One night while at a friends place, he beckoned me over to his Mac with great enthusiasm to show me some Star Trek episodes he had downloaded. The episodes were not actually the Star Trek episodes created by Paramount Pictures, instead, they were amateur productions produced by a couple of fans and some volunteers. Now I am not a big Trek fan, I enjoyed watching the old 60's shows with my Dad, and then later I liked watching the Capt.
Picard era shows, but that was about it, so I was only so excited. But in the end I loved these remixed episodes that I ended up watching, maybe even better than the original. What they are calling it is Star Trek New Voyages, it was created by James Cawley and Jack Marshall, a couple of guys who had been involved with past productions of Star Trek in various capacities.
They are financing the productions out of pocket, and with the support of numerous volunteers. And interestingly enough also have the express support of the Roddenberry family. Essentially the series is restarting the show as if it were in it's fourth season.
The original series from the 60's was canceled at the end of it's third season. The show will continue with telling the stories of Captain Kirk and his crew as seen in the 1966-69 season. Now as I said earlier, I am only so much of a Star Trek fan, but what I found most intriguing about this was the producers approach to the old story line; they don't want to just try and remake the old shows, they are re-interpreting them.
The producers feel that Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the rest should be treated as classic characters, like Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman, Gandalf from Lord of the Rings or even Hamlet, Othello or Romeo. Many actors have and can play the roles, each offering a different interpretation of said character. Though the character is the same, the interpretation of the actor is what's in question.
We feel that the crew of the Enterprise has more to teach us about life and each other than has been explored to date. We also feel the new actors can add to the legend in a believable and contemporary way. Yes, some may have a problem separating Shatner from Kirk - all we ask is that you give it a try and see whether Kirk and the crew still have something to say.
This to me is the essence of the remix of culture that such people as Lawrence Lessig are advocating. That by taking work that already exists, and adapting it, altering it, you are not blatantly copying, you are creating something new from something that exists, to the benefit both of the original work and of the newly created work. Posted by Scott Robarts on 05/10/2005 at 01:41 PM in Current Affairs, Humor, Writing, podcasting One night while at a friends place, he beckoned me over to his Mac with great enthusiasm to show me some Star Trek episodes he had downloaded.
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