Last weekend I was at Colossalcon, and while scoping out the panel schedule, I noticed that Vic Mignogna (dub voice of Ed Elric, Obito Uchiha, Tamaki Suoh, and a ton of other cool kids) would be leading a panel called “Star Trek Continues with Vic Mignogna”. Now, I knew that Vic was a huge fuckin’ nerd and that he loved Star Trek from previous panels of his that I’ve attended, but I apparently didn’t know how far his obsession extended. My friends and I went to the panel without a real idea of what was going to happen there.
Turns out Vic had put together a you-had-to-see-it-to-believe-it cast that ranged from fellow anime voice actor Todd Haberkorn (Death the Kid, Ling Yao, Natsu Dragneel) as Spock, to James Doohan’s son Chris Doohan as Scotty, to Mythbuster Grant Imahara as Sulu, and had built sets that were exact replicas of the TOS stages*. They filmed an episode that was a sort-of sequel to TOS’s “Who Mourns for Adonais?” starring the original actor who played Apollo.
Star Trek Continues is, so far, only one the episode, but it really captures the feel of TOS in a way that Abrams’s film adaptations have proved themselves incapable of. Vic, as such a huge fan of the original series, understands that the real draw of Star Trek is the human drama and philosophical dilemmas rather than flash-bang action and lens flares, and the episode shows it.
My only real complaint about the first episode is that Vic has such a high voice, and I know there’s nothing he can do about that and that his voice is sort of his trademark…. But he looks and acts so much like Shatner’s original Kirk that it’s a bit jarring to hear Edward Elric’s voice come out of him.
The first episode was entirely funded by the actors as proof that they could do what they were setting out to do, but according to Vic they’ll be kicking off some sort of crowdfunding effort through Kickstarter or some such in the near future. As this isn’t actually licensed by CBS, this is basically filmed fanfiction that they can’t legally make money from, but they can cover the costs of creation. With the varied fanbases of the actors involved, I don’t doubt that they’ll easily reach their funding goal, but that won’t stop me from encouraging folks to donate when the time comes!
Watch the first episode here at StarTrekContinues.com!
*Edited to clarify: sets were created by Farrugut Films and used by the STC crew.
Lady Geek Girl and Friends 