Star Trek Continues E06 “Come Not Between the Dragons”
- Writer, Director, Executive Producer: Vic Mignogna (also stars as James T. Kirk)
- Time: 42.12
- Release: Released on Youtube May 28, 2016
- Notes: Purely a fan-made work, and the 6th episode in a series so far.
Synopsis :
“A troubled creature pierces the Enterprise hull, pitting the crew against a pursuer that threatens to tear them apart.”
Personal Thoughts:
Star Trek Continues, is a fan-made film based on the original TV series of work of Gene Roddenberry. It’s on-canonical and not affiliated with the CBS or Paramount copyright holders. Yet, it feels far closer to the feeling of the original premise than the movies and other popular fan films out there (including the highly controversial Axaner fan-film).
What sets this series on its high pedestal goes beyond its truer to original set-design, effects and costumes. The premise is kept alive, to see out new life and new civilizations and boldly go.. Here we get just that, though the new life finds them. It’s the high question of just how far we as humans can fit into the universe, when the variables of life are so much greater than our comprehension.
For this episode, our somewhat familiar crew encounters a creature (Usdi) who can fly through space, affect emotions, has a very unearthly appearance that at times seem closer to the Horta than human. Much of the episode is a desperate need to understand this, while dealing with the changing of their own emotions. Neither side seems to fully understand how one affects the other. It’s a story they may not need a Star Trek to tell it, but such the setting and vessel called Enterprise fits perfect.
That’s due to the maze of conflicted negative emotions leading to mutiny and discord, to add drama I suppose to this bottleneck episode. Somehow, Eliza surpasses where even Spock fails in her emotions, to better understand the creature. In establishing successful first contact, the sides must find some connection and mutual understanding. Here, there is a parental bond that is eventual understood by the humans, which brings about a positive end for both.
Overall, a good story that reminds us that Star Trek is not about galactic warfare and eminent warp core breaches. I feel it’s about finding our tiny place in a vast universe, as explorers and knowledge gathers. Such is more exciting, to deal with unforeseen dilemmas and complex situations; than to learn and grow from it all.
The crew once again does well to emulate not imitate the original cast. I see at this point, the cast are looking to match the mannerisms and characteristics of the crew members, not the actors who originally portrayed them. The acting is good enough, and acceptable for a fan broadcast. Vic Mignogna does Captain Kirk best, though I feel it’s his involvement in the overall production that leads the presentation to its success. He is a captain on and off the set. The characters of Spock, McCoy, and Scotty are also taking on a life of their own, as the Abrams movie versions by other different actors have also done.
But the only problem I see in this, is the lack of possible development the show can do for such characters. I doubt there will be any drastic changes for the main crew, as such would remind the un-canonicity of the science fiction copy. Yet, we have some original cast members, mostly of the female crew members. Perhaps in future episodes, they could develop and capture the hearts of the fans in the changes they go through.
Overall, a great episode for being fan-work. I would enjoy more, but also hoping for more original crew members and stories of such that revolve around them. I hope for the show to stay to its roots, and stay away from other overall complex canon on Romulan-Klingon-Vulcan-whatever other established aliens overdone by the other canonical series and expanded lore. Keep it real, and I will boldly watch.
– Orion T
strangerworlds.com 
this is my favorite episode, so far, of ST:Continues. don’t tell anyone, but i think Vic does a better Kirk than Shatner did!
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Hmm, Vic does a great Kirk. I think Shatner would be at least proud of his portrayal 🙂
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I don’t agree, but I’m not unsympathetic to your claim.
What’s so interesting about Shatner’s Kirk is how much the character varied over the life of the series. Shatner was remarkably subdued through much of the first season, almost quiet in many of the stronger episodes. Nor in the first season was he anything like the hound he has routinely been portrayed as for (wow) over half a century since—that reputation to the extent it was earned was much more a consequence of the Kirk we saw in season two and especially season three.
From what I’ve heard from a variety of sources, as the series became unmoored with first Roddenberry then Coon departing, the actor increasingly became his own director, and whenever series’ directorial staples Joseph Pevney and Marc Daniels were not in the big chair, guest directors found it difficult to rein in the series’ nominal star.
Other than Pevney and Daniels no director helmed more than six episodes, and nearly half of the episodes were shot by directors who did three episodes or fewer. For a series that relied enormously on the unique characteristics of its main characters to dictate how scenes and episodes should be played, this left direction more in the hands of its two leads than probably any other show of the time except perhaps for I Spy.
This in turn left Shatner to indulge his worst instincts as an actor, and with no one with the status or power or reputation to bring down the volume and show him how he was at his best when he was underplaying most of the time, his work suffered.
As good as Vic Mignogna is (had Star Trek TOS resumed around 2010 with the crew in the 4th year of its 5 year mission, he would have been preferable by far to Chris Pine), Shatner’s Kirk of the first season was as good a match as there has been in episodic television between actor and role.
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A great start to an episode that goes completely off the rails and devolves into a formulaic morality tale.
It’s a real shame. The guest actor was strong, the fx and the creature were extremely well done, and the first act set up intriguing possibilities, but then the writers substituted ambiguity for a strong plot with real direction.
In addition, as every annual DHHS Child Maltreatment Report reminds us, it is mothers acting alone who perpetrate the overwhelming plurality of child abuse. Defaulting here to the caricature of an angry abusive “father” is just a failure of nerve and honesty.
The story needed to better set up its parallel to the abused daughter. How did “Ushti” find her among all those aboard Enterprise? In addition, the battle between the father and Enterprise is prosaic, to say the least. Kirk employs no interesting tactics. There’s nothing inventive, such as we saw in The Corbomite Maneuver. In addition, resorting to alpha wave armbands gave us a mechanical fix to a problem of emotions—probably the least interesting solution a writer can come up with.
Still, Star Trek Continues is enormous fun, and even this deeply flawed episode is better than a dozen of the Original Series’ episodes. Thanks to all involved.
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