STAR TREK CONTINUES releases its SERIES FINALE! (includes special video intro by VIC MIGNOGNA)

38 thoughts on “STAR TREK CONTINUES releases its SERIES FINALE! (includes special video intro by VIC MIGNOGNA)”

1. Good Riddance Forever.

   While it was cool to see Amy Rydell play the Romulan commander and sad to see Smith sacrifice her life, STC was nothing more than Vic’s personal spite against James Cawley and the now defunct New Voyages/Phase II production. I hope he is happy(note the sarcasm).

   As for Elise McKennah’s passing, the character was certainly pointless. In all honesty, the character threw out what Vic was trying to accomplish out of balance. McKennah never really belonged. She was just eye candy.

   It is what it is.

   1. Wow, you really don’t feel ANY embarrassment when you write a post like that? None? Takes all kinds, I guess.

      I suppose you can join the rest of the STC detractors then…I think they’re sharing an Uber later on tonight, and they’ve still got space left for you, Blue. 🙂

      1. Nope, I don’t. Like I once told that one hit wonder David Gerrold – after a dispute – I don’t care what people think.

         Unlike Gerrold and your friend, Alec, I’ve always lived by the ‘honesty is the best policy’ rule. Better to be criticized for that than the exact opposite of it.

         Thanks, but it is not necessary. I’ll be taking a page from Dr. McCoy’s book – something that he spoke to Jim and Spock about at the end of this episode.

         LLAP

         It will be interesting to see what will happen to the STC sets, now that production has ended. Chances are they will probably be recycled along with the rest of the costumes.

         1. “It will be interesting to see what will happen to the STC sets, now that production has ended. Chances are they will probably be recycled along with the rest of the costumes.”

            Guess again. Tune in next Friday to learn more! 🙂

   2. I have always found fan films a bit underwhelming. But Continues is without question the best of them, irrespective of Vic’s motivations. The fact is the care and effort that goes in to these in terms of making it look and film like TOS is really quite amazing. Overall, aside from the past 15 or so minutes, I thought this was one of their weaker episodes. But it nonetheless shows a lot of hard work and dedication and I really have a hard time criticising people who do this for their love of TOS and not for profit, unlike some supposed fan film makers that are trumpeted by this site. I think they deserve respect for that alone.

2. Will watch it – first part was pretty good. But I wouldn´t call STC “groundbreaking”. That belongs to the other series, “Phase 2”, which was really breaking new ground in the way they did things. STC was made on these shoulders, one should never forget that.

   1. You can have more than one groundbreaking fan series, Northstar. Renegades, Axanar, Hidden Frontier, and Horizon were also groundbreaking. STC was groundbreaking in how well-oiled a fan film machine it had become. While New Voyages pioneered the entry of fan films into the world of $100+K practical sets; using veteran Star Trek actors, writers, and industry professions; and paying (some) folks who worked on their episodes, there were still production issues that affected the show’s schedule. NV was never able to release more than one full episode per year, with an occasional two-year gap. Three episodes remained filmed but uncompleted. STC released two episodes per year for four consecutive years and manged four full episodes in their final year. To me, that’s groundbreaking. And that doesn’t diminish anything that New Voyages did. Both series were amazingly impressive and proud achievements in the history of Star Trek fandom.

3. This Is Spectacular!

4. I won’t be riding in that Uber, What an incredible tribute to TOS. Suspense, action packed, well paced and every minute a gift to be remembered. Thank you Vic and Crew, well done…

5. Actually, Jonathan, Blue has a point, even if it comes across as snarky. I don’t follow STC, but when I watched “Boldly Go” part I and the first scene was 3 very longgggggg minutes with Spock and McKennah and how they were bonding over the meditation, my first thought was “Oh is she ever going to die by the end of the show.”

   No, I haven’t seen (nor am I inclined to see) Part II yet for reasons I mentioned after part I came out, namely Kirk volunteered his ship’s jeopardy after 4 ships or crews were lost in the same area, he took very little precautions and (surprise!) his ship was commandeered by the Espers. (I mean, if a modern-day Arleigh Burke class destroyer had a captain who did what Kirk did he’d be out of a job faster than the two recent ones who collided with commercial ships in Asian waters.)

   How can I aspire to be the best Captain Kirk I can be when the ones on the show are dumber than I am?

   1. Well, if you don’t like STC, there’s still room left in the Uber for you, David. 🙂

      1. Sorry, no Ubers (or tow trucks) at Mars, Jupiter, or Saturn where my hardware goes. (“No Tow Trucks Beyond Mars” is the title of my San Diego Comic Con panel I give every year)

         SPOILER ALERT– READ NO FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED YET!!

         OK, I stopped watching after 9 1/2 minutes because the story wrenched itself out of my head with a 1300g impulse. At first it was “whuuuttt? MR. SMITH is the one that got the Big E out of danger?!?!?!? Not Kirk? Not Spock?” Where did THAT come from? Completely unforshadowed from the previous episode (Gotta be CAREFUL with foreshadowing, too much and you TELEGRAPH to the audience what’s going to happen ala Disco’s Mirror universe, too little and things come out of left field like all-of-a-sudden Smith has the same powers as the bad guys.) Well, wasn’t that just convenient? For the writer it was, but what did the CHARACTERS do to get themselves out of their bind?

         5:45, yeah, what ARE they waiting for, especially if they’re such omnipotent beings? Gotta be careful when writing omnipotent beings, guys, they’re, well, omnipotent. They can cruise all over you without a problem. If they’re not omnipotent, then the RULES of their power must be established, and I really wasn’t seeing that.

         But that’s me.

         OK, 7:30, what’s with the WANGST from Kirk?!?!?! (Yeah, sorry, at first I thought it meant wanky-angst, too, but after I looked it up it really refers to ‘whiny-angst.’) Crybaby. Yep, when you’re in command people sometimes die. (Didn’t they teach you that in Fancy-Lad’s School?) Sometimes you have to let them die so you can save the rest of the ship. It happens. Grow a pair.

         At 9:30 when McKennah NOW tells Smith how she got her powers I shut it off. Completely derailed my suspension of disbelief. That happened because the WRITER wanted it to happen, not because the characters made it so.

         But, hey, that’s just me, so for those who enjoyed it, great. Unfortunately for me my wife went to UCLA film school and we don’t look at movies/TV the same way most folks do and when the writing is a bit shaky we derail and pull out of the story very easily. Sometimes we’ll yell at the TV with screenwriting terms (“HEY!!! You call THAT a page 60?!?!? Dude!! IT’S TIME. Page 60 that creep and let’s move on!!!) So take my comments with a grain of NaCl.

         1. Sorry that I don’t have time for a longer response, but the whole Starbase Studios mess has left me far behind on comment approval.

            Anyway, I just wanted to correct you in that Smith’s abilities were, indeed, foreshadowed. In part one during the scene in the briefing room, they briefly discuss Smith’s having been in physical contact with Gary Mitchell when he got zapped. She reported no side effects that she hadn’t already included in her official report, but she did seem uncomfortable about her answer and sounded somewhat hesitant. That counts as foreshadowing in my book, at least.

            As to the UCLA film school stuff, I have a number of Bruin friends who are just like that. (My wife graduated from UCLA Law–many of them were her friends first.) One is an editor, and yeah, discussing anything film related with him is quite a trip…and just by osmosis, I’ve developed quite the editor’s eye. That said, I’m surprised you and your wife criticized the writing, considering the writer, Robert J. Sawyer, has won nearly 30 different major literary awards, including a Nebula and a Hugo, and has had 23 novels published. I think he might, in fact, know what he’s doing. 🙂

6. I don’t see any reason this should not be canon.

   1. Works in my head. 🙂

7. Well, I DID listen, drop everything, watch the last episode, and WOW!
   Fantastic. So, now, finally, I will go and watch all the episodes I missed since I’m relatively new to fan films in general. Spoiled somewhat, because Axanar was my first taste, then Star Trek Horizon, by Tommy Kraft, followed by the fan film Mark Zicree’ “World Enough and Time” where Sulu comes back after a 30yr disappearance due to space/time anomalies. And now this grand finale. I say, Bravo, to all who made these cans more, possible. And Thank You Jonathan for bringing attention to it all.

   1. You might want to take a scroll down though this page, David:

      https://fanfilmfactor.com/log-entries-fan-film-features-3/

8. Highly enjoyable stuff, and I take my hat off to the production team (as I do to those at P2/NV), who can be enormously proud of what they’ve achieved. To be entirely honest, I don’t think it was necessarily STC’s strongest in terms of story, with some occasionally pantomime villainy, an indulgent/unlikely death scene and a slightly jarring transition to the pyjama period. But who really cares? What comes across as most apparent is the producers’ love and respect for the original series by utilising their incredible sets, costumes, lighting, SFX and cinematography, reminding many of us of why we fell in love with ST in the first place. Congratulations to all involved.

9. The entire series has been a proof (as if it need one) that Star Trek is at it best when it’s about exploration, not just about strange new world, new life, and new civilization, but also include the exploration of character and idea as well. It is something that a lot of fan films and (unfortunately) some incarnations of Star Trek seem to forgot.

   It’s also fitting, to me, that the final adversary in Kirk’s 5 years mission is the continuation of the first one.

   I will missed the series, for sure.

   1. You’re so right – I just got through watching the series finale myself – Gotta say, I’m going to miss Continues as well – I really wish they could have slapped on those extra two episodes, maybe even another season, but to quote Q in the T.N.G. finale, “All good things must come to an end…” – Looking forward to more good Trek, from either the Continues crew or someone else – Still waiting on Pacific 201 and First Frontier, if those are still in the works *hopeful* Live long and prosper everyone… P 🙂

      1. Yep, both Pacific 201 and First Frontier are still in active post production.

10. Congratulations to Vic and crew for a job well done! It’s nice to see that hard work and passion still produce great results.

    It seems to me the series got better with each episode.

    And thanks, Jonathan, for your work. It it hadn’t been for your website I might never have known STC existed!

    1. Just curious, John (and I should probably ask this question more often), how did you first find out about Fan Film Factor?

11. The entire run of STC, but especially these last two episodes, is an incredible achievement. I’m a big fan of TMP so I very much appreciated the way these last few episodes helped fill in the gap from the end of TOS to the start of TMP. It’s a wonderful gift to the fans and we should all be grateful to Vic and his team. I agree with James High — as far as I’m concerned this is canon.

    To STC’s detractors I’ll say the same thing I say to anyone who disses a fan film: let’s see *you* do better, until then STFU.

    On a general note, considering that Kirk is inspired by Horatio Hornblower, I’ve never understood why it was always considered so sad and “bittersweet” that Kirk accepted promotion to Admiral. From the time he was a midshipman Hornblower was always eager for promotion. The stories where Hornblower was a commodore and an admiral were some of the best and the same thing could easily have been done with Kirk.

    I can’t help but feel that if C. S. Forester were writing Star Trek, then the next book after the five year mission would have seen Kirk as a Commodore with Spock as Captain of the Enterprise, Uhura as his XO, and Sulu and Chekov in command of their own ships in Kirk’s squadron. After that Kirk would go on to become an admiral in charge of a starbase, Spock would become a diplomat in that region, Uhura would take command of the Enterprise, which, along with Sulu’s and Chekov’s ships, would be based out of Kirk’s starbase and under his command. And after *that* Kirk would become head of Starfleet, overseeing it’s transition to the TNG era before he retires to live out his days in comfort — but he would get one last adventure even in retirement.

    1. Well, remember that there’s a lot of starships and a lot of crews in Starfleeet. Not every Enterprise officer is destined for a command of his or her own. No offense to Ms. Uhura, but I never saw her as moving into a command position–much like Scotty became a Captain of Engineering without ever commanding a starship (at least, not at that point in his life). More likely, I could see Uhura moving up the ranks within Starfleet itself and leading its communications department…possibly one day becoming an admiral (I like to give Renegades the benefit of the doubt).

       As for the STC detractors, yeah, let’s see them do better! 🙂

    2. To STC’s detractors I’ll say the same thing I say to anyone who disses a fan film: let’s see *you* do better, until then STFU.

       Can you do any better?

       Honestly, It’s not the quality that I hate about STC. It was the reason behind it and the motivations that Vic had, concerning its creation. While I’ll admit the sets, costumes, sound, and sfx were good, the writing was bad, as was the real reasons and purpose behind Vic creating the series. To crush the competition: James Cawley and Star Trek-New Voyages/Phase II. And it was all because Vic could not get his way.

       1. To reduce Vic’s motivations to something that petty is, itself, pretty petty…and massively unrealistic. Yes, Vic had his falling out with James and believed NV could be done better and more efficiently. But that was hardly Vic’s sole reason for starting up STC. And it certainly had no bearing on why the rest of the cast and crew was involved in STC.

          I’ll say it again, Blue: you seem to live in a very dark and negative place. Try coming up for some fresh air once in a while. It’s good for you! 🙂

12. Believe me, there is nothing that I would like better than some fresh air. Fresh air that wasn’t poisoned and polluted by so much by man’s stupidity and other negative BS.

    1. You’re really failing at this whole optimism thing.

       1. And you’re passing at it, I suppose?

          Honestly, with all of this BS turbulence erupting in Star Trek fandom, be it fan films or old and new fans clashing, I’d say it was high time that Star Trek went into retirement.

          It has gone as far as it can go.

          1. It yet, Star Trek continues on…day after day…despite your attempts to try to kill it by saying it’s run it’s course.

             You yourself are an example of Star Trek’s health and persistence, Blue. If Star Trek were really dead, you wouldn’t be here day after day arguing that is should be dead. You’d simply get on with your life, stop visiting this blog site, and left others who still truly love and care about this franchise enjoy and discuss it.

             In many ways, you remind me of the guy with the sandwich sign and the bullhorn who is there on the street, day after day, telling people that the end of the world is coming. And day after day, it doesn’t end. Maybe some day it will (my calendar has it marked for about 3 billion years from now), and maybe on that day, the guy with the sign will say, “See, everyone? I told you I was ri—”

             I always thought those people were creating a lose-lose scenario for themselves. After all, if they’re right and the world is ending, then take the time to smell the roses, enjoy this planet and this life as much as possible for every millisecond you can! But instead, the guy is wasting those precious moments standing on the same street corner every day and yelling at people who pretty much just find it annoying. Such a waste. And of course, if the world doesn’t end, then it’s the same situation except the the guy spends his entire life being wrong. And of course, if he’s right, then once the world does end, no one will care much about the guy being right ’cause they’ll all be dead. So…lose-lose.

             1. To quote science fiction novelist William F. Nolan, “When you are on a sinking ship, you don’t stay on board.”

                Walter Koenig was right about lauding an old ghost. Star Trek has become that.

             2. Whatever.

13. Thank you, thank you, thank you for giving Star Trek the final episode that it deserved for 50 years. I have enjoyed every minute appreciating every little detail, as much as I enjoy the rest of the series and Phase 2 and Exeter and Farragut and, so many others that have put their “bit of sand” with more or less success to keep alive the flame.

    From Spain I am not aware of fights and disputes (now that I follow the blog I am catching up) but perhaps the distance allows me to enjoy without prejudice the enormous work of all these creators and to thank EVERYONE equally their enormous effort and their love for this Trek universe that, I think, we all share, and also to you for keeping me informed

    Greetings from Spain and I hope that the automatic translator does not detract much what I try to say,

    1. Muchas gracias, amiga. No hay problema con el traductor tuyo, Patricia. ¡Y beinvenidos al mundo de fan films!

       (I did that all without an auto-translator–how’s my high school Spanish holding up?) 🙂

       1. Sounds really good,,,:)

          I wish the YouTube subtitle was just as good 😛

14. I think I like this explanation for Kirk accepting promotion better than the one that’s been floating around the last 30 or so years -that Starfleet shoved a promotion Kirk’s throat because he’d become too valuable to keep in the captain’s chair out there.

    1. Well, I don’t think STC completely eliminated the original explanation. I suspect that, yes, Starfleet wanted to keep Kirk “safe” and also “out of trouble.” This guy bent the Prime Directive into a pretzel, and was a total loose cannon much of the time. Give Kirk an order and HOPEFULLY he’ll follow it. I suspect the top brass preferred it be Kirk who was the admiral giving orders rather than the captain who as often as not disobeyed those orders. 🙂

       Anyway, I suspect Nogura was expecting more of an uphill battle convincing Kirk, but five years is a long time, and Kirk was worn out. So I think both explanations can coexist.

Comments are closed.