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Star Trek Continues Meets Kickstarter Goal, Aims For Stretch Goals

Posted by Soulskill on from the boldly-going-as-far-as-the-budget-takes-them dept.

jdavidb writes: A couple of months ago on Slashdot, I learned about Star Trek Continues, a faithful continuation of the Star Trek original series five-year mission, lovingly recreated by Vic Mignogna and a dedicated cast and crew. The original Enterprise set from Desilu has been recreated, great scripts have been written, fantastic guest stars have been enlisted, including stars from the original series and other Star Trek voyages, and the three episodes filmed so far look like they genuinely came from the era that produced the original series. Continues has now turned my children on to original series Star Trek, and we eagerly await more episodes.

Continues has two more days to go in their Kickstarter campaign. They have already raised enough money to produce two more episodes and meet their first stretch goal: creating a set for Engineering. They're also bumping up against their next stretch goal: creating a planet set so the Continues Enterprise team can visit strange new worlds and experience the tragic loss of nameless redshirts.

13 of 165 comments (clear)

  1. Now they just need intensity from the actors. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I want to care about this. I really do. But the acting is justflat. None of them feel like they've got skin in the game. I don't know what it would take but the entire series would become a different thing if they could somehow be gotten INTO the story. Because for now they're really not.

    1. Re:Now they just need intensity from the actors. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Shatner was a stage actor - that's why he acted so BIG.

      And speaking of flat, ST:TNG doesn't hold up. I remember back in 1987 when it first came on and how excited I was to have a new Star Trek. Watching on Netflix now, I can't help thinking what a piece of shit it was. Yeah, there were some good episodes, but it sucked.

      Voyager sucked too, Deep Space Nine was held together by Brooks but was still kinda crappy; although better than the other new Star Treks.

      These new guys are doing a respectable job but I see what you mean. Vic has all the energy which, in a way, reproduces the dynamic on the original series.

      The problem is that Star Trek isn't a very good science fiction premise.

      If only some film maker would get a kickstarter program going to make something by the masters: Heinlein, Asimov, etc .... Those guys wrote great stories and in this day and age, shouldn't be a problem bringing it to the screen.

    2. Re:Now they just need intensity from the actors. by Howitzer86 · · Score: 2

      You can skip the first season of TNG, especially the first season. Patrick Stewart is also a stage actor, but the cast didn't have any chemistry until later on.

    3. Re:Now they just need intensity from the actors. by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I watched Doomsday Machine a few months ago, and within 5 minutes I'd forgotten about the mid 60s sets and effects. The story and acting was that good.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    4. Re:Now they just need intensity from the actors. by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 2

      You can skip the first season of TNG, especially the first season. Patrick Stewart is also a stage actor, but the cast didn't have any chemistry until later on.

      I'd argue you can skip much of the second season as well.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    5. Re:Now they just need intensity from the actors. by Shakrai · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And speaking of flat, ST:TNG doesn't hold up. I remember back in 1987 when it first came on and how excited I was to have a new Star Trek. Watching on Netflix now, I can't help thinking what a piece of shit it was

      WTF are you talking about? ST:TNG is the only Sci-Fi show from my childhood that stands the test of time. There were some hokey episodes to be sure but the underlying theme of humanity exploring the cosmos, under a semi-abundance economy where we've moved past the need for greed and work instead towards self-improvement and discovery? How can you not like that?

      TNG explored themes as diverse as brinkmanship (The Defector and The Enemy), individual liberties (The Measure of a Man), paranoia driven by external fears (The Pegasus and The Drumhead, a massively underrated episode that seems downright prescient when one contemplates current events in the post 9/11 world), terrorism (The High Ground), eugenics (The Masterpiece Society), the morality of deadly force (The Most Toys), veterans/PTSD (The Wounded, Family, and The Hunted), old age (Half a Life and Sarek), torture (Chain of Command), revenge (Reunion), and betrayal (Preemptive Strike).

      Those are just the issue episodes that come to mind. TNG could also do action (several of the aforementioned, plus Power Play, Conundrum and Starship Mine), first contact (First Contact, Darmok), and even comedy (Deja Q).

      Some of those episodes were better than others but I dare say that they're as good as anything that's on television today and were light-years ahead of their peers in the 1980s and 1990s. TNG was at its best when approached as a character and issues driven drama; in that respect I think it set a standard that is never going to be equaled in television Sci-Fi. It had more than its share of gimmicks (engineering failures used as plot devices, apparently the concepts of fail safe and even the lowly circuit breaker don't exist in the 24th Century) but on balance it stands the test of time.

      It was also uplifting escapism entertainment that could still do serious drama, something I think we've lost with the current emphasis on dark violent dramas. Even the genuinely scary episodes of TNG (The Best of Both Worlds can still send shivers down my spine) never left you feeling depressed and melancholy. The only other show from the 1980s that I can still re-watch is Magnum PI, for a lot of the same reasons when I thi

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    6. Re:Now they just need intensity from the actors. by rudy_wayne · · Score: 2

      The original acting was pretty bad as well. Not to mention the sets, the entire premise (Really, the Captain, First Officer and Chief Doctor of a star ship beams down to $random planet in T-shirts? What Starfleet manual did that come out of?).It was the time and place that made Star Trek what is was. This was 1966. We hadn't made it to the moon but NASA was on a roll. 2001 hadn't even hit the screens.

      The stories really don't age well, the characters really don't age well and we sure the hell didn't age well.

      Ultimately, that's the problem. I thought the original Star Trek was great. But, it was 1966 and I was 12 years old. In reality, the "good old days" never actually existed and they weren't actually as good as we remember them.

      A faithful re-creation of the original Star Trek is NOT a good idea. There simply have been too many advances in the last 40 years. The cheap sets, cheesey special effects and bad acting just aren't tolerable any more.

    7. Re:Now they just need intensity from the actors. by Shakrai · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Don't skip The Emissary, Elementary, Dear Data, The Measure of a Man, Q Who, Contagion, or A Matter of Honor.

      Even the much maligned first season had "don't miss" episodes. Some you have to watch for continuity (Encounter at Farpoint, The Neutral Zone, Datalore, and Skin of Evil), but a handful were actually decent standalone episodes (The Battle and 11001001).

      Seasons 1 and 2 had a lot of hokey moments but they also have hidden gems. Seasons 3 and 4 contain the crown jewels of TNG, after that it was kind of a gradual decline as the writers ran out of ideas, albeit with some really amazing episodes (Chain of Command was Season 6 and is among the best of TNG) along the way. Even most of the mediocre episodes aren't unwatchable, of course there are exceptions to the rule (Sub Rosa, Genesis, and Masks come to mind).

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    8. Re:Now they just need intensity from the actors. by kuzb · · Score: 2

      "It was also uplifting escapism entertainment that could still do serious drama, something I think we've lost with the current emphasis on dark violent dramas"

      A lot of your argument is good, but fuck this statement. My biggest complaint with star trek has always been that it tends to cater to the "can't we all just get along?" bullshit far too much instead of focusing more on how human beings (and societies as we know them) really are. This is why the most critically acclaimed star trek episodes are almost always more visceral and serious than the others. It's why the wrath of khan is the best movie. It's why The Year of Hell was one of the best voyager 2-part episodes. It's why any episode dealing with the borg is insanely popular. It's why Battlestar Galactica was a thousand times better as a show.

      Star trek always does better when the adversary is far more powerful than the Enterprise, larger than life, and grave threat that uses violence to achieve their goals. The reason this is better is because it forces the characters to come up with creative solutions under pressure and to face their own mortality.

      --
      BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
    9. Re: Now they just need intensity from the actors. by TellarHK · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Destroyed. At the end of every season, the CG models for Babylon 5 assets were deleted according to contract requirements with the Prime Time Entertainment Network who distributed the show. Probably as an asset reduction thing for financial BS in the era of protoCG-era production.

      --
      My own pointless vanity vintage computing page
  2. Oh good! by eyenot · · Score: 3

    Out of the like, 3 of these continuation series that I took a look at a couple of years ago, this was IMHO the best one that was getting the least attention. I'm glad to hear that they've made it through their kickstarter.

    --
    "Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
  3. Hmmm... by rmdingler · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Sometimes the thing that makes a series a classic is the finite nature of its run.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  4. Re:There is more to SciFi than Star Trek:TOS by Hognoxious · · Score: 2

    As if making Star Wars XIV somehow prevents someone else from making a Heinlein film.

    Which it does, to an extent.

    At one end there's a limited amount of production capacity - studios, render farms, key grips & best boys (whatever the hell they are).

    At the other the public have a limited disposable income to spend on tickets, figurines and stuff.

    Something has to give.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."