplex, I'll be the first in line to buy a ticket.

Re:Neat

[Pikoro]

It would seem that all of their sets are based on the original set plans which were designed for the 4:3 aspect ratio. Trying to shoot in a widescreen format would likely show parts of the set which weren't intended. I mean, check out how much of that bridge set is open plywood. That set requires some strictly framed shots to work right.