The audio drama Starship Excelsior did it in 2009. We pulled it off, in the sense that we got it done and released it. It's still available at the website or Spotify or...wherever...
Well, I haven't been on these boards in many years (what'd I miss? lol) but I feel the need to correct this speculation for professional reasons.
Kipleigh and I ended our relationship many years prior to STC. We saw no reason not to work together, though, because we always got along well as artists. Kipleigh and Vic both appeared in a short film I directed when STC was beginning. Vic asked me to come onto STC for episode 3 ("Fairest"). Kipleigh contacted Vic to let him know she'd like to be a part of it as well, because the first two episodes had turned out nicely. Vic asked my opinion, and I said, "Sure, why not."
My original script for "Fairest" did not name the conn officer in question; it was only after Vic and Kipleigh had come to an agreement for her to appear in that role that I thought "Huh, she looks kinda like Andrea Dromm; that'd be a funny little in-joke if we said this was 'Smith' in the Mirror Universe!" And so we did. It was never intended to go beyond that.
When Chris White turned in the first draft of his script for episode 4, it became apparent that we'd need another conn officer in it as well. UPM (later co-producer) Kasey Shafsky suggested we bring "Smith" back — this time her Prime Universe counterpart — and we saw no reason not to. And that was that.
The WNMHGB connection was thought up by the finale's writer, sci-fi novelist Robert J. Sawyer. It had not been pre-planned.
The episode of NV with Natira was never actually released though, was it?
Unless I’m thinking of something else, wasn’t it eventually, just without completed effects? The one with Richard Hatch?
Apparently, it was released many years later, just a couple of years ago, and I completely missed it. I thought they were done a decade ago, and have not kept up with the fanfilm community since everything was gutted. I had no idea! Well I have a new episode to watch, thats pretty cool....
Thanks.
Anyways, on catching up with this thread, I did have one comment on the controversial "Embracing the Winds." Not trying to start any political conversations, by the way. But, considering the timing of its release, I always had the impression that it was a commentary on US politics and a female President, in particular, Hillary Clinton - the idea that yes, we might be ready for a woman, and there is nothing wrong with that, but its not you, and not now, and you are untrustworthy, and have made mistakes in your past, so move on, it doesn't matter how much you want it, you shoudln't get it. I may be projecting, but I was very into the political conversations of the time period, and given Trek has always done commentary and metaphors for real life ideals, that is how I always took it. I could be completely wrong, and YMMV - just thought i'd throw that into the discussion.
Huh, that always read as more of a deep friendship to me. Almost siblings.
Wow, then I'd say it's remarkable how well it worked out in the finale. I had not remembered Smith holding Mitchell's hand, so this connection hit me like a ton of bricks (in the good way). I had that "Surely this can't be true??" feeling, followed by the realization that "No, this is not a trick. Wow."
Thanks for the background!
Been trying to watch STAR TREK CONTINUES after hearing so much adoration… it’s just not working for me. The guy they got for Kirk seems way too old for the part and his face reminds me too much of Jack Lord. He’s veering a little to close to Shatnerisms rather than just trying to give his own interpretation of the character that feels true to Kirk.The guys playing Bones and Scotty don’t really have a good a sense of timing, especially Bones. They seem to have a decent Spock at least. But right off the bat they bring in Apollo and I worry this is just going to be a series of follow up episodes. I assume that’s not the case, but this whole premise doesn’t feel like a good jumping off point for a new series.
It was his project, so he cast himself as Kirk. His then girlfriend plays McKennah. Not saying I disagree with you. but he's the reason it exists at all so he wasn't actually "cast."
Chris Doohan playing Scotty and most fans love him in the role I think he's one-note. The same intensity, same rushed line, same 3rd season "Panic Scotty." To be fair, none of the fan films ever got Scotty right and Chris gets it closest mostly because he's just playing his dad.
I got bad news for ya....this series has its share of sequels.
It scratched an itch at the time, and I've spoken to more than one fan who considers it the 4th season. I just think it's a nice series of fan productions, but nothing I ever need to see again now.
Chris got the most to do in the first episode, but beyond that, he largely got put into the background. I did like him in command in Embrace the Winds. The scenes with Chekov worked nicely.
There is a lot to like in STC, but in fairness there is room for criticism. A lot of fans liked it because it was akin to polished fanfic where the creators go back to materiel the original had already covered well enough. There was a lot of potential with STC and sometimes they hit the mark or at least got close to it, but too often I felt they could have done better.
Welp… so much for that.
Yeah that about sums it. At first it seems like a decent impression but then it’s always the same style throughout. Pity, because Scotty had many facets to him in TOS beyond just the impressions pop culture generally gravitates to. It’s the same issue with Bones. I didn’t initially like Karl Urban’s take because it felt like he was always in the same cranky mode, when in TOS he can be a real softie. BEYOND finally fixed that by giving him more to do than just be a crank.
Welp!
My expectations might have been dialed a lot higher because I see many point to this one more than any other fan production as being so good that it should be made canon. Glowing remarks in terms of production techniques trying to emulate the style of the original show in terms of how the camera and lighting are used. But like most fan productions, there’s always that uncanny valley effect. Maybe it’s the fact that the way dialogue is recorded sounds too modern and clean, while TOS dialogue sounded like it was recorded in a tin. A lot of effort to make the show look and sound like TOS, except in recording dialogue. One show I really enjoyed was DANGER 5 where the filmmakers emulated the 60s style production right down to the dialogue almost sounding dubbed over. I don’t know if that would help the aesthetic CONTINUES was going for because DANGER 5 is more of a loving parody.
There’s so many aspects about trying to recreate TOS that make it tricky. I always thought it would be interesting to attempt filming on the old TOS Enterprise set but with modern sensibilities allowed to come through rather than trying to strictly emulate what filmmakers did in the 60s. Sort of like what a show like ANDOR does which replicates the aesthetics of the original STAR WARS but there’s no attempting to emulate the exact filmmaking style. The closest I guess we come to that is “In a Mirror, Darkly”. Not that I want to see more of that specifically, but it’s the closest example I could think of a professional production using old sets as a backdrop but still filming as if it’s 2005.
With fan films, the bar is set very low. In that context, STC delivers and is worth the time. The majority of fan films aren't this good. Naturally, it's not immune to criticism, and it's far from perfect.
Agreed and as a fan film series, it's pretty high up.
But...
That is totally real from a lot of fans and extremely ridiculous. It's not nearly on that level.
It’s reputation was given a boost by Rod Roddenberry appearing in the series and making public remarks of it being good enough to be considered canon. But, as has been said upthread, the current state of the franchise, then as now, was in a sorry state and many fans were looking for something they could, something that reminded them of the good ol’ days.
Science fiction writer Robert Sawyer as wrote for STC, particularly the two-part finale I believe, and this also tended to give the production a sort of stamp of legitimacy.
My biggest gripes with the show are when it violated the stated desire of authenticity: was it something that we could have seen in TOS? Thats walking a fine line because if you start injecting all sorts of things that didn’t even exist back in the day then, No, you’re breaking that sense of authenticity. This happened right off the bat with the inclusion of Elise McKennah as ship’s counsellor. I have no criticism of the actress’ performance, but a ship’s counsellor was way out of place in the TOS. She doesn’t didn’t belong. And as the series progressed she effectively sidelined McCoy.
Far too often STC felt more like they were writing TNG era stories but set in the TOS universe.
Science fiction writer Robert Sawyer as wrote for STC, particularly the two-part finale I believe, and this also tended to give the production a sort of stamp of legitimacy.
My biggest gripes with the show are when it violated the stated desire of authenticity: was it something that we could have seen in TOS? Thats walking a fine line because if you start injecting all sorts of things that didn’t even exist back in the day then, No, you’re breaking that sense of authenticity. This happened right off the bat with the inclusion of Elise McKennah as ship’s counsellor. I have no criticism of the actress’ performance, but a ship’s counsellor was way out of place in the TOS. She doesn’t didn’t belong. And as the series progressed she effectively sidelined McCoy.
Far too often STC felt more like they were writing TNG era stories but set in the TOS universe.
I don’t mind the idea of a ship’s counselor on board Kirk’s ship. In fact, I had always assumed there was one on board already and we simply never saw those sessions. I do get that nobody in the 60s would have likely written such a part because a big thing about the Silent and Boomer generations was bottle their feelings, keeping a stiff upper lip BS.
What I didn’t like in STC was the idea that she’s the first ship’s counselor, which means it took Starfleet a century to get the idea that maybe it would benefit having a therapist on board a ship with officers who deal with the rigors of deep space exploration. Of course the show is really just trying to play it all cute with “teehee, Kirk pioneered it”, but it makes Starfleet look dumb in the grand scheme of things.
What I didn’t like in STC was the idea that she’s the first ship’s counselor, which means it took Starfleet a century to get the idea that maybe it would benefit having a therapist on board a ship with officers who deal with the rigors of deep space exploration. Of course the show is really just trying to play it all cute with “teehee, Kirk pioneered it”, but it makes Starfleet look dumb in the grand scheme of things.
First one who was solely a counselor, perhaps? Before that, many crewmembers were cross-trained in different duties due to staff shortages and emergency contingencies - if you're exploring unknown space, you can't necessarily pick up a replacement specialist whenever you're in need of one. Would explain uniform color changes for extras, too. Practical and logical.
Helen Noel could have easily been one of the ship counsellors on TOS, just except they never dwelled on it.
To be fair, lots of things make Starfleet look dumb.
- no seatbelts
- no door locks
- an Auxiliary Control that apparently anyone can walk into
- turbolifts with inside diameters insufficient to hold a medical gurney
- lack of a two-person emergency transporter directly adjacent to sickbay
- no transporter system redundancy (when one is down, they all are)
- hangar deck warning systems that take longer to notify anyone than the time it takes to pressurize the deck, board a shuttlecraft, power it up, depressurize, open the clamshell, and launch the craft
- exposed circuitry drawers in the corridors
- only one turbolift to the bridge (and no backup stairs for when somebody/something jams the doors)
- no emergency oxygen masks on the bridge
- conducting M5's first field test by putting five manned starships at risk
- subcutaneous transponders not standard issue for every landing party going into unknown situations
- or how about at least a tiny "beam me up now" fob hidden in your boot?
- and on and on
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