It was New Voyages that first got me to realise fan films could be as good as the original, but then they went more and more towards stunt casting, another crew member is made older (for the original actor) and then the sudden obsession with "this ugly romper suit was designed for Phase II and we're using it, isn't that cool?" or "this story (kitumba) was written for Phase II" (nevermind that it no longer fits Klingon history), or "Mindisifter is adapted from a published story" (and is a blatant Mary Sue that leaves Spock as Captain for a year which also doesn't fit the history) and "our Spock was the stand-in for Zach Quinto"and patting themselves on the back for tiny links to Trek. That, and losing focus while trying to also get a Wild Wild West and Buck Rogers series off the ground.
Don't get me wrong, I loved the early stuff, and I'm fairly certain Trek fanfilms wouldn't be pushing to be as good as they are without their example. A huge part of that is James Cawley's hard work and money (which, it must be pointed out, he earned himself), so hats off to all of them.
For me, though, Continues has been much more consistent with getting the 'feel' of TOS: solid stories with a message, and character interactions that had a lot more of the fun of the original. And, despite the character not being mentioned before or since, I've really liked Counsellor McKennah. After all, how often did TOS introduce us to a new (female) scientist/historian as needed?
