Some great news for fans of Star Trek, the latest episode of Star Trek New Voyages: Phase II has been released online. For those who have not already found this treasure of the web, Phase II (or New Voyages) is an independently made award-winning web-series continuing the original five year mission of the USS Enterprise.
All the original characters remain but are being portrayed by different actors. For example Captain Kirk is played by James Cawley, the founder and star of the series. He obtained copies of the original 1960’s era set’s blueprints on a visit to Hollywood years before and made his dreams a reality by building a standing replica of the original bridge inside a Ticonderoga, NY warehouse where the episodes are filmed.
‘The Child’ is listed as episode 4×07, reflecting that these fans see themselves as continuing on where the original series left off. (Note: This would be the 8th episode released as there was a pilot numbered 4×00) Paramount, which owns the copyright to the Trek franchise, has so far let the production be and has only once used their copyright to halt production of a planned episode. This is quite fortunate for Trek fans who wish to see the classic Kirk and crew on their ‘ongoing mission’.
Now don’t get mad at Moby, but here is my take on this web-series: It peaked right around episode 3, ‘World Enough and Time’, which won rave reviews and the aforementioned awards. The last few episodes seem to be missing that element of ‘exploring strange, new worlds’, but perhaps they just need to be re-watched, and see how Moby feels about them then. Still, if your a fan of the original, this series is worth checking out.
