Where would we as a society of nerds be without Star Trek? In a better place? I doubt it. With the perceived failure of Enterprise, some long-time fans of the original Star Trek have decided to keep the Star Trek universe alive. Using a completely fan-built recreation of the original series’ bridge and other sets, a small group of amateur actors and actresses, assisted by various professionals who worked in special effects, writing, costumes and set design on various Star Trek incarnations, are picking up where Kirk, Spock, Scotty and the crew left off. With a goal of making 22 non-profit episodes (a full season), the current episodes are free to download and watch. Professional productions they aren’t, but you can see these fans are putting their hearts into the series and trying to make their mark on the great history of Star Trek.
Delicious this
11:55 am CEST on October 26th, 2006
I’ve just watch my first episide of new voyages and I must say if you called it enterprize I would watch it every friday. The acting is by no mean the greatest but if you take a look it’s no different from the acting of the original series. I guess thats what makes it so intresting.
7:13 pm CET on January 31st, 2007
check out Leonard Nimoy’s interview on fatfreefilm.com…FANTASTIC!
5:49 pm CET on March 18th, 2007
Having watched the first two parts of episode 1 of new voyages, i decided not to continue watching. to me this looks like a high-school production, with tacky editing, rubbish special effects and a laughable attempt to copy the origional series. everyone knows that Spock cannot be played by anyone but Leonard Nimoy without it looking extremely stupid. i also noticed a slight hint of Stargate SG-1, with a circular “gate-way” through which people travel. if this was the quality of the next star trek to come to television, i will certainly not be watching. this is no-where near the standard of series such as “Star Trek - Voyager” (my personal favourite). im extremely dissapointed.
8:02 pm CEST on April 2nd, 2007
Scholarly commentary Chuckie. Go watch Voyager.
2:05 am CEST on April 5th, 2007
Chuckie44: Oh how I love when the ignorant speak. The ‘gateway’ you speak of is the guardian of forever. Something that appeared in the original series in the episode “City on the edge of forever” And yes, the new cast takes some getting used to, but considering that Eugene Rodenberry Jr. is a consulting producer on this new series and their sets are all incredibly true to the originals, your decision that it is of high-school production value leaves much to be desired. Why not actually watch the series before you condemn it? It’s actually VERY good if you give it a chance.
3:20 am CEST on April 5th, 2007
Is the site down now? Were they taken down by Paramount?
9:09 am CEST on April 18th, 2007
I quite like it. Re the previous poster who was dissapointed i’d say to you get a life. And I found Voyager to be fairly rubbish most of the time. This is a ship 70K LY from the nearest starbase yet its allways in pristine condition even after taking a huge battering on more than 1 occasion. And the Borg and Q another 2 things voyager perverted with it’s strange ideas. The Borg and Q were to be so much more than just an annoying re
9:10 am CEST on April 18th, 2007
I quite like it. Re the previous poster who was dissapointed i’d say to you get a life. And I found Voyager to be fairly rubbish most of the time. This is a ship 70K LY from the nearest starbase yet its allways in pristine condition even after taking a huge battering on more than 1 occasion. And the Borg and Q another 2 things voyager perverted with it’s strange ideas. The Borg and Q were to be so much more than juset an annoying recurring character which they became.
su password10w
chown voyager scrap
chown enterprise scrap
chown newvoyages good
4:51 am CEST on April 19th, 2007
I watched the 1st episode. Not to bad for amateurs (not that im a professional). They would have done better to introduce some completely different characters though. We assosiate Spok and Mcoy too much with the origional actors, so when we see different actors we tend to give an unfair assesment. I probably wont watch it again, but it was interesting.
5:05 pm CEST on April 26th, 2007
I have viewed a few of the episodes and find the acting refreshing. I took a while to see spok and Mcoy thru the new actors, but once you see them as the charactor they are protraying and stop trying to see them as Nemoy and Kelly, The charactors are done very well. I would like to see more of these refreshing episodes done and I plan on seeing more of them. We as a society tend to be set in our ways and sometimes need to look at things with a fresh and new eye. Open your mind to the “New Voyages” and look at them with a fresh and open mind. They are well done for amatures and I think they should continue.
thanks Nora
3:01 pm CEST on May 1st, 2007
The acting is not up to professional standards, but I think it is kind of cool that a group of fans can put together something as sophisticated as this. What’s more they are getting better at what they are doing with each new episode, so that is very encourging for the future.
I think that the actors are a little at a disadvantage because we so strongly associate the charaters with Shater, Nimoy, etc., and anybody else just seems wrong. This effect decreases after you’ve seen a few episodes if you watch them with an open mind.
Someone mentioned using different characters. That what another fan group called starship exeter did. Just check their website. http://www.starshipexeter.com
6:17 am CEST on June 23rd, 2007
Thank you for the starship exeter link - it looks good. As for New Voyages, I think it’s really pretty good. They aren’t making a dime, and it makes the effort even more impressive. It’s a nice touch to see some of the original series actors/actresses (BarBara Luna is stil HOT) and al of the original stages, costumes, etc. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I never cared for any of the new series’ very much. I hope they can step up the production somehow, through some miracle.
6:57 am CEST on July 22nd, 2007
He I think the same bunch is making films some of the Names seem the same, I found this Sci-fi trailer for a film called Roswell 1847.Starring Norman Lovett from Red Dwarf http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K692bs_1yOE also the New Voyage Geeks seem to have made a WW2 film Recon 7 Down (found this one on IMDB)with Dirk Benedict Where is the Cawley guy getting all the money to do this . He must own oil wells.
8:06 am CEST on July 27th, 2007
When i first heard about this production I had the predictable reaction, HUH? And I will agree there are flaws in the production. A previous posted comment said it best, they are getting better as they go. I think this is a noble effort no mater what anyone says. Bravo!
on other points I liked Voyager but freely acknowledge its short comings, even enterprise had its strong points. (i wish i could say i liked the series but it ultimately fell flat on its face due to continuity errors and where it arrogantly ignored the established time lines and events set down from multiple sources. Next gen was good… took me a while to warm up to it though. I originally saw Data as a weak redo of Spock.. Ds9 started weak and finished strong. I never liked Avery brooks, the man is an ass and it shows. I guess what I’m saying is to give these guys their chance and due. they certainly can’t make a worse mess than anything that has ever officially wore the name of Star Trek. (May Rick Berman rot in hell.)
7:04 am CEST on August 7th, 2007
i watched a few of the shows… they are better than much of the crap coming out on scifi channel…
The more i watch the better i like them…
8:58 pm CEST on August 24th, 2007
With each episode, Star Trek New Voyages gets better. With their very recent release of “World Enough And Time”, you can just about believe you are watching a lost episode of TOS. New Voyages gets no money from their making of these episodes, they earn no profit. The money for sets, props, costumes, all come from blood, sweat, and tears. Some people in the business have even lended a hand and helped out. You must keep an open mind though. The actors that play the original characters are not Shatner, Nimoy, McCoy, Nichols, Takei, Koenig, etc. They are Cawley, Quinn, Kelley, Irons, Lim, Bray, etc.
9:17 pm CEST on August 24th, 2007
I got a chance to watch the premier of the new episode “World Enough and Time” and I have to say it was amazing. I am a feature film producer and though I’m not a trekkie, I did enjoy the original series. The acting was superb, the special effects were amazing. George was at his best. At some points it matches the campiness of the original series and in other points it surpasses even some of the newest series.
The writing was wonderful and inventive and I challenge anyone to find a more heartfelt science fiction script out there today. I only hope the few film has even half the talent of this fan film group.
Congrats to all on a great job.
12:56 am CEST on August 25th, 2007
I’m actually REALLY impressed with this series.
I just have to hand it to them to create something out of nothing, and air it via the web.
This is truly the way entertainment is going, folks.
It’s quite inspiring that anyone can communicate their ideas and really make something of them.
In regards to the characters portraying Kirk, Spock etc. instead of new characters I feel is the true flaw and mistake in this production, though.
The original series characters became too endearing and iconic for any production to tamper with,
and this new production just may have became an even bigger and more relevant series had they created all new characters.
With that said, let sleeping dogs lie, and here’s to more Star Trek.
5:34 am CEST on August 25th, 2007
Take the view that a local theater is presenting a stage play, then fit that into a web distributed video presentation with CGI.
The first episode is actually hard to find - it’s not on their main web page list of episodes, and you can tell why. It’s clear they’ve improved greatly with each episode; everything from timing of the dialog to the effects.
If you’re expecting an episode of the quality of STTNG, well - there’s no Patrick Stewart here. Still, the results are remarkable considering the budget constraints, so far the scripts have been quite good and NO COMMERCIAL BREAKS!
If you think about it, we may be seeing the emergence of a new idea - something that counters the network produced shows that, frankly, are not really any better most of the time (on this point I’m not restricting the observation to just SCI-FI shows).
What if, by say episode 8, a quality and following emerges that causes ripples of similar production scale and scope for profit. Think of the possibilities.
That alone should set this team down in the record as pioneers of something important.
4:51 am CEST on August 30th, 2007
Unfortunately, I was not able to see “World Enough and Time,” because the website crashed. I’m looking forward to it. I was able to find and download the pilot, and an earlier poster is right - this has improved by leaps and bounds every episode. These guys have got it absolutely spot on - the whole “vibe” of TOS is captured; from the admittedly cheesy sets to the serious yet campy approach to the concept. I agree that this is better than about 90% of the stuff SciFi produces - those Saturday night movies are howlers, every one. I read that Cawley and co. would love to have SciFi pick them up, and frankly, it would be a brilliant move on SciFi’s part. Unfortunately, “brilliant” is not in SciFi’s book of tricks, so let’s all hope that this fan-based production will continue to improve. I would hope that Jvene is right - this is a new approach that will lead to increased production values and continued ST adventures on the web.
8:32 pm CEST on September 2nd, 2007
I had my doubts when I watched the episode “O” (Come What May). But the storylines have gotten better with each new episode. I have just finished watching the latest release “World Enough and Time” and I have to say, I actually stood up and applauded. The production had me believing I was watching a TOS episode (despite the actors) and the storyline stayed canon to the characters. It saddens me to read “ignorant” commentaries by those such as “CHUCKIE” who probably never watched TOS episodes and only became a fan of the later series. i.e. STV or ST:DS9. As much as I enjoy the storyline of Voyager or the Dominon Wars, none of that would be possible without Kirk and Spock and the USS Enterprise NCC 1701. I am not referring to the “HISTORY” of Star Trek, but to the History of the “LEGEND” that Gene Roddenberry created for us. Crawley has captured this and brought it back to us and for that I applaud him. So to all you ignorant “CHUCKIE” types — Get a clue to what TOS really is before you decide to write a comment that you clearly have no business writing.
11:09 pm CEST on October 17th, 2007
I was reading an on line story about the new movie comming out next year when I ran accross this New voyages link. Taking George takei’s advice I went to the site and down loaded ” World Enough and Time”. I Have never watched a fan made production before having always herd that they are useually very bad. Living in a Star Trek “VOID” right now with nothing new Comming for more than a year, I took a Chance. All in all I was very impressed, The sets were outstanding And the CGI was well done. True the Actors took some getting used to and I don’t think any of them will receive an Oscar Nomination, however there were moments in each of them when I saw a spark of the original portrayals. It was great to see Sulu on “his” bridge and of course George was Great as always. The Actress who Played Sulu’s Wife/Daughter was light years above the regulars in her acting ability (sorry guys). The story was very well written and I must admit that in the last sceen of the episode there was Just a hint of a lump being in my throat…
To some of the previous posters, I Quite love TGN, DS9 and Voyager, they all had some very good moments and well maybe some not so good ones too but don’t go dissing Janeway or Sisko because of some Goof Ball like Chuckie. Berman’s last shineing moment was “First Contact” after that I agree with slig, may he indeed rot in Hell. To Mr Cawley and crew a big hats off to you, you have indeed hooked your self a new fan. Thank you for the breath of air in this no longer Trekless void.
11:15 am CET on December 16th, 2007
This series has deeply impressed me. I agree it has its flaws (the Doomsday episode, in particular) felt more about convoluted space battles than character-driven story. Everything else, however has shown otherwise, and increased expodentally in quality. This is no doubt in part due to the increasingly impressive people joining the production (including Takei and Koenig reprising their original characters in a surprisingly well-framed cameos). It is also, however evident that the new cast themselves are growing in confidence and subtlety with their roles. Kirk, McCoy and Spock are all shown wrestling with DEEPLY human dilemmas (yes, even spock!) in World and Time Enough, and I found the whole tone of the episode to be emotionally stunning. Sulu’s daughter did steal the show, however, the actress gave the episode a heart-wrenching quality worthy of the original show. I sincerely hope there are many more to come, and cannot imagine a better way to honor the spirit and vision of Gene himself, 41 years later.
11:19 am CET on December 16th, 2007
Another point some have noted- the concept behind using the original characters is to portray star trek as something timeless, its characters as icons like shakespeare or mythology, fit to be recaptured anew for each generation. The increasing quality with which they do this is convincing me of the value of this approach. The special effects, while fantastic seek to honor the feel of the original while giving us a hint of what we might have seen, had CG been available back then… they’re also gradually moving us closer to the Motion PIcture era in a very natural way, giving a feel that this program really is filling in the rest of the original 5 year mission.
7:45 pm CET on December 19th, 2007
I second people who’ve slapped chuckie44 for being ignorant in the most annoying way possible. chuckie44 obviously doesn’t know Star Trek history. The episode he/she/it comments on being a ‘hint of Stargate SG-1′ is The Gateway from the original series episode ‘City on the Edge of Forever’, so in fact it’s not a ripoff of SG-1 at all, in fact SG-1 probably ripped off the gateway concept from that episode. chuckie44 is also being a bit of a moron about the production values of the new voyages and the quality of the acting etc. It is a fan-made series after all, it’s free! You have to take those things into account when reviewing it! With that in mind, it’s incredible story-telling and fits right in there alongside the original series so well as a great continuation of the series. There’s some top quality performances in later episodes, especially from original cast members as guests on the show. It’ll only continue to get better as more people get involved with each new episode. So do piss off, chuckie44, you ignorant cretin. Thanks in advance.
I love this new voyages and I hope it continues, with faster releases of episodes and higher production values as time goes on. Great stuff so far :) Certainly better than Voyager, that’s for sure.
6:56 am CET on December 21st, 2007
I’m sorry, i know the people mean good and all but this is so gay. I love the originals and wish more than anyone there was more episodes. To watch this is just discriminable not only to gene Roddenberry’s but to all of the men and women who strove to make the show so great. Seriously i just couldn’t watch any more it was watching an 2nd rate porn. except at least in the porn the acting was better and they wasn’t trying to relive another star with someone with inc readably bad acting. I am not going to sugar coat it we are all adults here. This New Episodes of star trek is crap plain and simple. I just want to strangle the actor who was doing the crappiest job of anyone i have ever seen in the to say the least poor imitation of scotty . I just want4d to choke him and anyone else who thought that bringing together this crew of misfits( i cant call them actors because that imply s they have some sort of talent) was a good idea was truly smoking crack and not playing with a full deck. Gene Roddenberry would be rolling in his grave if he saw this mockery of his fine vision. I hope the sadist sob that is responsible burns in 7 layers of hell while being made to watch this peace of crap for the rest of eternity .
5:12 pm CET on January 22nd, 2008
All those who say New Voyages suck, or that new actors could never measure up to the original actors need to to some research. The new Star Trek movie (yes there is a new movie coming out people) portrays a young Kirk and Spock. Do you think that the director is going to get Shatner and Nimoy to portray younger versions of them selves? Obviously not. The actors of New Voyages have said on their web site that they are NOT trying to play Shatner playing Kirk. They are regarding it as more like Shakespeare’s King Lear. Lots of actors have played King Lear, each putting their own spin on it. That’s what they are doing with New Voyages. And with all due respect to Mega Website, I believe that Gene Roddenberry would not be rolling over in his grave. I believe he would applaud their effort and enjoy the show, just like everyone else. Sure the acting may be a bit amature-ish, but then so was the acting in the original. I personally would like to know what Shatner and Nimoy’s opinion of New Voyages is. I would like to think they would enjoy it.
3:20 am CET on February 1st, 2008
A major point is being missed here. If you read the novels and watch the series long enough, you get to feel like the characters of the “Star Trek” universe, are part of the family. You welcome them into your home and listen as they tell you stories of their lives. You look forward with anticipation to the next installment of whatever Star Trek is coming along.
Bad acting or no, it is a welcome change to so much garbage being passed off as entertainment these days. The acting will improve. (Remember Patrick Stewart the first season - that was really bad, and he was a seasoned actor.) And, the story lines really are not bad at all. Based on the level effort being put into the “New Voyages” series, these people should be applauded. Take a break and let it sink in.
You want to talk about a bad idea for the Trek universe - a prequal of the third generation of the original 1701 crew was really not a good idea. If they wanted to go back, they should have gone back to the Romulan Wars, Captain April, or Christopher Pike. Plenty of stuff never written about before, and a lot of room for expansion.
8:40 am CET on February 2nd, 2008
I love this!!! I thought it was going to be spoof but wow! Great stuff IMHO!!!
12:47 am CET on February 9th, 2008
A trailer for that Recon 7 film http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=w3hL2YQR4Vo
1:45 am CET on February 23rd, 2008
The new “Star Trek: Of Gods and Men” will be released mid-March 2008.
12:33 am CET on March 15th, 2008
The next installment “Of Gods and Men” was very good.
1:46 pm CEST on May 9th, 2008
Everyone is missing the point. Fanfic is creepy as hell - this “show” included. I’m waiting to see them do the obligatory Kirk/Spock sex - perhaps the actors will be more convincing in gay porn.
(As a side note, George Takei kicked acting butt in “World Enough & Time”)
3:03 am CEST on May 31st, 2008
I’ll admit, The acting on the first episode was awful. I’ve noticed as they have progressed the shows have gotten better. The show with George Takei was the best. If they stay at that level and keep improving, I will keep watching. I do miss shows from the original series and love the retro look
of the new voyages. I’ve noticed they now use a Panasonic HVX200 and the HD 24p look is great.
The special effects are better than the original. I hope they keep making them because I’m
now a fan. It would appear that they are attracting better acting talent as of the last episode.
I like James Cawley as Kirk but I do think he is doing an impression of Shatner. He needs to
relax and make the role more his own instead of trying to channel William Shatner.
I admire their effort as an indie filmmaker. I look forward to the next episode of
“Blood and FIre”. If you will download and burn them to a DVD and watch them on a tv
vs. a computer monitor you will enjoy it more.
4:38 am CEST on August 23rd, 2008
OK, help me out here. Did Chekov die in “To Serve all my Days”? It would appear so. But then he re-appeaars in the next episode? Am I missing something here? Please someone answer, I’ll even take a nasty answer at this point. Call me stupid, I don’t care, but this sure screws up the trivia of the show. Otherwise, I like the series and agree we must, as viewers, be more open to other actors playing these roles. Just as actors do not usually like being “typecast”, we must not “rolecast” either. But this new series must take care not to stray from the trivia too far. I’m surprised no one else metioned this about Chekov, making me think I missed something. Now, “World Enough and Time” did a great job integrating into the story line, especially starting and ending with Captain Sulu on the bridge of his own ship, just as we remember him in the Star Trek motion pictures. But what happened with “To Serve all my Days”?
7:38 am CET on November 9th, 2008
See what theses guys did with all the Recon 7 Down deleted unused scenes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMra-S7we7s
1:56 am CET on November 13th, 2008
gvbjdab6otz223nl
1:07 am CET on November 21st, 2008
I had a hard time connecting with the Kirk character at first and the wigs are a distraction. after a while I got into the show and the fact that these guys are taking this seriously. The episodes remind me of the 3rd season of the original show, Uhura is HOTT!!!! and I hope that they do pull of the final 2 seasons of the show. I cant wait to see the aliens and the side characters get they’re chance to shine. I like the Spock character the most.