Walter Koenig & George Takei in ST Fan Film

That EW article on the new Star Trek movie reminded me to check this site (which a friend had put me onto before RSS was the rage): Star Trek New Voyages (now “Star Trek Phase II”). This is a group of fans who produce indie episodes set just after the original series, with the original-series characters. This is all done with new actors of course.

They had posted two new episodes since I had last checked. (And now, I’ve subscribed to the RSS feed.) Boy was I surprised to discover that they actually got Walter Koenig to play an aged Chekov in episode 2, and George Takei to play aged Sulu in episode 3! They also convinced Grace lee Whitney to reprise the role of Yeoman Janice Rand. And… did they really get Majel Barrett Roddenberry to do the computer voice (in the future)? Or is that just stock soundtrack?

Of course, this is now yesterday’s news. But it’s still news to me, and probably to other old ST fans, most of whom aren’t hard-core trekkies connected into every last bit of ST fandom.

Even though the writing of these indie episodes had me rolling my eyes within 2 minutes of the intro, it was worth sticking them out, just to see these actors’ performances. And actually, not all of the writing was bad. The thing they did with the old and young Chekov was pretty cool. And there were some other good points, too.

But you know what? Watching Walter Keonig perform on-screen, I didn’t feel any reminiscence of Star Trek: The Original Series. Rather, I felt a strong desire to watch Babylon 5 again, because (as you may recall) Walter Keonig played a recurring role in that story line.

I miss Babylon 5, and I don’t yet own the DVDs, because they’re too expensive, what with kids to feed. Maybe I’ll Netflix them.

-TimK