Star Trek Continues #7: Embracing the Winds

September 4, 2016

Something major happened after the release of the previous Star Trek Continues episode – Paramount and CBS set out their new guidelines for fan-produced episodes and movies as a consequence of their ongoing lawsuit with the folks behind the Axanar movie. What those guidelines stipulate is that episodes can be no more than 15 minutes long, they must be standalone stories, no professional associated with Star Trek – be that actor or crew – is allowed to work on a fan production and budgets are limited to $50,000 per episode. These are only a few of the guidelines. They’re all listed here if you want to review them.

It’s as if the-powers-that-be reviewed every fan produced video production and came up with a guideline for ensuring that any similar episode or movie could never be made again. It spelled the end for Star Trek Continues, New Voyages/Phase II, Starship Farragut, Renegades Star Trek: Horizon and every other fan production out there.

Yet, on September 2nd (2016), Star Trek Continues released their 7th full-length episode, Embracing The Winds. Vic Mignogna, the man behind the show, has said he plans to continue producing episodes until their season concludes. Here’s what he said:

STAR TREK CONTINUES is the only official 501(c)3 non-profit Trek fan production company out there dedicated solely to TREK. We are awaiting further clarification [regarding the new guidelines], but I am optimistic about completing our planned series and I would like to ask all of our fans to remain optimistic with us. We have a plan to bring STAR TREK CONTINUES to a close with an outstanding final episode arc.

We are working at warp speed to complete STAR TREK CONTINUES. Below is a photo of the bottom of the last page of the script for the final episode in our series.

Episode Synopsis

While the Enterprise is sent on a seemingly routine mission, Kirk is recalled to starbase where he faces an ethical dilemma that challenges the very core of Starfleet Command.

Eagle-eyed readers may spot Erin Grey (Commander Wilma Deering from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century) in the artwork above. STC continues to get recognised actors to play significant roles in its episodes.

I haven’t watched the episode yet so can’t provide a review just now. I’ll add one once I get to see it.

The Other Star Trek Continues Episodes:

BTW, these episodes, along with some other worthy fan-produced episodes and movies can also be watched on the Starfleet Academy site which also features documentaries about Star Trek, interviews with cast and crew, skits and sketches from various shows parodying Star Trek, convention panels and more. There’s now over 160 videos to watch and more are added each week.