So last summer some of my good friends got to do something really, really cool. They got to go to Ticonderoga, New York to appear in an episode of Star Trek New Voyages, a fan-made series that chronicles the fifth year of The Starship Enterprise’s five-year mission.

You may recall that The Original Series only ran for three seasons, so there’s plenty of territory left to explore.To learn more about Star Trek New Voyages, visit their website, and maybe hit that donate button to keep the project alive. This is a fan-made production, so the producers aren’t allowed to make a penny on the show.

In the episode, “Mind Sifter,” which you see at the top of this post, you will see Clay Sayre, Robert Withrow and Mark Wolfe, along with the make-up wizardry of Dale Morton, all on screen interacting with Kirk, Spock, Bones and the crew. This was a dream come true for these life-long Star Trek fanatics. PopCult is happy to be the first local blog to bring you this great episode, which was just released online four days ago.

I’m good friends with Mark Wolfe and Dale Morton, and met Clay Sayre at JoeLanta last March. It’s a real kick that they got to live our their childhood dreams and be part of this project. Mark told me about it last June, a week before he was set to travel to the set. He’d joined me on a road trip to Moundsville with Melanie Larch and Lee Harrah. We had a lot of fun that day, but you could tell that Mark was chomping at the bit to be on Star Trek the next week.

In the above episode, Clay is the Klingon, Kor, while Mark is one of the Klingon guards. Robert Withrow returns as Admiral Withrow, a role he’s played before on the show. It’s almost like finding a never-before-seen episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. The producers perfectly recreate the sets, lighting, pacing and mood of the original show.

It’s cool to get to see your friends become involved in something this special.