This is Star Trek!
After watching the disappointing Into Darkness mishmash, my Star Trek love is rekindled thanks to these excellent fanmade episodes based on The Original Series.
This is the first episode in a fanmade series called Star Trek Continues. The actors in this series act remarkably similar to the original actors in the original series, and they do a pretty good job of it! It maintains a conscientious devotion to replicating the feel of the original series. This is especially, and unfortunately, notable in the way that women's roles are written. Still, it's a good effort, enjoyable, and, unlike with Abram's latest Trek, you may learn something if you're not careful.
Another great fanmade series is Star Trek New Voyages. Unlike Star Trek Continues, New Voyages doesn't imitate every aspect of the TOS production, but overall, I think, remains truer to the spirit by increasing both the diversity of the cast and the complexity of secondary characters.
If I remember right, this episode, written by D.C. Fontana even, is the first thing I ever downloaded on bittorrent, and it's nice to see it streaming now. Walter Koenig guest stars.
Speaking of special guest stars in New Voyages, you'll be a sad sad Trek fan if you miss out on this episode with guests George Takei and Grace Lee Whitney.
Both Star Trek Continues and New Voyages succeed where Into Darkness fails. Perhaps because they, like TOS itself, have to operate with very restricted budgets, they put their energies into developing a coherent, unified story. There is nothing wrong with the tried and true 3-part dramatic device, and a lot wrong with unfocused story-telling that doesn't seem to know what tale is being told, or when to end it.
As with Into Darkness, these 3 fanvids bring back earlier characters. However, they do it in the same spirit as Wrath of Khan, drawing on and furthering established character development. Into Darkness, on the other hand, pulled up the character and promptly jettisoned any trace of humanity, turning Khan from someone innately human though morally (and later, psychiatrically) flawed, into someone who was bred to be an unredeemable 2 dimensional maniac.
It's TOS's embrace of the human and the recognition of it in others that flourishes in the fanvids. Thus, both of these fan efforts affirm the optimism of TOS, the belief that humanity will better itself. Funny how it is the fanvids that embraces the beautiful view of the future, while the commercial product comes off like a grimdark teenage fantasy of action without purpose.
What other fanmade Star Trek videos do you know of? How do they stack up against these offerings, and against various iterations of the official franchise?
Click to viewThis is the first episode in a fanmade series called Star Trek Continues. The actors in this series act remarkably similar to the original actors in the original series, and they do a pretty good job of it! It maintains a conscientious devotion to replicating the feel of the original series. This is especially, and unfortunately, notable in the way that women's roles are written. Still, it's a good effort, enjoyable, and, unlike with Abram's latest Trek, you may learn something if you're not careful.
Another great fanmade series is Star Trek New Voyages. Unlike Star Trek Continues, New Voyages doesn't imitate every aspect of the TOS production, but overall, I think, remains truer to the spirit by increasing both the diversity of the cast and the complexity of secondary characters.
If I remember right, this episode, written by D.C. Fontana even, is the first thing I ever downloaded on bittorrent, and it's nice to see it streaming now. Walter Koenig guest stars.
Speaking of special guest stars in New Voyages, you'll be a sad sad Trek fan if you miss out on this episode with guests George Takei and Grace Lee Whitney.
Both Star Trek Continues and New Voyages succeed where Into Darkness fails. Perhaps because they, like TOS itself, have to operate with very restricted budgets, they put their energies into developing a coherent, unified story. There is nothing wrong with the tried and true 3-part dramatic device, and a lot wrong with unfocused story-telling that doesn't seem to know what tale is being told, or when to end it.
As with Into Darkness, these 3 fanvids bring back earlier characters. However, they do it in the same spirit as Wrath of Khan, drawing on and furthering established character development. Into Darkness, on the other hand, pulled up the character and promptly jettisoned any trace of humanity, turning Khan from someone innately human though morally (and later, psychiatrically) flawed, into someone who was bred to be an unredeemable 2 dimensional maniac.
It's TOS's embrace of the human and the recognition of it in others that flourishes in the fanvids. Thus, both of these fan efforts affirm the optimism of TOS, the belief that humanity will better itself. Funny how it is the fanvids that embraces the beautiful view of the future, while the commercial product comes off like a grimdark teenage fantasy of action without purpose.
What other fanmade Star Trek videos do you know of? How do they stack up against these offerings, and against various iterations of the official franchise?