New Voyages: To Serve All of My Days - Review
No BSG this week, and I can't get my Bond review to make sense, so here we are. I watched the newest episode of New Voyages last night. For those of you that haven't followed, New Voyages is a fan production of Star Trek. They say that they are making Trek's "fourth season". This is their third episode. And they are swinging for the back fence with this one. Having D.C. Fontana as a writer doesn't hurt.
The first two eps were not good. The first I couldn't even get through, the second was cobbled together fanboy junk. "So, DUDE! What if the DOOMSDAY MACHINE could TIME TRAVEL, and it goes back and BLOWS UP the ENTERPRISE when PIKE was captain, so they have to back the GUARDIAN OF FOREVER, and they met MATT DECKER in the TWENTIETH CENTURY and then you have Kirk AND Pike and then the MOVIE ENTERPRISE shows up?! Whooooooaaaaah!" I didn't make any of that up.
So this past week they put out their latest. Guest starring Walter "Chekov" Koenig. I gotta say, I enjoyed it tremendously. I may watch it again. I think Exeter (another, and until now, better fan production) probably re-captures the overall look of the original show a little more faithfully, but this really feels like where Phase II (the proposed second TV series they were going to make in 1976 that turned into Star Trek: The Motion Picture) might have gone (given an unlimited FX budget at the time).
There were some details to the models I wasn't crazy about (gridlines), but I thought the choreography was terrific. The flippy-dippy space fights of the past episodes are gone. (It was like Wiley Coyote on crack.) The nacelle caps looked awesome. (This is a big deal to Original Series nerds. There are entire web pages devoted to this effect. This has been a huge sticking point on the new "remastered" Trek that CBS is doing. We're nerds. It's what we do.) They're mostly TOS, but also kind of their own look. Some of it looks a little video-gamey, but it's really nice video-gamey. And that stupid little shuttlepod (curse you, Next Generation!) isn't going to look good anywhere.
I felt the cinematography was a great improvement over past episodes. Some might not like the hand held look, but it's been a TV staple for over ten years now. They certainly didn't go for Firefly / BSG. It didn't feel like big screen, but it didn't feel quite like video either. The widescreen format serves them well.
This Chekov guy was outstanding (the young one). He's not only got his impression down pat, he's actually got charm and wit and warmth. As for Walter Koenig, I gain new respect for him every time I see him get to do something with some teeth. I'm a little sad that they seem to be backpedaling from the ending (must... not... spoil!). The original interviews I read said that NV was the fourth season of Trek and they were writing as if the movies and TNG hadn't necesarily happened. But they've backed off of this a bit.
Cawley (Kirk) is starting to get it. He's almost there. But not quite. (I've since found out that not only is he an Elvis impersonator in his day job, he's one of the leading Elvii in the world! He's one of three guys that they actually let perform at Graceland.) He needs to stop replicating Shatner's tics and start looking at what he actually DID. Shatner was both happier and more serious. He didn't always have his "FIRE!" face on. Cawley is almost to the point of being able to do the quiet stuff. The last scene with Chekov was actually touching. It would be great to see him improve more.
Spock needs to figure out that he's Spock. Not Data. Spock was cranky. He scowled a lot. Nobody ever sems to get the weight that Spock had. I don't know the history of this actor and I hate to throw stones, but you get the idea he's there because he knows someone (or contributed money). Ok, that's pretty heartless, but there it is.
McCoy - Speaking of "who does this guy know"... Wow. This guy is just taking up space. Sorry.
Scotty - Might almost have a character if he can figure out if he wants to do his own thing or be Doohan. Not so good this time out though.
One of the most interesting things about this story is that they suggest that the Federation has an ECONOMY. And it might be harmful to some and benneficial to others! Gene must be spinning in his grave- er, orbit.
I'm still not NV's biggest fan, but this was pretty darn good. The two marks of highest praise I can give this ep: I meant to watch one act last night and watched the whole thing, and it made me excited about watching Star Trek again. That's saying something. I think NV is finally in the same league as Exeter. Now both of them need to get even better. (Boy, I say that like THAT'S easy.)
Oh, speaking of which, the trailer for the fan film I'M working on is up. It rambles, but it actually has some (unfinished) stuff that I did. The Enterprise stuff was filmed on the New Voyages sets and the NV actors that play Kirk and Spock make cameos.
So say we all. (Oh, that's the other one, isn't it?)
The first two eps were not good. The first I couldn't even get through, the second was cobbled together fanboy junk. "So, DUDE! What if the DOOMSDAY MACHINE could TIME TRAVEL, and it goes back and BLOWS UP the ENTERPRISE when PIKE was captain, so they have to back the GUARDIAN OF FOREVER, and they met MATT DECKER in the TWENTIETH CENTURY and then you have Kirk AND Pike and then the MOVIE ENTERPRISE shows up?! Whooooooaaaaah!" I didn't make any of that up.
So this past week they put out their latest. Guest starring Walter "Chekov" Koenig. I gotta say, I enjoyed it tremendously. I may watch it again. I think Exeter (another, and until now, better fan production) probably re-captures the overall look of the original show a little more faithfully, but this really feels like where Phase II (the proposed second TV series they were going to make in 1976 that turned into Star Trek: The Motion Picture) might have gone (given an unlimited FX budget at the time).
There were some details to the models I wasn't crazy about (gridlines), but I thought the choreography was terrific. The flippy-dippy space fights of the past episodes are gone. (It was like Wiley Coyote on crack.) The nacelle caps looked awesome. (This is a big deal to Original Series nerds. There are entire web pages devoted to this effect. This has been a huge sticking point on the new "remastered" Trek that CBS is doing. We're nerds. It's what we do.) They're mostly TOS, but also kind of their own look. Some of it looks a little video-gamey, but it's really nice video-gamey. And that stupid little shuttlepod (curse you, Next Generation!) isn't going to look good anywhere.
I felt the cinematography was a great improvement over past episodes. Some might not like the hand held look, but it's been a TV staple for over ten years now. They certainly didn't go for Firefly / BSG. It didn't feel like big screen, but it didn't feel quite like video either. The widescreen format serves them well.
This Chekov guy was outstanding (the young one). He's not only got his impression down pat, he's actually got charm and wit and warmth. As for Walter Koenig, I gain new respect for him every time I see him get to do something with some teeth. I'm a little sad that they seem to be backpedaling from the ending (must... not... spoil!). The original interviews I read said that NV was the fourth season of Trek and they were writing as if the movies and TNG hadn't necesarily happened. But they've backed off of this a bit.
Cawley (Kirk) is starting to get it. He's almost there. But not quite. (I've since found out that not only is he an Elvis impersonator in his day job, he's one of the leading Elvii in the world! He's one of three guys that they actually let perform at Graceland.) He needs to stop replicating Shatner's tics and start looking at what he actually DID. Shatner was both happier and more serious. He didn't always have his "FIRE!" face on. Cawley is almost to the point of being able to do the quiet stuff. The last scene with Chekov was actually touching. It would be great to see him improve more.
Spock needs to figure out that he's Spock. Not Data. Spock was cranky. He scowled a lot. Nobody ever sems to get the weight that Spock had. I don't know the history of this actor and I hate to throw stones, but you get the idea he's there because he knows someone (or contributed money). Ok, that's pretty heartless, but there it is.
McCoy - Speaking of "who does this guy know"... Wow. This guy is just taking up space. Sorry.
Scotty - Might almost have a character if he can figure out if he wants to do his own thing or be Doohan. Not so good this time out though.
One of the most interesting things about this story is that they suggest that the Federation has an ECONOMY. And it might be harmful to some and benneficial to others! Gene must be spinning in his grave- er, orbit.
I'm still not NV's biggest fan, but this was pretty darn good. The two marks of highest praise I can give this ep: I meant to watch one act last night and watched the whole thing, and it made me excited about watching Star Trek again. That's saying something. I think NV is finally in the same league as Exeter. Now both of them need to get even better. (Boy, I say that like THAT'S easy.)
Oh, speaking of which, the trailer for the fan film I'M working on is up. It rambles, but it actually has some (unfinished) stuff that I did. The Enterprise stuff was filmed on the New Voyages sets and the NV actors that play Kirk and Spock make cameos.
So say we all. (Oh, that's the other one, isn't it?)
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