"Star Trek: New Voyages REVIEW" by Troy H. Cheek on Oct 11, 2004

To go along with my review from last week, I'd like to take a look this week at another fan-produced STAR TREK internet video series. Next week I hope to review a third, which is the only other one I know about right now. I'm sure I'll find another soon enough. These things sprout up like weeds.

Star Trek: New Voyages is set a short time after The Original Series (TOS) went off the air. It proports to be the continuing adventures of the Starship Enterprise NCC1701 - no bloody A, B, C, D, or E. As of the time of this writing, only two episodes have been released, so the adventrues haven't continued very far. Hey, they're working on it.

Unlike every other STAR TREK internet video series I've heard of, New Voyages doesn't waste any time setting the story in a distant sector or another starship or bringing in new characters. This is the Enterprise in the time and place we know, crewed by mostly familiar names with almost familiar faces.

Yes, just as any number of actors have portrayed William Shakespeare's Hamlet, the producers of New Voyages feel any number of actors can portray Gene Roddenberry's Kirk. And Spock. And McCoy. And Scotty and Uhura and Rand and Chapel and Kyle and Chekov and Sulu...

Well, actually, there's no Sulu yet. This is supposed to be an important plot point somewhere later down the line. Some of the characters from the first episode didn't appear in the second, but then again the nature of the episode was such that this was understandable. I can see how clumsy reviewing New Voyages is going to be without giving away important plot points, so stand by for...

Massive Spoiler Warning!!!

The first episode of New Voyages is "Come What May." It has been said by better critics than I that the standard Roddenberry plot is that the Enterprise meets God, then finds out that He is a child or a computer, or both. In "Come What May" the Enterprise finds YAGLA (Yet Another God-Like Alien). Or, more accurately, a pair of them. Or perhaps two aspects of the same being. One carries on like a Q or Trelane type while the other is a mysterious mini Organian sort of light ball.

The crew tries to deal with these creatures, the former messing with their minds and the latter messing with the very fabric of time itself. Which sounds a lot cooler than it actually comes across on the scene. After a half hour of stumbling around, repeating old information, and referring back to earlier dialog which was apparently edited out, Kirk finally resolves the problem by allowing the aliens to go about their business. As if he could have stopped them anyway.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed this first episode. The costumes were great. The miniatures, space shots, and effects were at least as good as the ones found in the official TOS episodes. The interior sets were lovingly and painstakingly recreated. The actors at least resemble the characters they were intended to play and certainly put a lot of effort into their work.

The film editing, however, appeared to have been done by Cuisinart. I kept losing track of what was going on, who was supposed to be saying what to whom, and why certain events were unfolding. As I mentioned before, it seemed several times that information was presented as if it were news, while other times the characters seemed to refer or react to information as if it had aleady been fully explained.

One highlight: Eddie Paskey guest stars as Admiral Leslie. Paskey appeared in pretty much every official TOS episode as Mr. Leslie, usually as a security redshirt but occasionally he manned the helm.

But that aside, two thumbs down for "Come What May" and don't bother trying to download it from anywhere. It's not worth the effort.

The second episode is "In Harm's Way." If not for recognizing the same actors, costumes, sets, and special effects, I wouldn't think that these two episodes were related. "In Harm's Way" is just that good. I've seen professionally produced science fiction movies and television series that aren't this good.

The story opens with the USS Enterprise under the command of Captain... Pike? Which is very confusing, but the confusion doesn't last long as the Enterprise is... Destroyed within minutes?

High power stuff. And that's just the teaser.

In the first act, though, things settle down. There's Captain Kirk, and he's talking to Spock on the viewscreen. Other crewmen are recognized. Ayep, everything is back to normal. Kirk asks his science officer a question, and the Klingon(!) answers. Kirk orders his USS Farragut(!) to respond to Spock's plea for assistance.

When they arrive at the planet Gateway, home of the Guardian of Forever, Spock and the scientists there explain the problem. Doomsday Machines are destroying the Federation, but they shouldn't exist. Apparently, something has altered the timestream. Kirk and crew must go back in time and discover the problem.

As is usually the case when a sci-fi show set in the future has to do some time travelling, they come back to the present. Or, in this case, the near-present of 2006, where they meet the lovely Veronica, played by TOS guest star Barbara Luna, and who keeps a shuttlecraft in her garage. She also has a taped message from TOS guest star William Windom reprising his role as a Commodore Matthew Decker who landed on Earth back in 1966. Commodore Decker's last report, along with sensor data recorded by his shuttlecraft, provide vital clues to the mystery.

In this altered reality, instead of actually destroying the Doomsday Machine, Kirk and the Farragut actually sent it back in time, fracturing the timeline. The Doomsday Machine destroyed several planets, manufactured more Doomsday Machines, and began what is now know as the Doomsday Wars. Now it's up to Kirk to go back in time and stop this from happening.

And that's only in the first two acts.

All the good things I saw in the first episode are still present in the 2nd. Editing is much, much, much better now.

Two thumbs up. Track this episode down and save it to your harddrive immediately.

Check out Star Trek: New Voyages and, as always, tell them I sent you.

Next week, Captain John Garrovick and the USS Exeter!

Update November 30, 2004: Just wanted to mention that I'd received an email from someone who claims to be affiliated with Star Trek New Voyages. This person liked my review above and admitted that they are aware that the first episode was not the best it could be and worked hard to correct the things they could going into the second episode. Also, they will start work on the third episode in Spring of 2005. I look forward to reviewing it. -Troy

Update May 06, 2007: It was just brought to my attention that the New Voyages website no longer has "Come What May" listed for download, and lists "In Harm's Way" as the first episode. It was suggested to me that "Come What May" was more of a pilot episode than the actual first episode and that I might have been a little unfair by reviewing it as a real episode. I response is that I remember it as being presented as the first episode back then, so that's the way I reviewed it, and if the production crew has since decided that it was more of a pilot, well, that doesn't change the fact that it was being presented as the first episode back when it was first released.

Copyright 2007 by Troy H. Cheek. Reprint with prior written permission only. Comments and questions to $mail:theview$