[Spotlight Post] Star Trek Continues

This week’s spotlight is for something I wasn’t sure I was going to like, but I do, and you might want to check it out – and that’s Star Trek Continues. We’ll talk more about this next Sunday, June 29th at 1 pm at SoonerCon.

It’s no secret that I wouldn’t be where I am today – or who I am today if Star Trek and watching it with my dad growing up. For years and years, we had a standing father/daughter date for opening weekend of the ST:TOS movies. But if you want to know more about that, some to the panel at SoonerCon, this is about Star Trek: Continues.

It’s really hard to even wrap your head around the idea of something that was so integral to your growing up being recast and moved forward. But that’s what this project is. Larry Nemecek was involved with the creation and formation. I met Larry Nemecek through various SoonerCons over the years. He’s a celebrated authority on Trek. I’m a fan, but he’s the professional. He’s a cool guy – and because of our limited history together in regional fandom, I didn’t dismiss Continues out of hand. But it was still hard to make myself take the step to actually watch.

Then I was working Dallas Comic Con’s Fan Days this past February, and one of the media guests was Vic Mignogna. Vic plays Captain Kirk. He’s also instrumental in the creation of the episodes – he wrote the third episode, “Fairest of Them All”, which (and not just because I’m writing this now and going to see him next weekend) is my favorite episode to date – though I’ll have to get used to the new McCoy. I’d just gotten used to Larry being McCoy – which is a whole other weird adjustment (which will be – I hope a funny story for the panel…)

You see it took me three episodes to retrain my brain. The first episode, “Pilgrim of Eternity” was hard to watch because my brain was going “It’s wrong! WRONG!” (Except Chris Doohan, who’s so much like his dad, it was creepy for about 10 minutes.) “Lolani” was good – that’s when my brain accepted the new casting – which almost would’ve been easier if they weren’t being just SO VERY TRUE to the source material. DUDE, Mignogna could be William Shatner’s younger clone the way he’s doing this role. But “Fairest of Them All” in the Mirror Universe? That’s just darned good work.

Not only do I look forward to seeing what other stories they come up with, this is a cast, a crew, and a universe that if anyone said, “Hey, Rhonda, you wanna come play?” How fast can I say, “yes”. So check it out. It’s free online. Production values are OUTSTANDING. This is no ordinary fan video. This is full-on professional work. Worth the watch. And come see us at SoonerCon.

Tags: Larry Nemecek, Soonercon, Star Trek, Star Trek Continues, Vic Mignogna