NOTE: I apologize for the length of this post, but if you are a #StarTrek fan, it is worth your time, I promise!

Last week, I was bragging about having met the world famous stuntman, #VicArmstrong, at a Fourth of July party. What I didn’t know then is that he wasn’t destined to be my favorite Vic at the party. The highlight of the day, undoubtedly, was discussing “Star Trek” late into the night with Vic Mignogna (@vicmignogna) and his beautiful girlfriend, Michele Specht (@MicheleSpecht). You see, Vic is an actor with a long list of credits, particularly in anime, but he is perhaps best known for his role as James T. Kirk, captain of the #USSEnterprise.

Now, I know what you’re thinking—I thought that was @WilliamShatner? And you’d be right. But just as literature has fan fiction—stories about characters and settings from an original work of fiction, made by fans rather than by its creator—so too does television have fan-created series’. Most all these shows, despite the obvious love put into them, are profoundly unwatchable (I’m reminded of the sort of “Star Trek” plays my siblings and I would perform for our mother and her friends when we were kids)—chock full of cardboard sets and even more cardboard performances. And so, while I was familiar with Vic’s work from a distance, I had never actually bothered to watch any of it. It’s amazing what a difference a couple hours and a couple glasses of wine can make.

Vic began showing me pictures from the set of the award-winning #StarTrekContinues (@TrekContinues). This wasn’t some sort of rinky-dink show filmed in somebody’s garage, but rather a professional production. This was a project with hundreds of hands and thousands of man hours. Using Kickstarter, the show has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to ensure that what you see is as authentic to the show you already know as humanly possible. “Continues” is shot on a nearly 20,000 square foot soundstage, reproducing, in intimate detail, nearly every element of the Enterprise from original soundstage blueprints. (In the most recent episode, the Galileo shuttlecraft used is the actual prop from the original show, now restored and housed at @NASA’s Houston Space Center.) Shot in 4:3 aspect ratio to duplicate the original series’ format, “Continues” also mirrors the same lighting and cinematography, as well as the four-act structure. They have faithfully duplicated the costumes and props, and even utilize the original sound effects and series’ music, often re-scoring with a full orchestra. While the effects are computer generated, they retain, as my brother so eloquently stated, the original’s “model-like campiness instead of trying to #GeorgeLucas the shit out of it.”

Vic, who is not only the lead actor, but also the executive producer, director, writer and editor, embodies #CaptainKirk as no one I have ever seen. Portraying famous characters is necessarily one of the most treacherous things an actor can do, which is why it is almost never attempted outside of parody. And parody is exactly what your brain prepares itself for when you sit down to watch Vic and Co. at work. And then it hits you—this isn’t being done for laughs, unintentional or otherwise. This is dead serious. And it is so gob-smackingly well done that you suddenly realize that after about half an hour or so of watching people who don’t know running around pretending to be characters you do, an extraordinary transformation takes place—almost like a rewiring of your brain—you cease even seeing the differences anymore, and accept these doppelgänger completely.

Vic’s cadence is that of Shatner without ever evoking the hilarious imitations of @KevinSpacey or @kevinpollak. It is as if he is somehow channeling Shatner of old—the way he moves, stands, turns, leans, even comes to a stop. Even his facial muscles are spot on. But the fun doesn’t stop there. The character of #Scotty is portrayed by @ChrisDoohan—yes, the son of the late actor who played Scotty steps into his dad’s formidable shoes—and it is at once delightful and spooky as hell. @Grantimahara (Of @Mythbusters fame) plays #Sulu, and while he is the worst actor of the group (sorry, man!), the goodwill he’s accrued over the years ensures he is readily off the hook. Almost all of the original characters are here, and then some—the aforementioned lovely Michele Specht plays Dr. Elise McKennah, Starfleet’s first full-time ship’s Counselor.

Speaking of ship’s counselors, we must address the guest stars, like #StarTrekTheNextGeneration’s” @Marina_Sirtis (#DeanaTroi) as the voice of the ship’s computer (TNG’s Michael Dorn (@akaWorf) is also the voice of another ship’s computer…or is it the same ship?!) Michael Forest, who played Apollo in the original episode “Who Mourns for Adonais,” reprises that role. And there are other, non-“Trek” guest stars too, like @ImJamieBamber (Lee #Apollo Adama from #BSG), @LouFerrigno (aka "The Hulk"), Erin Gray from #BuckRogers, Daniel Logan (#BobaFett from #StarWars: Attack of the Clones), even even @SawbonesHex (Colin Baker), #DoctorWho’s Sixth Doctor!

“Star Trek Continues” picks up where the original series, cancelled mid-way through its third season, left off. Their four shows (and counting) feel like lost episodes of your all-time favorite program, just discovered in a dark and dusty vault somewhere. After the diet “Trek” #JJAbrams has been feeding us the past couple years—just one calorie, not “Trek” enough—it is eminently gratifying to discover something that fits precisely into the “Star Trek”-sized hole I have in my heart. “Continues” doesn’t just look the part, it feels it too. This is “Trek” as #GeneRoddenberry intended—an exciting “wagon train to the stars,” yes, but also, and perhaps most importantly, stories of beating conscience and moral significance, addressing the dangers of untempered power, the evils of sexual slavery, the imperative of non-violence, and the inability to protect those we love. If you adore “Star Trek” as I do, I cannot encourage you enough to watch this labor of love. Sure, at first it’s going to be jarring. But then, as if by magic, suddenly your mind will accept it and then, as my brother said, it will “snap you back a couple decades to a very warm and happy place. The bar of fandom has been set so high, I really don’t know if it’ll ever be surpassed again.”

What are you waiting for? Start watching! http://www.startrekcontinues.com

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