NPR ran a five-minute end-of-the-hour feature on the New Voyages Star Trek fan film crew this morning. As is becoming par for these stories, passing acknowledgment was made that this crew is not the only one making these fan-produced episodes, but the entirety of he reporting was focused on Cawley’s project. This is likely as much a reflection os the snowball effect of that initial Wired story as much as a reflection of the skill with which Cawley’s assembled his media hook, which is that the project features the original series characters played by new actors with increasing numbers of professional Trek veterans appearing in the New Voyages episodes.

Another factor in the coverage, I believe, must be the continuing delay in release of Starship Exeter‘s new episodes; Exeter has been acknowledged as the inspiration for New Voyages and the Exeter creative team initially worked with the New Voyages team prior to the production of the first New Voyages episode. Personally, I found the initial Exeter episode to be a more successful translation of the original-series ethos than the first episode of New Voyages. I have been holding off on watching the more recent New Voyages pieces until Exeter releases the full second episode to be better able to compare the teams’ work.

However, the rate at which New Voyages has been producing episodes may well make this moot, as practice brings experience and soon the series may no longer be comparable in any meaningful way.