Work Print of New Voyages' "Origins" Episode Released

Discussion in 'Fan Productions' started by Ryan Thomas Riddle, Jan 4, 2021.

  1. Ryan Thomas Riddle

    Ryan Thomas Riddle Vice Admiral Admiral

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    James Cawley just released on YouTube a work print of the never finished "Origins" episode, which was partly based on David Gerrold's unused TOS script, "The Protracted Man".

    Part One:



    Part Two:


    A fascinating artifact from the heyday of TOS-based fan films.

    EDIT: I just noticed I typed New Voyager in the Thread title. LOL. Mod help please, @jespah!
     
    Last edited: Jan 4, 2021
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  2. Maurice

    Maurice Snagglepussed Admiral

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    Not sure what's going on with the video. In some places it looks like 16:9 footage has been crushed into a 4:3 aspect ratio (so everyone looks tall), and then in other places the aspect ratio is right but it looks like the image is cropped off on the sides. I suspect this was shot with two different cameras and no one standardized the formats to a single consistent ratio in this rough cut.
     
  3. Therin of Andor

    Therin of Andor Admiral Moderator

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    James mentioned on Facebook that "the DVD was also incorrectly outputted to 4x3 instead of 16X9 by the editor those many years ago".
     
  4. Maurice

    Maurice Snagglepussed Admiral

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    Well, that’d do it!
     
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  5. Firebird

    Firebird Commodore Commodore

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    Nice to see this episode finally see the light of the day after all these years!

    First thing I saw - I had no idea Todd Haberkorn played Sulu in New Voyages.
     
  6. Bixby

    Bixby Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    The dude who was also a dead ringer for Finnegan in this episode, I'm pretty sure it's the same actor who played the sleazy guy trying to put the make on Marla in STC's Mirror Mirror episode.

    It was a surprise to see 2 regulars from the dying days of Farragut as Number One and the Chief Engineer. I was half-expecting B'fuselek to make a cameo at one point

    Am I missing something? when did this bit about Kirk being a legacy Starfleet officer thing start happening? It was ok for the 2009 film because I don't really consider Pine the real Kirk, but here too?
     
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  7. Maurice

    Maurice Snagglepussed Admiral

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    Years ago the late Dave Galanter (RIP) shared with a few of us drafts of some of what he'd done for New Voyages on this and other scripts (before and after). Here's how one script describes what happens to George Kirk, as per Gerrold's original 1967 Protracted Man outline:

    Screen Shot 2021-01-05 at 1.48.56 AM.png
    Dunno how close to the draft they used this was, but although this calls for CAMERA LOCKDOWN that doesn't appear to be what they shot, making the effect described a lot harder to pull off...if that's what they were going to go with.

    Frank and Gina Hernandez.

    B'fuselek would never appear in a Cawley production. Too much bad blood there.
     
    Last edited: Jan 5, 2021
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  8. Bixby

    Bixby Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I really liked Frank as the Farragut Captain's father...
    So here they play Spock as even more infuriatingly robot-like than he ever was in TOS, when he was actually portrayed as looser, more prone to emotional outbursts in the Cage.
    And what is up with portraying Kirk as insubordinate? When many episodes that have touched upon his academy days had Gary Mitchell refer to him as ''a stack of books with legs'', I would think edgier guys like Mitchell and Finnegan would have warmed up to him a lot more if Kirk had had it in him to be an occasional rule-breaker...
     
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  9. Maurice

    Maurice Snagglepussed Admiral

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    You replied while I was editing my post to include some info on the intended effects. Whoops!
     
  10. Bixby

    Bixby Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Having Kirk's father being a Starfleet officer as well (not to mention serving with Pike and Spock) makes Kirk such a lesser character,
     
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  11. UssGlenn

    UssGlenn Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Kirk's Dad being in Starfleet is a long standing notion. In 1988, the novel Final Frontier has him as Captain April's first officer (and suggesting the name Enterprise).
     
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  12. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I really appreciate getting to see this, even in an unfinished form. Cawley, Mignogna and Peters in the same film? Bizarro land.

    That said, it's not good. Pike I hated after that dressing-down of Cadet Kirk. And I don't buy the Wesley-like characterisation of young Kirk at all.

    I hope we get to see the Richard Hatch episode too one day!
     
    Last edited: Jan 5, 2021
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  13. Mytran

    Mytran Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    The first part is over crowded with fanservice but the story overall wasn't bad at all. Very glad to have seen it at long last, even in the unfinished state
     
  14. Bixby

    Bixby Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I barely remember reading this decades ago...it was a bad idea then, and still is a bad idea today.

    Having watched the complete reel last night, I won't dissect it except to say 2 things:

    This seems a common mistake by fanfilmmakers when making their projects, but in real drama an audience needs time to bond with a new character so that we can root for them if they succeed, or agonize over them when bad things happen to them.

    Dropping an unknown character into an established series and making Kirk go crazy and to expect that the viewers will want this character to emerge unscathed just because it is said that he's Kirk's father just plain isn't enough. Television/films aren't like novels, and that useless flashback at what I assume is the Kirk family Iowa farm did nothing to make Mignona anything more than a cypher at that point.

    If Trek producers had jettisoned all of the first 20-30 minutes of the Lights of Zetar episode and started right when Mira Romaine became alien-possessed, would we have sympathized at all just because she would be described as Scotty's girlfriend?

    You need to show us WHY we should care about this character.

    The other point I have is about that White hole event...all pretty special effects (really nice-looking)...yet, I couldn't have cared less about it as a source of drama and danger.

    The vampire cloud monster was nowhere near as polished, yet it chewed the scenery as a villain as if it was Jack Nicholson compared to this episode's antagonist.
     
    Last edited: Jan 5, 2021
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  15. Maurice

    Maurice Snagglepussed Admiral

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    Villain? Not all stories require a villain. I am not going to watch this (I found the bits I saw cringeworthy) but I assume it's just the TNG phenomenon of the week against which character drama is played.
     
  16. Bixby

    Bixby Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Yeahhh, pretty much...I did like that jacket Kirk has near the beginning

    I really DO love the aesthetic and partly 50s scifi look the CAGE had. I keep hoping that someday someone can completely replicate it faithfully in all aspects
     
  17. Danlav05

    Danlav05 Commodore Commodore

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    Just finished this little piece of history.

    A Rough cut but rather that than not see it ever - it's also a fascinating little insight into the production process.

    Ewald was good as young Kirk, even if he was portrayed more of a whiney brat than Pine, and there were a lot of nods to canon. It was either the calm before the storm or the storm was brewing, given some of the faces in this production. Todd was never annoucned as the new Sulu.
     
  18. Noname Given

    Noname Given Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I actually liked the 'dressing down' of Kirk by Pike. That said, I agree the character of 'Young Kirk' as written (not as played as the actor did a good job with the material he was given) seemed off. Also the age difference between Kirk and Pike seems off in that Kirk is a bit too young, especially as they're trying to hard to stick with Kirk line from "The Menagerie" of "I met him when he was promoted to Fleet Captain".

    Yeah, sorry, but I can't buy that Christopher Pike NEVER got promoted beyond the rank of Fleet Captain to a higher Admiral rank in the 12-13 years it took for Kirk to graduate the Academy and rise to the rank of Captain himself. It's an i that didn't need to be dotted/ a T that didn't need to be crossed here.

    I also assume the script author is placing all the after the events in "The Cage" - which for me seems a bit too tight; not to mention Kirk's father being part of Pike's actual crew (and just transferred AFTER "The Cage" incidents too; as you would think Kirk would have mentioned his father being part of the crew somewhere in "The Menagerie". I also really dislike all the technobabble too. IMO that was never really a thing during the TOS era and I dislike when they go that TNG route in any TOS era story.

    Plus, you're going to tell me they held Roy Kirk in the Transporter for all the time it took Kirk to be taken to the location (which is either a really short travel time OR it's amazing there's a large white hole so close to Earth... ;)
    ^^^
    I mention that because if were sticking to TOS canon/continuity - Sulu states in "Friday's Child" that a TOS Freighter's maximum speed is Warp 2. :)

    (Yeah, I know, a lot of nitpicking - still - overall I enjoyed the story.):D
     
  19. Maurice

    Maurice Snagglepussed Admiral

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    Roy Kirk = Jackson Roykirk, Nomad's mama. Ugh. Even when naming characters they can't help but make it self referential.
     
    Last edited: Jan 6, 2021
  20. GeorgeKirk

    GeorgeKirk Commodore Commodore

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    It's kind of fun to revisit the days when the franchise was frozen in styrolite and the only Star Trek being made was fan films.
     
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