Star Trek: New Voyages

Novels

In light Of CBS delaying and or cancelling Star Trek there has been a new Novel series produced

History

Star Trek: New Voyages was created by James Cawley 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, NY, but production eventually moved to a former Family Dollar store in downtown Ticonderoga, NY.

For 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 subsequently being reverted 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.

Episodes

Between January 2004 and May 2016 some 11 full-length episodes and a number of short-form "vignettes" were released (see linked article). Three episodes were scripted by professional Star Trek writers: "To Serve All My Days" by Dorothy Fontana; "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 well-known piece of fan fiction from the 1970s.

As of May 2016 several additional episodes were in various stages of pre- or post-production.

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".

Crew

The Star Trek: New Voyages pilot episode was produced by James Cawley, Jack Marshall (series director at the time), 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 (Gene Roddenberry's son). 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 (December 29, 2005) that Marshall would leave the series. 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.

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 ("Crashdown" from Battlestar Galactica, Doomsday in Smallville and Galen Marek from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed) is the voice of the Guardian of Forever (credited as "Simon Judas Raye").

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 (Irina Galliulin in the original series episode "The Way to Eden") 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" episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and "Far Beyond the Stars" for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Reaves, who co-wrote (with Diane Duane) the "Where No One Has Gone Before" episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, originally pitched a story to the unproduced Star Trek: Phase II 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 (author of TOS episode "The Trouble With Tribbles") 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 (and previously Paramount Pictures), 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 cancelled. CBS had not protested over the series' 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 Star Trek: Phase II, or "Mind-Sifter" published by Bantam Books, because they were filmed before the Star Trek movies directed by JJ Abrams were in production. CBS wants to keep all material they have previously purchased or licensed in any way, as possible work to be drawn on for future licensed films.