Star Trek Continues - To Boldly Go (Parts I & II)

Speaking of McCoy, am I seeing things or isn't McCoy's hair/wig in his scenes kinda reddish-looking? I always had the impression that DeForest Kelley was a brunette, but maybe being so mean to STC has finally driven me cuckoo

 

There was a two-week shoot in February to shoot episode 9, and some remaining shipboard material from 10/11.

As for the fate of the sets, it is still unknown. All remaining sets are Enterprise interiors.

 

Oh, rats. I thought that was the idea. So much for that.

 

I would be very surprised if McCoy does not have some great scenes in EP11. Got to be something that drives him out of Starfleet. After all in STTMP he was hijacked by Kirk. He did not want to be back even then.

 

One has probably been made. They are just being tight lipped as usual about it.

 

According to twitter Part II is about to preview in LA

 

I enjoyed the hell out of it, even with the continuity callbacks.

Kept having a slight sense of deja vu though -- wasn't there some perhaps Diane Duane storyline that involved Romulans being taken through the barrier to charge them up and the Enterprise working with The Romulan Commander to defeat the plot?

(That obviously wasn't the plot here, but the plot did remind me of that at first.)

 

I remember a fans comic that was based on TAS art style that had the Klingons doing something similar.

 

Issues 7 & 8 of the first DC series were about a Romulan plot to expose some Romulans to the galactic barrier and give them god-powers.

Oh, and Saavik was pon-farring for her bondmate, Xon.

 

I think I was thinking of Duane's My Enemy, My Ally, which involved the Enterprise and the niece of The Romulan Commander teaming up to rescue the Vulcan crew of the Intrepid who had been grabbed by Romulans in the hopes of using them to give Romulans mental powers. (On reflection I don't think the galactic barrier was involved, though).

But now that you mention it, I remember that DC Comic story, too.

 

That was "To Dance with the Devil" at startrekanimated.com

 

In just a few days the concluding episode will be released. Can STC pull it together and offer a satisfying ending to their story?

Spoiler: To Boldly Go pt. 2 predictions

Their goal is to effectively bridge the end of Trek's 5-year mission with TMP. I'm going to look at most of the characters and what they have set up...

Yeoman Smith: i never understood why of all minor characters Kipleigh Brown would choose Smith from Where No Man Has Gone Before...unless it was planned from the beginning by Vic Mignona that their final story would revisit the galactic barrier and Gary Mitchell's fate. I'm kind of expecting Kipleigh will also somehow get the silver eyes treatment, not yet sure if she'll stay on the side of the angels or the devils, but she'll likely die at the end.

Lt. Palmer: she'll probably die like Drake as well since her character never reappeared in the movie era.

Dr. McCoy: By the time of TMP, McCoy effectively swore off Starfleet and their technology as well, it seems. The first half of this 2-parter practically ignored him entirely, they'll have to kick it up a notch to make his exit from the series have any meaning. Here's what I think they should do/have done: seeing how enraged Bones was at the workings of the transporter in TMP's first act, he's obviously been traumatized and high technology seems to be behind it. The end of To Boldly Go pt 1 suggested a massive Wrath of Khan-like dogfight between the Enterprise and Kongo. Bones would need to be in effect "betrayed" by technology somehow...like in WoK, a massive phaser attack with explosive decompression to the decks where McCoy's sick bay is located? He tries to evacuate his entire staff, including Chapel Jr and M'Benga, but at the last second some vital systems fail and all except for McCoy die horribly, patients included.
[LEFT][SIZE=4][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]Something this personal and traumatic is the only thing I can see that would be sufficient for McCoy to be changed as much as he was in TMP.
Is this what will happen? Frankly I don't think so, but it should. And seeing how badly the director handled the action scenes in part 1 I don't expect to see anything visceral enough to make McCoy's departure convincing.

Security Chief Dickerson: he's avoided the Redshirt dance all through this series, but he ain't walking away from this one.

Dr M'Benga: it's too bad they brought back this uniquely appealing character from the series without giving him scenes as iconic as him forcefully slapping Spock back to health, but for part 2 I'm afraid he'll either die like Kelso did, or like a redshirt. Either way, he's toast.

Mr Spock: In TMP Spock is first seen undergoing the ritual to purge all emotions, implying that at some recent point prior his emotions ran amuck on him. In Part 1 they super fast-tracked the beginnings of an "emotional" connection brewing between Spock and McKennah. I don't really see how they can pull this off unless in part 2 during the first 30 minutes they at least show some sort of chemistry or attraction between the two (Spock displaying some emotion or other), but during the 3rd act something happens...either during some battle scene or my guess is that McKennah also gets the silver eyes treatment, good at first but eventually goes haywire and Spock is forced to kill her himself.
Not sure how they could pull something like that off in merely 45 minutes, but Spock really needs something massively dramatic to justify leaving everything behind as he does/did.

Dr McKennae: She's been forced since the first episode, so why shouldn't she be center stage in this one either...I don't see how anything other than death would work since there's no sign of her in the movie era. Death or like Gary Mitchell could have done, she evolves beyond the point of godhood...the former is more likely to me.

Kirk: In part 1 there's not anything resembling a personal stake that is established (In WNMHGB his longtime friendship with Mitchell is sacrificed, in The City on the Edge of Forever he allows his lover to die...), so what would be sufficient for Kirk to accept desk duty? I would guess having to sacrifice almost every member of his crew so that the ESPers could be defeated/killed/whatever would probably do it.

And finally, the ESPers: if this were TOS their story would end with a horrible death, preferably like Sylvia in Catspaw, but if By Any Other Name and a multitude of TNG episodes showed, an enemy that mercilessly kills Enterprise crewmen can at the end part ways with no reprisals. But if you want Kirk and Spock's and McCoy's exits from the Enterprise to pack any oomph, the enemy needs to do really evil things, and they must at the end pay for it.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/LEFT]

[LEFT][SIZE=4][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)][/COLOR][/SIZE][/LEFT]

Only a few days to go...

 

Spoiler

I don't see why they'd have to off him. He survives, leaves Starfleet, leaves starship duty for another Starfleet post, etc etc. Not everybody we never see again has to go boom for them to not be on the refit Enterprise.

 

Spoiler

Sure, but then why bring the character back at all? M'Benga is the Vulcan specialist, if a writer should decide to include him in a story there are only three reasons I can see:
(1) Spock is severely injured beyond McCoy's skills. In TMP it is Spock's emotions which caused him to leave the Enterprise, so having Spock wounded seems a waste of storytelling time.
(2) McCoy is either injured himself or off the ship and unavailable to treat someone else. Possibly, but if the victim isn't Kirk-Spock-McCoy or the Romulan commander perhaps, unless this specific person saves the day at the end, why show us this?
(3) He becomes a casualty himself.
Sure, M'Benga and Palmer and Dickerson could totally escape unscathed from this story. But as I've said, the ESPers need to do very evil things if this story is to have any dramatic impact at all

 

Just saw part 1. Amazing episode!!

 

Agreed. Amazing episode! Can’t wait for Part II.

 

Great speculation. TBH, I don't think they're going to land this one based on Part One. There's no theme. There's no personal Kirk-Spock-McCoy story.

 

I have to agree with both of you on this. They'd have to do a lot of work in that last episode to make the story resolution for the big three have any resonance without feeling hollow and perfunctory. This is really my biggest problem and disappointment with the way Sawyer/Mignogna plotted and wrote the finale.

 

I had to look it up to realize that speculative criticism was a thing.

 

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