When it comes to fan fiction, "Star Trek Continues" takes the cake.
While most "Star Trek" tribute videos make it hard to suspend disbelief -- see: poor lighting, forgettable acting, low production value -- "Star Trek Continues" looks and feels so much like the original series that it's easy to forget it's filmed nearly 50 years later.
"One thing that I wanted to accomplish from the very beginning, before we ever rolled one frame of film, was to bring together a team of people that could really take the idea of a fan production to the next level," said Vic Mignogna, the show's creator.
The Web series, which has a few Utahns in its cast and crew, picks up where "Star Trek: The Original Series" left off. In the old show's opening credits, William Shatner says, "These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise, its five-year mission ... " However, the original series only lasted three seasons. Mignogna's show has Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock and Co. finishing what they started.
It would be an understatement to say "Star Trek Continues" wouldn't be possible without Mignogna. He produces, directs, writes, scores, edits and stars in the show. (In the closing credits he's even listed as a carpenter.) Mignogna was "fanatical" about the original series as a young boy, making "Star Trek" videos even back then. In that way, Mignogna said, "Star Trek Continues" was "an idea 40 years in the making."
After doing extensive voice acting in anime shows, movies and video games, Mignogna acted in another "Star Trek" fan tribute, "Starship Farragut." He thought he could raise the bar for fan productions, and teamed with that show's producers to rent a 9,600-square-foot facility in Kingsland, Ga. From there they painstakingly recreated the original "Star Trek" set, working from diagrams of the original sound stage and screen captures of the show. Their director of photography is also an architect, and he measured all the lengths, heights and angles "down to the inch." They also researched lighting techniques and camera angles to make "Star Trek Continues" a perfect visual match of the original series.
"It is purely a labor of love," Mignogna said. "It is purely an extremely expensive passion project."
Because "Star Trek" is a licensed product, fan productions are not allowed to make a profit. Making an episode of "Star Trek Continues," however, is no cheap affair. Among other expenses, there's the cost of renting the facility, flying actors and crew out to Georgia and post-production. Mignogna financed the first episode himself, then turned to the crowdfunding website Kickstarter to fund episodes 2 through 4. They just wrapped up filming on episode 3, which was a different experience than the first two episodes, according to Highland resident Wyatt Lenhart, who plays Pavel Chekov on the show.
"For the first two episodes ... it was all out of everyone's own pocket," Lenhart said.
Though the show's first episode debuted less than a year ago, "Star Trek Continues" quickly gained a large and loyal following. The show's three vignettes and two full-length episodes have collectively garnered more than 1 million views. Its third episode will be debuting in Australia in June at a convention. And, much to the pleasure of the show's cast and crew, Tom Hanks even mentioned "Star Trek Continues" during a recent interview.
"That means he's not only seen our show, but likes it enough to bring it up in an interview," Lenhart said. "There are a few other projects that have been done as tributes to the original series, and the other ones do a good job, but with this one, it's so exact, it just blows people away."
Orem resident Megan Warner and her younger sister Hayley are production assistants on the show. They agreed to get involved after meeting Mignogna at a convention. Megan said her initial expectations were pretty modest -- she wasn't a "Star Trek" fanatic like her sister, and mainly got involved so that her sister could do it too -- but the show's popularity has far exceeded her expectations, and she's grown to love it.
"I thought it would be known-ish," she said. "And I don't think I ever could have imagined the sheer reach it's getting. I never thought it would be worldwide like this. We've been lucky. And I think the dedication that everybody has, and the attention to detail, really comes out in the final product."
At the crew's current pace it will complete about two episodes per year. The support for the project continues to grow, because there's a wealth of Trekkies (or Trekkers) out there, Mignogna said, who share the same sense of wonder that he had as a young boy making low-budget films for his friends and family.
"There's no shortage of Star Trek fans that miss the unique feel of the original series," he said. "They miss what it was that the original series had. There was a certain magic about it."
To watch "Star Trek Continues" visit StarTrekContinues.com.
