Fairest of Them All - Sequel to Mirror, Mirror
August 3, 2015 6:56 AM Subscribe
Previously on the blue, the fan produced Star Trek Continues series was mentioned. They have now produced four episodes. If you'd like to sample one, might I suggest watching episode 3, Fairest of Them All. It's a sequel to one of the most celebrated Star Trek TOS episodes - Mirror, Mirror.
That was ... a surprise. A happy surprise. When I saw "fan produced", I got ready to cringe. But this was amazingly good. And the episode itself was an inspired choice, scratching an itch that many of us have had for years, namely: whatever happened to Evil Spock and his Cool Beard.
posted by doctor tough love at 8:30 AM on August 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by doctor tough love at 8:30 AM on August 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
Yeah, these aren't a fan production, they're a miracle, an unprecedented act of mimicry. If you took the late '60s Star Trek cast in a time machine to the present and had the Star Trek Continues guys produce an episode, the result would *be* Star Trek. Each and every frame is a perfectly composed match, and they get the music, the pacing, the language right too. Absolutely amazing - I'm shocked something like this can be so good.
posted by eschatfische at 9:04 AM on August 3, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by eschatfische at 9:04 AM on August 3, 2015 [6 favorites]
I'll have to check this out later, but is this the mob who get absolutely everything right in a truly impressive manner, except the acting bit? Or have they fixed that now?
posted by Devonian at 9:39 AM on August 3, 2015
posted by Devonian at 9:39 AM on August 3, 2015
...is this the mob who get absolutely everything right in a truly impressive manner, except the acting bit?
No no, you're thinking of that Shatner guy.
posted by Scienxe at 10:10 AM on August 3, 2015
No no, you're thinking of that Shatner guy.
posted by Scienxe at 10:10 AM on August 3, 2015
Vic Mignogna (Kirk) was my mentor/idol in college (Liberty University). As a scrub actor, I had the privilege of watching the dude OWN every scene he was in. Comedy, drama, musicals, Shakespeare, Dickens, you name it. We haven't been in touch in 25 years, but it makes me very happy to see him doing this and killing it, as per usual.
posted by Optamystic at 12:19 PM on August 3, 2015
posted by Optamystic at 12:19 PM on August 3, 2015
It's very strange, watching this happen, because it falls so squarely into the category of things that I completely recognise as an act of love towards something I cherish, but cannot engage with at any level.
The magic of ST:TOS is so firmly part of how it was part of its culture back then that to redo it now - even if you got it ab-sol-utely spot on with top-notch actors CGI'd to look and sound exactly like the original cast - is really SCA/RenFaire/Sealed Knot re-enactment. There may be a way for some very, very luminous scripting to imbue it with more than that. by acknowledging and interpreting/questioning the nature of our current culture and its need to inhabit its fantasies and history, but that's not what this is about. Perhaps it will become so, or perhaps it will inspire something which does.
I actually get off on Original Series minutiae, the salt-shaker-scanners and TV tech limitations, the in-fighting and script catastrophes, network ambivalence, the misfires and inspirational hole-in-ones. I frequently fill in the odd hour by picking a random episode and enjoying the hell out of it. I wish there had been more at the time, I wish Series 3 hadn't gone off the rails, and I do wonder what it would have been like if the Trek Ellison had in mind when he wrote the original City script had been the Trek that got made. But I know, exactly, what actually happened there because it actually happened. It's all here on my screen.
Mostly, though, it's because the reason behind the Original Series, the motivation that drove it into reality instead of all the other TV that could have been made, has nothing to do with this recreation. It exists in honour of that, certainly, and I understand and share the desire to celebrate that, but it's not an attempt to fulfil that motivation - and that was the spark that gave life.
One day, perhaps, in a far-future culture where it becomes possible, someone will painstakingly recreate Apollo 11 with real rockets and everything. It will be just as decoupled from the real motivation of the original as this is, and I would be just as decoupled from it.
posted by Devonian at 12:25 PM on August 3, 2015
The magic of ST:TOS is so firmly part of how it was part of its culture back then that to redo it now - even if you got it ab-sol-utely spot on with top-notch actors CGI'd to look and sound exactly like the original cast - is really SCA/RenFaire/Sealed Knot re-enactment. There may be a way for some very, very luminous scripting to imbue it with more than that. by acknowledging and interpreting/questioning the nature of our current culture and its need to inhabit its fantasies and history, but that's not what this is about. Perhaps it will become so, or perhaps it will inspire something which does.
I actually get off on Original Series minutiae, the salt-shaker-scanners and TV tech limitations, the in-fighting and script catastrophes, network ambivalence, the misfires and inspirational hole-in-ones. I frequently fill in the odd hour by picking a random episode and enjoying the hell out of it. I wish there had been more at the time, I wish Series 3 hadn't gone off the rails, and I do wonder what it would have been like if the Trek Ellison had in mind when he wrote the original City script had been the Trek that got made. But I know, exactly, what actually happened there because it actually happened. It's all here on my screen.
Mostly, though, it's because the reason behind the Original Series, the motivation that drove it into reality instead of all the other TV that could have been made, has nothing to do with this recreation. It exists in honour of that, certainly, and I understand and share the desire to celebrate that, but it's not an attempt to fulfil that motivation - and that was the spark that gave life.
One day, perhaps, in a far-future culture where it becomes possible, someone will painstakingly recreate Apollo 11 with real rockets and everything. It will be just as decoupled from the real motivation of the original as this is, and I would be just as decoupled from it.
posted by Devonian at 12:25 PM on August 3, 2015
Okay Devonian, I totally see that. I can appreciate that sentiment and the notion that this is all just so much fandom. I can recognise that and still watch these and go "wow, season four was so much better than season three!"
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 2:14 PM on August 3, 2015
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 2:14 PM on August 3, 2015
Yeah, I'll certainly give this one a pop. Everyone's a critic!
posted by Devonian at 2:38 PM on August 3, 2015
posted by Devonian at 2:38 PM on August 3, 2015
I had already seen the first three episodes of this. I'm watching episode four now, and HOLY COW IS THAT COLIN BAKER?
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 2:39 PM on August 3, 2015
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 2:39 PM on August 3, 2015
Yes, that's Colin Baker. Star Trek Continous does well at getting guest stars. Let's see, they have had Lou Ferrigno, Erin Gray, Michael Forest to reprise his TOS role as Apollo, Marina Sirtis and Michael Dorn to do computer voices, as well as having Chris Doohan (son of James Doohan) to play his father's role as Scotty.
posted by fings at 2:56 PM on August 3, 2015
posted by fings at 2:56 PM on August 3, 2015
The penny just dropped: of course they had Lou Ferigno play the blue-skinned alien. Dude's an old hand at the full-body paint job!
My head asplode.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 3:02 PM on August 3, 2015
My head asplode.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 3:02 PM on August 3, 2015
Best Trek since 1969. It's like the best of SCA/RenFaire/Sealed Knot re-enactment, only on television and even more faithful to the original it's emulating, that being closer in time and better understood.
posted by sfenders at 3:38 PM on August 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by sfenders at 3:38 PM on August 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
Mrs Acroyear and I stumbled onto these a month ago or so and are loving them. As casual to slightly more than casual (big fans as kids, but we don't really own any merch or go to cons or anything) of ST this appeals to us as the best of what ST embodies. So great that Paramount allows this. Case study in building up fandom in a really positive way (thinks of way to disparage Lucasfilm / Disney here and decides against it while still muttering under breath...)
posted by acroyear at 5:53 PM on August 3, 2015
posted by acroyear at 5:53 PM on August 3, 2015
I think they missed an opportunity in not casting an indigenous American to play Miramanee (this time).
posted by jabah at 8:47 PM on August 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by jabah at 8:47 PM on August 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
One thing I like about Star Trek Continues is that they follow up on previous stories, which (with the notable exception of the second movie) never happened in TOS. It never occurred to them to let us see what happened next.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 9:24 PM on August 3, 2015
posted by Pater Aletheias at 9:24 PM on August 3, 2015
I've watched only Fairest of Them All so far, but I'm deeply impressed. There's a lot of love put into this effort, and it shows. Hearing Chris Doohan nail his father's Scottish accent is pretty sweet, too.
If this group decided to extend Star Trek: Enterprise, I think Vic Mignogna would also make an excellent Jonathan Archer.
posted by bryon at 12:31 AM on August 4, 2015
If this group decided to extend Star Trek: Enterprise, I think Vic Mignogna would also make an excellent Jonathan Archer.
posted by bryon at 12:31 AM on August 4, 2015
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