James Cawley, exec producer and star of the fan series Star Trek Phase II, has sent TrekMovie a very well made behind the scenes video shot during production on "The Child," in October. See below for an exclusive first look the video, plus an introduction to the guest stars for "The Child" and more info on the release of "Blood and Fire, Part 1" coming up next week.
VIDEO: Inside ‘The Child’
Phase II’s new Deltan
The original script for "The Child" was written by John Povill for the originally planned Phase II show from the 70s, but that project morphed into Star Trek The Motion Picture and the script was later rewritten for Star Trek The Next Generation. The original version called for the Deltan Il’ to bear ‘The Child,’ however to keep with canon, the Povill rewrote the script and introduced Lt. Isel, a new Deltan character. Povill, who also directed "The Child," cast Anna Schneider, an actress and dancer from Los Angeles. Povill tells TrekMovie:
Originally I had an image of drop dead gorgeous, but there is much more to the Deltans than they were in Motion Picture. I wanted to convey that in a variety of ways. Not just in dialog but in motion. I have written a dance between mother and daughter. I called a friend who is a choreographer, Terry Best and Anna is TA to Terry. I visited his studio and my eye was instantly drawn to Anna, you instantly look to the best the dancer. Although she did not look like the classic beauty I had in mind, she just nailed the reading.
Child actress Ayla Cordell is playing the child in ‘The Child.’ Although it is said that working with child actors can be difficult, Povill tells TrekMovie "If every kid was like Ayla, they would be killing to work with children. The chemistry between them was so magical and so beautiful. The same magic you felt with world enough time girl."
Schneider (R) and Cordell (L) in "The Child"
Blood and Fire arrives in one week!
Not counting the ‘To Serve All My Days’ special edition, the first (and only) new episode of 2008 from Phase II arrives next Saturday. "Blood and Fire, Part 1" written and directed by David Gerrold and featuring an appearance by Denise Crosby will be available streaming at the Phase II site on December 20th.
Crosby in "Blood and Fire"
"Blood and Fire" Parts 1 and 2 (due out in early 2009) will also be the last appearance of the original TOS Enterprise in Phase II, before they move on to their ‘semi-refit’ design in "Enemy: Starfleet" later in 2009.
Enterprises in "Blood and Fire" and "Enemy Starfleet"
(by Dochterman/Bellucci/DAVE school)
(click to enlarge)
Watch the teaser for "Blood and Fire, Part 1", to see why they needed to fix the ship.
More TrekMovie coverage on "Blood and Fire":
- March 07: James Cawley Interview
- October 07: New Voyages Team Planning New Episodes
- November 08: Phase II Announces Blood and Fire Release
More info on Star Trek Phase II at the official site.
It certainly is impressive that this fan production has managed to be so successful, I applaud them.
James Cawley Rox
Sweet,, James Cawley is doing a great job,
hmmm,,cant wait to see a show with,,, a trip to the past theme
:o)
Why, Phase II Team, you didn’t have to rush Blood and Fire for my birthday! How generous of you! :-)
One week to go! I’m getting more excited by the hour! What a great X-Mas present!
I’m also looking forward to watching Denise Crosby again. I still haven’t got over the fact she left TNG. I loved Tasha Yar.
It is because of New Voyages/Phase II that I am able to accept new actors in the iconic roles of the TOS characters and that is making it much easier to be enthusiastic for the upcoming big screen return of TOS courtesy of JJ Abrams. Had it not been for these very well made fan films I would most likely be more reluctant to see the characters recast. The work on Phase II continues to improve with each episode from the humble beginnings of “Come What May:” to this latest one “Blood and Fire”. James ccawley may be dissed for his acting but his dedication to seeing TOS come alive again is admirable and we all owe him a debt of gratitude for his efforts to make all of this happen.
Really do hate that Enterprise redesign.
Shouldn’t Deltans be bald?
I still love that “prefit” design for the Phase II Enterprise though. I think the Star Trek XI team could’ve learned a lot by looking at this ship!
8: How true!
I’m excited to watch this. I’m surprised they didn’t swap in the new Enterprise design for the credits. Maybe next episode?
Very excited about this. Rock on, Cawley and company!
10: I suppose the refit happens after massive battle damage has been afflicted to the Big E in this episode. So it’s quite alright to have the original ship in the credits.
I guess the refit will happen no sooner than at the beginning of the next episode. Or will it be at the end of B&F?
8. mojonaut
‘Shouldn’t Deltans be bald?’
Yeah and all Japanese people look the same!
‘I still love that “prefit” design for the Phase II Enterprise though. I think the Star Trek XI team could’ve learned a lot by looking at this ship!’
Beg to differ. Nice design for a series designed to continue on from James’s TOS stylings. The new movie’s Enterprise is wonderful for the big-screen of universe we’re about to see in the cinema.
I love these guys. Love their productions. But did we really need a remake of The Child? The TNG episode was horrible (okay, granted, a remake of the phase 2 script). I’m not looking forward to this one, I’m afraid!
I could never get into these. I can’t get past the cheese.
i love artisinal heirloom cheese. A lot more care and flavor goes into it than the bland processed corporate kind.
#15 – The early ones, even of Cawley’s, were definitely full of cheese. But I’d recommend taking a look at his most recent one, “The World Enough and Time” (the one with George Takei). Anyone can find things to quibble with, but I think that is the best hour of fanfilm made. It’s definitely the best hour of fanfilm I’ve ever seen.
@ 7:
The redesign shown above? That one looks like images I’ve seen of what the ship was to look like had the original Phase II series aired.
Hmm and when will we see this one? Xmas 2011? Look, I hate to complain about this, but we were told Blood and Fire Part 1 would be ready several months ago. Note to James and the Gang: Putting on a date and not having it ready for web is a lot like crying wolf. If it’s going to be December, I’m fine with that. It will give you guys more time for post-production and more time to show it off.
Thanks to James Cawley and the many others… we DO have a new Trek this Christmas. Way to go, guys! (I know we’re snide in these threads at times — hell, we’re Trekkies, therefore we kvetch.) This IS appreciated.
Good on Cawley and his crewe for pursuing their dreams, being creative and going for it while having fun. The lighting and production values look impressive and get better with each journey.
I thought a distinguishing trait of the Deltan species was their lack of hair? Kind of like how the TNG Klingons have bumpy foreheads.
Wow, how long has this site been talking about this? Will we ever see it?
Well. on the 19th ill be 40 and what a great birthday present. A new Episode of Phase 2. Thank you james Cawley for a nice Birthday present. Looking forward to it. (not my 40th though) LOl
13. Dom – I’m only going by what Gene Roddenberry said himself:
“Her face is breathtakingly beautiful. But like all Deltans, she is completely hairless except for the eyes. Her smooth, slender bare head has the almost sensually quality of delicately contoured nudity, always hidden before in other women. It gives her a striking, almost “Egyptian” look, particularly when wearing a Deltan jewel-band head ornament.
(Quoted from http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Star_Trek:_Phase_II)
Weren’t the engines not even tested in warp drive yet even in STTMP?
My question is, what the hell YouTube settings did you use for encoding the video. It looked great, and I’ve been trying to make YouTube videos look good for some time. Well done!
What I like about the P2 stuff is how accurate the sets look. There’s always been something about that ’60’s bridge and transporter room that I love. I suspect when the timeline fixes itself in JJ’s film it will look just like that. ‘:)
I was the harshest critic around for the Koenig episode “To Serve All My Days”, but the Takei episode “World Enough and Time” was PERFECT. Please everyone, see it!
To those whining about episodes not coming fast enough for you, grow up, please. Ever heard about not looking a gift horse in the mouth? Cawley doesn’t HAVE to do these at all, and they cost you nothing. Why can’t you just be grateful for a gift, whatever you get, whenever you get it? Ain’t ya got no class?
Indeed so.
Just looked at the video. I’m not a big fan of these films, mainly down to the acting, but I can’t help but be impressed at the attention to detail and the professionalism that goes into the production. Now that they’re evolving more into Phase II, they can put their own spin on it rather than just doing a copy-cat of the Original Series. And yes, the acting has improved. And hopefully, without being tied down to always having to use guest cast members to attract attention, the quality will improve further. I always felt having guest cast seemed a bit contrived and the stories were warped to fit around the guest star rather than just seeming natural.
14
Jon Povill would agree with you ..The Child did SUCK on TNG
He can talk about it for an hour as to why.
This is why he wanted to REDO it..becuase the studio would not let him tell the story the way intended it to be told…
You will see that story without the studio interference Jon put up with during TNG.
8….
Deltans are not bald if Jon Povill says they aren’t this is the man who originally Wrote Deltans into existance…maybe someday you can hear why he agrreed with me when I said….Star Trek “The Motion Picture ” SUCKED!!
He went on for another hour about how the studio tied his hands…
maybe we will redo that one too…Ill bring it up to James
Tony
#26: “Weren’t the engines not even tested in warp drive yet even in STTMP?”
Yep, but these engines aren’t necessarily *those* engines – these look like an “in-between” generation design bridging the TOS and TMP technologies.
#18 – I still hate it. I don’t like the TMP enterprise. It’s dull and lifeless and I don’t like the “aztec” patterns.
I really love the TOS enterprise, and I’m sad to see one more venue where she lived is getting rid of her.
the acting SUCCCCCCCCCCCCKSSSS but A for effort..
TMP Enterprise is AWESOME..its modern but retains all the old elements in a new way when I was a kid I had no problems at all getting into it.
With all the (justified) hype surrounding J.J.’s movie, it was good to see a little ‘classic’ TOS in that teaser. JC’s acting looks more fluid, and that new guy playing Chekov is a dead-ringer all the way around. Not bad. Not bad at all. :-)
James Cawley does indeed rock. And dare I say it? Their episodes are way better than Of Gods And Men, which I just saw, and pretty much thought it blew chunks pretty bad. (yep, I know, they used Phase II sets.)
As for this show morphing into the TMP era, I think that is cool too. I think an awesome idea would be a movie length “feature” in the movie era. Say, between TMP and TWOK, or between TVH and TFF. Wasn’t there another 5 year mission after TVH?
I’d love to see the Phase II cast in TWOK uniforms. –Good– TWOK uniforms, not the TWOK silk jammies that Walter Koenig wore in Of Gods And Men….
Oh, and yes, the new Spock DOES look really good!
#31 thanks for that, maybe this one will surprise after all…
“Checkov” is good.
Someone get Mr. Spock some coffee. Not emotional does not = dull, sleepy, and boring.
No downloads for the new episode? No thanks
Nicely done.
I always wondered about how the Child would have been as a phase2 ep…
I am more excited about seeing this New Voyage than Star Trek 09.
I guess Exeter is now the only venue to see a REAL Constitution Class Starship. I think we all know an original Constitution Class Starship would wipe out any of the latter ship designs in a fair battle.
#8
Maybe they haven’t shaved her head yet. ;)
I’m just wondering, how is this project funded? Is it fan funded? Is it personally funded by someone with deep pockets? How can they afford to have such a huge staff and fly people in? Do the people who work on this project do it in their spare time? Like, do they have regular full time jobs as well? Do they pay the staff and actors?
I’m very curious about all the financial aspects to this show.
I’m just wondering, how is this project funded?
Thanks for asking….
Its Basically funded out of our pockets..those of us who love Star trek enough to put our hard earned money up for it..
How can they afford to have such a huge staff and fly people in?
You see Rob Mauro in the video talk about his 2cd Family…we do what family does …we help one another where ever and when ever we can…
Do the people who work on this project do it in their spare time? Like, do they have regular full time jobs as well?
We all have full time jobs and careers many of us involved in Video Electronics ,Film Making ,TV ,Broadcasting …
But some of us are….Homemakers…Construction Workers…Chefs…
Rocket Scientists…or just work at Walmart…
Everyone is equally important to make the show come together.
We are UNpaid we do it for the LOVE of ST….and James Cawley
If you knew him you would not ask why anybody does all ths….
Tony
STP2 Engineering
They have the look of the TOS down – although I don’t exactly like the semi-refit.
I always envisioned the Old Girl pulling in to dry-dock at Earth as we always remembered her – maybe a little more weathered than we saw her last, but still in all her glory. The semi refit destroys the surprise and awe of the TMP beauty passes.
They should also find genuine quality actors to play those original parts – and then keep them. The guy who plays Chekov is perfect. But can’t they find a young William Shatner doppleganger out there? I mean, I have tremendous respect for Cawley as he set everything in motion for New Voyages, but I don’t buy him as JTK. To be fair, I am not sure about Chris Pines portrayal yet either as I have not seen it. It’s even money at this point.
That said – from the effects to make up, and every other aspect of NV seems to be improving. Great. I love it. I’m hoping they crank out the last 2 years of the 5 year mission.
I am very excited about this! I love ST:NV/PII
About the acting; yeah, some of the actors are better than others. However, the love for Trek that comes across in these productions makes it a small thing that for me is easily ignored. The effects are great, the sets are wonderful. The stories are, IMO, real Trek.
I actually liked “World Again and Time” better than Nemesis. I think I saw it five or six times, as well as told friends. “To Serve All My Days, 1969” is almost as good. I really like the scene where Chekov is talking to himself about how fast he aged “But I was young!” he says. (Boy can I relate!)
The bottom line is, as a Trek fan, I am very grateful to Cawley and Co. for their efforts. They have kept the spirit of Trek alive and well.
Here’s a thought: Shatner didn’t end up doing “Enterprise”. and won’t be in the new movie. Would he do a ST:PII? It would be great to see him on that bridge!!
Thanks so much for all your hard work, Mr. Cawley and everyone. Sign me,
A Big Fan.
The new Spock rivals Quinto!
“But can’t they find a young William Shatner doppleganger out there? I mean, I have tremendous respect for Cawley as he set everything in motion for New Voyages, but I don’t buy him as JTK. To be fair, I am not sure about Chris Pines portrayal yet either as I have not seen it. It’s even money at this point.”
…It’s that damn Elvis-do Cawley has to keep in shape in order to do his Elvis impressions! Of course, it could be worse: Cawley could be part of a Sex Pistols tribute band that does for the Pistols what Beatlemania did for the Fab Four :-)