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Star Trek Continues Kickstarter 2.0
The Real Dr John writes Vic Mignogna and crew have launched their second Kickstarter campaign to produce 2 or more additional episodes of Star Trek Continues, a fan-based web series finishing up the 5 year mission of the original Star Trek television series. The first Kickstarter campaign raised enough money for 4 episodes, 3 of which have already been aired. Depending on how much funding they get this time, they plan to produce up to 4 additional episodes.
I'm a doctor not a banker!
These people are really knocking it out of the ballpark with the episodes they have done already. Seriously they got JJ spanked when it comes to the original series.
This Star Trek campaign is obviously an infringement on "Space Balls 2: the search for more money". :-)
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Spock: "Jim, the fan films are dying." Kirk: "Let them die!"
They aren't bad at all. While I won't say they are "great", I enjoyed watching them and they certainly weren't a waste of my time.
They are very good. They get all the notes of the original as close to exactly-right as you could possibly expect of a production. I would go so far as to say a studio would do worse because they'd want to interject some new concept.
It takes me 5 minutes of each episode to get used to "Kirk's" higher-pitched voice, but that incongruity fades rather quickly. And, sorry, but I keep expecting Grant to unleash a robot.
Regardless, the first three were better "TV" than most of what's on broadcast today. And I suppose there's an outside chance that the success of "Continues" will have an influence on how Paramount views the fanbase.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Submitter totally missed the "Kirk-starter" pun.
Anyway, I enjoyed the first three episodes. They capture the mood and cheese of the original series quite well. I've donated a few dollars to the second run as well now.
"Stop failing the Turing test!" -- Dilbert
Expect they can't sell them. As long as they give them away for free as fan based art, Paramount will tolerate the infringement. Start charging, probably not.
Unlike the two reboot films.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I've really enjoyed them so far. For me they rank in order of air date: the first one was pleasing mainly for the return of Apollo and the actor who played the role in TOS, the second is a really solid story in the original style helped no end by casting Lou Ferrigno as on Orion slaver and an admirable performance by (sorry, had to look this up) Fiona Vroom* and the third was an excellent continuation of Mirror, Mirror.
Vig Mignogna plays Shatner to a T and easily surpasses him in the role of Mirror Kirk, while Chris Doohan (yes, it's his son) has obviously spent many an hour watching his old man and gets the accent just right. The series as a whole is well worth watching and I'll definitely be throwing some money their way if it means I get to enjoy more of the same; the show has clearly been put together by people who have spent far more time watching the original series than I. There are a number of small guest appearances that will bring a smile to your face, not least of which is Michael Dorn.
*Points also earned for having such a cool name.
If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
I guess this means I've been living under a rock, but this hasn't been on my radar to watch at all yet. Are the first three pretty good? Are they adequately carrying on the legacy?
My background: I grew up watching TOS, was at first excited and then bored by TNG and the rest of the Berman series, and had my interest renewed by Abrams' films, which I believe are reviled primarily by Berman "endless meetings" era fans, and not first-run TOS fans. That said:
Star Trek Continues (TOS-C?) is, so far, surprisingly good. The sets, costumes, tools, and effects are easily equal to TOS Remastered. But besides that, the plots are interesting and after you get over different people playing the characters, it's like episodes of TOS that for some reason you hadn't seen yet.
Wife and I both loved them, and my 20 year old daughter, who grew up watching TOS Remastered, has given it her conditional seal of approval.
Something we all agree on is that there needs to be more episodes. Daughter holds back full approval only because there hasn't been enough so far to have an informed opinion.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
> I would go so far as to say a studio would do worse because they'd want to interject some new concept.
Cue the precocious kid and annoying pet...
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Star Trek New Voyages/Phase II is far better. And they just released their latest episode Mind-Sifter in December.
I guess it's a YMMV thing. I won't call them terrible, and obviously they put a lot of work into them, but I just can't watch them. I've tried. I haven't been able to make it more than ten minutes.
I watched until 5:50. 2 Most important things:
1) Chris Doohan is spooky (son of James Doohan, reprising his father as "Scotty")
2) Has a holodeck like ST Next Generation, but says "Where no MAN has gone before" in opening credits
Aside from that, it wasn't horrible, in fact they capture the 60's style so well that it's like a really good Vegas tribute act, an Elvis-Karaoke worth paying a compliment to.
Gently reply
They are doing a great job maintaining TOS "feel", Vic does a great job as Kirk, Spock is so-so, Bones is well.... a tad limp. Overall they do pretty well being crowd funded and free,(as in BEER), I have looked at the other ones including the Farragut spinoff, most of the others as not quite to par, Hell call me an old fogey, I grew up TOS and enjoy seeing what could have been.
They _are_ the original series. Same sets, same costumes, same props, just a different cast.
It's not a "reboot" or "reimagining", it's actually an attempt to continue the original Star Trek as though it had never ended. While there naturally are some differences in writing style, the similarities to the original series are amazing.
If you liked Star Trek (1966), watch it. If you preferred Star Trek (2009), then it may not be your thing.
Paramount is awful at that - they actually tried to shut down a bunch of fan sites many years ago because it infringed on their trademarks.
CBS (who owns Paramount and pretty much reserves Paramount for movies) has been far more tolerant and I think actually gave their approval. Not to make money, but at least CBS won't pursue action against them for making this.
Effectively, CBS has blessed this work of fan fiction...
Star Trek Continues is surprisingly good, IF and only IF you happen to like the old-school filming and storytelling style employed by the original Star Trek. It's an amazingly faithful recreation which deserves a lot of props for hitting the mark so carefully.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
I found episode 1 a bit iffy, but episode 3 (the mirror-mirror continuation) was much better. I haven't had a chance to watch episode 2 yet.
Sounds like a lot of buried rage there. Careful or it will flare up.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
tos animated series has a holo dec and it was originally going to be included into star trek phase t the series in the 70s had star trek went to tv route vs going with the feature film for the original crew.
The first season of TNG wasn't that great.. It took the actors until the third season before The Next Generation got it's stride. Personally, I'd love to see this group given the chance to really get their stride.. If it's already better than JJ's.. Wait until they've had a few more episodes... I'm in....
With that said, they're all interesting. Check 'em all out, make your own decision.
So, having never seen the original episode that they're continuing, you don't really have any basis for comparison, then, do you? You've just seen a bunch of spinoff stuff that didn't live up to the original.
I liked all three a lot. And Lou Ferrigno in episode 2 is freaking awesome.
The Star Trek Continues episode in the mirror universe is actually really good. Like seriously good.
I discovered Star Trek Continues after it was posted on Slashdot a couple of weeks ago. This series is now responsible for jump-starting my children's interest in Star Trek, so I rate it highly! :)
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
Deep Space 9 did live up to the original (and perhaps surpassed it), and even Enterprise was better than most people give it credit for. It was only the mirror episodes, not the series they were in, that sucked.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
I saw my first "studio quality" amateur replica of the Enterprise bridge set more years ago than I care to think about --- and as much as I admire the effort put into projects like this, I believe it is time to move on.
The modern era of science fiction is close on to a century old now. It's an enormous body of work in all media and all genres --- space opera, speculative fiction, etc., etc. --- that the geek has largely ignored for decades.
Why should the big boys like Disney, Pixar and Marvel have all the fun?
I'm asking that not only because my first instinct when hearing the words "The Prime Directive" is to kill them by fire.
I was referring to the mirror episodes, not the series in general.
The first fan-fiction Star Trek I watched was "New Voyages" a number of years ago. As a fan of Trek since TOS was in syndication in the early 70's (I was only 4 in 1966!) I have to admit, I was quite pleasantly surprised! Then, along came Star Trek Continues, running in pretty much the same vein, and with similar quality to "New Voyages".
As others here have said, this really *IS* like watching "lost episodes" from TOS! Both my wife and I really enjoy this! It is like getting brand new Star Trek stories, again... just a LONG wait between each one.
It is also quite telling, when you see that both of these high-quality fan-fiction productions are actually getting the ORIGINAL actors and actresses to reprise their TOS roles in various ways... this is where "time-travel" stories are actually being used in an enjoyable and meaningful way. For example, "World Enough and Time" (By New Voyages) was only the 2'nd Star Trek story to bring tears to my eyes! (The first was "Inner Light" on TNG.) Yeah, it was THAT good!
I look forward to watching what BOTH of these top-notch fan-fiction production groups do in the days ahead! If the Powers That Be would REALLY PAY ATTENTION, they would see what the majority of the Star Trek fan base REALLY WANTS.
Those "new" movies don't even deserve more than this one-line mention. I only saw the 1'st one. That did it for me. No more.
Live Long and Prosper, New Voyages and Star Trek Continues!!
Willie...
I watched until 5:50. 2 Most important things:
1) Chris Doohan is spooky (son of James Doohan, reprising his father as "Scotty")
2) Has a holodeck like ST Next Generation, but says "Where no MAN has gone before" in opening credits
Aside from that, it wasn't horrible, in fact they capture the 60's style so well that it's like a really good Vegas tribute act, an Elvis-Karaoke worth paying a compliment to.
That some people today are insistent about the use of gender-agnostic nouns doesn't mean that those using lesser-so nouns in the past were bigots. I highly doubt TOS's use of the word "man" was meant as a slight toward women considering Roddenberry's vision and the fact that it was the first television program showing a white and black person kissing. The entire premise of Star Trek Continues is that it's a continuation of the original series, which used the word "man", so I doubt they intended it to be a slight or exclusionary either. I despise bigotry, but people gotta loosen up a bit. If I say to my kid, "Hey, it's the mailman!" and then realize it's a woman driving I'm not going to start calling them the "mail person" and flog myself for being a misogynist. Language is fluid and its primary purpose is to get the point across. I wonder how many people when they heard the "where no man has gone before" bit thought, "Those sexist bastards! They specifically chose to use the word 'man' instead of 'one' because they're sexist pigs!" I mean, really? I hope someday people will realize that bigotry and choice of words are two very different things and that it's the intent and meaning of language that should cause offense, not an individual word in a sentence.
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Star Trek Continues is a fantastic fan series. I've been watching Star Trek fan films since the first episode of Star Trek New Voyages, Come What May, was released. It has been amazing to witness the subculture grow with the technology that enables its existence.
And consider what this says about Star Trek as a cultural force. It was an optimistic message during pessimistic times. In the 60s people needed hope for the future. Star Trek filled that need so well that now, in very different (but still uncertain) times, we end up with Star Trek spontaneously manifesting itself into existence all over the place. It's like a program embedded into the cultural psyche: Need hope? Go to Star Trek. No Star Trek? Make Star Trek. Humans are crazy.
I'm not sure if new episodes of my favorite 60s television show will really offer hype to today's post-modern outlook. I would love to see a Star Trek allegory on contemporary identity politics and the formalization and modeling of all of reality into the data-mined, consultant-approved Matrix we all inhabit today. It would probably have to be DS9esque in outlook, though. On that note, I thought Caprica was going to be the crown-jewel of socially-relevant contemporary science-fiction television but it got shit-canned after two seasons. Imagine if that happened to Babylon 5, what we would have missed out on? Now we have Doctor Who, whose offered fantasy is "leave the whole fucking planet behind". Huh.
Star Trek New Voyages just released their 9th official episode and a new one is out soon this month. Starship Exeter finally released the last act of their second episode last year, after a nearly 10 year wait. Check them out!
Silicon & Charybdis McLuhan Kildall Papert Kay
Star Trek, Star Wars...
These were shows/movies made decades ago.
Great for there time, but outdated now. Even reboots and new episodes featuring the next generation, brings in the money playing off of our Nostolga. They have to do so much work to explain why the cannon is changing because having the old shows showing things with limited effects and a different view on the progression of technology. Just clutters a good movie or show if just given a new universe.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Halfway through the first episode, and it's really good! For fan-made, this is incredible.
Do they have any mechanism for downloading them? I could only find streaming versions. The Phase II and Axanar people both allow downloading, which makes it a lot easier to watch their stuff.
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I liked the mirror episodes in Trek. They probably had the best continuity of the whole series.
The first few minutes of the Enterprise one was great (takes place right at the end of the Star Trek: First Contact)
ST-C gets it right in so many little ways: camera angles and framing, scene setups, facial expressions, and just the right amount of cheese. Episode 2, especially, was excellent in this regard. Best one liner (IMO) is Kirk yelling at the ensign.. ."Get a hold of yourself, mister!". Gave me goose bumps. Mignogna seriously channeled Shatner during that one.
Like a lens flare?
Star Trek's kiss was the first which American viewers got to see. So not the first TV kiss worldwide, but still the first in the US, at a time when British TV was probably never seen in the US unlike today.
As someone who eagerly awaited each episode as a teen in the 60s I have to say these episodes are spot on. Great job. Amazing. But Spock should stop accenting his speech with head movements.
E Proelio Veritas.
They should vigorously fight the present day force toward the gynocentrification of all plots and the forced equality of women in all things - as we absurdly saw, for example, when the ship's counselor and doctor became trained to do bridge duty on Star Trek: The Next Generation. All kinds of TV series today start out with a vigorous male theme and then rapidly decline into female soaps. ST 1 was a glorification of male attributes and culture in a sci-fi setting. To boldly go where no MAN has gone before. It was a different time. Change the tone and destroy the verisimilitude of this endeavor.
E Proelio Veritas.
Vic does a great job as Kirk
He's got the look and mannerisms down but he just does not have the command presence and the authority voice... he sounds wimpy and whiney. I think he needs to find a drill sergeant to work with him on it.
If you ever find a way to download them, please post here and let me know. Us old-timers don't trust this new-fangled intarweb too much - I'd much rather download them, burn them to a DVD and both have a copy forever (everything on the WWW is temporary) and easily pull it out to watch it big-screen.
Cool, I didn't know that. Seems like the U.S. is behind the times when it comes to that sort of thing (giving women the right to vote for example). At least we have the middle east to make us feel better. Those guys seriously need to get their shit together.
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