> Elvis Gump wrote:
>>> Elvis Gump wrote:
>>>> Has anyone else seen this yet? The torrent servers for it seem to be
>>>> offline this morning, but the streaming version is up, though small
>>>> and slow continually re-buffering.
>>>>
>>>> The acting by the New voyages cast is as wooden as ever but there
>>>> are some really nice SFX in it, including views odf the TOS shuttle
>>>> bay and the movie era Excelsior bridge where George Takei reprises
>>>> his Captain Sulu role yet again.
>>>>
>>>> I'm about halfway though it, but it's worth a watch so far.
>>>
>>> Haven't seen it yet, so just tell me one thing. Please tell me they
>>> didn't give the anti-Scotty any actual lines to speak this time. I
>>> don't think I can bear that terrible noise again.
>>>
>>>
>>> Ian
>>
>> The New Voyages cast is pretty awful, and the NV Scotty is no
>> exception. I actually thought of all of them the NV Chekov kid wasn't
>> half bad, and he's back as though the the last one they did where
>> they killed off Chekov never happened, no explanation.
>>
>> Takei plays some sort of alternate Universe old Sulu who looks like
>> he had Khan's hairdresser and tailor, or lack thereof. Sadly Takei
>> doesn't have the pecs to pull off that look. He has at least one
>> funny line before a mindmeld.
>>
>> There is a pretty cool SFX shot of young NV Sulu flying a TOS
>> shuttlecraft through the roiling wreckage of some Romulan ships that
>> is worthy of anything done in the newer series, though at 320 or
>> whatever resolution this streaming thing is I don't know what the
>> final render quality looks like.
>>
>> The NV cast seems to think that flexing their eyebrows up and down
>> constantly along with weird head moves constitutes acting. I swear
>> after a few minutes watching all those eyebrows dancing around I
>> started to get space-sick.
>
> I've just dowbloaded the QUicktime version via bittorrent. Dunno how fast
> your connection is but it used up all my bandwidth (2Mb) so there doesn't
> seem to be a speed problem. Maybe this post enlarged the swarm :) Haven't
> time to watch it right now but will do later.
Huh. The tracker still reports dead as a doornail on my side.
Is it the
http://newvoyages.mine.nu:1701/announce? That seems to be the one
Demonoid is reporting which seems to be the only other tracker that has it.
> I too thought kid Chekov was pretty good in the last one. I heard they'd all
> taken acting lessons. Maybe they have an "eyebrow method" teacher. I presume
> "Kirk" is still doing his sneery thing with every line?
Yep. He must be the worst Elvis too. I can't imagine him trying to do that,
but it does seem he is the guy that got this whole production of the ground
so there is that.
> I think that the sheer lack of acting craft among them probably makes them
> move too much to try to stop looking "wooden". I've tried to put my finger on
> what is so bad about the acting in the past. I've a small expereince with
> actors since I spent some years in pro theatre as a technician so watched a
> lot of them, good and bad. But there's somethign qualitatively different about
> "amateurs"
> even compared to really bad actors in a professional environment.
The on set cinematography is AWFUL. There is a scene at the end where Spock
has a mind-meld with Sulu that should be after the set up for it a pretty
powerful moment, but they don't even try to frame it so there's light on the
NV Sulu actors face. There's all those great TOS shots to emulate and they
don't look like they know much more than how to operate cameras as though
they were tourists on vacation.
The script is like some early TNG where they is way, way too much talkie
conference room stuff and casual conversations when the ship is MINUTES AWAY
FROM DESTRUCTION.
BEGIN MINOR SPOILER
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
There's no sense of danger or urgency at all, though I did think the bit
with Alana quoting Shakespeare was an emotional moment that almost wasn't
completely destroyed by all the woodenness around it.
And I have to say the ending on the Excelsior was almost perfect except for
the "Who is Alana?" line which would have made more sense that Demora
actually knew this story already and she was the one whose idea it was.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
END MINOR SPOILER
I always wished that instead of Voyager we'd gotten a throwback to Excelsior
with Sulu to have allowed a retro bridge to the TOS era. I think his bits
here, especially the last ready-room scene show he might have pulled it off
though Takei was more than a bit of an erratic hammy actor most of the time.
> NV really demonstrates it. All I can think of is there's always something
> slightly restrained about the real amateurs, like they always feel a trifle
> silly or embarrassed by what they're doing. I dunno.
I have a feeling that they also might wind up having to cast some of these
people because they put money into the production which isn't unheard of in
theater disasters.
I have to say the guy doing Scotty I think this time around is the third
least offensely bad portrayal. The kid doing young Sulu tries hard, but
without that deep, mellifluous Takei voice it doesn't work. The guy doing
McCoy is just too young and doesn't have any of Kelly's gravitas. He makes
McCoy look like a dope. It looks like the guy that's been the NV Spock has
been canned or bailed for the next installment's trailer as has the
abominable NV Uhura.
One thing that is interesting is Majel has a cameo as the computer voice,
though she seems to be doing the TNG version rather than the RO-BOT-IC TOS
computer voice. Love that silkier TNG version calmly announcing horrible
things like "Shield and structural failure in 30 seconds. Core breach
imminent" without the slightest hint of urgency. I always expect her
computer voice to announce "You will all die in five seconds, please have a
nice day."
> There's less of it in Starship Exeter by comparison. That still has plenty
> of am-dram stuff but sometimes they seem to "break through" and stop looking
> like they're acting; something none of the NV cast have managed in the
> episodes I've seen so far. I wonder if they'll ever release the rest of that
> :)
>
>
> Ian
It looks like the next episode penned by David Gerrold gives the show it's
first openly gay character and it's Peter Kirk, the Cap'n's nephew. The idea
of a gay Kirk should send TPM into spasms of ecstasy enough to cause an
aneurysm.
--
"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on
society."
-- Mark Twain
