Star Trek Continues

[Corporate666]

For that matter, there's already a smattering of canon in the, er, 26th to 30th centuries I think.  Enough intrigue for a starting point, and then it's pretty much free from there...

'Spose the real reason is, Trek just isn't culturally relevant today (and also whatever you might have to say about Rick Berman).  Which is a sad thing in my opinion.  But that's okay, give it a few years (or decades..), it'll swing back around.

Tim

As I recall, one of the big criticisms of Berman is that he too closely followed Roddenberry's "utopian future where everyone is good and everything is just" ideal.  DS9 is maybe one of the best ST series' and it's full of war and death (especially when it got good).  It would be great if Berman just pissed off and let someone else do something with the ST franchise.  There is always a good market for good Sci-Fi - but Berman and Roddenberry's vision of the future is an anachronism in 2014. 

[T3sl4co1l]

I don't recall it's as popular an opinion that "DS9 is maybe one of the best" though.

Ironically, I think I've heard more criticism around Berman about taking the opposite direction, DS9 being the perfect example: static (it's on a station!), slower paced, dirtier characters (arguably, more complex, but..), and pushing as much as possible Roddenberry's ideals (like, Federation-can-do-no-evil and such).  Maybe that wasn't so much Berman at work, I don't know.

Overall, I wouldn't rate DS9 very highly, especially the first season or two, which were downright boring.  But I must say, the multi-part story arcs were really cool.  Also, poor O'Brien...

I suppose it's worth noting that you can take just about anything from the franchise as a whole.  Change, and resistance to change, are both good and bad.  There's an episode about nearly anything throughout the history.  Really, critiques reflect as much about the critic as the subject.  Which is kind of neat, I suppose one could argue all good art should be able to do that?

One thing I didn't like about DS9 and VOY is the character design.  They did it right in TNG, each character largely embodying a relatively narrow, caricatured aspect of behavior: duty, adventure, intellect, empathy, intuition, and so on.  You could pair a given premise with a given set of characters from TNG, and end up with a different story each time, but the outcomes were much the same between the characters in DS9 and VOY, with more diluted characters, the stories that much more recycled and less memorable.

Anachronism, yeah, that's kind of the problem I think.  I mean, the series (and its creator) has its roots in the 60s after all.  The stories are often preachy and patronizing.  Many of the issues do remain pertinent to this day (sadly, I suppose), but perhaps the storytelling style has changed over time.

Which, bringing things back on topic, I must say the 'Continues' series looks to have captured the spirit of TOS very nicely, yes, down to the corny and kitch.  Whether you like the style, for better or worse.  Maybe it's not the biggest thing on the whole today (clearly it's not on mainstream television), maybe it's the retro appeal, maybe it's just for the older generation that grew up on TOS.  I never really got into TOS myself, but I do appreciate how hard they've worked on this: the design, the characters, the writing, the cinematography, especially with a reduced crew producing it, they've worked hard, and it shows, it's well done.

Tim

[TheBorg]

Yes yes yes yes yes!

Now. Gotta finish watching TNG, Voyager, Enterprise, DS9, and TOS. Man, I gotta get some spare time set out. I've been trying to finish TNG for a few months now. Season 6!

A bit late to the Trekkie party though- I'm 17!

TNG is my favorite so far, I can only take so much of Kirk talking, like this. Like everything; has a pause. Voyager is great too (I'm on season 3, I know, just watch the whole thing already! I haven't even gotten to Seven of Nine yet!).

[ecat]

Going through a Star Trek phase a while ago I thought these fan made animations among the best of the bunch:






This one is not quite complete

NB, this is one guy turning out 3 hour episodes (!). Also, it does take a while to get to used to the fact he does all of voice acting himself - there is a reason behind this - but once, and if, you get passed this, his work is very high quality.

You may also like:





Once again very high quality work.

[cimmo]

If i hear one more time technobabble about 'relays' ic star-trek i'm gonna send some transistors and integrated circuits to the writers.
Those were invented in 1950's. And here it is 21xx and we are still screwing around with 'relays'.

Maybe they're Solid State Relays?
Perhaps even Zero-crossing?
 

[cimmo]

Man, I miss Star Trek. I kinda wish there was a new series. But, I know that it would never live up to ST:TNG for me. And the pain of watching another dreadful series. *cough* Enterprise *cough*

Give Season 4 (the final season) a go.
I thought the first few seasons were pretty 'Meh', but S4 was a contiguous story arc and not too bad IMHO.

[ecat]

@OP,

Some of the ST fan stuff can be painful to watch, the heart is in the right place and everyone is trying their best but the result is still rough. I've just watched the two episodes you posted, they are quite outstanding, ty for posting

 

[MrsR]

It is amazing  that 13 episodes  started such a following.

CHEERS
Rachael

[T3sl4co1l]

If i hear one more time technobabble about 'relays' ic star-trek i'm gonna send some transistors and integrated circuits to the writers.
Those were invented in 1950's. And here it is 21xx and we are still screwing around with 'relays'.

Maybe they're Solid State Relays?
Perhaps even Zero-crossing?
 

Oddly, my mind always thought of radio relays, or something like that.

Tim

[Jon Chandler]

There are actually two groups producing high quality follow-on programs to the original series.  Star Trek Continues is the new-comer with two episodes.  Also producing high quality shows is Star Trek Phase II.  They are similar is having sets true to the original, the same cheesy special effects and so on.

Star Trek Phase II actually came from the remnants of a network effort to re-launch the original series that eventually turned into the first Star Trek movie.  They have a number of scripts written for that effort plus customs and sets.  Their first episode came out in 2004, with #9 set to be released on February 14th.  Walter Koenig (Chekov) and George Takei (Sulu) have both made guest appearances on Star Trek Phase II.

It's a bit confusing watching these at first.  The characters are played by "the wrong" actors.  But if you watch for a few minutes, you get past that.  Kirk is Kirk, even if not played by William Shatner and so on.  The characters are true to the original.  Attached is a collection of the various Kirks, Spocks and McCoys.  Working on doing the same for the rest of the main characters, but Chekov has been played by so many different people it's hard to figure them all out.

All of the Star Trek Phase II episodes may be found on YouTube.

[Alana]

Did anyone mentioned ST Hidden Frontier http://www.hiddenfrontier.com/ ?

[IanB]

At the risk of labeling myself an ubernerd... I wish someone (like the Star Trek people) would come out with something even more futuristic - like 10,000 years in the future, or 1 million years in the future.

Babylon 5 did manage to do a bit of that, by bringing in older races who were thousands or millions of years ahead of mankind in their evolution and technological development. There was even a glimpse of what humans were destined to become a million years in the future.

[Arp]

*cough* Enterprise *cough*

Season 3 and the Xindi was pretty good. Are you referring to the first season? 

[Dave Turner]

It is at least interesting, if not important, to remember that the original series was first broadcast during the 'Cold War' and had ceased production before man first landed on the the moon.

The stories, anecdotes and the description of the raison d'etre of the original series were recorded in a book entitled "The Making of Star Trek", of which I had an original edition, sadly no longer in my possession made interesting reading particularly considering today's mobile phones, automatic doors etc. .

For the time the effects, especially for a supposedly low budget TV series, were darn good.

As society progressed so did the genre. The Next Generation, (possibly even better than the original series) broadcast 21 years later reflected the change in political thinking, in western society at least.

Trek fan or not it is undeniable that many current electronic devices were brought fruition from ideas popularized in the Star Trek universe.