Watching Fan Trek

[Joelist]

I've taken the chance to watch a good deal of fan made Trek that is on the web. Principally it has been Star Trek Continues and Star Trek Phase II/New Voyages. To be honest it is a VERY mixed bag.

Some of them have very professional looking sets and SFX while others look terrible. And this inconsistency occurs even within the same fan production. for example, the Phase II production "Blood and Fire" looks sharp and could easily pass for a TV production. Meanwhile "In Harm's Way" from the same crew looks like a video game and has terrible SFX.

The same lack of consistency extends to the casting. Both of these productions have good "Kirk" actors and bad "Spock" actors. Star Trek Continues has a better Uhura and of course a MUCH better Scotty (Chris Doohan). Also they have Grant Imahara as Sulu and he does it well.

And yes the inconsistency extends to the writing too. For Star Trek Continues, "Fairest of Them All" was pretty well written while "Divided We Stand" was nonsensical. Phase II has the same issue - "World Enough and Time" is nicely written while "Mind-Sifter" is drivel.

Despite all this, you have to admire the drive and determination these fan production crews have to put this stuff together with shoestring financing and no official studio support. I would actually like to see what these two outfits could do together and with proper financing and a good science fiction writer.

 

[Overmind One]

I've taken the chance to watch a good deal of fan made Trek that is on the web. Principally it has been Star Trek Continues and Star Trek Phase II/New Voyages. To be honest it is a VERY mixed bag.

Some of them have very professional looking sets and SFX while others look terrible. And this inconsistency occurs even within the same fan production. for example, the Phase II production "Blood and Fire" looks sharp and could easily pass for a TV production. Meanwhile "In Harm's Way" from the same crew looks like a video game and has terrible SFX.

The same lack of consistency extends to the casting. Both of these productions have good "Kirk" actors and bad "Spock" actors. Star Trek Continues has a better Uhura and of course a MUCH better Scotty (Chris Doohan). Also they have Grant Imahara as Sulu and he does it well.

And yes the inconsistency extends to the writing too. For Star Trek Continues, "Fairest of Them All" was pretty well written while "Divided We Stand" was nonsensical. Phase II has the same issue - "World Enough and Time" is nicely written while "Mind-Sifter" is drivel.

Despite all this, you have to admire the drive and determination these fan production crews have to put this stuff together with shoestring financing and no official studio support. I would actually like to see what these two outfits could do together and with proper financing and a good science fiction writer.

I have been following these two entities from their beginnings. Phase II was the first. What you are seeing is the effect of time. The earliest Phase II stuff was arguably better writing than their later stuff. The production values and writing has improved drastically at Phase II and they have been around for much much longer than Star Trek Continues. Originally, Phase II was called Star Trek: New Voyages. They got licensing from CBS, and they were the first Trek fan production to hire actual Star Trek actors from the original show.

 

[Joelist]

My comments do follow your timeline. In Harm's Way was early "New Voyages" and had the goofy glue SFX and "Mind Sifter" was late Phase II - and just awfully written.

It is interesting that while Phase II has the CBS blessing Continues has done better of late in casting (Chris Doohan and Grant Imahara). Alas both of them have awful Spock actors.

 

[Overmind One]

My comments do follow your timeline. In Harm's Way was early "New Voyages" and had the goofy glue SFX and "Mind Sifter" was late Phase II - and just awfully written.

It is interesting that while Phase II has the CBS blessing Continues has done better of late in casting (Chris Doohan and Grant Imahara). Alas both of them have awful Spock actors.

I believe Star Trek Continues started out flush with some substantial cash. They have used some of Phase II's sets, but they built their own too in their own studios, and they own those sets which were made from the actual set blueprints from the show (like Phase II did). They are a professional, well funded production. The driving goal of Star Trek Continues is to complete the Five Year Mission. They started with Season 4 Episode 1, and there are 5 episodes so far. I think they are using a 24 episode season formula, so there are a lot more to be made. But it was Star Trek Phase II which had actual ongoing consultation with Roddenberry's son, and had original actors from the show involved. I have seen a couple of actors from various Trek series on Star Trek Continues.

The biggest giveaway as to which production is funded is that Star Trek Continues does not ask for donations. Star Trek Phase II asks for donations and they have fundraisers. As to which one is better, that is a personal choice! I personally like the cast of ST Continues best. They have Doohan who is spot on for Scotty. They have the best Uhura, the best Kirk (by far...this guy could do it for real in the movies!) and the best writing and effects IMO. Neither of the two series has a suitable Spock.

 

[Joelist]

One thing to remember is that the Phase II/New Voyages crew is also responsible for perpetrating "Of Gods and Men" and also "Star Trek Renegades". Both of these are wretched.

Star Trek Axanar on the other hand appears not to be affiliated with either of these groups. It seems to be a team gathered specifically to make the film and where it has past professional ties to Trek they actually seem to be to Voyager (based on the website bios of the Production Team). The cast of course is a group of established Science fiction/drama actors.

 

[Overmind One]

One thing to remember is that the Phase II/New Voyages crew is also responsible for perpetrating "Of Gods and Men" and also "Star Trek Renegades". Both of these are wretched.

Star Trek Axanar on the other hand appears not to be affiliated with either of these groups. It seems to be a team gathered specifically to make the film and where it has past professional ties to Trek they actually seem to be to Voyager (based on the website bios of the Production Team). The cast of course is a group of established Science fiction/drama actors.

Yep, Phase II was never on it's game as far as production goes. They would have an irregular release schedule, and it seems to me that they did not organize things well (from the discussions on their first website). It was truly a fan made project. It was really ambition and unique at the time. But Star Trek Continues came on the scene with polish from the start. It was obvious that they had created a production schedule and were organized in a professional fashion. Also, it was immediately evident that they had their own money. I didnt hate of Gods and Men THAT much. Perhaps nostalgia, maybe respecting the effort put into it, maybe remembering it is a fan made labor of love, I gave it a pass. I hated Renegades though.

 

[Joelist]

I guess the reason "Of Gods and Men" rubbed me wrong was the combination of poor acting, muddled plot and horrible SFX made me feel even a low funded fan production could do better. Hopefully Phase II gets its act together better and both it and Continues recast their Spocks

 

[Overmind One]

I guess the reason "Of Gods and Men" rubbed me wrong was the combination of poor acting, muddled plot and horrible SFX made me feel even a low funded fan production could do better. Hopefully Phase II gets its act together better and both it and Continues recast their Spocks

I liked the fact that so many Trek actors participated in it. Neelix out of costume, Captain Uhura, Captain Chekhov, Tuvok, and several cast extras I recognized from Voyager and TOS. I think it is awesome that we know that Uhura does marry a Vulcan and has children. Considering it did not have that much money, it was not that bad. BTW, it was a Tim Russ production only using Phase II's sets, it was not produced by Phase II. It seems that the folks at Phase II have the relationship with the Trek people and Roddenberry as opposed to the better funded and better produced Star Trek Continues.

I give a pass to fan productions like this only because I have seen way way WAY worse:

 

[Overmind One]

I remember having a book of short stories about Star Trek nearly thirty years ago and it had a story called Mind Sifter which was the exact same set up as the fan made episode Mind Sifter.

Does anyone know if that episode is an adaptation of that short story? I believe it was in Star Trek New Voyages ( the book ).

Good question, I don't know. I was not aware of that book!