Star Trek fans frustrated over the hit or miss attempts of Hollywood to feed their hunger for more adventures based in the Star Trek universe created in the 60's by Gene Roddenberry, have decided to do what Hollywood never seemed all that interested in doing. It's been 7 years since Star Trek fan James Cawley and a dedicated group of friends decided they were going to make their own Star Trek instead of waiting for new adventures from the dashing Captain Kirk, his loyal crew and the fabulous starship NCC-1701, known as "Enterprise". More than a half dozen episodes and millions of downloads later, what started as "Star Trek: New Voyages" is now known as "Star Trek: Phase II" in homage to Roddenberry's unrealized efforts to bring Kirk&Co. back to to network television.
Not ones to let an anniversary go unmarked, Phase II has released a new short feature called "No Win Scenario" which centers around a Klingon version of Star Fleet Academy's notorious "Kobayashi Maru" test for potential commanding officers. According to an article on the Phase II website, the vignette itself has an interesting history since most of it was filmed in 2005 and somehow got lost until actor John Carrigan, who plays the recurring Klingon villain Kargh found the raw footage and helped oversee it's completion.
Despite limited budgets, heavy reliance on volunteer cast and crew members and the logistical problems that go with Phase II's location in rural upstate New York, Phase II has turned out an impressive body of work. While early efforts had plenty of rough edges, each episode has shown steady progress in production values and especially in the quality of acting. The quality of the scripts has also steadily improved with input from writers from the original series such as Dorothy Fontana and David Gerrold. Several episodes of Phase II are in various stages of pre and post-production and trekkers in the Tampa Bay area and around the world have plenty more new voyages from Star Trek: Phase II. To visit the Star Trek: Phase II website click here.
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