Starship Excelsior's 50th Anniversary Special

[Wowbagger]

We at Starship Excelsior released a new episode today to celebrate Star Trek's 50th Anniversary.

The episode, entitled "Tomorrow's Excelsior", is available at www.StarshipExcelsior.com. You will also soon be able to get it from our Google Play and iTunes pages.

We tried to make an episode for this special day that would be enjoyed by all fans of Star Trek, not just Excelsior fans. Star Trek has given us so much; this is our attempt to give something back on its golden birthday.

So, even if you've never heard an episode of our show before, I recommend giving this one a try. Give it just five minutes, and I think it'll grab you.

We hope you enjoy, and welcome your feedback.

--James Heaney, Executive Producer, Starship Excelsior

 

[MikeH92467]

I can't begin to say how proud I am to be a part of this production. I hope everyone will give it a listen.

 

[Danlav05]

It's sad that over all audio drama isn't as well-regarded as visual media - Doctor Who had a mega-event all over the world with 'The Day of the Doctor', Star Trek has bits and pieces but not an actual SPECIAL. Not officially, but this is it.

REVIEW WITH PERHAPS MINOR SPOILERS:

A very well-written and played audio movie set around 20ish years post-the Generations prologue with 7 Trekvets, 2 playing different characters, returning. The star of the show is Nichelle Nichols as Captain Uhura in a commanding role that we've barely seen from her before, ably assisted by Chekov and... someone else. There are lots of Easter Eggs/Trek references that made me chuckle, and while the regular crew of the Excelsior audio series appears, they are supporting the veterans of 50 Years however they are vital to the time travel plot.

Of Gods and Men starred Chekov and Uhura as Captains (In that order for them but the other way round here - this is the first ever Star Trek production in all of 50 years to feature Nichelle Nichols in top billing!! Highlighted in bold for significance) but we never saw them as Commanders at work, but here they lead the misson. This is a fitting end to their Star Trek adventures, considering of course Renegades (officially) filed away the serial numbers

There is a twist regarding antagonists that I won't spoil. Also I like how there were references to Chekov, Uhura etc post-Generations adventures which were well-crafted and made you believe there was an unseen hostory bridging the movies and this audio. Also this was used to pay tribute to a much-missed Trek icon.

But I really enjoyed this story and it worked well to celebrate 50 Years.

 

[Wowbagger]

Really glad you enjoyed it, Danlav! We didn't want to make one of those fan films where we just squeezed every Star Trek veteran into the episode that we could -- we worked very hard to make sure that every character had something important to do and made sense in the episode. And then we decided not to announce several of them, to preserve the sanctity of the story.

I like to think we succeeded.

I was also very surprised to realize that Nichelle Nichols has never gotten to be the leading lady as Uhura, but it seems you're right about that! So I'm glad we finally corrected that, and gave her a fitting send-off, in what I suspect will (as you point out) be the last time she and Walter Koenig are in an episode together in-character.

Speaking of which, there's a reference to Renegades in the last scene. We knew that Walter, at least, would be appearing in that just a few months after our episode aired, and so we believed we would be the second-to-last appearance of Chekov in-character. Walter appreciated the reference, I think. Hopefully it still makes sense now that they've filed off the serial numbers!

 

[Danlav05]

Really glad you enjoyed it, Danlav! We didn't want to make one of those fan films where we just squeezed every Star Trek veteran into the episode that we could -- we worked very hard to make sure that every character had something important to do and made sense in the episode. And then we decided not to announce several of them, to preserve the sanctity of the story.

I like to think we succeeded.

I was also very surprised to realize that Nichelle Nichols has never gotten to be the leading lady as Uhura, but it seems you're right about that! So I'm glad we finally corrected that, and gave her a fitting send-off, in what I suspect will (as you point out) be the last time she and Walter Koenig are in an episode together in-character.

Speaking of which, there's a reference to Renegades in the last scene. We knew that Walter, at least, would be appearing in that just a few months after our episode aired, and so we believed we would be the second-to-last appearance of Chekov in-character. Walter appreciated the reference, I think. Hopefully it still makes sense now that they've filed off the serial numbers!

I'm sure it does, that line made me laugh, I'm quite certain we can still imagine while watching that Koenig is Chekov, Nichols is Uhura, Beltran is Chakotay etc in all but name, from the looks and sounds of things

 

[Danlav05]

We didn't want to make one of those fan films where we just squeezed every Star Trek veteran into the episode that we could -- we worked very hard to make sure that every character had something important to do and made sense in the episode. And then we decided not to announce several of them, to preserve the sanctity of the story.

That's another strength of the episode - while there were obviously some you didn't layer it from head to toe in references and throwbacks, you just told a good adventure story involving a handful of familiar faces. It felt like a Classic Trek adventure!

 

[Wowbagger]

The audio drama Starship Excelsior has announced the release of its latest episode,Tomorrow’s Excelsior.

Half a dozen familiar Trek names are associated with the production, including two regulars from the original series, and various guest stars from the original series (including movies) and from Star Trek: Voyager.

Full story on TrekToday: http://www.trektoday.com/content/2016/09/starship-excelsior-fiftieth-anniversary-show/

Yay! I won't lie: the 10-year-old in me still thinks getting covered by TrekToday is pretty much on par with getting covered by the New York Times.