'Star Trek' fans take series into new dimension
Chris Pine isn't the only actor currently stalking the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise.
In the fan-produced web series Star Trek Continues, Vic Mignogna is at the helm as Captain James T. Kirk. His most recent mission involved stopping -- and understanding -- an alien that had infiltrated the Enterprise.
That tale plays out in the series' sixth episode "Come Not Between the Dragons," which began streaming in May. Star Trek Continues has racked up about five million views. "Our goal was to pick up where the original series was abruptly cancelled in its third season and basically complete the five-year mission (of the Enterprise)," said Mignogna, who also writes, directs and produces.
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With another episode already in the can, set to be released this fall, Star Trek Continues is the standard-bearer for fan-produced fiction.
Among its fans: Rod Roddenberry, son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and executive producer of the new Star Trek series coming to CBS All Access in 2017. "Their writing, their costumes, their sets, their lighting — everything is spectacular,"” Roddenberry told TrekNews.Net this year. (He has a cameo in the latest Star Trek Continues episode.)
Star Trek Continues carries on a long tradition of fan fiction that has evolved as digital video and streaming media provided Trekkies with better tools to create and share their own Trek stories. More than a dozen full-fledged fan productions have been created since Kirk & Co. officially retired from the big screen.
Star Trek Hidden Frontier, which launched its Star Trek: Deep Space Nine universe-based web series in 2000, has a catalog of 50 episodes.Star Trek actors George Takei(Sulu) and Walter Koenig (Chekov) have joined the fan-produced Star Trek New Voyages, spawned in 2004.
Koenig also appears in Star Trek: Renegades, called by fan-fiction site Fan Film Factor the most expensive Trek fan film, after it raised more than $375,000 on Kickstarter. The two-part film is in production this summer, with Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura, aboard.
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Fan devotion drives the creators of these productions -- and followers' interest. "There is an insatiable appetite for everything relating to this series," said Dave Arland, who's on the advisory board of the planned Museum of Science Fiction in Washington, D.C. A Trek fan, he has provided financial support and lent props from his collection to Star Trek Continues.
"Why is it so popular? It is a universal positive affirmative view of what will come," Arland said. "Star Trek says we are going to have a future where everything is going to be alright."
Star Trek Farragut begun in 2005 to chronicle the story of the ship Kirk served on before becoming the Enterprise's captain, invited Mignogna to direct an episode. That led to spawning his own enterprise and taking over the original Farragut sets in Kingsland, Ga.
"That made me realize I really wanted to do this myself," he said. "I wanted to pay tribute to Star Trek and one time in my life get to play Captain Kirk. And pour all of the love I had for that show into this project."
Star Trek Continues has its own connections to the Trek lore. Chris Doohan, the son of James Doohan, took on his father's role of Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, the Enterprise's head of engineering, and Marina Sirtis, who played Counselor Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation, provides the voice of the ship's computer.
Mignogna and crew aim to make Star Trek Continues, which produces two episodes a year, look and feel as much like the original Trek as possible.
Like many fan projects, Trek Continues has used crowdfunding sites to raise money for its productions. (Trek copyright holders Paramount and CBS have for years allowed fan productions to raise money, but not to profit from their projects.)
With three or four more episodes, Mignogna thinks Trek Continues can bridge the narrative gap between the end of the original series and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. "Capt. Kirk in the motion picture had taken a desk job," he says. "Everybody knows how much Kirk loves his ship. You would think they would have to pry him out of that chair kicking and screaming. In my mind, whatever it was that made Capt. Kirk decide to leave his ship and take a desk job is a great story."
If Trek Continues can finish its mission, "that effectively would give a series finale to what is arguably the most iconic TV series in history that was abruptly canceled and never had an ending," Mignogna says. "This is my love letter to Star Trek. I know that what I’m doing represents billions of people out there who are inspired by the original series the same way I was."