Last year the Starship Farragut fan series went into the second dimension with their first episode of Starship Farragut: The Animated Episodes, styled like the original Star Trek The Animated Series. Today they have released the final act of their second episode, featuring guest voices of Trek vets Chase Masterson and Tim Russ. Watch it below.
Farragut animates second episode: "Needs of the Many"
Starship Farragut: The Animated Episodes is a joint project of the Starship Farragut live-action team and NEO f/x. "Needs of the Many" was written by DS9 vet Jack Treviño and NEO f/x’s Michael Struck.
Plot Summary:
Carter and crew are on a missing back to Cestus III, the same planet Kirk encountered the Gorn. The original base was actually an observation point for a small orbiting wormhole, a fact that Kirk didn’t even know during his original mission. A new, cloaked base was established in orbit, headed by Dr Tumar (Tim Russ).
As fate would have it, Carter encounters the same Gorn as Kirk, and he is out for revenge. The Gorn begins attacking the base with a new weapon. The Farragut takes on a special passenger (Scotty from the Enterprise, played by Chris Doohan) before the destruction of the wormhole base. Unfortunately, the new weapon causes a problem with the wormhole, and it puts Farragut into a ‘bubble’ in space and time. In this bubble are snippets of time that isolated here. One of the ‘time bubbles’ has a descendent of the Farragut’s chief engineer Lt. Cmdr. Smithfield. Smithfield great-great grandmother, Carmen Renata (Chase Masterson) is badly hurt and is beamed
aboard Farragut.We come to find out from a passing Andorian (Vic Mignogna) that in this universe the Earth was destroyed in the 21 century. This actually has to do with Carmen’s removal from the bubble by the Farragut. So now the question is, do they send her back to a certain death to save the universe as they know it, or allow her to live (i.e. The needs of the many outweighing the needs of the one).
Watch the episode:
In addition to the voice work of Russ, Doohan and Masterson, some fans may also have noticed a TAS Easter egg as "Needs of the Many" includes a cameo from Lou Scheimer, the co-founder of Filmation and producer of the original Star Trek The Animated Series. He plays a character that he played 35+ years ago.
Shots of STF: TAE voice recording sessions with Tim Russ (L) and Chris Doohan and Chase Masterson (R) [click to enlarge]
The episode is only available on YouTube for now, but will be available on the official site tomorrow and on DVD by the end of the month. More information on this and the previous episode at farragut-animated.com.
Also keep in touch with the live-action series at starshipfarragut.com
SF: TAE Episode 1
If you missed it before, here is the first episode "Power Source"
I’ll be off trekmovie immediately to watch this! :-)
Awesome! Nice work guys!
I lost interest after 3 minutes. =\ Chris Doohan did a good job though from what I could tell skipping around in the timeline.
Chase Masterson got hotter. I had no Idea she was Blond.
Oh yeah I can’t wait to see the episode.
That is impressive indeed. Good job.
@ NX01
I don`t know if her current blonde Hair is real. I met her a week ago at FEDCon Convention in Bonn, Germany – got an autograph, too.
She had pictures with her as Xela, the green Orion she played in “Star Trek: Of Gods and Men”. On other pictures she was posing with various Flaggs – USA, white UFP (Federation Flagg) and German Black-Red-Gold Flagg. Since I`m from Bavaria, guess which photo I chose. :-)
I think her blonde hair is actually dyed right now
Chase Masterson is great! When we were screening a FanMade episode of STAR TREK: PHASE 2, called “Enemy: Starfleet”, we were a little late there to present our film. Chase was on the panel before us.
So instead of all people leaving the room, a lots of guys were gathering around Chase and had pictures taken with her. So Chase did help us a lot with her present.
Can`t wait to hear her performance in the final act of “The needs of the Many”. Hope to see her in a fanmade production again, in the future.
The animation looked pretty ok but honestly I couldn’t get past the initial horrible voice acting. It screamed fanboy to me honestly. For those that can get past that, though, looks like it might be something cool.
The crew is a little too WASPy for my tastes. Seriously, with billions of people from various races living on Federation worlds, why is Starfleet like 90% American men?
You would think that being an animated series and all, they could have a little fun drawing some aliens, a few more women or an Aboriginal Australian.
Hey Doohan, you do a good job of doing your dad. I always really dug the Andorian character from the animated show. Glad to see that being used too. Fun stuff.
Oh and I know it’s off subject but somebody here’s got to appreciate this…Frank Frazetta died yesterday
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Frank Frazetta 1928-2010
I’ve never been dissapointed by Farragut. I’ve enjoyed their every adventure. Check out the comics too. I will tune in to the final act of this story. Thanks for all you do
The story line was GOOD the voices seemed monotone… They need some life in the words they are saying.
This is, like, the best idea for a fan series so far. The guy playing the Captain needs to punch up his delivery though.
I didn’t watch the whole thing yet, but what I saw was very cool. I’ll watch the rest of it later.
I think the Captain looks like Jon Favreau.
I agree that the voice acting could be bumped up a few notches.
#10, I’m a big fan of Frank Frazetta’s work, I have alot of his old Warren Publishing work from the 1970’s and 1980’s. He will be missed.
As for Farragut animated story it was pretty good, the animation was perfect . I agree with another post that some of the voice actors need more emotion in what they are saying, it sounds too much like they are reading the lines. It would be nice to see animated stories set in different time periods. TNG or Titan animated anyone?
I have to say that was a good likeness of Tim Russ.
@7 – Yeah, the animation is fantastic, but the voice acting is… well… hard to listen to. (Sorry, guys.) I’d love to see the whole thing re-dubbed with some voice pros, or at least actors with more experience. It’s got some great potential.
*7 .. I think you’re forgetting that this IS a fan film. Of course it’s going to be fanboyish, aren’t they all! Doesn’t mean it can’t be fun to watch. As for the voices, well since most of the people involved are not professional voice over artists, you should cut them a little slack. Did you ever see a fan film where the acting was actually brilliant? Neither have I. Most of them run the range from awful to just about passible but again that doesn’t mean you can enjoy it.
The point is that they tried hard and the Farragut animated show looks really great.
I like these! Great job Jack and Mike!
Nice job!
Brings back memories of cartoons that actually were good for a young brain.
Keep it coming!
#17 you said it well thank you! If you enjoyed this story check out their comics and “power source” I think you will enjoy thes
Hand check, Chris.
Nice.
This ‘Fan’ stuff is not taking it in any new directions, its basically just trying to re-create things that existed in the 60s including the style and limited animation. Why??? Why not try to be original and not rigidly emulate the stuff you loved, bcus it comes off as boring, unspired and dull.
Just saw “Power Source” and I like what I saw. Very cool stuff.
One questions though, why is the Andorian on the bridge grey and not blue? Not ragging at all, but I am curious.
Kudos.
That was VERY cool!
Another goddamn fan-made starship captain with a goatee.
Either grow a full bear or lose it. It just doesn’t look commanding . Unless you’re The Sikso.
#22 I think your missing the point. The point is the story. Some of the best “real” star trek episodes were made on very limited budgets (called bottle shows). They prove that special effects don’t make star trek work. In the end this episode had a good story. Personally, I actually liked the animation done in the classic way. Since these shows don’t come out all that often its kind of nice. If it were a regular TV show, then I would want to see something different.
That was quite fun. It reminded me of watching the Filmation episodes back in the early ’70s, trying to convince myself those somewhat-crudely animated shows were worthy successors to the originals. Well, they weren’t, and neither is this, really–but the love is there, and that counts for a lot.
Not to mention, Lieutenant Moretti is a real cartoon babe. :-)
Congratulations on your fine effort!
This reminds me of the early 70’s, watching TAS on Saturday mornings. Keep em’ coming!
Everyone who complains about acting should understand that not every PERSON in the real world appears to be a larger than life character. Look at the person next to you. The odds that they are a brilliantly charismatic shakespearean enunciator are low. Star Trek is about real people in unreal situations. Sure, some of the reality is a little bit fantasy, but why does everyone have to be William Shatner or Patrick Stewart to have command of a Starship?
Seriously…. The actors in this film do a fine job of portraying real people. And that’s plenty good enough for me. Acting is no walk in the park, and it is a lot easier to tear someone down than to say “thank you,” apparently.
I sit back sometimes and I read the extreme negativity toward something created with heart and love for the material, and I just wonder why people can’t accept a gift from the heart without tearing it up and spitting it out. Naysayers, I say this, “Do better if you can.”
My thanks to everyone who has been supportive of the project and who has voiced their feelings. We all live with criticism, it is part of the territory. But there is critique that is helpful and that which is hurtful. The difference is that one is designed to benefit and one is designed to destroy. Thank you to those who believe enough to understand that not everyone is an oscar candidate, but we all do our part.
People are who they are and attacking them because you don’t like their appearance, or the way they sound, is pretty low-class in my book. You might not like a person’s acting, but attacking them as people is sick.
Ask yourself, “What would Spock say?” Remember IDIC.
“How will they react in a stressful situation?” — Kirk
“Each according to his gifts.” — Spock
How about celebrating the good and the gift of more Star Trek instead of undercutting someone’s efforts?
Ken
Good stuff.
Well I liked it, it’s great seeing fans producing something that profetional
#23, Thelin was gray in TAS mostly because the fellow who was in charge of color work at Filmation back in 1973 was color blind… We sort of reworked this little gaffe from 1973 into the story by saying he was Aenar (Whom were gray).
Regardless of what complaints people might have, it took us 2 years to do this with only a handful of artists (Whereas Filmation had an army in comparison), and not a dime for a budget. It’s really tough to do voice work, you almost have to have 1940’s radio training in order to do it right… so you add the complication of doing acting without expensive proper training and then add voicework without more expensive proper training… it’s just tough. I think the actors did an amazing job, all of them.
Heck, watching this, I totally see that I gaffed a shot completely… (We were rushing a little toward the end-no I won’t say which one… no need to make me look any worse than I am…) and I have a degree in animation…
–Guy
Impressive, but way to much talking and not enough action.
So I guess all the telephone operators in starfleet are black women?
Well Done!
Very faithful to the Animated series.
Nice to see scotty again. Well done Chris!
Tim Russ looked like Tuvok..Duh..:)
Nice to see a woman engineer who isnt klingon.
As far as the action goes, This version of star trek was alot more talky. more action would also be welcome but not at the expense of faithfulness to the original.
fantastic… keep ’em coming!
I am currently working on a HE-MAN animated fan film. Nearly finished all the vocals. It was quite the challenge casting actors, recording and re-recording voices. It’s not easy work – it fact, it’s taken about 6 months! Still mixing in effects,a nd need to find some suitable music.
I think the Farragut team have done a great job! It ain’t easy work… these films are by fans for fans. I hope to see more in the future!
thanks for set closed caption..
Nice to see Mr. Scott, pretty good voicing too Mr. Doohan!
A terrific job, fun to watch!
Good voicing Mr. Doohan? James Doohan had a terrible Scottish accent (especially in the later years), and the things he would come out with would make me cringe, and I’m sure a lot of Scottish people too. Being Irish, the whole leprechaun thing would really piss me off sometimes, so I can imagine that the stereotypical, whiskey-swilling, bad accented Montgomery Scott would rile some Scots as well. Without wanting to sound offensive, but Chris Doohan’s Scotty was appalling.
There is something flat about the voice work in general. I’ve heard a LOT worse, and seen a lot worse in fanfic without being just a voice over an animation. I think the big thing is that when two characters converse with eachother, it FEELS like one of them stood in the room, recorded their one line of dialogue, the other person came in, listened, recorded their reply, and so on. It probably feels like that because that’s how it happened. This makes any chemistry between two characters seem very forced (such as in the conference room when the captain and science officer were having a slightly less-than-formal exchange). This was a bit of a problem even in the original Animated Series: there was too much “dead space” between the end of one person’s dialogue and the beginning of another’s. Not helped by William Shatner’s truly awful read-out-loud renditions at times. I agree with those who suggest it was a little too wordy. Again, another foible of the TAS series. Especially considering it’s condensed 25-minute time.
The animation did bug me though. Some of it looked frame-for-frame, and I don’t use the word lightly, but STOLEN from the original Animated Series. I probably wouldn’t have noticed, only I’d been watching some TAS episodes recently. The only difference in some of the shots was that “U.S.S. Farragut” was written on the ship instead of “Enterprise”. The characters looked like they’d all been traced in Adobe Illustrator or Flash. That’s not a criticism necessarily. If I was to do something like that, it’s how I would do it myself, since it’s a good way to get a simplified likeness.
I’m glad you kept the music from TAS. It might be sacrilege of me to say so, but I think it’s better than a lot of the incidental music used on TOS. I’m sure I’m going to have many a fanboy jump down my throat at saying that. The theme tune, however, sounded dischordened and awful, without a hook.
Overall a good story, but relying too much on what fans are familiar with, which is a problem with a lot of fan fictions. I think a lot of these productions need to get over trying to cast past ‘Trek actors in roles we’re familiar with (Tim Russ, for example), or re-using familiar characters, such as Scotty, or even old scenarios, such as making this an indirect sequel to “Arena”. It’s something that’s endemic to a lot of fan fiction that’s out there, and while it’s nice to walk familiar ground, I do that by watching re-runs on CBS Action. Star Trek fans REALLY crave something new and original. The beauty about animation as a medium means it’s a lot easier to do this, yet here we are, on an old Constitution class ship, re-using a lot of the old animation, revisiting old planets and old foes, and even old characters.
And yes… the goatee – what’s up with that? Is it an in-joke or something?
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I just want to congratulate the NEO f/x team on completing the 2nd animated episode. A high-quality animated film done in the same FILMATION style of the 1970’s. Most folks will get it, some won’t – good remarks Ken (#29 above). Hopefully all will appreciate the time and effort spent on re-creating STAR TREK animation in the same look and feel as FILMATION’s version.
#40 – Chris Doohan’s Scotty was great, and you really need to lighten up. For your information, the Scots LOVE Scotty – that’s why several towns and cities were arguing a few years back over where his birthplace ought to be. If you’re so clever, perhaps you’ll volunteer to organise a future fan production, so you can show everyone how ought to be done?
I loved that this episode paid tribute to the original series – and long may that continue. Good job by everyone, and especially Chris. I thought he did well with Thelin in the first Farragut animated episode, but hearing him as Scotty was amazing. Kinda strange too, in a good way, as he sounds so like his dad.
Well done all concerned
Can’t download the third act from http://www.farragut-animated.com – I get an error then am redirected to the neo/fx site.
:'(
I hope this episode has a better story and ending than the first did (“weird stuff happend. Why? Dunno. The end.”)
If Farragut ever do more animated episodes I’d love to see Mr. Arex, or even a Starfleet ship crewed entirely by Edoans.
#40
I was in Linlithgow, Scotland a few years back for the “Future Birthplace of Scotty” exhibit and had the pleasure of meeting the Provost, Mr. Kerr. He said that he heard I was trying out for the role of Scotty in the new Star Trek movie and asked “do you have a good Scottish accent?”. I told him that I wasn’t trying out for the role and that my accent was terrible. He replied, ” then you’d be perfect…your father’s accent was terrible”. He went on to say that regardless, he was loved by the Scottish people and found his accent endearing.
For all of you that like my attempt at Scotty (and Thelin), thanks. I had fun doing it.
43
Ditto
For those that liked our effort, Thank you!
For those that didn’t… Well, I’ll keep those words to myself and pray for you.
I liked it! Great story, and Chris did an excellent job playing Scotty. It’s true some of the voice actors weren’t that great, but this is a fan production and considering that fact I’d say they all did a wonderful job!
Why is the female engineer referred to as “Mike”??