STAR TREK CONTINUES gives fans a SNEAK PEEK at their FINAL EPISODE!

It was truly one of the most extraordinary moments I’ve ever experienced at a convention.  And for the rest of my life, whenever someone uses the word “bittersweet,” my mind will remember seeing the finale of STAR TREK CONTINUES at L.A. Comic Con with the entire cast, some guest stars, writers, directors, VFX and make-up people, crew, about 200 fans…and my son Jayden.

But in addition to “bittersweet,” I would use words like amazing, inspiring, suspenseful, intimate, dazzling, heartfelt, loving, and incredibly satisfying to describe both this final episode and the nearly 90-minute discussion that followed.

THERE WILL BE NO SPOILERS!

In fact, when this episode is finally released onto the Internet on Monday, November 13, I recommend you rush to watch it as soon as you can and allow yourself NO advanced knowledge of anything.  There are truly unexpected surprises in this episode, and you don’t want them ruined.  “To Boldly Go, Part II,” as promised, will end Kirk’s five-year mission with drama, emotion, and an intensity seldom seen in fan films.

It’s a MUST SEE-PLUS-PLUS-PLUS!

As director JAMES KERWIN commented to the audience, he loved hearing everyone applauding at just the right moments, some sniffles at others, all the reactions he was hoping for.  This one hits on all cylinders, folks, and is a beautiful way to wrap up eleven top-notch episodes and five unforgettable years of this beloved fan production.

Anyone wanting to put down show-runner VIC MIGNOGNA or trivialize the accomplishments of these dedicated and talented individuals…well, you’re going to need to do it elsewhere.  As a proud donor and follower of this celebrated fan series, I will stand up for Star Trek Continues every single time!

And speaking of Vic, he respectfully asked for anyone who was recording Sunday evening’s live panel discussion to please not share the video until after the episode had a chance to circulate…as many details were mentioned that could spoil the viewing experience for others.

So I have some wonderful footage from the Q&A session that I will share in a few weeks.  But for now—and I hope Vic will indulge a proud father—I would like to share this one SPOILER-FREE response to a question from my son Jayden, as Vic Mignogna explains his production in a way that any seven-year-old can understand…

Thank you, Vic, for that answer.  And thank to everyone on the STC team for sharing Vic’s dream with appreciative Trekkers who have waited five decades to see Kirk’s historic five-year mission finally reach its conclusion.

13 thoughts on “STAR TREK CONTINUES gives fans a SNEAK PEEK at their FINAL EPISODE!”

  1. This series has TRULY captured the spirit of Star Trek, I think CBS “allowed” these shows to continue because they take us back to where this “Trek” began. Vic and crew “Live long and prosper”

    1. Actually, the reason(s) that CBS “allowed” STC to finish up (rather than suing them) are, I’m sure, many and varied. I doubt it was simply wanting nostalgia to happen. I suspect that, after spending a year and almost a million dollars suing Axanar, CBS did not want to have to deal with another lawsuit and the bad publicity that would come with it…especially just as they were trying to launch a new Trek TV series. Vic and company have also been in contact with folks at CBS almost the entire time they were producing STC. So when the lawsuit hit and later, when the guidelines were announced, I suspect that Vic reached out to CBS to say something like, “Hey look, we’ve already raised $200,000 and have promised fans four episodes…each about $50,000. Please let us do that–we’ll be quick about it–and then we’re done. We’ll be totally respectful toward CBS the entire time, support the new series, and not make any waves.” (That’s not an actual quote, just a supposition from me.) I know that at least some people at CBS licensing really enjoy STC. So a combination of CBS suits not wanting to deal with the cost and fallout of taking more legal action against the fans (even a cease and desist) plus allies on the inside kept STC from being shut down before completing their series.

      And in this, at least, I feel that CBS made the absolutely right call. 🙂

    2. Uh, no, STC (IMHO) merely captures the spirit of Trek fan films. Although not as bad as what is shot in someone’s garage, there are enough writing, exposition, acting, and other production tells that clearly mark it as a fan film and not up to the same production values as the original. (again, IMHO.) CBS got their undies in a bunch over Axanar because (IMHO) it appeared to be superior to anything Trek had done to date and had the potential of overshadowing the CBS product.

      So STC was ‘allowed’ to continue their full-length episodes because their production values were “Just Right.”

      (sidebar, another of my Dad’s stories:)

      A passenger on a 19th century 3-masted sailing ship noted the cabin boy with a bottle of rum in his hands, besotted, falling down drunk. He held the bottle to the passengers and said “This rum is just right. Just right.” Said it every time the passenger saw the cabin boy. Finally the passenger asked the boy when he meant by the phrase.

      The boy replied, “Well, look at it this way. I get this stuff from the captain. If it was any better he’d drink it himself. If it was any worse, I’d have to throw it overboard. It’s JUST RIGHT!!”

      (/ sidebar)

      So STC: If it was any better, it’d get sued by CBS. Any worse and it’d be a footnote. It’s just right (for a fan film).

      1. Most of the “suits” at CBS who were behind the decision to sue Axanar didn’t even know that much about Star Trek. They didn’t see Axanar as “superior” to what the studio was capable of producing, and truth to tell, neither do I. It’s just a different, more classic take on Trek that’s popular with a lot of long-standing fans. Prelude was excellent, don’t get me wrong, but it wasn’t superior to studio quality. Even with the talent behind Prelude, there’s only so much you can do with a hundred grand. And the Vulcan scene was filmed in a parking lot. It was very good, but the suits weren’t worried about being overshadowed. They were simply worried about confusion in the marketplace. And now that we’ve all (well, not quite all) seen Discovery, Axanar and the new TV series really were treading on the same trail. And that meant that the possibility of confusion to the casual viewer really was quite a real possibility.

        As for STC, they didn’t create that same potential for confusion with the new series…only the old series. And that’s not a priority for CBS right now.

        1. Jonathan, we’re saying the same thing. “Confusion in the marketplace” would NOT have happened with Axanar if it had ‘felt’ like a fan film regardless of the Trek epoch. The trouble was, it didn’t ‘feel’ like a fan film. To a lot of us it was awesome, like it had come from a professional studio and not someone’s garage. (Granted, not as ‘professional’ as if they’d spent $5M an episode on it, but TOS never had that equivalent kind of budget either. And look where TOS landed in everyone’s hearts.)

          STC, even though the production values are very good for a fan film, still feels like a fan film. So CBS doesn’t care.

          1. I just wanted to make sure folks knew that CBS never saw Axanar as a “threat” to the property because they thought it was better than the stuff the studios could produce. It was simply that the fans were now coming close enough to blur the line, and that could cause confusion. But no, Axanar was still seen as a lower quality than what the studio could produce and wasn’t worried that Axanar would overshadow their efforts.

            As for STC, it was still an excellent fan film, and in m any ways, just as good or even better than Prelude and possibly even the full Axanar movie (hard to know until the movie is done…and even then, it’s kinda apples-to-oranges). The reason CBS wasn’t as concerned with STC was not because its quality was lower so much as its content was mimicking a series that was 50 years old and, therefore, not a big priority for the studio. Axanar looked like it could be new Star Trek, released today…and that was something that CBS was planning to do in a very similar way.

        2. ……….I 90 percent agree with your assessment here. (I know, what’s the temperature in Hell, right?)

          EVERYTHING except Axanar being in the cross hairs for the principal reason of “covering parallel narrative ground”. My example that contradicts your assertion would be Tommy Kraft, who while planning to make a second Star Trek fan film concentrating on the efforts of a Starfleet vessel called Discovery, was politely asked in advance by CBS to disband the production because in HIS case that did run too closely parallel to some of their plans.

          My personal conclusion based on the fact no such prior warning or C&D was issued to Mr. Peters coupled with my observations of the public chronology of the matter still leaves me firm in conviction that it was in the legal crosshairs due to the cavalier impropriety of Mr. Peters’ handling of someone else’s intellectual property.

          1. Actually, I know the logic of the Tommy Kraft decision on CBS’s part because of inside information. In Tommy’s case, CBS simply didn’t want to wait for Tommy to generate a quarter of a million dollars from fans and THEN sue him. That would have been VERY bad optics, coming on the heels of a lawsuit against another fan production. And they decided ignore Horizon’s existence for mostly the same reason. By the time Tommy got his call in April, Axanar had not only lawyered up but had also forced CBS and Paramount to amend their original complaint. In other words, this Axanar “smackdown” wasn’t going to be as easy as the studios first thought. They were also aware that Tommy had worked on Axanar and, therefore, knew Alec. If Winston & Strawn came in to help Tommy as well in a lawsuit, that would have made things even more difficult for CBS and Paramount…and more expensive. It was already costing them hundreds of thousands to research and write filings on just one fan film. Two would have been even more billable hours at $500-$750/hour.

            In this, CBS and Paramount (actually, just CBS) saw the solution to their Tommy Kraft problem as much simpler and less expensive: a phone call. Stop this train before it leaves the station. And so they did.

  3. My ONLY criticism of your coverage of this panel is that MY fat dumpy self manages to slip briefly on camera during Jayden’s cute question instead of my Smoking Hot Date sitting right next to me. Get her fetching face in there instead of my fugly mug next time. 😉

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