I've been reading the various reactions, and comparing them to my own, and I think I've finally come to a realization. I thoroughly enjoyed this episode, as I have most NV/PII episodes, despite recognizing a number of flaws. In fact, I enjoyed it more than STC's most recent outing, "Divided We Stand." It didn't look as polished, but I found myself more willing to overlook its flaws. What I think does it for me is that on the whole, I'm more interested in the kind of stories NV/PII does than the majority of STC's offerings. One result of that is that it makes the failure mode much more forgiving. It's one of the things that had me interested in Axanar: I find the failure mode of pew-pew-pew to be less annoying (and more entertaining) than the failure mode of "I'm not worthy of command." I'm looking forward to both STC's episode 6, and NV/PII's "Torment of Destiny," but right now it's still NV/PII that has more of my interest. It's not just that they provide more information about upcoming episodes, but that their episodes try to answer questions I already had. (This is one reason "Fairest of Them All" is my favorite STC episode; I was already interested in the story.)
Yes. We learn little about the character of TWOK's Carol Marcus that we didn't already know. What's stated of her motivation to improve terraforming, namely saving lives, was already more or less sketched out in the project proposal that Kirk, Spock, and McCoy watch in TWOK. We already knew that she's going to dedicate her life to developing Project Genesis and that she's going to choose to keep David in her own world instead of allowing him to be in Kirk's. Whether they went down the road I suggested upthread or not, to depict someone whose ambitions compromised her ethics, providing some insight into what it was that drove Carol as a person to make these choices would have been a definite improvement. edited to add: Sure, we got a sort of one-liner about it being the mother in her that drove her to create worlds, but I found that too pat.
I hope Brian Gross grows into his role because right now I'm not feeling it. As others have mentioned, he just doesn't have that commanding presence which defines Kirk. There was also a definite lack of chemistry between Kirk and Spock. I didn't sense a friendship there at all.
^ I don't think he'll grow into the role. It just doesn't fit. NV is frustrating. They have some good elements and it looks great, but they're plagued by horrid acting (even when taking into account it's a fan-film) and just bad dialogue at times. And while I liked Spock in "Mind Sifter" (he was probably the only good thing about that episode), he seemed off here. I'll watch it again but I don't think my opinion will change. Two duds on the spin now for NV. But the trailer for the next episode looks really interesting.
One thing this story does that I don't think any other fan-film has done is portray a romantic affair complete with some make-out action and a little skin. I've got to give it props for that. I thought it was a little silly that Kirk would take a video call with an Admiral with his shirt off. I was waiting for the Admiral to say "and Jim, next time...put your shirt on." Brandon Stacy's Spock is far too emotional for my taste. I guess he's evoking some nu-Trek Spockisms but I just don't care for it. Stylistically, Continues wants to be more of a true TOS time-capsule and NV/PII wants to be more of a mashup of old and new and insertion of post-TOS continuity. The rack-zoom CGI shot is one of several that stylistically you'd never have seen in the 60s even with an unlimited budget. It was a creative decision that just wouldn't have been made back then. And yet they use all the stock TOS music cues, etc... It's kind of hard to get an established sense of place in the universe with these things clashing like that. BTW, Jacy King looks a lot like Majel Barrett. She really should come back as Nurse Chapel!
Oh yeah...I cringed at that scene with him talking to the admiral shirtless. Reminds me of "It's a Starfleet secret!" in Mind Sifter...it was bad and Kirk wouldn't do that.
Did you block from your memory the endless bedroom scene from "Blood and Fire, Part 1" with shirtless Peter Kirk?
The shirtless Kirk didn't bother me as much as what was the point of the admiral's call. To add a ticking clock to the episode? But then we don't pick up on the brass pressuring Kirk to finish the investigation. It bugs me that both NV and CONTINUES use the "phone an admiral" fan film trope a bit too much. It adds nothing to the story. I also hated them when they used it on TNG. The Enterprise is supposed to be farther out than any vessel, yet they keep taking collect calls from Starfleet. Both shows miss the mark when truly capturing the original. That being said CONTINUES gets close to the aesthetic, even though they've added a few anachronisms from TNG. NEW VOYAGES seems to eat its cake and have it too. It wants to beholden to some of the aesthetic of the original but with fancier effects, and stories that seem more like 90s-00s Trek than anything from the original. It's almost as if NEW VOYAGES is what Berman would've produced had he been tasked with doing a continuation of the original but recasting it.
Starship Exeter tried really hard to replicate the TOS look and feel, pacing and whatnot. We took great pains to not do things too far removed from what could and would have been done in 1969. Whether we succeeded is another matter.
As an old time TOS fan (saw my first episode on NBC in 1969 at age 6); I have to say that for myself, "Starship Exeter: The Tasaurian Intersection" did the best job to date of recapturing the 'TOS era' feel (and without using established characters beyond Garrovick) then any current or previous fan film. What detracts from a lot of NV and Continues outings is the want to always touchstone to something in every episode. I thought one of the main points of Star Trek was to go where no man has gone before, but for a lot of fan films it seems it's more often - to revisit and introduce continuity porn in an effort to really tie ourselves to Star Trek lore - and I find that disappointing. YMMV.
I think each fanfilm group makes the show they want to see. All proclamations and mission statements aside, the proof is in the product. New Voyages has fairly consistently been a connect-the-dots and full-in-the-blanks show, and clearly its makers like that and they have an audience that enjoys all those callbacks and connections. STC does some of this as well, albeit with short of half as many episodes it remains to be seen how similar or dissimilar to NV it ends up being in this regard. If that's what they want to make and that's what some people enjoy, that's fine. It's just not everyone's cup of tea.
I'm starting to think it might be the directing. If you search for Brian's reel on YouTube you'll see a very Kirk-like guy in a lot of shows. IIRC an NCIS episode was tops on my list of shouting "holy crap, this guy IS Kirk!". So, personally, I know he's got it in him. If an actor has a character in him and it doesn't come across on the screen, it's the directing or writing that's probably at fault.
First off thank you New Voyages, for continuing to do the work that you do, I appreciate it a lot. I do agree that connecting the dots and taking care of loose threads is something fans might want, but I do not think it is what we need. The parts with old Scotty were nice, but not needed, unless this was a pilot of sorts for Scotty series. I liked it but the only part of story that really didn't sit right was here Carol looses her friends and life's work and she gets all giddy for Kirk, I mean she is in so much shock she hooks up with Jim ASAP?...Maybe that is why she dumps him at the end, hey Jim, I was in a dark place and needed some lovin' so long and thanks for fun. I realize that ENT broke the continuity and introduced Frengi, after TNG set up this great new mysterious race, but I feel that many of the paid writers on ST never cared about TOS continuity (or continuity in general), but just wanted a check from Paramount. Ironic how I can excuse cannon for breaking their own rules, but nitpick a fan project. I am curious if NV is setting Spock up for leaving Star Fleet to pursue the Kholinar, his all but mumbling how Kirk would love to discuss [Techno babel] while almost rolling his eyes, his emotional Spock worked well in Mind sifter, because of the strain of his BFF getting ripped from the time space continuum. If this is the case, I find this water dropping a possible future plot too modern a concept, but something next gen-ish. TOS was episodic let it stand alone. For me it finally hit me why fan films don't quite feel right and it's the body language and tempo, they do not feel period, ( in DS9's Tribble episode the crew in the back just meander in the corridors, with 1990's posture) I get the same vibe from NV, C and Farragut. On that note I like the new Kirk, but he is not John Wayne enough for me yet, I hope he grows into the role. Carrol Marcus, her delivery was just too modern, I mean compare Chekhov and Sulu in Amok Time, compared to the Sulu and Walking Bear rolling their eyes to Kirk getting told off. Tech Question, was the blue outfit a uniform ? if not she wore the same same outfit a lot which I found odd, and if it was why didn't her team mates have the same kind of clothes. Also the last scene with Kirk and Carrol, was that green screened?, the lighting was odd and Kirk's hair looked different.
True enough. After all, they should make the show they want to see. It's like what they say, "write the book you want to read."
That last scene was downright weird even without the proposal, the ring that was oh-so-conveniently handy, and the insta-pregnancy and discovering the sex of the fetus. The Kirk of that scene looked 10 years younger than the Kirk of all the other scenes, and it made Carol look noticeably older than him.
Kirk looked like he had just done something to his hair in order to better impress Carol with his marriage proposal.