Star Trek: Phase II (fan series)

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Star Trek: Phase II

James Cawley in Star Trek: New Voyages
Format Science fiction / Fan Series
Created by Gene Roddenberry
Developed by James Cawley
Jack Marshall
Starring James Cawley
Jeff Quinn
John Kelley
Country of origin Flag of the United States United States
No. of episodes 4
Production
Running time approximately 50 min. per episode
Broadcast
Original run January 16, 2004 – Present
External links
Official website
IMDb profile

Star Trek: Phase II (formerly known as Star Trek: New Voyages) is an award-winning fan-created science fiction series set in the Star Trek universe. The series was created by James Cawley and Jack Marshall in April 2003. The series, released exclusively via the Internet, is designed as a continuation of the original Star Trek (aka ST:TOS or just TOS), beginning in the fourth year of the starship Enterprise's "five year mission". The first episode of the series was released in January 2004, with new episodes being released at a rate of about one per year, though producers have expressed their desire to accelerate production.

CBS (and previously Paramount Pictures), which owns the legal rights to the Star Trek franchise, allows the distribution of fan-created material as long as no attempt is made to profit from it without official authorization[citation needed], and New Voyages enjoys the same tolerance.

Star Trek: Phase II stars James Cawley as Captain Kirk, Ben Tolpin as Mr. Spock, and John Kelley as Dr. McCoy. Eugene Roddenberry Jr., the son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, serves as consulting producer. Some of the original actors have returned to reprise their roles, including George Takei and Walter Koenig, as Sulu and Chekov, respectively.

In March 2008, it was announced that the Phase II episode "World Enough and Time" had been nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form, alongside episodes of Doctor Who, Torchwood and Battlestar Galactica. The award winner will be announced at the 2008 World Science Fiction Convention in August 2008.[1]

Contents

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of Star Trek: New Voyages episodes

Currently three episodes and a pilot have been released entitled "Come What May", "In Harm’s Way", "To Serve All My Days", and "World Enough and Time". A two-part episode called “Blood and Fire” is in post-production with the first part likely to be released by summer 2008. Additionally four episodes are in the final stages of pre-production and several more are currently being written. [2]

[edit] Cast and crew

[edit] Regular characters

The actors on New Voyages are mostly unknowns who were brought to the project because of their love of Star Trek.

Character Actor Rank Position
James T. Kirk James Cawley Captain Captain and commanding officer of the starship Enterprise.
Spock Jeffery Quinn (0-3), Ben Tolpin (4-5) Commander Science officer and second-in-command; sole regular crew member that has a non-human biological parent and Kirk's best friend.
Leonard McCoy John M. Kelley Lt. Commander Chief Medical Officer and the captain's closest confidant second only to Spock.
Montgomery Scott Jack Marshall (0), Charles Root (1-5), Lt. Commander Chief Engineer and third-in-command (usually called "Scotty" by the captain).
Uhura Julienne Irons (0-3), Kim Stinger (4-5) Lieutenant Communications officer and sole female commissioned officer in the regular cast.
Hikaru Sulu John Lim, J.T. Tepnapa Lt. Commander Helmsman. First appeared in the vignette "Center Seat" after being away for Starfleet command training.
Pavel Chekov Andy Bray, Jonathan Zungre Lieutenant Navigator and Weapons Officer.
Vincent DeSalle Ron Boyd Lieutenant Helmsman

[edit] Secondary characters

Character Actor Episodes
Janice Rand Meghan King Johnson "Come What May", "In Harm's Way", "Blood and Fire 1 & 2"
Nurse Chapel Shannon Quinlan/Giles "In Harm's Way", "To Serve All My Days"
Captain Kargh John Carrigan "In Harm's Way", "To Serve All My Days", "Blood and Fire 1 & 2"
Transporter Chief Kyle Jay Storey "Come What May", "In Harm's Way", "To Serve All My Days"
Lt. Sentell Jeff Mailhotte "In Harm's Way", "To Serve All My Days"

[edit] Crew

Primary cast left-to-right: Bray, Irons, Quinn, Cawley, Kelley, Root, & Lim. Not Pictured: Ron Boyd
Primary cast left-to-right: Bray, Irons, Quinn, Cawley, Kelley, Root, & Lim. Not Pictured: Ron Boyd

Star Trek: New Voyages episode Pilot, 1 and 2 were produced by James Cawley, Jack Marshall (series director), Pearl Marshall (Jack's wife), James Lowe, Jeff Quinn, John Muenchrath and Max Rem.

The pilot and the first two episodes were directed by Jack Marshall. However, it was announced on December 29, 2005 that Marshall would leave the series.

[edit] Trek alumni support

Several past members of the Star Trek cast and crew have expressed support for the project, and even contributed to it.

[edit] Guest actors

Actor Character Episode(s) Notes/TOS connection
Walter Koenig Pavel Chekov To Serve All My Days Koenig played Chekov in the original series and subsequent films.
George Takei Hikaru Sulu World Enough and Time Takei played Sulu in the original series and subsequent films.
Grace Lee Whitney Janice Rand World Enough and Time Whitney reprises her TOS role of Janice Rand in the third episode on Captain Sulu's ship, the USS Excelsior.[3]
Denise Crosby Dr. Jenna Yar Blood and Fire Played Lieutenant Tasha Yar in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Also hosted the films Trekkies and Trekkies 2.
Mary Linda Rapelye Ambassador Rayna Morgan To Serve All My Days Rapelye appeared as Irina Galliulin in TOS episode "The Way to Eden".
BarBara Luna Veronica In Harm's Way BarBara Luna appeared in TOS episode "Mirror, Mirror".
William Windom Commodore Matt Decker In Harm's Way William Windom reprises his role of Commodore Decker from nearly 40 years ago in TOS episode "The Doomsday Machine".
Malachi Throne Korogh, Kargh's father and Commodore José Mendez (voice) In Harm's Way Throne played Commodore José Mendez in TOS episode "The Menagerie" and Romulan Senator Pardek in TNG episode "Unification".
Eddie Paskey Admiral Leslie Come What May Eddie Paskey plays the father of Lt. Leslie, an uncredited but frequent character from the original series.[4]
John Winston Captain Matthew Jefferies Come What May John Winston played the transporter chief Lieutenant Kyle in the original series.[5] His character's name here is an homage to the real Matt Jeffries who designed the original starship Enterprise.
Larry Nemecek Cal Strickland/Esterion Come What May, To Serve All My Days Larry Nemecek is an author and the editor of Star Trek Communicator.

[edit] Other support

The first episode, "In Harm's Way", features Eugene Roddenberry Jr., the son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, as a consulting producer. Sam Witwer ("Crashdown" from Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series), and the Secret Apprentice from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed) is the voice of the Guardian of Forever (credited as "Simon Judas Raye").[6]

For the second episode, "To Serve All My Days", written by original series writer D.C. Fontana, original cast member Walter Koenig reprises his role as Pavel Chekov. Mary-Linda Rapelye (Irina Galliulin in the original series episode "The Way to Eden") appears as an ambassador.

The third episode, "World Enough and Time", was co-authored by Marc Scott Zicree and Michael Reaves. Zicree, who also directed the episode, contributed the stories for the "First Contact" episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and "Far Beyond the Stars" for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Reaves, who co-wrote (with Diane Duane) the "Where No One Has Gone Before" episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, originally pitched a story to the unproduced Star Trek: Phase II series in which Sulu ages by thirty years, and that story served as the basis for this New Voyages episode. Majel Barrett Roddenberry provided the computer voice in this episode.

David Gerrold (author of TOS episode "The Trouble With Tribbles") has signed on to pen two episodes. One, originally entitled "Blood and Fire", was originally pitched for Star Trek: The Next Generation, but was rejected. Gerrold later claimed the story was rejected because it dealt with homosexuality and AIDS. It was later re-worked as the third book in his Star Wolf series of novels.[citation needed]

Looking to the future of New Voyages, D.C. Fontana recently signed on to write another episode.[citation needed] Also in 2006, J.G. Hertzler (well known as General/Chancellor Martok on DS9) has signed on to play Harcourt Fenton Mudd (taking over the role by Roger C. Carmel) in a future episode. Also, Denise Crosby has signed on to play Natasha Yar's grandmother, Dr. Jenna Yar, in David Gerrold's "Blood and Fire".

[edit] Production notes

  • The sets for New Voyages are said to be near-exact copies of the ones from TOS. This was made possible by the series having access to the original blueprints, rather than just photos.[7]
  • Unlike the official Star Trek series prior to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the CGI-rendered ships are able to move in all dimensions rather than just the horizontal plane. This has been the subject of some controversy. (The USS Enterprise is a heavy cruiser, akin to a battleship rather than an aircraft carrier as some would believe, due to the fact that an aircraft carrier does not engage an enemy directly. Yet, in New Voyages it sometimes moves like a fighter jet, allowing it to do fast spins and loop-de-loops.) VFX Creator Max Rem realized that he was taking some liberties: "The Enterprise is neither a battleship, nor is it an aircraft carrier. It is capable of bending space and time. It is not bound by the laws of normal physics. The Enterprise can infinitely exist along a line hundreds of thousand of light years long. What aircraft carrier can do that? The ship moves as it did in the original television show 97 percent of the time it is on screen. In the remaining 3 percent we experimented, delving into science fiction, and stretching the possibilities. That's the name of the game." As of "To Serve All My Days" this seems to have been addressed with the 'Enterprise' notably less maneuverable in this episode. While the ship does carry out at least one loop, it moves rather more sedately and with more 20th century earthbound "realism" for its mass. Other liberties in the design of traditional Star Trek ships (the Doomsday Machine, for example) have been similarly criticized. Max Rem again chimes in: "In the case of the Doomsday machine, the design was actually not changed at all. Our take was that the device from the original series had been through hell, and was beaten, battered and scarred. The device in our opus was brand spanking new. We also took some heat for making it able to flex itself. If you look closely at the original you will see that it is in fact segmented, which suggested to us that it might be capable of swiveling its maw. It certainly made it more menacing, and it also helped raise the question whether or not the machine was sentient".[citation needed]
  • The series was featured in the December 2005 issue of Wired, spotlighting the production of "To Serve All My Days".[8]
  • The series adopts some of the continuity from the "Shatnerverse" novels. For example, during a "possible future" sequence in "Come What May", Spock states "Captain Kirk is alive" just after a sequence from Star Trek Generations. The Special Edition of "In Harm's Way" gives the date from which the Enterprise-A travels back as 2373 (and so is after Kirk's "death").
  • A CGI rendering from the vignette "Center Seat" is the September 2008 picture in the "Ships of the Line" calendar.
  • The Intruder in the episode "Come What May" was referred to as the "Monap." While not confirmed or denied, it is possible that the name could have been what Onabi called the Borg, given the ships similarity in design. Onabi also mentioned that No other enemy race would compare to them, and Kirk wondered if this was the vision of a future invader. It is possible that Cawley had them given a different name for continuity purposes.

[edit] Production errors

  • There is a brief continuity glitch during "In Harm's Way". When the future Enterprise appears it initially has the number 1701; later it changes to 1701-A.
  • Admiral Leslie (Eddie Paskey) erroneously wears the rank stripes of a Commodore in "Come What May".

[edit] References

  1. ^ 2008 Hugo Awards nomination list (accessed March 28, 2008)
  2. ^ New Voyages eMagazine
  3. ^ Zicree, Marc Scott (November 20, 2006). "Zicree Blog Is Back on the Air!". zicree. Blogspot.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-24.
  4. ^ Eddie Paskey: TV series filmography. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2007-03-24.
  5. ^ "John Winston (I): TV series filmography. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2007-03-24.
  6. ^ "Sam Witwer". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2007-03-24.
  7. ^ After 40 Years, Original Star Trek Gets Red Carpet Premiere It Deserves « This Writer Wrote
  8. ^ Suellentrop, Chris (December 2005). "To Boldly Go Where No Fan Has Gone Before". Wired (13.12). ISSN 1059-1028. 

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Star Trek fan productions

Starship Exeter · Helena Chronicles · Hidden Frontier · Intrepid · Odyssey · Phase II
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