Apparently I haven’t been paying close enough attention, as in October the Star Trek: New Voyages project released their second episode, In Harm’s Way. Regrettably, it seems they also have not been paying attention, as it’s impossible to ID the content from the URL or storage structure they have implemented at the moment. Presumably, someday, a more effectively designed storage mechanism than a bunch of numbered zip files in a directory named FILES will be a technology within the Federation’s grasp.

Snarking aside, I look forward to seeing this.

UPDATE: OK, now I’ve seen it. Hoo boy, what an incoherent plot. I mean, I was able to follow it; but that’s because I’m a big ol’ Star Trek geek. The overall look of the thing pretty darn slick, I have to admit, enough so that the uneven acting quality is a bit obtrusive. That and the possibly accidental reliance on esoteric Trek lore knowledge to tie the plot together may have the effect of limiting the appeal of the piece.

It looks to me as though they ended up with about 90 minutes of plot and simply cut the exposition, leaving certain events in place without clear explanation. All that and a time-travel based plot, too. I will show this to a non-Trek fan to get a baseline, though.

The other thing that bothers me after first viewing is the weird interaction between hyper-consciousness of detail (seen in the obsessive attention to the look of the sets, for example) and complete rookie lapses of attention to detail. The examples that come to mind are a) the unfortunate use of vertically-scaled fonts and poor linespacing for the titles, and b) in the sequence when the Farragut dives toward the surface of the Gateway planet, suddenly, we view a reverse-angle of the ship with the surface of the planet in the background. There are others, but those two made me cringe.

In a less-polished production, the lapses might look humorous or intentional; here, they distract from the ambitions of the series creators, I think, by jarringly underlining the amateur status of the project. It’s a hard row to hoe. But the only way to meet the high aspirations these folks have set for themselves is for them to be absolutely merciless in critiquing the production. Nothing would please me more greatly than to no longer find nits to pick.

Nonetheless, kudos to the New Voyages cast and crew. Keep it up! I’ll be here waiting!