To Boldly Go…..

“Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its 5-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

Today on Far Future Horizons we join the rest of the world in a week long celebration of the fifty year legacy of the greatest science fiction franchise in history - Star Trek.

The five year voyage of the original crew of the Star Ship Enterprise (NCC 1701) continues with two long running fan produced  series titled “Star Trek: New Voyages” and "Star Trek Continues", These are a series of amateur video productions based on the original series but, with new actors and some of the original stars of the series putting in guest appearances. When I say amateur, I do not use this word disparagingly. Quite the contrary, all the productions are a labour of love of the highest calibre paid for and financed by the people involved in the project. The special effects are worthy of any Hollywood production, and the set designs have the look and feel of the original series.

The original series created by Gene Roddenberry and billed as a ‘Wagon Train to the Stars,’ debuted on September 8^th, 1966 on a five-year mission that was cut short by NBC's network executives. Star Trek’s final original series episode aired in June 1969. One month later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon while their fellow crewmate Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit.

"Star Trek: New Voyages" and "Star Trek: Continues" are the continuing missions of the Starship Enterprise with Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Sulu, and Chekov. These new shows are the continuing voyages of Captain Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise, NCC-1701 as seen in the 1966-69 television series, Star Trek. 

To Boldly Go©Robert McCall

The series was cancelled after its third season. The two current fan productions continues the intrepid voyages in its fourth year and is a commemorative project to the fifty year legacy of the original series.

“To Boldly Go Where No Fan Has Gone Before” and "How ‘Star Trek’ Continues to Boldly Go Where No Fan Has Gone Before" are two articles that appeared in Wired Magazine in December 2005 and Real Clear Life in July 2016 respectively. They are about how "a new confederation of amateur Kirk worshippers and studio renegades are repairing the space-time continuum and finishing the job" to complete the five year mission.

After five decades of Star Trek, the show’s legacy has spawned twelve feature films and sired no less than five spin-off television series and an animated show. 

And let’s not forget the countless convention, novels, comic books, models and other merchandise that still feed rabid fans even after the last series – "Star Trek: Enterprise" – was cancelled in 2005. The demise of Enterprise, due to dismal ratings, that no write-in campaign could spare, ended 18 years of continuous Trek TV since the 1987 premiere of "Star Trek: The Next Generation". 

"Star Trek: Discovery", due to premiere in January, 2017 is the first Star Trek series since "Star Trek: Enterprise" concluded in 2005. Set 10 years before the events of the original Star Trek series, separate from the timeline of the concurrent feature films, Discovery explores a previously mentioned event from the history of Star Trek while following the crew of the USS Discovery.

On the World Wide Web the Star Trek craze continues unabated with the production of a number of modern day radio plays set in the universe created by Gene Roddenberry. Worthy of note here are Pendant Productions' “Star Trek: Defiant" and Darker Projects’ “Star Trek - The Section 31 Files” and “Star Trek: The Lost Frontier”.

"Star Trek: Defiant" is a full-cast, ongoing sci-fi serial adventure based upon the Star Trek television series. Defiant started off as a text-based story list in early October of 1995. Back then, Defiant was really something new and different on the newborn, barren wasteland of the internet. A bunch of fans with a similar passion for Star Trek came together and formed close friendships while telling stories about the crew of the USS Defiant (of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fame). These stories then evolved into a series of radio dramas made available for all to download and hear.

The premise of Darker Projects: "Star Trek - The Section 31 Files" is that 'Space is dark. Let's face it. The universe of shiny, well-groomed Starfleet officers and the pristine starships of the United Federation of Planets where the Prime Directive rules and hopes for galactic unity of all species is an ongoing quest is reinterpreted in our vision of the reality of the Star Trek Universe. It's not all "let's be friends with our alien brethren". Here the Federation has a dark underbelly and the daring crew of the Nosferatu boldly goes where Starfleet fears to tread. "These are desperate times. We are the desperate measure."

While "Star Trek: The Lost Frontier" is a look at a dark time in the future of Star Trek. It is the dawn of the 25th century and the galaxy is coming-out of a period of Great War. The story of Lost Frontier focuses on the crew of the new U.S.S. Enterprise 1701-F as they go forth to unite the lost worlds of the Federation.

To all these diehard Star Trek fans, who have made these productions available to the rest of us, all I can say is that I have the greatest admiration for you. Godspeed to you all as you boldly go where no one has gone before.

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