Star Trek Continues

Star Trek Continues

Star Trek Continues E01 “Pilgrim of Eternity” from Star Trek Continues on Vimeo.

Well that was rather enjoyable. Star Trek Continues is yet another fan production that continues the original five-year mission of the original Star Trek series, and the production values really make this enterprise shine (sorry, couldn’t help myself). The acting’s not bad either, once you make allowance for the fact this is a fan production and the inescapable disconnect of seeing someone else playing the roles of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etc.

Their first hour long episode revisits the classic Who Mourns for Adonais? where the crew of the Enterprise meets the Greek god Apollo. But this time Vic Mignogna does a credible job of channeling William Shatner while not overdoing it. It also helps that he has Kirk’s physique and stature. The other roles are perhaps less perfectly reproduced, but serviceable nonetheless. Chris Doohan does a good job of recreating his father’s sometimes excitable Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott, while Larry Nemecek (a longtime Trek-pert) and Todd Hakerkorn play Dr. Leonard McCoy and Mr. Spock. Nemecek and Haberkorn don’t really inhabit their roles until the light banter at the end of the episode, but then they’re not principal characters in this episode.

The main character is, of course, guest star Michael Forrest, who originally played Apollo in the original Star Trek, and reprises that role here. Also featured are Michelle Specht as new character ship’s counselor Dr. Elise McKennah, and Kim Stinger as Lt. Nyota Uhuru. Grant Imahara from Mythbusters plays Lt. Hikaru Sulu.

What makes this episode work is its familiarity. Yet again the Enterprise encounters an anomaly in space that drains the ship’s energy. Kirk is forced to fire on the anomaly with a photon torpedo, which destroys it, but two lifeforms appear on the bridge immediately afterward. The crew is surprised to see Apollo, whom they’d encountered just two years previously. Apollo now appears to be an old man and with him is his sister (sort of, because of that springing from Zeus’ head thing) Athena, equally old, who dies almost immediately.

I don’t want to give too much of the plot away, but it mostly involves what to do with the no-longer all powerful Apollo, and like any good Star Trek episode, involves many discussions in the conference room—three times in this episode, I think.

There are many nice cameos, including makeup man/visual effects artist Doug Drexler getting to portray a holographic Palladin, Jamie Bamber (Apollo from the new Battlestar Galactica; I’m guessing that’s an in-joke) in essentially a red shirt role, and Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi from The Next Generation) as the voice of the computer, now that Majel Barrett-Roddenberry is no longer with us.

The recreated bridge, sickbay, corridor, transporter, recreation and conference room sets are lovingly recreated, as well as a Jeffries tub, and the ship animations are perfect. All the original music scores and cues you remember from the original show are also perfectly reproduced, although maybe just a tad overused.

If you’re a fan of the original show—no bloody A, B, C, D or J.J.—then I think you’ll enjoy this loving tribute.

Written by

Jennifer Petkus divides her time between writing Jane Austen-themed mysteries, creating websites for the dead, woodworking, aikido and building model starships. She has few credentials, having failed to graduate from the University of Texas with a journalism degree, but did manage to find employment at the Colorado Springs Sun newspaper as a cop reporter, copy editor and night city editor before the paper died in 1986. She has done little since. Her husband is the night editor at The Denver Post. Her best friend is a cop. She watched Neil Armstrong walk on the Moon live. She is the author of, Good Cop, Dead Cop: A Novel about the AfterNet. She’s writing the sequel, The Background Noise of Souls, and another AfterNet related story, Jane Austen’s Book Tour.

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