Closet Sci-Fi Geek

Star Trek: New Voyages - “In Harm’s Way”

The first “real” episode of Star Trek: New Voyages is light years ahead of the clunky pilot. While some problems still persist (acting classes, guys, acting classes), this episode actually got me excited about Star Trek again.

After years and years of Rick Berman, it is so refreshing to watch a good Star Trek show produced by fans who really understand what classic Trek was about. “In Harm’s Way” gives us a classic Star Trek time paradox, in which Kirk ends up on the Farragut after Captain Pike’s Enterprise is destroyed by a Doomsday Machine that had traveled back in time. (These “planet killers” were seen in the original series.)

While it takes a little adjustment to understand why Kirk is flying the Farragut, with a Klingon as his number one, once the plot gets going, it is fast-paced and exciting from start to finish. The story neatly ties in some favorites from Star Trek, including the Guardian of Forever and the story behind Captain Pike’s disfigurement. By the time the episode was winding up, I was literally at the edge of my seat waiting to see how it all would resolve.

Once again, we’ve got decent special effects and a fantastic recreation of the original Star Trek sets. Not only do we get to see the Guardian, but a larger version that an entire starship flies through!

The acting is improved greatly in this episode. Alas, Bones still needs some acting classes - though, as my friend pointed out, he is the spitting image of DeForest Kelley. Fortunately, James Cawley as Kirk has relaxed a bit and is starting to express some personality in the role (they still need to fix his hair, however). Given some time, I think Cawley could really fill the role.

The actor playing Captain Pike was terrific; if only he wasn’t there just for a guest spot. (Ironically, Pike looked more like Kirk and Kirk looked more like Pike, but…I got over it.)

Overall, I was quite pleased with this episode, and I enjoyed it so much I am looking forward to the next installment. If they can keep up this quality, they really do have something here.

Chekov Returns for Star Trek 40th Anniversary

From the Star Trek New Voyages website:

“Walter Koenig, the actor who portrayed the character Pavel Chekov in the original Star Trek series on television and the first seven feature films, will introduce the premier showing of the Star Trek: New Voyages episode “To Serve All My Days” at the Star Trek: 40th Anniversary Gala Celebration & Conference on September 8, 2006. Celebrating the 40th anniversary of Star Trek which made its debut on NBC in 1966, the event will be one of excitement, seeing fans from around the world in attendance at the Planet Xpo convention to mark the event.”

(Star Trek New Voyages is an unofficial fan production that follows the travels of Kirk and company following the original series.)

Star Trek: New Voyages - “Come What May”

Fan fiction has now become fan video as homegrown production companies are now making their own video versions of Star Trek and other science fiction favorites. One very promising series is Star Trek: New Voyages, which simply continues the adventures of Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the Enterprise crew at the end of the Original Series.

I have low expectations for such endeavors, since I understand how hard it is to make a good television show even with a large budget and experienced staff behind it. As such, the pilot episode of Star Trek: New Voyages, “Come What May,” has all the typical problems you might expect from an unofficial amateur effort, but there was enough good in it to make me want to watch another episode.

(Apparently, some consider “Come What May” to be so distinctively bad compared to the regular episodes of New Voyages that they advise skipping it altogether. In fact, even the New Voyages website neglects to include the pilot in its list of episodes for download, but you can still get it here via torrent.)

In “Come What May,” we are taken to an outpost where a strange “intruder” has disrupted a planet. A strange alien has driven off the intruder before the Enterprise reached the planet. Kirk and crew are waiting around for the intruder to appear again, and when it does, it shows up like a huge pyramidal Borg-like structure, which gets shushed away by the strange alien. And that’s about all I can tell you, since it doesn’t make a huge amount of sense from there.

Now for a look at the good and the bad in the pilot:

Good: Special Effects.
The special effects were surprisingly strong for a self-funded show. In fact, I’d say they far surpass most of the stuff you’d see on a Babylon 5 episode (granted, computer animation has improved significantly since the 90s). The Enterprise looks fantastic, the zipping around space was well-done, and we even got to go into a creepy nebula. Huge thumbs up.

Bad: Hair.
This might seem like a minor nitpick, but the hairstyles in the pilot were dreadful. Captain Kirk has pitch black hair that rivals Spock’s. Scottie has brownish-red hair instead of black. Rand has red hair with a horrible curly-q on her forehead. Can I just say hair-dye? It looks like they have fixed this in future episodes, however, judging from the photos on the home page. (The Kirk photo included with this article has the right hair color, phew!)

The only hair that was truly consistent with the Original Series was the Beatles-style moptop worn by Chekov - now that we could have done without!

Good: Sets and Costumes.
These were lovingly, painstakingly reproduced. I really felt like this was the real Enterprise for the most part, excluding the captain’s chair, which wasn’t quite right.

Bad: Plot and Direction.
I’m not going to go far as to say the writing sucked, because there were actually some quality gems of dialogue here that made me laugh out loud (and these were lines that were purposefully meant to be amusing). It’s just that the plot was confusing and the overall direction of the storyline was convoluted. I was still entertained, just a tad confused.

Good: Spock (and Kirk, Kinda).
The actor is a bit too young and has too much pretty boy for Spock, but he did a decent job bringing Spock to life. Kirk was a little stiff in spots but was promising.

Bad. Most of Acting.
The worst of the worst was Scottie, who was struggling to keep the accent consistent throughout his scenes. Accents not withstanding, most of the acting was a bit stiff and forced and entirely what you’d expect from an amateur production, but something that could hopefully improve with practice.

A few other strange anomalies in “Come What May”:

• Rand has been promoted, and she’s now able to take the conn when Kirk goes off to deal with things. (I’m a bit rusty on how well this might fit in with canon, but it seems a huge leap from her being a wishy washy Ensign just two “seasons” previously.)

• Sulu is not on board yet, but that’s supposedly coming up, so stay tuned.

• The original soundtrack is used, but sometimes to overkill.
  

There are a few highlights in this episode; my favorite parts were when the alien ball of light showed the crew visions of the dreams or the future. Kirk and Spock get to see glimpses of their deaths, which was quite well done.

Overall, not bad for an amateur effort, and if this is the horribly bad episode of New Voyages, then the next ones must be pretty decent. Stay tuned!