It's hard to review new voyages. It's hard to even comprehend of new voyages being on IMDb, but somehow it is. The impressive thing about the show is that it looks like star trek. But it is not star trek. It's a bunch of guys pretending to be in star trek.
It's really like a star trek convention on consumer video. With bad sound. The sets and the costumes look close to the real thing... but let's remember the 'look' of the real thing was cheap, campy, and shclocky. What made the original great was the people in the campy costumes and the people behind the ideas of the series. Those people are not a part of new voyages. Thus you are left with the same old camp(this time taking itself very seriously) yet lacking the talent, and tongue in cheek humor, that let star trek live far beyond it's 3 seasons.
To boil the review down to a very simple concept: Everything enduring of star trek is nowhere to be found in New Voyages. Everything that was silly they have in spades. I suppose they try valiantly to capture the social ideals behind the show. But 40 years later, the social ideals apply less and less than they did in the turbulent sixties. i.e. we don't really think an African American woman working along side a white man is such a big deal anymore. Sure the world can always use a dose of tolerance and hope, and if you want that in Star Trek form, I recommend you go purchase or rent the really nice set of dvds that just came out of the original series. The cases for them look great on any shelf, plus there's a great special feature of William Shatner riding around in circles on a horse. THAT'S Star Trek.
I do admire some of the spirit behind new voyages. This no-profit labor of love. But there are issues on the film-making front that merit my low rating. The sound is pretty horrible and echo-ey. I assume they use and XL-1 and I've seen it record much better images. The story lines are muddled and hard to follow. And the acting... whew. The acting on the original was suspect, but charismatic enough to win many hearts. Not so on new voyages. I've seen better acting at a high school play. Again though, the sets, costumes, and props are pretty incredible. And kudos for making it happen, getting the press they have, and following their dream. They managed to inspire me to write a thing about it on IMDb. Which is just sad. Maybe even sadder than the fact that new voyages exists. Which, if you haven't watched it yet, is really quite sad.
It's really like a star trek convention on consumer video. With bad sound. The sets and the costumes look close to the real thing... but let's remember the 'look' of the real thing was cheap, campy, and shclocky. What made the original great was the people in the campy costumes and the people behind the ideas of the series. Those people are not a part of new voyages. Thus you are left with the same old camp(this time taking itself very seriously) yet lacking the talent, and tongue in cheek humor, that let star trek live far beyond it's 3 seasons.
To boil the review down to a very simple concept: Everything enduring of star trek is nowhere to be found in New Voyages. Everything that was silly they have in spades. I suppose they try valiantly to capture the social ideals behind the show. But 40 years later, the social ideals apply less and less than they did in the turbulent sixties. i.e. we don't really think an African American woman working along side a white man is such a big deal anymore. Sure the world can always use a dose of tolerance and hope, and if you want that in Star Trek form, I recommend you go purchase or rent the really nice set of dvds that just came out of the original series. The cases for them look great on any shelf, plus there's a great special feature of William Shatner riding around in circles on a horse. THAT'S Star Trek.
I do admire some of the spirit behind new voyages. This no-profit labor of love. But there are issues on the film-making front that merit my low rating. The sound is pretty horrible and echo-ey. I assume they use and XL-1 and I've seen it record much better images. The story lines are muddled and hard to follow. And the acting... whew. The acting on the original was suspect, but charismatic enough to win many hearts. Not so on new voyages. I've seen better acting at a high school play. Again though, the sets, costumes, and props are pretty incredible. And kudos for making it happen, getting the press they have, and following their dream. They managed to inspire me to write a thing about it on IMDb. Which is just sad. Maybe even sadder than the fact that new voyages exists. Which, if you haven't watched it yet, is really quite sad.