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Stardate 6283.4: A distress call takes the Enterprise into the Neutral Zone, where they see a helpless cargo ship destroyed by Romulan Birds of Prey using a new weapon not seen before by the Federation. After it destroys that ship, however, the weapon backfires, enveloping everything nearby in an energy field, including the Enterprise. Sulu and exo-tech expert Lt. Chandris take a shuttlecraft to the wreckage of the lead Romulan ship to learn more about the weapon, but waves of instability wreak havoc with the ship’s structure, tearing it apart and leaving only seconds before the warp core breaches. Sulu and Chandris run back to find their shuttle has been lost, and when Sulu calls the Enterprise for an emergency transport, he’s literally a different man when he returns: he has aged over 30 years, and Chandris doesn’t rematerialize at all. Sulu explains that a rift led them to safety on a habitable world in another dimension, and they spent that time settling down and starting a family. Sulu introduces his crewmates to his daughter, Alana, whose transporter pattern Scotty can barely lock onto. The only way to keep her molecules from scattering is to create a field that stabilizes her pattern. Every time Kirk orders the Enterprise to try to break away from the distortion generated by the Romulans’ weapon, Alana starts to fade out of existence. With mere hours before the distortion destabilizes the space within it enough to destroy the Enterprise, Sulu must try to recover his memory of how to navigate a ship through the distortion - with the full knowledge that escape may condemn his daughter to death.

written by Michael Reaves & Marc Scott Zicree
directed by Marc Scott Zicree
music by Alan Derian

Cast: James Cawley (Captain Kirk), Jeffery Scott (Mr. Spock), John Kelley (Dr. McCoy), George Takei (Sulu), Grace Lee Whitney (Commander Janice Rand), Christina Moses (Alana), John Lim (Lt. Cmdr. Sulu), Andy Bray (Lt. Chekov), Julienne Irons (Lt. Uhura), Charles Root (Scotty), Ron Boyd (DeSalle), Lia Johnson (Dr. Chandris), Mimi Chong (Demora Sulu), Natasha Soudek (Lt. Soudek), Mallory Reaves (Ensign Mallory), Kaley Pusateri (Sulu Granddaughter), Kurt Carley (Stunt Guard #1), Brian Holloway (Stunt Guard #2), Cali Ross (Ensign Juvenia), Cynthia Wilber (Lt. Wyndham), Kitty Kavey (Lt. Turkel), Katrina Kernodle (Yeoman), Katia Mangani (Dead Romulan #1), R.M. Martin (Dead Romulan #2), Don Balderamos (Dead Romulan #3), Steve Perry (voice of Pilot), Majel Barrett Roddenberry (Computer Voice)

Notes: The costumes for Sulu and his daughter were designed by Star Wars prequel art director Iain McCaig, along with his own daughter, Mishi McCaig. Fencing coach Tom Morga is also a stuntman who has featured in past Star Trek adventures, including Star Trek VI, Deep Space Nine and Enterprise. Michael Okuda is credited with “graphics” for this episode.

Review: The second New Voyages episode in a row to feature a crew member’s miraculous aging and the return of the original actor, World Enough And Time thrills me and bugs me in equal measure. It’s actually a much more effective story, in many places, than To Serve All My Days (the installment which brough back Walter Koenig as Chekov) - there’s some real emotional resonance here, rather than an odd conversation between the character’s old and young incarnations. It certainly doesn’t hurt that George Takei is simply magnificent as Sulu, giving the character more depth than his appearances in the original series and all of the original movies ever allowed. Helping matters considerably is that he’s not the only one - Christina Moses, as Sulu’s daughter from another dimension, is outstanding. Between these two, everyone else has to bring their “A” game to the table, especially James Cawley. If nothing else, these “special guest” episodes have helped to raise the acting bar on New Voyages. (click here for the rest of the review…)

The Enterprise, under the command of Captain Christopher Pike, is destroyed with all hands by a Doomsday Machine, which has somehow found its way into the past.

Stardate not given: The starship Farragut, commanded by Captain James T. Kirk, is summoned to the planet of the Guardian of Forever, where Spock, a Vulcan (a species thought to have been rendered extinct in the 16-year war with the Doomsday Machines) in Starfleet uniform, tries to convince Kirk, Dr. McCoy and their Klingon science officer Kargh that history has been altered. Kirk and his officers are extremely skeptical of Spock’s explanation of how he alone escaped the effects of the changes to the timeline, but he is able to back up his claims with purely scientific evidence. Kirk, Spock and McCoy track the disturbance in history back to Earth on the early 21st century, traveling there via the Guardian and discovering that Commodore Decker - presumed to have been killed in action against the Doomsday Machines - was in fact thrown back in time in his shuttlecraft. He lived out his life in the late 20th century and died of old age, but not before videotaping a message for Kirk and his crew, trying to explain what went wrong.

story by Max Rem and Erik Korngold
screenplay by Erik Korngold
with respectful acknolwedgement to Norman Spinrad and Harlan Ellison
directed by Jack Marshall
music tracked from original episodes / movies

Cast: James Cawley (Kirk), Jeffery Quinn (Spock), John Kelley (McCoy), Charles Root (Scott), Julienne Irons (Uhura), Meghan King Johnson (Rand), Ron Boyd (DeSalle), Shannon Quinlan (Number One / Chapel), Jay Storey (Kyle), William Windom (Commodore Decker), BarBara Luna (Veronica), Malachi Throne (Korogh), Becky Bonar (MacGregor), John Carrigan (Kargh), Simon Judas Raye (Guardian’s Voice), Kurt Carley (Captain Pike), James Larson (Jose Tyler), Charles Holloway (Dr. Boyce), Rose Montessano (Com Officer), Tim Giles (Engineer), Leslie Hoffman, Pearl Marshall, Jeff Mailhotte, Robert Mills, Randy Davis, Mike Magin, Jessica Mailhotte, Ed Abbate, Brian Hudon, Doug Hutchings, Patrick Bell, John Lim, Timothy Sheffield, Chris Lunderman, Jerry Yuen (Starfleet Personnel)

Review: The second outing for New Voyages, In Harm’s Way is entertaining enough if you’re a fan, but even then it seems like an exercise in throwing in Everything Plus Two Kitchen Sinks. As much as I enjoy the output of the New Voyages cast and crew, it’s always mystified me why Come What May was relegated to “pilot” status and withdrawn from the official site as a download - because in some ways, I regard this as the most extraneous New Voyage that has seen the light of day so far. (click here for the rest of the review…)

Stardate not given: The Enterprise completes a routine layover in the spacedock at Earth, and also picks up new crewmembers, including the newly promoted Lt. Commander Hikaru Sulu, back from a course in command training at Starfleet Academy. Sulu takes over the big chair from the beleaguered Lt. DeSalle, but even just leaving spacedock, one mistake could make it the last time he sits there.

written by Erik Korngold
directed by Erik J. Goodrich
music by Patrick Phillips

Cast: Ron Boyd (Lt. DeSalle), John Lim (Lt. Commander Sulu), Phil Kim (Starfleet Operations), Jeff Mailhotte (Comm. Officer 1), Ed Abbate (”Lt. Cmdr.” Ensign), Mari Okumura (Comm. Officer 2), Nathan Gastineau (Sciences), James Cawley (Captain Kirk)

Review: The third full production from Star Trek: New Voyages, Center Seat is a short vignette, originally designed to tide fans over in the unusually long gap between the second and third full episodes released. (Or first and second, according to the self-imposed re-ordering of episodes that saw Come What May undeservedly consigned to the non-canon-even-for-this-fan-production scrap heap.) There were supposed to be a series of such vignettes, though a ramped-up production schedule for two episodes with celebrity guest stars (to say nothing of other fan productions using the New Voyages sets) meant that Center Seat was the only short released in 2006. (click here for the rest of the review…)

Stardate 6031.2: Bringing Ambassador Rayna Morgan to the Enterprise from Babel via shuttlepod, Chekov has to do some fancy flying to avoid a Klingon warship. The Enterprise arrives just in time, but Captain Kirk and Captain Kargh only exchange a volley of words in this battle. A later visit to engineering puts Chekov in the wrong place at the wrong time, and he receives what should be a nearly lethal dose of radiation, though Dr. McCoy is startled to see no ill effects - at least at first. A day later, Chekov has aged 25 years, and McCoy can find no way to stop his rapid aging. A ship which appears to be a Klingon battlecruiser attacks the Enterprise, doing serious damage, and Kirk finds himself on the brink of plunging the Federation into war - and his best weapons officer is marching inexorably toward death’s door.

written by D.C. Fontana
director not credited (most likely Erik J. Goodrich)
music by Patrick Phillips

Cast: James Cawley (Captain Kirk), Jeffery Scott (Mr. Spock), John Kelley (Dr. McCoy), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Mary-Linda Rapelye (Ambassador Rayna Morgan), John Carrigan (Captain Kargh), Andy Bray (Lt. Chekov), Julienne Irons (Lt. Uhura), John Lim (Lt. Cmdr. Sulu), Charles Root (Cmdr. Scott), Ron Boyd (Lt. DeSalle), Shannon Giles (Nurse Chapel), Jeff Mailhotte (Sentell), Jay Storey (Lt. Kyle), Giovanna Contini (Ensign Carr), Mari Okumara (Yeoman Okuda), David Dufrane (Cadet), Tim Brazeal (Klingon 1), Kent Schmidt (Klingon 2), Larry Nemecek (Esterion), James Lowe, Debbie Mailhotte, John Whiting, Patrick Cleveland, Linda Cleveland, Amanda Root, Steve LeClerc, Chris Lunderman, Jessie Mailhotte, Anne Carrigan (Federation Ambassadors), Ed Abbate, Ron M. Gates, Michael Struck, Ian Peters, Nathan Gastineau, Riva Gijanto, Steve LeClerc, Danielle Porter, Ralph Miller, Max Kiserman, Michael Tavares, Jerry Storey, Paul Seiber (Starfleet Personnel)

Notes: The shuttle piloted by Chekov is the Archer, and it’s pursued by a Klingon vessel seen in Star Trek: Enterprise and identified there as a Klingon Warbird; though it resembles the Bird of Prey, there are significant differences, and it could conceivably still be in service by the fourth year of Kirk’s original mission (after all, the D7 cruiser is still around in the 24th century). Chekov came into contact with the rapid aging virus in The Deadly Years; when reminiscing about his younger days, he refers to events in The Apple and Spectre Of The Gun. Guest player Tim Brazeal headed the controversial TrekUnited.com movement, which tried to raise enough money to convince Paramount to produce a fifth season of Star Trek: Enterprise, while Larry Nemecek is the author of such books as the “Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion.”

Review: In the New Voyages gang’s third outing (or second, depending on how sacred you hold their insistence that Come What May has been jettisoned from their canon), there’s some all-star help on hand - Walter Koenig reprises the role of Chekov, and D.C. Fontana does the honors as the writer of his return engagement. It’s a marked departure from previous New Voyages installments in that character development and internal drama are very much to the fore, rather than the admittedly neat spectacle of “wow, we’re restarting and updating original Trek!” Sure, there are some extravagant special effects sequences (the opening chase with the Klingon ship, even with its slightly anachronistic proto-Bird of Prey from the Star Trek: Enterprise era, is a dazzling piece for a fan production), but at the story’s heart are a mystery and a character story which would’ve done a production of any budget level proud. (click here for the rest of the review…)