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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.)

13 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. Great show by The+Real+Dr+John · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

    --
    A brain is a terrible thing to waste... Mind? That's debatable.
    1. Re:Great show by WindSword · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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!

  2. The bane of fan made series - the acting by wiggles · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I've watched a few of these fan made series - I have yet to find one that was actually watchable. The sets can be great, the lighting, the CGI effects - but what always kills these series is the acting. It's awful. Always. I have yet to find a fan series with passable acting. If they could get decent actors, they could use cardboard boxes for sets and it would at least be watchable.

    1. Re:The bane of fan made series - the acting by ITRambo · · Score: 4, Informative

      The acting is on par with the original series. That's what makes Star Trek Continues great. Good stories, decent special effects and cheesy acting, which I believe is being done intentionally. I like it.

  3. Re:people still watch that crap? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    So, to summarize....it sucked so bad that you watched hundreds of hours of it?

  4. Re:rehab fan by LordKronos · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In college, I stopped watching television. Afterwards, it just struck me as stupid and self righteous, but maybe that was a reflection of society as a whole.

    No, it's not a reflection of society as a whole. You were right the first time....it was stupid and self righteous. But that's just what happens why you are young and stupid and get caught up in that whole "I'm too smart for anything on television, so I won't even own a TV" meme.

  5. NIce job by SternisheFan · · Score: 5, Informative
    I had a slow Saturday and just finished watching the 3 completed shows (all for free on YouTube!), and I was very much entertained by what a fantastic job they did! Especially when considering how tight their budget must be (the end credits have a blurb about how 'no money' is being made from this show).

    The look and feel of the TV show is preserved, from the background music to how the way the show was lit. The actor who originally played the god Apollo is re-cast in the first episode, green skinned alien women in the second show, and the third has final closure to what happened to the Harkonnens after the episode 'Mirror Mirror' ended. Goateed Spock is back!

    If you were ever a fan of Star Trek, you'll enjoy these remakes.

  6. The official website with all episodes... by bswarm · · Score: 4, Informative
  7. Re:people still watch that crap? by Grishnakh · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

  8. Lesson for Hollywood by mrsam · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  9. Re:people still watch that crap? by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 3, Insightful

    1) the opening theme music. It's absolutely horrible. I don't know WTF they were thinking with that whiny emo crap.

    They were thinking: "Hey, kids like this shit, right? We need to appeal to the younger crowd. That's where the money is. So we'll toss the old symphonic opening scores. We'll also sex it up a bit with a hot-bodied Vulcan in a skin-tight suit. Oh, and we'll make sure to fabricate a few excuses to strip that suit off and smear a bunch of oil on her. This is gonna be big! ... Plot? Shit, the writers will figure that stuff out. Don't bother me, I'm figuring out the important stuff here!"

    --
    Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  10. Re:Neat by Pikoro · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    --
    "Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
  11. Re:people still watch that crap? by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 3, Informative

    Some episodes you can try watching (even if out-of-sequence and spoilery), to get a feel for Trek:

    I'm sorry, but it's Geek Law that every list of ST episodes to 'try' must include TNG's "Yesterday's Enterprise."

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...