Random Rants and Ravings

I stumbled upon this venture a few years ago, during one of my online searches. The Site: http:www.startreknewvoyages.com , chronicles the production of fan-produced web episodes (or webisodes) of Star Trek (The Original Series) by a group of Trek devotees in upstate New York. There were a few other such groups in operation, but this group had the singular blessings of the Powers That Be to produce their webisodes, as long as no profit was made on the efforts. James Cawley, head of Cow Creek Productions, portrays Captain James T. Kirk. Cawley, an actor in his own right, was already making a name for himself as an Elvis impersonator. In an old church near Ticonderoga, his volunteer crew has built strikingly authentic sets, props and costumes and, by the time I discovered the site, had produced two episodes - Come What May, the pilot, and In Harm’s Way, a sequel to a memorable Trek episode “The Doomsday Machine”. The latter had the distinction of having two veteran Trek guest stars, William Windom and Barbara Luna.
Their latest releases, “To Serve All My Days” and “World Enough and Time” have added Walter Koenig, Mary Linda Rapelye, George Takei and Grace Lee Whitney, respectively, to the list of alumni. Episodes will also feature the distinctive voice of Majel Barret Roddenberry as the voice of the ship’s computer. The Roddenberry family has graciosly provided physical, moral and financial support for the productions. Other Trek Alumni are scheduled to appear in future webisodes. Denise Crosby, who portrayed Tasha Yar in the “Next Generation” series, will portray another member of the Yar family in a two-part webisode now in production. The pilot and the first two webisodes are available for downloading on several mirror sites and the third webisode, “World Enough and Time” is available as a bit-torrent download. Future productions will, most likely be available through bit-torrent for DVD quality file downoads.
The series won TV Guide’s 2007 Online Video Award as Best Online Sci-Fi Webisode.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 21st, 2008 at 11:57 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.