Star Trek: New Voyages
Star Trek: New Voyages, known from 2008 until 2015 as Star Trek: Phase II, was a fan-created science fiction webseries set in the fictional Star Trek universe. The series was designed as a continuation of the original , beginning in the fifth and final year of the starship Enterprise's "five-year mission." The first episode was released in January 2004, with new episodes being released at a rate of about one per year. Production on new episodes halted in June 2016 following the release of new fan film guidelines by CBS/Paramount in response to the Star Trek: Axanar controversy, with three episodes in post-production left unreleased. The sets constructed for New Voyages were licensed as a 'Studio Set Tour' beginning in July 2016.
The series was the first such show with extensive standing sets, and that it has attracted the talents of a number of professional writers and actors associated with official Star Trek productions, including George Takei reprising his role as Sulu in "World Enough and Time |World Enough and Time", and Walter Koenig as Chekov in "To Serve All My Days". Eugene Roddenberry Jr., the son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, served as consulting producer.
The show's episode "World Enough and Time" was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form in 2008, alongside episodes of Doctor Who, Torchwood, and Battlestar Galactica, but lost to the Doctor Who episode "Blink."
History
Star Trek: New Voyages was created by James Cawley and Jack Marshall in April 2003. Jack Marshall came aboard as a producer with the idea to market the series on the internet. The first episode, "Come What May", debuted on the internet on January 2004. The first episodes were filmed on new sets at a long-shuttered car dealership in Port Henry, New York, but production eventually moved to a former Family Dollar store at 112 Montcalm St. in downtown Ticonderoga, New York. This facility is currently open to the public for tours and is officially licensed by CBS. Tour information is available atFor a five-episode run beginning with "Blood and Fire" in December 2008 and ending with "Kitumba" in December 2013 the series title was changed to Star Trek: Phase II before reverting to New Voyages.
New Voyages creator James Cawley himself portrayed Captain Kirk in the first nine episodes before turning the role over to Brian Gross, choosing to assume a more behind-the-scenes role. Jack Marshall would go on to work on the award winning Battlestar Galactica reboot in 2006.
Episodes
Between January 2004 and May 2016 some 11 full-length episodes and a number of short-form "vignettes" were released. Three episodes were scripted by professional Star Trek writers: "To Serve All My Days" by D. C. Fontana; "World Enough and Time |World Enough and Time" by Marc Scott Zicree; and the two-part "Blood and Fire" by David Gerrold. Two other episodes were based on unfilmed stories for the unproduced 1978 Star Trek Phase II TV series: "The Child" and "Kitumba", neither with the permission of Star Trek rights-holders. Additionally, the episode "Mind-Sifter" was based on a piece of fan fiction from the 1970s.As of May 2016 several additional episodes were in various stages of pre- or post-production.
Cast and crew
Regular characters
The recurring actors on New Voyages are mostly unknowns who were brought to the project because of their love of Star Trek. In the table below the parenthetical numbers indicate in which episodes actors appeared in given roles. Episode "0" is the pilot film "Come What May".| Character | Actor | Rank | Position |
| James T. Kirk | James Cawley Brian Gross | Captain | Captain and commanding officer of the starship Enterprise. |
| Spock | Jeffery Quinn Ben Tolpin Brandon Stacy | Commander | A human/Vulcan hybrid. Science and First Officer. One of Captain Kirk's closest friends. |
| Dr. Leonard McCoy | John M. Kelley Jeff Bond | Lt. Commander | Chief Medical Officer and one of the captain's closest friends. |
| Montgomery Scott | Jack Marshall Charles Root | Commander | Chief Engineer and Second Officer. Best known as "Scotty." |
| Nyota Uhura | Julienne Irons Kim Stinger Jasmine Pierce | Lieutenant | Communications officer and sole female commissioned officer in the regular cast. |
| Hikaru Sulu | John Lim J.T. Tepnapa Shyaporn Theerakulstit | Lt. Commander | Helmsman. First appeared in the vignette "Center Seat" after being away for Starfleet command training. |
| Pavel Chekov | Jasen Tucker Andy Bray Jonathan Zungre Brian Tubbs | Lieutenant | Navigator and Weapons Officer. Currently also holds position as Chief of Security. |
| Vincent DeSalle | Ron Boyd | Lieutenant | Relief helmsman. |
| Peter Kirk | Bobby Quinn Rice | Ensign | Nephew of Capt. James T. Kirk. "Blood and Fire 1 & 2"; "The Child"; "Kitumba"; "Enemy: Starfleet!" |
Secondary characters
Crew
The Star Trek: New Voyages pilot episode was produced by James Cawley, Jack Marshall, Pearl Marshall, Max Rem and Jerry Yuen. Episodes 1 was produced by James Cawley, Jack Marshall, Pearl Marshall, Max Rem, Amanda Stryker, James Lowe, Jeff Quinn, John Muenchrath and Rod Roddenberry. Episode 2 was produced by James Cawley, Jack Marshall, Erik Goodrich, James Lowe, Jeff Quinn, John Muenchrath and Rod Roddenberry.The pilot and the first two episodes were directed by Jack Marshall. However, after filming of "To Serve All My Days" it was announced that Marshall would leave the series. Marshall had been offered a position with the visual effects team of Battlestar Galactica and moved from Washington DC in February of 2006 to Los Angeles California. Max Rem continued his participation for another 6 months of post production and then also left the project.
July 2013 saw major announcements for production of the series, with James Cawley leaving the role of Captain Kirk to focus solely on production of the show and original series writer David Gerrold taking on the duties of Executive Showrunner in hopes of producing episodes with greater regularity. Gerrold also personally announced that due to an overwhelming backlog, the show would no longer accept script submissions, nor would any episodes based on existing Star Trek books, comics, stories or other published works be adapted to the series – due to a request by CBS legal in the fall of 2011. Rather, all further episodes will come from original works by previous Star Trek writers or crew associated with the series.
''Trek'' alumni support
Several past members of the Star Trek cast and crew have expressed support for the project, and even contributed to it.Guest actors
Other support
The first episode, "In Harm's Way," features Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry, Jr., the son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, as a consulting producer. Sam Witwer is the voice of the Guardian of Forever.For the second episode, "To Serve All My Days," written by original series writer D.C. Fontana, original cast member Walter Koenig reprises his role as Pavel Chekov. Mary-Linda Rapelye appears as an ambassador.
The third episode, "World Enough and Time," was co-authored by Marc Scott Zicree and Michael Reaves. Zicree, who also directed the episode, contributed the stories for the "First Contact |First Contact" episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and "Far Beyond the Stars" for '. Reaves, who co-wrote the "Where No One Has Gone Before" episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, originally pitched a story to the unproduced ' series in which Sulu ages by thirty years, and that story served as the basis for this New Voyages episode. Majel Barrett Roddenberry provided the computer voice in this episode.
David Gerrold has signed on to pen two episodes. One, originally entitled "Blood and Fire," was originally pitched for Star Trek: The Next Generation, but was rejected. Gerrold later claimed the story was rejected because it dealt with homosexuality and AIDS. It was later re-worked as the third book in his Star Wolf series of novels. Denise Crosby guest starred as Natasha Yar's grandmother, Dr. Jenna Yar, in David Gerrold's "Blood and Fire." In addition, Bill Blair guest starred as Commander Blodgett, and The Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan made a cameo appearance as Admiral Keoghan.
Legal status and controversy
Like all fan-films, New Voyages exists at the whim of the Star Trek franchise owners CBS, which has to date tolerated the distribution of fan-created material as long as no attempt was made to profit from it.This tolerance was tested in early 2012 when New Voyages announced that they would film "He Walked Among Us," an unproduced script that Norman Spinrad had sold to the original series. But when CBS claimed ownership of the material, the plans were canceled. CBS had not protested over the series's use of "Blood and Fire", which had been written for Star Trek: The Next Generation; "The Child", and "Kitumba", which had been similarly developed in the late 1970s for the aborted series , or Mind-Sifter published by Bantam Books, because they were written before the Star Trek movies directed by JJ Abrams were in production. CBS wants to keep all material it has previously purchased or licensed in any way as possible work to be drawn on for future licensed films.