The New Voyages

I'm actually proud to be a geek.

No really. I see nothing to be ashamed of in being completely entertained by Sci-Fi, Star Trek, Star Wars, Comics, Cartoons, Dungeons & Dragons, and so forth. No, I don't walk about with a sword and a cape. No, I don't greet people with, "May the Force be with you." And, No, I practice good hygiene. But I have played D&D (hell, I was a tresurer in my high schools D&D club long ago!), and I do play online games, so I can say this with all ernestness...

As a sidebar, here's something of a golden rule I've noticed: It seems that a comic book stores quantity of merchandise is in direct relation to the pungency and lack of human hygiene. I used to co-own a comic shop before, I know this is a rule and not a guess. Go into any large mall based comic/gaming store, you'll see what I mean.

In the opening, it's well lit. There are casual shoppers and the usual mall goers. There are women of average disposition and counter people of normal weight. Now start to go deeper in the abyss. The room gets darker. Shelves get replaced with carboard long boxes on card tables. You'll start to see no one of the fairer sex and the shoppers are now wearing dirty jeans and baseball caps. The backpacks are getting bigger and the voices more shrill.

Finally in the back of the store, the smell of BO rises so much, your eyes start to water. Someone is caring a staff with a jewel on top and a hat with a logo like "I'd rather be fighting a level 50 Chromatic Dragon". You'll see in a dark lit corner a case full of magic cards and a few guys with armor class 2 acne, an aura of sweat pungency, a person as tall as he is wide wearing a cloak, all arguing on "mana" use. Test me out, and know the truth.

But back to what I'm here about. Back in the 60's there was Star trek the Original Series. There's was a five year mission, but the show only lasted 3 seasons. A group of uber fans got together and corrected this historical oversite: They are making the final two years themselves!

Now, most fan films show such bad acting, writing, and 100% amaturish and egotistical effort. Not the people who make Star Trek: The New Voyages. These people not only spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of ther own monet rebuilding the sets from scratch to a exact replica, but also getting the original writers and some of the original actors involved for free! Even Gene Roddenberry's son is an exectutive producer, and the million dollars worth of special effects are done volentarily from the SFX guys on the current Star Trek shows, not gratis! It seems the only people not involved is Paramount Pictures. But part of all? It's all free baby! Every quality one hour episode is free to download. (mainly because if they were to sell it, the Paramount lawyers would sue faster that a tyberian bloodbat...to geeky?)

The actors who portray Captian Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy and others chose the right note. They are not imitating the original actors, but do the part as if the roles were recast. What Batman would you play? The Adam West? Michael keaton? George Clooney? Or, Christian Bale? Quite frankly, they handle themselves all quite well. The episodes (about one a year, hey, it's all work without pay!), are on par if not better than the orginal series. the special effects are astounding on a free budget, and much better than most on TV! And just a note, the sets were so good, Star Trek: Enterprise borrowed the pieces for their "In a Mirror, Darkly" episode.

In the future, not only is the orginal series "Troubles with Tribbles" writer, David Gerrold writing two episodes, including a sequal to the Tribbles he originaly envisionsed for the original series, but the original Checkov, Sulu, and Janice Rand are on board. (Don't worry if you don't know who they are, you will.)

So, All you Trek fans out there, or even anyone who remembers the original series, I emplore you to check these guys out. Download the episode "In Harms Way", sit back with some popcorn, and wonder why TV isn't like this nowadays.

(i'd post a pic here, but my blogger is having problems...go to the site)

Star Trek: The New Voyages
The episodes and "In Harms Way"