Star Trek Continues

The original 1966 series lives on as if it never ended...however the actors are not the same.

An amazing attempt to bring a 50 year old TV series back to life! The sets, costumes, and scores match up so well with the old show.

Four words: give it a chance! The original 1966 series has been a lifelong partner to me so, at first, "Continues" bothered me because it seemed to be playing around with ideas and plots I had spent decades watching and re-watching. At first, I never liked the "Continues" cast, but after a few episodes I began to warm to them all.

At the time of the this review I really have only one issue with "Continues", the forced attempts at humour between Kirk/Spock/Bones. However, in time maybe even those bits will grow on me???

In a nutshell: this will never be as good as the 1966 original, but it makes a pleasing very well thought out copy.

A couple of brief points:

Continues episode, Pilgrim of Eternity, is a sequel to original series episode, Who Mourns For Adonais, and the Continues episode is actually better than the original.

Vic Mignogna plays Captain Kirk, but he did so much more on the show than just star in it - he WAS the show! He directed, edited and gave very interesting interviews (see Youtube) about what was going on. Perhaps his most relatable comment was how very important the music cues to the old show were. He goes into great detail about matching up the old music with Continues.

And Im not exaggerating. Usually with fan produced stuff you notice the budged constraints and somewhat beginner approach quickly, the color grading, some actors and their performance, story lines etc...

This however, boy. The guy playing Kirk is indistinguishable from Shatner almost, the mannerism, the stance, the voice pattern. Its all spot on. The camera work is exactly the same as in TOS. While the surroundings are a throwback to TOS, combined with today's CGI, its at the same time a perfect homage to the original and also a polished excellent product as a series. And lets not forget the stories, the core of ST. We all know certain ST series were/are not up to par on that front. The ST stories were extremely witty moral quandaries with exceptional, often completely unforeseen, twists at the end and at the same times often breaking social taboos. This series sticks hard to that in most episodes while at the same times balancing it out wonderfully with enough humour and action as the original TOS and other great ST series.

All in all, please give it a chance if you are a ST fan and especially if you like and cherish the original series with Kirk. This show has none of the drawbacks of other fan made series, there is zero evidence its anything other than 100% studio financed product in terms of production and at the same times 100% loyal to all the core values and elements of ST universe that we love and that made it great.

The show does exactly what it set out to do -- recreate the look and feel of the original Star Trek. There are obviously those who will be unable to get past the different actors in the same roles (even more so than with the JJ Abrams films, because the films move in a completely different direction. And therein lies the strength and weakness of this production: the fans.

For this fan, the show was a joy to watch. I don't want to see a parody of James Shatner and the original crew, but rather another take on the same characters. Some are more successful than others, but overall (and especially for a first episode) they did a great job. Heck, go back to the early Next Generation episodes and see how cardboard-thin some of the characters were and how stiff some of the acting ones. OK, so Riker was stiff throughout the season…but I digress.

The more versions of Start Trek there are, the more splintered the fan base will be. Some purists loathe the new films with their blockbuster dependence on CGI, quick cuts and explosions. Some who were raised on Next Generation think everything else inferior. Personally I couldn't stand Voyager. So, watch the episode and decide for yourself.

What a treat for fans of the original series. Obviously the trekkies that joined us at the start of the last two movies will be scratching their heads, they have some back watching to do! At first it was very jarring to see the new actors, I thought they were terrible. But when I reached the end everything gelled, the "shock" of the new people had passed, and the feel of the episode was very genuine to watching the original series. Definitely watch to the end before reserving judgement as you will most likely come around.

About the actors - I was very pleased by most of the actors, they fit really well together. I feel very much that they are emulating the old show to continue the mission without mocking or exaggerating. Anyone can do a passable Shatner impression so I'm glad we were spared this. I thought the Spock actor was very much playing Quinto but it still worked and there was a lot of humor in it, he held himself well. Grant Imahara as Sulu is awesome! I just know with him in the show there must be some interesting robots/technology in the future, plus it's safe in his nerdy hands. Scottys son was great also, although he did stray from Scottish into an Irish accent at times but hey, his fathers accent was just as put on back then.

Production value - I feel like people are confused with the amazing productions we have today that it looks so low budget, but honestly it looks true to the original and I love it for that. There would not be a point to make the series without doing that. Having the same radio and com bleeps just takes you right back.

General message - I was ready to laugh at this, thought it might be someones fan fic / wet dream where Kirk dies and Bob nobody becomes the captain. So I was prepared for the worst, and seeing the new actors was hard and I poked fun at slip ups, but I was completely won over by the end. It felt exactly like an episode of the original series, even with the new characters, and the attention to detail was amazing.

So watch it, laugh at how weird it is seeing Grant as Sulu or Spock being far too Quinto, but do watch until the end, because if you are a fan of the original series this will definitely win a place in your heart. Of course it can never touch the original, but unfortunately many of those great actors have passed, so this is a great way to see how that original 5 year mission ends, in the way that the original team would have done it.

And remember old fans! If you are remembering things with rosy goggles of perfect acting, rewatch Spocks Brain!

I'm critical of 'fan-fiction' in general; the stuff can be hockey as sh!t and completely unbelievable and canon-breaking when the writers of those 'stories' want to see characters just f##k each other for no rhyme or reason. Star Trek Continues has NONE of those problems: I can assure you of that. This is a fan-created series that has stories to tell, not sh!t to spew. And this IS the continuation of The Original Series fan have been eagerly waiting for; if they weren't happy with the movies already.

The queerest thing about this series, though, is that Funimation voice-actor Vic Mignogna (FullMetal Alchemist, DragonBall Z and several other animes) created this show and plays Captain Kirk in all of the episodes. And... he's done a thorough job emulating William Shatner's character. Sure it's not perfect and some of the time Vic is just saying lines, but the guy CAN act in front of camera. He's no dialogue-robot. He's a fan of Gene Roddenberry's legacy and wants to do it absolute justice: both on and off the camera. I don't think many fan films can say that the director, producer and co-writer was ALSO the lead actor of the project.

Star Trek Continues: the best fan-made series ever. At least the best Star Trek fan-film series.