Trivia / Star Trek Continues

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• Acting for Two: "Still Treads the Shadow" seems to have been made mainly to give Vic Mignogna an excuse to play three characters at the same time.
• Approval of God: Rod Roddenberry, Gene Roddenberry's son, has a cameo in one episode, and was elated with the entire project.
  Rod: I do have to say, and I said this after "Lolani," I’m pretty damn sure my dad would consider this canon. The fact that you do stories that mean something, that have depth - that make us all think a little bit, I really think he would applaud you guys, and I applaud you guys. And as far as I am concerned it is canon. So thank you.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Vic Mignogna is a massive Trekkie, and with the series, he got to realize his life-long dream of playing Captain Kirk.
• The Danza:
  • Erin Gray plays Commodore Gray (also an example of Stunt Casting).
  • In "The White Iris", the character Nakia is played by the actress Nakia Burrise.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Kirk, who is in his mid-thirties, is played by Vic Mignogna, who was in his fifties.
  • Sulu, a character of Vague Age but younger than Kirk and played by George Takei starting at the age of 28, is played by Grant Imahara, who was in his forties.
  • More subtle with Chris Doohan, who plays the fortysomething Scotty, but still has a decade on him (and his father back in The '60s).
  • Averted by Todd Haberkorn, who (like Leonard Nimoy) played Spock in his thirties, Chuck Huber, who was about DeForest Kelley's age, and inverted by Wyatt Lenhart, who played Chekov starting in his late teens (he left the show briefly to go on Mormon missionary activities), making him slightly younger than his character and much younger than Walter Koenig when he had played Chekov.
• Dueling Shows: With Star Trek: New Voyages (aka Phase II). Vic Mignogna was initially involved with the New Voyages project before Creative Differences led him to try his own hand at making fan films. Among those he lured over to the Continues camp was Kim Stinger (Uhura), the only performer to be a regular in both web series.
• Fake Nationality: Kim Stinger, like Nichelle Nichols, is African-American playing the African Uhura.
• Fake Russian: Wyatt Lenhart as Chekov. He's considerably less Russian than the two official Chekovs, Walter Koenig (the son of Russian immigrants) and Russian-born (but American-raised) Anton Yelchin.
• Fake Scot: Chris Doohan isn't any more Scottish than his father was. What's funny is he's not even aiming for a Scottish accent, but a "Scotty" accent - the one his father used.
• Playing Against Type: The one and only John de Lancie as Galisti, leader of the Inner Council on Hyalinus. Galisti is far more grounded, not to mention more personable, than Q. And if you're watching the whole episode waiting for the other shoe to drop, no, he does not play Q in disguise to "test" Kirk's abilities as a Captain or somesuch.
• Real-Life Relative:
  • Kirk and the new character Dr. Elise McKennah (Michele Specht) were engaged in real life at the time of filming.
  • Michael Forest and his wife Diana Hale play Apollo and his sister Athena.
• The Other Darrin: Chuck Huber was busy with other projects during the filming of the show's first two episodes and could not play Dr. McCoy, forcing creative consultant Larry Nemecek to step in and play the part himself. This is surprisingly the only bit of recasting throughout the show's run.^note Contrast Star Trek: New Voyages, which recast every major role at least once, and many of them twice; albeit that series ran for 12 years whereas Continues ran for only five. Even when actor Wyatt Lenhart went on leave for his missionary activities, the role of Chekov was not recast but Suspiciously Similar Substitute Ensign Tongoroa appeared in his stead until his return.
• Role Reprise: Michael Forest, the actor who played Apollo in "Who Mourns for Adonis?", returns to play the role in the first episode.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: Following the June 2016 release of new rules regarding Star Trek fan films prompted by the Star Trek: Axanar debacle, the Continues team have stated on Facebook that the series will not continue. However, they also called out irate fans that they should place blame for the show's end on Axanar lead Alec Peters' well-documented misbehavior, not on CBS or Paramount. Fortunately (and unlike a number of other fanfilms affected by the incident) Continues was able to complete a finale two parter and CBS/Paramount raised no objections to this being released.
• Stunt Casting: A mix of mainstream and sci-fi names:
  • Grant Imahara from Mythbusters plays Hikaru Sulu throughout the series.
  • Erin Gray plays Commodore Laura Gray in two episodes.
  • Gigi Edgley plays Eliza Taylor in one episode.
  • Jamie Bamber plays Mr. Simone in one episode.
  • John De Lancie plays Galisti in one episode.
  • Lou Ferrigno plays Zaminhon, a green-skinned Orion, in "Lolani".
  • Marina Sirtis voices the Enterprise computer in several episodes.
  • Rekha Sharma plays Avi Samara in one episode.
  • Colin Baker plays Amphidamas in one episode.
  • Nicola Bryant appears in the finale.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Vic Mignogna, as noted elsewhere, specifically pitched Todd Haberkorn for the role of Spock, both because of their strong working relationship and to take advantage of their (friendly) off-screen rivalry dynamic. The other producers were hesitant at the Race Lift that would result^note Not as much of a race lift as you might think; Haberkorn has both Vietnamese and Scandinavian heritage; in a sense, this is appropriate for Spock, since he's mixed race in canon; Nimoy, the son of Ashkenazy Jewish immigrants, clearly had some Eurasian heritage preferring Haberkorn for the more "appropriate" (and much smaller) role of Sulu. Haberkorn turned them down flat and insisted that as far as he was concerned, it was Spock or bust. The other producers relented, but one wonders who might have played Spock if they hadn't, or if he had relented and had played Sulu after all.
  • Originally, the team had plans to do to around 13 episodes, but due to Screwed by the Lawyers situation brought upon all fan-productions with the debacle surrounding Star Trek: Axanar, these plans were scrapped in favor of making sure that the two-episode finale could be finished in its originally planned form. Amongst the ideas mentioned by Vic Mignogna was a Sequel Episode to "A Piece of the Action".
  • Rumors abound that "Still Treads the Shadow" was originally written with a different actor in mind for the character of the older Kirk, rather than Vic Mignogna Acting for Two.

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