Star Trek : The New Voyages

Star Trek is a phenomenon which will not die.

The show originally aired in 1966. That was forty years ago. It spawned six television shows, ten feature-length movies (there's an eleventh on the way), and a host of sci-fi conferences.

And now there's a new on-line series, resurrecting the look-and-feel of the original 60's show, which attempts to answer the on-going question of "What else happened during the first Five-Year Mission?"

(The original series only lasted three seasons, cutting short the 'Five Years'.)

In the beginning, it seemed like just a joke, an ego trip for the 'star' of the show, James Cawley, in an effort to pass himself off as the next incarnation of James T. Kirk. He was financing it; he was starring in it; and he had a bunch of friends whose acting abilities left a lot to be desired.

And it was on the net for goodness sake! How cheesy!

By all rights, it should've been relegated to a fifteen-minute frenzy on YouTube, flooding the servers for one day and lost in oblivion the next.

But Mr. Crawley wasn't interested in a one-day wonder. And he wasn't really interested in being hailed as the 'new' Kirk.

He was really interested in the Question.

Interested enough, in fact, to finance a large portion of the project himself. And interested enough to make sure that no one made any money off the deal, which would've placed them square in the legal sights of Paramount.

No, the whole venture was - and is - a labor of love for those people who know what Star Trek is really all about: the fulfillment of the promise of Apollo. The Final Frontier. To boldly go where no one has gone before. To re-imagine the future where race or religion or gender is no impediment to experiencing the ultimate adventure of exploring the Universe.

To imagine where we might have gone had we not turned our backs (mostly) on space exploration thirty years ago.

To imagine where we might go if we made it more of a priority.

To explore ourselves even as we explore the Out There.

**

So far, they've completed three episodes and are working on the fourth. They're getting better with each one. I just watched the third one last night, and was very impressed. As a fan of the Original Series, it was awesome to see the return of Sulu (George Takei), and especially the clever (and poignant) way they worked him into the script.

I can't wait to see the next one!