Are you a Star Trek: New Voyages Fan?

A G5 for the 24th Century!
By Ed@Smalldog.com

A couple of weeks ago, Don Mayer received an email with the
intriguing subject, "A G5 for the 24th Century?" The email was from
Charles Root of Retro Film Studios, best known for their highly
regarded and hugely popular web-based series Star Trek: New Voyages.

If you are a Star Trek fan or simply a fan of great web-based movies,
you've probably heard of New Voyages. For everyone else, New Voyages
is a highly regarded, broadcast-quality, fan-created series set in
the Star Trek universe, focusing on the fourth year of the Starship
Enterprise's five-year mission. It is distributed on the web for
free. Episodes produced so far include the pilot, "Come What May,"
followed by "In Harm's Way." "To Serve All My Days" will be released
on September 8, 2006, at the Star Trek 40th Anniversary Gala
Celebration & Conference. Two more episodes are in preproduction:
"All The World and Time" and "The World Above, The Sky Below."

According the the New Voyages website, the idea of the series
originated with James Cawley. He had already assembled a large
collection of Star Trek set pieces and props, and had even built an
extremely impressive set based on the original Starship Enterprise
bridge. He had an idea to make a fan film, and with input from
director Jack Marshall, the series was set to launch.

New Voyages has attracted great interest from Star Trek alumni. "In
Harm's Way" featured Eugene Roddenberry, Jr. as a consulting
producer. The excellent special effects are handled by Max Rem, who
also worked on the Enterprise television series. Several writers from
various Trek series have pitched in as writers and even actors. The
next episode, "To Serve All My Days," was written by D.C. Fontana.
Indeed, "To Serve All My Days" will feature Walter Koenig in his
famous original role of Pavel Chekov — truly amazing for a web-based
series. George Takei will return as Sulu in the next episode, set to
begin shooting in September.

The New Voyages website proudly declares "STAR TREK LIVES!" Some of
the actors may only vaguely resemble the original cast, but the sets,
music, costumes and uniforms, and alien makeup seem as if they were
beamed from the late 1960s to the present day. It feels like a bona
fide, CBS-produced Star Trek TV series. Indeed, most of the effects
(especially space and ship scenes) are superior to the effects in the
original series.

New Voyages has the pioneering spirit of the original Star Trek
series. In real life, New Voyages is comprised of a diverse crew
working toward a combined goal. Charles Root, who sent the original
email to Small Dog, plays Mr. Scott. The other recurring cast
includes James Cawley as Captain Kirk, Jeff Quinn as Mr. Spock, John
Kelly as Doctor Leonard McCoy, Andy Bray as Lt. Pavel Chekov, John
Lim as Lt. Cmdr. Hikaru Sulu, Julienne Irons as Lt. Nyota Uhura, Ron
Boyd as Lt. Vincent Desalle, Shannon Giles as Nurse Christine Chapel,
and Katrina Kernodle as Yeoman Janice Rand. James Lowe, who is a Co-
Producer/Art Director and Website Co-Administrator (and also plays an
alien Federation Ambassador) wrote in with links to some pictures
(all photos are property of Star Trek New Voyages):

http://www.startreknewvoyages.com/files/j-lo/sfm/album/

Effects and editing for New Voyages happen on of a variety of
computers and in a variety of software packages. Previous episodes
were cut on Adobe Premiere, with ship animation created in Lightwave.
Other post effects were added with Adobe After Effects. Some
rotoscoping and additional visual effects were done in Combustion.
Apple's Motion program might be used for some of this in the future.

Previously, some editing was done on a G3, which simply could not
keep up with production. Small Dog Electronics loaned New Voyages a
2.3 GHz Power Mac G5 to finish the current episode, "To Serve All My
Days," with Walter Koenig, which premiers September 8 at the Star
Trek: 40th Anniversary Gala Celebration & Conference at the Science
Fiction Museum in Seattle.

It is important to remember that the creators, cast, and crew of New
Voyages do not profit from its production. The best way to donate is
through gift cards from the retailers they buy supplies from. You can
also contact them with other ideas.

Successful, incredibly popular productions blending professional
knowhow, digital "prosumer" equipment, and amateur enthusiasm are
uprooting the traditional movie creation and distribution model. If
you want to see the future of media on the internet, visit New
Voyages here:

http://www.startreknewvoyages.com/1024/home.php
Posted by Cyndi Danner-Kuhn