Watch “Still Treads the Shadow,” Newest Episode From ‘Star Trek Continues’ Fan Production

The eighth installment from the fan production Star Trek Continues debuted today on the web, after a live premiere at Dallas Fan Expo on Saturday. “Still Treads the Shadow” is a return to the franchise for screenwriter Judy Burns, who co-wrote “The Tholian Web” for Star Trek’s third season.

As the name implies, this fan series continues the voyages of the USS Enterprise and crew, picking up after the original series ended its third season in 1969. In “Still Treads the Shadow,” Captain Kirk faces some very personal stakes as the Enterprise discovers a lost starship … with an unlikely passenger.

Rekha Sharma (Battlestar Galactica, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem) guest stars, joining the regular Continues cast of Vic Mignogna as Kirk, Todd Haberkorn as Spock, Chris Doohan as Scotty, Chuck Huber as Dr. McCoy, Grant Imahara as Sulu, Kim Stinger as Uhura, Wyatt Lenhart as Chekov, and Michelle Specht as Lt. McKennah.

You can watch the full episode below.


More information and previous episodes are available at startrekcontinues.com.

 

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Admittedly, I don’t follow this page as regularly as most. Also, I’m not well versed in all things happening in the fan film genre however; I thought that fan films had a limit of something like 15-20 minutes each? Without having had the chance to watch it and only looking at the time stamp on the video – this one seems to be around 54+ minutes. How are they getting around the time limit or am I just mistaken on all this?

They had the funding for a few more episodes when the guidelines came out, so they have been allowed to finish what they had prepared.
http://stcsubspacechatter.blogspot.com/2017/03/frequently-asked-questions-and-answers.html

Thank you, Matt.

There is no grandfathering and according to CBS no exceptions. So STC is producing these episodes at their own risk. I applaud them for that – and I hope CBS doesn´t take any legal action.

There was NO “grandfathering” with the guidelines. Maybe they will be the next Axanar? Might as well since Alec Peters ruined Trek fan films anyway!

The position that STC is taking is that Paramount’s guidelines are a “safe harbor,” i.e., that fan films that comply with the guidelines won’t face legal action. However, that does not mean that fan films that fail to comply with the guidelines *will* face legal action.

It would not surprise me if STC’s legal counsel has had some informal conversations with Paramount’s general counsel as well.

I think you’re on the right track regardless of whether it restores longer fan films.

I really like all of the Star Trek Continues, but this one is my favorite.

Great episode!! This is classic TOS!! It’s refreshing to see them do a classic sci-fi story like this.

The production design, FX and editing are great, as usual. The acting is good all around, with some outstanding moments. The AI theme is compelling and satisfying, without being overly preachy. And it leaves us with an intriguing ethical question to ponder: is amorality tantamount to evil? Does amorality ultimately imply evil?

I’m confused about the backstory. I don’t recall Kirk et al being on The Defiant in a previous STC episode. What’s the story there? And, at the end, why does Kirk say, “Not any more,” in response to the notion of Old Kirk being “all alone now”?

Loved this episode. Gonna watch it again. Such a shame that this wonderful series is ending. GR would have LOVED it. :-(

Kirk was on the Defiant in the season 3 TOS episode “The Tholian Web”. I think Kirk meant old Kirk had been healed in a sense since he realized his friends didn’t abandon him on purpose.

DggJag
Kirk was on the Defiant in the season 3 TOS episode “The Tholian Web”.

Ah, thank you.

I think Kirk meant old Kirk had been healed in a sense since he realized his friends didn’t abandon him on purpose.

Yes, you’re right. Old Kirk felt all alone for 60+ years, believing as he did that his friends had abandoned him.

Cygnus-X1,

Enjoyed it and Judy Burns proving there’s still plenty of paths toward resurrecting a Kirk role that William Shatner could still explore on screen.

Well. Well. Well. After 40 years of watching Star Trek episodes I finally watched one that had me crying my eyes out at the end of the episode.

WELL DONE CREW MEMBERS!

I am going to have to take a nap now to recharge.

I thought this was brilliant, and up to now I have been a fan film hater. Judy Burns’s story just kept grabbing me. Great job to everyone involved.

How many CBS / Paramount rules is this fanfilm breaking?
Good for you guys!

Complain much, citizen? As for this episode, when they showed the Defiant show up I was like ‘The hell? Its in the Mirror universe, LoLs?’ But as the story continued, it pretty much sucked me into it (just like all the previous entries)… but this was a first: 10 out of 10 Halflings. A very enjoyable episode, indeed.

~Pensive’s Wetness

Complaining? No. Congratulating. CBS / Paramount can take their rules and shove them up their…

So in the past, I have admired STC for its slavish devotion to replicating TOS as closely as possible, but the stories have always left me wanting. This episode was a stunner. I was sucked in in the first few minutes, and felt like, for the first time with STC, that I was actually watching an episode of TOS. Really good storytelling, a compelling mystery and plot, good social commentary. Nice blend of modern concepts (A.I., “Hawking Radiation”, Trojan Horse malware, etc.) that they wouldn’t have known about back in the 1960’s but felt right here. A few little issues – Spock’s makeup too heavy, McCoy’s hair weird, but easily overlook-able, in the light of a really great story. And, damn, Vic really has Shatner’s body language down. Nice job STC.

Screencaps?

Always felt Continues was the best of the bunch (no disrespect to the hard work put into other fan films/series). They just hit all the right notes and I love Vic’s Kirk. Makes me feel like I really am watching an unaired season of TOS.

STC Is THE BEST OF THE BUNCH – with the most respect for their supporters and gave what promised. (The last 3 coming, all we lost were two films so it’s 11 rather than 13 due due the situation and respect for CBS)

I have no respect for another Fan film series that abandoned its fans When under guidelines (as with STC) they were “Grandfathered” and could complete their film, but rather play with their big tour.

Best one yet. Well done all.

Notes: Borrows some of the premise from the TNG Thomas Riker episode. Normally, episodes involving aging are done to accommodate some elder TOS actor’s appearance but here they aged Vic strictly for the story. It looks like some of the cast members are putting on weight. Terrible McCoy hair, already mentioned. Another good episode. Not my favorite but then again, I’ve really enjoyed a lot of them up to this point.

*Sigh* I consider myself a fan of STC, so I wish I could say that I liked this episode a lot more than I did. But in truth I found it very talky and slow, and lacking a theme compelling enough to compensate for those deficiencies. Vic Mignogna is fine as both versions of Kirk, but Rekha Sharma, who was so awesome on Battlestar Galactica, seems lost here, as if she really didn’t get the convoluted plot but was determined to get through the episode as a favor to someone and just elected to wear the same distressed expression in every scene, regardless of whether it was appropriate to the story or not.

Admittedly, I’ve always considered “The Tholian Web” to be at least somewhat overrated –yes, it’s one of the third season’s best, though that’s a pretty low bar–but if Ms. Burns found herself haunted over the past half-century at the thought of Kirk alone and left for dead on the Defiant, and feeling abandoned by his shipmates, she may have done well to check out the similarly-themed but in my view vastly superior New Voyages episode “World Enough and Time.” That show isn’t perfect, but it still managed to give George Takei his best outing ever as Hikaru Sulu while dealing much more effectively with the themes of separation, loss, and self-sacrifice. Unfortunately, after STC’s damn-near pitch-perfect “Embracing the Winds,” “Still Treads the Shadow” consequently comes off as a disappointment. No shame in that, and I trust they’ll keep on going, as I’m still very much looking forward to the next one.

World Enough and Time is definitely The high water mark for New Voyages

The high water mark for fan films in general IMO, though several STC episodes (“Lolani,” “Fairest of Them All,” “Embracing the Winds”) and “Prelude to Axanar” are more or less on that level of excellence. I think Roddenberry would have been proud to be associated with any of them.

Truthfully, I have liked every STC episode so far. Wasn’t even embarrassed to watch them with my wife. I liked Divided we Stand quite a bit, and damn if Vic Mignona doesn’t still look like Kirk even when dressed in Union blues. Not to mention, the large scale battle scenes and countless period appropriate actors all came across quite well. This episode answers the question, if you’re dreaming and you lose your leg does it still hurt like hell?

I’d agree that “Divided We Stand” has some stuff going for it–except the story, which is pretty inconsequential if not downright silly. But the characterizations of Kirk and McCoy are spot-on, and the episode makes excellent use of its limited resources to tell that story. (In lesser hands, the show would have come across as exactly what it was: buncha doofuses in Union and Confederate uniforms running around the backwoods playing weekend soldier.) Mignogna is a talented guy, no doubt about it.

anyone know why the quality of the video is so poor. On Youtube its soft with giant pixels. so were the last few episodes?

Not a problem with the videos. They all look great to me, with high resolution on multiple computers. You’ve got something wrong at your end. Change your resolution setting in YouTube.

I watched on my 55 inch 4K tv. Beautiful.

Another Squeal? BUT This one was excellent, so it wasn’t just an like someones “Doomsday Machine” rehash.

Kudos to the Makeup department. That was some excellent work!

Unfortunately the rest was rather mediocre, if not boring and predictable. Obviously, the Defiant was able to move, so in 200 years they weren´t able to reach some other ships/stations/planet? And what a waste of Ms. Sharma. I was looking forward to her performance, sadly she got almost nothing to do. I hope the remaining 3 episodes will see some improvement.

The Defiant was trapped in the interspacial void in between universes; there were no other planets, no other signs of life, no stars…. just as Kirk was lamenting about during the ending of the original Tholian Web episode. It didn’t return to the regular universe until the black hole event spit it back into realtime, if I understood the story correctly.

Yeah I had a bit of a tough time understanding what was going on. So there was a Defiant trapped in a void and one that went into the mirror universe? And Kirk was split and ended up in the void? I love STC but this one left me a bit flummoxed and meh. Still really looking forward to the remaining episodes.

Yes, they explicitly stated that the ship was duplicated in that moment – the original Kirk returned with the original Defiant going to the Mirror Past with the copies being reflected back into the void (or vice versa.)

I was more confused by what exactly the computer was blocking from Old Kirk’s memory, and what its intentions actually were with the dark matter / singularity – what was its goal in terms of Old Kirk at the point he is put into cryonics?

phoenix,

In STAR TREK, where everyone that uses a transporter to arrive at their destination is a copy, there’s no significance to term “original”, even if such a thing could be determined somehow, that you are attempting to apply. In this 23rd century society, philosophically, there is no difference. The younger looking Kirk acknowledges it several times.

I didn’t recall anything about the Defiant going into the mirror past, I just know it did because I saw it o Enterprise. Granted, I watched the episode on my iPad in a hotel room.
In any event, that all seems rather convoluted. I’m with you on the whole “what is the computer trying to keep from Kirk” thing. Anyway, looking forward to the next installment.

Not complaining as I think the ageing makeup was excellent, but there’s something about the ageing appliances that struck me as Shatneresque for me. Is there a chance someone was able to use some molds from THE DEADLY YEARS?

I heard that the makeup for the Deadly Years literally involved applying layers of toilet paper. Very low tech.

This was utterly superb. It is astonishing to see all this love and passion dedicated to re-creating the joy of the old show. You folks make me so happy! I was stunned at out how amazing this was. Seriously!! … stunned!! … amazing!! It not only took me back but also brought me here and now to contemporary issues. I really felt for a moment that this were a 4th season TOS episode. The production quality melted into the background so that I could focus on the story, which was perfectly aligned with the old ethos of the show. Added bonus, the music culled from all 3 seasons of TOS sweetly matched the action in the same way the old scores were cut and spliced into episodes. In that sense, the original Tholian Web ep was significant in its blend of music from the prior seasons, and this new piece of work connected brilliantly to what the music editors did with Tholian Web. I liked Kirk’s whispered recognition, “The Defiant …!” My only concern was canonical misalignment with the ST: Ent Defiant episode, admittedly minor. For an old fan, this was Christmas Day. The best present a boy could open.

Not really a problem, because they did say in the episode that old Kirk and this Defiant were copies of our Kirk and the Defiant that went into the mirror universe past.

Absolutely stunned by how good this episode was. Story, acting, special efx, all brilliant.
This was a superb follow up to one of my favourite STOS episodes too.
Very, very well done.
Congratulations to everyone involved with Star Trek Continues. You absolutely nailed it with this episode.

STC is still the finest bit of IP infringement going these days! My personal high water mark for Continues is still Fairest Of Them All, but Still Treads The Shadow is one of the better ones.

Outstanding!