A fundraising campaign on the Kickstarter website is succeeding to cover the costs of the upcoming shooting of “Star Trek: New Voyages/Phase II”, the web series that continues the adventures of the classic “Star Trek” series. They needed $20,000 to cover the basic costs of the shooting scheduled for July 2015 and at this moment $24.205 were pledged.
In 2003, the actor and producer James Crawley started the project “Star Trek: New Voyages”, a web series with the aim to continue the original series. It’s a non-profit production and therefore authorized by CBS, which owns the rights to the famous saga.
Over the years, several episodes were produced with a cast of mostly unknown actors that have changed over time. For example, originally James Crawley himself played James Kirk but from the tenth episode Brian Gross took over the role of the Enterprise captain.
In 2008, James Crawley announced the change of the name of the web series, which has become “Star Trek: Phase II”. It’s the name of the series Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, intended to produce in the ’70s as a sequel to the original series. The project was abandoned when Paramount Pictures, then owner of the rights to the franchise, decided to produce a film instead.
In various episodes of “Star Trek: New Voyages/Phase II” there have been guest stars who had important roles in the original Star Trek series, beginning with George Takei and Walter Koenig. The episode “Blood and Fire” had Denise Crosby, who played Tasha Yar in “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, as a guest star.
In 2008, the episode “World Enough and Time” was nominated for the Hugo Award, the most important award in the field of science fiction, in the Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form category. To understand the level of the competition, the other finalists were “Doctor Who”, “Torchwood” and “Battlestar Galactica” episodes and the award was won by “Blink”, one of the most famous episodes of the new “Doctor Who” series.
Right now, there are still more than two weeks to contribute to this fundraising campaign. There are various stretch goal that in the case were achieved, will enable to improve at least the production values of the next episode.
A few months ago, a fundraiser for the web series “Star Trek Continues”, another of the series connected to Star Trek, ended in a very positive way. “Star Trek: New Voyages/Phase II” received a number of awards over the years so we can be sure that the funds will be used well.
