‘PILGRIM OF ETERNITY’ (TSC)
Please feel free to comment on my review.
‘Star Trek Continues’ is a fan-made web series that’s definitely going to fulfil the need of an original ‘Star Trek’ series fan to watch more episodes of Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise. 🙂 It’s certainly a series that matches in style and tone to the original TV show.
More so than what ‘Strange New Worlds’ offers. And that’s not to say I dislike ‘Strange New Worlds’. Far from it! I’ve enjoyed that series. But ‘Star Trek Continues’ does more to match what was in the original ‘Star Trek’ TV series with the stories and the characters. 🙂
Let’s examine each episode of ‘Star Trek Continues’, shall we? 🙂 In the first episode called ‘Pilgrim of Eternity’, we start off with a scene where Captain Kirk is held at gunpoint by a gunslinger in the Wild West. It made me think of the episode ‘Spectre of the Gun’ somehow.
It then turns out to be a holodeck program being run, as Scotty has it freeze and switched off. This is quite unusual to see in the original series-styled Enterprise as the holodeck was introduced in ‘The Next Generation’. I’m pleased that it’s introduced in this episode. 🙂
In terms of the regular cast, they’re all very good. This includes Vic Mignogna (who developed ‘Star Trek Continues’) as Captain Kirk, Todd Haberkorn as Mr. Spock, Larry Nemecek as Dr. McCoy and Chris Doohan (who’s the son of James Doohan) as Scotty. 🙂
There’s also Grant Imahara as Lt. Sulu, Kim Stinger as Lt. Uhura and Wyatt Lenhart as Ensign Chekov. I was convinced by everyone being the ‘Star Trek’ characters they were playing in the series. 🙂 They clearly matched mostly to how their original counterparts were.
In ‘Pilgrim of Eternity’, the Enterprise crew investigate a mysterious energy that’s draining from power stations in space. When they encounter an alien artifact, it begins to draw power from the Enterprise. They’re soon forced to destroy the artifact to save themselves.
Before they destroyed the artifact, Spock detected two lifeforms on it. Eventually, the two lifeforms materialise on the Enterprise. One of them happens to Michael Forest as the Greek god Apollo. The Enterprise crew met Apollo in the story ‘Who Mourns For Adonais?’.
The other person with Apollo is Diana Hale (Michael Forrest’s real-life wife) as Athena. I assume Athena was Apollo’s lover, considering they seemed to share a deep connection with each other before she sadly died. I also assume Athena aged at the same time Apollo’s aged.
It’s nice that Michael Forest returned to reprise his role as Apollo from that original ‘Star Trek’ episode. And it’s good that this episode happens to be a sequel to that episode in depicting how the Enterprise crew deal with him, particularly as he’s aged significantly. 🙂
I’ve made it no secret in my review for ‘Who Mourns For Adonais?’ that I’m not particularly a fan of that episode. But I like how the consequences of his actions get explored in this episode, especially when he was exposed to the energy draining properties of the Realm.
The Realm, which the Enterprise destroyed, was built to ensure immortality for Apollo and his kind. However, it malfunctioned and killed all the others of his race. Initially, he professes that he no longer wishes to have humanity worship him like in the previous story.
The Enterprise crew are sceptical, including Scotty, who has a grudge against Apollo considering he took his love interest Lt. Carolyn Palamas away from him in ‘Who Mourns For Adonais?’. 😐 Speaking of which, Carolyn tragically died in-between the two episodes.
I’m saddened that happened, as I would’ve liked Carolyn to have made a return appearance in this episode. Granted, Leslie Parrish would be about the same age of Michael Forrest in this episode, and it wouldn’t make sense when explaining it in the story.
But surely, Carolyn Palamas could’ve been recast in order to make a return appearance. Then again, that’s not really the point of this episode, as it focuses on Apollo and what the Enterprise crew intend to do with him, as he seems benign and wanting to live peacefully.
After a brief stay in sickbay, Apollo begins to return to form and seek adulation for his singing and storytelling. Kirk demands to speak to him when his behaviour goes too far, and unfortunately, Apollo uses his psychic powers on Kirk and others to enforce worship.
Fortunately, Michele Specht as Dr. Elise McKennah, the new ship’s counsellor, who was initially enamoured of Apollo, fires a phaser at him to prevent him endangering Kirk’s life. Apollo is taken to sickbay again, although he’s put under restraint because of his actions.
Talking about McKennah’s introduction in ‘Star Trek Continues’, it’s nice to see a ship’s counsellor be introduced aboard the original Enterprise. A ship’s counsellor was a thing in ‘TNG’ where Marina Sirtis as Counsellor Deanna Troi was introduced. I like that it’s here.
Speaking of Marina Sirtis, she gets to be the Enterprise’s computer voice in ‘Star Trek Continues’. This is fitting, since Majel Barrett was the Enterprise’s computer voice in the original TV series and ‘TNG’ and she portrayed Lwaxana Troi, Deanna’s mum in ‘Star Trek’.
There’s a moment where Sulu ends up suffocating when he and a crew member try to remove debris from the hull of the Enterprise. The fellow crew member gets killed, but Sulu manages to survive when beamed back aboard the Enterprise, which is a huge relief.
Uhura also gets gravely wounded from an electrostatic shock when Scotty comes up with a method to remove the remains aboard the Enterprise, using an electromagnetic pulse. She sadly dies whilst in sickbay, but fortunately, Apollo gets to revive her using his energy.
Earlier, Dr. McCoy performed an operation on Apollo to remove an organ from his body which grants his race the power to convert human worship into life energy. The operation was a success, but it left Apollo in a very weakened condition whilst recovering in sickbay.
When Apollo used his energy to save Uhura, Spock warned to converse his own energy. However, he recovers with more energy that he had prior to surgery. Kirk, using some logic from Spock, deduces that the true source of Apollo’s energy may be in the act of sacrifice.
This is something which Apollo admits that his race has never considered doing in all their centuries of forced worship from human. Upon this, the chief Enterprise crew of Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty agree to place Apollo on a planet with humanoid forms on it. 🙂
The episode closes with a humorous scene where Kirk and ‘Bones’ McCoy tease Spock about whether Apollo’s race would have found the unemotional Vulcans to be as worthy of their attention as humans. After that, we cut to one year later on the planet Apollo’s on.
Apollo helps a couple of natives on the planet, and he appears to look much younger and without grey hair. Mind you, he’s wearing a hood when we see the last shot of him in the episode, but I suppose he’s younger thanks to all the good deeds he’s doing on the planet.
‘Pilgrim of Eternity’ is a very good opening episode in ‘Star Trek Continues’. I appreciate it being a sequel to ‘Who Mourns For Adonais’ and featuring the return of Michael Forest as Apollo. 🙂 How Michael Forest was persuaded to return to play Apollo in this, I don’t know.
But he must’ve been willing to return, as his performance as Apollo in ‘Who Mourns For Adonais’ is well-remembered and he plays the role of an older Apollo here with full commitment. I was looking forward to seeing more of ‘Star Trek Continues’ after this episode.
‘Pilgrim of Eternity’ (STC) rating – 9/10
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