The Cathedral In The Void Review
3 min read
Last month, TrekToday wrote about the return of the audio series Star Trek: The Continuing Mission.
The newest episode, Cathedral in the Void, has been released, and fans of the original series will surely enjoy the episode.
The Story:
“H.P. Lovecraft, the father of modern horror, consigned his unspeakable creations to the farthest reaches of the final frontier. For Starfleet, it was only a matter of time. Most call them aliens. Some know them as the Elder Gods. In the time before time, they ruled the Earth. Now, the only thing that can stop their return is Captain Edwards and the crew of the USS Montana.”
The Review:
First of all, I must make a confession. I’m not a big fan of audio or podcasts other than when I’m on a long car trip alone. In my case, I am very definitely visually oriented, and I sometimes have trouble making out what is said on an audio broadcast without having visual cues to help me.
There were issues for me when it came to being able to understand some of the dialogue in Cathedral in the Void. I found it difficult to comprehend when there was ship-to-ship communication and had to really pay attention to those segments. The static made it much harder for me to make out dialogue; but again, this may be something unique to me and not an issue with the sound quality of the show.
As I got into the story, which runs about an hour in length, I got hooked. I no longer minded the effort to hear what was being said. That is a compliment to the writers; they made me forget my hearing issues and dislike of audio series. I was sucked into the story.
The story put me in mind of quite a few Trek episodes where the crew faced danger from a malevolent or troublesome species after entering a new area. Cathedral in the Void FELT like a real Star Trek story to me. I liked it better than some of the aired shows I’ve seen over the years.
Not being a fan of horror; I’ve not read Lovecraft. However, I didn’t find that lack of knowledge to be something that took away from the story. For those who have read Lovecraft, I would assume that the knowledge would enhance the story for them, but the story does stand alone.
The voicing of the characters was mixed. Some of the voice work was very good, while others, as is often the case with fan-produced Star Trek, were a bit wooden. I’d give the episode a solid B for the voicing work overall. I’ve noticed that even many video fan-produced series have issues with the acting, but Cathedral in the Void was above-average when it came to the voicing for or a fan-produced show.
The Grade:
Overall, I’ll give the episode a B+. It was entertaining, and once I got hooked, I wasn’t yanked out of the story once by anything that reminded me that it was just something being done by actors. For those who enjoy audio stories, by all means have a listen. This is the eighth episode in the series, so there are seven more once you’re done with this one.
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