Star Trek

[Buster's Uncle]

The McCoy yelling at Spock stuff is pretty mandatory, but I always hated that stuff - there's somewhere I wouldn't mind a lack of faithfulness to the original.

[Buster's Uncle]

Fat Kor, having merged with the boss from Office Space, wanders the bridge, goblet of coffee in hand, saying "If you could just go ahead and tell me where the Guardian of Forever is, that would be greaat."

[Buster's Uncle]

Those are some sad-looking Klingons...

[Buster's Uncle]

The pacing really draaags in spots.

[Buster's Uncle]

...Hard to get past the thick drawl on their McCoy...

[Buster's Uncle]

...Aaaanf here's the shipporn...

[Buster's Uncle]

If they'd cut this down to regular length, that would have helped the pacing.

[Buster's Uncle]

Aaand they just set up Yesteryear.

[Buster's Uncle]

Well, that sucked - but I can't imagine how one would tell the story as a good episode to begin with.

They forgot to work in Peter Kirk, WHO IS GAY!  DEAL WITH IT!  YOU MAY NOT LOOK AWAY!  -So points for that.

I wish these fan productions could find stronger Spocks - always too young and not deep-voiced enough.

[Valka]

As if I hadn't been jarred out of the scene enough already, hating the Elvis guy.

But... but, that's James Cawley! The guy who executive-produced this! He's the Guy In Charge of the New Voyages/Phase II fan films! He used to play Captain Kirk, before stepping down and hiring the guy currently playing him! And his RL job is being an Elvis impersonator! So it's an in-joke! It's supposed to be funny!

And if I said the above paragraph on TrekBBS, I'd be mercilessly flamed for the next 10 years, at least, since several of the New Voyages/Phase II people post there and one of them is a moderator... That forum actually allows not only moderators, but admins as well, to troll and flame regular members.


I've read multiple versions of this story from the pro version to the fanzine version to a script on fanfiction.net, not to mention the excellent Valjiir interpretation. I really wanted to give an unconditional 5/5 rating to NV/Phase II, since I've loved this story for nearly 40 years.

But I can't. For one thing, this is the second attempt they made at filming the story (there are some clips from the original version on YouTube when Cawley was playing Kirk and they had different scenes). Based on previous familiarity with Cawley's acting, I do think he'd have been better.

I don't actually mind this Spock actor. He's certainly better than most other fan film Spocks I've seen. Can't blame the actor for a couple of the weird speeches he had to give, or turning up in a mental hospital looking like a Vulcan version of Fonzie.

They still haven't found a decent McCoy. The previous one looked grouchy all the time and substituted yelling for acting. This one... there are no nuances. And that memorial service was awful. The Uhura actress can't sing worth a damn, which may explain why they went with the most minimal arrangement possible for "Amazing Grace" and still have it recognizable.

The Enterprise model work is mighty showy - not trying to look like Star Trek.  The model's fine, but the Enterprise should move with gravity...

There is supposed to be a version online that does look more '60s. They did the special effects and model stuff two different ways, as an experiment.


What leaped out at me was the costuming... as in it's just wrong. A "doctor" (there is absolutely nothing about this woman that suggests she's actually a doctor, instead of the original nurse) wearing socks and shoes that a high school girl would wear? A short-sleeved sweater? A doctor bringing a patient outside barefoot?

Well, that sucked - but I can't imagine how one would tell the story as a good episode to begin with.

They forgot to work in Peter Kirk, WHO IS GAY!  DEAL WITH IT!  YOU MAY NOT LOOK AWAY!  -So points for that.

The original script they were going to use did have Peter in it.

[Buster's Uncle]

If their Peter was anything BESIDES gay, I wouldn't have a problem with it - but that's the problem; he's not a person, he's (just) GAY.  Well bully for him, but he takes up space interesting characters with personalities could occupy.  Lame.

[Buster's Uncle]

Mylochka reminded me of something important I left out of my remarks - their new Kirk is definitely a better fit.  Cawley didn't do anything exactly wrong I can put a finger on ...  but just wasn't right for the part.  Absolutely no macho swagger - Kirk needs a hint of that.

[Geo]

I did like at the start Kirk's act on the bridge when he ordered the ship into the neutral zone. Came quite close to how Shatner did the part in similar scenes.

[Buster's Uncle]

[Valka]

Mylochka reminded me of something important I left out of my remarks - their new Kirk is definitely a better fit.  Cawley didn't do anything exactly wrong I can put a finger on ...  but just wasn't right for the part.  Absolutely no macho swagger - Kirk needs a hint of that.

Well, for one thing he's dark-haired. The first time I watched a New Voyages/Phase II fan film, I had to keep reminding myself that it's Captain Kirk in charge of the ship, not Elvis Presley.

Cawley eventually did grow on me as a decent Kirk, but it took awhile. The guy who plays Kirk in the Star Trek Continues fan films, on the other hand, nailed it the first time.

This new actor wasn't portraying a normal Captain Kirk this time, though. We should be able to tell when the next film is released, if he can really do justice to the part.