Star Trek New Voyages

Speaking of obsession...and I mean that in the best possible way...

If you love Star Trek, you must visit Star Trek New Voyages. A fan group, with the permission of Paramount, has gathered the time, money, and talent to produce a series of all new classic Trek episodes, available for free download online. It is a completely nonprofit operation, and yet they've gotten the support and participation of many veterans of the original series, including George Takei, Walter Koenig, writers Dorothy Fontana and David Gerrold (from whom I learned most of what I know about it), and even professional directors. So far, I've downloaded the first two episodes, but have only watched snippets. (I wanted to wait to watch the shows until I could get them burned to DVD and watch them on my TV.) The production values are astoundingly good. They have reproduced the look and feel of the show with incredible precision, and the special effects are up to the standards of current television shows.

The only thing that takes some adjustment is seeing a new generation of talented amateur actors play the parts of Kirk, Spock, and all the rest. Okay, they're not Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley—but who could be? My initial impression of their work is very favorable.

Talk about fans throwing themselves into something they love! These people are amazing.

http://www.newvoyages.com/

(By the way, getting it onto DVD is easy in principle, if you have DVD burning software. But Sonic MyDVD, usually my Old Faithful, couldn't handle it, nor could Roxio MyDVD. Finally I tried Nero, and that worked very nicely. Note, this is precisely the opposite of the experience of the person who wrote their FAQ page.)

Oh—two other fan-created productions are also in the works, at:
http://www.startrekofgodsandmen.com/ and http://www.ussintrepid.net/.