On Twitter, I kept seeing little "Vignettes" from the episodes they had already made. Especially, Michael Forest from "To Morn for Adonis" (that's a pun) reprising his role. Then a green Orion Slave Girl played by Fiona Vroom. Then, I see the crew of the Enterprise wearing full accouterments from "Mirror Mirror".
In those Vignettes, I saw the Bridge, the Hallways, the Transporter room, Sickbay all perfectly recreated. All original uniforms being worn, all original Tricorders, Phasers and Communicators (Thanks to the Wand company) being used.
So then, I look up this crew who was bringing the original Star Trek back to life! And I watched the first episode, "Pilgrim or Eternity". And a rudimentary Holodeck, equipped with a Holo of Star Trek Artist Doug Drexler in "Paladin" outfit shoving a Colt 45 into "Kirk" (Vic Mignogna's) nose, in a set that looked a LOT like "Spectre of the Gun".
So then I watched "Lolani", and along with Fiona Vroom, there was The Hulk (Lou Ferrigno) playing a HUGE Orion Slaver.
So, that was it, I was hooked. Of course, I thought Todd Haberkorn looked like an Odd Spock, but he did in fact talk and act like Spock. And they did change Dr McCoys after Lolani, I don't know why Larry Nemecek dropped out of that role. But then again, I saw Chris Doohan playing the role his father played, and he looks SO much like his father.
Marina Sirtis is the Ships Computer, like Luwaxana, like Daughter. I started seeing all kinds of familiar names from the cast and crew of Next Generation/DS9/Voyager/Enterprise in the credits.
And the Music was perfect, the LIGHTING was perfect, the SOUNDS were perfect, the Props were perfect (Close-ups of the Phaser props show a slight difference from TOS Phasers, but not much). And I have a Wand Company Communicator, and those were being used (Hint: THEY WORK!).
But my posterior was floored by the 3rd Episode "Fairest of them All", or, "What happened when Mirror Kirk, Scott, McCoy and Uhura returned to Mirror Enterprise?".
Eventually I ran out of Episodes to watch, I was amazed that there were FIVE of these episodes (at the time). I left off at "Divided we Stand", which was a great Omega-Glory type of episode, which included BORG Nanites! And we met a Security Chief, "Drake", who had a Mechanical Arm.
Not just Drake, but I met McKennah, Smith (who was holding Gary Mitchell's hand at the Barrier of the Galaxy), and these became as beloved to me as Kirk, Spock, Uhura, McCoy, Sulu, Chekov.
It did not matter to me that I was not seeing Leonard Nimoy, Bill Shatner, George "It's OK to be" Takei. The SPIRIT of the characters they created was there. The chemistry was there, and, the Ship was there.
For those of you who are just joining these voyages, watch the Featurette which shows the construction of the Engineering set. From a Huge, Empty Soundstage, to a perfect replica of the 1701's warp drive. The DILITHIUM Crystals even had that same shape (From "The Alternative factor").
I feel that McKennah, Smith, Drake, and the other characters and actors that had recurring crew roles, had been there all the time.
There are many things that hint toward things that would happen later in TNG and DS9.
I just finished the final episode today, and in one scene, we see, on an Admirals desk, models of The Pheonix, NX-01, Kelvin, Discovery, and the 1701 as it appeared in TMP. And even that scene was a nod to a scene from "Into Darkness", the ships on Admiral Marcus' desk.
I feel as close to the Actors and Crew who made this show as I do the whole franchise.
This SHOULD be "Official Trek", CBS should buy this show and release it as part of the franchise. In my mind, it already is.
Thank you, Vic, Todd, Thank you Kipleigh Brown for bringing "Smith" back, thank you Michele Specht for creating "McKennah", the original "Counselor Troi", not just the main characters but everyone who worked on this to make it a reality.
I feel that Fan Productions like this should not be hindered by CBS, this one was not, but others were. Nobody is stealing Klingon by wanting to learn it, nobody who wants to help recreate something that we've loved for over 50 years should be discouraged, not sued. CBS may own the show now, but it does not really belong to them, it belongs to US.
I think I need to get in here and edit this review by making a couple of comments about Vic. I have read a lot about this fan series, how it came about, the people involved, and it appears that without Vic, this show never would have happened. He wrote most of the episodes, he wrote some music. He edited some of the episodes. A lot of work was lovingly done by him and he always stayed true to the spirit of the Star Trek universe even though he has a background from Liberty University. Vic never inserted anything into this series that was unrelated to Star Trek, he kept to canon and never veered away from the prime directive.
But I remember a couple of years ago Vic coming under the, what is the proper word, let's just say "stigma" of "Me too". I believe this caused a huge rift and caused a lot of damage between the people that were involved with making this show. This just makes me really sad.
All I have to say about this is that when I watch these episodes, and when I watch Vic, something about these accusations don't ring true.
Most important, it does not affect my enjoyment of this series, my awe of the special effects, my respect toward the people involved. When I would browse through the Star Trek continues YouTube channel and watch the little videos about how they made these episodes, and the unity of the people involved, any complaints come up unfounded. People don't realize what a remarkable thing has been done with this fan series. We were given Eleven Fifty minute episodes of Star Trek, lovingly re-created with stories that do not conflict with any of the other stories from Star Trek feature films or other shows. I don't know how they got CBS to back off from their "new overly restrictive guidelines" for fan series, but they did, and that meant full length episodes, participation of professional actors and people who actually had worked on production crew for several Star Trek series, and these things are basically banned in the new guidelines.
In those Vignettes, I saw the Bridge, the Hallways, the Transporter room, Sickbay all perfectly recreated. All original uniforms being worn, all original Tricorders, Phasers and Communicators (Thanks to the Wand company) being used.
So then, I look up this crew who was bringing the original Star Trek back to life! And I watched the first episode, "Pilgrim or Eternity". And a rudimentary Holodeck, equipped with a Holo of Star Trek Artist Doug Drexler in "Paladin" outfit shoving a Colt 45 into "Kirk" (Vic Mignogna's) nose, in a set that looked a LOT like "Spectre of the Gun".
So then I watched "Lolani", and along with Fiona Vroom, there was The Hulk (Lou Ferrigno) playing a HUGE Orion Slaver.
So, that was it, I was hooked. Of course, I thought Todd Haberkorn looked like an Odd Spock, but he did in fact talk and act like Spock. And they did change Dr McCoys after Lolani, I don't know why Larry Nemecek dropped out of that role. But then again, I saw Chris Doohan playing the role his father played, and he looks SO much like his father.
Marina Sirtis is the Ships Computer, like Luwaxana, like Daughter. I started seeing all kinds of familiar names from the cast and crew of Next Generation/DS9/Voyager/Enterprise in the credits.
And the Music was perfect, the LIGHTING was perfect, the SOUNDS were perfect, the Props were perfect (Close-ups of the Phaser props show a slight difference from TOS Phasers, but not much). And I have a Wand Company Communicator, and those were being used (Hint: THEY WORK!).
But my posterior was floored by the 3rd Episode "Fairest of them All", or, "What happened when Mirror Kirk, Scott, McCoy and Uhura returned to Mirror Enterprise?".
Eventually I ran out of Episodes to watch, I was amazed that there were FIVE of these episodes (at the time). I left off at "Divided we Stand", which was a great Omega-Glory type of episode, which included BORG Nanites! And we met a Security Chief, "Drake", who had a Mechanical Arm.
Not just Drake, but I met McKennah, Smith (who was holding Gary Mitchell's hand at the Barrier of the Galaxy), and these became as beloved to me as Kirk, Spock, Uhura, McCoy, Sulu, Chekov.
It did not matter to me that I was not seeing Leonard Nimoy, Bill Shatner, George "It's OK to be" Takei. The SPIRIT of the characters they created was there. The chemistry was there, and, the Ship was there.
For those of you who are just joining these voyages, watch the Featurette which shows the construction of the Engineering set. From a Huge, Empty Soundstage, to a perfect replica of the 1701's warp drive. The DILITHIUM Crystals even had that same shape (From "The Alternative factor").
I feel that McKennah, Smith, Drake, and the other characters and actors that had recurring crew roles, had been there all the time.
There are many things that hint toward things that would happen later in TNG and DS9.
I just finished the final episode today, and in one scene, we see, on an Admirals desk, models of The Pheonix, NX-01, Kelvin, Discovery, and the 1701 as it appeared in TMP. And even that scene was a nod to a scene from "Into Darkness", the ships on Admiral Marcus' desk.
I feel as close to the Actors and Crew who made this show as I do the whole franchise.
This SHOULD be "Official Trek", CBS should buy this show and release it as part of the franchise. In my mind, it already is.
Thank you, Vic, Todd, Thank you Kipleigh Brown for bringing "Smith" back, thank you Michele Specht for creating "McKennah", the original "Counselor Troi", not just the main characters but everyone who worked on this to make it a reality.
I feel that Fan Productions like this should not be hindered by CBS, this one was not, but others were. Nobody is stealing Klingon by wanting to learn it, nobody who wants to help recreate something that we've loved for over 50 years should be discouraged, not sued. CBS may own the show now, but it does not really belong to them, it belongs to US.
I think I need to get in here and edit this review by making a couple of comments about Vic. I have read a lot about this fan series, how it came about, the people involved, and it appears that without Vic, this show never would have happened. He wrote most of the episodes, he wrote some music. He edited some of the episodes. A lot of work was lovingly done by him and he always stayed true to the spirit of the Star Trek universe even though he has a background from Liberty University. Vic never inserted anything into this series that was unrelated to Star Trek, he kept to canon and never veered away from the prime directive.
But I remember a couple of years ago Vic coming under the, what is the proper word, let's just say "stigma" of "Me too". I believe this caused a huge rift and caused a lot of damage between the people that were involved with making this show. This just makes me really sad.
All I have to say about this is that when I watch these episodes, and when I watch Vic, something about these accusations don't ring true.
Most important, it does not affect my enjoyment of this series, my awe of the special effects, my respect toward the people involved. When I would browse through the Star Trek continues YouTube channel and watch the little videos about how they made these episodes, and the unity of the people involved, any complaints come up unfounded. People don't realize what a remarkable thing has been done with this fan series. We were given Eleven Fifty minute episodes of Star Trek, lovingly re-created with stories that do not conflict with any of the other stories from Star Trek feature films or other shows. I don't know how they got CBS to back off from their "new overly restrictive guidelines" for fan series, but they did, and that meant full length episodes, participation of professional actors and people who actually had worked on production crew for several Star Trek series, and these things are basically banned in the new guidelines.